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Donald Trump’s success reveals a frightening weakness in American democracy | As the Constitutional Convention of 1787 ended, Ben Franklin walked out of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall to find an anxious crowd. According to a diary entry recorded by James McHenry, a signatory to the Constitution, a woman from Philadelphia was the first to speak to Franklin.
"Well, doctor,” she asked, “what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?"
"A republic,” Franklin famously replied. “If you can keep it."
Perhaps we cannot.
This reads like hyperbole. But is it? Consider, for a moment, the knife’s edge on which the republic rests. The election is 24 hours away. As I write this, Donald Trump is 1.8 points behind Hillary Clinton in the RealClearPolitics polling average. And here is what we know of Donald Trump.
He is a man who routinely praises dictators. Of Vladimir Putin, Trump said, "He's running his country, and at least he's a leader, unlike what we have in this country." Of Kim Jong Un, Trump said, "You've got to give him credit. He goes in, he takes over, and he's the boss. It's incredible." Of Saddam Hussein, Trump said, "He killed terrorists. He did that so good. They didn't read them the rights."
It’s not just that Trump admires authoritarians; it’s that the thing he admires about them is their authoritarianism — their ability to dispense with niceties like a free press, due process, and political opposition.
Trump has promised — in public, and repeatedly — to bring this hammer to American governance. He stood in a nationally televised debate and vowed to jail his opponent if elected. He has proposed strengthening libel laws to make it easier to cow the press and antitrust laws to punish Jeff Bezos and Amazon for the Washington Post’s coverage of his candidacy. In a recent speech at Gettysburg meant to preview his first 100 days in office, Trump said he would sue all of the women who accused him of sexual assault.
During rallies, Trump has exhorted his followers to assault protestors, and has promised to pay their legal fees if their thuggery leads to arrest. He has warned that the only way he could lose the election would be if it is rigged, and has suggested he may refuse to concede.
And all this ignores his more basic flaws. He is cruel, lazy, and reckless. He knows nothing of policy and has not bothered to find anything out. He is easily baited, reliant on sycophants, and prone to conspiracy theories. He is a bigot who slimed an American-born judge for his Mexican heritage and a misogynist who boasted that his celebrity gave him license to commit sexual assault. He has cast doubt on America’s commitment to the NATO alliance and offhandedly encouraged Saudi Arabia and Japan to build nuclear weapons. His business is rife with conflicts of interest, and his campaign has been amateurish and poorly managed.
Here is the compliment I can pay Donald Trump, and I pay it with real gratitude: He never hid who he was. Perhaps he lacked the self-control, or the self-awareness. Whatever the reason, he never obscured his authoritarian tendencies, his will to power, his sexism, his greed, his dishonesty, his racism, his thirst for vengeance.
And he is still only 1.8 points behind.
It is likely, though not certain, that Hillary Clinton will win on Tuesday. But even if she does, here is what must be said of American politics in 2016: We came within inches of electing Donald J. Trump president of the United States of America. We did this even knowing exactly what he stood for, exactly what he had threatened to do, exactly what kind of man he was.
A narrow Trump loss is another way of saying a near Trump win. A 3-point victory for Clinton implies that if Trump were merely a bit more self-disciplined, if he had not bragged about sexual assault while wearing a microphone, if his opponent’s pneumonia had lingered a bit longer, America would be ruled by a cruel narcissist with authoritarian ambitions. It will mean that if unemployment were a few percentage points higher, if the man who murdered two police officers last week had been brown rather than white, if Trump’s odd-bedfellows alliance of Russian hackers and angry FBI agents had been a bit more effective, Trump would have won.
Perhaps, on Tuesday, we will dodge the bullet. But we will still need to understand how we came to be standing in front of a gun.
There is a comforting and popular explanation for Trump’s rise: He is the product of an extraordinary period of economic pain, demographic anxiety, and elite backlash. This argument holds that the condition of the country — or at least the condition of Trump’s supporters — is catastrophic, and Trump’s rise is a response to the suffering.
This is reassuring; it makes Trump into a kind of political natural disaster, a hurricane that relied on a rare alignment of winds and rains and warmth, a combination that occurs once in lifetime and can be forgotten once it’s been survived.
But there is nothing in polls of national attitudes, or indicators of economic health, that reveals this moment as uniquely fertile for the rise of a strongman. In 1992, when Pat Buchanan ran for president on a Trump-like platform, unemployment was higher, consumer confidence was lower, and Americans reported themselves more dissatisfied with the state of the country. But Buchanan lost handily.
And as we have learned more about Trump’s supporters, and have come to understand more about the year in which he rose, these explanations have grown more and more strained.
The belief that Trump is a predictable reaction to acute economic duress crumbled before the finding that his primary voters had a median household income of $72,000 — well above both the national average and that of Clinton supporters.
The idea that Trumpism arose as a response to a stalled economy collapsed as America experienced its longest sustained run of private sector job growth, and the highest single-year jump in median incomes, in modern history.
The idea that Trump was a reaction to failed trade deals and heavy competition from immigrants slammed into data showing support for him showed no relationship to lost manufacturing jobs and was strongest in areas without immigrant labor.
The idea that Trump is a reaction to historic disgust with American elites is at war with President Barack Obama’s approval ratings, which have risen above 50 percent and now match Ronald Reagan’s at this point in his presidency.
The reality is that the patterns of Trumpism, the trends of the US economy, and the polls measuring the American mood have stubbornly refused to fit the comforting theory that this is an extraordinary candidacy that could only emerge in an extraordinary moment. Indeed, if this were a period as thick with economic pain and anti-establishment sentiment as the pundits pretend, Trump’s victory would likely be assured.
Once you appreciate that fact, the lesson of Trumpism becomes much scarier: We are more vulnerable than we thought to reactionary strongmen. It can happen here.
To Americans of another era — particularly the founding era — it would seem bizarre that we are reaching so far, and straining so hard, to explain the popular appeal of a charismatic demagogue. As former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson wrote:
The American political system is structured the way it is in part due to the founders’ fear of demagogues. It’s a reason why the American presidency is so weak, why the executive is checked by other branches, why the Senate’s members were originally selected by state legislators.
It is a credit to the long success of our political institutions that we think dangerous men can only win elections in far-off lands. And so it is the weakening of those institutions that demands our attention now.
Donald Trump’s nearness to the presidency rests on two separate accomplishments — or, if you prefer, two separate institutional failures — that are often conflated. The first is his victory in the Republican Party’s presidential primaries. The second is his consolidation of elite Republicans, and of the Republican-leaning electorate.
Trump won the GOP primaries with 13.8 million votes. The distance between those 13.8 million voters and the more than 60 million votes he is expected to receive tomorrow is vast, and was far from assured.
In 1972, for instance, George McGovern won the Democratic primary even though much of the Democratic Party viewed him with suspicion and even fear. Major Democratic interest groups, like the AFL-CIO, refused to endorse him in the general election, and top Democrats, including former governors of Florida, Texas, and Virginia, organized “Democrats for Nixon.” McGovern went on to lose with less than 40 percent of the vote, a dismal showing driven by Democrats who abandoned a nominee they considered unacceptable.
A similar path was possible for Trump. Elites within the Republican Party viewed him with horror. His primary opponents spoke of him in apocalyptic terms. Ted Cruz called Trump a "pathological liar," "utterly amoral," and "a narcissist at a level I don't think this country's ever seen." Rick Perry said Trump’s candidacy was "a cancer on conservatism, and it must be clearly diagnosed, excised, and discarded." Rand Paul said Trump is "a delusional narcissist and an orange-faced windbag. A speck of dirt is way more qualified to be president." Marco Rubio called him “dangerous,” and warned that we should not hand "the nuclear codes of the United States to an erratic individual."
And then every single one of those Republicans endorsed Trump. Ted Cruz told Americans to vote for the pathological liar. Rick Perry urged people to elect the cancer on conservatism. Rand Paul backed the delusional narcissist. Marco Rubio campaigned to hand the nuclear codes of the United States to an erratic individual.
The list goes on. Paul Ryan, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, has endorsed Trump, as has Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, and Reince Priebus, the head of the Republican National Committee. Mike Pence, the governor of Indiana, commiserated with Dan Senor, a former Bush appointee, over the fact that Trump was “unacceptable” — and then became his vice president.
With this kind of elite consolidation, it’s little wonder that Trump has managed to consolidate Republican-leaning voters behind him. The final NBC/WSJ poll of the election found that 82 percent of likely Republican voters were supporting Trump — precisely matching the 82 percent of likely Democratic voters supporting Clinton. Trump did not get McGoverned.
There are two analyses that must be made of this. The first is moral. There are many Republicans who honestly believe Trump will make a good, or at least adequate, president; their endorsement of his candidacy is perfectly honorable, even if I think it wrongheaded. But many of the Republicans mentioned here believe Trump is a threat to world peace and to fundamental norms, values, and institutions of American democracy; their endorsements of his candidacy will stain the rest of their careers, and if he is elected, and if the worst comes to pass, they will be remembered by history for their abandonment of country.
The second analysis that must be made is structural. And, believe it or not, that’s where things get scary.
Political scientist Julia Azari has written the single most important sentence for understanding both Trump’s rise and this dangerous era in American politics: “The defining characteristic of our moment is that parties are weak while partisanship is strong.”
Here is the problem, in short: Parties, and particularly the Republican Party, can no longer control whom they nominate. But once they nominate someone — once they nominate anyone — that person is guaranteed the support of both the party’s elites and its voters. Unlike in McGovern’s day, when ticket splitting was common, any candidate able to win his party’s presidential primaries can now count on his party’s support, and so has a damn good chance of winning the presidency.
Political parties, and political party primaries, were traditionally bulwarks against demagogues rising in American politics — they were controlled by gatekeepers who acted as checks against charismatic demagogues. Donald Trump would never have made it through the convention horse-trading that used to drive nominations; he would never have survived a process that required support from party officials.
But in recent decades, we have slowly destroyed the ability of party officials to drive party primaries. What’s more, we have come to see party officials exercising influence as fundamentally illegitimate.
“Political scientists think of parties as the fundamental building blocks of democracy, and people think of them as the impediment to democracy,” says Hans Noel, a political scientist at Georgetown University. “In other systems, you wouldn’t even have primaries — the whole thing would happen at a party convention. But here, when the DNC makes choices that influence the outcome of a primary, that looks undemocratic.”
The results have been stark. The reigning political science theory of primaries going into this election was known as “The Party Decides,” and it stated, basically, that party elites controlled primary outcomes by driving money, media attention, and endorsements.
No single idea has been as decisively wrecked by 2016 as that one. And when you examine the reasons for its failure, you see they are unlikely to end with Trump.
Money turned out to be much less important to winning primaries than anyone thought — just ask Jeb Bush, who spent $130 million only to be humiliated, even as Trump spent almost nothing to win. Moreover, the internet keeps making it easier to fundraise off an energized base — a dynamic that is empowering high-enthusiasm outsider candidates like Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz and weakening party establishments and the big-dollar donors they control.
Similarly, parties used to drive media attention by signaling to reporters which candidates to take seriously. But that process, too, has been democratized — social media makes it easy to communicate with supporters directly and made it more valuable for audience-hungry media outlets to cover the candidates with intense fan bases that send stories viral across Facebook or Reddit. That, again, favors exciting outsiders with enthusiastic supporters over vetted establishment grinds.
But the primary resource party officials have when influencing primary elections is the trust of voters. That’s why endorsements are important, and have traditionally been predictive of the eventual winner: They represent party officials using the credibility they have built with their voters to persuade them of whom to vote for.
Trump didn’t have any Republican endorsements to speak of until he had already won a slew of primaries. But the void of official support arguably helping him — it was proof that he really was untouched and untainted by the unpopular GOP establishment. This represented the Republican Party failing at the most basic job of a political party: Helping its voters make good decisions. The GOP’s elites have so totally lost the faith of their base that their efforts to persuade Republican voters were ignored at best and counterproductive at worst.
But this also presents a puzzle: If partisans have lost so much faith in their party establishments, then why are they so much likelier to back whomever their party nominates? The answer, in short, is fear and loathing of the other party.
Since 1964, the American National Election Studies have been asking Republicans and Democrats to describe their feelings toward the other party on a scale that runs from cold and negative to warm and positive. In 1964, 31 percent of Republicans had cold, negative feelings toward the Democratic Party, and 32 percent of Democrats had cold, negative feelings toward the Republican Party. By 2012, that had risen to 77 percent of Republicans and 78 percent of Democrats.
Today, fully 45 percent of Republicans, and 41 percent of Democrats, believe the other party’s policies “threaten the nation’s well-being.” This fear is strongest among the most politically involved. Which makes sense: You're more likely to take an active interest in American politics if you think the stakes are high. But that means the people driving American politics — and particularly the people driving low-turnout party primaries — have the most apocalyptic view of the other side.
This is driven by the reality that the two parties have grown more ideologically distant from each other, and so the stakes of elections really have grown larger. In 1994, 34 percent of Republicans were more liberal than the median Democrat, and 30 percent of Democrats were more conservative than the median Republican. Today only 8 percent of Republicans are more liberal than the median Democrat, and only 6 percent of Democrats are more conservative than the median Republican.
And polarization begets polarization. The angrier and more fearful partisans are, the more of a market there is for media that makes them yet angrier and yet more fearful. It is no accident that the CEO of Breitbart News, a hyper-ideological conservative media outlet that specializes in scaring the hell out of its audience, is leading Trump’s campaign. One reason Trump has been able to consolidate Republican support is that Republican-leaning media has convinced itself, and its base, that the alternative to Trump is a criminal who belongs in jail. This offers a rationale for voting Republican even if you don’t particularly like your candidate: a majority of Trump voters say they are voting against Clinton rather than for Trump.
This raises the possibility that Trump’s support from Republicans is merely an artifact of Clinton’s unpopularity. I’m skeptical. Before they had convinced themselves Clinton is a criminal, many Republicans — led by Trump — convinced themselves Obama was born in Kenya and constitutionally ineligible to serve as president. And while those attacks were driving Obama’s popularity down, Clinton’s numbers were so high that it became fashionable to speculate over whether Obama needed to replace Joe Biden with Clinton to win reelection.
Clinton’s weaknesses are real, but her unpopularity among Republicans is structural — her four percent approval rating among Republicans isn’t so far off from the six percent Obama registered at the end of the 2012 election.
“We’ve got this online media where the profits are driven by controversy and clicks,” Sarah Rumpf, a former Breitbart writer, told Vox. “It’s just an activism problem in general, where it’s easier to fundraise and easier to get members when you can declare an emergency, when you can declare a crisis, when you can identify an enemy.”
This helps explain the unified party support for Donald Trump. Republican officeholders are terrified that if they don’t support him, or are seen as in any way contributing to Clinton’s election, they’ll face the wrath of their conservative base and be defeated in the primary challenges that the Tea Party used to such devastating effect in 2010 and 2012. Paul Ryan got a taste of this after distancing himself from Trump after the release of the Access Hollywood tape: His popularity plummeted, and a majority of Republicans said they preferred to see Trump representing the party than Ryan.
So here, then, is the key failure point in modern American politics, and observing it in action requires looking no further than the Republican Party: Voters’ dislike of their own party has broken the primary process, but fear of the opposition has guaranteed unified party support to the nominee. That means whoever manages to win a flawed competition dominated by the angriest, most terrified partisans ends within spitting distance of the presidency.
Party primaries were traditionally bulwarks against demagogues rising in American politics. Now they are the method by which they will rise.
“The thing I keep coming back to is the Muslim ban,” says MSNBC’s Chris Hayes. “That was an actual policy he called for while running for president, and if you switched in Jews for Muslims, it was immediately clear what it was. And it wasn’t disqualifying. To me, that was so, so upsetting.”
Hayes is the author of the book Twilight of the Elites, and he has spent a lot of time thinking about elite failures. And there were elite failures that led to Trump: the anger left over from the Iraq War, and from the financial crisis, is certainly part of his rise. But the other problem with elites this year is harder to talk about: They were underpowered.
“The gatekeepers have been extraordinarily diminished,” Hayes says. “The best example of this, to me, is the newspaper editorial page. It’s the ultimate old-school gatekeeper. I find it so remarkable that the Columbus Dispatch, USA Today, all these gatekeepers have come to the proper, correct conclusion on Trump, and said, ‘No fucking way!’ But no one cares. They don’t control the gate. They can lock the gate and someone can walk around it three feet down the fence.”
Elites are often blamed for Trump’s rise — he is said to be the backlash to their failures, their corruption, their obliviousness, their self-dealing, their cosmopolitanism, their condescension. All that may be true, but past moments in American politics have also featured angry voters, out-of-touch elites, and social problems. Those moments, however, featured political and media gatekeepers with more power, and so Trump-like candidates were destroyed in primaries, or at conventions, or by a press that paid them little mind.
Now, however, traditional gatekeepers have neither the power nor the cultural capital to stop Trump-like candidates. And in the Republican Party, where the collapse of institutional authority is most severe and most dangerous, the aftermath of a Trump loss will further weaken the party’s center, as Trump’s supporters turn on the elites whose tepid backing, they will argue, doomed their candidate. Sean Hannity, for instance, has already called Paul Ryan a “saboteur,” and Breitbart published an article headlined “He’s with her: Inside Paul Ryan’s months-long campaign to elect Hillary Clinton president.’”
It is hard to see how the Republican Party’s core institutions or top officials emerge strengthened if Trump loses narrowly, and it is likely that they will be effectively replaced, co-opted, or hollowed out if he wins.
Meanwhile, the social conditions that led to Trump — the rapid browning of America foremost among them — will persist and even accelerate. Already, nonwhites make up a majority of children under 3 years old. The country is on a fast path to becoming majority minority, and many white male voters will continue to perceive this change as a loss in both status and political power, which, in some ways, it is. Eventually, these conditions will run into a recession that brings with it much sharper economic pain.
This is not to say Republicans will always, or even routinely, nominate candidates as dangerous as Trump. Much had to go wrong for him to be nominated. But having been nominated, much will have to go right for the country not to elect him, and more will have to go right for it to not elect someone like him in the future. The lesson of this unnerving year is that less can be taken for granted than we thought — the American people are not immune to demagogues, and the American political system is too weakened to reliably stop them. America, like all the world’s other countries, is vulnerable to catastrophic political failure. It can happen here.
Trump will likely lose on Tuesday. But if he loses, it will be because he is a crude, undisciplined demagogue. The world also produces clever, disciplined demagogues. And they are the ones who truly threaten republics. | 0fake |
Mcconnell says Russian hacking investigations cannot be partisan | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell on Monday added his voice to calls for bipartisan cooperation on investigations into Russian hacking aimed at interfering with the American presidential election. “Any foreign breach of our cybersecurity measures is disturbing and I strongly condemn any such efforts,” McConnell said at a news conference. “This simply cannot be a partisan issue.” | 0fake |
Sweden threatens to review engagement with Cambodia | PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Sweden said on Thursday it would rethink its engagement with Cambodia if the main opposition party is dissolved, in the strongest warning yet from a Western aid donor. The government has filed a suit to dissolve the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) after charging its leader, Kem Sokha, with treason. He rejected the charge as politically motivated. Excluding the opposition party would allow veteran Prime Minister Hun Sen a clear field to extend his 32-year rule at the next election in 2018. Swedish Human Rights Ambassador Annika Ben David told a news conference at the end of a five-day visit the banning of the opposition party could have consequences. Should the Cambodia National Rescue Party be dissolved, this will force my government to rethink our engagement Cambodia, she said. Other Western countries have condemned the arrest of Kem Sokha and warned against dissolving the CNRP, but have not raised the possibility of action. David did not elaborate on what Sweden might do. Government spokesman Phay Siphan rejected David s comments as interference in Cambodia s sovereignty and an insult. This is language that the royal government can t accept, Phay Siphan told Reuters. This is an invasion and insult to the Cambodian national institution. Sweden had given Cambodia an estimated $100 million in aid over five years, David said. According to Cambodia s database of donors, Sweden ranked third for aid among individual EU member states last year after France and Germany. David also pointed out that Swedish fashion group H&M was an important buyer of clothes from Cambodia s garment factories - the country s main export earner. Hun Sen s ruling Cambodia People s Party (CPP) has launched a crackdown on its critics, including politicians, independent media and non-government groups. This week, parliament changed the law so that the CNRP s seats can be shared amongst other parties if it is dissolved. While Western governments have for years tried to put pressure on Cambodia over the stifling of democracy and the trampling of human rights, China has become an increasingly important ally and business partner. | 0fake |
Yemeni al Qaeda leader calls for attacks in support of Myanmar's Rohingya | DUBAI (Reuters) - A senior leader of al Qaeda s Yemeni branch has called for attacks on Myanmar authorities in support of minority Rohingya Muslims, the SITE monitoring center said on Saturday as thousands fled what they say is a government assault on their villages. Myanmar s roughly 1.1 million Rohingya pose one of the biggest challenges facing leader Aung San Suu Kyi, accused by Western critics of failing to support the Muslim minority that has long complained of persecution. In a video message released by al Qaeda s al-Malahem media foundation, Khaled Batarfi called on Muslims in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and Malaysia to support their Rohingya Muslim brethren against the enemies of Allah. Batarfi, who was freed from a Yemeni prison in 2015 when Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) seized the port city of Mukalla, also urged al Qaeda s Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) branch to carry out attacks. So spare no effort in waging jihad against them and repulsing their attacks, and beware of letting down our brothers in Burma (Myanmar), Batarfi said, according to the U.S.-based monitoring center. About 58,600 Rohingya have fled into neighboring Bangladesh from Myanmar, according to U.N. refugee agency UNHCR. Myanmar officials accuse the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) of burning homes. The group claimed responsibility for coordinated attacks on security posts last week that prompted clashes and a large army counter-offensive. But Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh say the Myanmar army is conducting a campaign of arson and killings to drive them out. The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar and regarded as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots that date back centuries. Bangladesh, where more than 400,000 Rohingya live since they began fleeing Myanmar in the 1990s, is also growing increasingly hostile to the minority. (This version of the story corrects to show Rohingya are a minority, not a majority, in second paragraph) | 0fake |
Alabama to certify Democrat Jones winner of Senate election | (Reuters) - Democrat Doug Jones’ surprise victory over Republican Roy Moore in this month’s special U.S. Senate election will be certified on Dec. 28, Alabama state officials said on Friday. Jones will be the first Democrat sent to the Senate from Republican stronghold Alabama in a quarter century. When he takes office, Republicans’ majority in the chamber will narrow to 51 of the 100 seats. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, Attorney General Steve Marshall and Secretary of State John Merrill will meet to certify Jones’ win, Merrill’s office said in a statement. Jones’ margin of victory was 1.5 percentage points. Moore has not conceded defeat in the Dec. 12 vote, despite being urged by President Donald Trump to do so. Calls and emails to Moore’s campaign spokeswomen were not immediately returned on Friday. Moore was a controversial candidate whose campaign was beset by allegations that he sexually assaulted or pursued teenage girls while he was in his 30s. He denied the misconduct allegations, saying they were a result of “dirty politics.” | 0fake |
Texas governor takes aim at 'caustic' tweeter who won county GOP race | (Advisory: This story contains content that may offend some readers) By Jon Herskovitz AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Thursday distanced the party from its newly elected leader in Travis County, a self-described caustic tweeter and author of political conspiracy books who says he uses sexually explicit language on social media to educate people. Robert Morrow, 51, beat the current Republican Party chairman in the county in Tuesday’s primary, causing some officials in the party to tell local media they are seeing if they can prevent him from taking office. “Robert Morrow in no way speaks for the Republican Party or its values. He cannot adequately represent the Travis County GOP,” said John Wittman, a spokesman for the Texas governor. Morrow said on his Twitter feed shortly after his win, “I am the face of the Re-Pube-Licking Party,” and posted an idea for a pornographic video involving former first lady Barbara Bush. “I put out caustic and inflammatory tweets because I am trying to educate people,” he said in a Reuters interview, adding he provides Internet links to support his arguments. Morrow boasted he did not spend a penny on his campaign and probably won because his name appeared first on the ballot. Travis County, which contains the Texas capital Austin, is one of the few Democratic strongholds in a heavily Republican state. But party officials may be over a barrel in that there is little they can do to remove someone who has been duly elected. Some party leaders have floated the idea of starting a new county organization for the Republican Party and leaving Morrow to preside over an empty operation. “They are neutered gerbils,” Morrow said. “The people have spoken and Morrow is the face of the Travis County Republican Party.” Morrow, a Ted Cruz supporter who has also written conspiracy theory books about the Clintons and the John F. Kennedy assassination, has made defamatory remarks about Republican leaders in the state and the current crop of presidential candidates. “The reason I ran for chair of the Travis County Republican Party is because I was so disgusted with the involvement of the Bush crime family in national politics and Republican Party politics,” he said. Andy Hogue, the communications director for the Travis County Republican Party, said the new county chairman does not take office until June 13. “At this time there are many personal opinions but no official courses of action or statements,” Hogue said. (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Additional reporting by Lisa Maria Garza in Dallas; Editing by James Dalgleish) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production. | 0fake |
Venezuela's injured activists struggle to heal | CARACAS (Reuters) - Jesus Ibarra, a 19-year-old engineering student, has been barely able to walk or talk since a tear gas canister crushed part of his skull during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro and he fell unconscious into a river that carries sewage. Chronic shortages of medicine in Venezuela forced his family to ask for drug donations so Ibarra could undergo five surgeries on his skull and treatment for infections from the Guaire river. Ibarra, who cannot return to his studies any time soon, needs to a sixth operation and therapy. It is unclear if he will fully recover. I speak to my son a lot, and sometimes he makes me understand it was not worth suffering this, that he regrets it, that it was a mistake, said Ibarra s father Jose at their small home in the sprawling hilltop slum of Petare in Caracas. But other times he s clearly telling me that it was worth fighting for a change he believes in. Ibarra is one of nearly 2,000 people injured during four months of fierce anti-Maduro street protests, according to the public prosecutor s office. Rights groups think the number is probably higher. Venezuela has been torn by political and economic crises that have led to extreme shortages of food and medicine, crushing inflation and the collapse of the local currency. Its new government structure has been criticized as a dictatorship. Rubber bullets fired at close range, rocks, and tear gas canisters have caused most of the injuries, doctors and rights groups say. Most of those who have been hurt appear to be opposition protesters, but Maduro supporters, security forces and bystanders have also been harmed. More than 125 people have died in the unrest since April. Thousands have been arrested. The unpopular leftist president has said he was facing an armed insurgency intent on overthrowing him. Opposition politicians have said they were forced to take to the streets after authorities curtailed democratic means for change. They have also accused security forces of using excessive force against protesters. Culinary student Brian Dalati, 22, said he was passing an opposition-manned street barricade on his way to classes in July when police mistook him for a protester. They hit him and fired buckshot at his legs, fracturing both of Dalati s shinbones. I depend on my siblings to go to the bathroom, shower, brush my teeth, eat, anything. It s infuriating, he said. They didn t have to do this. It was pure hate. Thank goodness I will be able to walk again soon. The government says right-wing media are too focused on injuries to protesters. Maduro has pointed to a case in which a 21-year-old man was set afire during an opposition protest and died two weeks later. A Reuters witness said the crowd had accused the man of being a thief, but the government said he was targeted for being a Maduro supporter. Protests have subsided since Maduro s government established a controversial legislative superbody three weeks ago, but hundreds of Venezuelans are still struggling to nurse their wounds without medicine and state support. (Click on reut.rs/2xt4eoS for related photo essay) | 0fake |
Callista Gingrich becomes Trump's envoy to pope as differences mount | VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Callista Gingrich, wife of the former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, on Friday became U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, which is at odds with Washington over immigration, climate change and Jerusalem. Callista Gingrich, 51, an author, documentary filmmaker and former congressional aide, presented her credentials to Pope Francis at the Vatican to officially assume her role. Her husband Newt Gingrich was an early supporter and vocal ally of U.S. President Donald Trump. Newt Gingrich is expected to continue his role as a political contributor to Fox News from his new base in Rome. Trump s nomination of Callista Gingrich to the post at the Holy See in May caused some controversy because of her marriage to Gingrich, with whom she became involved when he was still married to his second wife. Both are Roman Catholic. On Thursday they attended the funeral at the Vatican of Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned as Archbishop of Boston 15 years ago after covering up years of sexual abuse of children by priests. The pope has implicitly criticized Trump s decision to pull out of the Paris accord on climate change. He said last month that denying climate change or being indifferent to its effects were perverse attitudes that blocked research and dialogue aimed at protecting the future of the planet. Francis is also opposed to Trump s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital. The pontiff has called for respect for the city s status quo, saying new tension in the Middle East would further inflame world conflicts.. On Thursday at the United Nations, where the Vatican has permanent observer status, more than 120 countries defied Trump and voted in favor of a resolution calling for the United States to drop its recent recognition. The U.S. embassy said in a statement that the new ambassador looks forward to working with the Holy See to defend human rights, advance religious freedom, combat human trafficking, and to seek peaceful solutions to crises around the world . | 0fake |
Hillary Gives Rubio A New Name After He Says She Kills Babies On Their Due Date (VIDEO) | Marco Rubio is making a name for himself in the Republican Party. Some think (actually most) that he s the GOP s best chance to defeat the Democrats in a general election. He s young, he s Hispanic, he s from an important swing state like Florida, and he s not as crazy as Donald Trump (at least by appearance).But, what most people don t know, is that Rubio s views on abortion make him an absolute nightmare of a candidate. And, people within his own party even are calling him out on it. During Saturday night s Republican debate Senator Rubio made the craziest accusation against Hillary Clinton on abortion yet. He levied the charge that Hillary supports aborting babies on their due date. When Hillary was asked on Face The Nation what she thought of the comment, here was how she described it, among other words: Pathetic. That s one way to describe Rubio, for sure.We can t say these kinds of attacks are not typical of Republicans, cause then we d be lying. Hillary wasn t even surprised in the least and didn t even flinch when offering her rebuttal. Here was her full response: I think it s pretty pathetic. This is something that illustrates how Senator Rubio is going as far as he can to try and buttress his credentials within certain parts of the Republican constituency. I ve been on record for years of where I stand on making abortion safe and legal, the exceptions that are appropriate that should be looked into, and the very difficult choices that very few women have to confront that lead to very excruciating kinds of decisions. And, to begin to politicize this so early in the campaign season to try and raise false charges and look like he s going to try and make sure Roe v. Wade is overturned and Planned Parenthood is defunded is just a tried and true tactic by those on the right. Clinton followed this up by pointing out that Rubio should probably brush up on the law first before bringing this up again in the future.Senator Rubio may very well be the GOP s best chance to go up against the Democrats, but with comments like those in a debate, you can be sure Clinton will be ready to shut him down again if she has to. We rate her description of Rubio as pathetic to be accurate and right on the money. Featured image via screen capture. | 1real |
The Great Wall Street/Washington Con Job: Part 4 Of The Recovery Which Didn’t Happen | The Great Wall Street/Washington Con Job: Part 4 Of The Recovery Which Didn't Happen By David Stockman. During the last few days we have been debunking the notion that Imperial Washington's massive monetary and fiscal stimulus caused the so-called "recovery". To the contrary, it has actually poisoned the regenerative powers of American capitalism by causing capital and resources to flow out of the main street economy and into the speculative casinos of Wall Street. | 1real |
BILL CLINTON LOSES IT With Heckler In Finger-Pointing Rant: “I defended Obama…” [Video] | 1real | |
Why ‘Sorry’ Is Still the Hardest Word - The New York Times | “I’m sorry. ” Two simple words, not so simply said. On Wednesday, the public representatives of two embattled American institutions — United Airlines and the White House — found themselves on national television grappling with a delicate and increasingly common ritual of the corporate and political worlds: the public apology. Oscar Munoz, United’s chief executive, recalled his “shame” upon seeing a cellphone video, shared by millions of people, of a paying passenger being violently evicted from one of his airline’s flights. Face taut, voice soft, Mr. Munoz’s televised prostration was a far cry from the robotic statement issued by United days earlier, expressing regret for “ ” a traveler. Around the same time, President Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, was denouncing himself as “reprehensible” for having favorably compared Hitler to President Bashar of Syria and referring to Nazi death camps as “Holocaust centers,” all while standing at the White House podium. The fine art of repentance is a skill taught in business schools and promoted by consultants. But all kinds of offenders in public life still seem to struggle with the execution. Corporations like BP and Wells Fargo have faced criticism for dawdling responses to cascading crises, while politicians from Bill Clinton to Anthony Weiner have had difficulty admitting to peccadilloes. The key to contrition, according to experts, is projecting sincerity, humanity, and a demeanor — the better to convince a cynical public. And in this age of whipsawing social media, you had better do it fast. “The head of United should never have been allowed to take three swings at correcting and apologizing for an incident that was on more social media than Kim and Kanye’s wedding,” said Mortimer Matz, a New York consultant who has guided decades’ worth of clients through crises small and large. United issued several halting statements about the plane episode, which first emerged Monday morning, before Mr. Munoz made his abject appearance on Wednesday on ABC. Mr. Matz said the airline had missed its moment. “You’ve got to be a fast thinker in the digital age,” said Mr. Matz, who will be 93 in July. Many companies now take steps to be nimble and responsive when a furor erupts online. Last week, Pepsi took less than 24 hours to apologize and retract a advertising campaign that used populist imagery to sell soda. It was a rapid that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. This week, Mr. Spicer was quick to recognize the damage done by his remarks, which prompted immediate denunciations on Twitter as well as calls for his resignation. He appeared on CNN within hours of his gaffe, while Mr. Munoz waited two days. Still, Mr. Spicer’s apology came only after his office tried to clarify his remarks with several statements that, while remorseful, did not clearly admit error. On Wednesday, in a previously scheduled interview at the Newseum in Washington, Mr. Spicer took a new tack: no excuses. “I made a mistake there’s no other way to say it,” Mr. Spicer told Greta van Susteren, the MSNBC anchor, his tone notably subdued. “I got into a topic that I shouldn’t have, and I screwed up. ” He added: “It really is painful to myself to know that I did something like that. ” Mr. Munoz, interviewed on “Good Morning America” on Wednesday, was similarly solemn. “That shame and embarrassment was pretty palpable for me,” he told the correspondent Rebecca Jarvis, emotion in his voice. “This can never — will never — happen again on a United Airlines flight. That’s my premise and that’s my promise. ” Later on Wednesday, United said it would refund the fares of all passengers on the affected flight. Both Mr. Munoz, who was named “communicator of the year” by PR Week magazine last month, and Mr. Spicer took pains to personalize their apologies. It’s a technique that, conscious or not, is recommended by crisis experts. “That’s on me, I have to fix that,” Mr. Munoz said when asked about the airline policies that led to the violent ejection. Mr. Spicer described his blunder as “mine to own, mine to apologize for, mine to ask forgiveness for. ” That approach, consultants say, is one of the few ways to start rebuilding trust. The accounting firm PwC, for instance, gave a detailed explanation, and quick apology, for this year’s Oscar best picture fiasco, eventually holding onto its Academy Awards account. “People want someone to throw the book at,” said Katie Sprehe, a senior director at the communications firm APCO Worldwide. Ms. Sprehe, who studies reputation maintenance, said United had erred by not moving swiftly to mirror its customers’ outrage. “You need to speak your stakeholders’ language, and coming out with P. R. mumbo jumbo, like ‘’ is the wrong thing to do,” she said. Stu Loeser, an adviser to executives in the technology and finance industries, said that a apology must be considered in context. “Oscar Munoz answers to more than 85, 000 employees who want to know that if they were the ones caught in a viral video maelstrom, he’d back them up,” said Mr. Loeser, who was press secretary to former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York. “Sean Spicer ultimately answers to one person and one person only” — Mr. Trump — “someone who sees backing down or apologizing as not only a weakness, but a character flaw. ” “In both cases,” Mr. Loeser added, “what might appear to be an irrational series of statements that got you into trouble makes more sense, when you think about who they’re actually answering to. ” Mr. Munoz ended his interview by saying he had no plans to resign. “I was hired to make United better, and I’ve been doing that, and that’s what I’ll continue to do,” he said. Mr. Spicer, asked by Ms. Van Susteren if he enjoyed being press secretary, said he loved it. “I truly do believe it’s an honor to have this job,” he said. “It is a privilege. And if you don’t believe it, then you shouldn’t be here. ” Whether the apologies outlive the gaffes remains to be seen. Ken Sunshine, who founded the firm Sunshine Sachs, said he was skeptical. “My rule?” he said. “You get one shot. ” | 0fake |
Trump Supporter Arrested for Voting Twice…to fight “vote rigging” | He who has no name speaks: Italian earthquakes were retribution for anti-Jewish UNESCO vote ‹ › GPD is our General Posting Department whereby we share posts from other sources along with general information with our readers. It is managed by our Editorial Board Trump Supporter Arrested for Voting Twice…to fight “vote rigging” By GPD on October 29, 2016
Terri Rote is seen in a police booking photo on Oct. 27, 2016.
