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Good News! First Sanctuary For Abused Circus Elephants Opens In Brazil | Elephant Sanctuary Brazil is located on a 2,800-acre plot of land and will be home to 50 rescued circus elephants. By Amanda Froelich
The glitz and glamor of a circus show might make it appear as if an elephant’s life with the troupe is a joyous one, but nothing could be further from the truth. After an elephant is domesticated and trained (aka – ‘ has its spirit broken ’), it spends the majority of its days in chains , is poked and prodded to perform crowd-pleasing feats, and often suffers injuries which result from living in abnormal conditions. Additionally, it’s not unusual for circus beasts to be beaten by their trainers .
Every now and again, fortunately, elephants made to perform for the purpose of entertaining humans are removed from the circus and relocated to sanctuaries. There, they are able to live among their kind and enjoy life on their terms. And now that the first elephant sanctuary in all of Latin America has opened, this is likely to become a reality for many more of the gargantuan land mammals.
Elephant Sanctuary Brazil will be located on a 2,800-acre plot of land. Located in Chapada dos Guimarães, Mato Grosso, the sanctuary will host 50 rescued circus animals. Animal rights activists secured the location for $1 million and are actively seeking elephants to take in.
According to GoodNewsNetwork , the first two elephants to find sanctuary were Guida and Maia, who are believed to have been rescued from Thailand where they performed in circuses. While the sanctuary will not be available to the public, it will post updates about the well-being of rescued elephants via Facebook and through the Global Elephant Sanctuary website .
Source: True Activist
| 1real |
OOPS! Black Security Guard Won’t Allow White Dude Wearing Black Lives Matter T-Shirt Into Hillary Event [VIDEO] | After much back and forth between the white dude wearing a Black Lives Matter t-shirt and the black man who appears to be acting as security for corrupt Hillary, the black man suggests he go to the back of the line and ask secret service for permission to enter. The good news is that it appears the line to see Hillary (as usual) is pretty short. If he had to get to the back of the line for a Trump event, that could have been an issue.https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/724776822018170881Corrupt Hillary actually sent out this tweet just before the event the white dude in the Black Lives Matter t-shirt wasn t allowed to enter:"As a white person, I have to talk about [racism] more. We are not a post-racial society." Hillary to @Maddow #MSNBCTownhall Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 26, 2016 | 1real |
Louie Gohmert Gets Completely Unhinged And Screams At Reps During Sit-In (VIDEO) | Whenever big news happens in Washington, the nation (at least those in desperate need of entertainment) awaits the response of just one man: Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas). Gohmert almost never disappoints with the depth of his stupidity and he certainly didn t on Thursday, when he yelled at the Democratic Congresspeople who were conducting a sit-in in support of gun control.The sit-in lasted a bit over 24 hours, and it was in protest to the four failed attempts at gun control in the Senate and of Speaker Paul Ryan s (R-Wisconsin) refusal to even let a gun control measure get a debate or vote.Gohmert, who received more than $13,000 in contributions from the National Rifle Association, thought the Congresspeople were protesting the wrong thing. According to him, Islam is responsible for our country s mass shootings. We are talking about radical Islam! Gohmert yelled, waving his finger at posters featuring photos of the victims of the recent mass shooting at an Orlando, Florida gay club. Radical Islam killed these people! Gohmert was shouted down by Democrats chanting, No fly, no gun! and Don t let terrorists have a gun! Source: Talking Points MemoSure, we can call our gun problem a terrorism problem. G-d knows it s terrifying Americans, but it s not a Muslim problem. The vast majority of mass shooters are white men without a political agenda. As we learn more and more about the Orlando shooter, we are coming to realize that his association to terrorism is sketchy at best. Instead, it seems, he was a spurned self-hating gay man.If that s the case, that he is a self-loathing gay man and that s all the shooting was about, that indicates a societal problem one which Gohmert, a man who seems to obsess over whether being gay is God s will is at least partially responsible for. The bigger picture, though, is that all of our mass shootings, as a matter of fact, all of our nation s shootings period, have one thing in common and that s guns. In our current political climate, there isn t a chance in hell that people will give up all guns, but there s a chance, albeit a slim one, that maybe we could stop the sale of assault weapons to violent people. That s all Congress wants.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla at Getty Images. | 1real |
Xi says China has zero tolerance for corruption within the party | BEIJING (Reuters) - China has zero tolerance for corruption within the ruling Communist Party, President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday in a speech at the opening of a key party congress. Having warned that rampant graft threatened the legitimacy of the party, Xi has overseen a sweeping crackdown on corruption that has felled numerous high-ranking officials within the party, government and military. | 0fake |
Rubio: My pro-family, pro-growth tax reform plan for the 21st century | Six months ago, Senator Mike Lee and I offered a variety of ideas on how to reform America's tax code to be both pro-growth and pro-family. Our goal was to slash rates, shrink the IRS, create jobs, grow wages, and empower parents all at the same time. Since offering these ideas, I have gathered input from Americans of all economic backgrounds and engaged in discussions with leaders across the conservative movement to form a complete, pro-growth, pro-family tax reform agenda for the 21st century.
My plan is a significant departure from the old school tax reform ideas that so often come out of Washington. First, on the individual side, my plan reduces the number of brackets from seven to three: 15%, 25%, and 35%. The plan eliminates all exemptions and deductions, except for a charitable contribution deduction and a reformed home mortgage interest deduction. Taxpayers will instead receive a personal tax credit that phases out for higher-income Americans. This greatly simplified code will cut taxes for the vast majority of people.
Second, my plan cuts rates for all businesses – large and small – to no higher than 25%, which would finally make us competitive again with the rest of the developed world. My plan recognizes that big businesses shouldn’t get a larger tax cut than small businesses, which are the main drivers of economic growth. To further spur job creation, I will end federal taxation of business investment by allowing for immediate expensing. I will also shift to a territorial tax system, thus ending the double-taxation of profits earned abroad for both businesses and individuals.
Furthermore, my plan eliminates the double-taxation on saving and investment income. It provides a transition period during which we will move to a 0% tax rate on dividends and capital gains, which is a forward-looking way to benefit millions of everyday savers across all income levels. My plan also eliminates the death tax, finally putting an end to one of the IRS's most insulting practices.
A critical component of my plan is tax relief for middle-class parents. By providing a new child tax credit of up to $2,500, which phases out for wealthier Americans, we can ease the extraordinary financial burdens of parenthood. While some well-respected voices oppose this tax relief, I remain adamant that empowering struggling families should be a priority for any modern reform plan. I know from firsthand experience how expensive it is to raise children in the 21st century, and I believe our tax code should support parents rather than drain their budgets.
My reforms will target some of the highest costs facing families today. As part of my efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare, I will reform the tax treatment of health care to reduce costs and promote individual ownership of health insurance. I will consolidate all higher education tax incentives into one simple provision that will help millions of Americans pursue higher education. I will also promote an individual and corporate tax credit to finance school choice.
I believe one of the greatest threats to family life today is that too many Americans have to give up being with loved ones in times of great need in order to avoid losing their jobs. I will begin to solve this problem by providing a limited 25% non-refundable tax credit to any business that offers between four and twelve weeks of paid leave to workers with qualifying family or medical issues – for example, a newborn child in need of care, an elderly parent with declining health, a personal health crisis, or a spouse’s deployment.
My tax reform plan is designed to advance America's two most important goals in this century: a growing, opportunity-rich economy and strong, financially-secure families. Everyone in politics claims to support these goals, yet I can already hear the establishment voices saying my modern approach to tax reform is all wrong. They will say the tax code of the 20th century will continue to work in the 21st. They will say we can continue to raise taxes and increase spending without long-term consequences. They will say that to protect your job we need to raise your boss’ taxes – or that for you to climb up the economic ladder we have to pull someone else down.
I disagree. I believe everyone can benefit from a pro-growth and pro-family tax reform plan. I believe by cutting taxes and simplifying the tax code, we will grow our economy and create more taxpayers rather than more taxes. I believe the plan I’ve offered is a vital step toward creating high-paying modern jobs, fostering more opportunity for more Americans, and making the 21st century a New American Century.
Republican Marco Rubio represents Florida in the U.S. Senate. He is a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and was a candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2016. | 0fake |
Mourning in America—A “Patriot Spring” In Europe? | Here's something interesting from The Unz Review... Recipient Name => Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin isn't happy. Credit: VDare.com.
St Thomas Aquinas told us that one of the pleasures enjoyed by the blessed in Heaven was to contemplate the sufferings of the damned in Hell. Apparently if you get to Heaven there is a sort of balcony you have access to where you can stand and watch the sinners down below being prodded, scorched, and flayed.
Far be it from me to bandy theology with the Angelic Doctor, but I’ve always thought that divine justice should have a bit more charity in it than that. Whatever: Down here in the terrestrial sphere, there’s no doubt that one of the pleasures of winning an election is seeing the torments of the losers.
One of the first losers out of the gate, on Wednesday morning, was the curiously named Steven Thrasher [ ] of BuzzFeed. It’s not the “Steven” that excites my curiosity, it’s the “Thrasher.” Mr. Thrasher is a homosexual ; indeed, he basks in the glory of having received the 2012 Journalist of the Year award from the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association. I know it’s Neanderthal of me, but I can’t help wondering whether “Thrasher” is an assumed name, meant to signal something to those in the know…but that’s idle speculation on my part.
So here was Mr. Thrasher on Wednesday morning:
This is a terrifying moment for America. Hold your loved ones close.
People of color, women, Muslims, queer people, the sick, immigrants: all are threatened by Donald Trump. They need your love, your warmth, your support Hold tight to the ones you love, America. Hold tight to the ones you love living in black and brown and yellow and native skin. Hold tight to us, because we will have to face white people who think we are rapists. We will have to face a nation that wants to stop-and-frisk us. Hold tight to us, because mass incarceration is actually going to get worse, and more of our brothers and sisters are going to be disappeared … This is a terrifying moment for America. Hold your loved ones close, Guardian , November 9, 2016
It goes on—or thrashes on—for another six hundred words in the same vein.
Homosexualists were very much to the fore in this kind of hysteria , although I can’t recall anything Donald Trump has said on the subject, and I doubt on a priori grounds that homosex bothers him in any way.
For another example, here was lesbian writer Cathy Renna [ ]at Huffington Post, November 10th. Get yer hankies out:
This election was a hate crime. Not physical but psychological, and one that may well lead to legal and physical manifestations that would very much be categorized as hate crimes.
I saw and heard about such pain and fear on social media and personally as we realized Trump would take the election. And it has not let up. I checked on several people who were expressing a level of fear that seem like it could lead to self-harm.
A Vote For Trump Was A Hate Crime , November 11, 2016
That one also continues for over 600 words.
Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin is not homosexual, although he does have eccentric tastes: According to Wikipedia, he once dated Maureen Dowd. I’m afraid that brings to my mind a limerick the late Robert Conquest wrote about Ms. Dowd’s approximate U.K. equivalent, Brigid Brophy. The limerick is much too vulgar for a family website, so I’ll leave you to look it up for yourselves.
Mr. Sorkin unbosomed his feelings about the Trump victory in the form of a letter to his 15-year-old daughter:
The Trumpsters want to see people like us (Jewish, “coastal elites,” educated, socially progressive, Hollywood …) sobbing and wailing and talking about moving to Canada. I won’t give them that and neither will you.
Read the Letter Aaron Sorkin Wrote His Daughter After Donald Trump Was Elected President ,Vanity Fair, November 9, 2016
Ms. Sorkin can of course make up her own mind about moving to Canada. It’s not actually an option for her Dad, though. He’s a convicted drug felon. [ Aaron Sorkin Says He Used Drugs , AP, August 3, 2001] And Canada doesn’t give settlement visas to felons.
Casting around for targets on which to vent their spleen, the CultMarx crowd didn’t even spare the celebrity fluff magazines. Here’s a gal named L.V. Anderson, an associate editor at Slate previously known as an expert on Ziploc bags , breaking a butterfly on the wheel, the actual butterfly in this case being People magazine . [ Amoral PEOPLE Magazine Is Already Fawning Over How “Cute” Trump’s Family Is .[November 9, 2016] ORDER IT NOW
“Amoral”! People , you see, has done what they habitually do when someone gets elected President: they’ve posted pictures of Trump’s family—actually of his daughter Ivanka Kushner and her kids—whom the magazine describes as “cute.” 22 photos of Ivanka Trump and her family that are way too cute https://t.co/AZdq7b2Gwa pic.twitter.com/e6cSxQAft1
— People Magazine (@people) November 9, 2016
That has Ms. Anderson sputtering:
Trump and Kushner both played key roles in the most hate-filled presidential campaign in modern history. They worked tirelessly to elect a demagogue …
Trump and Kushner, more than anyone else, normalized Donald’s patent unfitness for the presidency.
And now, People is normalizing their moral bankruptcy by pretending that they are just average celebrities, as harmless as the Kardashians.
End sputter. Are the Kardashians really harmless , though? Discuss among yourselves.
And then of course there was the Hitlery-Hitlery-Hitlery-Hitler brigade. British Lefty historian Simon Schama on BBC Radio November 8th, quote: “Democracy often brings fascists to power. It did so to Germany in the 1930s. And so in my view it has done this evening.” [ Fury at BBC Radio 4 as Simon Schama compares Donald Trump election win to rise of HITLER , By Cyrus Engineer, Express.co.uk, November 9, 2016]
It’s all been wonderfully delicious to watch. In a simile that I like very much, one of my email correspondents, who lives in the Washington, D.C. suburbs, told me that, quote:
There are few in my zip code with whom I could share the joy of this moment. I can report that the apparatchiks are all walking around dazed and despondent, like Japanese schoolkids who have just heard the emperor announce the capitulation on the radio .
Added to the pleasure of hearing such wailing and gnashing of teeth on the Left is the spectacle of establishment Republicans like Paul Ryan falling into line behind The Donald. The English language has the idiom “rats deserting a sinking ship.” I can’t think of a phrase that expresses the reverse thing, rats scampering to get back on the ship as she hoists sail and starts to pick up speed, but there really ought to be one.
If St Thomas Aquinas got it right, and Heaven is half as much fun as this, I’m going to be very good indeed from now on in hopes of getting there at last.
If you go before me, save me a space on that balcony.
To take set this in a global perspective: VDARE.com Editor Peter Brimelow remarked to me the other day that an American election is the Greatest Show On Earth.
He’s right of course, and that’s hopeful for the human race at large.
Our election will surely have been an encouragement. In many European nations, just as here, a smug, entrenched political elite has been pushing a sentimental globalist ideology whose benefits to their own people have long since passed the point of diminishing returns.
We see this in the great crisis of illegal immigration from Africa and the Middle East. We’ve been chronicling the crisis on VDARE.com: the great floods of illegals into Germany, France, Greece, and most lately Italy. [ Italy Becomes A Leading Destination For Migrants, Matching Greece , NPR, November 6, 2016]We’ve told you about the sneaky euphemisms: “refugees,” “asylum seekers,” “migrants,” and so on.
No doubt some small proportion of the numbers are genuinely fleeing from something. The great majority, though, it’s plain from the news pictures, are middle-class young men from sub-Saharan Africa and reasonably stable places like Pakistan, looking for a Western lifestyle.
It’s overwhelmingly a problem of illegal immigration. And rising numbers of Europeans are mad as hell that their governments, far from doing anything to stop it, are actively encouraging it.
There you see the commonality with Trumpism in the U.S.A. Illegal immigration has been a signature Trump issue. Trump’s success in the election this week has given heart to Europeans fighting for the sovereignty of their own countries and the integrity of their borders.
Here’s a relevant quote from one of those Europeans:
[Ronald] Reagan spoke of “Poland’s struggle to be Poland.” And today, three decades later, history is about to repeat itself in the United States and in several West European countries. Of course, I am not comparing our current political elite with the Communist dictatorships with their prison cells for dissidents, but the fight of a nation to be itself, remain itself and defend its identity, that fight is also being waged today.
We are witnessing America’s struggle to be America, and the struggle of several European nations, among them the Netherlands, Britain, France, Germany and many others to preserve their identity and liberty, to remain the Netherlands, Britain, France, Germany. Everywhere, patriots are on the march. We are living the Patriot Spring.
Geert Wilders: The Patriot Spring – Breitbart , January 26, 2016
That was Dutch dissident Geert Wilders. He is the leader of a political party over there, the fifth-largest in the Dutch parliament, with twelve seats in the House and nine in the Senate. That hasn’t stopped the Establishment bringing Wilders to trial for “hate speech” after he promised an election rally that there would be fewer North Africans in Holland under a government run by his party. [ Europe’s Show Trials Are Where America’s Anti-Speech Regime Is Going, By Alex Grass, The Federalist, November 6, 2016] Wilders’ trial is ongoing. ORDER IT NOW
Patriots in European nations—the counterparts to those of us who write and broadcast on websites like this one—live under real threat. It’s not just the threat of show trials, either. Wilders has 24-hour police protection and sleeps at undisclosed locations.
That’s the fate of honest patriots in societies under the soft totalitarianism of Political Correctness. This week’s election in the U.S.A. has given them new hope. Here’s Geert Wilders’ stirring statement on his hopes for the President Elect:
My hope—and expectation—is that Donald Trump will follow in Reagan’s footsteps, that he will stand firm, speak the truth, concede nothing and, in doing so, inspire Western Europe to protect its freedoms against Islamization.
America has just liberated itself from Political Correctness. The American people expressed their desire to remain a free and democratic people. Now it is time for Europe. We can and will do the same!
Geert Wilders For Breitbart: The Second American Revolution Has Come, by Geert Wilders, November 9, 2016
The key takeaway here: Wilders’ phrase “the Patriot Spring.” I don’t know if he coined that himself or borrowed it, but it’s something to watch out for across the pond in coming months.
There are elections all over in Europe next year: Germany in February and September, the Netherlands itself in March, France in April, May, and June, Hungary in May, Norway in September, Czechia in October.
It could be that we’re looking at not just a Patriot Spring over there—but a Patriot Year.
If that comes to pass, it will have been partly under the inspiration of Donald Trump and our country, the U.S.A.— “the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all.”
John Derbyshire [ ] writes an incredible amount on all sorts of subjects for all kinds of outlets. (This no longer includes National Review, whose editors had some kind of tantrum and fired him. ) He is the author of We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism and several other books . He’s had t w o books published by VDARE.com: FROM THE DISSIDENT RIGHT ( also available in Kindle ) and From the Dissident Right II: Essays 2013 . His writings are archived at JohnDerbyshire.com . (Reprinted from VDare.com | 1real |
White House says expects bipartisan efforts to continue | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is likely to continue to reach for bipartisan compromise on legislation, something he promised during the 2016 presidential campaign and that the American people expect, the White House said on Friday, days after the Republican president made a surprise debt ceiling deal with Democrats. “I certainly think that the goal is to have bipartisan efforts and certainly legislation where you’ve got Republicans and Democrats both working towards it,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said. “And I certainly would expect to continue to see that.” | 0fake |
Biden Blames “Lazy American Women” For The Economy: “They Sit Around Doing Nothing, Only Hillary Can Force Them To Work” | EndingFed News Network | Email Print Democratic Vice President Joe Biden wants American women to get back in the workforce to help boost the economy. “If we just put all the women back to work, if they were able to afford childcare, we would increase the GDP in America by close to eight tenths of one percent,” he said. “That’s trillions of dollars over the next decade.” Biden made his remarks during a campaign event for Hillary Clinton at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Tuesday. “The state of our economy could be characterized by a single word: pitiful,” he argued. “We’re still battling recession, I don’t care what the official stats are saying, America is still in recession. And we’re not doing anything about it.” He added that it was “lazy American women” who brought about the downfall of the economy, because “they sit around on their behinds, doing nothing and squandering their days away when they could be improving the country that has given so much to them.” “I’m not sure how exactly we got to this point, but we’re here and we need to move. Like, yesterday,” he said. “Mark my words and mark them well,” he addressed the crowd. “Hillary Clinton is the only one who can force American women to go to work. This is true because of a number of reasons. First, she’s a woman herself and not just any woman; she’s a self-made woman. So you better believe what she’s saying is true and has been tried and tested in practice plenty of times.” “Second, Hillary Clinton understands how difficult it can be to give up the status of a free-loader when your husband is the bread-winner of the household and the wife is expected to tend to the house, the children, make sure dinner is served and always be in the mood for marital duties. She’s been all that and she’s learned how to break free from it, the hard way, I might add,” Biden continued. “Today’s women are pampered and aren’t used to rolling up their sleeves and getting the job done on their own,” the vice president said. “They’re too dependent, too weak and too lazy to contribute to the economy. The reason for that is they’ve learned how to manipulate men by employing one of the most fundamental laws of economics: when a sought-after commodity becomes short in supply, the demand for it rises even higher.” “Now, that’s all fine and dandy when it comes to their personal interests, but if you look at the big picture, it’s the economy that’s missing out on valuable workforce. And that’s why we need to get them off their lazy behinds and get them into their workplaces. And like I said, Hillary Clinton is the only one who can do it, which is what makes her the ideal candidate for the next President of the United States. We need to heal this country, folks, not run it into the ground even deeper,” Biden concluded. Join us on Facebook to Stop The Takeover. Click on the button to subscribe. | 1real |
Neanderthals Were People, Too - The New York Times | Joachim Neander was a Calvinist theologian who often hiked through a valley outside Düsseldorf, Germany, writing hymns. Neander understood everything around him as a manifestation of the Lord’s will and work. There was no room in his worldview for randomness, only purpose and praise. “See how God this rolling with beauty as a robe,” one of his verses goes. “Forests, fields, and living its Master’s glory sings. ” He wrote dozens of hymns like this — and . Then he caught tuberculosis and died at 30. Almost two centuries later, in the summer of 1856, workers quarrying limestone in that valley dug up an unusual skull. It was elongated and almost chinless, and the fossilized bones found alongside it were extra thick and fit together oddly. This was three years before Darwin published “The Origin of Species. ” The science of human origins was not a science the assumption was that our ancestors had always looked like us, all the way back to Adam. (Even distinguishing fossils from ordinary rock was beyond the grasp of many scientists. One popular method involved licking them if the material had animal matter in it, it stuck to your tongue.) And so, as anomalous as these German bones seemed, most scholars had no trouble finding satisfying explanations. A leading theory held that this was the skeleton of a lost, bowlegged Cossack with rickets. The peculiar bony ridge over the man’s eyes was a result of the poor Cossack’s perpetually furrowing his brow in pain — because of the rickets. One British geologist, William King, suspected something more radical. Instead of being the remains of an atypical human, they might have belonged to a typical member of an alternate humanity. In 1864, he published a paper introducing it as such — an extinct human species, the first ever discovered. King named this species after the valley where it was found, which itself had been named for the ecstatic poet who once wandered it. He called it Homo neanderthalensis: Neanderthal Man. Who was Neanderthal Man? King felt obligated to describe him. But with no established techniques for interpreting archaeological material like the skull, he fell back on racism and phrenology. He focused on the peculiarities of the Neanderthal’s skull, including the “enormously projecting brow. ” No living humans had skeletal features remotely like these, but King was under the impression that the skulls of contemporary African and Australian aboriginals resembled the Neanderthals’ more than “ordinary” skulls. So extrapolating from his low opinion of what he called these “savage” races, he explained that the Neanderthal’s skull alone was proof of its moral “darkness” and stupidity. “The thoughts and desires which once dwelt within it never soared beyond those of a brute,” he wrote. Other scientists piled on. So did the popular press. We knew almost nothing about Neanderthals, but already we assumed they were ogres and losers. The genesis of this idea, the historian Paige Madison notes, largely comes down to flukes of “timing and luck. ” While King was working, another British scientist, George Busk, had the same suspicions about the Neander skull. He had received a comparable one, too, from the tiny British territory of Gibraltar. The Gibraltar skull was dug up long before the Neander Valley specimen surfaced, but local hobbyists simply labeled it “human skull” and forgot about it for the next 16 years. Its brow ridge wasn’t as prominent as the Neander skull’s, and its features were less imposing it was a woman’s skull, it turns out. Busk dashed off a quick report but stopped short of naming the new creature. He hoped to study additional fossils and learn more. Privately, he considered calling it Homo calpicus, or Gibraltar Man. So, what if Busk — “a conscientious naturalist too cautious to make premature claims,” as Madison describes him — had beaten King to publication? Consider how different our first impressions of a Gibraltar Woman might have been from those of Neanderthal Man: what feelings of sympathy, or even kinship, this other skull might have stirred. There is a worldview, the opposite of Joachim Neander’s, that sees our planet as a product of only tumult and indifference. In such a world, it’s possible for an entire species to be ground into extinction by forces beyond its control and then, 40, 000 years later, be dug up and made to endure an additional century and a half of bad luck and abuse. That’s what happened to the Neanderthals. And it’s what we did to them. But recently, after we’d snickered over their skulls for so long, it stopped being clear who the boneheads were. I’ll start with a confession, an embarrassing but relevant one, because I would come to see our history with Neanderthals as continually distorted by an unfortunate human tendency to believe in ideas that are, in reality, incorrect — and then to leverage that conviction into a feeling of superiority over other people. And in retrospect, I realize I demonstrated that same tendency myself at the beginning of this project. Because I don’t want to come off as or as pointing fingers, here goes: Before traveling to Gibraltar last summer, I had no idea what Gibraltar was. Or rather, I was sure I knew what Gibraltar was, but I was wrong. I thought it was just that famous Rock — an unpopulated hunk of geology, which, if I’m being honest, I recognized mostly from the Prudential logo: that limestone protuberance at the mouth of the Mediterranean, that elephantine white molar jutting into the sky. True, I was traveling to Gibraltar on short notice when I the director of the Gibraltar Museum, Clive Finlayson, he told me the museum happened to be starting its annual excavation of a Neanderthal cave there the following week and invited me to join. Still, even a couple of days before I left, when a friend told me she faintly remembered spending an afternoon in Gibraltar once as a teenager, I gently mansplained to her that I was pretty sure she was mistaken: Gibraltar, I told her, wasn’t somewhere you could just go. In my mind, I had privileged access. I pictured myself and Finlayson taking a special little boat. In fact, Gibraltar is a peninsula connected to Spain. It’s a lively British overseas territory, with 30, 000 citizens living in a city on its western side — a city with bakeries and clothing stores and tourists buying all the usual kitsch. Some unusual kitsch, too — like a laminated child’s place mat I spotted that, in a typical tourist destination, might say something unexceptional like SOMEONE WHO LOVES ME WENT TO GIBRALTAR, but here read WE SHALL NEVER SURRENDER! BRITISH FOREVER! The history of Gibraltar, given its strategic location, is a grinding saga of military sieges and ruthlessly contested changes in ownership. The residue of that strife, today, is a pronounced British patriotism and a exchange of slights with Spain, which still disputes Britain’s claim to the territory. After Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee, in 2012, when Gibraltar projected towering images of Her Majesty on a side of the Rock — “a clear act of provocation,” one reporter called it — Spain began inspecting vehicle after vehicle at the border, backing up the line for hours, stranding the bulk of Gibraltar’s work force, who commute in every day. The afternoon I showed up, activists from a Spanish political party had crossed into Gibraltar and hung an enormous Spanish flag high up on the Rock. This wasn’t just mischief. It was regarded as an act of symbolic terrorism. When one of the men appeared in court two days later, I read, a woman screamed at him, “Gibraltar will never be Spanish!” She sounded like that defiant place mat come to life. I happened to arrive in Gibraltar the week of the Brexit vote. Up in England, people were thundering about the working class versus elites, sovereignty and immigration, warning that British identity was being fouled by the European project. But in Gibraltar — a fully detached nib of Britain, flanked by water on two sides and Spain on the third — the question was less philosophical: If the United Kingdom left the European Union, Spain might seize the opportunity to isolate Gibraltar, leaving the territory to shrivel up, like a flap of dead skin. The Gibraltarian government had already called on the House of Commons for help. There was concern that Spain would jam up the border again and that it might happen right away. Around town, “Remain” signs hung everywhere. The atmosphere was edgy, as though everyone was holding hands, waiting to see whether a meteor would hit. It was like the hairline cracks between so many and Thems seemed to be widening, and some corrosive, molten goop was seeping out: mutual dependence curdled with contempt. Clearly it was happening back home in America too. All in all, it was a good week to spend in a cave. Gorham’s Cave is on Gibraltar’s eastern coast: a tremendous opening at the bottom of the sheer face of the Rock, shadowy and like a cathedral. Its mouth is 200 feet across at the base and 120 feet tall. It tapers asymmetrically like a crumpled wizard’s hat. Neanderthals inhabited Gorham’s Cave on and off for 100, 000 years, as well as a second cave next to it, called Vanguard Cave. The artifacts they left behind were buried as wind pushed sand into the cave. This created a high sloping dune, composed of hundreds of distinct layers of sand, each of which was once the surface of the dune, the floor of the cave. The dune is enormous. It reaches about of the way up Gorham’s walls, spilling out of the cave’s mouth and onto the rocky beach, like a colossal cat’s tongue lapping at the Mediterranean. Every summer, since 1989, a team of archaeologists has returned to meticulously clear that sand away and recover the material inside. “I realized a long time ago, I won’t live to see the end of this project,” Finlayson, who leads the excavation, told me. “But I think we’re in a great moment. We’re beginning to understand these people after a century of putting them down as apelike brutes. ” Neanderthals are people, too — a separate, branch of our family tree. We last shared an ancestor at some point between 500, 000 and 750, 000 years ago. Then our evolutionary trajectory split. We evolved in Africa, while the Neanderthals would live in Europe and Asia for 300, 000 years. Or as little as 60, 000 years. It depends whom you ask. It always does: The study of human origins, I found, is riddled with vehement disagreements and scientists who readily dismantle the premises of even the most questions. (In this case, the uncertainty rests, in part, on when, in this long evolutionary process, Neanderthals officially became “Neanderthals. ”) What is clearer is that roughly 40, 000 years ago, just as our own lineage expanded from Africa and took over Eurasia, the Neanderthals disappeared. Scientists have always assumed that the timing wasn’t coincidental. Maybe we used our superior intellects to outcompete the Neanderthals for resources maybe we clubbed them all to death. Whatever the mechanism of this replacement, it seemed to imply that our kind was somehow better than their kind. We’re still here, after all, and their path ended as soon as we crossed paths. But Neanderthals weren’t the louts we’ve imagined them to be — not just a bunch of Neanderthals. As a review of findings published last year put it, they were actually “very similar” to their contemporary Homo sapiens in Africa, in terms of “standard markers of modern cognitive and behavioral capacities. ” We’ve always classified Neanderthals, technically, as human — part of the genus Homo. But it turns out they also did the stuff that, you know, makes us human. Neanderthals buried their dead. They made jewelry and specialized tools. They made ocher and other pigments, perhaps to paint their faces or bodies — evidence of a “symbolically mediated worldview,” as archaeologists call it. Their tracheal anatomy suggests that they were capable of language and probably had raspy voices, like Julia Child. They manufactured glue from birch bark, which required heating the bark to at least 644 degrees Fahrenheit — a feat scientists find difficult to duplicate without a ceramic container. In Gibraltar, there’s evidence that Neanderthals extracted the feathers of certain birds — only dark feathers — possibly for aesthetic or ceremonial purposes. And while Neanderthals were once presumed to be crude scavengers, we now know they exploited the different terrains on which they lived. They took down dangerous game, including an extinct species of rhinoceros. Some ate seals and other marine mammals. Some ate shellfish. Some ate chamomile. (They had regional cuisines.) They used toothpicks. Wearing feathers, eating seals — maybe none of this sounds particularly impressive. But it’s what our human ancestors were capable of back then too, and scientists have always considered such behavioral flexibility and complexity as signs of our specialness. When it came to Neanderthals, though, many researchers literally couldn’t see the evidence sitting in front of them. A lot of the new thinking about Neanderthals comes from revisiting material in museum collections, excavated decades ago, and it with new technology or simply with open minds. The real surprise of these discoveries may not be the competence of Neanderthals but how obnoxiously low our expectations for them have been — the bias with which too many scientists approached that other Us. One archaeologist called these researchers “modern human supremacists. ” Inside Gorham’s Cave, archaeologists were excavating what they called a hearth — not a physical fireplace but a spot in the sand where, around 50, 000 years ago, Neanderthals lit a fire. Each summer, the Gibraltar Museum employs students from universities in England and Spain to work the dig, and now two young women — one from each country — sat under work lights, clearing sand away with the edge of a trowel and a brush to leave a cube. A black band of charcoal ran through it. The students worked scrupulously, watching for small animal bones or artifacts. They’d pulled out a butchered ibex mandible, a number of mollusk shells and husks. They’d also found six chunks of fossilized hyena dung, as well as “débitage,” distinctive shards of flint left over when Neanderthals shattered larger pieces to make axes. The cube of sand would eventually be wrapped in plaster and sent for analysis. The sand the two women were sweeping into their dustpans was transferred into plastic bags and marched out of the cave, down to the beach, where other students sieved it. Smaller bones caught in the sieve were bagged and labeled. Even the sand that passed through the sieve was saved and driven back to a lab at the museum, where I would later find three other students picking through it with magnifying glasses and tweezers, searching for tinier stuff — rodent teeth, spines — while listening to “Call Me Maybe. ” To an outsider, it looked preposterous. The archaeologists were cataloging and storing absolutely everything, treating this physical material as though it were digital information — JPEGs of itself. And yet they couldn’t afford not to: Everything a Neanderthal came into contact with was a valuable clue. (In 28 years of excavations here, archaeologists have yet to find a fossil of an actual Neanderthal.) “This is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle where you only have five pieces,” Finlayson said. He somehow made this analogy sound exciting instead of hopeless. By that point, the enormousness of what they didn’t know — what they could never know — had become a distraction for me. One of the dig’s lead archaeologists, Richard Jennings of Liverpool John Moores University, listed the many items they had found around that hearth. “And this is literally just from two squares!” he said. (A “square,” in archaeology, is one meter by one meter sites are divided into grids of squares.) Then Jennings waved wordlessly at the rest of the cave. Look at the big picture, he was saying imagine what else we’ll find! There was also Vanguard Cave next door, an even more promising site, because while Gorham’s had been partly excavated by less meticulous scientists in the 1940s and ’50s, Finlayson’s team was the first to touch Vanguard. Already they had uncovered a layer of perfectly preserved mud there. (“We suspect, if there’s a place where you’re going to find the first Neanderthal footprint, it will be here,” Finlayson said.) The “resolution” of the caves was incredible the wind blew sand in so fast that it preserved short periods, faithfully, like entries in a diary. Finlayson has described it as “the longest and most detailed record of [Neanderthals’] way of life that is currently available. ” This was the good news. And yet there were more than 20 other nearby caves that the Gibraltar Neanderthals might have used, and they were now underwater, behind us. When sea levels rose around 20, 000 years ago, the Mediterranean drowned them. It also drowned the wooded savanna between Gorham’s and the former coastline — where, presumably, the Neanderthals had spent an even larger share of their lives and left even more artifacts. So yes, Jennings was right: There was a lot of cave left to dig through. But it was like looking for needles in a haystack, and the entire haystack was merely the one needle they had managed to find in an astronomically larger haystack. And most of that haystack was now inaccessible forever. I could tell it wasn’t productive to dwell on the problem at this scale, while picking husks from the hearth, but there it was. “Look, you can almost see what’s happening,” Finlayson eventually said. “The fire and the charcoal, the embers scattering. ” It was true. If you followed that stratum of sand away from the hearth, you could see, embedded in the wall behind us, black flecks where the smoke and cinders from this fire had blown. Suddenly, it struck me — though it should have earlier — that what we were looking at were the remnants of a single event: a specific fire, on a specific night, made by specific Neanderthals. Maybe this won’t sound that profound, but it snapped that prehistoric abstraction into focus. This wasn’t just a “hearth,” I realized it was a campfire. Finlayson began narrating the scene for me. A few Neanderthals cooked the ibex they had hunted and the mussels and nuts they had foraged and then, after dinner, made some tools around the fire. After they went to sleep and the fire died out, a hyena slinked in to scavenge scraps from the ashes and took a poop. Then — perhaps that same night — the wind picked up and covered everything with the fine layer of sand that these students were now brushing away. While we stood talking, one of the women uncovered a small flint ax, called a Levallois flake. After 50, 000 years, the edge was still sharp. They let me touch it. One of the earliest authorities on Neanderthals was a Frenchman named Marcellin Boule. A lot of what he said was wrong. In 1911, Boule began publishing his analysis of the first nearly complete Neanderthal skeleton ever discovered, which he named Old Man of La Chapelle, after the limestone cave where it was found. Laboring to reconstruct the Old Man’s anatomy, he deduced that its head must have been slouched forward, its spine hunched and its toes spread like an ape’s. Then, having reassembled the Neanderthal this way, Boule insulted it. This “brutish” and “clumsy” posture, he wrote, clearly indicated a lack of morals and a lifestyle dominated by “functions of a purely vegetative or bestial kind. ” A colleague of Boule’s went further, claiming that Neanderthals usually walked on all fours and never laughed: “ had no smile. ” Boule was part of a movement trying to reconcile natural selection with religion by portraying Neanderthals as closer to animals than to us, he could protect the ideal of a separate, immaculate human lineage. When he consulted with an artist to make a rendering of the Neanderthal, it came out looking like a furry, mean gorilla. Neanderthal fossils kept surfacing in Europe, and scholars like Boule were scrambling to make sense of them, improvising what would later grow into a new interdisciplinary field, now known as paleoanthropology. The evolution of that science was haphazard and often comically unscientific. An exhaustive history by Erik Trinkaus and Pat Shipman describes how Neanderthals became “mirrors that reflected, in all their awfulness and awesomeness, the nature and humanity of those who touched them. ” That included a lot of human blundering. It became clear only in 1957, for example — 46 years after Boule, and after several of the Old Man’s skeleton — that Boule’s particular Neanderthal, which led him to imagine all Neanderthals as oafs, actually just had several deforming injuries and severe osteoarthritis. Still, Boule’s influence was . Over the years, his ideologically tainted image of Neanderthals was often refracted through the lens of other ideologies, occasionally racist ones. In 1930, the prominent British anthropologist Sir Arthur Keith, writing in The New York Times, channeled Boule’s work to justify colonialism. For Keith, the replacement of an ancient, inferior species like Neanderthals by newer, heartier Homo sapiens proved that Britain’s actions in Australia — “The white man . .. replacing the most ancient type of brown man known to us” — was part of a natural order that had been operating for millenniums. It’s easy to get snooty about all this unenlightened paleoanthropology of the past. But all sciences operate by trying to fit new data into existing theories. And this particular science, for which the “data” has always consisted of scant and somewhat inscrutable bits of rock and fossil, often has to lean on those even more heavily. “Assumptions, theories, expectations,” the University of Barcelona archaeologist João Zilhão says, “all must come into play a lot, because you are interpreting data that do not speak for themselves. ” Imagine, for example, working in a cave without any skulls or other easily distinguishable fossils and trying to figure out if you’re looking at a Neanderthal settlement or a more recent, modern human one. In the past, scientists might turn to the surrounding artifacts, interpreting more tools as evidence of Neanderthals and more tools as evidence of early modern humans. But working that way, it’s easy to miss evidence of Neanderthals’ resemblance to us, because, as soon as you see it, you assume they were us. So many techniques similarly hinge on interpretation and judgment, even perfectly ones, like “morphometric analysis” — identifying fossils