DES MOINES, Iowa — Des Moines police have charged a woman with election misconduct, a Class D felony, after officials reported she voted twice.
Des Moines police Sgt. Paul Parizek says officers charged 55-year-old Terri Rote with first-degree election misconduct on Thursday after being notified by elections officials that she had submitted two absentee ballots.
According to an Iowa Public Radio report, Rote voted two times for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
“I wasn’t planning on doing it twice, it was spur of the moment,” Rote said in an interview with the radio station before she added an oft-repeated line on the Trump campaign trail: “The polls are rigged.”
She was booked into the Polk County Jail and released after posting a $5,000 bond. | 1real |
VIOLENT RADICAL COMMIE ANGELA DAVIS Has A Strategy To Beat Trump That Every American Should Hear…We All Need To Know The End Game! | The strategy of the left is WAR and that s why every American should hear it: Angela Davis on defeating Trump: We have to do whatever is necessary Here s the truth about Davis from Frontpage mag and then the article below it is from a liberal publication so take it with a grain of salt.Frontpage Mag provides some background on Davis:Who is Davis? She s a Communist and a supporter of the Black Panther Party as well as homicidal British Black Power cult leader Michael X and the Soledad Brothers who were acquitted of a prison guard s murder in 1970.That year, Davis was arrested and jailed for having bought the gun used in the Soledad Brothers escape attempt: an attack in open court in California, which led to a shootout with the police and resulted in the death or injury of six people. She was eventually found not guilty.Davis has enjoyed massive support from the global left. When she was released from prison, she visited Cuba, then Russia, where she was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize. She spoke against racism in America and became a glamorized spokeswoman for Communism as a solution for black Americans and for oppressed people of color everywhere.Just like Obama s pal Bill Ayers, Angela Davis past has been rewritten by the left to transform her into an activist rather than what she is a violent criminal.NOTICE HOW IN THE ARTICLE BELOW THE LIBERAL PUBLICATION MAKES DAVIS OUT TO BE THE VICTIM:Activists around the world have long turned to Angela Davis for scholarly guidance when discussing systems of oppression and power.This week in New York, the radical feminist activist issued a rallying cry to Americans: to avoid a Donald Trump presidency, we have to do whatever is necessary. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Davis became a household name in 1969 when she was removed from her teaching post at the University of California Los Angeles for social justice work and her affiliation with the Communist Party. She made the F.B.I. s Ten Most Wanted list on false charges soon after, starting the 1970s with a 16-month incarceration and trial that sparked an international campaign when the world demanded that the United States government Free Angela Davis. Former California Governor Ronald Reagan swore then that the philosophy professor would never teach in the University of California system again.Nine books and four decades later, a vocal Davis is now Distinguished Professor Emerita of History of Consciousness at U.C. Santa Cruz an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program the likes of which are only possible because of the radical scholarship she laid as groundwork.Read more: Fusion | 1real |
Anti-Brexit Meddler Gina Miller Poses Outside the Houses of Parliament | Home | World | Anti-Brexit Meddler Gina Miller Poses Outside the Houses of Parliament Anti-Brexit Meddler Gina Miller Poses Outside the Houses of Parliament By Alphonse Mucus 08/11/2016 13:27:37
LONDON – England – Anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller has been revelling in her new found fame by posing outside the Houses of Parliament.
“I used to be a model you know,” Miller says every two minutes.
She seems to be enjoying the limelight and fame of being one of the foreign interests who was instrumental in attempting to block 52% of British voters who voted to leave the EU.
Posing in defiance, Ms Miller, a native of Guyana, brings out her new hat, acquired at some posh shop no doubt, or a betting shop lavatory to be more precise.
“Do you like my new hat?” she scowls, as the primping begins in earnest.
The photographer adjusts his lens, then sniffs loudly.
“S’cuse me Miss, but what’s that awful smell? It smells like a turd that has festered in satan’s butt hole for a thousand years.”
“It’s my hat, or shall I say crown. I shall wear it wherever I go from now on, and anyone who looks at me will see my beautiful crown that I wear so proudly, and think of me.”
At that moment, four dozen bluebottle flies plop themselves on Gina Miller’s crown and tuck down to some good nosh.
In the background, the spire of Big Ben looms over the scene, and as the coughing photographer clicks away, a wry smile comes over Gina Miller, she is the Queen today, the Queen of No-Brexit, and she will cherish this moment of fame for the fifteen minutes it will afford her.
Enjoy your crown Gina Miller, you will wear it for the rest of your pitiful life. | 1real |
More on why you believe what you believe: Sugar | Economics and Politics | (Before It's News)
Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
In a recent post, “Why do you believe what you believe” we said:
“Why do you know the sun causes skin cancer? You know it because years ago you read it in, or heard it from, a trusted source . Then you read and heard it often again, and the repetition caused you to believe it more and more until you know it.
The combination of “trusted source” and “repetition” inserts belief into our minds , and once there, it may be difficult to dislodge — unless we are exposed to a more trusted source plus repetition.
As you know, consuming saturated fat and cholesterol increases your risk of heart disease, while sugar does not. You have heard this from many trusted sources and it has been repeated endlessly in all forms of communication.
ScienceNews Magazine, October 15, 2016, Sugar industry sought to sugarcoat causes of heart disease
Payments revealed to authors of influential 1967 report touting fat and cholesterol as problems, by LAURA BEIL
Using records unearthed from library storage vaults, researchers recently revealed that the sugar industry paid nutrition experts from Harvard University to downplay studies linking sugar and heart disease.
Although the incident happened in the 1960s, it appears to have helped redirect the scientific narrative for decades.
Harvard University — what could be a more trusted source than Harvard University?
Note however, that Harvard University does not conduct research, nor does Harvard University verify the findings of research.
Research is done by people, employees of Harvard , and being employees of Harvard gives those researchers no special insight or virtue.
Yet the mere association with the name “Harvard,” implies intelligence and academic trustworthiness.
The documents show that the Sugar Research Foundation paid professors who wrote a two-part review in 1967 in the New England Journal of Medicine . That report was highly skeptical of the evidence linking sugar to cardiovascular problems but accepting of the role of fat.
The now-deceased professors’ overall conclusion left “no doubt” that reducing the risk of heart disease was a matter of reducing saturated fat and cholesterol, according to researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, who published their report online September 12 in JAMA Internal Medicine .
Now, we have the University of California, San Francisco, another trusted source, impugning the trusted Harvard results.
The sugar industry helped deflect the way the research was developing,” says study coauthor Cristin Kearns, a dentist at UCSF’s Institute for Health Policy Studies.
The belief in sugar’s innocence, and the sugar industry’s profit motive, were so powerful, it took a dentist, not a cardiologist to uncover apparently biased results from what ostensibly was a heart study.
Following the publication of the Harvard report, fat and cholesterol went on to hijack the scientific agenda for decades, and even led to a craze of low-fat foods that often added sugar.
It was only in 2015 that dietary guidelines finally made a strong statement to limit sugar. Researchers writing this year in Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases note that current studies estimate that diets high in added sugars carry a three times higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease.
( The Sugar Association says in a statement on its website that “ the last several decades of research have concluded that sugar does not have a unique role in heart disease. ” )
Is this an example of deception with a true statement ?
Yes, unfortunately, the last several decades of research did absolve sugar from blame, and what does “unique role in heart disease” really mean? If sugar causes heart disease, is that a “unique role”?
The Sugar Association’s statement acknowledged the secret deal occurred, but pointed out that “when the studies in question were published, funding disclosures and transparency standards were not the norm they are today.”
Translation: The research lied, but back then, we didn’t have to reveal the lie. So, it’s O.K.
Journals now require all authors to list conflicts of interest, especially funding from a source has a vested interest in the outcome.
While a modern researcher could not take corporate money, even for speaking fees, without disclosure, the influences may be more subtle, he says. “We’re not talking about making up data, but perhaps influencing how a research question is framed.”
Revealing the source of funding doesn’t eliminate bias. And, though one reasonably may conclude that a high percentage of private funding comes from sources with an ax to grind, that doesn’t necessarily mean the research results are misleading.
But, such funding leads to the question: “What happens to results that disagree with the benefactor’s purpose?
If several, slightly different pieces of research show that sugar has an adverse effect on heart health, and one shows it doesn’t, what happens to all the negative research?
Andy Bellatti, cofounder and strategic director of Dietitians for Professional Integrity says that researchers don’t necessarily want to be cozy with industry, but sometimes turn to commercial sources because non-biased research money is lacking .
“The reason the food industry is able to do this is because there is such little public funding for nutrition and disease.”
Here is yet another example, among hundreds, of how cuts in federal deficit spending hurt America , though often benefitting big business.
And what does the need for an organization titled, “ Dietitians for Professional Integrity” tell you about today’s food research?
The scientific community should not reject industry money wholesale, says John Sievenpiper, a physician and nutrition researcher at the University of Toronto.
He believes that any scientist who takes industry money should adhere to an even higher standard of openness, including releasing study protocols ahead of time so reviewers can make sure the research question was not changed midstream to favor a certain conclusion.
Bottom line:
For many years, your belief in “benign sugar” was created by “trusted sources” and repetition. As with privately owned banks , the profit motive encourages unethical behavior. Corporations do not fund research out of generosity. They consider research to be part of their marketing efforts. Negative results often are twisted or hidden. Researchers, whether employed by Harvard University, the University of California, a private organization, or working alone, all can be swayed , consciously or not, to tilt their interpretations in favor of the money supply. Cuts in federally funded Research & Development grants are misguided if the primary purpose is to “save the federal government money” or to “make government smaller” (a huge, often unacknowledged disadvantage of libertarianism). While the federal government has political motives, it does not have a profit motive , and that alone helps make it a more trusted source for food & drug research than is private industry. Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
PLEASE HELP US GET THE WORD OUT
LOOK FOR US ON GOFUNDME.COM: RODGER MALCOLM MITCHELL | 1real |
WHOA! Why Is Our Classless President Following Porn Sites On Twitter? | Just another classless act in the life of President Barack Obama President Obama s Twitter account, which is run by his Organizing for Action staff, follows 636,000 accounts. Many of them you might expect: Michelle Obama, Joe Biden, John Kerry. Even Mariah Carey and Snoop Dogg don t really raise an eyebrow. But several accounts on the presidential follow list fit a different theme: Asa Akira, a porn star who has 653,000 followers and, in her Twitter bio, states I have an award-winning asshole. Joanna Angel (390,000 followers), who describes herself as a multiple award winning punk porno princess; Penthouse Pet Of The Year Nikki Benz (808,000 followers); and Ashley Steel (138,000 followers), who writes that she is a Porn Star, Doggy mama, Happiness Junkie, XXX Model, Buddhist, & Total nerd. So why is the official Twitter account for the president of the United States publicly following adult movie stars? Of course, American porn stars are just as American (and just as worthy of the President s ear) as anyone else, but this interaction is nonetheless an unusual move for an elected official s campaign-managed social media account.Neither the Organizing for Action campaign nor the White House immediately responded to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Joe Rospars, Obama s principal digital strategist for both presidential campaigns, said that he was not available to comment.The current presidential candidates seemed to have been more intentional about their follow lists, if for no other reason than that Twitter had blocked auto-following before the start of their 2016 campaigns. Nikki Benz, Penthouse s 2011 Pet Of The Year, has followed Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump. None of them have followed back. Via: Fast Company | 1real |
Britain looking forward to bonfire night because it can’t afford to put the heating on | Britain looking forward to bonfire night because it can’t afford to put the heating on 05-11-16
BRITAIN’S enthusiasm for firework displays is really about avoiding extortionate heating bills, it has been confirmed.
Researchers discovered that, rather than being excited about synchronised explosions, most attendees are actually looking forward to getting the feeling back in their extremities without laying awake worrying about money.
Zero-hours courier Sarah Smith, 33, said: “It’s not just the bonfire, there’s the body heat from the crowd too. What a treat.”
Nurse Tom Logan, 27, added: “I couldn’t give a shit about fireworks.
“I’d rather be at home watching Luther , but it’s so cold that I have to wear gloves and a hat inside. If getting warm means standing in the mud, in the dark, listening to people go ‘ooh’, that’s a small price to pay – and much better value than EDF.”
Both said that they would be leaving before the finale, however, as it would inevitably be soundtracked by Katy Perry’s Firework , like every display since 2010.
Share: | 1real |
Britons of all races united against Daily Mail | Britons of all races united against Daily Mail 02-11-16 MULTI-RACIAL Britons are united in thinking the Daily Mail is full of shit. After the newspaper reported that the country faced increased racial segregation, Britons of all races confirmed that they were joined by a belief that the Mail is a load of paranoia and semi-pornography written by and for freaks. Arjun Patel, of Worcester, said: “Minor cultural differences can soon be overcome when you’ve both read a Mail article about transgender-only schools, Liz Jones or ‘the hidden science of sex’ and gone ‘that is bollocks’. “I used to hate my West Indian neighbour until we compared notes on Samantha Brick’s article on female obesity. Now we play dominoes twice a week.” Swindon-based Roy Hobbs said: “Black, white or Asian, anyone who thinks Littlejohn’s a twat, or that articles inviting the reader to simultaneously condemn and leer over drunk female students are very wrong, is alright by me.”
Save | 1real |
Iranian general, Assad discuss joint military strategy: report | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iran s military chief met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday during a visit to Damascus to set out a joint military strategy, Syria s state news agency reported, a sign of deepening Iranian influence that has alarmed Israel. General Mohammad Baqeri said Iran was determined to continue supporting the Syrian leadership and people until security and safety are returned to them and would help with reconstruction, the state news agency SANA said. Israel has voiced deep concern over Tehran s widening influence in Syria, where Iranian forces and Iran-backed militias including Lebanon s Hezbollah have played a critical role helping Assad in the six-year-long war. On Tuesday, Baqeri, speaking from Damascus, warned Israel against breaching Syrian airspace and territory and pledged to increase cooperation with Syria s military to fight both Israel and Sunni jihadist militants. Israel s air force says it has struck arms convoys of the Syrian military and Hezbollah nearly 100 times during the war. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Iran was strengthening its foothold in Syria and that Israel would do whatever it takes to protect its security. Tensions have risen this year between Lebanon s Hezbollah and Israel, which have avoided a major conflict since 2006. In the meeting with Baqeri, Assad said the Iranian people and armed forces were a key partner in victories against terrorism in Syria , SANA reported. Military support from Iran and Russia has helped Assad regain swathes of Syria from rebels and Islamic State militants. | 0fake |
Senate quickens pace of approving Trump judicial picks | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One thing is definitely going right for U.S. President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans who control Congress: they are steadily getting conservatives appointed as judges, advancing their long-held ambition of reshaping the federal judiciary. So concern among conservatives arose after Democrats swept to victory in state and local elections in Virginia, New Jersey and elsewhere this month, signaling potential trouble for Republicans in the November 2018 mid-term elections in which control over Congress is at stake. If the party’s slim 52-48 majority in the Senate, which reviews and confirms federal judicial nominees, is at risk, Republicans may need to move even more quickly on getting judges confirmed by the Senate for their lifetime posts, some legal experts said. “Obviously, who gets nominated and the pace of confirmations ... changes dramatically if the Senate were to flip back to the Democrats,” said John Malcolm, a former Justice Department lawyer and now an analyst at the Heritage Foundation conservative think tank in Washington. Republicans “should be paying particular attention to pushing through as many nominees as they can,” added Malcolm, also active in the Federalist Society, a conservative lawyers’ group whose members have frequently been tapped for judicial posts by Republican presidents. Trump and congressional Republicans have not passed any major legislation since he took office in January despite controlling the White House and Congress. But after a slow start that had worried conservative activists, Republicans have made major headway on judicial appointments in recent weeks. The Senate has now voted to confirm 14 Trump judicial nominees, including Donald Coggins on Thursday as a district judge in South Carolina. That includes Supreme Court appointee Neil Gorsuch, eight others on regional appeals courts ranking just below the Supreme Court and five on trial courts. Obama had only seven confirmed at this point in his presidency. Democrats, who accused Republicans of impeding nominations from Trump’s Democratic predecessor Barack Obama, have said Republicans are trying to ram Trump’s nominees through the Senate, including some they say lack basic qualifications. Conservative groups that just last month were criticizing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for the pace of confirmations are now applauding him. McConnell, in a move with little precedent in U.S. history, last year refused to act on Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, paving the way for Trump to restore the high court’s conservative majority with Gorsuch’s appointment. “When the history books are written about the Trump administration, I believe perhaps the most long-lasting and significant legacy will be the men and women appointed and confirmed to the federal bench,” Republican Senator Ted Cruz said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday. Trump has a unique opportunity to reshape the judiciary. He inherited more than 100 vacancies when he took office, twice the number Obama inherited. The number has since climbed above 160. Trump generally has selected deeply conservative nominees, many in their 40s and 50s and able to serve for decades. He could name up to 30 percent of the federal bench in his first four-year term, said Leonard Leo, a Trump advisor on judicial nominations. Having a more conservative judiciary could be pivotal on legal disputes involving presidential powers, abortion, the death penalty, religious rights, gay rights, litigation involving corporations and other matters. The main impact of this infusion of conservative jurists will be to flip the ideological breakdown of several liberal-leaning federal appeals courts, said political scientist Sheldon Goldman, an expert in judicial selection at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Federal appeals courts, divided into 11 geographic regions plus two based in Washington, often have the final say in major legal disputes because the Supreme Court hears only a small number of cases annually. During Wednesday’s Judiciary Committee hearing for six Trump judicial nominees, Democrats said Republicans were acting on too many too quickly, preventing proper questioning of the candidates. Trump’s appointees may be more reliably conservative than those of previous Republican presidents. Goldman said nearly all have a connection to the Federalist Society, providing a “very consistent ideological vetting process.” Leo, the society’s executive vice president, helped compile a shortlist of Supreme Court nominees for Trump that included Gorsuch. Judges will be a focus of the society’s national convention that started on Thursday in Washington, with Trump selections including Gorsuch due to appear. While Republican lawmakers have been divided over legislation on issues including taxes and healthcare, judicial nominees are an issue on which tend to agree. “Fixing Obamacare is no easy task,” said Carrie Severino, chief counsel of the Judicial Crisis Network conservative legal advocacy group, “whereas the president has done such an excellent job of choosing nominees that it’s a no-brainer.” | 0fake |
UConn Women Win Their 91st Straight and Rewrite History Again - The New York Times | All that was missing from the Connecticut women’s basketball team’s shattering of its own N. C. A. A. winning streak on Saturday was a sense of drama and amazement. victories in a row with no end to the winning in sight? “Honestly, I don’t sit here and figure out how many games we’re going to win in a row,” Coach Geno Auriemma said before the Huskies broke out to a lead and obliterated Southern Methodist in Dallas, to write the latest chapter in the program’s illustrious history. “We’ve done it before. ” From 2008 to 2010, his team, powered by Maya Moore, chased and overtook the streak set by the U. C. L. A. men’s team in 1974, peaking at 90 straight before losing to Stanford. Given Connecticut’s dominance of the college women’s game — the Huskies have won the last four national titles and a record 11 in all under Auriemma — the notion of another lengthy streak was never a question. But when Connecticut finished an unbeaten season last April by routing Syracuse in the national title game for its 75th straight victory, the widespread belief in women’s basketball circles was that the latest streak would quickly end, and that the next edition of the team could lose multiple games. In the 2016 W. N. B. A. draft, the graduating portion of the UConn roster provided the top three picks, including Breanna Stewart, who was named the most outstanding player all four years she played in the Final Four. Going into this season, the Huskies for once lacked a preseason and they had an undersized front line, a shallow bench and uncertainty at the point guard position. But they did begin with a belief in the system generated by so much success and by Auriemma, who seldom lacks in . “Everybody in the whole country has talked about what we’ve lost,” said Kia Nurse, a junior and national champion. “I personally like playing with a chip on our shoulder. ” That chip has turned into a steamrollering boulder. The streak nearly ended on opening night, at Florida State, when the Seminoles had a shot in the air for the win. The shot fell short, and nobody has pushed the Huskies that hard since. It wasn’t as if they took the path of least resistance to victory No. 91. Auriemma had joked that everyone was eager to schedule Connecticut this season, when seven of its first 12 games were against Top 25 teams, including road games against No. 2 Notre Dame and No. 4 Maryland, and a home game against No. 3 Baylor. Only the Baylor game was close in the final minutes. Along the way, the Huskies have developed a new Big Three, in the sophomores Katie Lou Samuelson and Napheesa Collier and the junior Gabby Williams. They have never lost a game in the American Athletic Conference their next formidable challenge figures to be a nonconference game at home on Feb. 13 against South Carolina, which is ranked No. 5 in the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches polls. “Women’s basketball is always a little bit under the radar,” Auriemma said after the new record was secured. “But people that follow the game appreciate what this program has done. ” If the streak lasts until the South Carolina game, the Huskies will be shooting for a No. 100. “Some things you just can’t really explain,” Auriemma said. “You just have to enjoy it. ” | 0fake |
In No Particular Order, Sarah Palin Uses Random Words To Promote Trump At Politicon (VIDEO) | As much as you may want Sarah Palin to drift off into obscurity, you know you can t get enough of her crazy. It s always entertaining, because you really don t know what she s going to say or do next. Then, when she partnered up with Trump for his campaign, it was a comedic writer s dream come true. It really doesn t get much better than that in regards to a tag-team of lunacy.Not to disappoint, Palin took to the Politicon stage in Pasadena, CA, to promote Trump with what we can only assume are sentences in her own mind. However, she is saying words, so, here a few of them: They whispered that they re going to throw in for Hillary against the will of the people in their own primary, and this exposed the establishment s con game. More people learn it doesn t matter to the Beltway bubble boys and girls which side wins elections, as long as they get to keep their titles and their ratings and their power and their purses full. They win, we lose. Bubble boys kinky.Palin keeps going with this establishment phrase, because you know, it was probably on her word-a-day toilet paper. She said: The establishment, those profiles in pudding, they bent over for all those things, and now they fret about ideological, lily-white purity. I ll let you read that again to really soak that in Profiles in pudding, bent over, lily-white yeah, she just said all those things in one sentence.Then, while trying to say that even many Republicans are starting to back Hillary Clinton, she said: They re not all thumbsuckers, they re not all bad . I m kidding they are. Hillary thanks them, because she knows she can t win without them. Actually, Palin, she can win without them, but seeing them embrace sanity over crazy is something to admire.She then rambles on a bit, then offers us this gem about Trump relating to Americans: He gratefully shakes skilled, calloused hands and tugs tight the blue-collar, and he salutes in awe of sacrifice, the American in uniform. It s connection through appreciation, and I do wish you all could know him on that personal level. Palin apparently forgets that he recently threw our military under the bus, claimed to raise funds for them, but didn t, and also got five deferments of his own so he didn t have to serve. He also wouldn t know a hard days work if it was in front of his face and wouldn t know calloused hands if they were the ones stroking his ever-ginormous ego. He s an absolute fraud.But Palin being Palin, she ignores facts and reality and continues to say words in no particular order.Watch Palin speak here:Featured image via video screen capture | 1real |
UN Signs Up Syrian Olympic Swimmer to Shine Light on Refugees - Breitbart | Geneva (AFP) — The UN said Thursday it had enlisted Yusra Mardini, the teenage Olympic swimmer who braved a Mediterranean crossing in a leaky dinghy fleeing Syria, to help raise awareness about the plight of refugees. [The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said it had appointed Mardini as its newest Goodwill Ambassador, a role long famously held by US movie star Angelina Jolie. Mardini “has become a powerful voice for the forcibly displaced across the world and a powerful example of their resilience and determination to rebuild lives and positively contribute to host communities,” UNHCR said in a statement. The ’s story is indeed inspiring. In 2015, like millions of others, she fled her home in Syria. During a perilous journey to the Greek island of Lesbos on board a packed dinghy, the engine failed and the craft began taking on water. Mardini and her sister jumped into the sea, grabbed a rope and spent the next hours in the choppy water towing the boat to safety. Mardini, who has settled in Germany with her family, went on to take part in the first ever Olympic refugee team at the Rio de Janeiro games last year. “Yusra is a deeply inspiring young woman,” UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi said. She added that the Syrian teen “represents the hopes, the fears and the incredible potential of the more than ten million young refugees around the globe. ” Mardini herself said she was thrilled with her appointment. “I could not be more proud to be part of this team,” Mardini told reporters in Geneva. “There is no shame in being a refugee if we remember who we are,” she said. “I am a refugee and I’m proud to stand for peace, for decency and dignity for all those fleeing violence. ” | 0fake |
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah was incremental reformer, US ally (+video) | King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who Saudi state TV says has died, sought to counter Iran's influence in the Middle East while opposing pro-democracy movements at home.
How much do you know about Saudi Arabia? Take our quiz!
In this Wednesday, June 3, 2009 file photo, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, right, speaks with U.S. President Barack Obama, during arrival ceremonies at the Royal Terminal of King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. On early Friday, Jan. 23, 2015, Saudi state TV reported King Abdullah died at the age of 90.
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, the powerful U.S. ally who joined Washington's fight against al-Qaida and sought to modernize the ultraconservative Muslim kingdom with incremental but significant reforms, including nudging open greater opportunities for women, has died, according to Saudi state TV.
More than his guarded and hidebound predecessors, Abdullah assertively threw his oil-rich nation's weight behind trying to shape the Middle East. His priority was to counter the influence of rival, mainly Shiite Iran wherever it tried to make advances. He and fellow Sunni Arab monarchs also staunchly opposed the Middle East's wave of pro-democracy uprisings, seeing them as a threat to stability and their own rule.
He backed Sunni Muslim factions against Tehran's allies in several countries, but in Lebanon for example, the policy failed to stop Iranian-backed Hezbollah from gaining the upper hand. And Tehran and Riyadh's colliding ambitions stoked proxy conflicts around the region that enflamed Sunni-Shiite hatreds — most horrifically in Syria's civil war, where the two countries backed opposing sides. Those conflicts in turn hiked Sunni militancy that returned to threaten Saudi Arabia.
And while the king maintained the historically close alliance with Washington, there were frictions as he sought to put those relations on Saudi Arabia's terms. He was constantly frustrated by Washington's failure to broker a settlement to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. He also pushed the Obama administration to take a tougher stand against Iran and to more strongly back the mainly Sunni rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Abdullah's death was announced on Saudi state TV by a presenter who said the king died at 1 a.m. on Friday. His successor was announced as 79-year-old half-brother, Prince Salman, according to a Royal Court statement carried on the Saudi Press Agency. Salman was Abdullah's crown prince and had recently taken on some of the king's responsibilities.
Abdullah was born in Riyadh in 1924, one of the dozens of sons of Saudi Arabia's founder, King Abdul-Aziz Al Saud. Like all Abdul-Aziz's sons, Abdullah had only rudimentary education. Tall and heavyset, he felt more at home in the Nejd, the kingdom's desert heartland, riding stallions and hunting with falcons. His strict upbringing was exemplified by three days he spent in prison as a young man as punishment by his father for failing to give his seat to a visitor, a violation of Bedouin hospitality.
Abdullah was selected as crown prince in 1982 on the day his half-brother Fahd ascended to the throne. The decision was challenged by a full brother of Fahd, Prince Sultan, who wanted the title for himself. But the family eventually closed ranks behind Abdullah to prevent splits.
Abdullah became de facto ruler in 1995 when a stroke incapacitated Fahd. Abdullah was believed to have long rankled at the closeness of the alliance with the United States, and as regent he pressed Washington to withdraw the troops it had deployed in the kingdom since the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. The U.S. finally did so in 2003.
When President George W. Bush came to office, Abdullah again showed his readiness to push against his U.S. allies.
In 2000, Abdullah convinced the Arab League to approve an unprecedented offer that all Arab states would agree to peace with Israel if it withdrew from lands it captured in 1967. The next year, he sent his ambassador in Washington to tell the Bush administration that it was too unquestioningly biased in favor of Israel and that the kingdom would from now on pursue its own interests apart from Washington's. Alarmed by the prospect of a rift, Bush soon after advocated for the first time the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
The next month, the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks took place in the United States, and Abdullah had to steer the alliance through the resulting criticism. The kingdom was home to 15 of the 19 hijackers, and many pointed out that the baseline ideology for al-Qaida and other groups stemmed from Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi interpretation of Islam.
When al-Qaida militants in 2003 began a wave of violence in the kingdom aimed at toppling the monarchy,Abdullah cracked down hard. For the next three years, security forces battled militants, finally forcing them to flee to neighboring Yemen. There, they created a new al-Qaida branch, and Saudi Arabia has played a behind-the-scenes role in fighting it.
The tougher line helped affirm Abdullah's commitment to fighting al-Qaida. He paid two visits to Bush — in 2002 and 2005 — at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
When Fahd died in 2005, Abdullah officially rose to the throne. He then began to more openly push his agenda.
His aim at home was to modernize the kingdom to face the future. One of the world's largest oil exporters, Saudi Arabia is fabulously wealthy, but there are deep disparities in wealth and a burgeoning youth population in need of jobs, housing and education. More than half the current population of 20 million is under the age of 25. For Abdullah, that meant building a more skilled workforce and opening up greater room for women to participate. He was a strong supporter of education, building universities at home and increasing scholarships abroad for Saudi students.
Abdullah for the first time gave women seats on the Shura Council, an unelected body that advises the king and government. He promised women would be able to vote and run in 2015 elections for municipal councils, the only elections held in the country. He appointed the first female deputy minister in a 2009. Two Saudi female athletes competed in the Olympics for the first time in 2012, and a small handful of women were granted licenses to work as lawyers during his rule.
One of his most ambitious projects was a Western-style university that bears his name, the King AbdullahUniversity of Science and Technology, which opened in 2009. Men and women share classrooms and study together inside the campus, a major departure in a country where even small talk between the sexes in public can bring a warning from the morality police.
The changes seemed small from the outside but had a powerful resonance. Small splashes of variety opened in the kingdom — color and flash crept into the all-black abayas women must wear in public; state-run TV started playing music, forbidden for decades; book fairs opened their doors to women writers and some banned books.
But he treaded carefully in the face of the ultraconservative Wahhabi clerics who hold near total sway over society and, in return, give the Al Saud family's rule religious legitimacy.
Senior cleric Sheik Saleh al-Lihedan warned against changes that could snap the "thread between a leader and his people." In some cases, Abdullah pushed back: He fired one prominent government cleric who criticized the mixed-gender university. But the king balked at going too far too fast. For example, beyond allowing debate in newspapers, Abdullah did nothing to respond to demands to allow women to drive.
"He has presided over a country that has inched forward, either on its own or with his leadership," said Karen Elliot House, author of "On Saudi Arabia: Its People, Past, Religion, Fault Lines."
"I don't think he's had as much impact as one would hope on trying to create a more moderate version of Islam," she said. "To me, it has not taken inside the country as much as one would hope."
And any change was strictly on the royal family's terms. After the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings in particular, Saudi Arabia clamped down on any dissent. Riot police crushed street demonstrations by Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority. Dozens of activists were detained, many of them tried under a sweeping counterterrorism law by an anti-terrorism court Abdullah created. Authorities more closely monitored social media, where anger over corruption and unemployment — and jokes about the aging monarchy — are rife.
Regionally, perhaps Abdullah's biggest priority was to confront Iran, the Shiite powerhouse across the Gulf.
Worried about Tehran's nuclear program, Abdullah told the United States in 2008 to consider military action to "cut off the head of the snake" and prevent Iran from producing a nuclear weapon, according to a leaked U.S. diplomatic memo.
In Lebanon, Abdullah backed Sunni allies against the Iranian-backed Shiite guerrilla group Hezbollah in a proxy conflict that flared repeatedly into potentially destabilizing violence. Saudi Arabia was also deeply opposed to longtime Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whom it considered a tool of Iran oppressing Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority.
In Syria, Abdullah stepped indirectly indirectly into the civil war that emerged after 2011. He supported and armed rebels battling to overthrow President Bashar Assad, Iran's top Arab ally, and pressed the Obama administration to do the same. Iran's allies Hezbollah and Iraqi Shiite militias rushed to back Assad, and the resulting conflict has left hundreds of thousands dead and driven millions of Syrians from their homes.
From the multiple conflicts, Sunni-Shiite hatreds around the region took on a life of their own, fueling Sunni militancy. Syria's war helped give birth to the Islamic State group, which burst out to take over large parts of Syria and Iraq. Fears of the growing militancy prompted Abdullah to commit Saudi airpower to a U.S.-led coalition fighting the extremists.
Toby Matthiesen, author of "Sectarian Gulf: Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the Arab Spring That Wasn't," saidAbdullah was not "particularly sectarian in a way that he hated Shiites for religious reasons. ... There are other senior members of the ruling family much more sectarian." But, he said, "Saudi Arabia plays a huge role in fueling sectarian conflict."
Abdullah had more than 30 children from around a dozen wives.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | 0fake |
Comment on Predetermined vote counts show Nov. 8 presidential election is rigged in favor of Hillary Clinton by Anonymous | Dr. Eowyn | 2 Comments WARNING:
This post may be the most important post you’ll read on not just the 2016 election, but the entire electoral system that legitimates the U.S. republic of representative democracy. The post is long, with multiple sections, so pace yourself accordingly. I suggest you bookmark this webpage so that you can return to read or re-read. †
Jim Stone first posted about this two days ago on Nov. 1, 2016.
Unsure about Stone, who calls himself an “independent journalist” (based in Japan) and who writes in a less-than-clear or reader-friendly manner, I refrained from writing about his post.
Then InfoWars picked this issue up a day later on November 2.
What is claimed is that a hidden web site of NBC affiliate WRCBtv in Chattanooga, Tenn., shows pre-determined final vote counts for an election that hasn’t yet occurred — the 2016 presidential election scheduled for November 8.
Below is a screenshot Jim Stone took of the election results on WRCBtv’s hidden webpage, showing Hillary Clinton winning with 343 electoral votes and 42% of the popular vote . As Stone puts it: “SCAM ELECTION ALREADY CONFIRMED. TRUMP LOSES.”
Stone and InfoWars say the predetermined election results are provided by Worldnow.com.
So what is WorldNow?
This is what Wikipedia says, with a lot of jargon:
“WorldNow is a New York-based software company . . . [that] offers the only integrated media platform enabling broadcasters, operators and media companies to easily create, acquire, manage, analyze, monetize and distribute media assets (text, images and videos) across all digital platforms and on-air systems in a unified, end-to-end workflow . . . . Worldnow’s customers include CBS, COX, Dispatch, Fox Television, Meredith Corporation, Media General and Raycom Media . . . . On July 29, 2015, WorldNow announced its sale to Frankly, a San Francisco-based provider of white label social media services and mobile messaging apps . . . . In 2012, Fox Television Stations migrated its websites to WorldNow’s platform . . . becoming WorldNow’s second largest client (as of 2015, they have since switched to Lakana). In 2011, Meredith Corporation . . . began a four-year contract with WorldNow to operate its station websites. In January 2013, Media General reached a deal to move its eighteen stations to WorldNow, beginning with WFLA-TV.”
A “media platform” is a “platform,” medium or means of communicating news, such as a newspaper, TV station, Facebook , Twitter , or even a blog like FOTM .
I typed “worldnow.com” in the URL bar of my laptop, but was brought to the webpage of Frankly Inc. with this URL: http://franklyinc.com/ .
Frankly’s “About” page says:
WorldNow , the original broadcast arm of Frankly, was founded in 1999. We now serve over 200 stations across the United States as a true partner, offering customization services and strategic trainings on industry best practices for user engagement and monetization.
Frankly’s “Investors” page says:
“ Our customers include NBC, ABC, CBS and FOX affiliates , as well as top fashion brands, professional sports franchises and global organizations.”
In other words, WorldNow is a media software company that provides real-time data – such as election results – to local TV news stations like WRCBtv .
You can verify this for yourself by going on WRCBtv’s website: http://www.wrcbtv.com/ . Scroll down to the bottom of WRCBtv’s webpage, and you’ll see this in the bottom left of the webpage:
WRCBtv.com is “powered by frankly” and Frankly is the owner of WorldNow. In other words, WorldNow provides the content or the news for WRCBtv.com.
Stone claims that for now, WRCBtv.com’s (predetermined) election results page is hidden, awaiting WorldNow to publicly post the (fake) election results sometime in the evening of November 8, Election Day.
I can verify that the webpage is currently hidden. Here’s what I did: I typed “ftpcontent2.worldnow.com/wrcb/elections/elections.html”in the URL bar, but was brought to a McAfee Web Advisor page warning of “Trouble ahead” and asking me”Are you sure you want to go there?” I then did a Yahoo search for “WRCBtv.com decision 2016”. My search’s results page has this at the top:
Note that it says “Decision 2016: Complete Election Results Posted”. I clicked the blue-colored “ DECISION 2016: Complete Election Results ” and was brought to this page of WRCBtv.com with the message: Our Apologies
The page you requested is currently unavailable. Pages on this site are constantly being revised, updated, and occasionally removed. You may have followed an outdated link or have outdated pages in your browser cache. Here’s a screenshot I took:
So how did WorldNow come up with its predetermined final vote counts for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump ?
Answer : A method called “ fractional vote “.
To begin, a fractional vote feature is embedded in the GEMS election management system of electronic voting machines , which counts approximately 25% of all votes in the United States.
As explained by Gun&Game , the fractional vote feature can be used to invisibly, yet radically, alter election outcomes by pre-setting desired vote percentages for the candidates. The tampering can be applied across large jurisdictions in less than 60 seconds; is not visible to election observers, even if they are standing in the room and watching the computer; and is unlikely to be detected by auditing or canvass procedures.
GEMS vote-counting systems operate under five trade names: Global Election Systems, Diebold Election Systems, Premier Election Systems, Dominion Voting Systems, and Election Systems & Software, in addition to a number of private regional subcontractors. GEMS is used statewide in Alaska, Connecticut, Georgia, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Utah and Vermont, and for counties in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming. It is also used in Canada.
Vote-rigging by electronic voting machines is real.
A 2006 Emmy-nominated HBO documentary, Hacking Democracy , investigates the flawed integrity of electronic voting machines, particularly those made by Diebold Election Systems (now Global Election Systems), and exposes previously unknown backdoors in the Diebold trade secret computer software. Hacking Democracy documents American citizens investigating anomalies and irregularities with electronic voting systems during the 2000 and 2004 elections, especially in Volusia County, Florida. The film culminates in the on-camera hacking of the Diebold election system in Leon County, Florida — the same computer voting system which has been used in elections across 39 states, and which still counts tens of millions of America’s votes today.
So what is fractional or fractionalized vote?
Fractional vote is a method to distort the results of an election by “weighting” the votes. Instead of the principle of “one person-one vote,” some votes are counted not as 1, but as a fraction of or less than 1 (e.g., ½ or ¼), or as more than 1 (e.g., 1½ or 1¾). The distortion of “one person-one vote” is in order to achieve a pre-assigned percentage of votes for each candidate. For example, Candidate A is pre-assigned 51% of the votes, Candidate B 44%, and Candidate C gets the rest — 5%.
An algorithm is used to arrive at the pre-assigned percentages by changing the numbers automatically as the voting progresses. Although Candidate A in actuality received fewer number of votes than Candidate B, by “weighting” Candidate A’s votes, those votes are distorted in value, with one vote being counted, say, 25 times, so that Candidate A is the winner. And although Candidate B actually received more votes than Candidate A, Candidate B’s votes are “weighted” such that their values are less, with some votes converted to zero. The end result is that Candidate B loses.
According to Jim Stone, below are the numerical votes and percentages that are the pre-assigned presidential election results for the various states , which are already on the “Election Results” webpage of WMCtv.com, a local TV station in Memphis, TN. (But if you go onto that webpage — http://ftpcontent4.worldnow.com/wmctv/elections/wmc-electionresults.html — now, all the values are 0):
Line 119: US President Alabama Line 121: Donald Trump (R) 715,592 44% Line 122: Hillary Clinton (D) 634,275 39% Line 125: US President Alaska Line 127: Donald Trump (R) 115,252 44% Line 128: Hillary Clinton (D) 104,973 40% Line 133: US President Arizona Line 135: Donald Trump (R) 906,638 46% Line 136: Hillary Clinton (D) 867,218 44% Line 139: US President Arkansas Line 141: Hillary Clinton (D) 320,102 38% Line 142: Donald Trump (R) 289,862 34% Line 149: US President California Line 151: Hillary Clinton (D) 4,076,539 45% Line 152: Donald Trump (R) 3,643,970 40% Line 156: US President Colorado Line 158: Hillary Clinton (D) 452,857 23% Line 159: Donald Trump (R) 367,446 19% Line 180: US President Connecticut Line 182: Hillary Clinton (D) 508,013 45% Line 183: Donald Trump (R) 451,669 40% Line 186: US President Delaware Line 188: Donald Trump (R) 148,943 44% Line 189: Hillary Clinton (D) 132,602 40% Line 192: US President District of Columbia Line 194: Donald Trump (R) 111,157 45% Line 195: Hillary Clinton (D) 99,648 40% Line 198: US President Florida Line 200: Hillary Clinton (D) 2,758,845 44% Line 201: Donald Trump (R) 2,543,706 40% Line 206: US President Georgia Line 208: Donald Trump (R) 1,490,410 45% Line 209: Hillary Clinton (D) 1,324,808 40% Line 211: US President Hawaii Line 213: Hillary Clinton (D) 158,720 42% Line 214: Donald Trump (R) 152,232 41% Line 218: US President Idaho Line 220: Donald Trump (R) 198,675 44% Line 221: Hillary Clinton (D) 176,677 39% Line 228: US President Illinois Line 230: Hillary Clinton (D) 2,006,362 44% Line 231: Donald Trump (R) 1,807,369 40% Line 234: US President Indiana Line 236: Donald Trump (R) 1,077,142 45% Line 237: Hillary Clinton (D) 957,461 40% Line 239: US President Iowa Line 241: Donald Trump (R) 490,319 44% Line 242: Hillary Clinton (D) 436,740 39% Line 251: US President Kansas Line 253: Donald Trump (R) 392,701 44% Line 254: Hillary Clinton (D) 349,617 40% Line 257: US President Kentucky Line 259: Donald Trump (R) 721,167 44% Line 260: Hillary Clinton (D) 647,285 40% Line 265: US President Louisiana Line 267: Hillary Clinton (D) 565,941 38% Line 268: Donald Trump (R) 536,155 36% Line 280: US President Maine Line 282: Hillary Clinton (D) 223,591 43% Line 283: Donald Trump (R) 207,990 40% Line 286: US President Maryland Line 288: Hillary Clinton (D) 934,981 45% Line 289: Donald Trump (R) 831,655 40% Line 292: US President Massachusetts Line 294: Donald Trump (R) 960,930 44% Line 295: Hillary Clinton (D) 864,838 40% Line 298: US President Michigan Line 300: Hillary Clinton (D) 1,495,253 40% Line 301: Donald Trump (R) 1,420,490 38% Line 306: US President Minnesota Line 308: Hillary Clinton (D) 835,772 45% Line 309: Donald Trump (R) 643,190 34% Line 317: US President Mississippi Line 319: Donald Trump (R) 455,836 44% Line 320: Hillary Clinton (D) 404,169 39% Line 326: US President Missouri Line 328: Hillary Clinton (D) 919,407 44% Line 329: Donald Trump (R) 826,715 40% Line 333: US President Montana Line 335: Donald Trump (R) 124,285 35% Line 336: Hillary Clinton (D) 106,531 30% Line 340: US President Nebraska Line 342: Donald Trump (R) 266,304 44% Line 343: Hillary Clinton (D) 238,319 40% Line 346: US President Nevada Line 348: Hillary Clinton (D) 392,071 47% Line 349: Donald Trump (R) 349,756 42% Line 354: US President New Hampshire Line 356: Donald Trump (R) 233,389 44% Line 357: Hillary Clinton (D) 211,541 40% Line 361: US President New Jersey Line 363: Hillary Clinton (D) 1,225,655 43% Line 364: Donald Trump (R) 1,104,143 39% Line 372: US President New Mexico Line 374: Donald Trump (R) 257,643 41% Line 375: Hillary Clinton (D) 243,336 39% Line 382: US President New York Line 384: Hillary Clinton (D) 2,874,820 49% Line 385: Donald Trump (R) 2,464,969 42% Line 388: US President North Carolina Line 390: Hillary Clinton (D) 1,834,827 54% Line 391: Donald Trump (R) 1,427,089 42% Line 393: US President North Dakota Line 395: Hillary Clinton (D) 106,150 39% Line 396: Donald Trump (R) 81,170 30% Line 401: US President Ohio Line 403: Hillary Clinton (D) 1,768,330 45% Line 404: Donald Trump (R) 1,571,848 40% Line 408: US President Oklahoma Line 410: Donald Trump (R) 532,869 50% Line 411: Hillary Clinton (D) 479,581 45% Line 413: US President Oregon Line 415: Donald Trump (R) 437,729 35% Line 416: Hillary Clinton (D) 375,196 30% Line 419: US President Pennsylvania Line 421: Hillary Clinton (D) 1,892,527 44% Line 422: Donald Trump (R) 1,714,575 40% Line 426: US President Rhode Island Line 428: Hillary Clinton (D) 176,102 44% Line 429: Donald Trump (R) 158,149 39% Line 433: US President South Carolina Line 435: Hillary Clinton (D) 686,264 44% Line 436: Donald Trump (R) 610,431 39% Line 442: US President South Dakota Line 444: Donald Trump (R) 118,104 40% Line 445: Hillary Clinton (D) 88,577 30% Line 448: US President Tennessee Line 450: Donald Trump (R) 707,501 36% Line 451: Hillary Clinton (D) 699,358 35% Line 457: US President Texas Line 459: Hillary Clinton (D) 3,171,201 42% Line 460: Donald Trump (R) 3,020,193 40% Line 463: US President Utah Line 465: Donald Trump (R) 229,420 30% Line 466: Hillary Clinton (D) 191,184 25% Line 475: US President Vermont Line 477: Hillary Clinton (D) 102,409 44% Line 478: Donald Trump (R) 91,938 40% Line 483: US President Virginia Line 485: Hillary Clinton (D) 1,207,579 44% Line 486: Donald Trump (R) 1,087,068 40% Line 490: US President Washington Line 492: Hillary Clinton (D) 830,496 39% Line 493: Donald Trump (R) 679,285 32% Line 499: US President West Virginia Line 501: Hillary Clinton (D) 276,617 44% Line 502: Donald Trump (R) 248,391 40% Line 506: US President Wisconsin Line 508: Donald Trump (R) 795,047 40% Line 509: Hillary Clinton (D) 587,532 30% Line 515: US President Wyoming Line 517: Hillary Clinton (D) 41,824 30% Line 518: Donald Trump (R) 34,853 25%
Anticipating that skeptics or the vote-riggers would say that WRCBtv.com’s “hidden page” of election results is merely a “code test” for the TV station’s actual posting of election results on November 8, Jim Stone says that he’d “ripped the code out worldnow.com/kfvs12/elections.html” and can confirm “there is no active in it to need testing," i.e., "the page has no code that will tabulate votes." The data on the hidden page are not codes, but are "all just typed in."
There is another way to demonstrate vote rigging of the 2016 election -- a webpage on election results of KFVS12 , a local TV station in Cape Girardeau, MO: http://82.221.129.208/ftpcontent4worldnowcomkfvs12elections.html .
The webpage at present is a fakery in progress , with the final (fake) vote counts for some races already filled in, but blank for some other races. This afternoon, November 3, 2016, I took screenshots of every race with (fake) tabulations already filled in, but did not take screenshots of some blank races because I got tired of taking screenshots. The races with no (fake) vote counts are all minor races, such as those for city councils and local initiatives.
Ask yourself this question:
Why would the website of KFVS12, a local TV station in Missouri, have the final vote counts for some races in the upcoming November 8 elections already filled in?
If KFVS12's election results webpage as it is now is merely a "test-run" to ensure that the webpage will be operative on November 8, why are the vote counts of some races -- all relatively unimportant local races -- blank? If the page is a "test," there should be "test" vote counts for every race.
Can anyone offer another explanation for what's been presented in this post? I'm open to alternative, non-election-fraud explanations.
Is our entire democratic polity an illusion?
H/t FOTM 's bongiornoc | 1real |
Rodrigo Duterte, Philippine President, Links 150 Public Servants to Drugs - The New York Times | MANILA — The Philippines’ new president, Rodrigo Duterte, on Sunday publicly accused scores of judges, mayors, lawmakers, military personnel and police officers of involvement with the illegal drug trade, giving them 24 hours to surrender for investigation or, he said, be “hunted” down. Mr. Duterte rejected calls last week from international human rights groups to observe due process in the war he has declared on both sellers and users of illicit drugs, after a photograph of a drug user shot and killed by vigilantes made it to the front pages and became a symbol for the bloody antidrug campaign. “I ordered the listing. I ordered the validation,” he said Sunday in a nationally televised speech at a naval base, referring to the roughly 150 people he mentioned by name. “I’m the one reading it, and I am the sole person responsible for these all. ” He said the accused “are hereby ordered relieved” of their duties, and he indicated that he was only fulfilling a campaign promise to be harsh. Some of those on his list are local politicians whom he said he knew personally. He also said the officials and others on his list should no longer be allowed to have permits for guns and other weapons. “I’m ordering the national police chief to lift police supervision and cancel any and all private arms that are licensed to these mayors I mentioned,” he said. “They are all canceled. Go out naked to the world and show how crooked you are. ” “All of you judges or whatever, you report to the Supreme Court,” Mr. Duterte added. “Policemen, you report to the police chief. And army, to the chief of staff. ” “You do not do that, I will order the armed forces of the Philippines and the entire P. N. P. to hunt for you,” he said, using the initials of the Philippine National Police. He did not say what evidence he had used as a basis for his accusations, acknowledging that “it might be true, it might not be true. ” But in response to groups that had cautioned him not to trample on individuals’ rights, he said that if those he named were charged in court, they would receive due process. “Due process has nothing to do with my mouth,” Mr. Duterte said. “There are no proceedings here, no lawyers. ” He said he wanted the Philippine people, especially those who voted for him in May, to know what was happening in the country. And he insisted that he did not care what the people would say, daring politicians critical of him to remove him from office. “It’s very important for the people to know the state of things or conditions in this country,” he said. “That is my sworn duty. ” The president contended, as he had before, that drug abuse and the drug trade were “pandemic” in the Philippines. He said the nation’s Drug Enforcement Agency had estimated that 3 percent of the population, or three million of the 100 million Filipinos, were addicted to drugs and that 92 percent of villages in metropolitan Manila had been “contaminated with drug use. ” He also claimed that as many as 600, 000 people were both using and selling drugs. Mr. Duterte promised police officers that he would have their back if they faced human rights charges in connection with carrying out his antidrug campaign. He recalled that when he was mayor of the southern city of Davao, his standing order to the police was to be quick on the draw and shoot suspects on sight. “I told police then that I will kick them if they are writhing in pain if I see them get shot,” he said. “Why were you beaten to the draw? That ain’t the way. Illegal? No, of course not. ” In the month since Mr. Duterte took office, more than 400 people suspected of dealing drugs have been killed, either by the police or by vigilantes. About 600, 000 people have surrendered to the police. In a statement issued after Mr. Duterte’s speech, Franklin M. Drilon, the president pro tempore of the Senate, said, “I strongly support President Duterte’s antidrug campaign, but due process and the rule of law must be dutifully upheld. ” “I urged the president that if there is evidence that these officials were involved in the drug trade, he should immediately charge them administratively or in court,” Mr. Drilon said. “There should be no shortcuts. ” | 0fake |
France's Macron firms up bounce in opinion polls | PARIS (Reuters) - French president Emmanuel Macron s popularity jumped back above 50 percent thanks in part to better ratings among the young and the working class, an opinion poll showed on Wednesday, confirming a rebound that started at the beginning of December. Macron s popularity dropped quickly after he swept to an electoral victory in May on a centrist platform, shattering a long-standing two-party system in France. But while the former investment banker has struggled to shake off a president of the rich tag pinned on him by rivals for policies such as cuts in housing benefits, Macron s efforts to defend French interests abroad have helped lift his ratings. His popularity rose above 50 percent for the first time since his election in early December, and a new poll on Wednesday, taken on Monday and Tuesday, showed the president scoring a 52 percent approval rating. That was a six-percentage-point jump from November, according to the BVA poll, carried out for Orange and La Tribune and released on the eve of Macron s 40th birthday. As well as praising Macron s international efforts, those surveyed also highlighted that he was delivering on campaign promises, BVA said, even though some policies like a labor reform that gives employers greater freedom to hire and fire staff were deeply unpopular with many of his detractors. The president is most popular with older voters and higher earners, but made the biggest progress in the latest poll with the young, BVA added. Other surveys this week also confirmed Macron was making headway, although a ViaVoice poll for Liberation published on Tuesday put his popularity rating lower, at 46 percent. That was also a six-percentage-point improvement on the previous month. An Odoxa survey gave Macron a 54 percent approval rating. Macron s turnaround in polls comes as political rivals are scrambling to regroup and form a stronger opposition, at a time when both the left and right are deeply fragmented. The president s office recently played down attacks from some opponents over Macron s planned birthday celebrations with his family in the grounds of a former royal palace, which drew jibes about him being out of touch. | 0fake |
House passes bill requiring EPA actions on lead-laced water | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday easily passed a bill requiring federal environmental regulators to act faster when lead contamination is found in drinking water. The bill passed 416-2. It was crafted by Michigan Representatives Dan Kildee, a Democrat, and Fred Upton, a Republican, in the wake of Flint’s drinking water crisis. The measure requires the Environmental Protection Agency to notify the public when concentrations of lead in drinking water rise above mandated levels and to create a plan to improve communication between the agency, utilities, states, and consumers. In 2014, under a state-appointed emergency manager, Flint, a city of 100,000, switched water supplies to the Flint River, from Detroit’s system as part of a plan to save money in the poverty-stricken city. The more corrosive river water leached lead from aging pipes. Thousands of children are believed to have ingested dangerous levels of lead, a toxin that can harm brains and cause other health problems. The bill “wouldn’t have prevented Flint, but it would have caught it far sooner,” Kildee, who is from Flint, said after the vote. The measure must be passed by the Senate and signed by President Barack Obama before becoming law. Other measures in Congress to provide Flint with millions of dollars in aid to deal with the crisis face an uncertain future. Kildee has also introduced a bill to provide about $700 million in federal aid, with a match in funding from Michigan. That and other measures languished as Democrats and Republicans struggled to agree on where the funds would come from. The Department of Agriculture said on Thursday it would temporarily allow Michigan to use funds from its Women, Infants and Children program for low income citizens to conduct lead testing. The department estimated some 3,800 people could get tested in this way. | 0fake |
Activists bristle at Clinton fundraising | A verdict in 2017 could have sweeping consequences for tech startups. | 0fake |
Trump to speak in 'tough terms' about North Korea in first U.N. speech | NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will speak forcefully about the threat posed by North Korea during his first address to the United Nations on Tuesday while knocking those he sees as enabling Pyongyang. He will speak in extremely tough terms about the North Korean menace and the threat it poses to our security and the security of all the nations in that room, a White House official told reporters in a call previewing Trump s remarks at the U.N. General Assembly. And he will talk about, as well, the enablement of the North Korean regime and what that means too, the official said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not elaborate, but his mention of enablement was likely a reference to China, which has frustrated Trump by failing to rein in North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. North Korea s nuclear tests and missile launches have stirred global tensions Trump spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier on Monday and committed to keep up pressure on North Korea by enforcing U.N. resolutions, the White House said. On Tuesday, Trump is also expected to go hard against Iran during a speech that the official said would espouse the importance of state sovereignty. It s an appeal to each nation to use sovereignty as the basis for mutual cooperation, the idea being that rather than appealing to a top-down model of global bureaucracy, it s a model that s from the nation-state up, he said. Border control, trade and international agreements that are unfavorable to the United States represented threats to U.S. sovereignty, the official said. The theme is consistent with Trump s America First philosophy that helped him win election last year. [nL2N1LF26C] Trump has been critical of international organizations, including NATO and the United Nations. On Monday, he criticized the 193-nation body for a bloated bureaucracy and mismanagement, but said reforms would help it emerge stronger and more effective. | 0fake |
Sanctions on North Korea may hurt citizens' rights: U.N. expert | UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - International community sanctions on North Korea may be hurting key economic sectors and hampering the human rights of its citizens, a United Nations expert said on Thursday. It is my conviction that a comprehensive assessment of the sanctions regime is needed in order to avoid unintended negative impact on human rights, said Tomas Ojea Quintana, the U.N. s special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in North Korea, in a speech to a U.N. committee. Ojea Quintana said the sanctions must be evaluated to avoid imposing what would effectively constitute a collective punishment on North Koreans. The rapporteur said Pyongyang was ultimately responsible for protecting the human rights of its citizens, yet patterns of grave violations persisted. The U.N. Security Council last month strengthened sanctions against Pyongyang, including export bans as well as asset freezes and travel bans on various officials, over the country s sixth and most powerful nuclear test so far, conducted on Sept. 3. On Thursday, the United States unilaterally imposed sanctions on seven North Korean individuals and three entities over what it called serious human rights abuses, including forced labor. Ojea Quintana highlighted the deplorable conditions of detainees in detention centers near the border with China including widespread sexual and gender-based violence. | 0fake |
Critics decry Trump plan to limit counter-extremism program | SAN FRANCISCO/ WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Trump administration effort to exclude violent white supremacists from a government anti-terrorism program and focus efforts solely on Islamist extremism drew a sharp backlash Thursday, with New York state’s top prosecutor denouncing the move and civil liberties advocates suggesting it is illegal. The proposed revamp, reported by Reuters on Wednesday, would rename the multi-agency “Countering Violent Extremism” (CVE) task force to “Countering Islamic Extremism” or “Countering Radical Islamic Extremism,” and eliminate initiatives aimed at other violent hate groups in the United States. “Abandoning efforts to counter violent white supremacist ideology is profoundly misguided and will endanger Americans,” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement, adding that he urged President Donald Trump to keep the focus on “all extremist threats.” Hugh Handeyside, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said an explicit focus on American Muslims would violate “basic constitutional principles,” suggesting the changes described would be met with legal challenges. The Anti-Defamation League also criticized the plan, citing internal research that found 74 percent of deaths caused by domestic extremists between 2007 and 2016 were caused by “right-wing extremists such as white supremacists, sovereign citizens and militia adherents.” Postings on white supremacist websites welcomed the potential changes. Facebook Inc., which like many internet platforms is often used by extremists, has financially supported at least one CVE initiative but had no comment Thursday on the prospective changes. Sharp rhetoric about the threat posed by “radical Islam” was a central part of Trump’s 2016 election campaign. The Republican frequently ridiculed then President Barack Obama and Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton for being politically correct in their approach to groups such as Islamic State. Contributors to Stormfront, a white supremacist web site, praised the administration. “Oh my goodness. Is this for real. Amazing my government no longer targets me as the enemy,” wrote one prolific poster going by the username Magog. Another regular poster, Celtchar, wrote: “Wow. It just keeps getting better and better,” adding that the anti-fascist movement’s “days are numbered.” The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) declined to comment on the proposed changes. Last Friday, Trump signed an executive order temporarily blocking travel to the United States by people from seven predominantly Muslim countries, prompting a global outcry and charges from his critics that he was advancing a white nationalist agenda. Trump has said he wants to put America first but has rejected characterizations of the order as a “Muslim ban.” Trump’s moves have already undermined participation in the CVE program, which is based on working with community groups to identify potential “lone wolf” attackers and recruits. Minnesota-based Ka Joog, a nonprofit which provides community based programs for Somali youth, late Wednesday became the second group to pull out of the program, citing concerns about the Trump administration’s posture toward Muslims in turning down a $499,998 grant. “That’s a lot of money, especially in the nonprofit world,” said Mohamed Farah, the organization’s director. “But at the end of the day it all comes down to principle. I am a refugee, I am a Muslim, I am an immigrant and this president is against everything I stand for.” Last week, Leaders Advancing & Helping Communities, a Michigan-based group led by Lebanese-Americans and another grant recipient, declined a $500,000 provided by the DHS. | 0fake |
"Just say it's the Russians" - Joaquin Flores on RT [Video] |
October 31st, 2016 - Fort Russ News -
RT - by Inessa Sinchougova
Clinton's circus continues its tour. Joaquin Flores is the Editor in Chief here on Fort Russ.