as belonging to one species rather than another by comparing particular parts of their anatomy — and radiocarbon dating. How the material to be dated is sampled and how results are calibrated are susceptible to drastic revision and bitter disagreement. (What’s more, because of an infuriating quirk of physics, the effectiveness of radiocarbon dating happens to break down around 40, 000 years ago — right around the time of the Neanderthal extinction. One of our best tools for looking into the past becomes unreliable at exactly the moment we’re most interested in examining.) Ultimately, a bottomless relativism can creep in: tenuous interpretations held up by webs of other interpretations, each strung from still more interpretations. Almost every archaeologist I interviewed complained that the field has become “overinterpreted” — that the ratio of physical evidence to speculation about that evidence is out of whack. Good stories can generate their own momentum. Starting in the 1920s, older and more exciting hominid fossils, like Homo erectus, began surfacing in Africa and Asia, and the field soon shifted its focus there. The Washington University anthropologist Erik Trinkaus, who began his career in the early ’70s, told me, “When I started working on Neanderthals, nobody really cared about them. ” The liveliest question about Neanderthals was still the first one: Were they our direct ancestors or the endpoint of a separate evolutionary track? Scientists called this question “the Neanderthal Problem. ” Some of the theories worked up to answer it encouraged different visions of Neanderthal intelligence and behavior. The “Multiregional Model,” for example, which had us descending from Neanderthals, was more inclined to see them as capable, sympathetic and fundamentally human the opposing “Out of Africa” hypothesis, which held that we moved in and replaced them, cast them as comparatively inferior. For decades, when evidence of a more advanced Neanderthal way of life turned up, it was often explained away, or mobbed by enough contrary or undermining interpretations that, over time, it never found real purchase. Some findings broke through more than others, however, like the discovery of what was essentially a small Neanderthal cemetery, in Shanidar Cave, in what is now Iraqi Kurdistan. There had been many compelling instances of Neanderthals’ burying their dead, but Shanidar was harder to ignore, especially after soil samples revealed the presence of huge amounts of pollen. This was interpreted as the remains of a funerary floral arrangement. An archaeologist at the center of this work, Ralph Solecki, published a book called “Shanidar: The First Flower People. ” It was 1971 — the Age of Aquarius. Those flowers, he’d go on to write, proved that Neanderthals “had ‘soul. ’’u2009” Then again, Solecki’s idea was eventually discredited. In 1999, a more thorough analysis of the Shanidar grave site found that Neanderthals almost certainly did not leave flowers there. The pollen had been tracked in, thousands of years later, by burrowing, rodents. (That said, even a later, there are still paleoanthropologists at work on this question. It might not have been gerbils it may have been bees.) As more supposed anomalies surfaced, they became harder to brush off. In 1996, the paleoanthropologist Hublin and others used CT scanning technology to a bone fragment found in a French cave decades earlier, alongside a raft of advanced tools and artifacts, associated with the Châtelperronian industry, which archaeologists always presumed was the work of early modern humans. Now Hublin’s analysis identified the bone as belonging to a Neanderthal. But rather than reascribe the Châtelperronian industry to Neanderthals, Hublin chalked up his findings to “acculturation”: Surely the Neanderthals must have learned how to make this stuff by watching us. “To me,” says Zilhão, the University of Barcelona archaeologist, “there was a logical shock: If the paradigm forces you to say something like this, there must be something wrong with the paradigm. ” Zilhão published a stinging critique challenging the field to shake off its “ prejudice. ” Papers were fired back and forth, igniting what Zilhão calls “a war” and counting. Then, in the middle of that war, geneticists shook up the paradigm completely. A group at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, led by Svante Paabo, had been assembling a draft sequence of a Neanderthal genome, using DNA recovered from bones. Their findings were published in 2010. It had already become clear by then that Homo sapiens and Neanderthals appeared in Eurasia separately — “Out of Africa was essentially right” — but Paabo’s work revealed that before the Neanderthals disappeared, the two groups mated. Even today, 40, 000 years after our gene pools stopped mixing, most living humans still carry Neanderthal DNA, making up roughly 1 to 2 percent of our total genomes. The data shows that we also apparently bred with other hominids, like the Denisovans, about which very little is known. It was staggering even Paabo couldn’t bring himself to believe it at first. But the results were the results, and they carried a sort of empirical magnetism that archaeological evidence lacks. “Geneticists are much more powerful, numerous and incomparably better funded than anyone else dealing with this stuff,” Zilhão said. He joked: “Their aura is kind of miraculous. It’s a bit like receiving the Ten Commandments from God. ” Paabo’s work, and a continuing wave of genomic research, has provided clarity but also complexity, recasting our oppositional, relationship into something more communal and collaborative — and perhaps not just on the genetic level. The extent of the interbreeding supported previous speculation, by a minority of paleoanthropologists, that there might have been cases of Neanderthals and modern humans living alongside each other, intermeshed, for centuries, and that generations of their offspring had found places in those communities, too. Then again, it’s also possible that some of the interbreeding was forced. Paabo now recommends against imagining separate species of human evolution altogether: not an Us and a Them, but one enormous “metapopulation” composed of shifting clusters of essentially things that periodically coincided in time and space and, when they happened to bump into one another, occasionally had sex. Lunch happened at the mouth of Gorham’s Cave, out in the sun. I ate a sandwich on a log, facing the sea, alongside Jennings and a few of his Liverpool students, while the young men and women from Spain mingled behind us, laughing and stretching and helping one another crack their backs. The language barrier seemed to discourage the two cohorts from talking much. And yet the students lived together during the excavation and had somehow achieved a muffled camaraderie. Even Jennings and his counterpart, José María Gutiérrez López, a veteran archaeologist from a museum in Cádiz, had a somewhat similar dynamic, despite working closely together for many summers at Gorham’s. Neither was terribly fluent in the other’s language, but their silence, by this point, seemed warm and knowing. Waiting for our ride at the end of one workday, I noticed them staring at a plastic bag snagged in the concertina wire above an old military gate. The bag had been there for a long, long time, Jennings told me. Then he turned and uttered, “Cinco años?” Gutiérrez López smiled. “Sí,” he said, nodding. I, meanwhile, felt compelled to test out all of this as a model for relations. That contact obsessed me: What would it have been like to look out over a grassy plain and watch parallel humanity pass by? Scientists often turn to historical first contacts as frames of reference, like the arrival of Europeans among Native Americans, or Captain Cook landing in Australia — largely histories of violence and subjugation. But as Zilhão points out, typically one of those two cultures set out to conquer the other. “Those people were conscious that they’d come from somewhere else,” he told me. “They were a product of a civilization that had books, that had studied their past. ” Homo sapiens encountering Neanderthals would have been different: They met uncoupled from politics and history neither identified as part of a network of millions of supposedly more advanced people. And so, as Finlayson put it to me: “Each valley could have told a different story. In one, they may have hit each other over the head. In another, they may have made love. In another, they ignored each other. ” It’s a kind of coexistence that our modern imaginations may no longer be sensitive enough to envision. So much of our identity as a species is tied up in our anomalousness, in our dominion over others. But that narcissistic is an exceedingly recent privilege. (“Outside the world of Tolkienesque fantasy literature, we tend to think that it is normal for there to be just one human species on Earth at a time,” the writers Dimitra Papagianni and Michael A. Morse explain. “The past 20 or 30 millennia, however, have been the exception. ”) Now, eating lunch, I considered that the of humans and Neanderthals hadn’t been so trippy or profound after all. Maybe it looked as mundane as this: two groups, lingering on a beach, only sort of acknowledging each other. Maybe the many millenniums during which we shared Eurasia was, much of the time, like a superlong elevator ride with strangers. Some paleoanthropologists are starting to reimagine the extinction of Neanderthals as equally prosaic: not the culmination of some epic clash of civilizations but an aggregate result of a long, ecological muddle. Strictly speaking, extinction is what happens after a species fails to maintain a higher proportion of births to deaths — it’s a numbers game. And so the real competition between Neanderthals and early modern humans wasn’t localized quarrels for food or territory but a quiet, demographic marathon: each species repopulating itself, until one fell so far behind that it vanished. And we had a big head start. “When modern humans came,” notes Chris Stringer, a paleoanthropologist at Britain’s Natural History Museum, “there just weren’t that many Neanderthals around. ” For millenniums, some scientists believe, before modern humans poured in from Africa, the climate in Europe was exceptionally unstable. The landscape kept flipping between temperate forest and cold, treeless steppe. The fauna that Neanderthals subsisted on kept migrating away, faster than they could. Though Neanderthals survived this turbulence, they were never able to build up their numbers. (Across all of Eurasia, at any point in history, says John Hawks, an anthropologist at the University of “there probably weren’t enough of them to fill an N. F. L. stadium. ”) With the demographics so skewed, Stringer went on, even the slightest modern human advantage would be amplified tremendously: a single innovation, something like sewing needles, might protect just enough babies from the elements to lower the infant mortality rate and allow modern humans to conclusively overtake the Neanderthals. And yet Stringer is careful not to conflate innovation with superior intelligence. Innovation, too, can be a function of population size. “We live in an age where information, where good ideas, spread like wildfire, and we build on them,” Stringer told me. “But it wasn’t like that 50, 000 years ago. ” The more members your species has, the more likely one member will stumble on a useful new technology — and that, once stumbled upon, the innovation will spread you need sufficient human tinder for those sparks of culture to catch. “There was nothing inevitable about modern human success,” Stringer says. “It was luck. ” We didn’t defeat the Neanderthals we just swamped them. Trinkaus compares it to how European wildcats are currently disappearing, absorbed into much larger populations of house cats gone feral. It wasn’t a flattering analogy — we are the house cats — but that was Trinkaus’s point: “I think a lot of this is basically banal,” he says. Showing me around the Gibraltar Museum one morning, Finlayson described the petering out of Neanderthals on the Rock with unnerving pathos. Gibraltar, with its comparatively stable climate, would have been one of their last refuges, he explained, and he likened the population there to critically endangered species today, like snow leopards or imperiled butterflies: living relics carrying on in small, fragmented populations long after they’ve passed a genetic point of no return. “They became a ghost species,” Finlayson said. We happened to be standing in front of two Neanderthals, exquisitely lifelike sculptures the museum unveiled last spring, on a sweep of sand in their own austere gallery. They were scientific reconstructions, extrapolated by artists from casts of actual fossils. (These two were based on the only Neanderthal skulls ever recovered in Gibraltar: that first woman’s skull, sent to George Busk in 1864, and another, of a child, unearthed in 1926.) They were called Nana and Flint. Finlayson’s wife, Geraldine, and son, Stewart — both scientists who work closely with him at the museum — had helped him come up with the names. The boy had his arms thrown around Nana’s waist, his cheek on her thigh. He was himself behind her leg, as kids do, but also stared out, straight at us, slightly alarmed, or helpless. “I don’t get tired of looking at them,” Finlayson said. He had commissioned the Neanderthals from Dutch artists known as Kennis Kennis, and he was initially taken aback by the woman’s posture in their sketches. She stood oddly, with her arms crossed in front of her chest, resting on opposite shoulders, as if she were . But Kennis Kennis barraged him with ethnographic photos: real people standing just like this, or even more strangely, their hands behind their necks or slung over their heads. As it happens, the artists had an intense personal interest in where human beings leave their hands when they don’t have pockets. I’d never thought about this before — I’ve always had pockets — and I wondered if artists might expose these perceptual bubbles more pointedly than archaeologists. Kennis Kennis appeared to be major players in the tiny field of Paleolithic reconstruction. Scientists who had worked with them encouraged me to seek them out. “They’re great people,” one archaeologist told me. “Hyperactive. Like rubber balls. ” The Kennis brothers, Adrie and Alfons, are each 50 years old: identical twins. They are sturdy, attractive men, with dark, wildly swirling hair, and live in the small Dutch city of Arnhem, southeast of Amsterdam. When I arrived at Adrie’s house last summer, I found Alfons at the end of the driveway, glasses sliding down his nose, carefully filling a crack in the robin’ butt cheek of a silicon Neanderthal mold. Kennis Kennis had gradually Adrie’s house as a second studio. Most of their work and materials were here: headless bodies of various human species and a wall of shelves filled with skulls and heads. The heads were frighteningly realistic, with glass eyes and fleshy faces that begged to be touched. When the brothers fly around Europe to pitch to museums, they take these heads with them, like salesmen’s samples. “On the airplane! We have heads!” Adrie shouted. “They scan things!” Alfons shouted. And slowly I understood: The brothers thought it was hilarious that airport security never questioned them about their duffel bags full of heads. “I never have to open my bags!” Adrie said, then he scampered to the wall, where a particular head had caught his eye: very with a rough, bushy beard and rawness in its upper lip — a reconstruction of a primitive Homo sapiens skull found in Morocco. Adrie held the head in his palm and hollered, “Bowling!” while pretending to bowl with it. Then he laughed and laughed and laughed. That was how it went for the rest of the day. They spoke in a bifurcated riot, seldom finishing sentences, just skipping ahead once they had spit out the key words. And if a thought escaped them or their English faltered, they didn’t go silent instead, they repeated the last word, or made a strange guttural drone, as if thrusting some heavy weight over their heads, to fill the space. Their first big commission came in 2006, for the Neanderthal Museum, on the site of Neander Valley. It emerged as a jovial, old man, with woefulness, or maybe just exhaustion, behind his eyes. That jolt of Neanderthal individuality has been a trademark of their work ever since. It elevates Neanderthals out of a single homogeneous abstraction and endows them with personhood. (At one point, Adrie described watching a neighbor spend an entire day each brick of his driveway. He had an epiphany: “All the types of people around us, there must have been Neanderthals just like them. ” Alfons added: “Neanderthal neat freaks! Neanderthal Bill Gates! ”) What the brothers want, they told me, is for the viewer to catch herself relating to the Neanderthal — to recognize, in a visceral way, that Neanderthals sit at the fragile edge of our own identities. To feel that, Adrie explained, “they need to look you in the eye. ” They were obsessed — the only word for it — and have been since age 7, when Alfons found a picture of a Neanderthal skeleton in a book, and it instantly possessed them both. They spent a lot of time at their parents’ restaurant, after school and on weekends: With nothing to do, they started drawing Neanderthals. They drew feverishly, combatively, each brother keenly aware of whose rib cage looked brawnier, who had rendered more beautiful shadows on his Neanderthal’s upper lip. “We were both the dumbest guys in the whole school!” Alfons said. “We couldn’t count!” Drawing was all they knew how to do. As young men, they tried to teach art but couldn’t find steady employment. Their family told them to give up their crazy preoccupation. They wouldn’t. They made art at night and took custodial jobs at a psychiatric hospital. They organized the Christmas talent show and played with the residents. Initially they were painters, not sculptors. They made reconstructions only to have lifelike models to paint: They were that meticulous, that fixated on knowing how the musculature of a Neanderthal hung off its skeleton. Because they had to produce a individual, the brothers were forced to make decisions about what paleoanthropologists had the luxury of describing as spectra of variation. Geneticists can suggest a probable scope of skin and hair colors. But the brothers must imagine the wear on a particular Neanderthal’s skin after a hard life outside, or the abuse his toenails would take. And would Neanderthals wear ponytails? Would they shear their bangs away, to get their hair out of their faces? “Every culture does something with their hair!” Alfons insisted. “There’s no culture that does nothing with their hair. ” This uncorked a frantic seminar on known global hairstyles of the last several thousand years. They began pulling up photos on Adrie’s laptop, dozens of them, from anthropological archives or stills from old ethnographic films. These were some of the same photos they had shown Finlayson. The brothers had pored over them for years but still gasped or bellowed now as each new, improbable human form materialized. The pictures showed a panorama of divergent body types and grooming: spiky eyebrows astonishingly asymmetrical breasts a towering aboriginal man with the chiseled torso of an American underwear model, but two twigs for legs a Hottentot woman with an extraordinarily convex rear end. “People would never let us make buttocks like this!” Alfons said regretfully. “All this variation! It’s beautiful!” shouted Adrie, refusing to look away from the screen. He had to look: These were reaches of reality that our minds didn’t travel to on their own. “If you live in the West, you’d never imagine,” he went on. The brothers’ delight seemed to come from feeling all these superficial differences quiver against a profound, sameness. Finally, Adrie turned to me and said very seriously, “These are all Homo sapiens. ” They showed me more photos. “It’s real, it’s real, it’s real!” Alfons kept shouting. Adrie said, “Unimaginable, unimaginable, unimaginable!” It only registered later: I had spent the day with identical twins who, since childhood, have been stupefied by how different human beings can be. At the rear of Gorham’s Cave, past the hearth the team was excavating, there was a tall metal staircase. It led up to a long catwalk, which led to a locked steel gate. I waited there one morning while Finlayson fumbled around in his pocket. Then he turned his key. The excavation had worked through this narrowed rear chamber of the cave years earlier and discovered, at the end of the 2012 season, an engraving on the floor: a crosshatched pattern of 13 grooves in the bedrock. A tide of specialists flowed into Gorham’s. They determined that the engraving was made at least 39, 000 years ago and ruled out its having been created inadvertently — left over after skinning an animal, say. In controlled experiments, it took between 188 and 317 strokes with a flint tool to create the entire figure. “What we’ve always said,” Finlayson explained, “is it’s intentional and it’s not functional. You can call that art, if you like. ” The finding was published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2014. The news media called the engraving “the hashtag. ” One scientist described the elaborate crosshatch as watershed evidence of Neanderthals’ capacity for “complex symbolic thought” and “abstract expression. ” But several archaeologists told me they believe that there are many clearer signs of Neanderthals’ capacity for complex cognition and symbolism, including a discovery in Southern France last year that seemed to dwarf the hashtag’s significance. (More than 1, 000 feet into the Bruniquel Cave, Neanderthals assembled two rings of 400 deliberately broken stalagmites, with other material piled and propped around it — like a labyrinth, or a shrine.) But Finlayson was undaunted. He turned the hashtag into a logo for the rebranding of his museum. There was a hashtag decal on the van he picked me up in every morning. We stood and talked for a while until, finally, with Richard aplomb, Finlayson lifted a tarp and showed it to me. It did not make a tremendous impact at first — it was lines in rock. But Finlayson went on, pointing to a spot near the entrance to this isolated anteroom, a few feet across from the engraving, where the team had excavated another hearth. Neanderthals built fires in that exact spot, on and off, for 8, 000 years, he said — until their disappearance from Gibraltar. But few animal bones were recovered here it wasn’t a place they cooked. And the location of the fire was also puzzling: Neanderthals usually situated fires at the fronts of caves, to control smoke. And yet, Finlayson explained, “if you look up, this has a natural chimney. ” We flung our heads back: A chute coursed through the high, craggy ceiling above us. It seemed, Finlayson explained, that the Neanderthals did their butchering and cooking at the front of Gorham’s, then retired here at night. Lighting a fire at this hearth would block the narrowest point in the cave, sealing off this chamber from predators. You could hang out here, Finlayson said, “have a snack or something,” then head to bed. “See there?” he said, motioning to a smaller opening to our right. It led to a second room, similar to this one. “This,” Finlayson said, “is the bedroom. ” I looked again at the hashtag. It wasn’t on the cave floor, exactly, as it was usually described, but on a broad ledge, a foot or two off the ground. It made for a perfect bench, and it was suddenly easy to imagine a Neanderthal sitting on it, in ideal proximity to the fire. For all I knew, the hashtag marked his or her favorite seat. But Finlayson wasn’t done. After the Neanderthal artifacts disappear from Gorham’s sediment layers, there’s a gap of many thousand years — a thick stack of empty sand. Then other artifacts appear: Modern humans occupied the cave and built a fire here, too, just a couple of feet from the Neanderthals’ hearth. They used the bedroom annex as well. They left a cave painting on the wall in there: a gorgeous red stag, indisputably recognizable to us — their descendants — as art. Another 18, 000 years passed, give or take. The Phoenicians came. And they left offerings back here there were shards of their ceramics under the catwalk we had just crossed. Then, 2, 000 years after that, in 1907, a certain Captain A. Gorham of Britain’s Second Battalion Royal Munster Fusiliers arrived. Gorham didn’t discover Gorham’s Cave, Finlayson told me it had always been impossible to miss. “That’s what he found,” Finlayson said. “That’s really Gorham’s Cave. ” He pointed to the bedroom, and we both turned, bathing it with our headlamps. Beside the entrance was written, in big block letters, GORHAM’S CAVE 1907, with a chunky black arrow pointing to the doorway. Gorham had written his name directly over the spot where, some 39, 000 years earlier, a Neanderthal had made his or her own mark. The full sweep and synchronicity of this history hadn’t seemed to occur to Finlayson before. Hesitantly, he said, “Maybe there are special places in the world that have universal human appeal. ” I felt a similar, uncanny rush when I noticed that, at some point while he talked, we had each instinctually taken a seat on the rock ledge, next to the hashtag, and were now sitting side by side, staring into space where the two ancient campfires once burned. It’s not an especially spiritual experience when one human being walks into another human being’s kitchen for the first time and simply knows where the silverware drawer is. At the back of Gorham’s, though, that intuition was spread across two distinct kinds of humans and tens of thousands of years. Ultimately, why we are here and the Neanderthals are not can no longer be explained in a way that implies that our existence is particularly meaningful or secure. But at least moments like this placed our existence inside some longer, continuity. It was the day of the Brexit vote. After from the cave with Finlayson, I would spend the rest of the afternoon rejiggering my travel plans in a mild panic, trying to catch a ride out of Gibraltar and into Spain that night, so that if the Spanish exacted a retaliatory after the results were announced, I could still make my flight home from Malaga the next day. I won’t describe the scenes I saw that morning — the blankness on people’s faces at the airport, phone calls I overheard — except to say that when I woke up on Nov. 9, after our own election, I felt equipped with at least a faint frame of reference. Reality seemed heightened and a little dangerous, because for so many people, including me, it had broken away from our expectations. We had misunderstood the present in the same way archaeologists can misunderstand the past. What was possible was suddenly exposed as grossly insufficient, because, to borrow Finlayson’s metaphor, we never imagined that the few jigsaw puzzle pieces we based it on constituted such a tiny part of the whole. Even some on the winning sides seemed similarly stunned and adrift. Many, though, just felt vindicated. Later that summer, I came across an essay for a British weekly by the actress Elizabeth Hurley, a fervent Leave supporter, who was now doubling down. “Knock yourselves out calling us Neanderthals,” she wrote, “and spit a bit more venom and vitriol our way. You are showing yourselves in all your meanspirited, elitist glory. ” When I read that, I took genuine umbrage — but on the Neanderthals’ behalf. And while I hate to admit it, I also felt a cheap but delicious tingle of smugness, because I now knew that “Neanderthal” wasn’t the insult Hurley thought it was — though this, I simultaneously realized, also closed a certain loop and promoted, in me, the very elitist glory Hurley was incensed by, thus deepening the divide. It was dizzying and sad and maybe inevitably human, but still no help to us at all. | 0fake |
Butter and Shrimp Make Holiday Magic - The New York Times | Before I ever tucked into a dish of potted shrimp, I’d always imagined it to be the kind of thing a British vicar might be offered when he stopped to call on a pair of elderly sisters for tea. Wholesome and nourishing, but not at all sexy. My first taste, at a seafood restaurant in London, threw that idea on its head. The tiny pink shrimp were succulent and plump, bursting with brininess. Even better, they were coated in golden butter — not melted, but semifirm at room temperature — which turned velvety when plopped on the hot toast served alongside. From my American perspective, it was a bit like a lobster roll, but with even more of a textural contrast between the crunchy brown toast and the tender shrimp. Historically, shrimp, as well as other seafood and meats, were potted as a way to preserve them. The cooked shrimp were put into crocks or ramekins and covered in spiced, clarified butter, which sealed them from contact with air. Back at home, I set out to recreate the dish, but with a few changes. The most necessary one was the shrimp itself. In Britain, potted shrimp is made from small brown shrimp, an intensely saline local delicacy that we can’t get here. Sweet Maine shrimp would make an excellent substitute were it not for the fact that the fishing season was canceled this winter because of diminished stocks, resulting from rising ocean temperatures. I used wild shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico and cut them into pieces, which worked well. Use the best quality shrimp you can get. Next, I increased the spices in the butter. Traditionally, a bit of mace, a hint of pepper and a trace of anchovy suffice. In my recipe, I use all three, along with cayenne, garlic and thyme. I also added a pinch of celery seed, inspired by lobster rolls. With modern refrigeration, you no longer need to clarify butter, which removes its water content, to improve its preserving abilities. And so you may think you can skip that step here. You can, but you shouldn’t. With its smooth, satiny texture, the clarified butter cap is an elegant contrast to the soft shrimp below. Potted shrimp is an extremely rich dish — think of it like a shrimp pâté — so serve small portions as an appetizer either before a light meal, or with a big salad as your meal. Or tap into your inner vicar, and have it with tea. Recipe: Spiced Potted Shrimp | 0fake |
Al Sharpton to Dems: No Point Appealing to ‘Archie Bunker’ Trump Voters - Breitbart | Reverend Al Sharpton thinks that in order to win elections, Democrats must stop trying to get the “Archie Bunker” vote and instead focus on maximizing the party’s minority vote. During a Friday afternoon MSNBC appearance, Sharpton railed against elected officials and consultants who want Democrats to “try and become elephants with donkey skin on,” emphasizing that it was pointless to appeal to “Archie Bunker” voters who support President Donald Trump. Sharpton insisted that these “Archie Bunker” voters will never cast their ballots for Democrats. He made his remarks a day after Republican Greg Gianforte won his special election for Montana’s open House seat by six points even after he allegedly a reporter the day before the election. In a recent interview with BuzzFeed, Sharpton said Hillary Clinton’s biggest mistake in 2016 “was that she did not mobilize in the black community. ” “You lost Michigan, by what, 15, 000, 20, 000 votes? You could’ve got that if you mobilized two housing projects or three churches,” he told the outlet. “Never touched them. So in many ways I think that the whole question of, ‘Oh we gotta reach out to the Appalachian and the blue collar workers and stop the identity politics’ — well, that’s one strategy. But what I’m saying is that you never worked your own base. You took your base for granted, so it’s not that you need to go another way, you didn’t identify with those in identity politics, that’s why you had the lowest turnout you had around blacks in a long time. ” Sharpton said though Clinton came to his National Action Network convention, her campaign “never engaged us in the campaign. ” “And I think that’s where they did the wrong math in the Clinton campaign. They assumed that we’ll go get all of this because everybody will stay here: young voters, black voters, Latino voters, like Obama, and it didn’t happen,” he said. As Democrats plot their electoral strategies for 2018 and 2020, the party is split between those who want to double down on identity politics and those who think Democrats need to appeal more to white voters. | 0fake |
Boiler Room #100 – An Unlikely Alchemy | Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room tonight at 6:00 PM PST | 8:00 PM CST | 9:00 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for bar fly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher and Spore along with Patrick Henningsen of 21WIRE, Funk Soul, Infidel Pharaoh, Andy Nowicki of Alt-Right Blogspot, Jay Dyer from Jays Analysis and Stewart Howe for the 100th episode of BOILER ROOM. Water the kids, put the plants to bed and get your favorite mead horn ready so you can drop deep into the Boiler Room with the crew. Tonight the gang is discussing the latest a myriad of news and main stream media shenanigans that have taken place since the last meeting of the ACR brain-trust know as THE BOILER ROOM.Listen to Boiler Room #100 An Unlikely Alchemy on Spreaker.Direct Download Episode #100Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved!Reference Links: | 1real |
Trump BASHES Obama With Hostile Fiction For Not Attending Scalia’s Funeral (TWEET) | There are a lot of things citizens of the United States can and do look for in a Commander-in-Chief. However, it s doubtful that schoolyard bully is part of the ideal criteria for president. There s really no better way to describe Donald Trump. He s nasty, vile, bigoted, hate-filled, and outright nauseating. The things that he says aren t okay to say in any arena of professional life, and they only reason he s allowed to get away with it is because of money, power and privilege. If the words he uses were to come out of a poor person living on the street, you d think they were unstable, phone the police and they would likely get carted away for a lifetime in an asylum.For years, Trump has tried to perpetuate the myth that President Obama not only isn t a natural-born citizen, but that he s also Muslim. And while there s absolutely nothing wrong with being Muslim, hearing it from a man who equates Islam solely to terrorism means he s calling our Commander-in-Chief a terrorist.Continuing this hostile fallacy, Trump took to Twitter to try to be witty, and posed the question: I wonder if President Obama would have attended the funeral of Justice Scalia if it were held in a Mosque? Very sad that he did not go! I wonder if President Obama would have attended the funeral of Justice Scalia if it were held in a Mosque? Very sad that he did not go! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2016First of all, President Obama DID go to the Supreme Court building alongside his wife to pay his respects while Justice Scalia lay in repose on Friday, and Vice President Biden will be attending the funeral service. However, this wasn t at all a jab at the fact that Obama wasn t unable to attend the service. It was a direct attack on President Obama to once again perpetuate the myth that our president is Muslim, which in Trump s language means, he s a terrorist. It s not even coded language. It s clear as day as he lays down his hatred for Muslims nearly every day.This man has a VERY real chance at becoming the GOP nominee for president, which is absolutely disgusting. And it says a lot not only about Trump, but about the hateful bigots in this nation who seem to think he s the right choice.Featured image: Flickr/Twitter | 1real |
Factbox: Trump to meet tech leaders from Google, Apple, others: sources | (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump convenes a gathering of leaders of some of the largest technology companies at his New York headquarters on Wednesday as he continues to form his administration before taking office on Jan. 20. The session is billed as an introductory meeting that would not result in any job or investment announcements, sources said. Below is a list of attendees expected at the summit, according to sources. Trump’s transition team has announced the meeting but did not name any invited executives during a conference call with reporters on Tuesday. * CEO Larry Page of Alphabet Inc, Google’s parent company * Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook * Facebook Inc COO Sheryl Sandberg * Amazon.com Inc CEO Jeff Bezos * Tesla Motors Inc CEO Elon Musk * Microsoft Corp CEO Satya Nadella * Oracle Corp CEO Safra Catz * In addition, the technology news website Recode reported that Intel Corp executives were invited. An Intel spokeswoman declined to comment. * The Wall Street Journal reported Palantir Technologies Inc CEO Alex Karp would also attend the meeting. | 0fake |
Addiction Specialists Ponder a Potential Aid: Pot - The New York Times | LOS ANGELES — Nine days after Nikolas Michaud’s latest heroin relapse, the skinny sat on a roof deck at a new drug rehabilitation clinic here. He picked up a bong, filled it with a pinch of marijuana, lit the leaves and inhaled. All this took place in plain view of the clinic’s director. “The rules here are a little lax,” Mr. Michaud said. In almost any other rehab setting in the country, smoking pot would be a major infraction and a likely cause for being booted out. But here at High Sobriety — the clinic with a name that sounds like the title of a Cheech and Chong comeback movie — it is not just permitted, but part of the treatment. The new clinic is experimenting with a concept made possible by the growing legalization of marijuana: that pot, rather than being a gateway into drugs, could be a gateway out. A small but growing number of pain doctors and addiction specialists are overseeing the use of marijuana as a substitute for more potent and dangerous drugs. Dr. Mark Wallace, chairman of the division of pain medicine in the department of anesthesia at the University of California, San Diego, said over the last five years he has used marijuana to help several hundred patients transition off opiates. “The majority of patients continue to use it,” he said of marijuana. But he added that they tell him of the opiates: “I feel like I was a slave to that drug. I feel like I have my life back. ” Dr. Wallace is quick to note that his evidence is anecdotal and more study is needed. Research in rats, he said, supports the idea that the use of cannabinoids can induce withdrawal from heavier substances. But in humans? A report published in January from the National Academy of Sciences on the health effects of cannabis “found no evidence to support or refute the conclusion that cannabinoids are an effective treatment for achieving abstinence in the use of addictive substances,” said Dr. Marie McCormick, a Harvard professor who was the chairwoman of the report committee. The group’s research did find strong evidence to support that cannabis or related compounds can be used to treat chronic pain in adults. But that is different from using it safely and effectively to wean people off drugs, and some experts in the addiction field are highly skeptical. “The concept on its face is absurd,” said Dr. Mark Willenbring, a psychiatrist who treats addicts and formerly oversaw research at the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. He said that alternative approaches are needed to traditional drug treatment, but not this. “I’m not prone to making exaggerated or unqualified statements and in this case I don’t need to make any: It doesn’t work,” he said. “Like trying to cure alcoholism with Valium. ” The idea stems not only from the legalization of marijuana in several states, including California, but also from a broader reckoning taking place in the traditional addiction treatment business: treatment often fails, costing families, the government or insurers tens of thousands of dollars per therapy. Many patients quit partway through treatment, or relapse time and again. These failings have become more apparent owing to a handful of developments: a growing death toll from opiates and an increase in the death rate of young white adults caused by drug overdoses. There also is a growing conversation about whether some update is needed to the bedrock program: It demands total abstinence but many people fail and ultimately die. Some research suggests that marijuana might help stem the tide. A study published in 2014 in JAMA Internal Medicine found that states with medical marijuana laws have lower rates of death from opiate overdose. Another paper, published this year in The International Journal of Drug Policy, found that 30 percent of the 271 respondents reported that they used marijuana as a substitute for opiates. (But the researchers noted that the sample could be unrepresentative and that it was not known if marijuana provided a partial or total substitute for other drugs, and how much other drug use was displaced.) More concrete and direct evidence has been hard to gather given that marijuana is still seen as a Schedule 1 drug by the federal government, which severely limits availability of funding for studies on humans. Amanda Reiman, a expert and lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, called the lack of such studies “a huge barrier. ” She said that the dearth of evidence argues not just for further study, but for pushing ahead with clinics like High Sobriety. Her main point is that opiates and other addictive drugs kill people so why not make every effort to find a better way. “There’s no scientific reason to believe that somebody is better off being completely miserable and sober than using cannabis occasionally, or even fairly regularly, as an adult and being functional and happy and productive,” said Dr. Reiman, an unpaid consultant with High Sobriety, who added, “Using cannabis is a relatively safe practice. ” The and main investor in High Sobriety, Michael Welch, is a recovering heroin addict who was helped by a traditional, program. He also and operates several rehabilitation clinics that have a total of 100 beds. (Charges range from $25, 000 to $80, 000 a month for a private room). “Every single treatment center knows it, and we know it,’’ Mr. Welch said. “Some of us have had the same clients, five, 10, 15 times over. We say: ‘We just can’t reach Billy, we just can’t reach Joe. ’” Why not, he said, try marijuana to help take the edge off for clients who “can’t face the emotional threshold” of abstinence. “People are dying,” he said. His Joe Schrank, argued that marijuana will not kill patients as opiates do. But it does help clients sleep, relax and develop an appetite. The drug, he said, gives addicts some sense of emotional control. High Sobriety’s first inpatient was Mr. Michaud, who shared his story in February and it seems tailor made to test their hypothesis. A military brat who moved around, he said he felt traumatized when his homosexuality surfaced as a child and he was told in places like Kansas and South Carolina that he wasn’t gay but suffering from various mental disorders. led to until his life, he said, was a cocktail party of morphine, heroin and pills. His mother, Kristen Michaud, said that over the years she sent him to half a dozen programs, several of them more than once, and spent more than $300, 000. But so far he has stayed the course at High Sobriety, which Mr. Schrank attributed to the availability of marijuana. “If this kid doesn’t get cannabis, he’s a goner,” said Mr. Schrank, himself a recovering addict who previously founded and ran a clinic in Brooklyn. “If it wasn’t for cannabis, he’d have bolted in the middle of the night. ” | 0fake |
Instant View: Trump orders military strikes on Syrian air base | (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he ordered a targeted military strike against an airfield controlled by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. A deadly chemical attack was launched this week from that base. “This action was appropriate and just.” “Resolving the years-long crisis in Syria is a complex task, but Bashar al-Assad must be held accountable and his enablers must be persuaded to change course. I look forward to the administration further engaging Congress in this effort.” “Building on tonight’s credible first step, we must finally learn the lessons of history and ensure that tactical success leads to strategic progress. That means following through with a new, comprehensive strategy in coordination with our allies and partners to end the conflict in Syria.” “It is critical that Assad knows he will no longer enjoy impunity for his horrific crimes against his own citizens, and this proportional step was appropriate. As we move forward, it will be important for the administration to engage with Congress and clearly communicate its full strategy to the American people.” “Assad was warned, repeatedly, by the U.S. and the U.N. that the intentional targeting of innocent men, women and children is intolerable. Now Assad has been caught red-handed carrying out another abhorrent chemical attack, and the administration has taken a measured response.” REPRESENTATIVE ADAM SCHIFF, RANKING MEMBER, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE “I will be reintroducing an authorization for use of military force against ISIS and al Qaeda when Congress returns to session. Congress cannot abdicate its responsibility any longer and should vote on any use of force not made in self defense. This is necessary whether action is taken against terrorist groups or, as here, against regime capabilities.” “Making sure Assad knows that when he commits such despicable atrocities he will pay a price is the right thing to do. It is incumbent on the Trump administration to come up with a strategy and consult with Congress before implementing it.” SENATOR BEN CARDIN, TOP DEMOCRAT ON SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS “I cannot emphasize this enough, any longer-term or larger military operation in Syria by the Trump administration will need to be done in consultation with the Congress. Furthermore, it is the president’s responsibility to inform the legislative branch and the American people about his larger policy in Syria, as well as the legal basis for this action and any additional military activities in that country.” SENATOR MARCO RUBIO, REPUBLICAN ON SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS “What must follow is a real and comprehensive strategy to ensure that Assad is no longer a threat to his people and to U.S. security, and that Russia no longer has free rein to support his regime.” “While we all condemn the atrocities in Syria, the United States was not attacked. The president needs congressional authorization for military action as required by the Constitution, and I call on him to come to Congress for a proper debate. Our prior interventions in this region have done nothing to make us safer, and Syria will be no different.” “My preliminary briefing by the White House indicated that this was a measured response to the Syrian nerve gas atrocity. Any further action will require close scrutiny by Congress, and any escalation beyond air strikes or missile strikes will require engaging the American people in that decision.” “While I’m encouraged that the Trump administration has felt compelled to act forcefully in Syria against the Assad regime, I’m gravely concerned that the United States is engaging further militarily in Syria without a well-thought-out, comprehensive plan. Frankly, the president’s actions today generate more questions than answers.” | 0fake |
Judge Jeanine: ’There’s a Leaker in the White House’ Who ’Must Be Taken Out’ - Breitbart | During her Saturday opening statement on Fox News Channel’s “Justice,” host Jeanine Pirro warned that if President Donald Trump does not find the “traitor” who is leaking information from the White House, then the country may be in “big trouble. ” “[T]he president in coming home still has one huge problem and it’s not Russia, it’s not the Democrats, it’s not any of its haters,” Pirro said. “And if he doesn’t fix this problem, we are in big trouble. What is it? The leaks. Yes, leaks. There is a leaker in the White House. There is a traitor inside the people’s house — a traitor who must be taken out. That person is an enemy of the United States. That person [is] doing enormous damage not just for the president, who is certainly capable of taking care of himself, but instead to our nation. ” “This leaker needs to be found immediately, no holds barred,” she added. Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent | 0fake |
US Military on Ground in Syria Training Opposition for Raqqa Operation | 0 9 0 0 The US is training Syrian opposition for the operation to retake Raqqa from Daesh terrorists.
WASHINGTON(Sputnik) — US forces are on the ground in Syria, equipping, advising, and training Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and partners for the operation to isolate and then retake the Daesh stronghold of Raqqa, Coalition Commander Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend said at a briefing Wednesday. “I will not talk about locations where our US forces are in Syria but they are there," Townsend stated. "They equip and train at various locations, and we have advise and assist teams that will accompany partner forces anywhere they fight Daesh." © AFP 2016/ AHMAD AL-RUBAYE US Soldier Uses Kalashnikov to Show Yezidis How to Repel Daesh in Sinjar (EXCLUSIVE VIDEO) On Tuesday, US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said that "capable, motivated" local Syrian forces would lead the offensive on the city.
Raqqa operation is expected to overlap with the offensive to retake Iraq's Mosul , according to the Defense Department.
Daesh, which is outlawed in Russia and other countries, seized Mosul in 2014 and Raqqa in 2013 along with a number of other cities and towns in the two countries. ... | 1real |
Trump says will quit Pacific trade deal on day one of presidency | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump released a video on Monday laying out actions he will take on his first day in office on Jan. 20, including withdrawing the United States from a Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. Trump also said he would issue a rule cutting government regulations, direct the Labor Department to investigate abuses of visa programs, and cancel some restrictions on energy production, including shale oil and gas and coal. | 0fake |
Clinton emails: FBI director ignored Attorney General's advice not to 'take action that could influence election' | Trending Articles: Trending Articles: Clinton emails: FBI director ignored Attorney General's advice not to 'take action that could influence election' Source: The Independent
FBI director James Comey reportedly ignored the advice of Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who urged him not to thrust the controversy over Hillary Clinton’s emails back into headlines less than a fortnight from election day.
US Department of Justice officials, Democrats and even some Republicans were said to be aghast at the timing of the FBI’s announcement, on Friday, that it was reviewing a fresh cache of emails, which Mr Comey said may be “pertinent” to the investigation into Ms Clinton’s use of a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State.
According to a report from the New Yorker , Ms Lynch “expressed her preference” that Mr Comey uphold the Justice Department's “longstanding practice of not commenting on ongoing investigations, and not taking any action that could influence the outcome of an election.” The FBI director, however, “said that he felt compelled to do otherwise.”
Writing in the Washington Post , former Justice Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Mr Comey’s decision was a “troubling violation of long-standing Justice Department rules or precedent, conduct that raises serious questions about his judgment and ability to serve as the nation’s chief investigative official.”
The emails were discovered “in connection with an unrelated case,” the FBI director wrote in a letter to Republican congressional committee chairs on Friday. That separate case, it later emerged, concerns disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner , who is under investigation for allegedly sending explicit messages to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina.
Mr Weiner is the estranged husband of Ms Clinton’s closest aide, Huma Abedin , and the emails were found on one or more electronic devices belonging to the couple, which had been seized as part of the Weiner probe. The FBI is now investigating whether those emails contained any classified information. | 1real |
Clinton campaign: no evidence computer systems were compromised | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign said on Friday that an analytics data program maintained by the Democratic National Committee and used by the campaign was accessed as part of a hack, but outside experts have found no evidence that its internal systems have been compromised. | 0fake |
Former Facebook staffers say conservative news is deliberately suppressed | Facebook is being accused of fiddling with its formulas to suppress conservative news.
That’s what some unnamed former Facebook contractors told the tech site Gizmodo—and it’s an accusation that strikes at the heart of the social network’s credibility.
Facebook relies on computer algorithms to determine what is “trending,” an influential designation that inevitably boosts traffic for what are deemed the hottest topics. But unbeknownst to much of the public, Facebook hires journalists to tweak these formulas, and this is where the question of political bias has erupted.
Gizmodo reports that Facebook “routinely suppressed news stories of interest to conservative readers,” according to a former journalist who worked on the trending designations. And several former Facebook “news curators” told the website that they were told to “inject” certain topics into the trending list, even if they weren’t popular enough to warrant making the crucial list.
Depending on who was on duty, said the unnamed conservative ex-curator, citing fear of retribution from the company, “things would be blacklisted or trending … I’d come on shift and I’d discover that CPAC or Mitt Romney or Glenn Beck or popular conservative topics wouldn’t be trending because either the curator didn’t recognize the news topic or it was like they had a bias against Ted Cruz.”
Facebook denies any political bias. A spokesperson said in a statement: “We take allegations of bias very seriously. Facebook is a platform for people and perspectives from across the political spectrum. Trending Topics shows you the popular topics and hashtags that are being talked about on Facebook. There are rigorous guidelines in place for the review team to ensure consistency and neutrality. These guidelines do not permit the suppression of political perspectives.”
The Gizmodo account is based on interviews with a handful of ex-employees who chose to remain anonymous and could be pushing their own views. Other former curators told Gizmodo they did not consciously make biased judgments on trending topics, and no one is alleging that Facebook management ordered such actions.
But as Facebook has mushroomed into a mighty media force, one that has content-sharing arrangements with major news organizations, Mark Zuckerberg has always cast his global operation as a neutral platform. If there is a cooking of the digital books that penalizes conservatives, Facebook could face a considerable backlash.
A former curator gave Gizmodo notes he had made of stories that were omitted from trending topics. These included the allegations that former IRS official Lois Lerner improperly scrutinized conservative groups, and stories involving Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, the Drudge Report and Chris Kyle, the former Navy SEAL who was killed three years ago.
All this, said the unnamed curator, “had a chilling effect on conservative news.”
The sources also told Gizmodo that stories reported by such conservative-leaning news outlets as Breitbart, the Washington Examiner and Newsmax, which were trending enough to be picked up by Facebook’s algorithm, were excluded unless so-called mainstream sites like the New York Times, CNN and the BBC followed up on those stories.
Facebook’s political stance has been called into question during the presidential campaign.
Zuckerberg, the company’s founder and CEO, took an obvious shot at Donald Trump last month, saying: “I hear fearful voices calling for building walls and distancing people they label as ‘others.’ I hear them calling for blocking free expression, for slowing immigration, for reducing trade, and in some cases, even for cutting access to the Internet.” Zuckerberg has also signed a legal brief asking the Supreme Court to uphold President Obama’s executive action limiting deportation of illegal immigrants.
And in March, as part of a weekly internal poll, some Facebook employees asked Zuckerberg: “What responsibility does Facebook have to help prevent President Trump in 2017?”
That prompted a statement from Facebook: “We as a company are neutral — we have not and will not use our products in a way that attempts to influence how people vote.”
With more than 1 billion users worldwide, Facebook wields tremendous influence. The controversy over trending topics could cause some users to question whether the social site is subtly tampering with people’s news feeds to promote or minimize certain political stories or viewpoints.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz. | 0fake |
Executes 190 Iraqi Civilians in Hammam al-Alil, 42 in Arij Village: Official | ISIS executes over 230 civilians in Mosul as the battle to liberate the Iraqi city from the Takfiris gains momentum. 14 Shares
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"ISIS terrorists continued to commit atrocities in the province of Nineveh, they executed 190 people in the area of Hammam al-Alil after taking them hostage in different areas of Mosul," said the chairman of the Iraqi parliamentary human rights committee, Abdel Rakhim Shamri, on Wednesday.
He added that another 42 people were taken from the village of Arij and executed after they refused to cooperate with the terrorists.
Shamri also called on Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to facilitate the airlifting of civilians from Daesh-held areas in Mosul as the terrorists are using them as human shields.
On Tuesday, the UN human rights office said it had preliminary reports about scores of mass killings by ISIS around Mosul in the past week.
UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a regular UN briefing in Geneva that the bodies of 70 civilians with bullet wounds had been discovered by Iraqi security forces in Tuloul Naser village on October 20, and 50 police officers being held outside the city had also reportedly been killed, Press TV reported.
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Venezuela opposition says 'suspicious' vote results coming | CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela s opposition coalition said on Sunday the pro-government election board was about to announce dubious results of regional elections, paving the way for a potential fraud dispute. We have serious suspicions and doubts over the results they are going to announce, the Democratic Unity s election campaign chief, Gerardo Blyde, told reporters, after opposition leaders said earlier they were sure of a major victory. | 0fake |
ENGDAHL: ‘Trump is a Puppet of the Deep State’ | Little did we know at the time of this recording just how accurate our guest s comments would become.In last week s Episode #179 of the SUNDAY WIRE, host Patrick Henningsen speaks to author and global affairs analyst, F. William Engdahl, to discuss his recent article about the new US-Israeli oil wars in the Golan Heights in Syria and how this is connected to the West s hidden agenda to create Safe Zones in Syria.In prophetic fashion, Engdahl then goes on to describe Donald Trump as a tool of establishment, placed into the US presidency by America s Deep State in order to fast-track a destructive geopolitical agenda.NOTE: This interview was recorded 5 days before the US missile strikes on Syria SUPPORT OUR WORK SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TVREAD MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Syria Files | 1real |
Poles see dwindling economic benefit of living in Britain | WARSAW (Reuters) - After Britain decided to leave the European Union, Emilia Kos, a 31-year-old mother of three from Scunthorpe in eastern England, faced a choice of her own. She could visit her family in Poland once a year, or she could take a holiday abroad. The plunge in the value of the pound after the June 2016 referendum on EU membership meant she could only afford one. That, coupled with a fear they are no longer welcome in Scunthorpe, persuaded her to move back to Poland last month, after nine years in Britain. A weaker pound meant we had to choose between a holiday and a visit home, Kos said at her new home in Wroclaw. We can afford to live in Britain, but it isn t comfortable to have to tell your family that you won t come for Christmas because you want to go to Greece. She is not alone. Families like hers that headed to Britain after the ex-communist states of eastern Europe joined the EU in 2004 increasingly are heading back. Economics are one reason. The local economies are booming and unemployment has dropped to record lows. But it s not the only factor. Brexit was an official statement from the Brits: we don t want you here, said Szymon Kudzma, a 33-year-old IT specialist who lives in Rushden in Northamptonshire, England. He plans to return to Poland before the end of the year, after 14 years in Britain. For immigrants like him, the economic benefits of living in the west no longer outweigh a sense of alienation abroad and the hostility toward migrants in Britain. The roughly 800,000 Poles living there fuelled an emotive debate over immigration that helped the Leave side win the Brexit vote. We could feel Brexit in the air for a long time, said Kos, who lived in Lincolnshire, a relatively euro-sceptic part of Britain. We felt pressure from the English. A friend of mine wasn t able to speak Polish at work ... Clients sometimes walked out of my partner s store when they learned he was Polish. UK statistical data showed last month that net migration fell to its lowest in three years in the 12 months to the end of March. The biggest drop came from eight eastern European countries, including Poland and Hungary, that joined the EU in 2004 [nL8N1LA2BH]. In Poland, official data show fewer than 3,000 people registered with the authorities as emigrating to Britain in 2016, down from more than 7,000 in 2014. More than 3,000 Poles registered as returning last year. We see very clearly that more and more Poles are coming back to Poland. Our analyses show that this trend has accelerated after the Brexit vote, said Michal Brzezinski, chief executive at a Polish moving company, Clicktrans. In the first quarter of 2017, moves to Poland from abroad recorded by Clicktrans were almost three times greater than the moves from Poland abroad. In 2014, more Poles wanted to emigrate than return. More than 80 percent of moves organized by Clicktrans so far this year between Poland and Britain were returns. Two years ago, the same number emigrated to Britain as came back. Many of the returnees say the economic calculations don t add up anymore, even if average wages in Poland are still a fraction of pay in Britain. The wage gap has narrowed since 2004, unemployment is down to 7 percent from more than 20 percent, and Warsaw conservative government introduced child subsidies in 2016. Britain s decision to leave the EU has also improved employment prospects at home. London-based banks and other financial services are looking for new bases for some operations in countries that will remain in the EU, such as Poland. I don t think our living standards will change significantly after we return, said Kudzma, the IT specialist in Northamptonshire. The IT sector is well-paid in Poland. Our wages will be smaller than in Britain, but the cost of living is lower. The balance should remain the same. For many of the returnees, the pound s decline means their savings are dwindling or the help they send to families in Poland costs more. Sterling has lost 20 percent of its value against the zloty since the Brexit vote and 35 percent since Poland joined the EU, according to Reuters data. For us, the worst thing is that we had already been thinking about going back, and the decline of the pound means we lost a lot of money, said Monika, 35, an accountant living outside of Warsaw while on maternity leave from her UK employer. | 0fake |
Kerry says no pressing need for more U.S.-Canada pipeline: CBC | OTTAWA (Reuters) - The United States sees no urgent need for a new energy pipeline between Canada and the United States, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday, in a broadcast interview ahead of a visit to Washington by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The U.S. government will evaluate new proposals individually, but is looking at new, cleaner technologies, Kerry said to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. “We have some 300 pipelines, it’s not as if we’re pipeline-less,” Kerry said, according to a story on the broadcaster’s website. “Things change, technologies in particular help to change things, and we need to push the technology curve.” Trudeau will attend a state dinner on Thursday, becoming the first Canadian leader to do so since 1997, as the two countries aim to fix a frayed relationship. U.S. President Barack Obama last year blocked the cross-border Keystone XL crude oil pipeline proposed by TransCanada Corp in a victory for environmentalists. | 0fake |
Trump’s Bizarre Reaction To Hillary’s Speech Calling Him Racist Proves He’s Racist (TWEETS) | Donald Trump, besides being a classic narcissist, also exhibits classic projection behavior. Nearly everything that s been coming out of his mouth lately regarding Hillary Clinton is exactly what has been said about him. It s as if he doesn t think anyone will notice, and likely his imbecilic supporters won t.Now, in a move that is bizarre to most sane-minded individuals, Trump is trying to paint Hillary Clinton as a racist. You know, the woman with 90+% of the African-American vote locked up.Why does Hillary have such widespread support from the black community? Because she s worked her whole career to make life better for them. It s not rocket science.Well, it s that and the fact that Donald Trump, quite literally, is racist and is supported by white nationalists everywhere.Trump has been pandering to the black and Latino vote at almost every recent rally. It s obvious, pathetic, and kind of insulting to people s intelligence. Something he doesn t have to worry about among his pack of lemmings.So, when Hillary delivered a speech in Reno, Nevada highlighting how very racist Trump is with his incendiary remarks, and there s evidence to back it up with how he s treated the Latino community, and how he refused to rent property to African-Americans back in the 70s, his quick reaction was to say Hillary is actually the racist one.How did he deliver this reaction? Via his favorite medium of choice Twitter, of course.Directly after a tweet pandering to the African-American community that read, So many in the African-American community are doing so badly, poverty and crime way up, employment and jobs way down: I will fix it, promise which assumes all black people live in poverty, Trump tweets out his reaction to Hillary slamming him.Just watched recap of #CrookedHillary's speech. Very short and lies. She is the only one fear-mongering! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2016Hillary Clinton's short speech is pandering to the worst instincts in our society. She should be ashamed of herself! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2016Hillary Clinton is using race-baiting to try to get African-American voters- but they know she is all talk and NO ACTION! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2016Take some time to really absorb that. He s literally saying what everyone is saying about him. He s proving to the world that he knows he s a racist, but thinks if he can say I know you are, but what am I no one will notice.The American people aren t that stupid, Donald, and we will make sure you get nowhere near the Oval Office come November at the voting booth.Featured Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images | 1real |
These Banks Are Fighting The Cycle Of Poverty In Places The Major Banks Won’t Go | A recent special report by James Trimarco for Yes! Magazine has shined a spotlight on the way that certain banking institutions have perpetuated cycles of poverty and institutionalized economic racism. It also shows how a very specific set of banks are working to smash those systems. These banks are called Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs).Traditional banks have only one goal to make a profit. They are also incredibly racist, locking people of color out from being able to access capital. Research from MIT in 2008 found that lack of access to capital is the number one driving factor in racial disparities across a range of economic metrics such as profits and employment.CDFIs are not purely profit motivated, so they can serve areas that traditional banks won t, particularly in rural areas and communities of color. Trimarco looked at how CDFI s are changing lives in the poorest region in the poorest state in the U.S. the Mississippi Delta region. He writes: Mississippi has more CDFIs per capita than any other state. Its financial ecosystem is a unique place, where bankers and residents are coming to see one another as allies despite a difficult history. It s a window into what the United States might look like if the government actively recruited banks and credit unions as allies in the fight against poverty. CDFIs trace their roots back to the 19th century, with the establishment of black-owned financial institutions. Throughout more than a century, the idea and mission behind these predecessors have expanded dramatically. One of the biggest changes came with the Riegle Community Development and Regulatory Improvement Act of 1994.This created the CDF Fund. It is used to help fund the now more than 1,000 CDIFs there are in the United States. The fund started with $50 million dollars and has grown to more than $230 million dollars. In order to become a CDFI and access that fund, a financial institution must spend at least 50% of their assets in low-income areas.These not-just-for-profit intuitions work on programs such as teaching financial literacy, credit lending and helping people create worker-owned co-ops.CDFIs rarely get much attention in the political spotlight. In the 2016 election, only two candidates addressed the issue seriously. Believe it or not, neither of them was running on the Republican ticket. Hillary Clinton, the now Democratic presidential nominee vowed to double investment into CDFIs. Her then rival, Bernie Sanders, supported a more ambitious (though not unpragmatic) plan to turn post offices into de-facto versions of CDFIs.Whether they remain as they are now, or they continue to evolve and become integrated into the post office, these types of institutions are desperately needed in the United States. They are an idea whose time has come and then been proven to be essential for more than a century.Featured image from Spencer Platt/Getty Images | 1real |
Obama bans some military equipment sales to police | WASHINGTON — President Obama has banned the sale of some kinds of military equipment to local law enforcement agencies, following widespread criticism of a paramilitary-like response to riots in a St. Louis suburb last August.
In doing so, Obama put his stamp on the recommendations of a multi-agency federal working group that endorsed a ban on sales of some military equipment and providing more training, supervision and oversight of others.
"We've seen how militarized gear can sometimes give people a feeling like they're an occupying force, as opposed to a force that's part of the community that's protecting them and serving them," Obama said in a speech in Camden, N.J. Monday. He said military equipment can "alienate and intimidate local residents and may send the wrong message."
In Camden, Obama highlighted a wide range of administration initiatives to fight crime, improve police-community relations and improve transparency in policing. They include a White House data initiative to encourage local police departments to release more information about arrests and uses of force by police; guidelines for police use of body-worn cameras; and federal grants to help implement community policing strategies.
But the changes to federal policies on the use of military equipment for police received most of the attention, following the use of armored trucks, riot gear, tear gas and assault rifles by police last year in Ferguson, Mo., where days of unrest followed the police shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old man.
Banned will be tracked armored vehicles, bayonets, grenade launchers, camouflage uniforms, and large-caliber weapons and ammunition.
"So we're going to prohibit some equipment made for the battlefield that is not appropriate for local police departments," Obama said. "There's other equipment that may be needed in certain cases, but only with proper training."
That equipment will be placed on a "controlled equipment list" that includes aircraft, wheeled tactical vehicles, mobile command-and-control units, battering rams and riot gear.
To have access to that equipment, police departments must meet national policing standards, track their use and receive approval from the federal government before selling or transferring them.
The ban on prohibited items takes effect immediately, White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz said. The other recommendations will go into effect Oct. 1, allowing the administration to write more specific rules.
Although those rules haven't been drafted, the White House highlighted one policy by the University of Texas System police that prohibits the use of military vehicles in response to "exercises of the First Amendment right to free speech" or as a part of "any public demonstration or display of police resources."
To be eligible to purchase that equipment, agencies must adopt "robust and specific written policies and protocols" covering not just the use of the federal equipment, but their policing practices in general. Agencies that violate those rules would be barred from future equipment purchases for at least 60 days and, in some cases, be referred to the Justice Department for a civil rights investigation.
Through an executive order in January, Obama asked for federal departments to consult with police and civil rights groups to come up with recommendations on police use of military equipment. Obama ratified those executive actions Monday.