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Lebanese president says PM Hariri phoned to resign from outside country | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese President Michel Aoun s office said on Saturday that Saad al-Hariri had phoned him from outside Lebanon to resign as the country s prime minister and that Aoun awaited Hariri s return to hear the circumstances of the resignation . | 0fake |
WATCH: Trump Minion Makes HUGE Slip About Who Will Pay For Infrastructure Spending | The American people are NOT going to like this at all.If you really believed that Donald Trump cares about working people and America, this interview will shatter your delusions.Trump has promised to make infrastructure spending a top priority in his administration and it s expected to carry at least a $1 trillion price tag.Usually, every American who pays taxes, from the rich to the poor and from corporations to small businesses, helps pay the bill.But Trump s scheme would not only enrich his corporate buddies, it would allow foreigners to fleece the American people as well for decades by reimbursing private companies through the use of tolls on roads and bridges, which would be privately owned.During an interview with Sean Hannity last week, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who also happens to be Mitch McConnell s wife, let the cat out of the bag when she admitted that working Americans would be saddled with the costs of the projects and that would also mean paying tolls to enrich foreign investors. After explaining it, Hannity attempted to bail her out by spinning it as a win win for taxpayers. If I m hearing it properly, what you re saying is, for example, if a company were to rebuild a road, they might get their investment back by having a toll on that road and that s where the taxpayers don t pay a penny, they make a profit, it s a win-win? Something like that? Hannity said. Thanks for putting it that way, Chao replied.Except that it s not a win-win. Basically, Trump s plan would allow private companies to pay for building or repairing a road or bridge and then they would force Americans to pay a toll so the company would make their money back and profit off the backs of every American who uses the road or bridge to get to work every day. Companies would literally be nickel and diming the people, and it would be the local citizens who get hit the hardest.Saying that taxpayers don t pay a penny is a complete lie.But that s not all.Chao repeatedly slipped up when she tried to explain that private investors would fund the roads. So, basically, we allow foreign inv uh, we allow different kinds of money, private sector money to come into the United States I m not saying foreign to come and fund, let s say a bridge or a road or it can be any kind of infrastructure. That s right. Chao just admitted that foreign investors would also be able to basically own American roads and make us pay them to use them. And Cenk Uygur knows why.Uygur explained on his Young Turks show that Chao is the daughter of a Taiwanese businessman who got rich investing in transportation.That means Chao and her family could personally enrich themselves under Trump s scheme.Here s the Hannity interview and Uygur s commentary via Twitter.Transportation Secretary @ElaineChao may have accidentally let her true intentions slip during a @seanhannnity interview. pic.twitter.com/2yIR25BtRy The Young Turks (@TheYoungTurks) March 12, 2017Once again, Donald Trump is scamming working Americans to make himself and his friends rich while the rest of us pay the bill for the rest of our lives. Our infrastructure would literally be owned and operated by private companies and foreigners while we pay the price. It s unfair. It s un-American. And it should piss off every American citizen.Featured image via screenshot | 1real |
CNN’S VAN JONES FAKE CRYING Over Trump Blaming ‘Both Sides’ for Charlottesville Violence [Video] | Mark Dice nails it! Van Jones on CNN cries over President Trump blaming both sides, and Anderson Cooper, Don Lemon and others looked like they were holding back tears. The liberal media freakout hasn t been this bad since Hillary lost the election.Van Jones takes his orders from Obama and ValJar He s a student of Alinsky and plays like he really cares about the black community. He s dangerous. He wants a revolution in America so bad he ll fake cry on TV to get it. What is it with the Democrats? A bunch of babies! First, we had Obama fake crying and then Schumer! | 1real |
Syrian government to arrive in Geneva tomorrow for peace talks: SANA | BEIRUT (Reuters) - A Syrian government delegation will arrive in Geneva on Wednesday to attend peace talks this week, state news agency SANA said, quoting Syria s foreign affairs ministry. The delegation will be headed by Syria s U.N. ambassador and chief negotiator Bashar al-Ja afari, SANA said on Tuesday. The delegation had delayed its planned departure to the talks set to begin on Tuesday because of the opposition s insistence that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad step down. | 0fake |
BREAKING: HILLARY CLINTON’S Comments On The ‘Rights’ Of The ‘Unborn” Will Send A Chill Up Your Spine [Video] | The unborn person is how Clinton describes the baby in the womb. So if the unborn is a person then wouldn t it have rights? This interview with Clinton shows what a cold-hearted woman she is. She s all for late-term abortion like Obama is but we skewer Trump for being pro-life? The unfavorable ratings with women should be sky high for Clinton. In an interview with Chuck Todd on NBC s Meet the Press airing on Sunday, Clinton said that while it doesn t mean that you don t do everything possible to try to fulfill your obligations [to help the unborn person], it does not include sacrificing the woman s right to make decisions. SHE S JUST COLD Read more: Daily Caller | 1real |
BOMBSHELL CASE: Illegal Alien Voting Cover-Up Exposed as Virginia Governor Blamed for Thousands Casting Ballots | Thank goodness for President Trump s new commission because the latest finding on voter fraud is just the tip of the voter fraud iceberg:HERE S WHAT S GOING ON:When Maureen Erickson registered to vote in Prince William County, she listed her home address as a street in Guatemala, in what should have been a very strong indication that she wasn t a regular Virginia resident. Yet she remained on the voting rolls for years, and even cast ballots in 14 different elections, up through the 2008 presidential contest. She was only purged in 2012, just ahead of the election, after she self-reported as a noncitizen, according to a new report released Tuesday by the Public Interest Legal Foundation. Ms. Erickson was one of more than 5,500 noncitizens who were registered to vote in Virginia this decade, and were only bumped from the rolls after they admitted to being ineligible. Some 1,852 of them even managed to cast ballots that were likely illegal, though undetected, the PILF, a conservative voter integrity group, said in its report. Just as troubling, the PILF said, was Virginia s efforts to try to hide the information from the public a problem foundation President J. Christian Adams said began at the very top, with Gov. Terry McAuliffe. At the instruction of Governor McAuliffe s political appointees, local election officials spent countless resources to prevent this information from spilling into the open, Mr. Adams said in a statement releasing the report. From NoVa to Norfolk and all urban and rural points in between, alien voters are casting ballots with practically no legal consequences in response. READ MORE: WTNEW REPORT:A new report released shortly after the forming of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity finds that more than 5,000 individuals were determined to be non-U.S. citizens registered to vote in Virginia. Dubbed a sequel to a similar 2016 effort, the latest study found 5,556 voters were quietly removed from the records for reasons related to non-citizenship between 2011 and May 2017, according to an advanced look at the findings provided by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF). Of the total registered, one-third of unlawful voters managed to cast ballots leading to a total of more than 7,400 illegal votes cast, according to the report.The organization points out that it was unable to find any evidence that illegal registrations or votes were ever prosecuted.The report details how ineligible individuals are slowly discovered by local officials most often, the authors allege, by accident. Applicants for voter registration are not required to prove they are actual U.S. citizens in Virginia. The vast majority of states only require that people claim to be citizens during registration, PILF notes. The report details, however, that Virginia shares information when a claimed citizen indicates otherwise to a separate state agency. At that point, removal procedures begin:In the absence of regular data-sharing arrangements between federal officials and the Commonwealth, the ability of election officials to identify aliens on the voter rolls is almost nonexistent.The most that happens in Virginia is that an alien on the voter rolls will sometimes tell the state DMV they are not a citizen. Without those leads, counties and municipalities must accept false claims of citizenship on their face.The authors also shared with this reporter examples of how some ineligible noncitizens admitted their immigration statuses at the outset, but were still registered to vote. Some illegal registrants lasted on the rolls for years risking possible deportation until they were discovered.Read more: Breitbart | 1real |
BREAKING: Gay Bernie Sanders Supporter With Long Rifle, Possible Explosives Arrested On Way to L.A. Gay Pride Festival | The media will ignore the fact that this man was reportedly on his way to harm gays or that he appears to be a Bernie Sanders supporter. The media and Democrats will instead, be laser focused on the weapons and ammunition that were found in his possession. Democrats and other gun-control fanatics should be reminded that they are just inanimate objects until they end up in the hands of unstable Bernie Sanders supporters Authorities on Sunday were trying to determine the intentions of an Indiana man with a cache of weapons, ammunition and explosive-making materials in his car and apparent plans to attend the L.A. Pride festival in West Hollywood.Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks said on Twitter that the 20-year-old man told one of her officers after he was arrested that he wanted to harm Gay Pride event. But she did not provide any details, and officials said they are still trying to sort out his motives.Police identified him as James Wesley Howell of Indiana. A Facebook page for someone with the same name in Indiana shows a young man posing next to a white Acura with the same license plate as the car searched in Santa Monica for the weapons and explosives.At a news conference Sunday afternoon, police stressed they were still trying to figure out what Howell planned to do with the weapons.Howell s friend and fellow car club member Joseph Greeson, 18, said Howell didn t harbor any ill will toward gays or lesbians.Greeson said Howell s family in Jeffersonville hadn t seen him for days and that his parents had called Greeson s parents looking for him.He added that Howell was known to have a gun collection.According to Indiana court records, Howell was charged in October 2015 with intimidation and felony pointing a firearm at another person. On April 19, Howell pleaded guilty to misdemeanor intimidation, and prosecutors dropped the pointing a firearm charge. Court records show he was sentenced to a year in state prison and placed on probation. Under the deal, He agreed to forfeit all weapons during his term of probation.Oct 21, 2015- Around 11:17 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 15, Charlestown Police Department officers were dispatched to Winthrop Drive to investigate a report of James W. Howell, 19, pointing a gun at his neighbors, according to a police report.When the officers arrived, the neighbors pointed out Howell, who was then handcuffed until the officers could determine the nature of the allegations. While doing so, one officer noticed a Smith and Wesson handgun sticking out of the back waistband of his pants, which the officer secured in his car.One of the neighbors who reportedly had the gun pointed at him told officers he, his wife and several other neighbors and friends had been sitting on the porch having beers and discussing his cat being poisoned several months ago. At that point, a woman who lives at Howell s residence with her husband, who was on the porch, came around from the back of the house yelling that they were talking about her and calling her names. An argument ensued between the woman and the complainant, and Howell went into his residence and returned with a gun, witnesses said.The complainant said Howell pointed the gun at him and his wife, who said she would call the police. Howell withdrew the gun and went into the house.The officers said that the other complainants and witness stories were consistent and none seemed intoxicated. Two of them referred to an incident earlier in the day in which Howell had pointed his gun at his boyfriend. A report was taken after this incident as well. James is going to get someone hurt, one witness said. He needs to stop pointing guns at people. Federal and local law enforcement decided against canceling the annual parade, which went forward Sunday morning under tightened security. Investigators are now trying to piece together what happened but said they don t believe there is any connection between the incident and the massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., that killed at least 50 people overnight.Early Sunday, Santa Monica police received a call about a suspected prowler who was knocking on a resident s door and window about 5 a.m. in the 1700 block of 11th Street, Santa Monica police said. Patrol officers responded and encountered Howell, who was sitting in a car registered in Indiana, police said. Officers inspected the car and found three assault rifles, high-capacity ammunition and a five-gallon bucket containing chemicals capable of forming an improvised explosive device, police said.A law enforcement source who spoke on condition of anonymity said the contents of the bucket included tannerite, an ingredient that could be used to create a pipe bomb. The maker of the material said that was not the case and that it can only be detonated by high-velocity impact such as a bullet strike. But tannerite is known as a material used in the construction of other types of explosive devices.The source, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing investigation, said authorities also found camouflage clothing in the car.Los Angeles County sheriff s officials said the suspect told police he was going to the Pride parade to look for a friend. Authorities were looking for that individual.Santa Monica police spokesman Saul Rodriguez said detectives are not aware of what the suspect s intentions were at this point. Santa Monica police continued to search the suspect s white Acura on Sunday morning. All four of the car s doors were open and a green blanket, red gasoline canister and several other smaller items were being piled on the sidewalk next to it. The car s license plate included a symbol of the National Rifle Assn. on the left side and the bottom said, Teaching Freedom. A Facebook page for Howell said he attended high school in Louisville, Ky., and lives in Jeffersonville, Ind., where he works for an air filtration company. A car enthusiast, Howell posted numerous photographs of the Acura along with a couple of videos taken from inside cars. Another 10-second video includes gunfire, with shots striking grass.Here is the comment James Wesley Howell made under the pro-Bernie Sanders meme:The site includes political posts, including one in which he compares Hillary Clinton to Adolf Hitler. In another, he repeats conspiracy theories that the government was behind notorious terrorist attacks, including Sept. 11, 2011. That post shares a video claiming that last year s terror attack on the Paris offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo was a hoax and attributable to the New World Order. They found him with weapons that were very disconcerting, said one source, adding officials are taking the appropriate safety precautions. One source in West Hollywood said there was discussion of calling off the parade but that officials decided to go forward, with heavy security including undercover officers in the crowd. Via: LA Times | 1real |
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Donald Trump’s campaign of terror: How a billionaire channeled his authoritarian rage — and soared to the top of the polls | Ever since The Donald descended that escalator at Trump Tower a couple of months ago to announce his entry into the presidential race, Democrats have been laughing. Watching the Republicans squirm and Fox News jump through hoops has made the GOP presidential primary a delightful entertainment for their rivals on the other side of the aisle. I don’t know how many of them had it in them to watch the whole Trump Town hall extravaganza in Derry, NH, on Wednesday — but those who did were unlikely to be laughing by the end of it.
There was the standard braggadocio and egomania that characterizes his every appearance and weird digressions into arcane discussions of things like building materials (for The Wall, naturally.) He complained about the press and politicians and declared himself superior to pretty much everyone on earth. But after you listen to him for a while, you come away from that performance with a very unpleasant sense that something rather sinister is at the heart of the Trump phenomenon.
Trump was still talking when Chris Hayes opened his show that night with this comment:
I want to talk about what we are seeing unfold here because I think what we are seeing is past the point of a clown show or a parody. I believe it is much more serious and much darker…You have someone now who is getting huge crowds, who is polling at the top of the GOP field, who polls show is beating Jeb Bush by 44 to 12 percent on the issue of immigration, going around the country calling little children, newborn babies, anchor babies saying that he’s going to use that term which I find a dehumanizing and disgusting term. Talking about giving the local police the ability to “do whatever they need to do to round up” the “illegals”. Building a wall, talking about basically chasing 11 million people out, talking about deporting American citizens to “keep families together”, talking about what would essentially be the largest most intrusive police state in the history of the American republic to go about this task, that is the person that is right now at the head of the Republican party’s presidential contest.
And the delirious crowd applauded all those those things just as they loudly cheered this reference to Bowe Bergdahl, the American soldier held by the Taliban for more than five years:
It’s that pantomime of him shooting Berghdahl dead and saying “when we were strong, when we were strong” that appeals so much.
Trump repeatedly paints a picture of America in decline — weak, impotent and powerless, in terrible danger of losing everything unless we get a leader who will cast off all this “political correctness,” this effete insistence on following the rules. He promises to “make America great again” by cracking down on the “bad people” and being very, very strong.
When talking about Iraq, he characterized the the Iraqi people as cowards, “running whenever the bullets are flying.” He said “the enemy has our best equipment, we have the old stuff” and that the country is a mess because of all the “years of fighting unsuccessfully — because of the way we fight.” (The implication is that we didn’t take the gloves off.) He said, “the problem is that as a country we don’t have victories anymore. When was the last time we had a victory?” And he declared, “I believe in the military and military strength more strongly than anybody running by a factor of a billion… We are gonna make our military so strong and so powerful and so incredible, so strong that nobody’s gonna mess with us, folks, nobody. And we don’t have that right now.” This garnered huge cheers from the crowd.
On economics, it’s all about other countries taking advantage of the US. He said, “They’re up here, we’re down there. I don’t blame China or Mexico or Japan. Their leaders are smarter and sharper and more cunning — and that’s an important word, cunning — than our leaders. Our leaders are babies…our country is falling apart.” He explains the problem:
China is killing us. They’ve taken so much of our wealth. They’ve taken our jobs. They’ve taken our business, they’ve taken our manufacturing, [audience member screams out “our land”] Our land? The way they’re going they’ll have that pretty soon.Think about it, we have rebuilt China — somebody said to me “that’s a harsh statement” — it’s the greatest theft in the history of the United States. Now I have great respect for China and their leaders. The largest bank in the world is from China. They’re a tenant of one of my buildings. I love China I think it’s great. But we don’t have the people that know what they’re doing so … they’re killing us. You know what that is? They call it a sucking action. They’re sucking the jobs and the money right out of our country.That’s what they’re doing. We’ve rebuilt China. They have bridges, they have airports so do other countries and we’re like a third world country…They’re taking our jobs, they’re taking our money.They take our jobs they take everything and we owe them money. How does that happen? It’s magic. That’s not gonna happen with Donald Trump.