But Congress is also considering legislation. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who is sponsoring one of those bills, called the president's action a step in the right direction and an acknowledgment "that this federal equipment and funding saves lives, but that these programs are in need of reform "
In a 50-page report released Monday, the working group noted that many police departments increasingly rely on the federal government for equipment as local budgets are strained. "Yet, in some neighborhoods and communities, incidents of misuse, overuse, and inappropriate use of controlled equipment occur, and the resulting strain placed on the community and its relationship with law enforcement is severe," the report said. | 0fake |
12 MUSLIM MIGRANTS GANG RAPE 13 YR OLD GIRL…Muslim Lawyer Blames Girl | Tell us again Barack, about the poor widows and orphans who are being strategically placed in our small towns and communities across America. With all the rape and violence being committed by these refugees, why in the world would we welcome these savage animals into our country? Oh that s right to vote for Democrats A Muslim councilor has admitted that some feel as though it takes two to tango as 12 men were jailed for gang-raping a 13-year-old white girl in West Yorkshire.The gang of men from Pakistani origin were jailed for a total of 143 years at Bradford Crown Court today, for 13 months of horrendous abuse of the British white girl in 2011 and 2012. However, the Councillor for Keighley Central, where the abuse took place, has admitted that some members of the community felt it takes two to tango and that the girl may have played her part .Zafar Ali, who has been a member of the Keighley Mosque for decades believes that some of the men may have attended in the past, but said the Muslim community totally condemn their actions.He told MailOnline: Everyone now believes that justice has been done, we need to move forward and it is a lesson for the whole Muslim community. There are a few bad apples but this does not represent the Muslim community as a whole and any sensible Muslim totally condemns these actions. Eleven of the men were today jailed for rape and a twelfth man was jailed for sexual activity with a child under 16 today at Bradford Crown Court, but the ringleader has fled to Bangladesh.West Yorkshire Police confirmed that the men jailed were of Pakistani origin.The sentences come as it emerged that:Ringleader Ahmed Al-Choudhury who facilitated most of the offences is believed to now be living in Bangladesh after fleeing at the beginning of the investigation in 2012 After the sentencing, Kris Hopkins, Conservative MP for Keighley spoke out against the sick model of organized groups of Asian men grooming young white girls , but said there are more women out there who need justice.He said the sentenced were vindication for controversial comments he made during a parliamentary debate in 2012, claiming that organised groups of Asian men were going around raping white girls .However, he claims that even today he has been lambasted for even mentioning that the men are Asian when talking about the sentences.He told MailOnline: There are sexual offenders who are white, but the fact is this particular model is all Asian men and all the victims were white. I was attacked in 2012 and today, when these men were convicted, the community was silent. You have to ask yourself why these men get away with this behavior. There is broader issues around the way women are treated in that community, there are hundreds if not thousands of women who live behind that door and have no voice. In a Commons speech three years ago, Mr Hopkins caused controversy three years ago when he suggested Muslim men were fundamentally sexist towards women.Judge Roger Thomas QC condemned the insolent and disrespectful behaviour the accused showed in court which he said reflected their treatment of their victim.They showed her no shred of decency or humanity when as a vulnerable child she so needed care and understandingJudge Roger Thomas QC told them: The attitudes of the majority of you have so clearly demonstrated to these proceedings has been contemptuous, disrespectful and arrogant on a scale that I have hardly seen before in many years of practice in criminal law. Exactly the same attitude to the 13/14 year old girl who you all sexually abused and exploited for your own selfish gratification. He added: None of these defendants had any concern for the victim. They were totally uninterested in her welfare and what damage they were causing her. The victim clearly demanded pity and understanding but their view of her was heartless and demeaning. They saw her as a pathetic figure who had no worth and who served no purpose than to be an object that they could sexually misuse and cast aside. Via: Daily Mail | 1real |
With Flood of Urbanites, a Canadian Hippie Haven Tries to Keep Its Mellow - The New York Times | NELSON, British Columbia — Marijuana, Vietnam War draft dodgers and artists gave Nelson its bohemian soul. This remote mountain town in British Columbia has recently welcomed a new wave of settlers: urban refugees, increasingly priced out of cities like Vancouver and yearning for a simpler life. They are drawn to a burg that seems to have it all — a music academy, two video stores, three record shops, a charcuterie owned by actual French people and a main street unmarred by a Starbucks or chains. Many of Nelson’s recent transplants fled Canadian cities, where even a couple in cubicle professions can struggle to get by. Others were willing to exchange lucrative salaries for jobs that let them go mountain biking in the afternoon. “Nobody moves here to work their butt off,” said Amy Bohigian, 43, a filmmaker who relocated with her wife to Nelson from Toronto in 2006. To stay, however, they had to adapt to the town’s rather quirky entrepreneurial skill set. “You may have to sell soap at the craft market for the first few years until your massage practice has enough clients,” she said, only half joking. But Nelson’s charms have become something of a curse. The recent influx of people to this compact town of 10, 000 has led to an affordable housing crisis, set off by bidding wars over its scarce housing stock and a zero percent rental vacancy rate caused in part by homeowners who rent their properties to tourists through sites like Airbnb. Nelson’s homeless shelter has been full for months, and some residents, unable to find a place to rent, spent the spring and summer living in tents or trailers in the town’s campground. The local community college lost around 60 students this year because they could not find housing, officials said. Nelson’s housing crisis echoes a wider problem in booming British Columbia, where tight real estate markets, diminished government support for affordable housing and rising inflation have spawned a vacancy rate of 1. 3 percent, and made rentals virtually impossible to find in Vancouver, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. But Nelson is no metropolis. Founded during a silver rush in 1897, the town is wedged between a lake and the steep slopes of the Selkirk Mountains, some 400 miles east of Vancouver by road. Around a century ago, a sect of Christian Pacifists from Russia, known as the Dukhobors, settled nearby, infusing the region with antiwar zeal. During the Vietnam War, Nelson became a haven for young Americans fleeing the draft, many of whom were spirited across the border by members of a local Quaker community. In the 1970s, Nelson and the surrounding Slocan Valley were abundant with draft dodgers, hippie communes and “the best weed in the world,” said Mike Hames, 68, a Canadian carpenter whose zany, house, resembling “a boat on a mushroom trip,” is a local landmark. Nelson lost its sawmill and university a decade later, forcing the struggling town to reinvent itself through tourism and entrepreneurship. “Marijuana was definitely how people made money,” said Deb Kozak, the mayor. Nelson’s liberal tolerance played a major role in making it a regional hub for social service providers. But they have been overwhelmed by a swelling population and rising poverty. “It’s a perfect storm of issues,” said Jenny Robinson, executive director of the Nelson Cares Society, which runs the town’s homeless shelter and provides services to residents. The group has received funding and donations to maintain and build some new accommodations, she said, but not enough to solve the town’s extreme housing crunch. “In the last 18 months it’s just gone crazy,” Ms. Robinson said. Janet Mulloy and her twin, Judy, both artists, were free spirits when they moved to Nelson in 1984. Until a decade ago, Judy said, they were able to afford an apartment for under $800 a month, scraped together from their small jewelry business, odd jobs and public assistance. But Nelson’s housing crisis pushed them into homelessness this year. “This is the first time we’ve lived apart in over 20 years,” said Janet, 51, who had been sleeping in the shelter for a month while her sister moved in with a friend. The misery of homelessness has compounded a sense that the Nelson they once knew was disappearing. “It’s an economic cleansing of this town we helped create,” Judy said with a sigh. Baker Street, Nelson’s main drag, is a testament to the tensions roiling the community. On a recent afternoon, a busker stood strumming a Tom Petty tune in front of a cafe that sells organic coffee. Beggars with swollen hands suggesting heroin addiction panhandled outside a boutique selling hemp yoga pants, beeswax candles and posters explaining “How to Be an Ally to Indigenous Peoples. ” Balancing Nelson’s economic future and cultural heritage is complicated by the town’s cramped mountainside locale. “Geographically we can’t do sprawl,” Mayor Kozak said. Still, she said that Nelson was working to develop a “full spectrum” of housing to ease the crisis, while trying to address the concerns of residents worried that new development will ruin their counterculture paradise. The community once thwarted the construction of a Walmart superstore, but officials have since installed broadband internet and hope to approve a tech innovation center, part of a plan to stem rural brain drain. New arrivals are not complaining. Adam Thomas, 42, who moved to Nelson in July with his family after selling their Vancouver home, said that even dual incomes there were no longer enough to keep them out of debt. “We felt trapped in Vancouver,” he said, seated by the fire in the house they purchased for $250, 000. “We’re lucky. I feel like I’ve got to earn the right to be here. ” His wife found an office job and he dived into the town’s communal economy, teaching at the local college and working at the radio station. On Take Your Daughter to Work Day, Mr. Thomas took his daughter to his shift at Reo’s Video store, a bustling rental throwback bought and expanded this year by another Vancouver transplant. It is stocked with about 15, 000 films, a foreign section and every Academy Award best picture winner. “It’s like living in the 1990s,” he said. | 0fake |
Britain's Johnson congratulates PM May on Brexit talks progress | LONDON (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who spearheaded the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union, congratulated Prime Minister Theresa May on agreeing a divorce deal with the EU to move Brexit talks on to trade on Friday. Congratulations to PM for her determination in getting today s deal, he said on Twitter. We now aim to forge a deep and special partnership with our European friends and allies while remaining true to the referendum result - taking back control of our laws, money and borders for the whole of the UK. | 0fake |
REPORT: Mueller Hot On Trump’s Trail, Has Built His Own ‘Miniature Justice Department’ | Donald Trump is very afraid of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. It has been reported repeatedly that he is completely obsessed with the Russia investigation, and it seems that he is right to be. According to a new report in the Daily Beast, Mueller has built what they are calling an army of lawyers to investigate just what went on with Russia s interference into the 2016 presidential election, and especially into any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government officials.The new report says that Mueller s team now includes 16 heavy-hitting attorneys, and they have space deep inside one of the most secret locations in Washington, and the space includes a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCHIF), which is the name for places no laymen and laywomen like us will ever see the inside of. The secrets kept in there are pretty much in a tomb, until those privy to them see fit to release them. On top of all of that, it seems that Mueller has pulled together what the Daily Beast is calling his own Miniature Justice Department. The Daily Beast assembled a list of the names on Mueller s team, and their resumes are nothing short of stellar. Only one has never worked as a federal prosecutor, but he is a top notch lawyer in his own right and is surely useful. You can read the lengthy accomplishments of these attorneys here.In short Trump is right to be scared out of his mind. It also bears noting that sometime ago now, Mueller actually convened his own grand jury which means he has enough to believe he will stumble upon something that will warrant criminal indictments. Further, this team of lawyers has broad authority to subpoena anyone and everyone in Trump s orbit and force them to testify under oath. Also, remember even if they aren t under oath, lying to government officials is still a crime, so these people better start learning to tell the truth unless they want to face some serious jail time.Come on, Special Counsel Mueller. We re rooting for you. With any luck, everyone in Trump s White House will be thrown out of office and in jail before the 2018 midterms.Featured image via Ann Heisenfelt/Getty Images | 1real |
Valerie Jarrett: Obama’s White House Has Been Scandal-Free - Breitbart | Sunday on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS,” President Barack Obama’s close friend and longtime adviser Valerie Jarrett said, “The president prides himself on the fact that his administration hasn’t had a scandal. ” When asked about the Obama’s public personas, Jarrett said, “I think that they behave as the people who they are. What you see in public is the same thing I see in private. Do they feel responsibility because they’re historic figures? Yes, they do. But I don’t think it has made them be different than who they are. The president prides himself on the fact that his administration hasn’t had a scandal and he hasn’t done something to embarrass himself. That is not because he is being someone other that who he is. That’s who he is. That is who they are. And that is what really resonates with the American people. ” ( NYP) Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 0fake |
What Enthusiasm Gap?: Watching Crowd Go NUTS As Hillary Speaks During Florida Downpour Is Amazing | Google Pinterest Digg Linkedin Reddit Stumbleupon Print Delicious Pocket Tumblr
So much for the media narrative that there is a so-called “enthusiasm gap” between Clinton and Trump. Watching a Florida crowd roar as Hillary Clinton delivers a powerful speech in a downpour shows just how seriously people are taking this election. Clinton voters are just as motivated for her as Trump’s are for him, perhaps more so.
Clinton was in Broward County, a crucial Democratic stronghold in what could be the deciding state of the election. The weather wouldn’t cooperate , with intense rains off-and-on in the lead up to the event, but it didn’t dissuade rally goers. By the time Hillary got up to the stage, the crowd was soaked but the atmosphere was electric. After a brief moment of sunshine, the rain returned in force. Hillary kept going. Clinton speaking a rally in Florida when it started to POUR. The crowd went nuts. pic.twitter.com/5xp2iZgf1V
— David Mack (@davidmackau) November 5, 2016
The crowd was roaring. The mood was positive. It was everything that Donald Trump and his allies in the media claim you don’t see at a Clinton rally. And it was in Florida, the state that could put Hillary over the top and the state that Trump must win to even have a hope of being elected. Watching Hillary’s rally probably sent a chill down the spines of Trump’s campaign staff.
Hilariously, just yesterday, Trump got caught lying about the turnout of his own rally. According to his own account, “thousands” of people were left outside of his rally because it was too packed. Reporters on the scene debunked this claim instantly. Trump says "thousands and thousands of people" are standing outside. I am outside. There are maybe 500 people. pic.twitter.com/qKRNQYqBid
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 5, 2016
This is not to say that Democrats can get complacent. In the closing weeks of the election, the polls have become disturbingly close. RealClearPolitics puts Clinton only 1 point ahead of Trump in Florida. It’s clear that this race will be won or lost based on which side’s supporters get to the voting booth. For Clinton, it’s a good sign that Floridians are showing that they will come out for her rain or shine.
Featured image via Twitter | 1real |
North Dakota failed to inform the public of 100s of oil spills over last two years – report | RT
North Dakota, which ranks second in the US in terms of oil production, endured almost 300 oil spills in under two years and yet managed to avoid reporting a single one of them to the public, according to a new report.
Documents viewed by the Associated Press indicate that, since January 2012, as many as 750 “ oil field incidents ” were recorded in North Dakota. The distinction between spills and incidents was not immediately clear but presumably was related to the magnitude of the accident.
North Dakota, which borders Canada and has an estimated population of under 700,000 people, is like many other states heavily involved in oil production in that it is not required by law to inform the public about oil spills. Yet with the potentially devastating consequences a spill could have in a state that relies on farming and water resources, citizens have begun lobbying for greater access to information.
Dennis Fewless, director of water quality for the state Health Department, told the AP lawmakers and regulators in North Dakota are also reconsidering the current state of affairs after a wheat farmer stumbled across a major oil spill last month. That incident was not made public knowledge until 11 days later, when reporters asked. Questions have also been raised as to whether the relationship between the pipeline’s operator, Tesoro Logistics, with regulators is too close for comfort.
“ We’re certainly looking at that now and what would be a threshold for reporting to the public ,” he said. One option he said regulators are considering is a method to better track the spills that occur. Officials “ really have to dig through our database to get specifics ,” he said of the current situation.
North Dakota pumps out millions of barrels of oil every day and installed nearly 2,500 miles of new transport pipelines in 2012. There is now enough pipeline, a total of about 17,500 miles, in North Dakota to travel the distance from Los Angeles, California to New York City. The state ranks behind only Texas as the most productive, yet farmers are still unaware that the land they till every season could be tainted.
“ What you don’t know, nobody is going to tell you ,” Louis Kuster, a wheat farmer located near the north-western city of Stanley, said. Kuster explained how, earlier this month, he watched as truckloads of oily dirt were driven away from a nearby farm.
“ We have no idea how big the spill is and why it happened ,” he said, speculating it may have been from a broken pipeline although no one can be quite sure. “ I’d try to get more information from the state but I’m too busy getting my harvest in .”
In 2013 alone there have already been 291 so-called “incidents.” Of the roughly 2,209 barrels that were lost, all but 490 were contained and cleaned up at the well site. Most of the spills that companies reported to the state totaled less than 10 barrels.
Nearly 500 barrels of oil spilled in 2012, the result of 153 pipeline leaks.
“ That’s news to us ,” said Don Morrison, director of the environmentally-minded Dakota Resource Council. “ The public really should know about these. If there is a spill, sometimes a landowner may not even know about it. And if they do, people think it’s an isolated incident that’s only happening to them .” | 1real |
Macedonia's opposition rejects results of municipal vote | SKOPJE (Reuters) - Macedonia s main opposition leader cried foul over local election results after gains for the ruling party in a second round of polls on Sunday, and demanded a snap parliamentary vote. The ruling Social Democrats (SDSM) won in 40 municipalities out of a total 85 in the first round two weeks ago, including in the capital Skopje. Nineteen areas which were undecided on Oct. 16 voted again on Sunday, and the SDSM declared victory in 10. Final results were expected after midnight. Following the second round, the opposition VMRO-DPMNE s leader Nikola Gruevski dismissed the results. Because of the election violence, raping of democracy ... threats, pressure, massive bribes, the VMRO-DPMNE does not recognize these elections and will never consider them fair and democratic, Gruevski told reporters. He said a snap parliamentary vote should be organized by a technical government and demanded the resignation of the head of the state electoral commission and an investigation of the alleged election fraud. Social Democrat Prime Minister Zoran Zaev dismissed Gruevski s claims and asked VMRO-DPMNE to reconsider its rejection of the results. I am hoping they will find the strength (to act) as responsible political subjects, he told reporters. After the first round, election monitors of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said fundamental freedoms were respected but that irregularities including violence were also observed. Zaev took office in May, nearly six months after December elections, ending a two-year political crisis over a wiretapping scandal that brought down the previous government. His coalition deal with parties of ethnic Albanians, who make up nearly one third of the country s population, angered nationalists, who stormed the parliament in April after an ethnic Albanian was elected parliament s speaker. Macedonia wants to join NATO and the European Union, but it is blocked by Greece which says the name Macedonia implies a territorial claim to its own northern province of the same name. Macedonia, an ex-Yugoslav republic of about 2 million people, avoided violence during the breakup of the former federation in the 1990s but was rocked by an ethnic Albanian insurgency in 2001. | 0fake |
Trump Plans To Celebrate 100th Day On Office With Another YUUGE Rally No One Will Show Up For | Donald Trump is really excited about all the nothing he s accomplished in his first 100 days in office. So, he announced on Saturday that he plans to celebrate by throwing a big rally on his 100th day. Presumably, he expects a better turnout than he got for his pathetic inauguration.Next Saturday night I will be holding a BIG rally in Pennsylvania. Look forward to it! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 22, 2017Rally will be to mark Trump s 100 days in office & organized/paid for by Trump s campaign committee, per senior campaign official https://t.co/wYW92Z8a87 Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) April 22, 2017So far, with 100 days under his belt, Trump hasn t managed to accomplish squat except for failing to follow through on his absurd campaign promises. Mexico isn t paying for his stupid wall. His Muslim Ban was shot down twice as bigoted and unconstitutional. Obamacare is still the law of the land. And he is known as the biggest recruiting tool ISIS has at the moment. Exactly why he thinks this warrants a party is unclear. But as can only be expected of a narcissist, he is somehow convinced that this is a great idea and it totally won t have an embarrassing turnout.It is worth pointing out that the day of Trump s big rally is the same night the White House Correspondents Dinner will be taking place without the man occupying the White House in attendance because the press hurt his feelings.On Friday, Trump tweeted that the 100-day mark is a ridiculous standard. No matter how much I accomplish during the ridiculous standard of the first 100 days, & it has been a lot (including S.C.), media will kill! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2017He then followed up by telling the press that it s just an artificial barrier. He added that since he didn t have the slightest clue how to actually president when he took office, he should be given extra leeway. He also noted that even though repealing Obamacare was one of his biggest campaign promises, he has really only been thinking about if for two months. I ve been here 92 days, but I ve only been working on the health care, you know, I had to get like a little bit of grounding, right? Trump told the Associated Press. Health care started after 30 day(s), so I ve been working on health care for 60 days. Featured image via Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images | 1real |
Clinton happily yields national spotlight to Trump, avoids its glare | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If you haven’t heard a lot about what Hillary Clinton thinks of a string of controversial comments by Donald Trump that have generated round-the-clock coverage on cable news broadcasts, there is a reason – it’s by design. Since becoming the Democratic nominee last month, Clinton has been touring toy manufacturers, visiting tie makers and dropping in on public health clinics, where if she mentions Trump at all, it is usually to contrast their policies. Her swift condemnation at a Wednesday campaign rally of Trump’s remark that gun rights activists could stop her from nominating liberal U.S. Supreme Court justices was a rare instance where she has directly engaged her Republican rival in the 2016 race for the White House. Aides say Clinton’s strategy is simple: let Trump be Trump. Trump has suffered a series of missteps over the past two weeks that go beyond his remarks on gun rights activists, which he later accused the media of deliberately misinterpreting. He has tangled with party leaders, clashed with the parents of a fallen Muslim American Army captain and this week accused Clinton, a former secretary of state, and President Barack Obama of “founding” the Islamic State militant group. On Friday, he said he was just being sarcastic when he made that remark. “There is an adage in politics: Don’t get in the way of a train wreck,” said Democratic strategist Bob Shrum, a top campaign aide to presidential candidates Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004. Clinton’s advisers say they see little benefit in her going toe-to-toe with Trump over every personal accusation, generating sound bites that would dominate cable news broadcasts. Rather, they are happy for him to be embroiled in controversy while Clinton focuses on policy. Trump’s campaign declined to comment for this story, but the New York real estate developer has accused the national media of bias toward Clinton. He re-posted a supporter’s Tweet on Friday that said the “corrupt media” was deliberately exaggerating his remarks to favor his Democratic opponent. Trump has slipped in opinion polls, and worried Republican Party leaders have urged him to stop making off-the-cuff inflammatory statements that generate blanket, often negative, media coverage and distract from efforts to highlight what they see as Clinton’s many shortcomings. “He’s sucking all the oxygen out of the room to his own detriment,” said Republican strategist and Trump supporter Ford O’Connell. It’s not enough to dominate media coverage, he needs to “win” it, O’Connell said. Trump has boasted that the news coverage he generates means he does not have to spend as much on campaign ads, but political veterans say he is squandering the attention and missing opportunities to win over undecided voters. For example, Trump gave an economic speech on Monday that was meant to help his campaign regain momentum, but it was quickly eclipsed by the fallout over his remarks on gun rights activists. Clinton, meanwhile, has been busy courting local media in must-win states. Her national press pool, which seldom gets to question the candidate, often waits as she conducts interviews with local news outlets. She has granted few recent interviews to national outlets and rarely holds press conferences, a strategy her critics say is calculated to avoid questions about her use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state, and the relationship between her family’s global charity, the Clinton Foundation, and the State Department. Clinton, who has said she is one of the most transparent presidential candidates in history, has acknowledged her use of the private email server was a mistake but said she properly handled all classified information. She has denied any improper links between the foundation and the State Department. In interviews with local outlets, Clinton is more likely to face questions about job creation, public health and raising wages - all parts of her platform that she is keen to discuss. In Florida, a crucial battleground state, Republican lobbyist Gus Corbella says the contrast between the local coverage of Clinton’s campaign stops there and Trump’s events has been stark. “Clinton’s campaign seems to have the more disciplined approach,” Corbella said. “The rollout that day is on a specific event she’s attending, a message she’s trying to deliver. Whereas on the Trump side, it’s what crazy thing did he say today and the response to that.” After Clinton’s visit last week to a tie maker in Colorado, the lead story on the front page of the Denver Post was “Clinton pledges millions of jobs.” Trump also featured on the front page, but in a smaller story about “damage control” in his troubled campaign. | 0fake |
Factbox: Governorships up for grabs in 12 states | (Reuters) - Republicans and Democrats will battle in a dozen U.S. states that will hold elections for governor on Tuesday, and many of the races could be close calls. Drawing national attention because of a debate over transgender rights, Republican Governor Pat McCrory is seeking a second term against Roy Cooper, a Democrat who has been the state’s attorney general since 2001. Polls show Cooper with a modest lead in a state that also has competitive races for president and the U.S. Senate. In one of the year’s closest gubernatorial races, polls put Republican former Navy SEAL Eric Greitens in a dead heat with Democrat Chris Koster, the state’s attorney general. They are bidding to succeed Governor Jay Nixon, a Democrat who has served the maximum two terms in office. Indiana Governor Mike Pence, who initially sought re-election, withdrew from the gubernatorial race in July to campaign as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s running mate. Lieutenant Governor Eric Holcomb, a Republican, stepped in for Pence and will compete against Democrat John Gregg, a former state lawmaker. Gregg narrowly leads Holcomb, according to polls. Democratic businessman Jim Justice leads Republican state Senate President Bill Cole in polls, though data is sparse. Democratic Governor Earl Ray Tomblin was barred by term limits from running again. Democratic Governor Steve Bullock is battling Republican tech entrepreneur Greg Gianforte to keep his seat. A poll conducted last month by Mason-Dixon Polling and Research put Bullock ahead of Gianforte 47 percent to 45 percent. Democrat Colin Van Ostern has a modest lead over Republican Chris Sununu in recent polls. Both are members of the state’s Executive Council, which helps to administer state government, and are seeking to succeed Democratic Governor Maggie Hassan, who is running for the U.S. Senate. The term is two years. Republican Lieutenant Governor Phil Scott and Democrat Sue Minter, a former state transportation secretary, are vying to succeed retiring Governor Peter Shumlin, a Democrat. One poll last month gave Scott a seven-point lead, while another showed a dead heat. The term is two years. Democratic Governor Kate Brown is favored against Republican Bud Pierce, an oncologist. Brown was sworn in last year after her predecessor, John Kitzhaber, resigned in scandal. The election is for the final two years of Kitzhaber’s term. Polls put incumbent Governor Gary Herbert, a Republican, at an advantage over Democrat Mike Weinholtz, a healthcare executive, in Utah. Herbert, who took office in 2009 after his predecessor, Jon Huntsman, resigned, is seeking a second full term. Democratic Governor Jay Inslee is widely favored in the polls to win a second term against Republican Bill Bryant, a businessman and former commissioner of the Port of Seattle. Republican Doug Burgum, a former Microsoft Corp executive, is expected to defeat Democratic State Representative Marvin Nelson in the solid Republican state of North Dakota. Governor Jack Dalrymple, a Republican who was eligible to run for re-election in 2016, declined to seek another term. Democrat John Carney, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, had a wide lead in a University of Delware poll last month against Republican Colin Bonini, a state senator. Democratic Governor Jack Markell is prohibited by term limits from running for re-election to the position he has held since 2009. | 0fake |
Highlights: The Trump presidency on March 13 at 9:05 p.m. EDT | (Reuters) - Highlights of the day for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday: Fourteen million Americans would lose medical insurance by next year under a Republican plan to dismantle Obamacare, the nonpartisan U.S. Congressional Budget Office says in a report that dealt a potential setback to Trump’s first major legislative initiative. A Republican plan to repeal taxes set under Obamacare would benefit the wealthiest U.S. households at more than five times the rate for middle-income families, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. The U.S. Department of Justice asks for more time to respond to a request from lawmakers for evidence about Trump’s allegation that then-President Barack Obama wiretapped him during the 2016 election campaign. A group of states renew their effort to block Trump’s revised temporary ban on refugees and travelers from several Muslim-majority countries, arguing that his executive order is the same as the first one that was halted by federal courts. Trump’s meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been pushed back from Tuesday until Friday because of the winter storm bearing down on the northeastern United States, the White House says. Ahead of her trip to Washington, Merkel tells business leaders in Munich that free trade is important for both the United States and Germany. Trump is planning to host Chinese President Xi Jinping at a two-day summit next month, according to media reports, as his administration seeks to smooth relations with the world’s second-largest economy. Trump’s Middle East envoy and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet in Jerusalem as the new administration tries to restart peace talks with the Palestinians. Trump is set to formally announce a review of vehicle fuel efficiency rules locked in at the end of the Obama administration when he meets with automaker chiefs this week, according to two sources briefed on the matter. Trump on Thursday unveils his 2018 budget emphasizing a military buildup, and some Republicans are concerned they will be forced to choose between opposing the president or backing reductions in popular programs such as aid for disabled children and hot meals for the elderly. The U.S. Senate confirms Trump’s pick to run the government health programs for the elderly, poor and disabled, Medicare and Medicaid, filling a critical role as Republicans fight to repeal and replace Obamacare. | 0fake |
4-Year-Old Boy Shot In The Head After ‘Responsible Gun Owner’ Mom Leaves Weapon And Kids In Car | Yet another responsible gun owner caused her child to nearly die after she left her kids in the car with a loaded and unsecured handgun on Thursday. This Mom of the Year candidate decided that it was not only appropriate to leave her children alone in the car while she went shopping at the Village Market in Birmingham, Alabama, but didn t think to remove her firearms from the vehicle a mistake far too many gun enthusiast parents make.According to Birmingham police spokesman Sgt. Bryan Shelton, the children did what all children do when left unsupervised they found something to keep themselves occupied. The older of the unnamed woman s children found her mother s gun, picked it up, and the firearm discharged. The bullet grazed the woman s four-year-old son s head, but did not enter the skull. Fortunately, the child was transported to a nearby children s hospital where he is in stable condition. If you choose to own a gun you have to be safety minded and exercise a higher standard of care, Shelton said. We re glad he s OK. While this was obviously a horrific and preventable incident caused solely by the arrogance and stupidity of one of the NRA s Chosen, commenters on the story at AL.com spoke up in her defense. After all, it s not as bad as abortion, right? Earlier this month, Florida Second Amendment advocate Jamie Gilt who previously ran a pro-gun Facebook page was shot in the back after her four-year-old son found her loaded handgun near his car seat. Before the shooting, Gilt bragged that her 4-year-old gets jacked up to shoot guns with her, something she learned when she allowed him to have access to a gun through sheer negligence.Unlike the Alabama woman, Gilt ran afoul of a state law that makes it a crime only a misdemeanor, but still a crime to store a loaded firearm in such a manner that it is likely a child will gain access to the weapon. She faces up to 120 days in prison far too little time, but still more than we usually see after this sort of incident.Until these responsible gun owners start spending real time in prison, this sort of thing will continue to be commonplace, and the NRA will continue to convince its followers this was a horrible accident that could happen to anyone, never mentioning that anyone only includes people who view themselves as good guys with guns. Featured imge via AL.com | 1real |
Obama would veto House bill to block funding of Guantanamo transfers: White House | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama’s advisers would recommend he veto a bill in the House of Representatives that prohibits use of funds to transfer individuals detained at the Guantanamo Bay military prison to the United States or any foreign country, the White House said on Tuesday. The bill was introduced in the House and is making its way through Congress. It faces a tough battle in the Senate. Operation of the prison “weakens our national security by draining resources, damaging our relationships with key allies and partners, and emboldening violent extremists,” the White House said in a release. | 0fake |
MILO Fan at UW Appears Covered in Bruises, Cuts, Paint - Breitbart | A young man in an American flag hat who attended tonight’s MILO event at the University of Washington claims he was beaten and pelted with paint by protesters outside the event. [This high school sr says he was just beaten by protestors outside @Uw Milo Yiannopoulos event. #komonews pic. twitter. — Gabe Cohen (@GabeCohenKOMO) January 21, 2017, “I did nothing to agitate them. The most I did was stand up there, wearing this hat. All I wanted to do was hear what they were chanting about and read their signs” he told Gabe Cohen, of KOMO News. “I stood there and they took my hat. A third guy threw a thing of paint at me, while the second guy pulled me in and I was beaten in a crowd of them,” the boy claims. The boy’s father identifies his son as Alex Hilaire, a senior at Mariner High School in Seattle, Washington. Elsewhere at the event, MILO’s cameraman was attacked and his equipment smashed. Seattle police have confirmed that one person was hit in the face with a balloon at the protest. They also report that the protesters are throwing bricks and fireworks. One person hit with balloon following dispute in crowd at UW campus demonstration. — Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) January 21, 2017, Crowd throwing bricks, other items, at officers @ UW campus demonstration. — Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) January 21, 2017, Crowd throwing fireworks at UW campus demonstration, — Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) January 21, 2017, | 0fake |
9-Year-Old Reporter Just HUMILIATED Critics Who Told Her To Quit And Play With Dolls (VIDEO) | While it s convenient to stereotype girls as small mishmashes of sugar, spice, and everything nice, as small humans who spend most of their time playing with their dollies and trying on princess dresses, it s important to remember that every person is a unique individual, each with his own interests. For instance, 9-year-old Pennsylvania girl Hilde Kate Lysiak loves reporting the news lives for it, in fact.On Saturday, Lysiak received a tip that there was heavy police activity on ninth street in Selinsgrove, so she did what any good reporter would do she headed over to check it out. Hilde ended up scooping the world on a rather grisly murder.Hours before adult-run news agencies showed up to cover the story, and while her competitors were still misreporting information related to the crime, Hilde was getting facts straight from the scene. She worked with police and neighbors to get the story out quickly and accurately, posting her article on Facebook with the headline: EXCLUSIVE: MURDER ON NINTH STREET! She even posted a short video direct from the scene while the real news agencies scratched their heads:The Washington Post reports that Hilde is the daughter of a former New York Daily Times reporter who got her hooked on chasing stories. She writes on a wide range of topics, but her true passion is crime. I just like letting people know all the information, Hilde told the Post Monday. It s just what I really want to do. And crime is definitely my favorite. Unfortunately, some spoilsports felt that little girls shouldn t be embarrassing the real news with her excellent reporting. You are nine f*cking years old, one grown-up told her. What the f*ck is wrong with you? The former Mayor of Selinsgrove called it sensationalist trash. I m disgusted that this cute little girl thinks she is a real journalist. another alleged adult said. What happened to tea parties? Another said that nine-year-old girls should be playing with dolls rather than trying to be reporters. While her detractors view a straight report that includes nothing but the facts and quotes from neighbors and police as sensationalism, Hilda has a better description of what happened: I got a good tip from a source and I was able to confirm it. She also received numerous not-so-nice messages in her Facebook page s inbox informing her of how little girls should, and should not, act. So, she did what any good reporter would do she gathered up the comments, read them Mean Tweets style, and served up a verbal smackdown to those who say that little girls should not report the news: Because of my work, I was able to inform the people that there s a terrible murder, hours before my competition even got to the scene. In fact some of the adult-run newspapers were reporting the wrong news, or no news at all. All the while, the Orange Street News was out covering the murder, she said before directing a special message to the people who think she should be playing with dollies instead:I know this makes some of you uncomfortable, and I know some of you want me to sit down and be quiet because I m nine. But if you want me to stop covering news, then you get off your computers and do something about the news. There, is that cute enough for you? Hilde has been running her paper for two years, and it doesn t look like she intends to stop anytime soon not should she. Everyone who attempts to stifle her creativity and passion should be ashamed of themselves. But they won t be.Watch her lay the smackdown on her haters below:Featured image via screengrab | 1real |
Re: 22 Reasons Why Starting World War 3 In The Middle East Is A Really Bad Idea | Archives Michael On Television 22 Reasons Why Starting World War 3 In The Middle East Is A Really Bad Idea By Michael Snyder, on August 27th, 2013
While most of the country is obsessing over Miley Cyrus , the Obama administration is preparing a military attack against Syria which has the potential of starting World War 3. In fact, it is being reported that cruise missile strikes could begin “ as early as Thursday “. The Obama administration is pledging that the strikes will be “limited”, but what happens when the Syrians fight back? What happens if they sink a U.S. naval vessel or they have agents start hitting targets inside the United States? Then we would have a full-blown war on our hands. And what happens if the Syrians decide to retaliate by hitting Israel? If Syrian missiles start raining down on Tel Aviv, Israel will be extremely tempted to absolutely flatten Damascus, and they are more than capable of doing precisely that. And of course Hezbollah and Iran are not likely to just sit idly by as their close ally Syria is battered into oblivion. We are looking at a scenario where the entire Middle East could be set aflame, and that might only be just the beginning. Russia and China are sternly warning the U.S. government not to get involved in Syria, and by starting a war with Syria we will do an extraordinary amount of damage to our relationships with those two global superpowers. Could this be the beginning of a chain of events that could eventually lead to a massive global conflict with Russia and China on one side and the United States on the other? Of course it will not happen immediately, but I fear that what is happening now is setting the stage for some really bad things. The following are 22 reasons why starting World War 3 in the Middle East is a really bad idea…
#1 The American people are overwhelmingly against going to war with Syria…
Americans strongly oppose U.S. intervention in Syria’s civil war and believe Washington should stay out of the conflict even if reports that Syria’s government used deadly chemicals to attack civilians are confirmed, a Reuters/Ipsos poll says.
About 60 percent of Americans surveyed said the United States should not intervene in Syria’s civil war, while just 9 percent thought President Barack Obama should act.
#2 At this point, a war in Syria is even more unpopular with the American people than Congress is .
#3 The Obama administration has not gotten approval to go to war with Syria from Congress as the U.S. Constitution requires .
#4 The United States does not have the approval of the United Nations to attack Syria and it is not going to be getting it.
#5 Syria has said that it will use “ all means available ” to defend itself if the United States attacks. Would that include terror attacks in the United States itself?
#6 Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem made the following statement on Tuesday …
“We have two options: either to surrender, or to defend ourselves with the means at our disposal. The second choice is the best: we will defend ourselves”
#7 Russia has just sent their most advanced anti-ship missiles to Syria. What do you think would happen if images of sinking U.S. naval vessels were to come flashing across our television screens?
#8 When the United States attacks Syria, there is a very good chance that Syria will attack Israel. Just check out what one Syrian official said recently …
A member of the Syrian Ba’ath national council Halef al-Muftah, until recently the Syrian propaganda minister’s aide, said on Monday that Damascus views Israel as “behind the aggression and therefore it will come under fire” should Syria be attacked by the United States.
In an interview for the American radio station Sawa in Arabic, President Bashar Assad’s fellow party member said: “We have strategic weapons and we can retaliate. Essentially, the strategic weapons are aimed at Israel.”
Al-Muftah stressed that the US’s threats will not influence the Syrain regime and added that “If the US or Israel err through aggression and exploit the chemical issue, the region will go up in endless flames, affecting not only the area’s security, but the world’s.”
#9 If Syria attacks Israel, the consequences could be absolutely catastrophic. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is promising that any attack will be responded to “ forcefully “…
“We are not a party to this civil war in Syria but if we identify any attempt to attack us we will respond and we will respond forcefully”
#10 Hezbollah will likely do whatever it can to fight for the survival of the Assad regime. That could include striking targets inside both the United States and Israel.
#11 Iran’s closest ally is Syria. Will Iran sit idly by as their closest ally is removed from the chessboard?
#12 Starting a war with Syria will cause significant damage to our relationship with Russia. On Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said that the West is acting like a “ monkey with a hand grenade “.
#13 Starting a war with Syria will cause significant damage to our relationship with China. And what will happen if the Chinese decide to start dumping the massive amount of U.S. debt that it is holding? Interest rates would absolutely skyrocket and we would rapidly be facing a nightmare scenario .
#14 Dr. Jerome Corsi and Walid Shoebat have compiled some startling evidence that it was actually the Syrian rebels that the U.S. is supporting that were responsible for the chemical weapons attack that is being used as justification to go to war with Syria…
With the assistance of former PLO member and native Arabic-speaker Walid Shoebat, WND has assembled evidence from various Middle Eastern sources that cast doubt on Obama administration claims the Assad government is responsible for last week’s attack.
You can examine the evidence for yourself right here .
#15 As Pat Buchanan recently noted, it would have made absolutely no sense for the Assad regime to use chemical weapons on defenseless women and children. The only people who would benefit from such an attack would be the rebels…
The basic question that needs to be asked about this horrific attack on civilians, which appears to be gas related, is: Cui bono?
To whose benefit would the use of nerve gas on Syrian women and children redound? Certainly not Assad’s, as we can see from the furor and threats against him that the use of gas has produced.
The sole beneficiary of this apparent use of poison gas against civilians in rebel-held territory appears to be the rebels, who have long sought to have us come in and fight their war.
#16 If the Saudis really want to topple the Assad regime , they should do it themselves. They should not expect the United States to do their dirty work for them.
#17 A former commander of U.S. Central Command has said that a U.S. attack on Syria would result in “ a full-throated, very, very serious war “.
#18 A war in the Middle East will be bad for the financial markets. The Dow was down about 170 points today and concern about war with Syria was the primary reason.
#19 A war in the Middle East will cause the price of oil to go up. On Tuesday, the price of U.S. oil rose to about $109 a barrel.
#20 There is no way in the world that the U.S. government should be backing the Syrian rebels. As I discussed a few days ago , the rebels have pledged loyalty to al-Qaeda , they have beheaded numerous Christians and they have massacred entire Christian villages . If the U.S. government helps these lunatics take power in Syria it will be a complete and utter disaster.
#21 A lot of innocent civilians inside Syria will end up getting killed. Already, a lot of Syrians are expressing concern about what “foreign intervention” will mean for them and their families…
“I’ve always been a supporter of foreign intervention, but now that it seems like a reality, I’ve been worrying that my family could be hurt or killed,” said one woman, Zaina, who opposes Assad. “I’m afraid of a military strike now.”
“The big fear is that they’ll make the same mistakes they made in Libya and Iraq,” said Ziyad, a man in his 50s. “They’ll hit civilian targets, and then they’ll cry that it was by mistake, but we’ll get killed in the thousands.”
#22 If the U.S. government insists on going to war with Syria without the approval of the American people, the U.S. Congress or the United Nations, we are going to lose a lot of friends and a lot of credibility around the globe. It truly is a sad day when Russia looks like “the good guys” and we look like “the bad guys”.
What good could possibly come out of getting involved in Syria? As I wrote about the other day , the “rebels” that Obama is backing are rabidly anti-Christian, rabidly anti-Israel and rabidly anti-western. If they take control of Syria, that nation will be far more unstable and far more of a hotbed for terrorism than it is now.
And the downside of getting involved in Syria is absolutely enormous. Syria, Iran and Hezbollah all have agents inside this country, and if they decide to start blowing stuff up that will wake up the American people to the horror of war really quick. And by attacking Syria, the United States could cause a major regional war to erupt in the Middle East which could eventually lead to World War 3.
I don’t know about you, but I think that starting World War 3 in the Middle East is a really bad idea.
Let us hope that cooler heads prevail before things spin totally out of control. It Is Illegal To Feed The Homeless In Cities All Over The United States » Boo-urns
There is no need for a *world* war. Just let them all kill each other; the sooner the world is free from the idiocy that abounds throughout the entire middle east — including Israel — the better off the rest of us will be. 2Gary2
Does anyone out there see this ending well?
Michael Rodster
The US and it’s Allies don’t care what happens in the Middle East. In fact it’s my view that they would prefer absolute chaos and a full blown out war.
As the mantra in 1992 Elections…”It’s all about the economy stupid”. And the same applies here as well. This is all desperation as the US knows what’s coming economically. If they can ramp up their Military Industrial Complex it could help boost the economy. That is the primary business the US is in. It’s all about war and spying.
I do hate constantly repeating the man but it’s needed here as well. This all played out during the Great Depression except this time all the fiat based currency nations are in the same boat as the US and this time they have nukes
“Trade wars, Currency wars, World wars”– Gerald Celente Adrian
On the contrary, a few may benefit…the CEOS and huge shareholders of Halliburton, Ratheon, etc…but the economy would be hurt by threats to oil, decreased stability in the ME, and so on. They don’t care about the economy, if they did they would have implemented stark programs to bring millions back to work. Instead, it’s been business as usual with downsizing, QE 2,3, 4, and shipping jobs overseas. davidmpark
No. It won’t. Bad Kitty Cat
Not at all… and I also wonder how many US allies are going to join in! I truely believe there is a strong desire for war! old fart
As usual they will join in for the first few months then slowly fade away leaving the US stuck with the whole mess. it has happened every time this time we are having a revisit to the crusades,, That mess lasted for 200 years and was never settled it just quieted down for a mutual draw. Hambone
Short of the second coming, I see no happy endings to this play. cateye
No good ending. Cataclysm perhaps. I got a bad feeling about this whole thing….like the US is being led like a lamb to slaughter. Colby Williams
We should just back off of the whole Syrian thing, its not worth it. JustanOguy
No. tom
No I don’t Michael. Thank you for keeping us informed on many fronts. I share your work everyday in e-mails and on FB. I hope that people are listening to what you are saying MeMadMax
Ochooma’s ego will kill us all… lupa
There would be plenty of sand for the building trade! or Rebuilding trade! RICHARD
I think we are on the verge of a economic collapse and a world war. With everything going on in just this country i will be surprise if we make in till the end of Oct. I have said this before. The train is just about to go over the cliff. lavista4u
Yes. true…I believe its a distraction. September is Illuminati New year and they do some crap during the Month of September like 911…
What is coming to Americans next month could be 100 times worse than what they would do to Syrians.
Americans needs to be more prepared and ready than Syrians it seems …It could be a distraction to cause chaos in America.
They know no one wants war in America and even lame stream is publishing that story and 99% of comments on main stream news sites like CNN is against war….
I believe America is their next target not Syria even though they are making it look like its Syria and Iran….
Even if this does not turn out this way…Americans need to be prepared for all scenarios….as they are center of all problems created by the cabal. good luck….Make friends and join forces….Unity is Strength…. patricia666
my mother in-law got Dodge Dart Sedan by working parttime from a home pc. see this website www.KEP2.com old fart
How much was she charging per lay? Sueychop
When the stuff hits the fan every American should make sure to shoot at least two Russians before they get shot themselves. That way we win. seth datta
How can this not be a part of/prelude to the End Times? And yet ignorance and apathy are the order of the day for most folk. Tim
@Richard, I couldn’t agree more. I think this October we will have our eyes opened. This train is in full speed. I have been stocking up for the last 2 years on food, ammo and sanitation. The biggest problem I have run into is income and cost of ammo. The ammo price has come down and some sites are catching up (midland and foxtrotgear seem to be the best prices). The ammo shortage hurt the last year, but my income seems like it has dwindled over the last 2 years. Josh
It has been a rough couple of months. I always check ammoseek and it seems like bulk ammo and foxtrotgear have the best bulk prices. Don’t forget sanitation, food and medical. Keep your powder dry. MeMadMax
If possible, keep a full tank of gas at all times. It seems like things are going faster than what we know. Gay Veteran
as Gerald Celente says about the economy: when all else fails they take you to war Beanodle
Oil at above $150.00 per barrel will decimate many economies. Especially it the suppliers demand Gold or a currency other than U.S. dollars for it.
If Obama starts a foreign war without Congressional approval can he be impeached? Would his impeachment placate Russia and China? Celery Muncher
Impeachment didn’t faze Bill Clinton and it certainly won’t faze King Barry the rodeo clown. These people will simply laugh at the impeachment proceedings and there are not enough congressmen with guts to remove the putz from office even if he was impeached. Obama will go on his merry way doing what he pleases because everyone is so scared of being branded a racist that their balls are frozen in their pants…. Gay Veteran
There is bipartisan agreement on empire abroad and the national security/surveillance state at home obama_drama
Bingo dood! Arkaden
“If the President takes us to war without Congressional approval, I will call for his impeachment. The Constitution is clear. And so am I.” -Joe Biden, 2007
“The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.” -Barack Obama, 2007
THIS time must be different. Hambone
It’s sad, but those lying, two-faced hypocrites will never be held accountable for their words and actions by a great many of the lemmings in this country. We are truly getting the government we deserve. myrna652
my mom in law just got Hyundai Sonata Sedan by working at home online… see this page www.JAM20.com Adrian
DOUBLESPEAK! CorrectionSir
Actually, the president can authorize military action, short of declaring war, if it is in support of allies, treaties or through the request of the UN. That’s the way things have been changed and rejiggered. Gay Veteran
and NONE of those apply in Syria Ralfine
Attacking a sovereign country is an act of war. And an attacked country has the right to defend itself, i.e. by sinking the attacking fleet. squashpants
He said that in 2007? Afghanistan started in 2001, and Iraq in 2003. What war was Biden referring to? MeMadMax
Prolly georgian conflict. GodHelpUs
Over amount of years U.S. prospered with the highest public debt. Without wars on it’s territory and so on.. Economy collapse is inevitable. To hold it over, U.S. needs to seed unstability and war in other countries. To keep ourselves stable country, to keep dollar high value (but without gold – dollar is just a paper). We intentonally made that “Arabic spring”, changed management of all those countries. Who didn’t agree – was murdered (like Kaddafi), who did like Egypt – was changed by our man. Now we expect another wave of economical collapse. We NEED to seed fear and distable east. And it’s not Obama! He’s just a puppet.. We made hugest and well trained army with the top weapons on other countries money 😀 But It won’t last forever… churchill
o aye pal for sure its diffrent obama changed his bacon for weetabix he goes for a 5 mile run now before thinking about war and fat soldiers not being able to run from their turbo tanks it takes an american soldier at least 2 hours to put his make up on first Elelei Guhring
Notice how neonics found in many pesticides most manufactured by Bayer/Monsanto and which have killed up to 70% of bee populations around the world are not an imminent threat to the nation, even though this action is considered Terrorism under US law: any action that endangers the food supply IS terrorism. davidmpark
We accepted our orders for NBC gas masks today. 2 adult sizes; 3 children sizes. Got them online for $6.99 ea/free shipping.
Also got some extra med kits, potassium iodine, and more food.
We will get hit. The US will get struck again and no country will cry for us. Could we take on the international community? Only if we use WMD’s on them, too. China, Russia, and Iran will retaliate.
Congress needs to move to stop Obama as this is enough to prove he and his entourage are incapable of ensuring the welfare of the United States. Impeachment needs to be done, arrests need to be made, trials must commence… and sentences if judge and congressional jury find guilty anyone for crimes against this people.
We must support such actions by Congress, or we will pay the price; not them. ?huh
Where did you get the masK? Were filters outdated? That is cheap! davidmpark
They’re IDF leftovers bought on Amazon. I also bought the new canisters – assuming the included cans are expired. ?huh
I looked and the Amazon review show the items are old and may not be useful and attack. Some are as old as 40 years. davidmpark
If you are worried about gas attacks, you can make a filter for an air conditioning unit.
First, get all of the supplies you can: a lot of baking soda and wood charcoal (not briquettes), piece of wood, a scale (any kind), a large pot, 2 pillow cases, a plastic or metal box, and duct tape.
Pour the baking soda into a pot and weigh it. After recording the weight, place on heat source and cook it for a few minutes. Remove and re-weigh, then repeat. When the scale no longer shows change in weight, pour the powder into a pillowcase and make more if necessary to fill to pillowcase about half way or more. This process converts the sodium bicarbonate into sodium carbonate (soda ash, or activated carbon).
Now pour the charcoal onto the pot and use a piece of wood to crush the charcoal into smaller pieces, about the size of wheat grains. Pour into pillow case and make more if necessary to fill to pillowcase about half way or more. Some dust will fall out – let it.
Now, drill or cut two holes big enough to snuggly fit the air intake hose of your A/C unit into the plastic or metal box on the shorter sides. Place the bag of soda ash on one side, the bag of charcoal on the other side. Seal with duct tape generously. Now attach the air intake hoses of your A/C unit on the unit with the air entering the charcoal first, and the soda ash second. Duct tape generously on both ends.
We built this last year when the ash and smoke from local wildfires were choking the air around us. We were supremely comfortable with filtered air. Will it work for chemical weapons? The soda ash is the same ingredient used in gas masks, but I really don’t know. Works great for smoke and ash, and chili cook-off’s, but I have no real data that it will work for WMD’s. Can some experts chime in? Truther
Two easy reasons to understand: Racial Guilt and Desire for Something for Nothing. There you go. saintmatty
A very good chance that we will get hit. Major city and who knows where else. Get some food and water together. Might be inside for a few days as chaos occurs in the streets. davidmpark
One of those times a carbine would be handy… Keywee
“Why did such a good nation decide to #$%& itself over this bad? We’re so much better than this!” I think that as a nation you became complacent, distracted with trivial “entertainment”. The world banking system got it’s claws back into you after all that hard work by the founding fathers to escape it. Hopefully once enough of your own people are affected by the actions of your government you will rediscover your revolutionary roots. Gay Veteran
“…Congress needs to move to stop Obama….” you assume they disagree with him davidmpark
I’m hoping they’ll do their job for once. Gay Veteran
we will all be disappointed, because there is NO difference between the 2 parties Ralfine
All people have the government they deserve. Syrin
Here’s how this could play out. We invade Syria. It’s a leaping point to go to war with Iran who has already threatened war with Israel if we invade. Obama will sign the UN Small Arms Treaty, and Russian troops have already been training on US soil for over a year to disarm Americans. I believe they will stage some false flag event in FEMA region 3 which has been urgently stockpiling by “no later than October 1″ according to all their requests for supplies. (do a search, they are stockpiling a A ton in FEMA region 3) Martial law will be declared enforced by our militarized polive, some Iranian patsy will be blamed, and they will jump from Syria to Iran. Obama had a behind the scenes meeting with the highest level financial people in the US last week. The last time this happened, they took out gold. I think they will use the war and false flag events to perform a simultaneous engineered collapse of the economy because they know we cannot recover from our debt burden hoping the no information GARY voters will blame the evil Syrians for our economic problems. Just like Nazzzi Germany, we become a dictatorship overnight. davidmpark
Okay, I looked it up about the stockpiling for region 3. That makes good sense to concentrate around there for the sake of the powers in DC. They’d want to make sure they don’t have any disruptions in their cocktail parties and lasciviousness.
They stockpiled around the furherbunker during the battle for Berlin. Makes sense to do that sort of thing when they make unpopular and more blatant illegal actions against their own people. K
Excellent comment. The idea behind Russian troops was, it would be easier to get them to fire on civilians. I wonder if the puppet masters every gave any thought to the fact, that would cut both ways. K
E4B spotted in Turkey yesterday. I have never heard of them deploying them outside the Country before. The Check is in the Mail
Over the top but I understand the concern. It is not like the fools in DC have earned any trust. old fart
How can that be after all Zero won the Nobel Peace Prize. xander cross
I blame white men who are profiting of the weapons dealing. Of course, all of you will ignore that fact. Smh Jason Mckenzie
1st Oct came and went, ya rumour-monger.. K
Ever since they passed that war on terror resolution in 2001. It seems no President feels they need clearance from anyone. Can this end well? Only if a backdoor agreement has been made with Russia and China. A certain number of missiles fired at certain agreed on targets. In exchange they stick to just stern words. If such an agreement does not exist. Then the first salvo, could easily cause everyone in the area, to bring out their new toys. And that will not end well. A D
OIL is naturally occurring – GOD created the earth & everything in it. There is enough OIL in the USA, but the eco-nazi’s and other idiots will not allow them to drill. Just like AIR now carbon is a threat, so many idiots believe all of the LIES trumped up by elites. davidmpark
“OIL is naturally occurring…” Yeah, the Abiotic Oil process. We won’t ever run out of oil. Ralfine
Any idea why it’s called organic chemistry? Trainwreck Coming Fast
That will change. It is ALL going to change once the fur begins to fly domestically and abroad. Things that will be different:
–Even the liberal fools will be begging to drill. But they will not understand that decades of no new refineries means terrifying shortages caused by them.
–No more discretionary spending on music, entertainment, parties, etc. Sure, it will occur, but a tenth of what is evident now. The boards, extra houses, luxuries, will no longer be part of life. Maybe not so bad.
–Roving bands of gangs and criminals will be put down by law abiding citizens with guns. People will no longer accept crime. Bring back the death penalty and frontier justice. It is coming. The “I was disadvantages” growing up will only get a bullet in the head. The nation will no longer be able to afford and tolerate the rape of society.
–Healthcare will be a disaster. Obama and the Left will blame it on the GOP but that will only work for the hardcore remnant of his supporters. The rest of the nation will marvel at its stupidity for not pushing back sooner. But they will realize the system has been so destroyed that it will take years to bring back what we had.
–WHERE TO STOP? It is so obvious. Gay Veteran
at what cost? yeah you can have all the oil you want here at $500 a barrel Ralfine
And, to get one barrrel you have to spend 5 barrels in energy. Keywee
Yay! Someone else who actually gets it! A D
AIR, WATER, OIL you name it, the eco-nuts and elitist will do whatever it takes NOT to let a good crisis go to waste.. quoted from OHBOMA thugs. ResilientNews
one of my local tv stations had a poll on their website if the u.s. should strike Syria and the results were 100% NO. Bill
Best poll of many asking the same question shows 25% in favor. Still doesn’t show the idiot in chief is listening to we the “real”people!!! Lennie Pike
The thugs who control the U.S. are allied with those who control China! Birds of a feather (elite Godless fascists) have joined forces for totalitarian worldwide rule!!!)
Our industry and gold has been intentionally transferred to China.
Expect to see Chinese militery in the U.S. – not Russian – if Russia allows it. clemster
The Russians will never look like the “good guys”. Tatiana Covington
It could be that a coup d’etat will be required.
I hope not. GodHelpUs
Over amount of years U.S. prospered with the highest public debt. Without wars on it’s territory and so on.. Economy collapse is inevitable. To hold it over, U.S. needs to seed unstability and war in other countries. To keep ourselves stable country, to keep dollar high value (but without gold – dollar is just a paper). We intentonally made that “Arabic spring”, changed management of all those countries. Who didn’t agree – was murdered (like Kaddafi), who did like Egypt – was changed by our man. Now we expect another wave of economical collapse. We NEED to seed fear and distable east. And it’s not Obama! He’s just a puppet.. We made hugest and well trained army with the top weapons on other countries money 😀 But It won’t last forever… Bill
It’s ironic that we have a war brewing as the debt limit comes to a head —–again. Big drop in the 10 yr as $ leave the stock market for the “safety” of bonds. Any guess where the 10 yr will be in 90 days? Tobias Smith | 1real |
BREAKING: ELECTRONICS BANNED on Some U.S. Flights From Middle East…List of 9 Airlines and Airports Affected | COULD IT BE THAT EXPERT BOMB MAKER Ibrahim al-Asiri is trying to use an electronic device to take down a jet?Ibrahim al-Asiri has a long track record of bombing including trying to blow up a Detroit-bound jet using explosives in underwear. Remember that? The underwear bomber was thankfully caught but these people are constantly trying to discover new ways to terrorize people.Advanced bomb-making techniques, such as those taught by Mr Asiri, have alarmed security services in the past. In July 2014, the US requested enhanced security checks on all direct flights to the US, in response to a credible threat . Security experts say that the warning was triggered by a fear that some of al-Qaeda s sophisticated bomb-making expertise, such as that pioneered by Mr Asiri, had proliferated out of Yemen to Syria.For more information on al-Asiri: Profile: Al-Qaeda bomb maker Ibrahim al-AsiriThe US has announced a ban on electronic devices from cabin baggage on flights from eight mainly Middle Eastern and North African countries.The measure will affect nine airlines operating out of 10 airports.Large electronic devices will only be allowed on board in checked baggage. Phones are exempt from the new rules.US officials said the airlines had been given 96 hours, beginning at 07:00 GMT on Tuesday, to ban devices bigger than a mobile phone or smartphone from cabins. They said the ban had no end date.The airports affected are:Queen Alia International, Amman, Jordan Cairo International Airport, Egypt Ataturk Airport, Istanbul, Turkey King Abdulaziz International, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia King Khalid International, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Kuwait International Airport Mohammed V International, Casablanca, Morocco Hamad International, Doha, Qatar Dubai International, United Arab Emirates Abu Dhabi International, United Arab EmiratesThe nine airlines are:Royal Jordanian Egypt Air Turkish Airlines Saudi Arabian Airlines Kuwait Airways Royal Air Maroc Qatar Airways Emirates Etihad AirwaysHomeland Security Secretary John Kelly called members of Congress over the weekend to explain the security issues behind the ban, congressional aides said.The restrictions had been under consideration for several weeks, US media said.In February 2016 an aircraft operated by the Dubai-based carrier Daallo was damaged by an explosion shortly after take-off from the Somali capital, Mogadishu.Investigators said a passenger who was sucked out of the plane had been carrying a laptop bomb. The pilot managed to land and the alleged bomber was the only fatality. Had the device gone off at cruising altitude, the plane would almost certainly have been destroyed.The Islamist militant group al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaeda, claimed that it was responsible. The possibility of further such attacks is apparently what is now concerning American spies .Read more: BBC | 1real |
Trump Press Secretary F*cks Up, Idiotically Retweets Satire Video Making Fun Of Him | The Trump administration has a Twitter problem. Donald Trump can t seem to control his narcissistic Twitter rants, but even his Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, is far too impulsive. He retweeted a video that he thought was a flattering portrayal, but the truth is, it was a satirical Onion video, and if he had watched till the end, he would realize it wasn t flattering at all.A good part of Spicer s job is to monitor the media. You would think he would read all the way through, or at least who the source was, but instead, Spicer tweeted, You nailed it. Period! to the Onion.The video, entitled 5 Things To Know About Sean Spicer, should have let Spicer in on the joke in the very first item. It said his role in the Trump administration is to provide the American public with robust and clearly articulated misinformation. Okay, perhaps he missed the mis in misinformation. Next?The second one was innocuous enough. It said he was formerly Senior Correspondent on NPR s national desk. Fair enough. Next?Clearly, Spicer didn t get to the third one because in that, the Onion called his speaking style defensive. As for whether Spicer has lied to the press, the answer to #4 is possibly above most Trumpian s heads: One s own mental activity is the only unquestionable fact of one s experience. The last one could be what Spicer was referring to when he said nailed it! The question was, does he nail the pocket square or does he nail the pocket square. Spicer is almost as good at the pocket square as he is at alternative facts, so the Onion s answer was:Snowy white, quarter inch of clearance you better believe he does.Oddly, that tweet is still up, but people aren t letting him forget it. Of course, as one Twitter user reminded us, Spicer also tweeted two passwords last week. In other words, he s clearly not too bright.You nailed it. Period! https://t.co/AUmS1C222b Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) January 29, 2017 | 1real |
Drinks And Dancing As Things Got VERY Real During Cold Open Of SNL Season Finale (VIDEO) | No matter which candidate you re pulling for to be the Democratic presidential nominee, you re likely to find the cold open from Saturday Night Live s season finale pretty damn hilarious. Of course there will be some who won t see it as funny, and those people need to calm the hell down, because it s comedy and no one is perfect, and SNL just perfectly encapsulated what s happening in the Democratic race, whether you like it or not.Both Kate McKinnon and Larry David reprised their roles as Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, and met up at a bar to unwind from what s been a pretty grueling race. The bartender announces that the bar is closing, but Bernie refuses to leave announcing that he ll leave when he s good and ready to leave. It s at this point that Hillary and Bernie have one last drink at the bar Bernie a drink that that s refreshing and revolutionary that draws huge crowds, while Hillary had a beer no one likes, but gets the job done. The pair then rehashes over the campaign and what they might have done differently, and while Bernie admits that he secretly imagines being a millionaire and eating fancy foods, Hillary admits that she really really wants to be president. Something Bernie is keenly aware of.Hillary then invites Bernie to dance where, of course, she insists on leading, and the two dance off throughout the SNL studio.It s going to be a long summer without the SNL cast going after the candidates from both sides at every turn, but one thing is for certain, the season premiere this fall is bound to be pretty damn epic.Watch the cold open here:Featured image via video screen capture | 1real |
Melania Trump Makes SHOCKING Admission Disqualifying Her Husband From Office | Most sane people have been extremely alarmed that we have a toddler in a 70-year-old man s body at the top of a major party s presidential nominee. That person is, of course, Republican Donald J. Trump. Trump has managed to do a million things that would have destroyed any other candidate s campaign, but still he powered on to win the GOP nomination.During this travesty of a campaign, Trump s wife Melania has largely been absent from the campaign trail. She has been visible at the debates in the family box, of course, but hasn t said a word since she was humiliated by giving a conventions speech that was plagiarized from First Lady Michelle Obama s 2008 speech at the Democratic National Convention. Now, in the wake of her husband humiliating her entire family by being caught on a hot mic having a horrifically lewd and offensive conversation about women with then-Access Hollywood host Billy Bush, Melania Trump is breaking her silence.She sat down to discuss the tape and her husband s behavior with CNN s Anderson Cooper, in which while she said the language used by both men was unacceptable, Melania seemed to take a boys will be boys angle on the whole thing, and even took the whole thing a bit further by literally calling her 70-year-old husband a kid. Here is the exchange, via The Hill: It s kinda like two teenage boys actually they should behave better, right? the potential first lady said about her husband and former Access Hollywood host Billy Bush. He was 59, Cooper said. Correct, Trump responded. Sometimes I said I have two boys at home I have my young son and I have my husband, Trump said. I know how some men talk. That s how I saw it. Melania Trump went on to say: We talk a lot, a lot about the campaign. We talk about the language because I don t allow that he uses bad language. But I tell him that, you know, there are consequences as well, and he he needs to be careful [with the] language he uses. Unfortunately, I ve got news for Mrs. Trump. Her husband IS a kid, just as she alluded to herself. That alone should tell her what the rest of us already know: he should not be running for president.Watch the exchange below:Melania Trump on "locker room talk": "I know how some men talk and that's how I saw it, yes" https://t.co/IDm7N1ioh5 https://t.co/0UMZBrGmw5 CNN (@CNN) October 18, 2016Featured image via video screen capture | 1real |
U.S. poised to approve Boeing fighter jet sales to Qatar, Kuwait | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government is poised to approve two long-delayed sales of Boeing Co fighter jets to Qatar and Kuwait, and could announce the multibillion-dollar deals during President Barack Obama’s visit to the Gulf this week, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Both deals have been stalled amid concerns raised by Israel that equipment sent to Gulf states could fall into the wrong hands and be used against it, and by the Obama administration’s broader decision-making on military aid to the Gulf. However, the Pentagon and the State Department both have signed off on the sale of some 36 F-15 fighter jets to Qatar and 24 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets to Kuwait, both built by Boeing. The White House is expected to follow suit shortly. The sale to Kuwait is worth about $3 billion and the one to Qatar is probably close to $4 billion, sources familiar with the matter said. “The last hurdle now is getting approval from the National Security Council and the White House,” said one of the sources. The Pentagon had no immediate comment. A senior Obama administration official said it was the administration’s policy not to comment on potential arm sales until it has formally notified Congress of an intent to sell something. But, the official said, the United States is committed to the security and stability of the Gulf region and defense sales “fit into the overall U.S. regional diplomatic strategy.” Expected approval of the fighter jet sales comes as the White House seeks to shore up relations with Gulf allies as they increase their military capabilities amid growing fears that Washington is drawing closer to Iran in the aftermath of the nuclear deal with that country. Senior U.S. officials, including Navy Secretary Ray Mabus have publicly urged approval of the weapons sales, which will help maintain production of the fourth-generation Boeing fighter jets, while the newer and more advanced Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jet enters service in coming years. One senior U.S. defense official said the Pentagon is keen to see the Boeing F-15 and F/A-18 production lines in St. Louis continue and does not want to “foreclose any options on fourth-generation aircraft at this point.” Boeing already is spending “hundreds of millions” of dollars to buy long-lead materials such as titanium to prepare for a possible Kuwaiti order for F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and a separate U.S. Navy order for 12 jets put on the service’s “unfunded priorities” list submitted to Congress. The Navy is hoping that Congress will provide the funding to pay for the Boeing jets in fiscal 2017, although the planes were not included in its base budget request. It already has earmarked funding for more F/A-18E/F jets in fiscal 2018. A larger concern now is the Boeing F-15 line, which is set to end in 2019 after Boeing completes work on a large order for Saudi Arabia, unless a follow-on order is approved. | 0fake |
Tony Romo’s Star Is Eclipsed by Another Feel-Good Story - The New York Times | FRISCO, Tex. — The Dallas Cowboys’ new headquarters is sparkly and showy and so that it makes the team’s longtime base of operations — in Irving, about 20 miles southwest of here — look like your grandparents’ rec room. The complex is like an airy, marbled museum, with reminders, maybe every 10 steps, that the Cowboys once were a dynasty: Super Bowl rings, Super Bowl trophies and hagiographic displays of all five of the franchise’s Super Bowl victories. But the shiniest part of the Cowboys these days was not in the complex’s blueprints: It’s Dak Prescott, who came out of nowhere to become the team’s new franchise quarterback. Prescott, a rookie drafted in the fourth round out of Mississippi State, led the team to 11 victories in a row before Sunday’s visit to New Jersey to face the Giants, a feat that not even Troy Aikman or Roger Staubach can claim. But in a visit to Frisco last week, it became even more clear how much Prescott’s ascent, like the team’s gleaming new home, is yet another reminder of one man the Cowboys have left behind: Tony Romo. “I know he wants to play and I know he wants to be out there, but he’s been really good about everything,” Prescott said of Romo. “He’s telling me about and things he sees with a defense, or things he has seen in the past. He’s great. ” The Great Tony Romo? You’ll have to think back a while to remember how great. Romo was the undrafted rookie who became a Pro Bowl player, leading the Cowboys to four playoff berths and posting only two losing seasons after taking over as the starter in 2006. But while his career propelled the Cowboys forward year after year, it is also sometimes remembered for what Romo did not do when it mattered most. There was the botched hold on a attempt that probably cost the Cowboys a chance for a playoff win at Seattle in 2007. The loss to the Giants in the postseason a year later that spoiled a season. The fades. The poorly thrown balls and the dozens of sacks. And then there were the injuries, which continue to thwart him. Prescott is starting at all only because Romo broke a bone in his back in the preseason — after his 2015 season ended early, to boot. Now Romo, 36, is stuck in a position that’s dreaded by every top athlete who knows the clock is ticking on his career: He’s watching the young Prescott lead the greatest Cowboys team in years to the playoffs, and knowing that wherever they go, he will only be along for the ride. “He’s earned the right to be our quarterback, as hard as it is for me to say,” Romo said of Prescott in what amounted to an official concession speech last month. “What is clear is that I was that kid once. ” When Romo was that kid, it was all so much fun. He sang Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” at his locker, and he joked with the reporters who scribbled down his every word. Even when he was injured, he would brush off his physical problems because he was absolutely positive that he would come back, even better than ever. Most of the time, he was right. “When things don’t go your way,” he once told me, “you just have to come right back and say: ‘Let’s try this again. Let’s have some fun. ’” Romo doesn’t look as if he’s having any fun now. The black vinyl seat at his locker was empty when I visited Texas last week. Next to it was a pile of papers with information about the Giants, and how the Cowboys would match up. Romo had scribbled notes in the margins, knowing full well that it was unlikely that he would play. He doesn’t need to talk with reporters, and so, generally, he doesn’t. It’s a jarring change. When I covered the Cowboys for The Dallas Morning News in 2003, just after Romo was signed as a rookie free agent, I could always find him on the blue leather couches in the locker room, a motivational book in hand, the dimple on his left cheek showing because he was nearly always smiling. For three seasons, Romo sat and watched the Cowboys burn through quarterback after quarterback: Quincy Carter, Drew Henson, Vinny Testaverde, Drew Bledsoe. Romo, a friendly son of Wisconsin, seemed to know his time would come. And just like that, midway through the 2006 season, it did. He came in for Bledsoe against the Giants, and he never looked back. O. K. that’s an exaggeration. He’s probably looking back now. And who would blame him for being nostalgic? Now likely closer to his 40th birthday than he is to starting in a Super Bowl, he must wonder if he will ever take a snap for the Cowboys — for anyone — again. Others on the team must be wondering the same thing, though they won’t admit it. “I want to do what gives us the best chance to have Tony contribute to a championship,” the owner Jerry Jones said on his radio show last week. “Tony’s ready to go Tony’s not done,” said Scott Linehan, the Cowboys’ offensive coordinator. Tight end Jason Witten, Romo’s close friend and his favorite receiver, struggled to even consider the idea that Romo might never throw him another pass. He fidgeted as he considered his answer and admitted that he didn’t really want to give one. He and Romo were rookies together. They became the franchise players together. They even became fathers at about the same time. “We’ve kind of grown up together and went from being kids to being men at the same time,” Witten said. “I know that Tony’s always going to be the same guy, no matter what situation he’s dealing with, and I also believe he can still get it done on the field. ” He paused for a moment before adding, “But this game doesn’t slow down for anybody, and Tony understands that. ” Walking through the locker room in Frisco on Thursday, Romo looked less like an N. F. L. starter and more like someone who had just rolled out of bed. Tousled hair. Unshaven face. Baggy sweatpants. Head down and silent. Across the room, Prescott engaged a crowd of reporters. He is now the star of the show. | 0fake |
Speaker at Sanders Rally Tells Crowd Not to Vote Clinton, Gets Dragged Off Stage | We Are Change
The president of the Iowa State University Bernie Sanders club was dragged off of the stage at a Hillary Clinton rally which he was invited to speak at by her campaign — after telling the crowd not to vote for her.