If a person feels as if this country isn’t what it used to be, that they’ve lost their place, that their future isn’t promising, Donald Trump is telling them right up front that foreigners are to blame. It isn’t the government being unwilling to collect taxes from people like Donald Trump so we can build infrastructure — we’re rebuilding China instead of our own country. It isn’t that we spend vast sums of money to maintain the world’s only superpower military, it’s that people from other countries are stealing us blind. And Trump will fight all these foreigners to take our country back from them wherever they are. Of course, there is no foreigner who is wrecking this once great country more than the undocumented immigrant and he plans to cleanse our culture of their evil influence: …we have crime all over the country, we have … the borders, the southern border is a disaster…The other night a 66 year old woman, a veteran, raped sodomized, brutally killed by an illegal immigrant. We gotta stop we gotta take back our country. We’ve gotta take it back! [huge applause] I love this country and I know that I can make it great again. We have to build a wall, we have to get the bad people out. A lot of the illegals, if you look at Chicago with the gangs,… you look at Baltimore, you look at Ferguson, a lot of these gangs, the most vicious, are illegals. They’re outta here. The first day I will send those people … those guys are outta here. [cheers] They talk about guns, I’m a big second amendment person, I believe in it so strongly [cheers]. Big. But they talk about guns and you look at Chicago, Chicago has the toughest gun laws in the US by far, and people are being shot with guns all over the place. You need enforcement but you also have to get the bad people out, the people that aren’t supposed to be here and we’re gonna get em out so fast, so quick — and it’s gonna be tough. It’s not gonna be “oh please will you come with us please will you please come with us.” Because you know these law enforcement people, and I know the guys in Chicago, the police commissioner’s a great man. They can do it, if they’re allowed to do it. I know the guys, I know em, New York, they’re great. Bratton, great. They can all do it. They can all do it. But they have to be allowed to do their job, they have to be allowed to do their job. [Cheers] It isn’t just liberals like Chris Hayes who are becoming alarmed by this. Republican strategist Alex Castellanos sees the attraction of Trump in similar terms: When a government that has pledged to do everything can’t do anything, otherwise sensible people turn to the strongman. This is how the autocrat, the popular dictator, gains power. We are seduced by his success and strength… As our old, inflexible government grows beyond its capacity to service a complex and adaptive society, and its failures deface our landscape, it creates demand for efficiency. Who can bring order to this chaos? Who has the guts and the strength to make the mess we have made work? Then, the call goes out for the strongman. Who cares what he believes or promises? And with the voice of the common man, though he is anything but, the strongman comes and pledges to make America great again. Castellanos agrees with Trump that America is going to hell in a handbasket largely due to liberal failure, but doesn’t think that consolidating power in the hands of a single billionaire is a great way to deal with it. It’s easy to dismiss Trump’s ramblings as the words of a kook. But he’s tapping into the rage and frustration many Americans feel when our country is exposed as being imperfect. These Republicans were shamed by their exalted leadership’s debacle in Iraq and believe that American exceptionalism is no longer respected around the world — and they are no longer respected here at home. Trump is a winner and I think this is fundamentally what attracts them to him: I will be fighting and I will win because I’m somebody that wins. We are in very sad shape as a country and you know why that is? We’re more concerned about political correctness than we are about victory, than we are about winning. We are not going to be so politically correct anymore, we are going to get things done. But his dark, authoritarian message of intolerance and hate is likely making it difficult for him, or any Republican, to win a national election, particularly since all the other candidates feel compelled to follow his lead. (Those who challenged him, like Perry and Paul, are sinking like a stone in the polls.) And while Trump’s fans may want to blame foreigners for all their troubles, most Americans know that their troubles can be traced to some powerful people right here at home. Powerful people like Donald Trump. Still, history is littered with strongmen nobody took seriously until it was too late. When someone like Trump captures the imagination of millions of people it’s important to pay attention to what he’s saying. For all his ranting, you’ll notice that the one thing Trump never mentions is the constitution. | 0fake |
WATCH: GERALDO EMBARRASSES San Juan Mayor Who Said Trump’s “Killing” Puerto Ricans: “I Don’t See People Dying” | Let s hope this angry leftist mayor doesn t prevent individual donors from contributing to help the people of San Juan who may not agree with her hateful attacks on our President, who is bending over backward to get the help to the victims of the hurricane.Is anyone else sick and tired of hearing this mayor whine about everything America is NOT doing for her? San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, who has refused to participate in any FEMA meetings regarding aid to Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, has continually accused the Trump administration of not helping out in Puerto Rico s time of need, going so far as to claim the federal government is killing Puerto Ricans.Fox News Geraldo Rivera went down to Puerto Rico and actually confronted Cruz about her statement that people are dying because of the Trump administration s inefficiency and bureaucracy. But are people dying? I ve been traveling around, I don t see people dying, Rivera challenging Cruz said. I spoke to the doctors, they say they saw 53 patients and they had a person who was septic, but nobody dying. Dying is a continuum, Cruz said in response. If you don t get fed for seven, eight days and you re a child, you are dying. If you have 11 people like we took out of a nursing home, severely dehydrated, you are dying. Of course dying is a continuum. Everyone eventually dies. It s an unfortunate part of life. But, when it comes to Puerto Ricans dying from neglect and a lack of supplies, Rivera wasn t buying it. The death count was 16 a week ago. It remains 16 today, Rivera said. People are not dying. Here s the video of Rivera s interview with Cruz:Backing up Rivera s claims, an article released on Sunday by the Daily Mail said that a Puerto Rican woman claiming to be a police officer alleged that Cruz and Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rossello have been holding back supplies in order to make for better photo opportunities. The woman even went so far as to say that U.S. armed forces need to come in and distribute the aid. Via: MRCTV | 1real |
Italy’s Last Bastion of Catalan Language Struggles to Keep It Alive - The New York Times | ALGHERO, Italy — The first Catalans reached Sardinia in the 14th century, when troops sailed from the eastern coast of what is now Spain as part of an expansion into the Mediterranean. After an uprising slaughtered the forces garrisoned in this northern port on the island, King Peter IV expelled many of the locals. In their place, he populated Alghero mostly with convicts, prostitutes and other undesirables, many of them Catalans. Today, Alghero is a linguistic anomaly. This walled and picturesque city is, quite literally, the last bastion of Catalan in Italy. In an age when people cling ever more tightly to national identity, the lingering use of Catalan in Alghero is a reminder of the ways Mediterranean cultures have blended for centuries, rendering identity a fluid thing. But while the traditional insularity of Alghero has helped to preserve Catalan, the language is struggling to survive even here. Only about of the 43, 000 inhabitants of Alghero speak Catalan as a main language, according to local officials. It is hardly spoken among younger people and barely taught in schools. Nearly a century ago, almost everyone spoke Catalan, according to a census conducted in 1921. “You can organize conferences, publish books and do many other things, but speaking is the only thing that really keeps a language alive,” said Sara Alivesi, a journalist who writes for the newspaper group behind Alghero’s only online publication in Catalan. “The sad reality is that I think people here have other worries and don’t value how much the language is really a unique characteristic of our city,” Ms. Alivesi said. After Sardinia was taken over by the House of Savoy in 1720, eventually becoming part of what is Italy, the Catalan language virtually disappeared on the island. Now, Catalan is not only overshadowed by Italian, but it must also compete for recognition with a handful of other languages and dialects, including the dominant indigenous language, Sardinian. Catalan is rarely heard on the streets in Alghero, though many signs are written in the language. Restaurants also label some of their dishes as Catalan, including a local version of paella. The language’s decline here stands in contrast to its status in the Iberian Peninsula, where it has seen a revival since the late 1970s, when Spain’s return to democracy ended a ban on Catalan imposed during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. Franco’s ban did not snuff out the language. In fact, the private use of Catalan became a form of quiet resistance to the dictatorship. In Italy, meanwhile, the use of Catalan was neither prohibited nor encouraged. In 1999, Italy adopted a law to defend 12 historic minority languages, including Catalan. But local officials complain that it has not helped expand the use of the language, particularly within Italy’s heavily centralized education system. “The Italian education system has long spread the idea that it’s not useful and perhaps confusing to teach such a language alongside Italian,” said Adell, who leads the office of the Catalan regional government in Alghero, which has the task of promoting Catalan culture. “It can be harder to overcome such an idea than oppression,” said Mr. Adell, whose office has a pile of unused Catalan textbooks. “The books are not lost and could still be used, whenever Catalan actually gets taught more here,” he added. As part of a trial state project, some schools in Alghero now offer lessons in Catalan. Three associations give weekly Catalan classes to about 150 adults, but they are run by volunteers and operate only half the year. Mr. Adell noted that some schoolchildren went on to study in Barcelona, the main city in Catalonia. But he acknowledged that, for Catalan to be safeguarded, “people have to start understanding that they risk losing a unique cultural treasure. ” Experts, however, sounded despondent about Catalan’s future in Alghero, and about the way the Italian authorities have handled minority languages in general. “For a certain period, they faked it, because it was politically correct to say that you wanted to enhance languages,” said Francesco Ballone, a local linguist who has a doctorate in applied phonetics from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. “Now, that period is finished. ” Still, some here are hoping to fan the embers of the language. Claudia Crabuzza, 41, a singer from Alghero, said she did not speak Catalan with her partner and their three children. But she decided to release her latest album this year in Catalan, and won one of Italy’s most prestigious music awards in the process. She recorded her songs in Catalonia, with musicians from Spain’s northeastern region. Learning Catalan, she hoped, would take her on a cultural and personal journey back to her roots. “Like many other people from my generation, I had grandparents who spoke Catalan, but the family language transmission was then broken once my parents spoke Italian to me,” Ms. Crabuzza said. “But I knew that I had Catalan deep inside me, like a treasure worth making the effort to rediscover,” she said, adding that Catalan enabled her to “express my feelings in a different and probably more intimate way than using Italian. ” But few seem to share Ms. Crabuzza’s passion for rediscovering their Catalan identity. Even if children are not taught Catalan at school, some could still learn the language from older residents like Gavino Monte, 80, who keeps fit by cycling around the city every morning. Mr. Monte said that he spoke only Algherese, which is what the locals call their dialect of Catalan, to his five grandchildren. “It should stay our family language,” he said. | 0fake |
Kellyanne Lied When She Said She Said She ‘Misspoke’ About Bowling Green Massacre; Here’s Proof | Among the never ending stream of Trump administration lies, one in particular has captured the attention of Twitter. Trump spokesperson Kellyanne Conway pretty much lost all her credibility when she claimed, in an interview with Chris Matthews, that there was a Bowling Green massacre which was somehow the fault of President Obama. There wasn t. I bet it s brand-new information to people that President Obama had a six-month ban on the Iraqi refugee program after two Iraqis came here to this country, were radicalized, and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre. Entire twitter feeds sprung up over Conway s made up massacre. Conway s defense was that she misspoke and that the media is just being mean to her..@KellyannePolls: I misspoke one word. The corrections in the newspapers who are attacking me are 3 paragraphs long every day. pic.twitter.com/lA0wLk1my8 Fox News (@FoxNews) February 5, 2017Except, this isn t the first time she talked about the Bowling Green massacre and she had even elaborated on it in an interview with, of all sources, Cosmopolitan.(I)n an interview with Cosmopolitan.com conducted by phone days earlier, on Sunday, Jan. 29, Conway used the same phrasing, claiming that President Barack Obama called for a temporary ban on Iraqi refugees after the Bowling Green massacre. (The quotes did not appear in either of two stories recently published on Cosmopolitan.com.) He did, it s a fact, she said of Obama. Why did he do that? He did that for exactly the same reasons. He did that because two Iraqi nationals came to this country, joined ISIS, traveled back to the Middle East to get trained and refine their terrorism skills, and come back here, and were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre of taking innocent soldiers lives away. In other words, Cosmo did the job that Chris Matthews failed to do.What Conway was referring to is the fact that there were two Iraqi men, Mohanad Shareef Hammadi and Waad Ramadan Alwan, who were refugees and did become radicalized (in the United States, not in Iraq), but were arrested before carrying anything out.While Conway tried to tie the massacre that wasn t to Obama s non-existent travel ban, the facts show that Obama handled the situation very well. They administered a toughing vetting process for Iraqi refugees for six months. There was no ban, and as Cosmo has shown, there was no misstatement on Conway s part.Read more:Featured image via Mark Wilson/Getty Images | 1real |
President Trump? Masked Nationalists Beat Up Refugee Children (VIDEO) | A group of thugs marched through the main train station in Stockholm, Sweden and beat up refugee children and anyone who didn t appear to be ethnically Swedish. It is a shocking moment of anti-migrant violence as Europe deals with the fallout from the Syrian civil war.Wearing all-black balaclavas and armbands, the men gathered with the purpose of attacking refugee children, Stockholm police spokesperson Towe Hagg said. I saw maybe three people who were beaten. That was no football brawl or something similar. They targeted migrants. I was quite scared and ran away, an eyewitness told the Aftonbladet newspaper.Before the attacks, the mob handed out leaflets with the slogan It is enough now! which threatened to give the North African street children who are roaming around the punishment they deserve .The rhetoric of the attackers sounds unsettling like what we have been hearing every night at Donald Trump s presidential rallies. He launched his campaign with an explicitly white power message, blaming Mexicans for being rapists, then arguing in favor of a national registry of Muslims and banning them from traveling to the United States.Trump s rhetoric has already led to violence here. One group of Massachusetts men beat up a Latino man while citing Trump, while at his rallies Trump has egged on his supporters who have attacked and mistreated black protesters.The rise of the nationalist right in Europe has used mass migration as its excuse of the moment, blaming economic hardships and slowdowns on migrants with different colored skin and ethnic and religious backgrounds has been a trope of the extremist right for ages.The Republican Party and the mainstream press have both been afraid to call out Trump and his backers for their blatant hate, and while it seems unspeakable, we re not that different from the people in Europe. Maybe it could happen here.Featured image via YouTube | 1real |
How Instagram Becomes Backbone for Businesses | How Instagram Becomes Backbone for Businesses Ad 728×90 – HBS Account – 2149237058061490 http://blogs.naturalnews.com/instagram-becomes-backbone-businesses/
By johnrussell
Posted Thursday, October 27, 2016 at 08:30am EDT
Keywords: business marketing , content marketing , How Social Media Can Help You to Win New Business , Instagram Instagram is one of the most popular social media applications in the world today.According to statistics ,500 million active users across the globe have instagram accounts. It is an amazing platform for people to connect with their friends,colleagues and acquaintances. The app allows people with similar interests to discover each others profile and connect with them. Instagram developers have made a brilliant job of using the app as a platform for start up business in Asia. Thousands of Instagram accounts are used to promote brands,free on the Google Play Store or Itunes, the app becomes available to a wide range of people from different age groups, nationalities and backgrounds. In Asia, the Instagram app has received massive success over the past few years. In general , Asian enjoy sharing their photos and videos to their Instagram followers. It’s a fun and enjoyable way to share day to day life experiences through pixels on their mobile phones.Since Asians are very hardworking , there are thousands of start up companies who make use of Instagram to boost their sales and profits. The app provides start up companies an avenue to communicate with their followers and engage with them in an efficient way. Asian countries have a multicultural society and the east meets west theme is present in most of them.Asia is an incredibly diverse melting pot of different races and cultures.Because of Asia’s unique identity which resonates so much culture and tradition, a large number of international brands uses it as a regional hub for their businesses.Asian countries are always at the forefront of economic and technological advancements.Countries in Asia are always closely aligned with the most advanced regional and global trends, culture and news. Since social media has become mainstream, it was able to deeply influence and reshape the way Asian’s collaborate, work and consume information. Communications and marketing strategies saw a rapid increase over the past few years because social media.Asian countries are one of the highest global ranking smartphone users in the world. The social media landscape is constantly evolving and Asia is quick to adapt to these changes. Various countries such as Japan ,Singapore ,Malaysia, South Korea , Philippines,Thailand and India have all made use of Instagram as a business platform , especially for startups. On Instagram search, users are free to browse endless amounts of products ,sports , events ,activities and news to keep them up to date with the latest happenings. Over the past few years since social media has become mainstream ,more and more Asian countries have been motivated to startup their companies through apps such as Instagram. They use it to leverage their marketing strategies and boost their sales.Instagram has been a very successful platform for startup companies who strive to increase their online presence.Every startup company’s goal is to one day become famously known fore their quality products and services. One of the best examples of Asian startups on Instagram are fashion accounts. But of course tech startups also had the chance to leverage this social media giant.Millions of people around the world browse Instagram to search for fashion and style inspiration. A startup company called Roposo is the ultimate social network for fashion addicts.Since it was first launched in April 2015, it has already received more than 2 million active followers. The company originated from India. It is a user generated content platform similar to Facebook and Instagram. Raposo’s target market are women and they receive more than 1 posts each month. The developers of Roposo were Inspired from the success of Instagram. They were motivated to create a similar platform which will bring fashion lovers together. This is a great example of how Instagram influences startup companies in Asia. According to recent statistics, Instagram will achieve a higher net mobile display compared to Twitter and Google in 2017. The forecast predicted that the app will receive approximately 3$ billion in revenue by 2017. This is significantly higher than the 595$ million earnings Instagram received in 2015. A new study made by TapInInfluence found that social media marketing influence is eleven times more well received than other types of advertisements such as billboards, banners, and magazines advertorials. As a result, social media accounts who have established massive followings are much coveted by the most successful brands and companies. Social media influencers are conducted by various brands and they are instructed to promote specific products and services in exchange for monetary agreements. According to experts, the world of social media and streaming have greatly influenced companies to pay less attention on television advertisements or print media advertising. Most consumers trust the opinions of the social media influencers they follow which include bloggers, pop stars, celebrities, models etc..As a result, brands and retailers try their best to build good long lasting relationships to increase their brand exposure and gain more profits. Author Bio: JSeager is a Social media fanatic and content creator. . His skills are much sought and he is one of those cool guys who made Instagram Search pretty easy. Follow his blog to know more about his works. Click here for the blog. You might also like… | 1real |
Trump greenlights Keystone XL pipeline, but obstacles loom | WASHINGTON/CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration approved TransCanada Corp’s (TRP.TO) Keystone XL pipeline on Friday, cheering the oil industry and angering environmentalists even as further hurdles for the controversial project loom. The approval reverses a decision by former President Barack Obama to reject the project, but the company still needs to win financing, acquire local permits, and fend off likely legal challenges for the pipeline to be built. “TransCanada will finally be allowed to complete this long-overdue project with efficiency and with speed,” Trump said in the Oval Office before turning to ask TransCanada Chief Executive Officer Russell Girling when construction would start. “We’ve got some work to do in Nebraska to get our permits there,” Girling replied. “Nebraska?” Trump said. “I’ll call Nebraska.” Trump announced the presidential permit for Keystone XL at the White House with Girling and Sean McGarvey, president of North America’s Building Trades Unions, standing nearby. He said the project would lower consumer fuel prices, create jobs and reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. The pipeline linking Canadian oil sands to U.S. refiners had been blocked by Obama, who said it would do nothing to reduce fuel prices for U.S. motorists and would contribute to emissions linked to global warming. Trump, however, campaigned on a promise to approve it, and he signed an executive order soon after taking office in January to advance the project. TransCanada’s U.S.-listed shares (TRP.N) dipped 5 cents to close at $46.21 on Friday. Trump has claimed the project would create 28,000 jobs in the United States. But a 2014 State Department study predicted just 3,900 construction jobs and 35 permanent jobs. The president said he would get in touch with Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts later in the day. TransCanada applied to the Nebraska Public Service Commission in February for approval of the pipeline’s route through the state. The company said it expects that process to conclude this year. Ricketts said in a statement posted on Twitter that the project would help his state. “I have full confidence that the Public Service Commission will conduct a thorough and fair review of the application,” he said. The White House has said the pipeline is exempt from a Trump executive order requiring new pipelines to be made from U.S. steel, because much of the pipe for the project has already been built and stockpiled. “As we move forward, we’ll continue to look to buy the rest of the materials we need from ... American manufacturers. We’ll put American workers to work,” Girling told reporters. Environmental groups vowed to fight it. Greenpeace said it would pressure banks to withhold financing for the multibillion-dollar project, and others said they would fight the pipeline in court. “We’ll use every tool in the kit,” said Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Since Obama had nixed the pipeline based on an environmental assessment commissioned by the State Department in early 2014, opponents will likely argue in court that Trump cannot reverse the decision without conducting a new assessment. Fred Jauss, partner at the international law firm Dorsey & Whitney and a former attorney with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said local permitting would also be a challenge. “The Presidential Permit is only one part of a web of federal, state, and local permits that must be obtained prior to starting construction,” he said. “Other federal agencies, such as the Army Corps of Engineers, state regulatory commissions, and even local planning boards may have requirements that need to be fulfilled by Keystone prior to construction.” “In addition, TransCanada may still need to reach deals with hundreds of potentially affected landowners on the pipeline’s route. There is a lot of work ahead for TransCanada.” The Keystone XL pipeline would bring more than 800,000 barrels per day of heavy crude from Canada’s oil sands in Alberta into Nebraska, linking to an existing pipeline network feeding U.S. refineries and ports along the Gulf of Mexico. The project could be a boon for Canada, which has struggled to bring its vast oil reserves to market. “Our government has always been supportive of the Keystone XL pipeline and we are pleased with the U.S. decision,” said a spokesman for Canada’s minister of natural resources. “The importance of a common, continental energy market cannot be overstated.” The president of the American Petroleum Institute, Jack Gerard, said the approval was “welcome news” and would bolster U.S. energy security. Expedited approval of projects is part of Trump’s approach to a 10-year, $1 trillion infrastructure package he promised on the campaign trail. The White House is looking for ways to speed up approvals and permits for other infrastructure projects, which can sometimes take years to go through a regulatory maze. TransCanada tried for more than five years to build the 1,179-mile (1,897-km) pipeline, until Obama rejected it in 2015. The company resubmitted its application for the project in January, after Trump signed the executive order smoothing its path. | 0fake |
YIKES! HILLARY CAMPAIGN In State Of Panic…Campaign Events Being Cancelled Due To Lack Of Volunteers [VIDEO] | The enthusiasm for Hillary is well underwhelming to say the least. Two of Hillary s campaign events in Akron, OH were cancelled today due to lack of volunteers (interest in her campaign).Watch: | 1real |
Intuitive Astrology: October 30 New Moon 2016 | by Tanaaz
The October 30th New Moon falls in the dreamy and introspective sign of Scorpio. Even though Scorpio energy can be deep and dark, there is a way to channel this energy into something productive and even, magical.
The energy of the October New Moon is going to guide us away from the material and external world and into a deeper, more intuitive realm. Here we will be able to receive new ideas, new inspirations and new creative visions.
In fact, the energy of this New Moon has a high creative and supernatural charge to it and we will all be guided to go deep within, so we can remind ourselves about who we really are.
There has been a lot of cleansing and releasing energy in the Universe this year, and while October’s New Moon will be asking us to go deep, it will be asking us to venture deeper than our problems and deeper than our fears, all the way into the heart of our soul.
This New Moon is about reconnecting with who you are, celebrating yourself and learning how to love and accept yourself exactly as you are.
There is also a transformative energy to this New Moon, which will be allowing us to emerge reborn.
This transformative energy is gentle, supportive and calming. It will be reminding us to nurture and care for ourselves. It will also be reminding us that sometimes the greatest healing we can offer ourselves is our own true love.
Scorpio energy supports us to dive deep into our imagination and intuition. Use the force of this New Moon to travel within and get lost in the fairytales of your mind. Use the energy to inspire your creative visions and to expand your intuition.
The New Moon also falls just one day before All Hallows Eve , making the Scorpio New Moon even more magical.
Halloween is a time when the veil between dimensions is thinnest and this New Moon will definitely be amplifying this energy.
Spirit energy will be high around this New Moon, so it is important to protect yourself energetically and stay open to any Divine messages or inspiration you may receive.
In fact, if there is something that you have been looking to receive guidance on, this New Moon will allow you to take the journey within so you can hear the answer radiating from your own soul.
The Scorpio New Moon will also allow us to take a journey into the underworld.
The underworld is our subconscious and the deeper, darker, more intuitive side of who we are. It is when we are in this place that we can truly understand the power and magnificence of our own light.
By losing our attachment to the external and going deep into the energy of the night, we will be able to realize and feel our potential shining through.
For those who already experienced a New Moon on October 1st, this second New Moon will be a Black Moon.
While the energy of the Black Moon is the same, there is a heightened energy when two New Moon’s fall in the same month. Those experiencing the Black Moon are going to feel the effects even stronger and will be encouraged to dig that little bit deeper.
This digging process is not about assessing, reviewing or analyzing, instead this digging process is about feeling. It is about feeling the soil and the earth around you, it is about feeling who you really are and allowing yourself to get lost in You.
We are not our bodies and we are not our thoughts. We are soul energy and when we can travel within to feel this soul energy, we intuitively gain an understanding about who we are and where we are heading.
If you allow the energy of the Scorpio New Moon in, you are going to be able to feel your soul; you are going to be able to feel your energy on a powerful level and you are going to be able to transform yourself with the power of your own love.
The October New Moon is beautiful, magical and supportive, so allow its energy to guide you. Allow yourself to be taken by the energy and see where you travel to. Share: | 1real |
Trump has 'no intention' of firing special counsel Mueller: White House | ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - President Donald Trump has the right to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and possible ties to the Trump campaign, but has no plans to do so, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Tuesday. Christopher Ruddy, a Trump friend and chief executive of Newsmax Media, told PBS’ “NewsHour” program on Monday that Trump was considering firing Mueller. “While the president has the right to, he has no intention to do so,” Sanders said when asked whether Trump was considering the move. She spoke to reporters as Trump returned to Washington from an event in Wisconsin. | 0fake |
The Hatred that Trump’s Lies will Leave Behind | [White might burning courtesy Informed Content .] =By= Juan Cole W hether Trump wins or loses (and in my view there isn’t much chance he can win), he will leave behind a toxic legacy of increased racial and religious hatred, which he has deliberately stirred up in order to take the focus off his policies– policies that will hurt workers and will throw even more money at the super-wealthy. This use of racism to divide the working class and whip up support for the business classes is as old as American capitalism.
Trump has whipped up sentiment against Latinos and immigrants (a minority of Americans of Latino ancestry is first-generation immigrants) by loudly proclaiming that they are guilty of all kinds of crimes. In fact, violent has fallen 48% in the US since the early 1990s, yet in the past 25 years immigration has soared. Research shows that immigrants commit less crime than the native-born. It isn’t hard to figure out why. First, those who don’t yet have citizenship are afraid of being deported, so they keep their noses clean. But more importantly, and contrary to what Trump alleges, immigrants are go-getters who have taken the big step of leaving home to accomplish something. They are highly motivated to succeed and often bring with them a great deal of human capital. As for jobs, immigrants aren’t stealing them from the native born. They are doing different jobs than locals with the same educational attainments. That’s because they often don’t have as good English skills or can’t afford to turn down menial jobs. The hatred against immigrants Trump has fostered is based on a set of lies, lies that are easily shown to be falsehoods. But it is a little unlikely that this hatred of foreigners will subside Wednesday , whatever happens.
Trump has given aid and comfort to the American far right. With his racist dog whistles (and often just unadorned racism) he has emboldened the Ku Klux Klan, Alt-right and other disgusting organizations. David Duke of Louisiana has been encouraged to run for the senate and is pledging to be Trump’s biggest supporter. This genie will be hard to put back into its lamp.
Trump has encouraged hatred for Muslims in the US on an unprecedented scale. Hatred for Muslims has already been adopted as a latent platform by the Republican Party, but they are usually at least a little more subtle about it. If Trump can succeed in discriminating against Muslim-Americans, he can then proceed to discriminate against the rest of us on one pretext or another. Muslim-Americans are only 1% of our population. There isn’t actually any danger of them taking over the country or imposing their religious law, and most terrorism comes from the far right or from overseas, not from native-born Muslim-Americans. Trump supporters have already burned down a mosque in Florida, have assaulted Muslims (and Sikhs, whose men wear turbans) all over the country, and some Trumpists have plotted terrorism against Muslims.
Trump has left a legacy of contempt for women and a resurgent patriarchy. He has juvenilized women and hurled slurs at them. He accused Megyn Kelly of being on her period when she asked him sharp questions. He boasted about grabbing strangers by the genitals. His message is that women should be judged not by their intelligence, hard work, or character but by their breast size and figure and the symmetry of their faces.
Trump has taken optimistic trend lines and pulled them down into Sheol with him. He has diminished our country, traumatized our children, and made us laughingstocks in the urbane capitals of the world. He leaves us a large bequest, tied up with a bow, of hatred and prejudice, smelling like the piece of dog shit that is Donald Trump
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BOOM! 4 VENUES CANCEL KATHY GRIFFIN Appearances After She Blames Trump For Her Career Ending Decision To Pose With His Severed Head | Backlash against Kathy Griffin continues to grow with at least four venues announcing that they had canceled her performances after the comedian posed with a likeness of President Donald Trump s severed head.Venues in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania have canceled shows. The Community Arts Theater in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, posted on its website that the show had been dropped due to the recent controversy surrounding Kathy Griffin and the concern for the safety and security of our patrons and staff. Earlier this week, CNN said Griffin would no longer co-host its live New Year s Eve special from Times Square and another show was canceled at a New Mexico casino. An endorsement deal with Squatty Potty also ended.Sen. Al Franken has dis-invited Griffin from an event promoting his new book, Giant of the Senate. Franken says he has heard from constituents who were rightfully offended, leading the Minnesota Democrat to change his mind from earlier, when he had said she was still welcome. He says he takes seriously that Minnesotans were upset by her behavior, which he characterizes as inappropriate and not something that should be anywhere in the national discourse.It s the latest fallout after the comedian posed with a likeness of President Donald Trump s severed head.Kathy Griffin s attorney says the comedian has been contacted by the Secret Service in the wake of her controversial photo shoot in which she posed with the likeness of President Donald Trump s severed head.Attorney Lisa Bloom says Griffin has retained a criminal attorney, who also appeared at a Friday press conference in which Griffin apologized again for the images. Griffin said she is the subject of a Secret Service investigation, but did not provide any further information about the inquiry or if she was cooperating.Griffin says she will not refrain from joking about Trump in the future.Since the comedian posed with a likeness of President Donald Trump s severed head, she has been fired from her annual gig hosting CNN s New Year s Eve special and several performances have been canceled at venues across the U.S. | 1real |
The dark age of congressional warfare: Inside Obama’s last State of the Union & the fight for the future of government | Recall those heady days seven years ago when President-elect Obama’s promise to unite the two parties to work for the common good was still an article of faith among the true believers. The fact that he had managed to transcend America’s great original sin to become the first African American president was an amazing political feat but too many people, including some in the administration and at times the president himself, understood that to mean that he had pacified the Republicans. During the transition, the assumption was that there was a unique opportunity to solve all the big problems at once due to this unique historical moment.
On January 15, 2009, EJ Dionne of the Washington Post wrote a column called “Audacity without Ideology” that laid out the administration’s thinking:
There are at least three keys to understanding Obama’s approach to (and avoidance of) ideology. There is, first, his simple joy in testing himself against those who disagree with him. Someone who knows the president-elect well says that he likes talking with philosophical adversaries more than with allies. But Obama’s anti-ideological turn is also a functional one for a progressive, at least for now. Since Ronald Reagan, ideology has been the terrain of the right. Many of the programs that conservatives have pushed have been based more on faith in their worldview than on empirical tests. How else could conservatives claim that cutting taxes would actually increase government revenue, or that trickle-down economic approaches were working when the evidence of middle-class incomes said otherwise?
The second key was the quite obvious fact that the economy would require liberal solutions with which nobody on the right could possibly disagree so there was no need to even talk about ideology. Obama could just subsume all objections under “mountain of data” and that would be that.