Sanders was in town holding the rally to drum up support for him formal rival on Saturday. Enthusiastic Sanders supporter Caleb Vanfosson was invited to open the event, but instead of echoing Sanders’ endorsement, the college sophomore laid down exactly why he will not vote for her.
“I got a call the other day asking me if I wanted to speak for Hillary, basically they wanted to use me like a puppet,” Van Fosson told Fox News . “Trump’s not any better, but Hillary Clinton is still terrible.”
His speech began in typical fashion, introducing himself and speaking about student debt.
“While the part time reality tv show star and full time bigot Donald Trump thinks that hard working immigrants is what’s wrong with our country,” Vanfosson said to laughter from the crowd, “hes failing to even talk about this issue.”
Bernie Sanders supporter and college student speaker calls out Hillary Clinton at her own rally, security pulls him off stage 11/5/2016 pic.twitter.com/EKMV15ZScd
— MicroTurkeyLeaks™ (@WDFx2EU8) November 5, 2016
“But unfortunately Hillary doesn’t really care about this issue either, the only thing she really cares about is pleasing her delegates — the delegates who won her the election,” he said. “The only people who can really trust Hillary are Goldman Sachs. CITIGroup can trust Hillary. The military industrial complex can trust Hillary. Her good friend Henry Kissinger can trust Hillary.”
Vanfosson’s words clearly resonated, as cheers and applause erupted from the crowd.
“She is so trapped in the world of the elite that she has completely lost grip of what it’s like to be an average person,” he continued.
A man then entered the room and began to walk purposefully towards the podium. When he reached Vanfosson, he grabbed him and
“She doesn’t care about us. Voting for a lesser of two evils, there’s no point,” he concluded, as he was grabbed and pushed off the stage.
The post Speaker at Sanders Rally Tells Crowd Not to Vote Clinton, Gets Dragged Off Stage appeared first on We Are Change .
| 1real |
UK concerned by implications of U.S. decision on Iran deal: minister | LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is concerned by the implications of U.S. President Donald Trump s decision not to recertify an international agreement on Iran s nuclear program, junior foreign office minister Alistair Burt told parliament on Monday. The government takes note of President Trump s decision not to recertify the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and is concerned by the implications, Burt said. | 0fake |
U.S. officials warn of ISIS' new caliphate: cyberspace | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The collapse of Islamic State s self-proclaimed caliphate has not diminished the militant group s ability to inspire attacks on Western targets via the internet, U.S. national security officials told senators on Wednesday. The Sunni Muslim extremist group has been building its external operations over the past two years and has claimed or been linked to at least 20 attacks against Western interests since January, said Lora Shiao, acting director of intelligence at the National Counterterrorism Center. Unfortunately, we don t see ISIS loss of territory translating into a corresponding reduction in its inability to inspire attacks, she told a U.S. Senate committee. ISIS capacity to reach sympathizers around the world through its robust social media capability is unprecedented and gives the group access to large numbers of HVEs, Shiao said, using the government s acronym for homegrown violent extremists. The U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State estimated on Tuesday that fewer than 3,000 fighters belonging to the hardline Sunni militant group remain in Iraq and Syria, where they declared a caliphate in 2014. ISIS was driven out of Raqqa, the Syrian city it called its capital, in October, prompting President Donald Trump to say the end of the ISIS caliphate is in sight. Yet the elimination of the physical caliphate does not mark the end of ISIS or other global terrorist organizations, said Mark Mitchell, acting assistant defense secretary for special operations/low-intensity conflict. As ISIS loses territory it will become more reliant on virtual connections, he said, and continue to inspire stray dog attacks by vulnerable people. Senators questioned the security officials about U.S. efforts to fight online recruitment of potential extremists. This is the new caliphate - in cyberspace, said Ron Johnson, the Republican chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The experts described an evolving threat including ISIS ability to adapt its narrative after territorial losses to portray the struggle as a long-term process. The internet is the primary tool for radicalization and no group has been more successful than ISIS in drawing people into its message, said Nikki Floris, deputy assistant director for counterterrorism at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In a possible reference to Trump s use of Twitter, Democratic Senator Kamala Harris asked Floris, Has the FBI examined the role that social media posts or videos from our own government officials affect the online recruitment tactics used by ISIS? The answer was no. | 0fake |
Dakota Access Announces Plan to Drill Under Missouri River Within Weeks | We Are Change
Oceti Sakowin, ND – As water protectors dig in for the winter near construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), many rumors have been circulating about whether DAPL was in fact going to halt construction, as had been requested by the Department of Justice and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in September .
Many claims have been made that the Army Corps of Engineers, in negotiations with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, had ordered a 30-day pause on DAPL construction. As we reported on Sunday , the Army Corps has in fact clarified that the 30-day halt was “ only a proposal ” and no work stoppage has been implemented.
On Monday, November 7th, Unicorn Riot documented active DAPL construction that could be seen from the main Oceti Sakowin encampment.
Morning of Monday November 7th, Dakota Access Pipeline excavators & bulldozers can be seen working from the Oceti Sakowin #NoDAPL camp. pic.twitter.com/ZVze32V4Ik
— Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) November 7, 2016
The afternoon of November 8th, 2016, as the US Presidential election was well underway, Dakota Access, LLC released a statement denying recent claims from the Army Corps of Engineers that they had agreed to a slowdown in pipeline construction.
Dakota Access also claims a public statement made by the Army Corps was “ a mistake and the Army Corps intends to rescind it. ”
Dakota Access, LLC had previously made a statement announcing that eviction would take place of the Oceti Sakowin 1851 treaty camp which had been set up directly in the path of the pipeline.
The appearance of Dakota Access making public statements which accurately predicted police actions was denounced in an article by Sarah Lazare at Alternet as “ clear evidence ” of “ outrageous militarized police collusion with Big Oil. ”
The statement by Dakota Access, LLC goes on to claim that they have “ completed construction of the pipeline on each side of Lake Oahe ” and states that they are “ currently mobilizing horizontal drilling equipment to the drill box site. ”
Below you can see drone footage of Dakota Access machines building Hesco barriers , normally used to protect US military bases in war zones like Iraq or Afghanistan, to protect an area believed to be the drill box site from water protectors.
According to the release, Dakota Access expects to have fully mobilized all equipment needed to drill under the Missouri River within 2 weeks. Once all the equipment is in place at the construction site, Dakota Access plans to immediately commence horizontal drilling underneath the river.
Dakota Access, LLC closes their statement by admitting their company is still waiting on two construction permits from the Army Corps of Engineers to start the process of drilling underneath the Missouri River.
Below is the full public statement by Dakota Access, LLC.
The Dakota Access, LLC statement is reported to be in response to a comment given to Bloomberg News on Monday, in which an Army Corps of Engineers spokesman claimed that DAPL had agreed to slow down construction.
In an interview with NowThis on November 2nd, when asked about the Dakota Access Pipeline, President Barack Obama said “ we’re gonna let it play out for several more weeks. ”
Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Kaine mentioned in a recent interview the possibility of re-routing the pipeline, which Dakota Access now seems to have repudiated as a possible outcome. DAPL spokeswoman Vicki Granado told the Guardian :
“ We are not aware that any consideration is being given to a reroute, and we remain confident we will receive our easement in a timely fashion. ” – Vicki Granado, DAPL spokesperson
Jan Hasselman, attorney for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, reacted to DAPL’s plan to openly pursue drilling:
“ Starting construction without permits would be beyond the pale, even for Dakota Access. It is deeply irresponsible to keep putting investors’ money into this route when both the President and Senator Tim Kaine are openly discussing rerouting away from Lake Oahe. ” – Jan Hasselman, Attorney
Tuesday’s comments from Dakota Access appear intended to reassure investors who may be starting to have doubts about funding the pipeline project. It was reported earlier this week that Norweigan bank DNB was considering withdrawing its loan of $342.36 million to Energy Transfer Partners – almost 10 percent of the total funding for the pipeline.
DNB issued a statement on their website expressing concern:
“ DNB is concerned about how the situation surrounding the oil pipeline in North Dakota has developed. The bank will therefore use its position as lender to the project to encourage a more constructive process to find solutions to the conflict that has arisen. If these initiatives do not provide DNB with the necessary comfort, DNB will evaluate its further participation in the financing of the project. ” – DNB statement
On Tuesday, it was announced that the North Dakota Public Service Commission has proposed fining Dakota Access, LLC $15,000 for failing to properly notify state agencies of ancient cultural artifacts discovered at pipeline work sites. Dakota Access is alleged to have violated the terms of its permits by not properly announcing artifact discoveries, as well as by changing the pipeline route without seeking the permission of the Public Service Commission.
Unicorn Riot will continue to regularly provide direct updates about resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline . Follow our media on Twitter , Facebook , and our website for more information surrounding the ongoing struggles against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
To support our volunteer-operated, horizontally-organized, non-profit media collective please consider a tax-deductible donation:
Unicorn Riot’s coverage of the anti-Dakota Access Pipeline struggle #NoDAPL from early summer 2016 to present:
March – May 2016
March 29th, “ Tribal Citizens Prepare to Blockade Bakken Oil Pipeline “. April 3rd, “ Tribal Citizens Build Camp in Path of Oil Pipeline “. May 5th, “ Sacred Stone Camp Resists Dakota Access Pipeline “. May 27th, “ Dakota Access Pipeline Blockade Enters 2nd Month “. August 2016
After covering the camp in the spring of 2016, Unicorn Riot returned to Standing Rock Reservation on Wednesday, August 10th, when Standing Rock tribal members and allies blocked the entrance to the Dakota Access Pipeline construction site . On Thursday, August 11th, a dozen or so people were arrested blocking the construction site entrances . Day 3, Friday, the fight to protect land & water intensified around the construction sites of the Dakota Access Pipeline . On the 4th day, the pipeline resistance encampment swelled and prepared for more action . Monday, August 15th, land defenders stormed the construction site halting construction , and the next day construction was halted as well . August 17th saw State Police begin checkpoints, roadblocks, and psyops as protesters united to defend water . August 24th, camps prepared as Federal injunction hearing looms . Camps Organize to Stay as Injunction Postponed . On August 31st, Non-Violent Direct Action Stopped DAPL Construction for Over 6 Hours . September 2016
September 6, indigenous water protectors swarmed Dakota Access Pipeline site, stopped work September 7, U?pa Nu?pa was interviewed about ongoing #noDAPL actions North Dakota highway patrol refused to release email correspondence with Energy Transfer Partners September 8, ND National Guard took over Dakota Access Pipeline checkpoints Friday, September 9, US Govt. overruled federal judge and requested pipeline construction halted at Lake Oahe Meanwhile, cultural activities continued at #NoDAPL camps despite more arrests/warrants September 13, 20 were arrested during #NoDAPL lockdown, including 2 Unicorn Riot journalists September 14, direct actions continued against Dakota Access Pipeline while legal repression intensified On September 16 a federal judge dissolved the unconstitutional temporary restraining order Dakota Access, LLC had filed against Stranding Rock tribal members September 19, as solidarity protests spread nationwide, the federal appeals court ordered construction temporarily stop on Dakota Access segment as Solidarity Protests Spread Nationwide September 21, #NoDAPL noise demo demanded freedom for jailed water protector Olowan Martinez September 22, water protectors disrupted the annual meeting of the North Dakota Petroleum Council September 25, water protectors planted trees on DAPL construction site In Iowa on September 26, a non-violent direct action from the Mississippi Stand camp stopped DAPL construction for the day September 26, a caravan of water protectors stopped work at DAPL site September 27, militarized police arrested 23 water protectors in DAPL work stoppage September 29, a #NoDAPL solidarity action took place at MN Enbridge office October 2016
October 3rd-4th saw the “Toxic Tour,” Governor debate disruption, and water protectors attend their court arraignment October 4, we learned North Dakota Governor Dalrymple’s email inbox was full of support for #NoDAPL October 5, Buffer Zone Holds as Caravans Continue to Disrupt DAPL – New Felony Charges October 7, 6 Arrested in Iowa #NoDAPL Action, Including Unicorn Riot Journalist October 8, Iowa Water Protectors Blockade DAPL Drill Site Twice in 24 Hours October 9, Federal Appeals Court Rules to Allow DAPL Construction October 10, 27 Arrests After Water Protectors Pray at DAPL Site on Indigenous People’s Day October 12, Lockdown Stops DAPL Construction in Iowa, 3 Arrested, Including Unicorn Riot Journalist October 14, Emails Show North Dakota Budget Bureaucracy Behind #NoDAPL Policing October 16, Direct Actions Continue to Stop DAPL Construction in Iowa and North Dakota October 17, Four Unicorn Riot Journalists Face Charges For Covering #NoDAPL October 17, Water Protectors Blockade Highway in Bismarck, Some Charges Dropped October 20, As DAPL Construction Advances, Water Protectors Continue Direct Action October 22, Water Protectors’ Prayer Walk Ends up with 127 Arrests, Including Unicorn Riot Journalist October 23, Law Enforcement Attack Private Drone as Water Protectors Erect Blockade & New Winter Camp October 24, Mississippi Stand Blockades Iowa DAPL Drill Waste Site, Drilling Stops October 25, Records Release: Morton County’s Law Enforcement Mutual Aid Assistance Agreement Hundreds Flood Minneapolis City Hall to Demand Local Sheriff Withdraw from North Dakota October 26, Tensions Rise as Pipeline Construction Nears #NoDAPL Blockade October 27, Police and Military Attack Oceti Sakowin Treaty Camp November 2016
November 1, #NoDAPL Solidarity Rally & Sit-In in Minneapolis Prods Sheriff into Removing Deputies November 1, DAPL Resistance Continues Despite Advancing Construction November 2, Police Attack Water Protectors Defending Sacred Sites November 5, DAPL Construction Nears US Army Corps Land While Still Lacking Permits November 6, Water Protectors Attempt to Reclaim Sacred Burial Site, Demonstrate in Cemetery
The post Dakota Access Announces Plan to Drill Under Missouri River Within Weeks appeared first on We Are Change .
| 1real |
Exclusive: Chile expects to soon clinch Argentina energy swap deal | VINA DEL MAR, Chile (Reuters) - Chile expects to close an energy swap deal with Argentina in the days ahead, Chilean Energy Minister Andres Rebolledo said in an interview on Thursday, the latest example of increasing economic integration between the South American nations. The neighboring countries are also negotiating the locations for five additional transmission line interconnection points, with an agreement expected as early as January, the minister told Reuters. We made a proposal to Argentina and we are very close to reaching an agreement, Rebolledo said, referring to the energy swap. I think we can have an agreement in the next couple of days or if not, over the next few weeks, he added. Chile and Argentina share a 3,300-mile (5,300-kilometer) border running north to south along the rugged terrain of the Andes mountains. The deal would allow both countries to send natural gas or electricity at one point of the frontier and obtain needed supplies at another border point. In 2016, Chile exported 100 gigawatt-hours of electricity to Argentina and 361 million cubic meters of gas, worth nearly $100 million. The deal is the latest episode in a larger economic and diplomatic rapprochement between the neighboring South American countries that have often had frosty relations. Since conservative Argentine President Mauricio Macri came to power in 2015, the two nations have signed free trade deals and begun transporting gas between the nations, among several other measures. Rebolledo, who spoke with Reuters on the sidelines of the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA) meeting in the coastal city of Vina del Mar, said Chile and Argentina are planning to add five new electricity interconnection points in the coming years. For this, he said the countries commissioned studies with financial support from the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) to define the geographic points that would make the project most efficient. In January we will probably have the result (of the study), with the map of the five main points where there is supply and demand on the other side, and where it is best to put the transmission lines, he said. Chile is currently undergoing a broader transmission buildout. In August, Rebolledo told Reuters that the government hopes to have a formal proposal to pitch to investors for a line connecting northern Chile with southern Peru by the end of the current government in March. | 0fake |
Rapid Evolution Saved This Fish From Pollution, Study Says - The New York Times | The State of New Jersey says you can’t eat the fish or shellfish from the Lower Passaic River and Newark Bay. That’s because they’re living in the Diamond Alkali Superfund Site, where toxic leftovers from the manufacture of chemicals like DDT and the infamous Agent Orange oozed into surrounding waterways to be taken up by the animals that inhabited them. It’s an evolutionary miracle some of these animals are even alive. No, seriously. A fish that adapted to survive in this water shows evolution at its finest, according to a study published Thursday in Science. The Atlantic killifish is a slippery sliver of silver about the size of a fat finger and as common as the minnow. Starting in the late 1990s, researchers became aware that the fish was tolerant of the toxic waters at the Lower Passaic Superfund site and at least three other highly polluted areas along the Atlantic coastline. The new study found that over just a few decades, distinct populations of killifish independently developed similar genetic adaptations that make life possible in the most unlikely environments. The findings show that evolution doesn’t have to start in one place to be repeated. “It’s these shared changes as well as the unique pattern of changes in these different populations that provide us with a really useful field example of how animals can respond to rapidly changing and extreme environments,” said Diane Nacci, a biologist at the Environmental Protection Agency who worked on the study. She and other researchers, led by Noah Reid, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Connecticut, compared the whole genomes of 384 killifish from these areas and nearby, waters. They found that in all regions, one particular genetic pathway was the source of the pollution tolerance, although slightly different patterns of genetic changes were responsible in each population. Normally, toxic chemicals like dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, set off a number of changes inside sensitive fish that interfere not just with the survival of adults, but also with the development of their embryos. But in the tolerant fish, the trigger for those changes is turned off, allowing some fish to survive levels of PCBs thousands of times higher than the levels affecting sensitive fish. The mutation occurred rather quickly. This speedy evolution was made possible, the researchers think, by the huge and genetically diverse killifish populations that may have harbored a rare mutation. “Whenever you have large population sizes, there’s a chance some might actually carry mutations on their genomes that are advantageous in novel environments, like pollution,” said Michael Tobler, an evolutionary ecologist at Kansas State University who was not involved in the study but wrote a complementary paper on the research for the same issue of Science. “Any that didn’t have this lucky mutation didn’t make it. ” Those that did reproduced, and so became the Atlantic killifish. But in smaller populations with less diversity, the chance that a rare mutation like this already exists is slim: Evolution is put on hold until that mutation develops. This story “adds to the body of literatures suggesting that preserving genetic diversity within species might be important for buffering them against global climate change,” Dr. Reid said. But it’s not a mop for the pollutants we have imposed on our environment over the past century. “At first sight this study might tell us, well, it will all be fine,” Dr. Tobler said, addressing the argument that perhaps we need not worry if nature appears to be finding solutions on its own. “These killifish can do it, and there’s probably many species out there that can respond in this particular manner, but there’s probably going to be lots of species out there that can’t. ” Additionally, adaptations typically come at a cost. The story of evolution predicts that once the water becomes clean, a tolerant fish won’t do as well as a sensitive fish. What’s the consequence of turning off this pathway, which is responsible for dealing with toxicity at less extreme levels? Researchers are still looking for answers. | 0fake |
Episode #6 – DRIVE BY WIRE: ‘Syria WMD Redux?’ (Part 1) | MEMBERS can join co-hosts Patrick Henningsen and Shawn Helton for the full version of this episode of DRIVE BY WIRE at 21WIRE.TV EPISODE #6 Here is Part 1 of this special emergency installment of DRIVE BY WIRE with Patrick Henningsen and Shawn Helton. This is an urgent discussion on this week s alleged chemical weapons attack in Idlib, Syria which the US and Donald Trump have automatically blamed on the Syrian government and Bashar al Assad. Is this a dangerous precedent?NOTE: This segment was filmed the day before Trump launched a missile strike against Syria . SUPPORT OUR WORK SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TVREAD MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Syria Files | 1real |
Trump’s Atty. Gen. Pick LIES About His Civil Rights Record, REAL Civil Rights Lawyers CRUSH Him | Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is Trump s pick for attorney general. The U.S. attorney general is generally someone who not only knows what s legal and illegal but also knows what s right and what s wrong. Sessions doesn t know right from wrong, at least insofar as civil rights goes. He s desperate to change his image as a racist prick, but real civil rights lawyers aren t having any of it.He s even cited civil rights cases that he supposedly worked on, but it turns out, all of that is a bald-faced lie. Several attorneys who have fought long and hard for true civil rights penned an op-ed, which appeared in the Washington Post, denouncing Sessions for pretending to be a civil rights champion.Actually, they didn t just denounce him, they annihilated him for it. Right off the bat, they said: Attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions is trying to mislead his Senate colleagues, and the country, into believing he is a champion for civil rights. We are former Justice Department civil rights lawyers who worked on the civil rights cases that Sessions cites as evidence for this claim, so we know: The record isn t Sessions to burnish. We won t let the nominee misstate his civil rights history to get the job of the nation s chief law enforcement officer. Sessions had to fill out a questionnaire and file it with the Senate Judiciary Committee. In that questionnaire, he listed four cases that he claims he personally litigated as Alabama s attorney general in the 1980s. After receiving backlash for that lie, he then tried to claim he provided assistance and guidance on these cases. One of the examples these lawyers give to show Sessions is trying exaggerating his record on civil rights: Sessions supported reauthorizing the Voting Rights act ten years ago, and he s promoting that as solid evidence that he s a civil rights champ.The truth there is that the reauthorization passed the Senate by a vote of 98-0. As such, there was no feat of courage involved in supporting that reauthorization. It would mean a lot more if he d supported it with significant opposition from his own party. Then he celebrated the Supreme Court s decision to gut the Voting Rights Act, which led to Southern states working their tails off to keep minorities from voting.Sessions also once lost out on a judgeship because of his racism. In 1986, the state of Alabama turned him down for a position as a judge after he called a black lawyer boy. He supposedly also told another attorney to be careful what you say to white folks. He also denigrated both the ACLU and the NAACP as un-American organizations that were inspired by Communists.Because equality is totally a communist trait.The NAACP has actually been protesting his nomination as Attorney General, and several got arrested for doing so. For as not-racist as Sessions supposedly is, one would think he d yell at anyone who arrested peaceful protesters who were just speaking out about racial inequality.Instead, these protesters face charges of criminal trespass.The civil rights attorneys that actually know what they re talking about say that Sessions involvement in the cases they themselves litigated is limited to his signing a complaint and maybe a few briefs. He didn t personally litigate anything, and if he had, he probably would have done so with an eye towards, Black people bring this on themselves because they re black. In fact, they end their op-ed with: Sessions has not worked to protect civil rights. He worked against civil rights at every turn. Sessions knows that his real record on race and civil rights is harmful to his chances for confirmation. So he has made up a fake one. But many of us who were there in Alabama in the 1980s, 1990s and beyond are still around. We lived that story, too. And we are here to testify that Sessions has done many things throughout his 40-year career. Protecting civil rights has not been one of them. Both Sessions and Trump probably think that Congress will buy their revisionist history. To them, equality doesn t matter in their view, white people rule and everyone else drools. There s a reason white supremacists are thrilled with Trump s election win, and this is it. Jeff Sessions doesn t give a flying fuck about civil rights. He doesn t know a thing about litigating civil rights cases. He ll make a shitty attorney general, and will only help Trump further his agenda of setting this country back 75 years.Featured image via Kevin Hagen/Getty Images | 1real |
NEW AGE GURU Dr. Deepak Chopra Says Trump May Be “Mentally Retarded” [VIDEO] | Pathetic New Age guru and alternative medicine activist Dr. Deepak Chopra attacked Donald Trump Tuesday in an interview on Fox News The Alan Colmes Show, during which he called the presumptive GOP presidential nominee both emotionally and mentally retarded. Chopra, 68, said that Trump epitomizes, among other things, the darkest demons of America s collective psyche. I would never say this unless I believed it was 100% true, but he represents the racist, the bigot, the one who s prejudiced, the one who is full of fear and hatred, the one who represents emotional retardation of a three-year old, Chopra said of Trump. And yet he s so popular because he s given permission to our collective psyche to express their darkest demons. Radio host Colmes asked Chopra if Trump is himself a racist and bigot, or whether he just represents those ideologies to his supporters. I think he is, Chopra said, adding: I think he s racist, he s bigoted, he s prejudiced. He s full of fear. He is angry. He has a lot of hatred. He pouts, he s belligerent, he s emotionally retarded. Via: Breitbart News | 1real |
U.S. Special Forces Join Fight For Mosul | We Are Change
Fierce battle for the city of Mosul continues to shock Iraq and the whole Middle East with no significant results. The leading role belongs to the assault of the Iraqi army and Kurdish Self-Defense Forces—which still lack experience and skills—to capture the city in the shortest time.
However, 500 elite commandos of the U.S. Special Forces, which had been transferred this week at Mosul should give new impetus to the assault. U.S. combatants are supported by Apache and Chinook helicopters.
According to the Inside Syria Media Center , the U.S. Special Forces are located at the forefront of Iraqi and Kurdish combat formations. Military experts believe these combat conditions are atypical for the special operation forces which are aimed to carry out reconnaissance and other specific tasks.
Elite combatants in Mosul actually perform the functions of infantry soldiers, resulting in inevitable great losses, which are going to be covered up and silenced by the Washington officials in the usual manner.
Although the U.S. officials have repeatedly stated Mosul should be liberated from terrorists to eliminate the Islamic State, the decision to use U.S. Special Forces looks unjustified at first glance. However, the protracted nature of the assault on the city is forcing the Pentagon to take extreme measures to complete the operation before the U.S. presidential election. Therefore, the White House uses this situation, first of all, as a large-scale PR-campaign to support the candidate of the Democratic Party Hillary Clinton.
In this context, it becomes clear why the U.S. Government refrained from active struggle against terrorists for so long choosing an opportune moment strangely coincided with the end of the presidential elections in the United States.
Liberation of Mosul should also demonstrate to the world community the importance and crucial role of the American nation in the fight against the Islamic State. It is even more regrettable in the light of the recent Wikileaks’ revelations, which confirmed the United States and American tycoons’ role in the creation and funding of the Islamic State terrorists.
The post U.S. Special Forces Join Fight For Mosul appeared first on We Are Change .
| 1real |
NEW EVIDENCE PROVES Hillary Manipulated Senate Benghazi Hearing With Help From Democrat Senators [Video] | 1real | |
Episode #160 – SUNDAY WIRE: ‘Hail to the Deplorables’ with special guest Randy J | November 13, 2016 By 21wire Leave a Comment
Episode #160 of SUNDAY WIRE SHOW resumes this November 13, 2016 as host Patrick Henningsen brings a 3 HOURS special broadcast of LIVE power-packed talk radio on ACR…
LISTEN LIVE ON THIS PAGE AT THE FOLLOWING SCHEDULED SHOW TIMES:
SUNDAYS – 5pm-8pm UK Time | 12pm-3pm ET (US) | 9am-12pm PT (US)
This week’s edition of THE SUNDAY WIRE is on the road broadcasting LIVE from the Valley of the Sun. This week host Patrick Henningsen covers this week’s top stories in the US and internationally. In the first hour we’ll conduct a post-mortem on the incredible US Election which has produced President Elect Donald J Trump , and the aftermath – a nation divided punctuated by numerous street protests in part fuelled by Soros and the Democratic Party Machine . Later, we’re joined by our roving everyman , ACR Boiler Room contributor, Randy J , for an on the ground take on Election events from the West Coast, and beyond…
SUPPORT 21WIRE – SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
Strap yourselves in and lower the blast shield – this is your brave new world…
*NOTE: THIS EPISODE MAY CONTAIN STRONG LANGUAGE AND MATURE THEMES* | 1real |
Trump calls for new civil rights agenda in visit to black church | DETROIT (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stepped up his bid to win over minority voters by addressing a largely black church in Detroit on Saturday and calling for a new civil rights agenda to support African-Americans. As scores of protesters outside chanted “No justice, no peace,” Trump said he wanted to make Detroit - a predominantly African-American city which recently emerged from bankruptcy - the economic envy of the world by bringing back companies from abroad. Trump separately met with about 100 community and church leaders, his campaign said, in his latest push to peel away minority voters from Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. His outreach to minorities over recent weeks comes as he seeks to improve his chances in the Nov. 8 election and shake off months of offending the sensibilities of black and Hispanic voters with his hard line on immigration and rough-hewn rhetoric. “I fully understand that the African American community is suffering from discrimination and that there are many wrongs that must still be made right,” Trump said at the church which was half-full. “I want to make America prosperous for everyone. I want to make this city the economic envy of the world, and we can do that.” His address of over 10 minutes at the Great Faith Ministries International church received moments of applause, including when he said Christian faith is not the past, but the present and the future. Accompanying Trump to the church was Ben Carson, the former Republican presidential hopeful who grew up in the city and whose childhood neighborhood Trump visited on Saturday. Trump has argued that his emphasis on job creation would help minority communities in a way that Democrats have failed to. But Clinton has accused Trump of aligning himself with racists. Opinion polls show Trump has low support among minorities. “I believe we need a civil rights agenda for our time, one that ensures the rights to a great education, so important, and the right to live in a good-paying job and one that you love to go to every morning,” Trump said. “That can happen. We need to bring our companies back,” he added. Emma Lockridge, 63, said as she entered the church that she found his comments about Mexicans and Muslims “hateful.” “That’s my major reservation with Mr. Trump is how he’s treated those particular sets of people,” said Lockridge, who is retired and an environmental activist. But she said she also had concerns about Clinton’s support in the 1990s for crime legislation signed by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, which many black Americans say contributed to high incarceration rates in their communities. Vicki Dobbins, an activist protesting outside, said she was disappointed the church asked Trump to speak. “I believe that Trump coming to Detroit is a joke, and I’m ashamed of the pastor who invited him,” she said. “In my opinion, he stabbed everyone in the back.” | 0fake |
How Rand Paul’s criminal justice pitch is playing on the trail | BOWIE, Md. - The last time Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky) spoke at a historically black college around here, it didn't go well.
Paul spoke at Howard University nearly two years ago, a trip that was filled with fumbles. He bungled the name of Edward Brooke, a Howard graduate who was the nation's first black Senator elected since Reconstruction, and asked if the audience knew the NAACP was founded by Republicans.
Friday, he came here to Bowie State University, another historically black college -- and this time, he came as a politician who seemed to have found his footing when it came to talking about race.
Paul was greeted with a standing ovation and his points were peppered with applause from the audience, a cross-section of races and ages. And some people liked what he had to say.
Shaniah Haskins, an 18-year-old freshman criminal justice major at Bowie State, said she'd wanted to hear Paul's views on the system.
"The simple fact is he'd change things for minorities based not just on race, but on other factors," including economic status, she said. "He actually seems like he has a lot of ideas."
Over the past few years, Paul has made criminal justice reform one of his signature issues. More recently, he's tied the call for reducing arrests and changing sentencing laws to the situation in Ferguson, Mo.
Speaking just days after the release of a scathing Department of Justice report that showed the Ferguson police department engaged in a systemic pattern of racial discrimination -- and the shooting of two officers -- Paul focused his remarks again Friday on reforming the criminal justice system. He spent about an hour at Bowie State University, about 18 miles from Washington. The visit there underscored one of Paul's goals as he ramps up to a universally expected announcement that he will run for president: reaching out to young and African-American voters.
Paul evoked Martin Luther King's "Two Americas" speech, and said that the split still exists, and by not reforming the criminal justice system the nation will stay divided.
"There is still significant segregation in our society," Paul said.
In Ferguson, Paul said, there are about 10,000 more arrests each year than the total population of the city. The frustration that is boiling over isn't only due to the killing of an unarmed black teenager by police there, or the death of a black man selling loose cigarettes in New York City, but because of longstanding disparities in the criminal justice system. .
"It isn't just about what happened this year. It's about this building up," he said. "I call it an undercurrent of unease in this country. There are still two Americas."
Paul's remarks are likely a preview of how he will handle issues of race and criminal justice should he jump into the presidential race. He often speaks of a trip he made to Ferguson last year, where he met with community leaders. He discussed it, unease he said he found in Ferguson and King's speech at a dinner for the American Prospect Magazine last month.
"You're not a part of that," he said to an audience that include billionaire David Koch, "But imagine what it's like to be poor and to get a $100 fine and to have interest added to that and to have it be a $200 fine and we're putting people in jail for civil fines. We've got to figure out what justice is."
At Bowie State, Paul told stories of people who had been put in jail unfairly due to mandatory minimums or because they couldn't afford to fight the system. Sentencing disparities aren't purposeful, he said, but "are actual and real."
Felony convictions, he said, are the "number one" thing that prevent people from voting, and he said that expunging criminal records for minor offenses would help the economy by making it easier for people to get jobs.
"Criminal justice, or the lack of criminal justice, it's not a black or white problem," Paul said. "It's a poverty problem." | 0fake |
Pope Francis arrives in New York City for second stop on US trip | Pope Francis kicked off his second United States stop in New York City with a Thursday evening prayer at St. Patrick's Cathedral, one of the nation's best-known churches.
Thousands of people lined up along Fifth Avenue to greet him with cheers as he made his way in his open-sided popemobile to the center of one of the nation's largest Roman Catholic archdioceses.
The cathedral's bells pealed as Francis waved to and blessed the crowd, even giving the occasional thumbs-up.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo , Mayor Bill de Blasio, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer and other dignitaries greeted him on the cathedral steps.
Pope Francis landed in New York City Thursday afternoon to begin the next part of his visit to the U.S., which will take him from the United Nations to a school in East Harlem.
During the evening prayer, Francis thanked American nuns for their strength and courage in a deeply meaningful acknowledgement of their service following a years-long Vatican crackdown.
U.S. priests and sisters erupted in applause when Francis told American nuns that he wanted to thank them for their strength, spirit and courage and to "tell you that I love you very much."
It was the strongest expression yet of his gratitude for American nuns after the Vatican under his predecessor ordered an overhaul of the largest umbrella group of U.S. sisters, accusing them of straying from church teaching. The nuns denied the charge and received an outpouring of support from American Catholics, and the crackdown ended this year, two years early, with no major changes.
Francis also expressed his solidarity with Muslims following the hajj stampede in Saudi Arabia, where more than 700 people were killed.
Francis said he wanted to offer a "sentiment of closeness in light of the tragedy" that the Muslim people had suffered on Thursday.