The third key was the “telltale notions” that would define his presidency: “sacrifice,” “grand bargain” and “sustainability.” Sacrifice was the benefits people would have to give up in order that the president could reform the government from top to bottom. This would entail figuring out a way to control health care costs, cut the “entitlements” and get limits on carbon emissions. And because this was all just simple common sense and so very pragmatic, the political system could have no objections. Dionne described it his way:
The economy was in freefall, the election had been decisive and the new president came in with a congressional majority so it was reasonable for the Democrats to believe they had a mandate. But despite the fact that there had been a bogus impeachment, a stolen election and a war based upon lies, the president didn’t seem to have truly recognized what the Republican Party had become. They were not on board with his plan to “pragmatically solve problems” and everyone should have been crystal clear on that when the Senate could only get three Republicans (Collins, Snow and Specter) to vote for a stimulus package to deal with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
By the time the Democrats started putting together a health care plan, the Tea Party had been formed and a plan was in place. Senator Jim DeMint was declaring, “if we’re able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo.” They did everything they could but they couldn’t stop it. Obamacare passed on a party line vote and a year later, Senator Mitch McConnell said, “the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” Republicans didn’t even pretend to be dealing in good faith and decided that their midterm victory meant they had a mandate to control the government from one house of Congress. The result was the debt ceiling crisis, a government shutdown and sequestration. The president proposed his Grand Bargain idea of cutting Social Security but the Tea Party would have none of it as long as the White House insisted on getting some revenue from the wealthy. It was hopeless. As former Obama administration staff member Dan Pfeiffer said, “He had hopes of being able to change the polarization, not just in the country, but in Washington.” But they learned it was a lot harder than they thought. Pfeiffer said it was President Obama’s biggest regret that he had not been able to deliver on that promise. But nobody could have delivered on that promise. The polarization that exists today has always been with us. What’s new is that the two parties are now divided ideologically when in the past the ideological divide existed within both of them. Our system, with all of its checks and balances, doesn’t work very efficiently under such conditions. Thinking about this recent history inevitably makes you wonder what will happen with the next president. It’s logical to assume that if one of the Republicans wins next November this dynamic would change. One of the most frightening political scenarios imaginable is one in which a President Trump or Cruz wins the presidency and has a congressional majority to help them enact their agenda. But it pays to keep in mind that President Obama had that (for an admittedly short period) along with a major crisis which demanded government action. We know how that turned out. There’s no guarantee that this would happen under a Trump administration, of course. But he is so eccentric (to put it politely) that he would likely find himself at odds with his own party on much of his agenda. It’s very hard to see how such a person could even function. A President Cruz is a much clearer proposition. His party establishment has no love for him but he is smart and resourceful and would likely hit the ground running with a plan to enact his agenda. But like President Obama, he would likely have a very short window in which to do it. It’s fair to assume he’s aware of that. Whether any of the so-called establishment candidates get that is an unknown but both Bush and Kasich have been out of Washington for a long time and Rubio seems to be oblivious to its current dynamics. But regardless of which one might win, the first two years of a GOP administration with a GOP majority would be a very dangerous time. One assumes the Democrats are all fully aware of what they are dealing with at this point. With the Republicans still in full extremist mode, unless the Democrats win an unprecedented landslide (very unlikely in this polarized political environment) a progressive agenda will probably only be fulfilled around the edges. There are no more illusions of Grand Bargains and changing the polarized political system through pragmatic policies designed to give everyone a little of what they want. Until these Republicans sober up, the best we can hope for is that Democrats can keep the GOP from dismantling every bit of progress that’s been made over the past half century and stop them from starting World War III. There’s nothing more important than that. | 0fake |
REAL INDIAN, GOP Senate Hopeful Shiva Ayyadurai Just Got Great News…FAKE INDIAN Elizabeth Warren Aligns Herself With Hillary Clinton In New Fundraising Email | Mass Live Ayyadurai, who announced his Republican U.S. Senate bid in February, said that while he may not be the GOP establishment s candidate, his track record of overcoming barriers and fighting big institutions makes him the best person to take on the high-powered incumbent. I know that Warren in spite of (what) people think she is is extremely weak, he said in an interview. She s a formidable enemy, but weak in the sense that where she s fundamentally coming from, her basis of where she s coming from, has massive weakness and I know how to expose that weakness. Ayyadurai, 53, moved to the U.S. from India as a child. He compared the Democratic senator and former Harvard University professor to those at the top of India s caste system a social structure in which he said his family held a low position. If you look at what we have today, we have a neo-caste system and at the top of that heap is people like Warren, he said. They are the academics, career politicians and lawyer/lobbyists. And that clan is extremely spineless, they never expect to be challenged. And I ve challenged them. Last month, Ayyadurai made news when he sent Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren a DNA kit for her birthday (which she rejected) after Warren was caught lying about being a Native American on a application for a teaching position at Harvard University, allegedly hoping that her fake minority status would place her ahead of other applicants for the job.Senator Elizabeth Warren is not only a liar, she s also not very bright. Warren sent out an email today that was clearly designed to appeal to women. In the email, Warren names the very unpopular Hillary Clinton, not only once, but twice. Warren starts out the email by mentioning Hillary s name in the first sentence:Hillary Clinton said that it takes a village, and she was right. None of us can raise a family, build a business, heal a community, or lift a country totally alone. Warren used Hillary s name again near the end of her email:Every minute counts to get a campaign off the ground. It mattered the most when the DSCC helped launch my Senate campaign, and when they were there for Hillary when she launched her Senate career 17 years ago.Apparently, Warren missed the dreadful polls showing how the wildly unpopular Hillary Clinton s like ability continues to plummet, even after the race.If Warren stays the course and continues to align herself with Crooked Hillary, the very successful entrepreneur and President Trump supporter Shiva Ayyadurai will no doubt be able to use her embarrassingly bad decision to his advantage.Mass Live- If elected, Ayyadurai said he hopes to bring a sense of innovation to the Senate when it comes to addressing hot-button issues, as well as to look at problems from an engineering and science perspective.Casting himself as a Lincoln Republican, the entrepreneur said his campaign platform will largely focus on three areas: immigration, education and innovation.As an immigrant, Ayyadurai said he believes it is important that the U.S. secure its borders, root out so-called sanctuary cities and ensure people enter the country legally.He added that he also supports ensuring parents and students have choices when it comes to public education, and argued that more must be done to address what he called pay-to-play academic science research.Ayyadurai, who holds four degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is the founder and chairman of CytoSolve, a startup that has developed a computational platform for scalable integration of molecular pathway models used in drug development.He is one of three Republicans who have filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to run for the Massachusetts Senate seat in 2018.To donate to Shiva Ayyadurai s senate campaign, click HERE.Here is Warren s email:Friend Hillary Clinton said that it takes a village, and she was right. None of us can raise a family, build a business, heal a community, or lift a country totally alone. I ve seen what a village, a community, and a movement can do, one action at a time. And I ve seen how women can help women especially when we run for office.I sure remember what it was like running for the Senate as a first-time candidate in 2011. I had to learn everything it took to raise money, build a grassroots organizing operation, and stand up to a Republican incumbent with $10 million in the bank and I had to do it fast.And here s what I know: I absolutely, positively couldn t have done it on my own.So when the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee told me they wanted a strong launch of the Women s Senate Network for the 2018 cycle, to help women run and make sure more voices like mine and Hillary s are in the Senate, I immediately told them:I m all in.Today, I m asking you to join me in becoming a 2018 founding member of the DSCC Women s Senate Network. Because you were there for Hillary, I m hoping you ll add your name to help us build a community to support women who run for office.Now let me be blunt: 2018 is going to be a hard year for Democrats. We ve got 10 women who are up for reelection to the Senate, including me more than ever before in history. And many are in some really tough races.That s why the DSCC s Women s Senate Network is ramping up its 2018 efforts early to elect and protect smart, tough, and experienced candidates to fight for what s right senators who understand that being a woman is not a pre-existing condition, that we deserve equal pay for equal work, and that we sure as heck need Planned Parenthood and affordable health care for hardworking families.Let s continue our fight and get more women in leadership in this country.I m counting on you to keep fighting for what we all started: become a 2018 founding member of the DSCC Women s Senate Network today. You ll even get your very own Nevertheless, She Persisted sticker when you do!Every minute counts to get a campaign off the ground. It mattered the most when the DSCC helped launch my Senate campaign, and when they were there for Hillary when she launched her Senate career 17 years ago.And with your help, we can be there for the women who need help defending their seats now and for the next generation of women candidates ready to move into leadership. Early help makes all the difference.Thank you for owning a piece of this.Elizabeth | 1real |
Remains of exiled Italian king return to Italy | MILAN (Reuters) - The remains of Victor Emmanuel III, who reigned as Italy s king through two world wars and died in exile in 1947, were flown back from Egypt on Sunday for reburial at a family mausoleum near Turin. The remains of his wife, Queen Elena, also returned to Italy on Friday for reburial with those of the king at the Sanctuary of Vicoforte, near the Piedmont town of Cuneo, a spokesman for the sanctuary said. Elena died in 1959 and her remains had lain in Montpelier in France. Victor Emmanuel III s 46-year reign, which started in 1900 after the assassination of his father Umberto I, encompassed the period of fascist rule in Italy under dictator Benito Mussolini. He drew criticism for failing to prevent Mussolini s seizure of power in 1922 and for fleeing Rome in 1944 to avoid an invading German army. The monarch - known as sciaboletta , or small sabre, due to his stature - abdicated the throne in 1946 in favor of his son Umberto II in a vain effort to avert a plebiscite to decide whether Italy should remain a monarchy or become a republic. After Italians voted for a republic, Victor Emmanuel went into exile in Alexandria, Egypt, where he died the following year. Italy s post-war constitution barred male descendants of the royal House of Savoy from setting foot in Italy because of the family s support for Mussolini. The ban was lifted in 2002. The grandson of Umberto II, Emanuele Filiberto, told the Italian press recently that he believed the right place for the remains of former Italian kings was the Pantheon in Rome. | 0fake |
Ivanka Trump Made Up Fake News About Albert Einstein And The Internet Will Never Let Her Live It Down (TWEETS) | This should have been a red flag.As we all know, Donald Trump is waging a war on facts and the truth. The lies from him and his administration just continue to pile up every day. Trump s war on science and good journalism are the most prominent example of Trump overall war against facts.Trump claims climate change does not exist and has done everything he can to turn government department such as the Environmental Protection Agency into anti-science institutions.And Ivanka Trump endorsed all of this back in 2013 by misquoting Albert Einstein. If the facts don t fit the theory, change the facts. Albert Einstein #quote #sunday Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) June 23, 2013The problem is that Albert Einstein, who would be horrified by Trump s alternative facts agenda, did NOT say it.And Twitter users mocked Ivanka so bad that she may never show her face in public again.Ivanka! You should be ashamed! Is this shit what you teach your kids? Einstein did NOT say that!!! STOP LYING. All Trump s just lie!!!! Christine Shaffer (@Christi63821088) July 23, 2017#Ivanka misquoting #Einstein: she really is that ignorant or she s deliberately undermining empirical science in favor of profitable chaos. Jesper Weigner (@jespernweigner) July 23, 2017 If real Einstein quotes don t say what you want, use a fake one. Ivanka Trump #FakeQuotes DBraden (@MecCoffee) July 23, 2017Behold! It s the 2013 birthplace of #alternativefacts! LiberalFish (@akemor) July 23, 2017The fact that Einstein never said any such thing only makes this tweet that much more perfect. https://t.co/ZCjViO1CpS Colin Dickey (@colindickey) July 23, 2017Even Albert Einstein s estate took to Twitter to confirm that the quote is fake.We can confirm that Albert Einstein never said this quote. Here s a worthy purchase via @PrincetonUPress: https://t.co/FdGWkO1qpz https://t.co/eWTUhskgvR Albert Einstein (@AlbertEinstein) July 24, 2017Ivanka Trump is never going to live this down. Her tweet will be considered the beginning of the Trump family s war on facts and the beginning of the alternative facts era that we are witnessing right now.Featured Image: Sean Gallup/Getty Images | 1real |
OUTRAGEOUS: ILLINOIS SCHOOL USES FINGERPRINT Scanner To “Track” Kids…America Yawns | We re living in a world where we have willingly surrendered our privacy for the sake of making identification of ourselves, and our children more convenient for our government and for private businesses and entertainment venues like Disney World. Students and faculty at Harrison Street Elementary School just love the new thumbprint scanner in the school s lunch line, but civil rights experts are warning parents about serious privacy concerns with the technology.The Geneva Unit District 304 replaced a different biometric scanner system for school lunch lines this year with devices from a local company, PushCoin Inc., that read students thumb prints to track their accounts, the Daily Herald reports. It s good, because you don t have to carry your own money or anything like that, fifth-grader Quinlan Bobeczko told the news site. It s just there. Your thumb is easy, because you just have to put your thumb on (the device). Officials in several area school districts are watching District 304 in hopes of installing similar devices in their schools.East Maine Elementary District 63 spokeswoman Janet Bishop said the district hired PushCoin Inc. this spring to begin offering the thumb scan option this month, and Lake Zurich Unit District 95 board president Doug Goldberg said schools there will implement the biometric scanners in the 2016-17 school year, the Daily Herald reports. I will tell you that many of the kids aren t very good about keeping track of their ID cards, Goldberg said. And so moving to biometrics was felt to be sort of the next generation of that individual, unique ID. We ll record their thumbprints, there will be thumbprint readers at all the cash registers, and they ll simply come by and bang hit their thumbprint. It makes it faster and, also, there s a lot less opportunity for any kind of misuse or fraud when they re using biometrics. PushCoin Inc. allows parents to closely monitor their children s lunch accounts through email updates, and the company s CEO, Anna Lisznianski contends the scanners can help school officials use lunch time more efficiently. | 1real |
Former Trump Aides Admit They HAVE To Treat Trump Like A Man Baby And Control His Media Habits | As more and more leaks get out, it s obvious that Donald Trump is not just a dictator, he s so insecure that aides have to hand him daily pacifiers in the form of fake and flattering news stories to keep the man baby from having even more Twitter meltdowns.The key to keeping Trump s Twitter habit under control, according to six former campaign officials, is to ensure that his personal media consumption includes a steady stream of praise. And when no such praise was to be found, staff would turn to friendly outlets to drum some up and make sure it made its way to Trump s desk. If candidate Trump was upset about unfair coverage, it was productive to show him that he was getting fair coverage from outlets that were persuadable, said former communications director Sam Nunberg. The same media that our base digests and prefers is going to be the base for his support. I would assume the president would like to see positive and preferential treatment from those outlets and that would help the operation overall. Source: PoliticoApparently Trump s constant accusations of fake news has some legitimacy, but not how Trump or his supporters would like.Trump is quite selective about where he gets his news. He does read print, like the New York Times, but he also watches a lot a lot of Fox News. Remember when Trump touted a terrorist attack in Sweden that never happened? That allegedly came straight from Fox News.My statement as to what s happening in Sweden was in reference to a story that was broadcast on @FoxNews concerning immigrants & Sweden. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 19, 2017It was a fake story. We can t say whether it was planted by Trump s aides, but it might as well have been for all the anti-immigrant political fodder it provided.The ramifications of a president who has to be sheltered from the real news are chilling. As the administration rolls on, Trump will continue to make adversaries around the world and in the media. Trump s unfiltered Twitter habit is potentially a national security issue. His aides obviously see this, but a president who is completely out of touch with reality, and is only willing to acknowledge fawning praise is equally dangerous.Featured image via Pool/Getty Images | 1real |
BENGHAZI HERO Slams Hillary In Pro Trump Ad Funded By NRA: “Stop Clinton, Vote Trump!” [Video] | Mark Oz Geist makes a powerful ad against Hillary and in support of Trump for president. You ll like this one! Here s Geist in another NRA commercial: | 1real |
Secretary of State nominee Tillerson veers from Trump on key issues | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson expressed views on Wednesday at odds with President-elect Donald Trump’s positions on key foreign policy issues like nuclear proliferation, trade deals, climate change and relations with Mexico. In a nine-hour Senate confirmation hearing, the former chief executive of oil company Exxon Mobil said he favored maintaining U.S. sanctions against Russia for now and that NATO allies were right to be alarmed by Moscow’s growing aggression. Russia dominated much of the hearing because of concerns by Democrats and Republicans over Moscow’s interference in the U.S. presidential election and its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and involvement in the Syrian civil war. Questions soon moved to the threat posed by Islamic State, China’s behavior in the South China Sea, human rights and Tillerson’s ability to make a clean break from a career at Exxon Mobil to become America’s top diplomat. Tillerson said his differences with Trump on some major issues would not necessarily put him at loggerheads with the White House. He said everyone in Trump’s Cabinet would have the chance to discuss issues “and the president will decide.” He described himself as open and transparent. In a stark departure from Trump, Tillerson said it would not be acceptable for some U.S. allies to acquire nuclear weapons. He also did not see the need for a Muslim registry, saying he did not support targeting any particular group. Asked by Democratic Senator Edward Markey about Trump’s comments in interviews he would not oppose U.S. allies including Japan obtaining nuclear weapons, Tillerson replied: “I do not agree.” Tillerson said he did not oppose the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal, which Trump has criticized, but acknowledged the negotiated deal may not serve all U.S. interests. Tillerson, however, left room for broad reversals or changes to Obama administration policies, in line with Trump’s positions, including trade with Cuba and the Iran nuclear deal, which he said ought to undergo a full review. The hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was interrupted sporadically by protesters. Tillerson, 64, is expected to be confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate. Senators have expressed concern about Tillerson’s ties to Russia while at Exxon Mobil and Trump’s desire to improve relations with Moscow. Tillerson refused to call Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal and kept the door open to a possible change in U.S. sanctions policy against Russia, saying he had not seen classified information on Russian meddling. “I would leave things in the status quo so we are able to convey this can go either way,” Tillerson said, suggesting “open and frank” dialogue with Moscow to better understand its intentions. He blamed Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine since 2014 on an “absence of American leadership” and said the United States should have taken stronger actions to deter Russia. “I’m advocating for responses that will deter and prevent further expansion of a bad actor’s behavior,” he said. Tillerson said it was a “fair assumption” Putin was aware of Russian efforts to interfere in the U.S. election. He said he had not discussed Russia policy with Trump, which Democratic Senator Robert Menendez said was “pretty amazing.” In a tense exchange, Republican Senator Marco Rubio pushed Tillerson on whether he believed Putin was a war criminal, in reference to Russia’s military actions in support of Syria’s government. “I would not use that term,” Tillerson said, adding: “Those are very, very serious charges to make and I would want to have much more information before reaching a conclusion.” Rubio, who ran against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, shot back: “There’s so much information out there. It should not be hard to say that Vladimir Putin’s military has conducted war crimes in Aleppo,” referring to the Syrian city recently retaken by government forces backed by Russia. He added: “I find it discouraging, your inability to cite that which I think is globally accepted.” Tillerson sidestepped questions on human rights, declining to condemn countries like Saudi Arabia and the Philippines for rights abuses, saying he wanted to see the facts first. Rubio told reporters later that he was unsure he could vote for Tillerson. As one of 11 Republicans on the 21-member panel, his support is key to Tillerson winning the committee’s backing. Tillerson said he would recommend a “full review” of the nuclear deal with Iran reached with the United States and world powers. He did not call for an outright rejection of the 2015 accord in which Tehran agreed to curtail its nuclear program in exchange for relief from crippling economic sanctions. Trump has made contradictory statements about the deal and has threatened to dismantle it. Tillerson said China should be denied access to islands it had built in the contested South China Sea. He added his approach to dealing with North Korea, which recently said it was close to carrying out its first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile, would be “a long-term plan” based on sanctions and their proper implementation. Asked if he could make unbiased decisions after his time at Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil producer, he said he would act in America’s interests. Tillerson dodged a direct question on whether he believed climate change was caused by human activity. “The risk of climate change does exist and the consequences of it could be serious enough that action should be taken,” he said, adding the ability to predict the effect of greenhouse gas was “very limited.” Trump has called global warming a hoax perpetrated by China and has threatened to quit the Paris climate accord, a global agreement to curb emissions. Tillerson called Mexico “a long-standing neighbor and friend of this country.” Trump has said he will build a wall on the Mexican border, and in his 2015 presidential announcement speech described Mexican migrants to the United States as drug-runners and rapists. Tillerson’s responses were calm and measured, without any obvious reliance on notes. He opposed U.S. sanctions against Russia in 2014 over its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine because he said he thought they would be ineffective. On Wednesday, he said he never personally lobbied against sanctions and emphasized that he was not aware of Exxon Mobil directly doing so. Tillerson later acknowledged he spoke to U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew regarding gaps between American and European sanctions on Russia. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy vigorously challenged Tillerson on the issue, saying he called a U.S. senator to express concerns over the measures, which “likely constitutes lobbying.” Exxon lobbied Congress regarding sanctions against Russia following the annexation of Crimea. The lobbying directly related to energy matters, according to regulatory filings. | 0fake |
Dem. Rep. Says Steve Bannon Is A ‘Stone Cold Racist,’ Has No Business Meeting With Black Caucus | Congressman Hakeem Jeffries says that, while he would welcome an opportunity for Donald Trump to sit down with the Congressional Black Caucus, he does not think Steve Bannon should be present. Why? Because of the obvious: He s a stone cold racist. During an interview with MSNBC on Friday, Jeffries told Katy Tur that the CBC has reached out to Trump about meeting with him. Actually, they did so on January 19, the day before he was sworn into office. They would like nothing more than for him to prove that his commitment to working with minority communities is real.However, Jeffries did say that Trump s reaction to a black reporter who asked him about meeting with the CBC during a press conference was strange. (For the record, that isn t the word I would use. But I digress.) Regardless, Jeffries said, the CBC is still looking forward to an open dialogue. But that feeling does not extend to Bannon, Trump s white supremacist adviser. Steve Bannon should not be in the room He s a stone cold racist and a white supremacist sympathizer. It would be hard for me to participate in any meeting with Steve Bannon that normalizes his presence in the White House. Beyond that, we ll have to see. Jeffries and the CBC are hoping that they can work with Trump to address issues facing black America, but working with a white supremacist is just asking too much.Watch the interview here, via MSNBC:Featured image via video screen capture | 1real |
Kerry tells Capitol Hill critics of Iran nuclear deal to 'hold their fire' until final deal | Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday that he will go to Capitol Hill this week to brief congressional members about the Obama administration’s Iran nuclear deal and urged opponents to “hold their fire” until they see a final deal later his year.
The administration has since reaching the April 1 deal urged the Senate not to vote on legislation that would require congressional approval to ease sanctions on Iran, as Tehran curtails its uranium-enrichment program. And President Obama has vowed to veto such legislation, if passed.
Kerry said he would brief House members on Monday and senators on Tuesday. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is set to take up the legislation on the same day.
The administration should be free to negotiate without interference until the June 30 deadline for a final agreement, Kerry said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
"We've earned the right to be able to try and complete this without interference, and certainly without partisan politics," Kerry said.
The Senate bill, by committee chairman Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., would give Congress a 60-day review and a say on any deal.
Under the bill as currently written, Obama could unilaterally lift or ease any sanctions that were imposed on Iran through presidential action. But Congress could block the president from providing Iran with any relief from congressional sanctions.
Senators on both sides of the issue have introduced more than 50 amendments to the legislation.
Opponents of the deal say they don’t know the exact details because both sides are giving different interpretations. Among their concerns are the guidelines for inspecting Iran's nuclear sites and when the sanctions will be lifted.
Kerry told NBC’s “Meet the Press” the United States won’t sign a bad or ambiguous deal.
“If there’s not an understanding, we won’t sign it,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | 0fake |
Pentagon Lied To Re-Enlist Soldiers, Thousands To Repay Bonuses | Pentagon Lied To Re-Enlist Soldiers, Thousands To Repay Bonuses by IWB · October 26, 2016
by Edmondo Burr The US Military enticed many soldiers to re-enlist in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars by offering them cash bonuses of over $15,000.
Now many years later, the Pentagon is asking thousands of veterans to pay back the “improper” bonuses that they accepted in good faith, because of mismanagement and corruption in the California National Guard.
AntiMedia reports:
Shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon hired Bell Pottinger, a London-based PR agency. The PR firm was tasked with promoting what the Pentagon called “democratic elections” in Iraq, ultimately earning over a hundred million dollars yearly. Part of the firm’s job included producing “ fake al Qaeda propaganda films, ” the Bureau of Investigative Journalism recently reported .
Despite the PR operation’s hefty price tag, the Pentagon seemed to have no issue allocating taxpayer resources to have these videos produced. But over ten years after the Iraq invasion, the Pentagon is now concerned about its past appropriations — at least part of them, anyway.
Ten years after promising $15,000 bonuses to soldiers willing to re-enlist in 2006 and 2007, the Pentagon is now forcing California veterans to pay the bonuses back.
In California, the Los Angeles Times reports , “ officials signed up soldiers in assembly-line fashion ” in 2006 and 2007, outlining the “ generous terms available for six-year reenlistments ” to those willing to sacrifice their safety, leaving their homes, once again, to fight abroad in exchange for a large bonus. Now, the Pentagon wants their money back.
To Get Soldiers to Re-enlist, the National Guard Lied
In 2008, the movie “ Stop-Loss ” highlighted a reality few members of the public were informed about.
With the growing involvement of U.S. military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers who had already served in Iraq and Afghanistan for several tours were being asked to reenlist. Sometimes, these soldiers’ term duties were extended forcefully via the government’s controversial stop-loss policy , which allows the government to extend the period a soldier must spend on active duty involuntarily.
In California, the state’s National Guard began promising thousands of soldiers that they would receive $15,000 bonuses for going back to war.
Now, nearly 10,000 soldiers who took the National Guard’s promise at face value are being ordered to pay the bonuses back plus interest charges. In some cases, their wages are being garnished to fund the payments.
This issue was first brought up when veterans “ whose only mistake was to accept bonuses offered when the Pentagon needed to fill the ranks ” were the target of an investigation launched in 2010.
After receiving reports of improper payments, a federal probe found “ thousands of bonuses and student loan payments were given to California Guard soldiers who did not qualify for them, or were approved despite paperwork errors. ”
As a result of the investigation, Army Master Sgt. Toni Jaffe, who also served as the California Guard’s incentive manager, pleaded guilty to filing false claims totaling $15.2 million in 2011. He was sentenced to spend 30 months in federal prison, and three other officers who also pleaded guilty to fraud were put on probation.
Breaking the National Guard’s promise to soldiers whose reenlistment depended on the bonus distribution, the California Guard “ assigned 42 auditors to comb through paperwork for bonuses and other incentive payments given to 14,000 soldiers. ”
In September 2016, these auditors finalized the investigation, finding roughly 9,700 current and retired soldiers who had been given “ improper ” bonuses. These soldiers have been told “to repay some or all of their bonuses” since the probe was launched and the first cases were discovered.
According to the California National Guard, these repayments have recovered more than $22 million so far, compromising veterans like Robert Richmond, who now works for a construction company in Texas. He was an Army Sergeant First Class living in Huntington Beach when in 2006, he was asked to reenlist.
“ I signed a contract that I literally risked my life to fulfill, ” Richmond explained, adding that he only agreed to go back to war because he was told he qualified for a $15,000 bonus as a special forces soldier.
The veteran had gone through a divorce after being deployed to Afghanistan in 2002 and 2003. Asked to consider the bonus to reenlist, Richmond thought the money was going to give him “ breathing room, ” so he agreed. In 2007, he was sent to Iraq’s “ Triangle of Death, ” an area a few miles south of Baghdad known for intense fighting.
In one of the hundreds of missions against insurgents he was a part of, Richmond sustained permanent back and brain injuries after his vehicle triggered a roadside bomb.
In 2014, the California Guard headquarters contacted him, letting the former special forces soldier know he was being urged to repay the $15,000 bonus he received in 2006. If he failed to make the payment, the letter said, he would face “ debt collection action. ”
Richmond refused to give the government any money back, filing appeal after appeal. “ [Impacted soldiers] want somebody in the government, anybody, to say this is wrong and we’ll stop going after this money, ” he said.
‘Support the Troops!’: Code for ‘Don’t Question War?’
In Washington, D.C., lawmakers have condemned the Pentagon, saying the soldiers were not at fault for accepting a bonus they were promised.
Promising to open an investigation into the enlistment bonus problem, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) called the Pentagon’s demands “ disgraceful. ”
“ The Department of Defense should waive these repayments, ” McCarthy said in a statement . “ The House will investigate these reports to ensure our soldiers are fully honored for their service, ” he added.
Rep. McCarthy says the government should not be demanding any money back from veterans in his statement. The California Republican and also argued that “ we are the ones who owe a debt for the great sacrifices our heroes have made — some of whom unfortunately paid the ultimate sacrifice. ?”
Instead of using this opportunity to highlight the importance of safeguarding our soldiers and keeping them from engaging in unconstitutional wars that are only successfully sold to the American public because administrations lie , McCarthy celebrates these very soldiers’ sacrifices.
Using this discussion to repeat the traditional “support the troops” line, lawmakers like McCarthy steer the debate away from what’s causing these soldiers so much pain and distress, acting as if relentless war hasn’t been the reason they were lied to. Instead, McCarthy and others are pushing the government to keep its promise without reevaluating how the U.S. government goes about irresponsibly sending these men and women abroad to fight insurgents who didn’t pose a threat to Americans at the time .
In the 1964 film, “ The Americanization of Emily, ” which was based on a novel written by a veteran who had been a SeaBee officer on D-Day, character Lt. Comdr. Charles E. Madison gives a short speech explaining that “ [those] who make heroes of our dead and shrines of our battlefields … perpetuate war by exalting its sacrifices. ”
Failing to discuss the real costs of war with the American electorate while exalting the sacrifices made by those who serve in the military is part of an ongoing campaign — deliberate or otherwise — to keep America involved in perpetual war.
Don’t believe me? Don’t take my word for it. Instead, read what journalist Randolph Bourne had to say about the country’s thirst for war in 1918:
“ In times of peace, we usually ignore the State in favour of partisan political controversies, or personal struggles for office, or the pursuit of party policies. It is the Government rather than the State with which the politically minded are concerned. The State is reduced to a shadowy emblem which comes to consciousness only on occasions of patriotic holiday. …
“With the shock of war, however, the State comes into its own again. The Government, with no mandate from the people, without consultation of the people, conducts all the negotiations, the backing and filling, the menaces and explanations, which slowly bring it into collision with some other Government, and gently and irresistibly slides the country into war. ”
War, Bourne concluded , “ is the health of the state. ” This is not because all individuals involved with governing enjoy death and destruction per se, but because “ it is … in war that the urgency for union seems greatest, and the necessity for universality seems most unquestioned, ” which forces the public to unite behind the state no matter what — especially if the occasion leading to war is “ terrifying ” the public.
While veterans whose bonuses are being questioned ten years later should be heard and protected from government abuse, we must not forget it was government’s own thirst for war that initiated this cycle of deception. Let us not ignore the reasons why we should support our troops — and how we should go about it; simply claiming to be interested in celebrating U.S. soldiers for their sacrifice does nothing for them.
By Allice Salles / theAntiMedia.org The US Military Lied to Thousands of Soldiers — and Now Veterans Are Paying for It | 1real |
Irish PM's party says government deal dead if opposition submits confidence motion | DUBLIN (Reuters) - The deal propping up the Irish government will be dead if opposition party Fianna Fail submits a motion of no confidence in the deputy prime minister before a 1100 deadline, Employment minister Regina Doherty said on Friday. It had been unclear whether the ruling party considered submitting the motion sufficient to violate the terms of the three-year deal, which Prime Minister Leo Varadkar s minority government depends on to rule, or whether it would consider the deal broken only when a vote on the motion was taken. | 0fake |
Aider les migrants et aller en prison? La vie en Europe est complexe… | 6 329 2 5 Les volontaires qui aident les réfugiés en Europe, sont-ils vraiment des complices de terroristes? Depuis le début de la crise migratoire, les Européens se posent de nouvelles questions en matière de sécurité. Ces craintes sont parfois poussées jusqu’à l’absurde. Une bénévole hongroise risque même une peine de prison.
L'arrivée massive des migrants a divisé les Européens dont certains craignent, et non sans raison, la montée du terrorisme. Mais ces craintes sont parfois poussées jusqu'à l'absurde. Une volontaire de Budapest, Adele Nagy, 38 ans, risque d'être condamnée à 20 ans de prison pour avoir aidé les réfugiés. « J'ai collecté des vêtements, des produits alimentaires, des médicaments et des produits d'hygiène pour femmes. Mes amis m'ont trahie, ils croyaient que j'aidais les terroristes et m'ont dénoncé aux autorités. En Hongrie, je risque d'écoper de vingt ans de prison. Je suis donc partie pour les Emirats arabes unis », a indiqué Adele Nagy cité par la chaîne de télévision RT. © AP Photo/ Muhammed Muheisen Les réfugiés afghans «déçus» par la vie en Europe Selon Adele Nagy, le gouvernement hongrois considère les réfugiés comme des terroristes potentiels et les médias en persuadent les habitants locaux. Plusieurs Hongrois ont déjàété condamnés à des amendes et même à des peines de prison pour leur bontéà l'égard des migrants. « La plupart des Hongrois détestent les musulmans uniquement en raison des fausses informations qu'on diffuse. Mais je crois que nous devons aider les réfugiés parce qu'ils se trouvent dans une situation difficile, leur pays natal est en proie à une guerre », a ajouté Mme Nagy.
Les Européens qui sympathisent avec les migrants reconnaissent qu'il peut y avoir des criminels parmi les réfugiés, mais ils sont plutôt confiants, d'après la mère d'une étudiante de Berlin, Jana Olernikova. « Ma fille (…) donne des cours d'allemand aux enfants des réfugiés syriens et afghans à Vienne et à Bratislava. Elle a beaucoup d'amis parmi les migrants (…). Je ne dirais pas que je crains de me promener dans les rues depuis le début de la crise. Il peut sans doute y avoir des criminels parmi les migrants, mais il y en a aussi parmi les Européens. Je suis contente que je puisse voir la vie arabe, j'aime la diversité culturelle en Europe », a indiqué Jana Olernikova. © AFP 2016 PHILIPPE HUGUEN Calais: «Les réfugiés ont le droit d’avoir une vie heureuse» Selon Miriam Dusterhoft, bénévole au camp de réfugiés de l'association humanitaire ASB en Allemagne, l'arrivée des migrants est une nouvelle occasion pour les Européens de faire preuve de souplesse. « Je porte une jupe longue ou un pantalon. Je couvre mes bras. Mais c'est une décision personnelle, j'ai beaucoup de tatouages et je ne veux pas gêner les gens qui n'y sont pas habitués. Je ne crois pas que mes droits soient lésés, je porte ce que je veux en ville », a précisé la volontaire.
Selon l'agence Frontex, plus de 1,8 million de migrants sont arrivés en Europe en 2015. Ce flux de réfugiés a compliqué la vie des habitants locaux. Les problèmes causés par la présence d'un grand nombre de migrants font réagir les autorités. En France, le démantèlement du camp des réfugiés de Lande, aussi baptisé la Jungle, a commencé le 24 octobre. Les migrants seront relogés dans des centres d'accueil en France ou transférés vers d'autres pays européens.
Suivez Sputnik sur Telegram pour ne jamais manquer les actualités les plus importantes grâce à nos sélections du matin et du soir. Pour recevoir les actualités de notre chaîne, il suffit de télécharger l'application Telegram sur n'importe quel smartphone, tablette ou ordinateur puis cliquer sur le lien et appuyer sur « Join » ... | 1real |
Former Democratic Gov. Tells Snyder EXACTLY What He Needs To Do In Flint, Michigan | Michigan s former Democratic governor, Jennifer Granholm, gave Rick Snyder some sharp advice on Saturday.During an interview over the phone, Granholm told The Detroit News that she believes Michigan s governor, Rick Snyder, should move to the troubled city of Flint, Michigan. Further, Granholm says: I think who s ever going to fix this problem should move to Flint and live in one of those houses so that they can understand the urgency with which the citizens of Flint are operating, that they feel it so deeply because every single day they have to deal with water that has been poisoned. Granholm has yet to demand that Snyder resigns over the Flint water crisis. She does very carefully say that someone needs to get the job of fixing Flint s water system fixed, even if Snyder is not the person to do it. I would want to see pedal to the metal, hair on fire action in Flint. And I think (Snyder), right now, can do that. But if not, then I think somebody should come in who can look at as the emergency that it is and move heaven and earth to get those pipes replaced. Many politicians and celebrities have either called for Snyder to resign or for his arrest. Democratic presidential primary candidate Bernie Sanders,has called for Snyder to resign immediately. With the Michigan primary only days away, Sanders has reiterated this call during campaign events in the state. During a recent campaign event at Macomb Community College in Warren, MI, Sanders told the crowd: I think the governor should do the right thing and resign. So far, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has been very critical of the Snyder administration. Though, she has yet to call for him to resign.The topic is sure to come up during the presidential debate that will be held on Sunday night in Flint. Featured image via Flickr [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons | 1real |
U.S. Senate majority leader urges less drama from White House: Bloomberg TV | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday said Congress could do with fewer presidential distractions amid reports of U.S. President Donald Trump’s disclosure of intelligence information to Russia and the White House’s subsequent rebuttal. “We could do with a little less drama from the White House on a lot of things so we can focus on our agenda, which is deregulation, tax reform and repealing and replacing Obamacare,” the top Senate Republican said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. | 0fake |
Former Republican rival Fiorina backs Cruz's White House bid | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina on Wednesday threw her support behind Ted Cruz, saying the U.S. senator from Texas was the only candidate left who could topple front-runner Donald Trump and take the White House from Democrats. “The only guy who can beat Donald Trump is Ted Cruz,” Fiorina said at a rally for Cruz in Miami. (Reporting by Washington newsroom; Editing by Mohammad Zargham) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production. | 0fake |
“He Won Because The Elites WANT HIM There, The Global Economy WILL Collapse” |
This article was written by Melissa Dykes and originally published at The Daily Sheeple .
Editor’s Comment: Though Trump’s election was a great victory/rebuke over the dictates and controls of the financial oligarchy that own and run this nation, the American people are not out of the woods yet. Quietly but constantly in the background of the entire Obama Administration, the Federal Reserve’s stimulus program that combined unlimited QE with zero percent interest rates has absolutely wrecked this country and its economic stability.
The system as we know it cannot be sustained. Yellen and co. have been simply waiting for the right time to let the other shoe drop – namely, after it could influence the election even further in the direction of Trump’s populist uprising. Unfortunately, he will now be largely blamed for the great destruction that is scheduled to fall upon this nation. In fact, that is the very reason that Brandon Smith of Alt-Market.com attributed to Trump’s victory when he predicted his election many months ago.
Something big is coming… prepare yourselves accordingly.
How Alt-Market Predicted Trump’s Win Months in Advance: “He won because the elites WANT HIM THERE, the global economy WILL collapse”
by Melissa Dykes
While many of us in the alternative media and especially those researchers of Clinton crimes are breathing a big fat sigh of relief that anybody but Hillary is headed to the White House in 2017, Brandon Smith of Alt Market is warning us all not to get too comfortable… and with history on his side here, we should listen to him.
Despite what looked like a rigged, fraudulent Hillary win orchestrated from the top down with the entire establishment machine behind her, Trump won the election. In an election year that would have otherwise seen record low voter turnout, the specter of Hillary that led to Trump’s victory has now given the people a reason to believe their vote actually matters again, an extra boon to further relegitimize the corrupt system running things in this country.
But Smith reminds us that if Trump is walking into the Oval Office in January, it is only because the elites decided to put him there in advance — and for a reason.
First it should be noted that Smith accurately predicted that Brexit would pass , even when the majority of the alt media was reporting that there was no way it possibly could. Was it another victory for the people?
No, it was predetermined well in advance:
“The mainstream media has been consistently comparing Trump supporters to Brexit supporters, and Trump himself has hitched his political wagon to the Brexit. This fits perfectly with the globalist narrative that populists and conservatives are killing the global economy and placing everyone at risk. “
Then he accurately predicted a Trump win … but not because voting actually matters:
“U.S. elections are indeed controlled, and have been for decades, primarily through the false left/right paradigm. However, as I have been pointing out since I correctly predicted the success of the Brexit referendum, I don’t think that Clinton is the choice of the elites.”
“To be clear, my position is that Trump is slated to take the White House and that this is by design. This has been my position since before Trump won the Republican Primaries, it was my position when the election cycle began, it has never changed, nor have my views on the reasons for this outcome ever changed…”
Smith says regardless of whether or not Trump is a legitimate anti-establishment candidate, his win means the global economic collapse the system has been holding off on will finally come to pass — as planned — under Trump’s watch:
“…Even if Trump is a legitimate anti-establishment conservative, his entry into the Oval Office will seal the deal on the economic collapse, and will serve the globalists well. The international banks need only pull the plug on any remaining life support to the existing market system and allow it to fully implode, all while blaming Trump and his conservative supporters…”
He will be the perfect scapegoat for something the alternative media have known is coming for a long, long time.
Now Smith is spelling it out :
The bottom line is, Trump is on the way to the White House because the elites WANT HIM THERE. Now, many liberty proponents, currently in a state of elation, will either ignore or dismiss the primary reason why I was able to predict the Brexit and a Trump win. These will probably be some of the same people that were arguing with me only weeks ago that the elites would NEVER allow Trump in office.
So, to clarify:
Trump may or may not be aware that he and his conservative followers have been positioned into a a trap. We will have to wait and see how he behaves in office (and he WILL be in office, despite the claims of some that the elites will try to “stop him” before January). My primary point is THAT IT DOES NOT MATTER, at least not at this stage. The elites will initiate a final collapse of the global economy under Trump’s watch (this will probably escalate over the course of the next six months), and they WILL blame him and conservatives in general. This IS going to happen. The elites play the long game, and so must we.
And there you have it.
It’s not much of a secret that the economy is being artificially propped up. The Fed’s QE stimulus programs are no longer working. We know it can’t remain this way forever.
And even though everyone just feels so much relief that we’ve all been spared the nightmare of Hillary Clinton climbing into yet another seat of even more power, we can’t just assume we’re all going to skip off into happy magical fairy sprinkle land unscathed.
Sure, the people have spoken, but it’s only the illusion of power that we’re seeing play out now. The Powers That Shouldn’t Be running this insanity circus always have a plan… how else have they gotten away with controlling the globe for at least the past century?
After saying “I told ya so,” Smith issued a final warning that we shouldn’t be so naive:
While millions of Americans are celebrating Trump’s win today, I will remain even more vigilant. The party is just getting started, folks. Don’t get too comfortable.
Sadly, we can’t ignore decades of New World Order history here just because we’re relieved a psychopath like Hillary lost the election. Smith is right. We’d all do well to listen to him and get prepared for what’s coming.
2017 is going to be a bumpy ride .
This article was written by Melissa Dykes and originally published at The Daily Sheeple . | 1real |
Trump signs revised travel ban in bid to overcome legal challenges | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump signed a revised executive order on Monday banning citizens from six Muslim-majority nations from traveling to the United States but removing Iraq from the list, after his controversial first attempt was blocked in the courts. The new order, which takes effect on March 16, keeps a 90-day ban on travel to the United States by citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. It applies only to new visa applicants, meaning some 60,000 people whose visas were revoked under the previous order will now be permitted to enter. Immigration advocates said the new ban still discriminated against Muslims and failed to address some of their concerns with the previous order. Legal experts said it would, however, be harder to challenge because it affects fewer people living in the United States and allows more exemptions to protect them. Trump, who first proposed a temporary travel ban on Muslims during his presidential campaign last year, had said his original Jan. 27 executive order was a national security measure meant to head off attacks by Islamist militants. It sparked chaos and protests at airports, where visa holders were detained and later deported back to their home countries. It also drew criticism from targeted countries, Western allies and some of America’s leading corporations before a U.S. judge suspended it on Feb. 3. “As threats to our security continue to evolve and change, common sense dictates that we continually re-evaluate and reassess the systems we rely upon to protect our country,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters after Trump signed the new order. Democrats, a minority in Congress, quickly signaled fierce opposition to what they called a discriminatory ban. “The Trump administration’s repackaging has done nothing to change the immoral, unconstitutional and dangerous goals of their Muslim and refugee ban,” House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates, a civil rights group in Washington, said the Trump administration had “doubled down on anti-Muslim bigotry.” She told reporters on a conference call: “It’s crystal clear this is a Muslim ban.” But some Republicans who had been critical of Trump’s original order were more positive on the new one. Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he was “very encouraged” by the approach and pleased that Iraq was removed from the list. Iraq was taken off the banned list because the Iraqi government has imposed new vetting procedures, such as heightened visa screening and data sharing, and because of its work with the United States in countering Islamic State militants, a senior White House official said. Trump’s original ban resulted in more than two dozen lawsuits in U.S. courts. The Justice Department estimated 60,000 people had their visas revoked by the first order but senior administration officials said on Monday those visas were now valid again for entry into the United States. “By rescinding his earlier executive order, President Trump makes one thing perfectly clear: his original travel ban was indefensible - legally, constitutionally and morally,” said Attorney General Bob Ferguson of Washington state, which succeeded in having the previous ban suspended. His office will likely decide this week on whether to proceed with litigation over the new order, he said. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said he expected the revised order to have the same uphill battle in the courts as the original version. “A watered down ban is still a ban,” he said in a statement. “Despite the administration’s changes, this dangerous executive order makes us less safe, not more, it is mean-spirited, and un-American. It must be repealed.” The fact the ban affects fewer people already in the United States means it will be more difficult for opponents to find plaintiffs who have been harmed by the order and thus have legal standing to challenge it, legal experts said. The revised order expressly makes waivers possible for a foreign national seeking to enter the United States to visit a spouse, child or parent who is a U.S. citizen, or for “significant business or professional obligations.” “They dotted their i’s and crossed their t’s in trying to anticipate what litigation might result,” said Stephen Yale-Loehr, a Cornell Law School professor. The revised order means that tens of thousands of legal permanent U.S. residents - or green card holders - from the listed countries will no longer be affected. The original order barred travelers from the seven nations from entering for 90 days and all refugees for 120 days. Refugees from Syria were to be banned indefinitely but under the new order they are not given separate treatment. Refugees “in transit” and already approved would be able to travel to the United States under the new order. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who along with several other senior Cabinet members had lobbied for Iraq’s removal from the list of banned countries, was consulted on the new order and the updated version “does reflect his inputs,” Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said. Thousands of Iraqis have fought alongside U.S. troops for years or worked as translators since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Many have resettled in the United States after being threatened for working with U.S. troops. | 0fake |
Chuck Todd Cuts Off Cruz’s Delusional ‘Victory’ Speech: Dude, ‘You Finished Third’ (VIDEO) | By absolutely every metric imaginable, Cruz s performance in Saturday s South Carolina primary was a disaster. In a state which has a massive E vangelical Christian population and a thriving anti-gay community, Cruz, the man whose entire campaign is built on those two things, got walloped by Donald Trump, and edged out by Marco Rubio. Jeb Bush may have dropped out, but for Cruz, South Carolina might as well have ended his campaign.So it was baffling to see that the Texas senator was on the Sunday morning political talk shows putting on a brave face and claiming that an embarrassing third place finish was actually a big win for him. Things went from surreal to down-right delusional on Meet the Press, where Cruz gave an unsolicited victory speech like he was already elected president. It was painful to watch and host Chuck Todd quickly moved to put Cruz out of his misery. There is now only one strong conservative in this race who can win, Cruz opined. We see conservatives continuing to unite behind our campaign. Our campaign is the only campaign that has beaten Donald Trump, and that can beat Donald Trump, he continued. So, what we re seeing is Republicans coming to us in incredible numbers. Todd wasn t having it. Wait a minute, he interrupted. You finished third in a state with the highest evangelical turnout that we ve seen yet. And you finished third! Cruz continued on with all the confidence of an asylum patient. We effectively tied for second. (Bullshit detector: Blaring.)Cruz is hoping to persuade Americans that his win in Iowa, not his devastating losses in New Hampshire and South Carolina, is a sign that he can sweep other primary states. However, he never mentions that Iowa has long been considered a toss up. Literally anybody can win Iowa. Rick Santorum won Iowa. Rick Santorum!What South Carolina proves is that even the people who Cruz panders to don t like him very much. If Evangelicals are flocking to Trump, a man who has had several divorces, was until recently pro-choice, and has no idea what s in the Bible, then Cruz is screwed. The writing is on the wall.No wonder Trump has been quietly shifting his attacks towards Marco Rubio rather than focusing on Cruz. He s focusing on the bigger threat. Everyone but Cruz seems to know it.Featured image via NBC screengrab | 1real |
HOPE FOR FORGOTTEN AMERICA…Why Trump Is Last Chance For This Steel Town Where 94% Of Jobs Have Gone [VIDEO] | In 2008 Barack Obama promised to shut down the coal industry:Hillary also promised to shut down the coal industry as part of her campaign platform. When politicians like Barack Obama and Hillary put special interests and lobbyists who are using phony climate change to collect billions in federal green subsidies over working Americans, you know these people are no longer public servants but instead, self-servants. Watch:There was a time, not so long ago, when this city on the Ohio River employed up to 15,000 people in the steel mills whose rusting warehouses still line the streets. Now the figure is closer to 800.First, it was costs associated with the repeated regulations imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency. Then, after 1994 and the passing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) it was cheaper competition from places such as Mexico. In the end, there was no way Weirton could compete, and an industry that has fed and clothed the city for generations essentially died. Her husband introduced Nafta, said a former steel worker, sitting at the the bar of the Columbia Club, located at one was once Gate No 1 of the Weirton Steel Corporation s main factory. He had worked at the plant for 34 years. If anyone in this in this state votes for her, they re crazy. It is communities such as this that Donald Trump has been targeting hard with his pitch about the evils of Nafta and the need to bring jobs well-paid manufacturing jobs in particular back to America. Polls collected by RealClearPolitics suggest he leads Hillary Clinton in West Virginia by between 18 to 27 points.While his policy is not hard on detail, Mr Trump has vowed repeatedly to bring jobs back from places such as Mexico and China.But in places such as Weirton, down to fewer than 20,000 people from a peak of 33,000 it is hard not to feel that while some parts of the country may have seen the benefits of global trade, this hardscrabble community, with its fast-food joints and strip bars, has been passed by.Ed Sutton, a city government worker who said he would be voting for Mr Trump, said that nothing had replaced the steel jobs . They talk about creating all these jobs. But they re just retail jobs that pay minimum wage, or just above, he said.Ms Clinton, meanwhile, said this spring, in a comment she came to quickly regret, she was going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business . IndependentTrump s appeal is vast and broad for many blue-collar workers and former workers across America. Listen to these former steel workers in PA, living in a Democrat stronghold explain how they never imagined they would be voting for a Republican: | 1real |
Australian PM says nine foreigners among those hurt when driver plows into crowd | MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Nearly half the 19 people injured when a driver with no known extremist links plowed into pedestrians in the southern city of Melbourne were foreign nationals, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Friday. Police allege that the 32-year-old Australian man, a refugee from Afghanistan, had a history of mental illness and drove a car into Christmas shoppers on one of the busiest roads in Australia s second-largest city on Thursday. The incident was a chilling reminder of attacks using vehicles in cities around the world. Four people were killed in a similar incident in Melbourne in January. Turnbull and police said the driver had no known ties to extremist organizations, although they also said he had spoken of the perceived mistreatment of Muslims after his arrest. Police have yet to interview, charge or identify the man. Turnbull said nine of the victims were foreign nationals. He did not specify their nationalities but Australian media reported they included people from China, India, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, South Korea and Venezuela. This is a shocking incident to occur just on the eve of Christmas but we will not be cowed by it, Turnbull told reporters in Sydney. Four people were killed and more than 20 injured in January when a man deliberately drove into pedestrians just a few hundred meters away from Thursday s attack. That was also not designated as a terror attack. Police had cordoned off the area immediately after the incident but roads in central Melbourne were open and trams were operating as usual on Friday morning. Reuters witnesses reported a heavy police presence around exits from nearby Flinders Street train station, with trauma support and Red Cross workers in the area. Department store staff said foot traffic was down from the day before. It s definitely quieter, said a saleswoman at a beauty counter in the David Jones department store, who declined to give her name. More people are coming in from the back entrance. I think they re trying to avoid Flinders Street Station, she said. Workers at Walker s Doughnuts, which overlooks the site of the incident, said business was normal. We thought it would be less, but we re very busy, said store worker Bindu Kaki. Police vehicles lined the streets and volunteers for the Victorian Council of Churches in Australia stood in high- visibility shirts with labels reading personal support . Community group the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Victoria issued a statement denouncing the incident and offering to donate blood to victims. As Australian Muslims it is not just a moral but also a religious duty to condemn in the strongest possible terms (the) horrific and senseless act of violence, it said. Police said a second man arrested at the scene was released and was expected to be charged with possession of cannabis and a controlled weapon, although those offences were not linked to the car incident. | 0fake |
WATCH: Donald Trump Explains His New Muslim Ban ‘Expansion’ Plan | Donald Trump and the GOP appear to have finally found the messaging that they are using to sell Trump s flip-flop on banning Muslims from entering the United States.During an interview on MSNBC s Meet the Press Sunday morning, Trump told the Chuck Todd that he doesn t consider his recent changes to his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States a rollback. I actually don t think it s a rollback. In fact, you could say it s an expansion. I m looking now at territory, Trump told Todd. People were so upset when I used the word Muslim. Oh, you can t use the word Muslim. Remember this. And I m okay with that, because I m talking territory instead of Muslim. We re going to have tough standards, Trump went on to say. And if a person can t prove that they re from an area, and if a person can t prove what they have to be able to prove, they re not coming into this country. And I would stop the Syrian migration and a Syrian from coming into this country in two seconds. Let s be clear, Trump s proposal is a rollback. His initial call for a unilateral ban on Muslims entering the United States is both incredibly bigoted and unconstitutional. It also happens to be impossible to enforce and would severely damage the United States reputation. Even if Trump were to become president, it is hard to see how such a proposal would actually be implemented.That s why this rollbacked version of his proposal is actually far worse. That s because it can actually be implemented. While still divisive among the GOP, Trump would have far more support for his modified approval. More than half of the governors in the United States want to ban Syrians from entering the United States as of last year. There are even a few Democrats who would jump on board the xenophobia train.So, yes this is a rollback. It s also an expansion as Trump refers to it, in the sense that it is something that could actually become policy.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhpwEO7b7eoFeatured image via video screenshot | 1real |
The Fear of Having a Son - The New York Times | When my son, Macallah, was born five years ago, my college students asked how it felt to be a new father. “Terrifying,” I blurted. “All I can think about is bullying. ” Silence and perplexed looks filled the room. “Your child was just born,” a female student said. “I know,” I responded. “But this boy’s going to be raised to feel and express his vulnerability. That’s a curse in this culture. ” What worried me just as much was the realization: Whatever my wife and I tried to do to shape our son’s masculine identity would compete against such cultural norms as a postured indifference to school, which can lead to lower grades, graduation rates and academic motivation a sports and gaming culture that exalt alpha domination (and aggressive male reflexes) and a John Wayne ethos that breeds alienation and, too often, depression. All of the dread and loathing I’d always felt about the limiting script of traditional masculine norms came flooding back. I was faced with one of my biggest fears about parenthood: having a son. The common wisdom, as research verifies, is that most men want sons. That’s starting to shift. Some men, like me, fear becoming fathers to sons. At the website for the NPR radio show “On Being,” the writer Courtney E. Martin observes of many younger and “I’ve noticed a fascinating trend: They seem to disproportionately desire having a girl instead of a boy. ” An informal Facebook survey she took yielded these results: “I wanted a girl mainly because I felt it was harder to be a boy in today’s society. If I have a boy I will embrace the challenge of raising a boy … who can learn the power of vulnerability even as male culture tries to make him see it as weakness. But, frankly, I hope that when I have a second child, it’ll be another girl. ’” This was emblematic of a lot of the responses, which revealed that men felt more confident, or “better equipped,” “a strong, confident daughter. ” Ms. Martin says that her own husband was relieved to have daughters instead of sons. He says: “‘I haven’t felt like I fit into a lot of the social norms around masculinity … . I’m much more interested in the challenge of helping a girl or young woman transcend sexist conditions. It feels more possible and more important, in some ways. ” These sentiments ripple well beyond this small pool of men. Consider, for instance, such blog pieces as “Men Need Daughters More Than They Need Sons” or “Every Guy Thinks He Wants Boys, But Every Guy Should Want Daughters. ” Or: In a 2010 study, economists from the California Institute of Technology, the London School of Economics and New York University discovered, among other things, that adoptive American parents preferred girls to boys by nearly a third. The data was based on more than 800 adoptions that occurred between June 2004 and August 2009. The researchers suggested that this preference for girls might occur because adoptive parents “fear dysfunctional social behavior in adopted children and perceive girls as ‘less risky’ than boys in that respect. ” Adoptive parents are even willing to pay an average of $16, 000 more in finalization costs for a girl than a boy. couples and single women showed an even greater proclivity for adopting girls. These preferences weren’t limited to adopting parents. An article in Slate cites a study from the journal Reproductive Biomedicine Online which found that white couples preferentially select females through the increasingly common procedure preimplantation genetic diagnosis 70 percent of the time. (Patients using in vitro fertilization often use this procedure to vet their embryos for genetic abnormalities.) The article also says many fertility doctors observe that 80 percent of patients who are choosing their baby’s gender prefer girls. What few of us seem to realize: The behavior, which increasingly invites cringing, doesn’t originate with them. In “A New Psychology of Women: Gender, Culture, and Ethnicity,” Hilary M. Lips writes: “ … parents tend to touch infant boys less often and more roughly than infant daughters and that daughters are handled more gently and protectively. .. ” Research also shows that parents treat sons differently after they’ve suffered injuries than they do daughters, and another study, “Gender and Age Differences in Emotion Talk,” reveals that mothers use more emotional language with daughters than they do with comparably aged sons. This imbalanced, is part of our legacy because children ape the attitudes of the parent whose gender matches their own. In a Time magazine article about this study, Harriet Tenenbaum, a observes, “Most parents say they want boys to be more expressive but don’t know [they] are speaking differently to them … . These are learned stereotypes and we are reinforcing them as a society. ” The good news for boys is that men with a high emotional intelligence quotient don’t hand down these values. The bad news: Pressure from an unexpected corner makes such men their desire to embrace boys, not to mention their own emotional sensitivity. A blogger on Vice, Chelsea G. Summers, thrills at how “misandry” — hatred of men — has become “chic. ” She gushes that, in addition to a political agenda, this blanket antipathy promises some “great pop culture. ” This has manifested itself, among other ways, through blogs and online essays and tweets that pillory and mock the growing trend of men crying — which, I know from my own and other men’s experience, can be the single act that most liberates and heals a painful past that devalues masculine sensitivity. Paradoxically, for some men, the feminism they embrace them into muting the very sensitivity and empathy that opened their eyes to women’s plight. Is it any wonder that some of us want little, if anything, to do with raising boys? The subtext bombarding us from many sides ultimately encourages us to abandon them, even as they founder beneath the chop of a changing world for which they lack the buoyancy. Yet men like me abdicate our responsibility by letting other men — the ones who don’t always encourage the broader, deeper humanity within males — raise boys. And we deprive ourselves of the opportunity to heal old wounds. Of course we should empower our daughters, because gross inequality still exists. And, despite the callous, increasingly callow, pushback, we should empower boys — with the same emotional literacy skill set and expansive worldview we teach our daughters. It’s what they, and we, ultimately need. Recently, I sent Macallah, now 5, to his room after he ignored my repeated requests to stop yelling and throwing his toys. More than even his dismissal, what bothered me was what many people refer to as “boy energy. ” It’s a reactive, sometimes destructive, force that unnerved me even as a child. Then I heard the voice of my wife, Liz, in my head: “He only wants your attention. Boys don’t always know how to ask for what they want. ” I found Macallah in his room, repeating the same behavior. I took a deep breath. “Were you upset because I wasn’t paying attention to you?” I asked. Head and eyes downcast, he nodded. I bent down and hugged him, then looked at him. “It’s important that you learn to tell Mama and me what you need — sometimes that means telling us what you’re feeling inside, understand?” He nodded. “You do it,” I said. “Tell me what you really wanted. ” He shrugged, still looking down. “You to pay attention to me,” he said. He threw his arms around my waist, leaning his head into me. I didn’t need words to know what filled my young son: He felt wanted. | 0fake |
China says hopes South Korea continues to appropriately handle THAAD issue | BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his South Korean counterpart Kang Kyung-wha on Wednesday that Beijing hopes Seoul continues to appropriately handle their dispute over the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system in South Korea, state media said. The installation of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system had angered China, which fears its powerful radar could look deep into China and threaten its own security. | 0fake |
Trump Could Get Primaried By A Horrified #NEVERTRUMP Republican In 2020 (DETAILS) | Ohio Governor and former Republican presidential candidate John Kasich is the one GOP elected official that is still not on the Trump Train. The other party loyalists have fallen in line, with the occasional criticisms from folks like Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Senator John McCain (R-AZ). Infamously, Gov. Kasich did not attend the Republican National Convention even though it was in his home state and he was the sitting Governor. He also refused to praise or endorse Trump, or demand that others in his party do so. Now, it seems he may be looking at a way to take his party back from The Donald in 2020.Gov. Kasich s gubernatorial term will end in 2019, due to term limits. Therefore, he also will be looking to see what his next project will be. For now, he has been touring the talk show circuit promoting a book, and that has been the focus of these conversations. However, a man who was once an aide to 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney, Ryan Williams, says of Kasich s 2020 prospects: Kasich is kind of in limbo his time as governor will end when he s termed out, he doesn t have a path toward any other office in Ohio, and if Trump runs for reelection, I doubt he ll challenge him. That, however, does not mean that Kasich won t be throwing his hat into the 2020 ring. Williams goes on to say: But he s trying to keep his name in the mix in case President Trump decides not to run again He, like many people, was counting on President Trump to lose in November, expecting to occupy a space in the effort to rebuild the party. But that evaporated the minute Trump won the election. Still, though, Kasich remains skeptical of Trump as president, and refuses to rule out challenging Trump. When asked, he ducks the question and essentially says he isn t running right now, he is promoting his book.In short, it seems that Kasich knows that Trump is terrible for the country, and really has no loyalty to the man. Further, with Trump s increasingly divisive policies and rhetoric continuing to rip at the fabric of the nation, he may feel the obligation to do what he can to unseat Trump in the primary and deny him the nomination a second time. In fact, when asked, Kasich said: What I m saying is it s unlikely, but I don t know what the future is going to bring for me, or what responsibility or obligation I might feel. The more Trump rips the nation apart, something tells me that obligation will feel a lot stronger by the time 2020 rolls around if Trump isn t impeached first.Featured image via Mark Wilson/Getty Images | 1real |
TAYA KYLE ENDORSES RICK PERRY FOR PRESIDENT – BASHES OBAMA | I think we need somebody who knows the military. I think he (Rick Perry) knows the military I find it difficult to want a Commander in Chief who has no experience being in the trenches, whatsoever I like somebody who answers to a Higher Power so it s not just all about them all the time. That they truly are going to a Higher Power to see what they can do What I believe in is electing a leader who has a strong moral compass, who cares about people and not just himself and his own agenda. And who is humble and good economically. | 1real |
HANNITY AND TUCKER CARLSON: THE 5 MAJOR FORCES Aligned To Take Down President Trump [Video] | Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson went after the deep state with commentary on who they believe is trying to harm Trump: Five entities in government and the media are trying to cripple the Trump administration. The leaks are also putting our National Security at risk. This is not just fun and games politics anymore. This is the deep state at war with a sitting president!The destroy Trump propaganda media, the Washington deep state, Democrats, establishment Republicans and never Trumpers are now working together in an unprecedented attack against a sitting president Sean Hannity:Tucker Carlson: | 1real |
Russian scientists to track sea lions from space | Russian scientists to track sea lions from space October 28, 2016 TASS kamchatka , animals , space , russian far east Steller sea lions are found everywhere near the coast of the Kamchatka peninsula, but the largest reproductive rookery is located on the Aleutian and Kuril Islands. Source: Lori Images
Researchers at the Kamchatka branch of the Pacific Institute of Geography of Russia’s Science Academy’s Far East Department now have the opportunity to monitor Steller sea lions that are on Russia’s Red List of Threatened Species, from space, the Komandorsky Nature Reserve’s Spokesman Alexei Veledinsky told TASS on Oct. 28. The researchers succeeded in installing five GPS tags on two full-grown sea lionesses and three cubs on the national park’s territory.
"It was not an easy task as these animals are very timid. They had to be knocked out using tranquillizers so that they could be tagged," Veledinsky said.
However, right after the animals woke up, scientists started receiving the data on their movement. In one case, a few days after being tagged, a sea lionesses and her cub travelled several hundred kilometers from the Commander Islands through the Pacific Ocean to Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. All of the sea lions’ movements are depicted on a map via a computer program.
"Researchers will be able to follow the sea lions for approximately one year. The tags placed on the animals’ heads will fall off when they begin to shed their fur. That said, the tags are glued to their fur with a specific paste," Veledinsky explained. 10 UNESCO treasures in Russia on one map
One of the main goals of this research is to garner scientific data on the winter habitats of the sea lions populating the Commander Islands as their number has been falling. In the 1960s and 1970s up to 12,000 sea lions used to spend the winter on the islands, while in summer there were 2,000 to 5,000 animals there. Now there are no more than 600 sea lions. The new data will enable the creation of more safe conditions in the sea lions’ rookeries. There are four rookeries where sea lionesses bear cubs on the Commander Islands, which is encompassed by the national park. Besides that, there are also three rookeries where cubs are not born.
The Komandorsky Nature Reserve, founded in 1993, is the largest marine sanctuary in Russia with a territory of more than 3 mln hectares. | 1real |
So Long, Chris Christie — And Thanks For Destroying Marco Rubio On Your Way Out | Chris Christie s campaign has signaled that the New Jersey governor has finally read the writing on the wall and will announce the end of presidential campaign soon. It s surely a victory for America (although probably disappointing for New Jersey residents) to see Christie return from whence he came, but amid the celebrations let s remember: There were some good times too.Like when Christie single-handedly destroyed Marco Rubio s chances of ever being president.It will go down in history as one of 2016 s defining political moments. Live and on the debate stage, a combative Christie managed to utterly embarrass the ill-prepared, shallow Marco Rubio in a matter of seconds. In an election that has been far too consumed with cheap talking points and heavily-rehearsed performance art, we got to see, in that instant, the moment two candidates stopped being polite and started being real.Rubio crumpled and it was painful to watch.It s hard to know what Rubio was thinking after getting so completely shut down in fairness, it s hard to think above the noise of whirring of gears and CPU cooling fans but afterwards the effect was clear. The candidate most journalists had already ordained as the presumptive Republican nominee was dead in the water. Rubio s campaign limps on, but in the way a ghost might if his end was so sudden he never realized he died at all.The Washington Post s Dana Milbank puts it better:Tuesday night, Rubio proved true the axiom popularized by Alan Simpson, the wisecracking former senator from Wyoming: One day you re the toast of the town, the next you re toast. Now, to be clear, let s not give Christie too much credit for his kamikaze finish. The infamous blowhard was and remains a complete asshole. His quest to take down his opponents doesn t stem from some higher moral principles he just likes being a bully. Returning to New Jersey, he will go on being a bully. That s Christie s whole shtick. In this light, Christie s Rubio takedown was a Joker-like desire just to see the world burn. He takes down Rubio because he can, not because he wants to.But regardless of motives, Christie was a refreshing change of pace. Trump also insults his fellow candidates, but his diminished intellect and massive ego mean that they are typically low-blows, potshots and vulgarity. Christie, having practiced the artform numerous times against teachers and nurses, is capable of bullying on the next level.Now Christie returns to New Jersey, a place where most residents despise him and most attorneys have grown fat off his nearly-endless stream of self-induced scandals. At one time he was considered a Republican frontrunner. It never panned out. Instead, he ll have to be content with the idea that while there will never be a Chris Christie White House, there won t be a Marco Rubio one either thanks to him.We all have our parts to play. Maybe this one is Christie s.Feature image from screengrab | 1real |
Trump Is Already Betraying His Voters | Financial Markets , Gold , Housing Market , U.S. Economy bond bubble , dollar collapse , economic collapse , stock bubble admin
Posted from St. Martin (the French side, of course!). I kind of expected this to happen, as close friends and colleagues can attest. Trump is not only NOT going “drain the swamp,” he’s populating it with a different breed of swamp monster. His choice for AG is a red-neck, right-wing senator from Alabama who, 80 years ago, would have been a member of the inner circle of the Third Reich. Ditto for the names that have been floated for Secretary of State. As for Treasury Secretary, the names floated for the position bear the unmistakable mark of the Wall Street beast: $6$6$6. They are every bit as vile, if not worse, than the thieves that moved through there the last 12 years. Jamie Dimon? Steve Mnuchin? Give me an F-ing break.