He also raised the clergy sex-abuse crisis, by consoling clergy for the suffering the scandal had caused them.
Francis told members of religious orders and diocesan priests that he was aware they had "suffered greatly" by having to "bear the shame" of clergy who had molested children. He thanked them for their faithful service to the church in the face of the scandal.
A group of 200 people welcomed Francis as his chartered American Airlines plane touched down at John F. Kennedy International Airport shortly after 5 p.m. Thursday.
Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, five Catholic schoolchildren and other guests gathered at the airport while snipers stood atop police vehicles while a high school band played a rendition of Frank Sinatra's “New York, New York.”
Cardinal Francis Dolan of New York greeted Francis with a hug and a kiss as he arrived onto the tarmac.
Francis then handed out mass cards and spoke with onlookers after Catholic schoolchildren presenting him with a bouquet and collection of prayers written by students in the city's 86 Catholic schools.
After landing at the airport, Francis traveled to Manhattan by helicopter and hopped into a Fiat hatchback, traveling in the same style as he did while in Washington.
Over 40 hours in New York, Francis will address world leaders at the United Nations, participate in an interfaith service at the Sept. 11 memorial and celebrate Mass at Madison Square Garden. He will visit a school in Harlem and take drive through Central Park.
It’s the first papal trip to New York since Pope Benedict XVI visited in April 2008.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | 0fake |
Gunmen kill 13 Niger gendarmes in attack near Mali border | NIAMEY (Reuters) - Gunmen on pick-up trucks and motorcycles coming from Mali killed 13 gendarmes and wounded five more in an attack on their base in western Niger, security sources said on Saturday. The village is a few dozen kilometers (miles) from where militants killed four U.S. soldiers in an ambush on Oct. 4 that has thrown a spotlight on a U.S. counter-terrorism mission in Niger, a country that straddles an expanse of the Sahara. Niger s military officials confirmed the attack. The assailants crossed over the border from Mali and drove up to the village of Ayorou, about 40 km (25 miles) inside, before springing their attack, the security sources said. They were heavily armed. They had rocket launchers and machine guns. They came in four vehicles each with about seven fighters, said a security source on the scene. Reinforcements later arrived and stopped them as they tried to cross back over the border, another security source on the scene said, triggering a gun battle. They escaped into Mali and were being pursued, he added. Land and air forces are pursuing the assailants with a view to neutralising them, a statement from Niger s military said, confirming the death toll. In the initial attack one of the assailants was killed in an exchange of fire but others managed to make off with four Nigerien army vehicles, the first security source said. Since taking over swathes of northern Mali in 2012, and then being scattered by a French-led counter-offensive the following year, Islamist militants have established themselves in lawless spaces across the desert. They have used these areas as a springboard for a wave of attacks that threaten to destabilize West Africa. Fighters have inflicted damage on military outposts, killed security officials and civilians, kidnapped Westerners and sometimes mounted high-profile attacks on hotels and resorts across the region, including in Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast. Several Islamist groups and well-armed ethnic militia operate in the area along the Mali-Niger border. There have been at least 46 attacks there since early last year. However, officials suspect many of them, including the ambush on the joint U.S.-Niger patrol, to be the work of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, led by Arabic-speaking north African militant Adnan Walid al-Sahrawi. He has pledged allegiance to Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, although the extent of their ties are not known. No group has yet claimed responsibility for Saturday s attack, nor the one that killed the U.S. soldiers. Responding to its ever growing militant threat, Mali on Saturday announced a year extension of a state of emergency. I hope we won t need to continue extending the state of emergency, Defence Minister Tiena Coulibaly told reporters. We hope that before Oct. 31, 2018, order will be restored. The increasingly fluid, cross-border nature of the militant threat forced the Sahel countries Mali, Niger, Chad, Mauritania and Burkina Faso to launch a joint force known as G5 Sahel in July, to try better coordinate policing their deserts. But it has yet to receive a commitment to more than a fraction of the donor funding that it needs. A U.N. Security Council delegation was in Mali on Saturday to discuss the force. This tragedy is one more element that ... underlines the urgency of a strong and determined response through the creation of the joint G5 Sahel force, French permanent representative to the U.N. Francois Delattre told journalists during the meetings. | 0fake |
MICHELLE OBAMA Dishes Dirt On Barack: “He barely got his work done…He was a bum!” [VIDEO] | Thanks for the intel Mooch. Outside of his ambition to fundamentally change America, we re pretty sure nothing has changed since the first day our entitled President entered the Oval Office | 1real |
Bill Maher Hilariously Hammers ‘Evil’ Ted Cruz On Jimmy Kimmel Live (VIDEO) | Jimmy Kimmel couldn t stop laughing as Bill Maher repeatedly mocked the GOP.During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Tuesday night, Real Time host Bill Maher made an appearance to talk about the New Hampshire primary and what he would do if he had no choice but to vote for one Republican candidate in the field. I d kill myself, Maher simply stated.Maher explained that the United States would be a horrible place to live under Republican control, especially for women. The nearest abortion clinic will be in London! he said.Then Maher got the chance to talk about the candidates he doesn t like, and Ted Cruz was at the top of the list. Ted Cruz is always the worst, Maher said. He is smart and evil. The other ones are true dummies, like Rubio, he doesn t know what he s talking about, he just says the words. But Ted Cruz is diabolical. He s smart. This is what I really hate about this and this is what a true cynic is he s smart, but he knows what to say to his dummy base that they will believe. Maher even gave an example. Cruz once told his dummy base that he was a fan of classic rock prior to 9/11, but said he leaned more toward country music after the towers fell. It was a perfect example of Cruz pandering to the stupid rednecks who dominate the conservative base today.Here s the video via YouTube.Maher also reiterated his support of Bernie Sanders, but urged Democrats to vote for Hillary Clinton should she become the nominee because not doing so could send a Republican to the White House, which would doom our nation to at least four years of hell as the GOP passes every policy they ve ever desired to force upon us. Featured image from video screen capture | 1real |
EARLY VOTING UPDATE: “Record Turnout! They’re Not Republicans…They’re Not Democrats”…And They’re coming Out In HUGE NUMBERS To Vote For Trump [VIDEO] | There s no way to sample this extra 20 or 25% of new voters that are Trump supporters. Sid Miller, Texas Agriculture Commissioner, went on FOX News on Wednesday to discuss the record breaking voter turnout for Donald Trump in the Lone Star State.Sid Miller: We have a record number of people registered to vote in Texas. We re having record turnouts, the first day, the second day of voting. And it s not Bernie Sanders supporters coming out to support Hillary. It s not Barack Obama supporters coming out to support Hillary. It s a new surge of Trump voters, many who have never registered to vote. Many who have not voted in eight or ten elections so they re not reported in the polls I know for a fact that the polls are off because they oversample Democrats by eight sometimes up to sixteen percent oversampling Democrats. They re oversampling women by five to eight percent. So the Republican vote is underreported. Plus there is no way to sample this extra twenty to twenty-five percent of new voters that are Trump voters. They re not Republican, they re not Democrats, they re pragmatists. They re tired of the status quo and they want change. GPYUGE RECORD BREAKING VOTES in TEXAS!!! & Its Not Bernie Fans or Obama Voters for Hillary Clinton!! ALLL Donald Trump Folks #wednesdaywisdom pic.twitter.com/Sn79fMhwXG STOCK MONSTER (@StockMonsterUSA) October 26, 2016 | 1real |
BREAKING: PUTIN TIRED OF WAITING FOR Obama’s DOJ To Release Hillary’s Highly Classified Emails…Set To Release Them In Near Future | This is not the first time Putin has warned the US to hurry up with its release of Hillary s emails. Biden better get the emergency campaign team ready. If Putin releases the unedited, corrupt version of Hillary s highly classified emails, Crooked Hillary will not likely be able to overcome the damage that will be done to what s left of her reputation. Reliable intelligence sources in the West have indicated that warnings had been received that the Russian Government could in the near future release the text of email messages intercepted from U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton s private e-mail server from the time she was U.S. Secretary of State. The release would, the messaging indicated, prove that Secretary Clinton had, in fact, laid open U.S. secrets to foreign interception by putting highly-classified Government reports onto a private server in violation of U.S. law, and that, as suspected, the server had been targeted and hacked by foreign intelligence services.The reports indicated that the decision as to whether to reveal the intercepts would be made by Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin, and it was possible that the release would, if made, be through a third party, such as Wikileaks. The apparent message from Moscow, through the intelligence community, seemed to indicate frustration with the pace of the official U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the so-called server scandal, which seemed to offer prima facie evidence that U.S. law had been violated by Mrs Clinton s decision to use a private server through which to conduct official and often highly-secret communications during her time as Secretary of State. U.S.Sources indicated that the extensive Deptartment of Justice probe was more focused on the possibility that the private server was used to protect messaging in which Secretary Clinton allegedly discussed quid pro quo transactions with private donors to the Clinton Foundation in exchange for influence on U.S. policy.The Russian possession of the intercepts, however, was designed also to show that, apart from violating U.S. law in the fundamental handling of classified documents (which Sec. Clinton had alleged was no worse than the mishandling of a few documents by CIA Director David Petraeus or Clinton s National Security Advisor Sandy Berger), the traffic included highly-classified materials which had their classification headers stripped. Russian (and other) sources had indicated frustration with the pace of the Justice Dept. probe, and its avoidance of the national security aspects of intelligence handling. This meant that the topic would be suppressed by the U.S. Barack Obama Administration so that it would not be a factor in the current U.S. Presidential election campaign, in which President Obama had endorsed Mrs Clinton. via: Oilprice.com | 1real |
Latest Polls Show Hillary Could Win One Of The MOST Important Deep Red States | GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has been steadily ripping the Republican Party apart at the seams due to the embarrassing travesty of a campaign he s been running. This is especially true since the surfacing of a tape of Trump and former Access Hollywood host Billy Bush having what is quite possibly the most lewd, offensive conversation two men could have about women. As if that weren t enough, nearly a dozen women have come forward claiming Trump did to them just what he bragged about being able to do on that tape.Trump s scandals are literally doing something that no one thought possible: Turning certain reliably red states into battleground states. According to the polling organization RealClearPolitics, Trump s lack of acceptability could actually turn TEXAS, of all places, blue. As of Sunday, Trump is within the margin of error just three points ahead of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The average of all of the available polling is a 4.8 point divide. This is likely due to the fact that there are some things that are just not partisan open misogyny, narcissism, racism, xenophobia, and all of the other characteristics that make for huge deal-breakers on the basis of basic decency, regardless of political leanings.Other red states that could be within striking distance for Hillary include Arizona, Utah and Georgia. This would be why Trump, who is simply unable to accept losing at anything, is now talking of a rigged election. It s an effort to make his already angry, disillusioned supporters become even more aggrieved. This makes for a dangerous situation, and therefore it is DEFINITELY a good thing if Hillary can not only win, but run up the score around the nation and completely annihilate Trump.Featured image via Justin Sullivan via Getty Images | 1real |
REVEALED: How US Government-Media Complex Are The Masters of ‘Fake News’ | Washingtons BlogEveryone s talking about fake news Google Trends shows that starting in late October that phrase absolutely exploded in terms of internet searches:In the last month, Obama, Merkel, CNN, the New York Times, Washington Post and many other mainstream media have warned about the dangers of fake news.There certainly is a lot of fake news. And some of it is by anti-establishment types trying to discredit American institutions with false reports.But as we document below the government and mainstream media are by far the biggest purveyors of fake news.The Government s Been Deploying Propaganda On U.S. Soil for Many YearsThe United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities found in 1975 that the CIA submitted stories to the American press: After 1953, the network was overseen by Allen W. Dulles, director of the CIA. By this time, Operation Mockingbird had a major influence over 25 newspapers and wire agencies. The usual methodology was placing reports developed from intelligence provided by the CIA to witting or unwitting reporters. Those reports would then be repeated or cited by the preceding reporters which in turn would then be cited throughout the media wire services.The Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) was funded by siphoning off funds intended for the Marshall Plan [i.e. the rebuilding of Europe by the U.S. after WWII]. Some of this money was used to bribe journalists and publishers.In 2008, the New York Times wrote:During the early years of the cold war, [prominent writers and artists, from Arthur Schlesinger Jr. to Jackson Pollock] were supported, sometimes lavishly, always secretly, by the C.I.A. as part of its propaganda war against the Soviet Union. It was perhaps the most successful use of soft power in American history.A CIA operative told Washington Post owner Philip Graham in a conversation about the willingness of journalists to peddle CIA propaganda and cover stories: You could get a journalist cheaper than a good call girl, for a couple hundred dollars a month. Famed Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein wrote in 1977: More than 400 American journalists in the past twenty five years have secretly carried out assignments for the Central Intelligence Agency, according to documents on file at CIA headquarters. ***In many instances, CIA documents show, journalists were engaged to perform tasks for the CIA with the consent of the managements of America s leading news organizations.***Among the executives who lent their cooperation to the Agency were [the heads of CBS, Time, the New York Times, the Louisville Courier Journal, and Copley News Service. Other organizations which cooperated with the CIA include [ABC, NBC, AP, UPI, Reuters], Hearst Newspapers, Scripps Howard, Newsweek magazine, the Mutual Broadcasting System, the Miami Herald and the old Saturday Evening Post and New York Herald Tribune.***There is ample evidence that America s leading publishers and news executives allowed themselves and their organizations to become handmaidens to the intelligence services. Let s not pick on some poor reporters, for God s sake, William Colby exclaimed at one point to the Church committee s investigators. Let s go to the managements.***The CIA even ran a formal training program in the 1950s to teach its agents to be journalists. Intelligence officers were taught to make noises like reporters, explained a high CIA official, and were then placed in major news organizations with help from management.***Once a year during the 1950s and early 1960s, CBS correspondents joined the CIA hierarchy for private dinners and briefings.***Allen Dulles often interceded with his good friend, the late Henry Luce, founder of Timeand Life magazines, who readily allowed certain members of his staff to work for the Agency and agreed to provide jobs and credentials for other CIA operatives who lacked journalistic experience.***In the 1950s and early 1960s, Time magazine s foreign correspondents attended CIA briefing dinners similar to those the CIA held for CBS.***When Newsweek was purchased by the Washington Post Company, publisher Philip L. Graham was informed by Agency officials that the CIA occasionally used the magazine for cover purposes, according to CIA sources. It was widely known that Phil Graham was somebody you could get help from, said a former deputy director of the Agency. Frank Wisner dealt with him. Wisner, deputy director of the CIA from 1950 until shortly before his suicide in 1965, was the Agency s premier orchestrator of black operations, including many in which journalists were involved. Wisner liked to boast of his mighty Wurlitzer, a wondrous propaganda instrument he built, and played, with help from the press.)***In November 1973, after [the CIA claimed to have ended the program], Colby told reporters and editors from the New York Times and the Washington Star that the Agency had some three dozen American newsmen on the CIA payroll, including five who worked for general circulation news organizations. Yet even while the Senate Intelligence Committee was holding its hearings in 1976, according to high level CIA sources, the CIA continued to maintain ties with seventy five to ninety journalists of every description executives, reporters, stringers, photographers, columnists, bureau clerks and members of broadcast technical crews. More than half of these had been moved off CIA contracts and payrolls but they were still bound by other secret agreements with the Agency. According to an unpublished report by the House Select Committee on Intelligence, chaired by Representative Otis Pike, at least fifteen news organizations were still providing cover for CIA operatives as of 1976.***Those officials most knowledgeable about the subject say that a figure of 400 American journalists is on the low side . There were a lot of representations that if this stuff got out some of the biggest names in journalism would get smeared .An expert on propaganda testified under oath during trial that the CIA now employs THOUSANDS of reporters and OWNS its own media organizations. Whether or not his estimate is accurate, it is clear that many prominent reporters still report to the CIA.A 4-part BBC documentary called the Century of the Self shows that an American Freud s nephew, Edward Bernays created the modern field of manipulation of public perceptions, and the U.S. government has extensively used his techniques.John Pilger is a highly-regarded journalist (the BBC s world affairs editor John Simpson remarked, A country that does not have a John Pilger in its journalism is a very feeble place indeed ). Pilger said in 2007:We now know that the BBC and other British media were used by the British secret intelligence service MI-6. In what they called Operation Mass Appeal, MI-6 agents planted stories about Saddam s weapons of mass destruction, such as weapons hidden in his palaces and in secret underground bunkers. All of these stories were fake.***One of my favorite stories about the Cold War concerns a group of Russian journalists who were touring the United States. On the final day of their visit, they were asked by the host for their impressions. I have to tell you, said the spokesman, that we were astonished to find after reading all the newspapers and watching TV day after day that all the opinions on all the vital issues are the same. To get that result in our country we send journalists to the gulag. We even tear out their fingernails. Here you don t have to do any of that. What is the secret? Nick Davies wrote in the Independent in 2008: For the first time in human history, there is a concerted strategy to manipulate global perception. And the mass media are operating as its compliant assistants, failing both to resist it and to expose it.The sheer ease with which this machinery has been able to do its work reflects a creeping structural weakness which now afflicts the production of our news. I ve spent the last two years researching a book about falsehood, distortion and propaganda in the global media.The Zarqawi letter which made it on to the front page of The New York Times in February 2004 was one of a sequence of highly suspect documents which were said to have been written either by or to Zarqawi and which were fed into news media.This material is being generated, in part, by intelligence agencies who continue to work without effective oversight; and also by a new and essentially benign structure of strategic communications which was originally designed by doves in the Pentagon and Nato who wanted to use subtle and non-violent tactics to deal with Islamist terrorism but whose efforts are poorly regulated and badly supervised with the result that some of its practitioners are breaking loose and engaging in the black arts of propaganda. ***The Pentagon has now designated information operations as its fifth core competency alongside land, sea, air and special forces. Since October 2006, every brigade, division and corps in the US military has had its own psyop element producing output for local media. This military activity is linked to the State Department s campaign of public diplomacy which includes funding radio stations and news websites. In Britain, the Directorate of Targeting and Information Operations in the Ministry of Defence works with specialists from 15 UK psyops, based at the Defence Intelligence and Security School at Chicksands in Bedfordshire.In the case of British intelligence, you can see this combination of reckless propaganda and failure of oversight at work in the case of Operation Mass Appeal. This was exposed by the former UN arms inspector Scott Ritter, who describes in his book, Iraq Confidential, how, in London in June 1998, he was introduced to two black propaganda specialists from MI6 who wanted him to give them material which they could spread through editors and writers who work with us from time to time .The government is still paying off reporters to spread disinformation. And the corporate media are acting like virtual escort services for the moneyed elites, selling access for a price to powerful government officials, instead of actually investigating and reporting on what those officials are doing.One of the ways that the U.S. government spreads propaganda is by making sure that it gets its version out first. For example, the head of the U.S. Information Agency s television and film division Alvin A. Snyder wrote in his book, Warriors of Disinformation: How Lies, Videotape, and the USIA Won the Cold War: All governments, including our own, lie when it suits their purposes. The key is to lie first. ***Another casualty, always war s first, was the truth. The story of [the accidental Russian shoot-down of a Korean airliner] will be remembered pretty much the way we told it in 1983, not the way it really happened.In 2013, the American Congress repealed the formal ban against the deployment of propaganda against U.S. citizens living on American soil. So there s even less to constrain propaganda than before.One of the most common uses of propaganda is to sell unnecessary and counter-productive wars. Given that the American media is always pro-war, mainstream publishers, producers, editors, and reporters are willing participants.It s not just lying about Saddam s non-existent weapons of mass destruction the corporate media is still selling lies to promote war. While the older generation that pioneered these domestic propaganda techniques has passed from the scene, many of their prot g s are still around along with some of the same organizations. The National Endowment for Democracy, which was formed in 1983 at the urging of CIA Director Casey and under the supervision of Walter Raymond s NSC operation, is still run by the same neocon, Carl Gershman, and has an even bigger budget, now exceeding $100 million a year.Gershman and his NED played important behind-the-scenes roles in instigating the Ukraine crisis by financing activists, journalists and other operatives who supported the coup against elected President Yanukovych. The NED-backed Freedom House also beat the propaganda drums. [See Consortiumnews.com s A Shadow Foreign Policy. ]Two other Reagan-era veterans, Elliott Abrams and Robert Kagan, have both provided important intellectual support for continuing U.S. interventionism around the world. Earlier this year, Kagan s article for The New Republic, entitled Superpowers Don t Get to Retire, touched such a raw nerve with President Obama that he hosted Kagan at a White House lunch and crafted the presidential commencement speech at West Point to deflect some of Kagan s criticism of Obama s hesitancy to use military force.***Rupert Murdoch s media empire is bigger than ever .Another key to American propaganda is the constant repetition of propaganda. As Business Insider reported in 2013:Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, a highly-respected officer who released a critical report regarding the distortion of truth by senior military officials in Iraq and Afghanistan .From Lt. Col. Davis:In context, Colonel Leap is implying we ought to change the law to enable Public Affairs officers to influence American public opinion when they deem it necessary to protect a key friendly center of gravity, to wit US national will. The Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 appears to serve this purpose by allowing for the American public to be a target audience of U.S. government-funded information campaigns.Davis also quotes Brigadier General Ralph O. Baker the Pentagon officer responsible for the Department of Defense s Joint Force Development who defines Information Operations (IO) as activities undertaken to shape the essential narrative of a conflict or situation and thus affect the attitudes and behaviors of the targeted audience. Brig. Gen. Baker goes on to equate descriptions of combat operations with the standard marketing strategy of repeating something until it is accepted:For years, commercial advertisers have based their advertisement strategies on the premise that there is a positive correlation between the number of times a consumer is exposed to product advertisement and that consumer s inclination to sample the new product. The very same principle applies to how we influence our target audiences when we conduct COIN.And those thousands of hours per week of government-funded radio and TV programs appear to serve Baker s strategy, which states: Repetition is a key tenet of IO execution, and the failure to constantly drive home a consistent message dilutes the impact on the target audiences. Government Massively Manipulates the Web, Social Media and Other Forms of CommunicationOf course, the Web and social media have become a huge media platform, and the Pentagon and other government agencies are massively manipulating both.Documents released by Snowden show that spies manipulate polls, website popularity and pageview counts, censor videos they don t like and amplify messages they do.The CIA and other government agencies also put enormous energy into pushing propaganda throughmovies, television and video games.Cross-Border PropagandaPropaganda isn t limited to our own borders Sometimes, the government plants disinformation in American media in order to mislead foreigners. For example, an official government summary of America s overthrow of the democratically-elected president of Iran in the 1950 s states, In cooperation with the Department of State, CIA had several articles planted in major American newspapers and magazines which, when reproduced in Iran, had the desired psychological effect in Iran and contributed to the war of nerves against Mossadeq (page x).The CIA has also bribed leading foreign journalists.And CNN accepted money from the brutal Bahrani dictatorship to run pro-monarchy propaganda.Everyone Who Challenges the Status Quo Is Labeled As a Purveyor of Fake News Or WorseThe First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects the freedom of the press from censorship by government.Indeed, the entire reason that it s unlawful for the government to stop stories from being printed is because that would punish those who criticize those in power.Why? Because the Founding Father knew that governments (like the British monarchy) will always crack down on those who point out that the emperor has no clothes.But the freedom of the press is under massive attack in America today For example, the powers-that-be argue that only highly-paid corporate media shills who will act as stenographers for the fatcats should have the constitutional protections guaranteeing freedom of the press.A Harvard law school professor argues that the First Amendment is outdated and should be abandoned.When financially-savvy bloggers challenged the Federal Reserve s policy, a Fed official called all bloggers stupid and unqualified to comment.And the government is treating the real investigative reporters like criminals or even terrorists:READ MORE MSM LIES AT: 21st Century Wire MSM Files | 1real |
NOT KIDDING: [VIDEO] JEB BUSH SAYS WE NEED TO PASS IMMIGRATION REFORM Because Illegals Are “More Fertile” | jeb! continues his free fall in the polls in spite of the all out push by the GOP to make him the Republican nominee for President in 2016 | 1real |
OOPS! Lindsey Vonn Gets Hit With Big Dose Of Karma After Trash-Talking President Trump On CNN | Only 3 days ago, Lindsey Vonn told CNN that she wouldn t be representing President Trump in the 2018 Olympics. She also boldly proclaimed that she wouldn t visit the White House if she were invited. I take the Olympics very seriously and what they mean and what they represent, what walking under our flag means in the opening ceremonies. I want to represent our country well, and I don t think there are a lot of people currently in our government that do that. Is it really appropriate for an Olympic athlete representing the United States of America to make her performance in the Olympics about her hate for Donald Trump?Was it really necessary for Vonn to spew her hate on a network that is not only being called into question for their inaccurate (fake news) reporting on a regular basis but is also known for their extremely unfair coverage of our President?Well, after her miserable showing in Switzerland yesterday, it looks like Lindsey needs to focus a little more on her skiing technique, and a little less on her anti- Trump rhetoric.According to the AP Lindsey Vonn finished a World Cup super-G in extreme pain Saturday and was treated by race doctors for a back injury.The American star crossed the finish line in obvious distress, in 24th place and 1.56 seconds behind the winner, and slumped to the snow.She compressed her back on the fifth gate, according to U.S. Ski & Snowboard.Vonn stayed in the finish house to be treated, and one hour later limped slowly into a waiting car to be driven from the St. Moritz course.Minutes earlier, her father Alan Kildow told The Associated Press his daughter was OK. In a race interrupted several times by gusting crosswinds, Vonn wore the No. 4 bib and was left standing at the start gate during the first delay of about three minutes. She stayed warm with a thick jacket draped on her shoulders.The surprise winner was Jasmine Flury of Switzerland, who had a career-best World Cup finish of fifth before Saturday.Perhaps the outspoken Lindsey Vonn will get her wish and not have to represent the President or decline his invitation to the White House | 1real |
Republican senator wants Democrats to testify on Trump dossier | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Susan Collins, a Republican member of the Intelligence Committee, said Democrats should be called again to testify about reports that their party and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign paid for parts of a dossier that detailed accusations about President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia. The Washington Post reported last week that Marc Elias, a lawyer for 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Clinton, used campaign funds to hire Fusion GPS, the firm behind the dossier. Committees in both chambers of Congress have been investigating the origin and contents of the document. John Podesta, who was Clinton’s campaign chairman, and U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was the head of the Democratic National Committee at the time, as well as Elias “absolutely need to be recalled” to testify,” Collins said in an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “It’s difficult to imagine that a campaign chairman, that the head of the DNC would not know of an expenditure of this magnitude and significance,” Collins said. “But perhaps there’s something more going on here. But certainly, it’s worth additional questioning of those two witnesses. And the lawyer; absolutely, he more than anyone.” It has been widely reported that supporters of Republican Jeb Bush, a primary opponent of Trump, initially paid for the firm’s research. Perkins Coie, Elias’ law firm, confirmed on Tuesday that it had hired Fusion GPS in April 2016. The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative online publication backed by billionaire Republican megadonor Paul Singer, said on Friday it was the original funder of the Fusion GPS project to compile opposition research on multiple Republican presidential candidates, including Trump. Known as the Steele dossier because it was compiled by former MI6 officer Christopher Steele, the document identified Russian businessmen and others who U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded are Russian intelligence officers or working on behalf of the Russian government. Representative Trey Gowdy, a Republican who runs the House Oversight Committee, said in an appearance on “Fox News Sunday” that he was more interested in whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the Department of Justice used the dossier in conducting their own probes. “I don’t expect the (Democratic National Committee) to be objective,” Gowdy said. “Almost by definition, opposition research is not objective. “The next thing that House Intel is trying to find out is whether or not the U.S. government relied on it.” | 0fake |
GERMANY: 10,000 Muslims Allegedly Registered To “March Against Terror”…Actual Number Is Much Less, After Largest Taxpayer-Funded Muslim Group Says March Would Send Wrong Message [VIDEO] | After allegedly registering 10,000 Muslims to take place in Germany s March Against Terror, the largest Muslim group in Germany refused to show because it would send the wrong message. Say what???A peace march organized by German Muslim groups to condemn terrorism and violence in the name of Islam has been held in Cologne. Organizers had registered 10,000 participants, but actual turnout was much lower.The liberal The Independent published a story about the 10,000 Muslims marching for peace before the march ever took place:10,000 Muslims to march against terrorism https://t.co/OC64Es1fRR #NichtMitUns #NotWithUs Arafatul Islam (@arafatul) June 16, 2017The march, organized by Islamic scholar Lamya Kaddor and peace activist Tarek Mohamad to condemn violence in the name of Islam across the world, was preceded by a heated debate when Germany s biggest Islamic association, the Turkish-Islamic Union (known by its acronym DITIB), refused to take part. DWTo integration commissioner zoguz the problem lies in the fact that decision-makers in associations like DITIB have never really settled in Germany, although for the most part, the members have.In other words, the leaders of the most powerful Muslim group in Germany have no interest in assimilating with Germans, but do have an interest in accepting public funds from German taxpayers to keep their organization up and running.However, DITIB does not seem capable of surviving only off Ankara s support and without help from Germany. After payments to the association were temporarily suspended because of the espionage affair, the money has been flowing into its accounts again. According to the German Ministry of Family Affairs, It was decided that funding for projects that have already been approved would resume under consideration of all relevant aspects. DITIB has received around 6 million euros ($6.7 million) in funding from the German government since 2012.Number of participants at Muslim peace march in Cologne were far less than expected. Is it because DITIB's absence? #NichtMitUns #NotWithUs pic.twitter.com/93kyvYCll2 Arafatul Islam (@arafatul) June 17, 2017Under gray skies, demonstrators waved banners proclaiming together against terror and terrorism has no religion on Saturday in the western German city of Cologne.About 500 of the estimated 10,000 Muslims took part in the Cologne, Germany March Against Terror . | 1real |
Maine’s Governor Refuses To Answer One Simple Question – Then Things Get Really Weird (VIDEO) | The Rachel Maddow Show attempted to reach out to Maine Governor Paul LePage s office to see if he would be delivering his annual State of the State speech this year (after threatening he wouldn t do it). Instead of getting a response to that simple question, the Governor s office decided to make things really weird. Not only did the Governor and his aides not answer the question, but they made complete fools of themselves in the process. It was a war of words, to say the least.Here is the question they thought was so horrible: Hi, wanted to see if the governor has made a decision about whether or not he will give the State of the State address in person to lawmakers or if he still plans to send a letter. Do you have any information on that decision yet? Thanks! The very first message Maddow got back was: Why does Rachel Maddow have such an unnatural obsession with Governor LePage? Her neurotic fixation on his is kind of bizarre. What happened after that is just a back and forth of sheer awkwardness.While it is true that Maddow has reported on Governor LePage, and probably not in the most favorable light, that is the job of a national reporter after all. And he s made a lot of stupid statements. Of course, a liberal show is going to laugh at someone like LePage for those comments. She reports on the news. It would have been very easy for LePage s office to say we re not sure yet, leaving Maddow almost nowhere to go with the exchange, even if she was trying to troll him.Surely the Governor and his aides must have known that this is precisely the last thing they would want to do to someone who commands an audience of millions. Not very smart. Then again, Tea Party Republicans aren t the brightest, either.Featured image via screen capture | 1real |
ZULEMA RODRIGUEZ, Paid To Incite Violence At Trump Rallies, PROVEN | Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Security Question: What is 15 + 13 ? Please leave these two fields as-is: IMPORTANT! To be able to proceed, you need to solve the following simple math (so we know that you are a human) :-) Doom and Bloom | 1real |
Philadelphia passes soda tax after mayor rewrites playbook | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney scored a victory that had eluded more than 40 U.S. public officials who took on the powerful U.S. soda industry when the city council voted on Thursday to slap a tax on sweetened drinks. After a bitter, months-long battle, the city council voted 13-4 to approve a 1.5 cent-per-ounce tax on sugary and diet drinks beginning in January. The council already approved the plan in a preliminary vote last week, and the outcome had not been expected to change. The City of Brotherly Love became the biggest U.S. city to have such a tax. Much smaller Berkeley, California, was the first. Similar efforts, including several spearheaded by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, were defeated after intense lobbying from organizations like the American Beverage Association, which opposes the Philadelphia move and represents Coca-Cola Co and PepsiCo Inc. Following Thursday’s vote, the ABA said it would take legal action to stop the tax. The Philadelphia vote marked a major victory for health advocates who say sugary drinks cause obesity and diabetes. But experts noted those concerns were not the focus for Kenney and other backers of the tax as they took on critics complaining that “nanny state” public health measures intrude on residents’ personal lives. Instead, Kenney rewrote the soda-tax advocate’s playbook. He played up the benefits of the cash injection from the tax for the city’s depleted coffers. In the first year, the tax is projected to raise $91 million, and he pledged to spend funds on public programs such as universal pre-kindergarten. “If you want to tax something and people know where the money’s going to go, then it’s easier for them to get behind it,” Kenney said in an interview. He noted that focusing on revenue, rather than health, was largely responsible for the measure’s passage. The strategic shift could lend momentum to movements in San Francisco, neighboring Oakland, California, and Boulder, Colorado. Residents of those cities will vote in November on similar taxes, which could deal further blows to a U.S. soft drink industry already hit by declining soda consumption. U.S. soda consumption fell for the 11th straight year in 2015, according to Euromonitor data. Bloomberg made public health a centerpiece of his tenure as New York City mayor between 2002 and 2013. He moved to limit smoking in parks and restaurants, ban transfats and require calorie counts posted in some restaurants. On soda, he pushed for a tax, then a ban on soda purchases with food stamps, and finally a much-lampooned limit on the size of sugary drinks. His efforts were ultimately rejected, with critics decrying the moves toward a “nanny state.” The strategy worked in Britain, where a new soft drinks levy was announced in March after officials emphasized the country’s obesity crisis, saying it cost the economy billions of pounds annually and was a huge burden on the state-funded health system. That approach never worked in Philadelphia. Michael Nutter, the previous mayor, twice tried to pass a soda tax as a health initiative and as a way to plug a budget shortfall. He was unable to push it through the city council. “Twice before it was used in Philadelphia and it was not successful. It was used in New York and it was not effective,” said Kenney, adding that while the health benefits of a tax are not “less important,” they are less tangible. Kenney, who became mayor in January, had made a campaign pledge to provide universal pre-kindergarten, and he kept that issue as his focus. A spokeswoman said complex state laws on taxation made enacting a citywide soda tax the best option to raise revenue for that signature proposal. Bloomberg personally contributed funding to support Philadelphia’s pro-tax campaigners. Opponents of Philadelphia’s soda tax argued that the measure will disproportionately hurt the poor and prompt Philadelphians to travel to nearby suburbs to buy soda. A spokesman for No Philly Grocery Tax, a local ABA-funded group, said it would sue the city to stop it from imposing the “unconstitutional” tax, but was still analyzing all its legal options. In a statement, it called the tax “regressive and discriminatory.” Kenney said the city was prepared to defend the tax in any litigation from the beverage industry. “It’s the precedent that they were so staunchly fighting, and that’s their problem now,” Kenney said. “You’re going to see the beginnings of a kind of domino effect relative to this specific effort.” In Colorado, Boulder hopes to use soda tax revenue on health programs, and San Francisco and Oakland officials would recommend but not require funds raised to go toward obesity and diabetes prevention. When Berkeley passed its soda tax in 2014, industry groups dismissed the measure as a fluke given the city’s largely white population and reputation as a hotbed for liberal measures. But Philadelphia is the fifth-largest U.S. city, with 1.6 million people. “No one can trivialize it as they can trivialize Berkeley,” said Larry Tramutola, a California political strategist who worked on the Berkeley campaign and is currently leading the San Francisco and Oakland efforts. | 0fake |
World wildlife ‘falls by 58% in 40 years’ | World wildlife ‘falls by 58% in 40 years’ 10/27/2016
BBC NEWS Global wildlife populations have fallen by 58% since 1970, a report says.