It is what it is. Out with the old, in with new old. James Kunstler penned another epic post that deserves a thorough perusal: For all practical purposes, both traditional parties have blown themselves up. The Democratic Party morphed from the party of thinking people to the party of the thought police, and for that alone they deserve to be flushed down the soil pipe of history where the feckless Whigs went before them. The Republicans have floundered in their own Special Olympics of the Mind for decades, too, so it’s understandable that they have fallen hostage to such a rank outsider as Trump, so cavalier with the party’s dumb-ass shibboleths. It remains to be seen whether the party becomes a vengeful, hybrid monster with an orange head, or a bridge back to reality. I give the latter outcome a low percentage chance.
The stock market continued a stunning move higher last week despite evidence of widespread financial market turmoil signaled by the bond and currency markets globally. With evidence mounting everyday that the U.S. economy continues to deteriorate, the behavior of the U.S. stock market can only be explained as being a product of the enormous pool of liquidity created by the Fed – printed money plus rampant credit availability – that piled into any and all stocks moving higher. This will ultimately turn into a momentum move in the other direction that will inflict serious damage on the system. – Excerpt from the latest Short Seller’s Journal | 1real |
Welsh Reject E.U., but Its Money Will Be Missed - The New York Times | NEWPORT, Wales — David Adams a painting business here. His leanings in the recent referendum to leave the European Union would seem obvious. Grants from the European Union have funded many of the projects he works on, including the former bank branch he was painting last week in this city in southern Wales. European Union funds also helped him hire apprentices, including his own son. And Wales gets back far more money from the European Union than it pays in. But many of the poorer places in Britain that receive the most aid from Europe also voted decisively to leave. Promises were made by the leaders of the Leave campaign that exiting the European Union would lead to a bonanza of money no longer being sent to Brussels, the seat of the European government. After the vote, they almost immediately retreated from those promises, leaving the future of aid programs funded by Europe in peril. Even some in Newport who knew what they stood to lose were conflicted over the vote. “We get more back than we put in,” said Mr. Adams, 52, leaning against his van in spattered white work pants. “What the money has done is made the infrastructure of Wales much better, everywhere’s much more accessible because of the road infrastructure, things like that. That’s where all the E. U. money’s gone. ” Even so, he said he could not bring himself to support staying in the union and chose not to vote, because the issue of immigration held him back. “At the end of the day, we’re an island,” he explained. “We can take only so much population. ” One of the looming questions after the “Brexit” vote is what happens to the money flowing into places like Wales. Nearly $400 million in multiyear apprenticeship funding programs alone are underway, among a list of European projects earmarked for Wales stretching to 2020. Another program, with a budget of more than $180 million, helps start new small businesses and finance existing ones. Others fund a range of programs including advancing women’s opportunities and projects on college campuses. Even so, 56 percent of voters in Newport voted to leave. One of the Leave movement’s core arguments was that Britain could keep money it now pays to Europe and use it for its own purposes. Boris Johnson, the former London mayor who was one of the campaign’s most visible leaders, even rode around on a bus with the false claim that Britain pays Europe £350 million a week painted on its side. (It’s more like £150 million, or about $197 million, a week, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.) The maneuver led the comedian John Oliver to refer to Mr. Johnson as “a man with both the look, and the economic insight, of from the Flintstones. ” Britain as a whole paid about $9. 5 billion more annually into the European Union than it got back over the last according to the British treasury. After it leaves, it most likely will still have to pay money into the union to keep its trading privileges. And the aid coming back will cease. Many in the British Parliament insist on keeping some kind of access to the single market, the European system of rules and laws that seek to make trading among member states more seamless. But some vying to be the next prime minister have suggested Britain could operate outside the single market, though that could throw up myriad barriers to trade. But keeping access as an outsider costs money, as it does for nonmember states like Norway and Switzerland. Norway pays about 40 percent more per capita to gain access to the single market than Britain does now, according to data from the European Commission. A study by the House of Commons Library, which excluded European aid to private institutions like universities and businesses, found that Norway paid 17 percent less than Britain. Either way, Britain is unlikely to get more favorable terms than it already has. Part of the problem is that Norway and Switzerland are part of the Schengen Area, a travel zone. This kind of unfettered movement is exactly what many Leave voters detest. European leaders, hardly in a charitable mood, seem unlikely to do favors. “There will be no single market à la carte,” Donald Tusk, the European Council president, said this week, while Juncker, the president of the European Commission, said that access to the single market was contingent on basic principles including the free movement of people. Many areas in Britain favored with European aid are mired in poverty and voted in frustration. In Sunderland, a northeastern English city of once vibrant shipyards that has benefited from European aid, more than 61 percent backed the Leave campaign. The vote, though, has left the future of a local Nissan plant in doubt. Cornwall, Britain’s southwestern tip, also receives significant European funding, including money seen as crucial to the development of a British spaceport. Shortly after Cornwall voted to leave the union, the local council sought assurances that the funding that now comes from Europe would continue, although Britain would be hard pressed to make up the loss. Wales is one of the four nations that make up Britain, but the only one besides England to support a European exit. To outsiders, differences between Wales and England can seem subtle, beyond the Welsh language that accompanies English on its signs and its red dragon flag. Wales has lagged economically. Newport’s economic struggles were visible downtown, part of the reason it has been a recipient of so much aid. One pub advertised “all pints” for £1. 99, or about $2. 70, and there were a number of vacant storefronts, as well as a proliferation of charity stores, including one selling everything for £1. A curtain store asked to sign a petition to help fight an eviction notice. During a visit, it did not take long to determine the Leave campaign’s appeal for a number of residents. “I’m definitely not a racist,” said Thomas Reynolds, an retired construction worker. But he said he was “delighted” by the outcome. “Muslims don’t like Christians. I don’t want Muslims next to me, I prefer Christian. But they probably would think the same, so we’re on the same page. ” Tom Fereday, 28, an unemployed office administrator and a supporter of the far right U. K. Independence Party, said he was uncomfortable with the growing Muslim population in the city’s Pillgwenlly neighborhood. “I’m happy to go through hard times if it means we get our national sovereignty back,” he said, adding, “To keep letting in thousands of Muslim migrants is just complete insanity. ” The disquieting racism the referendum has inflamed was tangible when a small group of young white men were heard briefly hooting monkey sounds as they walked past a black man on a downtown street. But this was hardly a reflection of the whole city. “I’m disgusted that we voted out,” said Hilary Small, a retired medical secretary. Many voters, she said, simply were uninformed about the money the European Union sends to the region. “A lot of the Welsh people didn’t realize that,” she said. Dean Jeffery Beddis, 51, the heavily tattooed owner of Kriminal Records, a shop in a downtown arcade, said, “I don’t think people knew the consequences of their vote, to be honest. ” “It’s a mixture of things, ignorance, lack of education, fear and just not knowing,” he said, denouncing the “fear mongering” of The Sun, a tabloid, before turning his fire to Boris Johnson and then Donald J. Trump. A rug with President John F. Kennedy’s image hung behind him. Russell Thomas, Mr. Adams’s partner in the painting business, did vote to stay in the union. “A lot of the subsidies now we think will be stopped,” he said. “It’s a devastating blow I think, but there we are. ” | 0fake |
OOPS! HOMELAND SECURITY CANDIDATE Accidentally Shows Plan For Border And Illegal Criminals…You’ll Love It! | One of President-elect Donald Trump s potential cabinet picks showed photographers more than he intended over the weekend, revealing part of an aggressive plan to change the Department of Homeland Security s approach to combating illegal immigration.Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who was rumored last week to be on an attorney general short-list, emerged as a contender for the DHS job and interviewed with Trump on Sunday. When the two posed for pictures beforehand, however, Kobach was clutching his proposal and photographs captured the parts that his left hand didn t obscure.Here are the portions revealed by a photo enlargement: DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY / KOBACH STRATEGIC PLAN FOR FIRST 365 DAYS I. Bar the Entry of Potential Terrorists 1. Update and reintroduce the NSEERS screening and tracking system (National Security Entry-Exit Registration System) that was in place from 2002-2005. All aliens from high-risk areas are tracked. 2. Add extreme vetting questions for high-risk aliens; question them regarding support for Sharia law, jihad, equality of men and women, the United States Constitution. 3. Reduce intake of Syrian refugees to zero, using authority under the 1980 Refugee Act. [II. Deport] Record Number of Criminal Aliens in the First Year. [4. Reinstate] 193,000 criminal removal cases dropped by the Obama Administration. [5. ICE guidance memoranda adopted by Obama Administration; issue new guidance [to redefine ]criminal alien as any alien arrested for any crime, and any gang member. [6. ] to repatriate their citizens who have committed crimes in the United States. [7. ] expedited 287(g) agreements with at least 70 cities and counties to enlist state and alien criminals. in addition to the 386 miles of existing actual wall within entire 1,989 miles planned for rapid build. under the PATRIOT Act to prevent illegal aliens immediately to forestall future lawsuits. V. Stop 21. Issue regulations voter rolls. Direct 22. Direct the Department of Justice 23. Draft Amendments to National Voter Read more: Daily Mail | 1real |
Trump taps climate change skeptic, fracking advocate as key energy advisor | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential contender Donald Trump has asked one of America’s most ardent drilling advocates and climate change skeptics to help him draft his energy policy. U.S. Republican Congressman Kevin Cramer of North Dakota - a major oil drilling state - is writing a white paper on energy policy for the New York billionaire, Cramer and sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Cramer was also among a group of Trump advisers who recently met with lawmakers from western energy states, who hope Trump will open more federal land for drilling, a lawmaker who took part in the meeting said. Cramer said in an interview his paper would emphasize the dangers of foreign ownership of U.S. energy assets, burdensome taxes, and over-regulation. Trump will have an opportunity to float some of the ideas at an energy summit in Bismarck, North Dakota on May 26, Cramer said. A spokeswoman for Trump’s campaign did not comment. While the ultimate size and makeup of Trump’s energy advisory team is unclear, Cramer’s inclusion suggests the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s oil policy could emphasize more drilling, less regulation and taxes, and curbs on efforts to combat climate change. Cramer has said he believes the Earth is cooling, not warming, and he has opposed efforts by the Obama administration to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Trump has been light on details of his energy policy so far, though he recently told supporters in West Virginia that the coal industry would thrive if he were in the White House. He has also claimed global warming is a concept “created by and for the Chinese” to hurt U.S. business. Trump only recently started building up teams of advisors on the economy, foreign policy and other issues to flesh out his platform for the Nov. 8 presidential election. Cramer, North Dakota’s only congressman and an early Congressional Trump supporter, encountered Trump when they were guests on a radio show last month and Trump spoke about relaxing regulation and expanding drilling. Trump’s political team later asked Cramer to write the energy policy paper, the lawmaker said. “The real opportunity for prosperity in this country has been to produce more because you have access to more markets,” Cramer said, referring to the recent lifting of a decades-old ban on oil exports. “The last thing we need is more rules.” On foreign ownership of U.S. oil assets, Cramer said: “One-third of refining capacity is owned by OPEC countries. How does this fit into his (Trump’s) America first policy?” OPEC members Saudi Arabia and Venezuela both have large stakes in U.S. refining capacity. Cramer said he expected energy policy to be a vulnerability for Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, in an election year where energy companies are going broke. Clinton has advocated shifting the country to 50 percent clean energy by 2030, promised heavy regulation of fracking, and said her prospective administration would put coal companies “out of business.” | 0fake |
It Took A Democratic Governor To Finally Call The Mosque Bombing Terrorism | Maybe you ve finally heard by now that a mosque in Bloomington, Minnesota was bombed early Saturday morning. Maybe. It seemed confusing as it was being reported, because nobody was calling it what it actually was: an act of terrorism aimed at a church. In fact, you were hard-pressed to find anyone even calling it a hate crime, despite the fact that it clearly was. Everything about the incident added up to exactly what America would have called a terrorist attack if it had been committed by Muslims, instead of against them.In the New York Times report, details included the fact that congregants has just begun to gather for morning prayers, the fact that the bomb was thrown into the Imam s (pastor s) room, and the fact that one worshiper ran outside at the sound of the explosion just in time to see a truck speeding out of the parking lot. Just everything you might need for a terrorist attack: maximum presence, a specific target, and a fleeing suspect.When news hit the wire that it was carried out with an improvised explosive device an IED, in the parlance of Middle East wars you d think that would draw some response from the President of the United States. A terrorist attack on a church, using a weapon you might find in the desert of Iraq. Condemnation from every Republican in Washington, right?Not so much.Apparently there was a terrorist bombing in Minnesota today. Take one guess why Trump has said nothing about it. https://t.co/4PoyfCY4YT Mark Follman (@markfollman) August 5, 2017Did I miss Trump's statement of concern for the victims of this bombing and members of the Mosque?Does he care? https://t.co/WIWOCewIt4 Marty Parrish (@Marty_Parrish) August 6, 2017Someone bombed a mosque in Minnesota recently. You probably didn't hear about this because mainstream media likes to demonize Muslims. Brown Saraah (@Brown_Saraah) August 6, 2017It took until Sunday before someone finally called it a terrorist attack, and it was Minnesota s own Democratic governor, Mark Dayton, who used the appropriate language. He visited the Dar al Farooq mosque with a cadre of other public officials, and was devastated by the sight:What a terrible, dastardly, cowardly act was committed. It is a criminal act of terrorism.But Muslims across the country surely know that Trump s silence on the issue is quite purposeful. He s made it very clear that his aim since before he even secured the Republican nomination was to curtail Muslim entry into the US, to marginalize them and monitor them as though their very presence were terrorism in itself. Every attack inside the US that is perpetrated by a Muslim, whether it is related to religion, hate crimes, or simply random, is immediately branded terrorism. But crimes against them are never looked at in the same light.We must support our Muslim brothers and sisters across this country, and never allow them to be marginalized the way Trump and his fellow Republicans want them to be. If we don t hold the terrorist responsible for this attack to the same account we would demand of a Muslim attacker, we are no better than the Trump fans across the country who were no doubt secretly glad that it happened.Featured image via Spencer Platt/Getty Images | 1real |
Jindal won't "evolve" on same-sex marriage | Jindal, a Republican who is considering a presidential run, suggested that politicians like President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton changed their views on gay marriage because of polling indicating more Americans in support of gay marriage.
"I'm not one of those politicians," Jindal said on CNN's "New Day." "My faith teaches me that marriage is between a man and a woman. I don't believe in discrimination against anybody. I'm not for changing the definition of marriage."
Jindal may be in the minority on the issue when it comes to the issue, but that won't be the case if he joins a crowded Republican primary expected to be full of same-sex opponents, like former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Huckabee, a staunch social conservative who sought the GOP nomination in 2008, said Monday on CNN suggested he doesn't think he'll be on the "wrong side of history" when it comes to same-sex marriage. "When you say 'the wrong side of history,' let's just be reminded that there's been a relatively, and I mean a very relative brief history of same-sex marriage. The overwhelming history is the natural law of marriage, biblical marriage," he said. "So I don't think there's a side of history that's overwhelming at this point. People have their opinions." But Huckabee, who's insisted social issues won't be the linchpin of his probable candidacy, argued that the presidential race will be focused on the economy and proposals to combat poverty. Jindal's comments came as he sounded off on the battle over same-sex marriage brewing in neighboring Alabama, where officials in dozens of counties refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples on Monday, the first day in the state's history same-sex couples have been allowed to wed after a federal court ruling overturned the state's ban. Same-sex couples wed in Alabama despite efforts to block them Jindal sidestepped questions about whether county officials should respect the federal ruling and lawfully issue same-sex marriage licenses. Instead, the governor said he hopes the Supreme Court will rule to uphold state's legislative bans on gay marriage when the court rules on the issue by this summer. Louisiana's legislature overwhelmingly amended the state's constitution in 2004 to define marriage solely as the union of a man and a woman. But if the Supreme Court overturns same-sex marriage bans around the country — which it may very likely do — Jindal said the U.S. Congress should pass a constitutional amendment upholding state's same-sex marriage bans, an all-but-impossible endeavor requiring two-thirds support in the House and Senate. | 0fake |
Wife of ex-Uruguay President Mujica becomes vice president | MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) - Lucia Topolansky, a Uruguay senator and wife of former President Jose Mujica, became vice president on Wednesday following the resignation of Raul Sendic last weekend over concerns of misuse of public funds. Topolansky, 72, who is the first woman to serve as Uruguay s vice president, was named vice president under provisions of Uruguay s constitution. She said she would aim to liaise between leftist President Tabare Vazquez s administration and Congress. Like Mujica, Topolansky was a member of the Tupamaros Marxist guerrilla movement in her youth. The change was expected to have little impact on policy. Since 2005, Uruguay has been ruled by the left-wing Frente Amplio (FA) party, which has mixed progressive social policy, such as legalizing marijuana, with market-friendly regulations. The FA s ethics committee had ruled that Sendic, who headed state oil company Ancap from 2008 to 2009 and from 2010 to 2013, used his company credit card to buy personal items. Uruguay s constitution says Sendic should be replaced by the senator who received the most votes in the last elections, who was Mujica. But Uruguayan law bans presidents from serving a consecutive term as president or vice president. As the senator with the second-biggest number of votes, Topolansky was next in line. | 0fake |
Carl Bernstein: Hillary Scandals Not In The “Same League” As Watergate–They’re Worse, But There Won’t Be A Leftist Coup This Time | 1real | |
White powder sent to lawmaker caused Scottish parliament evacuation: source | LONDON (Reuters) - Scotland s parliament was evacuated on Tuesday after a package containing white powder was sent to a Conservative Party lawmaker, a source at the parliament said. The source said the incident involved more than one suspicious package. | 0fake |
Saudi King Salman to visit White House early next year: White House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with Saudi King Salman on Wednesday and the two leaders agreed Salman will visit the White House early next year, the White House said in a statement. In the phone call, Trump and Salman also discussed ways to continue advancing shared priorities, including enhancing security and prosperity in the Middle East, the statement said. | 0fake |
Canada's Trudeau says raised human rights, killings with Philippines' Duterte | MANILA (Reuters) - Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday said he raised the issue of human rights and extrajudicial killings during a conversation with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who was receptive to his comments. Human rights groups had called on leaders at an Asian summit in Manila to pressure Duterte over the thousands of Filipinos killed during his 16-month-old crackdown on illegal drugs. Trudeau said Canada had a reputation for being frank in discussing issues like the rule of law and human rights with partners everywhere. I also mentioned human rights, rule of law and specifically extra judicial killings as being an issue that Canada is concerned with, he told a news conference in Manila. I will always bring that up. The president was receptive to my comments and it was throughout a very cordial and positive exchange. | 0fake |
THIS INTERNATIONAL COMPANY Is Luring Refugees And Illegals To America…Do You Buy Meat From Them? | Are you tired of supporting companies who are couldn t care less about the future of this nation? Are you tired of giving jobs to people who break laws to enter our country or who are being vetted by the UN and coming here through a State Department sponsored program on our dime? Then take a stand and STOP supporting them! When I saw the article at the Wall Street Journal this morning that gushes about how wonderful it is that the International Rescue Committee is giving out loans to refugees to start businesses, but goes on to talk about the industries in need of cheap immigrant labor, I wanted to scream.Four meat giants are changing the face of rural America, Cargill is one of those. It is all about cheap labor! It is all about money!Meet globalist and CEO of Cargill, David MacLennan, in Davos. One of the key players in changing rural towns in America by working with the US State Department and refugee contractors to bring in large numbers of Somali workers.Today we posted about how Amarillo, TX is under enormous social and economic tension. It is Cargill that was originally responsible for overloading (with the help of UN/US State Department refugee resettlement contractors) that city.Last week it was Cargill caving to CAIR demands in a dispute about prayer break times at their plant in Ft. Morgan, CO.One of the most important features of this new blog American Resistance 2016! is to showcase the enemy. I want those responsible for mass migration to America to become household names! Here is a list of the products you will find on Cargill s website: Swift Pork productsList of Beef productsList of Chicken productsList of additional FOOD productsHere is a map showing Cargill s facilities across North America:And, for your work in Election 2016, I want you all to identify which of your elected officials are in the pockets of BIG MEAT! and expose them!Refugee resettlement is not about humanitarianism! It is about globalists and greedy industries wanting to improve their bottom lines the social and economic condition of your towns and cities be damned! Via: Refugee Resettlement Watch | 1real |
PAUL RYAN IGNORES EXECUTIVE ORDERS OBAMA… SAYS He’ll Sue Trump Over Muslim Ban | Paul Ryan has had almost 8 years to lead the charge to impeach Obama for his unlawful, unconstitutional acts against America. Where was all of the tough talk from Ryan when Obama was shoving Obamacare down our throats? House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) has made clear he doesn t agree with a proposal put forward by Donald Trump whom Ryan has endorsed to ban Muslim immigration into the United States, but in an interview with the Huffington Post Thursday, Ryan floated taking a President Trump to court if he tried to implement such a ban or some of his other controversial proposals unilaterally. I would sue any president that exceeds his or her powers, Ryan said in a back-and-forth about Trump s claims that he could implement a Muslim ban or build a Mexican border wall without congressional approval.REALLY Paul? Where have you been for the past year?Ryan said he wasn t sure of the legal question of whether Trump could institute a Muslim ban on his own as president. That s a legal question that there s a good debate about, he said, citing the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act. On the broader question, are we going to exert our Article I powers and reclaim this Article I power no matter who the president is? Absolutely, Ryan said. He also said he discussed the limits of the executive power with Trump.In the interview, Ryan said his endorsement of real estate mogul did not give Trump a blank check, and that he was still trying to achieve real unity between the presumptive nominee and his caucus. I am going to keep being who I am, I am going to keep speaking out on things where I think it s needed, where our principles need to be defended, and I am going to keep doing that, I hope it s not necessary, Ryan said. But the last thing I want to see is a another Democrat in the White House Via: Talking Points Memo | 1real |
Russia launches airstrikes in northern Syria, senior military official says | Russian warplanes began bombarding Syrian opposition targets in the war-torn nation's north Wednesday, following a terse meeting at which a Russian general asked Pentagon officials to clear out of Syrian air space and was rebuffed, Fox News has learned.
A U.S. official said Russian airstrikes targeted fighters in the vicinity of Homs, located roughly 60 miles east of a Russian naval facility in Tartus, and were carried out by a "couple" of Russian bombers. The strikes hit targets in Homs and Hama, but there is no presence of ISIS in those areas, a senior U.S. defense official said. These planes are hitting areas where Free Syrian Army and other anti-Assad groups are located, the official said.
Activists and a rebel commander on the ground said the Russian airstrikes have mostly hit moderate rebel positions and civilians. In a video released by the U.S.-backed rebel group Tajamu Alezzah, jets are seen hitting a building claimed to be a location of the group in the town of Latamna in the central Hama province.
The group commander Jameel al-Saleh told a local Syrian news website that the group's location was hit by Russian jets but didn't specify the damage.
A group of local activists in the town of Talbiseh in Homs province recorded at least 16 civilians killed, including two children.
According to a U.S. senior official, Presidents Obama and Putin agreed on a process to "deconflict" military operations. The Russians on Wednesday "bypassed that process," the official said.
"That's not how responsible nations do business," the official said.
The development came after Pentagon officials, in a development first reported by Fox News, brushed aside an official request, or "demarche," from Russia to clear air space over northern Syria, where Moscow said it intended to conduct airstrikes against ISIS on behalf of Assad, according to sources who spoke to Fox News. The request was made in a heated discussion between a Russian three-star general and U.S. officials at the American Embassy in Baghdad, sources said.
"If you have forces in the area we request they leave," said the general, who used the word "please" in the contentious encounter.
A senior Pentagon official said the U.S., which also has been conducting airstrikes against ISIS, but does not support Assad, said the request was not honored.
"We still conducted our normal strike operations in Syria today," the official said. "We did not and have not changed our operations."
State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters the Russian airstrikes won't change the strategy of the U.S.-led coalition.
"The U.S.-led coalition will continue to fly missions over Iraq and Syria as planned and in support of our international mission to degrade and destroy ISIL," Kirby told reporters, while acknowledging the meeting at the American embassy in Baghdad.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told foreign ministers of world powers Wednesday that his country is "ready to forge standing channels of communication to ensure a maximally effective fight against terrorist groups."
Lavrov spoke to the U.N. Security Council shortly after Russia's defense ministry announced its jets are carrying out airstrikes on Islamic State group positions in Syria.
Lavrov said Russia would shortly circulate a draft council resolution to promote joint efforts against groups like the Islamic State.
The move by Moscow marks a major escalation in ongoing tensions between the two countries over military action in the war-torn country and comes moments after Russian lawmakers formally approved a request from Putin to authorize the use of troops in Syria. Putin said previously that Russia would strike ISIS targets.
The Federation Council, the upper house of Russia's parliament, discussed Putin's request for the authorization behind the closed doors. Sergei Ivanov, chief of Putin's administration, said in televised remarks that the parliament voted unanimously to approve the request.
Ivanov said the authorization is necessary "not in order to achieve some foreign policy goals" but "in order to defend Russia's national interests."
Putin is obligated to request parliamentary approval for any use of Russian troops abroad, according to the Russian Constitution. The last time he did so was before Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March 2014.
Putin's request comes after his bilateral meeting with Obama on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York, where the two were discussing Russia's recent military buildup in Syria.
A U.S. official told Fox News Monday the two leaders agreed to discuss political transition in Syria but were at odds over the role that Assad should play in resolving the civil conflict. The official said Obama reiterated to Putin that he does not believe there is a path to stability in Syria with Assad in power. Putin has said the world needs to support Assad because his military has the best chance to defeat ISIS militants.
Putin said the meeting, which lasted slightly more than 90 minutes, was “very constructive, business-like and frank".
"We are thinking about it, and we don't exclude anything," Putin told reporters at the time
The Kremlin reported that Putin hosted a meeting of the Russian security council at his residence Tuesday night outside of Moscow, saying that they were discussing terrorism and extremism.
On Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius called on Russia to make a real contribution to the fight against ISIS, telling reporters at the United Nations that Moscow "is against the terrorists, it's not abnormal to launch strikes against them."
"The international community has hit (ISIS). France has hit (ISIS), Assad very little, and the Russians not at all. So one has to look at who does what," Fabius added.
Russia has been a staunch supporter of Assad during Syria's bloody civil war, and multiple reports have previously indicated that Russian troops are aiding Assad's forces. Israel's defense minister also said earlier this month that Russian troops are in Syria to help Assad fight the ISIS terror group.
On Wednesday, Reuters reported that Russia's Foreign Ministry told the news agency Interfax that a recently established operations center in Baghdad would help coordinate airstrikes and ground troops in Syria. Fox News first reported last week that the center had been set up by Russian, Syrian and Iranian military commanders with the goal of working with Iranian-backed Shia militias fighting ISIS.
Over the weekend, the Iraqi government announced that it would begin sharing "security and intelligence" information with Russia, Syria and Iran to help combat ISIS.
Meanwhile, intelligence sources told Fox News Friday that Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani met with Russian military commanders in Baghdad Sept. 22. Fox News reported earlier this month that Soleimani met Putin in Moscow over the summer to discuss a joint military plan in Syria.
"The Russians are no longer advising, but co-leading the war in Syria," one intelligence official said at the time.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | 0fake |
At least Tesco are giving shoppers a bit of warning this year | Next Swipe left/right At least Tesco are giving shoppers a bit of warning this year It’s November, which can mean only one thing – incessant Christmas reminders for the next two months. At least Tesco are giving shoppers a bit of a heads up this time… | 1real |
WATCH! FOX NEWS On High Anti-Trump Propaganda Mission: Obama/Clinton Stooge Masquerades As Unbiased Pundit [Video] | Dennis Ross is a prior Obama and Clinton crony goes on to speak without any questioning from Shawn and then at the end Shawn speaks of Ross and his decades of experience PROPAGANDA!!! | 1real |
New York Gun License Broker Paid Off Cops To Approve Client Licenses | Police have suspended the licenses of at least 37 New York City gun owners following the arrest of gun license broker Shaya Lichtenstein.According to New York Daily News, Lichtenstein s cozy relationship with New York City police officers paid off well for some clients who sought his help in obtaining licenses for their weapons.Although the city has strict requirements for obtaining a gun license, many of Lichtenstein s customers were given a pass on necessary paperwork and in-person interviews.For the privilege of circumventing the law, Lichtenstein charged his clients between $5,000 and $25,000.New York Daily News reports that while, there is a mountain of documentation that s required, to gain a gun license in the city, all some of Lichtenstein s clients needed was to send in a few pieces of paper for the permit to go forward. On April 18 Lichtenstein was charged with bribing police officers in Manhattan Federal Court.According to the charges published here, an undercover investigation involving Lichtenstein began in 2013.According to the documents, after one of the license broker s closest contacts inside the police department stopped helping him, he offered to pay an undercover officer $6,000 per gun license.While none of the cops who are implicated in taking bribes have been identified by name, an officer referred to as Deputy Inspector-1 is alleged to have taken bribes from Lichtenstein. The documents describe Deputy Inspector-1 as the Commanding Officer of the License Division. Two other NYPD officers, referred to as Officer-1 and Sergeant-1 are also implicated in taking bribes.During an interview with investigators, Officer-1 stated that Lichtenstein provided the two with lunch money in return for approving gun licenses. When asked how much lunch money the cops were getting, Officer-1 said $100.Court filings show that the officers approved licenses for Lichtenstein s clients, including people with criminal records who were not legally able to obtain a license in New York City.Read the full complaint here.Featured image via Pixabay | 1real |
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