The Living Planet assessment, by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and WWF, suggests that if the trend continues that decline could reach two-thirds among vertebrates by 2020.
The figures suggest that animals living in lakes, rivers and wetlands are suffering the biggest losses.
Human activity, including habitat loss, wildlife trade, pollution and climate change contributed to the declines.
Dr Mike Barrett. head of science and policy at WWF, said: “It’s pretty clear under ‘business as usual’ we will see continued declines in these wildlife populations. But I think now we’ve reached a point where there isn’t really any excuse to let this carry on.
“We know what the causes are and we know the scale of the impact that humans are having on nature and on wildlife populations – it really is now down to us to act.”
However the methodology of the report has been criticised. Image copyright CARLOS DREWS / WWF Image caption The report looked at data collected on 3,700 species of vertebrates over the last 40 years
The Living Planet Report is published every two years and aims to provide an assessment of the state of the world’s wildlife.
For freshwater species alone, the decline stands at 81% since 1970 Dr Mike Barrett, WWF
This analysis looked at 3,700 different species of birds, fish, mammals, amphibians and reptiles – about 6% of the total number of vertebrate species in the world.
The team collected data from peer-reviewed studies, government statistics and surveys collated by conservation groups and NGOs.
Any species with population data going back to 1970, with two or more time points (to show trends) was included in the study.
The researchers then analysed how the population sizes had changed over time.
Some of this information was weighted to take into account the groups of animals that had a great deal of data (there are many records on Arctic and near Arctic birds, for example) or very little data (tropical amphibians, for example). The report authors said this was to make sure a surplus of information about declines in some animals did not skew the overall picture.
The last report, published in 2014, estimated that the world’s wildlife populations had halved over the last 40 years.
This assessment suggests that the trend has continued: since 1970, populations have declined by an average of 58%.
Dr Barrett said some groups of animals had fared worse than others.
“We do see particularly strong declines in the freshwater environment – for freshwater species alone, the decline stands at 81% since 1970. This is related to the way water is used and taken out of fresh water systems, and also the fragmentation of freshwater systems through dam building, for example.”
It also highlighted other species, such as African elephants , which have suffered huge declines in recent years with the increase in poaching, and sharks, which are threatened by overfishing.
If pressures – overexploitation, illegal wildlife trade for example – increase or worsen, then that trend may be worse Dr Robin Freeman, ZSL
The researchers conclude that vertebrate populations are declining by an average of 2% each year, and warn that if nothing is done, wildlife populations could fall by 67% (below 1970 levels) by the end of the decade.
Dr Robin Freeman, head of ZSL’s Indicators & Assessments Unit, said: “But that’s assuming things continue as we expect. If pressures – overexploitation, illegal wildlife trade, for example – increase or worsen, then that trend may be worse.
“But one of the things I think is most important about these stats, these trends are declines in the number of animals in wildlife populations – they are not extinctions. By and large they are not vanishing, and that presents us with an opportunity to do something about it.” Image copyright SCOTT DICKERSON Image caption There are still many gaps in our knowledge of the world’s vertebrates
However, Living Planet reports have drawn some criticisms.
There are some numbers [in the report] that are sensible, but there are some numbers that are very very sketchy Stuart Pimm, Duke University
Stuart Pimm, professor of conservation ecology at Duke University in the United States, said that while wildlife was in decline, there were too many gaps in the data to boil population loss down to a single figure.
“There are some numbers [in the report] that are sensible, but there are some numbers that are very, very sketchy,” he told BBC News.
“For example, if you look at where the data comes from, not surprisingly, it is massively skewed towards western Europe.
“When you go elsewhere, not only do the data become far fewer, but in practice they become much, much sketchier… there is almost nothing from South America, from tropical Africa, there is not much from the tropics, period. Any time you are trying to mix stuff like that, it is is very very hard to know what the numbers mean.
“They’re trying to pull this stuff in a blender and spew out a single number…. It’s flawed.”
But Dr Freeman said the team had taken the best data possible from around the world.
“It’s completely true that in some regions and in some groups, like tropical amphibians for example, we do have a lack of data. But that’s because there is a lack of data.
“We’re confident that the method we are using is the best method to present an overall estimate of population decline.
“It’s entirely possible that species that aren’t being monitored as effectively may be doing much worse – but I’d be very surprised if they were doing much better than we observed. “ | 1real |
NY, California governors say residents would suffer under Trump tax cuts | NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York and California’s Democratic governors said on Friday residents would face hefty tax increases and some would leave their states under a proposal in the Republican tax plan that would eliminate state and local tax (SALT) deductions on federal income tax. Andrew Cuomo of New York and Jerry Brown of California spoke in a joint conference call a day after the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed a measure that advanced President Donald Trump’s tax plan. Republican leaders have sketched out an outline of the tax measures that would eliminate the tax break, although detailed legislation will not be unveiled until next Wednesday. If the SALT deduction were eliminated the tax package would disproportionately hit residents of states that have high income taxes, many of which are historically Democratic, the governors said. “This is an attack on California, New York and New Jersey, and other states that would not vote for Trump,” Brown said. “It’s a gross manipulation of our tax code.” The SALT deduction allows residents to subtract income taxes paid to states and local governments from the total income taxed by the federal government taxes. Its elimination would be one among a series of measures to offset lost revenues from what are envisaged as sweeping overall cuts on corporate and personal taxes. While analysts say the overall tax package would cut taxes for companies and individuals by up to $6 trillion over the next decade, many residents of high-tax states who use the deduction would pay more, the governors said. In New York, taxpayers would pay an average of an additional $5,300 in federal income taxes a year without the SALT deduction, Cuomo’s office said in a separate statement. That sharp increase in taxes would likely lead to an exodus of residents, starting with high earners, who would see the greatest increases, Cuomo said. “Higher-income people will move,” he said. Some Republican lawmakers from high-tax states voted against the budget measure on Thursday to express opposition to the elimination of the SALT deduction. Republican congressional leaders are working to allay their concerns. “If the SALT is repealed, we would expect some deterioration of credit quality for affected states and localities in the medium term, including some price pressure on housing markets in areas bordering states with lower local taxes (eg, southern New Jersey),” Barclays analysts wrote to clients on Thursday. “However, municipal bonds issued by high tax states and localities would likely become even more valuable to investors, and there could be stronger demand from retail investors, bringing yields and muni-Treasury ratios down,” Barclays said. | 0fake |
Comment on Wikileaks Reveal Clinton Ties To Rothschilds And Occult Cabal by Time to hail Hillary Clinton – and face down the testosterone left | Van Badham – News | By wmw_admin on July 27, 2016 Baxter Dmitry — Your News Wire.com July 25, 2016 From left to right: Hillary Clinton and Evelyn de Rothschild, Bill Clinton and Lynn Forester de Rothschild. Click to enlarge
The Wikileaks classified email dumps have exposed Hillary Clinton for what she really is – a member of the infamous Rothschild family’s inner sanctum, with occultist beliefs.
Lending further credibility to the idea that Presidents are not elected but are selected by a global shadow government, the Wikileaks email dumps expose Hillary Clinton’s close relationship with the infamous Rothschild banking family and hints for a potential Rockefeller-State partnership.
The fact the mainstream media have been exposed colluding with the Clinton campaign cannot come as a surprise, considering she is the Rothschild’s selected candidate.
Lynn Forester de Rothschild wrote an email on April 18, 2010, in which she tells Hillary she would “ love to catch up ” — and “ I remain your loyal adoring pal .” Clinton responds “ let’s make that happen ,” and signs her response, “ Much love, H .”
On September 23, 2010, Clinton emailed Lynn Forester de Rothschild saying, “ I was trying to reach you to tell you and Teddy that I asked Tony Blair to go to Israel as part of our full court press on keeping the Middle East negotiations going … ”
Rothschild responds, thanking Clinton for “ personally reaching out to us ,” and adds, “ You are the best, and we remain your biggest fans .”
A January 9, 2012, email discusses a meeting set to take place at Jacob Rothschild’s “ historic estate, Waddesdon .” OCCULTIST TIES Bohemian Grove gathering. Click to enlarge
Hillary Clinton is so deeply entrenched in the elite New World Order establishment that she even bows down to Moloch, the same occultist god they perform human sacrifice rituals for at the annual Bohemian Grove meetings.
In an email from August 29 2008, a senior government staffer writes to Hillary Clinton, “ With fingers crossed, the old rabbit’s foot out of the box in the attic, I will be sacrificing a chicken in the backyard to Moloch . . . ”
Thanks to the Wikileaks Hillary Clinton Email Archive (containing 30,022 emails, free to search), we now have more concrete proof that Hillary Clinton and other globalist elites have occult ties. Nobody randomly uses Moloch in a conversation. Most people don’t even know what Moloch is. Clinton email. Click to enlarge
But Bohemian Grove, the playground of the world’s most wealthy and powerful men, has been performing sacrifice rituals to Moloch since the 1800s, offering charred human flesh according to some reports.
Given the reputation Bohemian Grove has for deciding the next President of the United States in the year before the election (see former Presidents Eisenhower, Nixon and Reagan, the Bush dynasty, as well as Hillary’s husband Bill Clinton), it should come as no surprise that Hillary is wriggling her way into their dark, secretive world
The Bohemian Grove club might be infamously male only, but temporary exceptions have been made for women before, and as it is apparent the New World Order has decided it is in their interest to ordain Hillary as the next President then they will bend their rules to let her in.
This explains why the mainstream media – and social media platforms – are working overtime to get Clinton elected. The global elites have spoken and the mainstream media has begun marching to the beat of their drum – supporting their selected candidate, and destroying the chances of anyone they see as a threat to their corrupt, elite club. | 1real |
NAACP Vows to Oppose Trump’s Voter Fraud Investigation - Breitbart | The head of the NCAAP has come out in stark opposition to President Donald J. Trump’s coming investigation into voter fraud, claiming it is “racist. ”[In an interview on CNN, Cornell William Brooks, president and CEO of the NAACP, insisted that his organization would “resist” the president’s investigation into fraud during the 2016 election. “The President has claimed millions of fraudulent ballots were cast. The only place you will find millions of fraudulent ballots are right beside that fake birth certificate for Barack Obama, inside the imagination of President Trump. They don’t exist,” Brooks said on Thursday. Instead of vote fraud, Brooks insisted that there was “unrelenting voter suppression” of the minority vote in 2016. “We have seen our rights denied as Americans. Particularly seniors, Latinos and younger people,” Brooks exclaimed. “So, if the President insists upon conducting an investigation into voter fraud as a pretext for voter suppression, the NAACP, along with millions of Americans of every human heritage, will resist. We will push back. ” Brooks recently jumped to his Twitter account to attack the President’s investigation, calling it a figment of Trump’s imagination. 1) Only place you’ll find millions of fraudulent ballots are beside B. Obama’s fake birth certificate — inside #POTUS ’s imagination. @NAACP pic. twitter. — Cornell Wm. Brooks (@CornellWBrooks) January 26, 2017, In a formal statement, Brooks called vote fraud a “myth” and insisted that voter suppression is a fact. He wrote: Today, President Donald Trump called for the federal government to spend resources investigating alleged “voter fraud” in the 2016 elections. Unable to accept the fact that he lost the popular vote by some 2. 8 million votes, President Trump has repeated his naked and reckless claim that 3 to 5 million illegal votes were cast in the 2016 election by “illegal immigrants. ” However, this notion of widespread voter fraud in the 2016 election, or any other American election cycle for that matter, is false and dangerous. On CNN Brooks added that he would suggest the president change the direction of his investigation or they will have to resist it. “If the President goes down this road, we must resist, and we must resist massively,” Brooks claimed. The claims Brooks made fly in the face of the evidence, according to longtime vote fraud investigator John Fund. In a piece published by Fox News, Fund and the Heritage Foundation’s Hans von Spakovsky say that Trump’s investigation is a long overdue look at the problem of vote fraud in the U. S. Fund and von Spakovsky reveal that the Obama administration spent its entire eight years trying to quash investigations into vote fraud and also refused to allow the states to fix their voter rolls to eliminate dead voters and voters registered in multiple jurisdictions. The authors further point out that our electoral system is currently set up entirely on the honor system, expecting that all voters will be telling the truth by affirming they are both registered and will only vote once. Fund also notes that voter ID cards are perfectly acceptable and that, “All industrialized democracies … require voters to prove their identity before voting. ” “Our honor system for voting doesn’t work,” Fund concluded. “We don’t know how big of a problem voter fraud really is because no systematic effort has ever been made to investigate it. But the public doesn’t think it’s as insignificant as the media insists. ” Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com. | 0fake |
'Basket of deplorables': For once, Hillary told the truth about what she really thinks | Hillary let the cat out of a bag Friday. For once, she told us what she really thinks. the truth. No lies, no filters, no politically correct editing.
Hillary finally shared her true feelings at a fundraising event in Manhattan on Friday night, with her old pal Barbara Streisand hosting. Just like Mitt Romney exposed his true feelings about "the 47 percent" at a private fundraiser in 2012.
Hillary said that half of Donald Trump’s supporters belong in a “basket of deplorables.”
This was the real Hillary -- raw and unfiltered. She must be taking lessons from Donald Trump.
Of course, she now regrets saying it. Politicians often regret letting their true feelings out. But it's clear what Hillary meant. Hillary and her supporters despise and disrespect anyone who loves God, country, family and our Constitution.
Hillary was talking about me and my friends. I’m Exhibit A for her rant. I’m the author of the new book “ANGRY WHITE MALE.” It’s my testimony about exactly what millions of angry white males who support Donald Trump believe in…and exactly what liberals like Hillary and President Obama think of us. How they are trying to target us, muzzle us, punish us and destroy us.
Thanks Hillary. We already knew how you felt, but it's nice to get it out into the open. Now you're on record.
Everything I love -- and millions of conservatives, Christians and patriots love -- is under attack from Hillary and the Democrats. They resent us. They disrespect us. They want to silence us. They want to financially cripple us (to redistribute our income in the name of "fairness" and "social justice").
Millions of Trump supporters believe the things that made America great are simple: Faith in God, family, patriotism, American exceptionalism, capitalism, Judeo-Christian values, Constitution, military and police. But Hillary and the Democrats despise those symbols. To them, belief in those symbols makes you..."deplorable."
Well, I’m proud that Hillary and her socialist cabal see me as “deplorable.” Let’s look at who else is in this “basket" with me. Here is a list of my teammates in Hillary's "basket of deplorables":
- The soldiers who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. We know they are Trump supporters. The latest poll shows Trump winning the military vote by a landslide. Hillary thinks they are "deplorable."
- Military veterans. These are the Americans who were willing to die for our freedoms. Vets were included in that military poll that showed Trump winning by a landslide.
- Vets who came home from Iraq and Afghanistan with no arms, or no legs, or both. I’m betting most of them are for Trump too. Does Hillary think they’re “deplorable?”
- Policemen murdered in the line of duty -- like the five officers recently killed in Dallas, or the three who were killed in Baton Rouge. Most every police officer I meet is voting for Trump.
- The spouses and children of policemen murdered in the line of duty. What if they're voting for Trump? Are they “deplorable” to Hillary and her supporters?
- Every red-blooded regular church-goer on Sunday mornings in America. We know a large majority of regular church-goers are for Trump.
- A majority of the 28 million small business owners in America. This group will be voting overwhelmingly for Trump. They get up early, work 16 hour days, risk their own money, and create the majority of America's private sector jobs. But Hillary doesn't like them very much. She thinks if they vote for Trump they're "deplorable."
Now Hillary is walking back her comment. She says she regrets calling us all "a basket of deplorables." But it's too late. We all know your first comment was the raw truth, Hillary. That was how you really feel about us.
The only thing Hillary regrets is that she let the cat out of the bag.
Well, I have news for Hillary…
I am proud to be part of "the basket of deplorables."
Wayne Allyn Root is a capitalist evangelist, serial entrepreneur, conservative national media commentator, and proud champion of the middle class. He is a former Libertarian vice presidential nominee, now back to the GOP. Wayne's latest book is "Angry White Male" (Skyhorse Publishing). He is a supporter of Donald Trump's presidential campaign. For more, visit his website: www.ROOTforAmerica.com. Follow him on Twitter@WayneRoot. | 0fake |
Trump Awakes With Unhinged Rant Over What To Call His Failing Muslim Ban (TWEETS) | As of this writing, it is not even 7:00 AM on the East Coast and Donald Trump is already awake and tweeting. What s got him so agitated at such an early hour this time? Why, his Muslim ban of course, which he disgracefully promoted after the London terror attacks or rather, as he is now calling it, a travel ban. Inexplicably, Trump is upset with regards to how this ill-fated executive order has been referred to in the papers and the courts, and he just had to assert that it is HE who will decide what to call it, and no one else. Trump tweeted:People, the lawyers and the courts can call it whatever they want, but I am calling it what we need and what it is, a TRAVEL BAN! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2017Then, he went on to rant that the Department of Justice was wrong to defy his original Muslim ban but instead went for the watered down, politically correct version also commonly known as Muslim ban 2.0.The Justice Dept. should have stayed with the original Travel Ban, not the watered down, politically correct version they submitted to S.C. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2017Of course, we all remember that the first Muslim ban explicitly placed a religious test on people coming from the countries on Trump s list of banned nations which, of course, is unconstitutional. Further, it simply takes Trump back to his campaign promise of a Muslim ban. Those of us who have spent so much as two seconds listening to this buffoon already knew this was what it was anyway.Then, of course, Trump continued to tweet, this time attacking the courts as he always does over rulings that he doesn t like:The Justice Dept. should ask for an expedited hearing of the watered down Travel Ban before the Supreme Court & seek much tougher version! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2017In any event we are EXTREME VETTING people coming into the U.S. in order to help keep our country safe. The courts are slow and political! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2017Yes, the court system can be slow, you big baby, but that s because they d rather get their rulings right than push them through to satisfy impatient morons like you. Further, if you had any sense, you d know that these tweets are now a matter of public record, and they will be used against you in a court of law.This unconstitutional and bigoted ban will be struck down in the Supreme Court, just as it has been in all of the lower courts. You might not have had checks and balances atop your golden tower, but you certainly do while you sit in the Oval Office.Welcome to governing, you big orange idiot. You can t just do what you want anymore. Should have thought of that before you took the job. As for the rest of us? We ll just keep watching you make a fool of yourself on Twitter.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 1real |
“When You Speak Up for the MOVE 9, You Speak Up for Yourself” | Tweet Widget by MOVE People
The Philadelphia-based MOVE family was horribly victimized by police in 1978 and 1985. The first atrocity led to the mass imprisonment of MOVE members; the second assault killed five adults and six children and burned down a city block. No cops have ever been punished, but the MOVE 9 remain in prison, and were this year once again denied parole. “They couldn't kill us that day, so they are trying to finish the job in these prisons.” “When You Speak Up for the MOVE 9, You Speak Up for Yourself” by MOVE People
This article previously appeared on Move 9 blogspot .
“The District Attorney never proved MOVE had killed a police officer.”
The MOVE 9 Have been eligible for Parole since August 2008, After being in prison for 30 years. We have repeatedly been denied. In June of this year (2016) , we were denied parole again , for a total of ten years past the time we should have been released. One of the reasons the parole board gave to justify not releasing us is that we are a threat to the safety of the community. This is not true. People are not afraid of MOVE People. Move People ain't strangling people to death, shooting people in the back. It ain't MOVE that killed a man in front of his fiancé and four year old child. MOVE is not drive by shooting, or terrorizing folks in the community. It's the community who is faxing, emailing, and calling the parole board asking for our release on parole.
It is the Parole Board and D.A. John Straub who continue to deny our release for no valid reason. On August 8th 1978, hundreds of cops attacked our home at 3:00am in the morning trying to kill us. They couldn't kill us that day, so they are trying to finish the job in these prisons but understand: John Straub and the Parole Board are not justified. MOVE did not go out to the Police's house to do them harm. The Cops came to our house, because a judge sent them to our house to serve bench warrants for not appearing in court not for rape, murder, kidnapping or abuse but for not appearing in court for a civil matter. Understand this: hundreds of cops were sent to our home, while we were asleep, dressed in swat gear, armed with all type of weaponry, semi -automatic weapons, fire fighters, smoke bombs, tear gas, a deluge gun, a crane and a bulldozer to serve bench warrants, for a housing code violation.
“Move People ain't strangling people to death, shooting people in the back.”
It was the Police who came to Move’s premises. They came armed to the teeth and in their frenzy to kill MOVE, they killed one of their own, and condemned us for it. We are not making this up. The evidence is clear.
The whole world witnessed the attack on the MOVE house May 13th 1985, where the house was bombed into a blazing inferno, the six adults were shot and killed and the five children were shot back into the house by police as they tried to escape the burning flames where they died . These are proven Facts. During the city’s investigation hearing, it was ruled that the cops used excessive force and the killings were wrongful deaths. Those children were our children in that house that day, yet not one cop or official connected to the bombing of our family were held accountable, responsible for these deaths like the parole board is telling The MOVE 9 we have to take responsibility for a crime when the District Attorney never proved MOVE had killed a police officer.
We have no weapons charges and the judge admitted on public radio to the caller, Mumia Abu Jamal [a radio journalist at the time], that he didn't have the faintest idea who shot the police officer. It's a fact that world renowned forensic experts Dr. Ali Hameli and Claus Speth ruled the deaths of the children HOMICIDES in a scathing report against the city, submitted to the assistant District Attorney Joan Weimer, but the grand jury did nothing.
“It's time for everybody to start speaking freely in protest of all this free wheeling injustice.”
The Move 9 have spent almost 40 years in prison for killing a cop, with no real proof. The whole world saw the Philadelphia police murder our children and family, and they have not spent a day in prison for it. But, what is the difference in these lives? Does a MOVE child not bleed, when they are shot? Does a MOVE parent not feel pain when their baby is killed, just because they are not cops or officials? Does the murder of a MOVE child, the pain of MOVE parent, the heartache of a black person's suffering still fall on deaf ears like the slaves who cried out when their babies, women and men were sold, killed, and whipped by slave owners? Ask yourself. Things may seem to have changed since those awful days, but the mentality is still very much existing.
Just look around and listen. Black lives (Don't) Matter. That's why these cops are getting away with killing Black Men, Women, and Children. That's why The MOVE 9 are still in prison almost 40 years for killing a cop, and the cops responsible for killing 11 MOVE people, five of them children, are walking around like they are clean and without guilt. It's the mentality that makes them feel nothing after killing people. Because to them MOVE lives (Don't) matter. It's time for everybody to start speaking freely in protest of all this free wheeling injustice. People must understand this necessity of speaking out now.
We are asking for people to sign The Petition we have aimed at United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch demanding that The United States Justice Dept open up an investigation into the ongoing and wrongful imprisonment of The MOVE 9. People can sign the petition at Https://causes.com/92454-free-the-move-9 . Speak out with the understanding that when speaking of MOVE, you are speaking up for yourself. It can't get better for MOVE without getting better for you.
Looking Forward To The May 2017 MOVE Conference In Philadelphia.
Ona Move | 1real |
‘Going Flat’ After Breast Cancer - The New York Times | Before Debbie Bowers had surgery for breast cancer, her doctor promised that insurance would pay for reconstruction, and said she could “even go up a cup size. ” But Ms. Bowers did not want a silicone implant or bigger breasts. “Having something foreign in my body after a cancer diagnosis is the last thing I wanted,” said Ms. Bowers, 45, of Bethlehem, Pa. “I just wanted to heal. ” While plastic surgeons and oncologists aggressively promote breast reconstruction as a way for women to “feel whole again,” some doctors say they are beginning to see resistance to the surgery. Patients like Ms. Bowers are choosing to defy medical advice and social convention and remain breastless after breast cancer. They even have a name for the decision to skip reconstruction: They call it “going flat. ” “Reconstruction is not a simple process,” said Dr. Deanna J. Attai, a breast surgeon in Burbank, Calif. and a past president of the American Society of Breast Surgeons, adding that more of her patients, especially those with smaller breasts before diagnosis, were opting out of reconstruction. “Some women just feel like it’s too much: It’s too involved, there are too many steps, it’s too long a process. ” Social media has allowed these women to become more open about their decision to live without breasts, as well as the challenges, both physical and emotional, that have followed. For a recent video created by wisdo. com, a social media platform, and widely shared on Facebook, Ms. Bowers and her friend Marianne DuQuette Cuozzo, 51, removed their shirts to show their scarred, flat chests. And Paulette Leaphart, 50, a New Orleans woman whose clotting disorder prevented her from having reconstruction after a double mastectomy, walked topless from Biloxi, Miss. to Washington this summer to raise awareness about the financial struggles of cancer patients. “Breasts aren’t what make us a woman,” Ms. Leaphart said. The nascent movement to “go flat” after mastectomies challenges assumptions about femininity and what it means to recover after breast cancer. For years, medical professionals have embraced the idea that breast restoration is an integral part of cancer treatment. Women’s health advocates fought for and won approval of the Women’s Health and Cancer Rights Act of 1998, which requires health plans to cover prosthetics and reconstructive procedures. Since then, breast reconstruction has become standard care. More than 106, 000 reconstructive procedures were done last year, a 35 percent increase since 2000, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. While it is not known exactly what percentage of women opt for breast reconstruction after a mastectomy, one study found that in 2011, 63 percent of women who were candidates for the procedure chose to have it. In some parts of the United States, the number is closer to 80 percent today. In promoting the surgery, doctors cite studies that suggest breast reconstruction improves a woman’s quality of life after cancer. But some women say that doctors focus too much on physical appearance, and not enough on the toll prolonged reconstructive procedures take on their bodies and their psyches. Up to of women who undergo reconstruction experience complications. A systematic review of 28 studies found that women who went without reconstruction fared no worse, and sometimes did better, in terms of body image, quality of life and sexual outcomes. “That’s the dirty little secret of breast reconstruction: The risk of a major complication is higher than for the average elective surgery,” said Dr. Clara Lee, an associate professor of plastic surgery at Ohio State University who performs the procedure. Ms. Cuozzo, who appeared in the Facebook video with Ms. Bowers, spent a year having her breasts rebuilt after a double mastectomy, but after four infections in five months, she had the implants removed. The reconstruction, she said, “was getting worse than the cancer. ” While some states, including New York, now require physicians to tell women about the availability of breast reconstruction, women say they often are not informed of the option to remain flat. “I was never told there was a choice,” Ms. Cuozzo said. “I went from the breast surgeon to the plastic surgeon, and they said, ‘This is what you’re going to do. ’” Dr. David H. Song, chief of plastic surgery at the University of Chicago and immediate past president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, said that the risk of complications was real, but that focusing on them was like focusing on plane crashes when “millions of flights land safely. ” Given advancements in surgical techniques, “the aesthetic result can be better than the native breast,” Dr. Song said. “Patients can come out the other end looking more youthful, with a better aesthetic in her breast than before. ” But it is that kind of talk — suggesting that a reconstructed breast is an improvement on a woman’s natural breast — that enrages many women who have undergone mastectomies. For starters, a reconstructed breast is often numb and can no longer play a role in sexual arousal. It often lacks a nipple, since the nipple is usually removed in a mastectomy. After looking at photos of reconstructed breasts, “I was slightly horrified,” said Charlie Scheel, 48, of Brooklyn, who decided against implants after a double mastectomy. “You don’t have nipples and you have scars everywhere. ” Rebecca Pine, a cancer survivor from Long Island who a photography and writing project called “The Breast and the Sea,” said, “It’s a tremendous amount to put your body through, and it’s not like we’re going to get our breasts back. ” Ms. Pine, 40, had reconstruction after her first mastectomy, but had the implant removed later when she had a prophylactic mastectomy on her other breast. “They don’t look or feel, in most cases, like our breasts,” she said. “The nerves are cut, so they’re not receptive to feel or touch. ” Dr. Susan Love, author of a book about breast health, said that doctors aiming to expand access to reconstruction may have become overly enthusiastic about the surgery. “Surgeons became so proud of what we were able to do that we may have forgotten that not everybody may want it,” Dr. Love said. Dr. Marisa C. Weiss, founder of breastcancer. org, said doctors should not assume every patient wants reconstructed breasts. “I’ve had dancers who do not want reconstruction and nuns who say, ‘I need reconstruction,’” she said. Some women say physicians pressured them to get implants. When Catherine Stapleton, of Florida, woke up after her mastectomy, she discovered that her breast surgeon, a woman, had left unsightly flaps of skin and tissue that could be used for breast reconstruction later, in case she changed her mind. “When I woke up from anesthesia, I was in shock,” said Ms. Stapleton, 58, who is now facing additional major surgery to correct the first procedure. Geri Barish, president of the Long Island advocacy group 1 in 9, said a doctor had chided her when she opted against reconstruction. “One doctor said to me: ‘How can you walk around like that? You look deformed,’” she recalled. Support groups and social media have allowed women to share stories about the realities of reconstruction. “A lot of the women in my support group had infections, and they were surprised at how many surgeries were involved,” said Alicia Staley, 45, who stayed flat after a double mastectomy. “As I compared notes, I wondered, ‘Why are all these women doing this to themselves? ’” Coming to terms with a flat chest after breast cancer can be difficult. While some women wear a prosthesis in their bra, it is not uncommon for them to stop using it. “They’re heavy, they’re uncomfortable, and they’re in a sensitive area where you have scars,” Ms. Pine said. Women say they take many of the clothes they wore before surgery to Goodwill and begin wearing scarves and long strands of beads to hide their flat chests. Others try to embrace their new form by having elaborate tattoos inked where they once had breasts. Ms. Pine has a lotus flower tattoo on one side and a dragonfly on the other. Sara 39, a technical writer in Kalamazoo, Mich. tried two types of implants but had a constant burning sensation and got rid of them. She then started a virtual support group called Flat and Fabulous. “We’re not ” she said. “But many women never feel it’s part of their body. ” For Kate Cloudsparks, 64, a farmer in southern Iowa who has been flat since a preventive mastectomy 21 years ago, discovering the Flat and Fabulous Facebook page this year led to her first communication ever with women who had made the same choice. “I didn’t know anybody else like me. I was carrying it around for 20 years without having anywhere to share it,” she said. “Finally, I had an opportunity to talk about what it’s been like to live as a woman without breasts. ” | 0fake |
Mattis says North Korean ICBM not yet a 'capable threat' against U.S | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Friday that analysis continued on North Korea s most recent missile test, but he did not believe its intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) posed an imminent threat to the United States. It has not yet shown to be a capable threat against us right now ... we re still doing the forensics analysis, Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon. Last month, North Korea said it had successfully tested a new type of ICBM that could reach all of the U.S. mainland and South Korea and U.S.-based experts said data from the Nov. 29 test appeared to support that. Mattis did not elaborate on what was lacking in the test to show it was not a capable threat. He said himself immediately after the test that the missile had gone higher than any previous North Korean launch and that it was part of a research and development effort to continue building ballistic missiles that can threaten everywhere in the world, basically. U.S.-based experts, some of whom have been skeptical about past North Korean claims, said last month that data and photos from the test appeared to confirm North Korea had a missile of sufficient power to deliver a nuclear warhead anywhere in America. But experts and U.S. officials have said questions remain about whether it has a re-entry vehicle capable of protecting a nuclear warhead as it speeds toward its target and about the accuracy of its guidance systems. South Korea s Defense Ministry said this latest test put Washington within range, but Pyongyang still needed to prove it had mastered re-entry, terminal stage guidance and warhead activation. Some U.S. based experts believe North Korea could be only two or three tests away from being able to declare the missile operational. U.S. President Donald Trump vowed it won t happen after North Korean said in January is was in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching the United States. Trump has said all options are on the table, including military ones, although his administration has made clear it prefers a diplomatic solution. It continues to be a diplomatically led effort, Mattis said. When we re ready to have conversations ... dialogues, that will be up to the president and secretary of state. At a U.N. Security Council session on the crisis on Friday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged North Korea to carry out a sustained cessation of weapons testing to allow the two countries to hold talks. | 0fake |
Syria, Ahmadinejad, United Airlines: Your Morning Briefing - The New York Times | Good morning. Here’s what you need to know: • Russia vetoed a U. N. Security Council resolution sponsored by the United States, Britain and France which would have condemned last week’s chemical attack in Syria. (China abstained.) The vote reflected how President Trump’s plan to mend ties with Moscow has given way to acrimony. “We may be at an low in terms of relationship with Russia,” Mr. Trump said, as he met NATO’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, at the White House. President Vladimir Putin sat down with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at the Kremlin for two hours, despite saying earlier that he would not have time to meet the oil executive. Above, Mr. Tillerson with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov. _____ • Reports that the Japanese Navy would join a U. S. Navy strike group off the Korean Peninsula added to regional fears of a military strike should North Korea conduct another nuclear test. President Xi Jinping of China took a call from President Trump and urged that the situation be resolved peacefully, CCTV reported, and another outlet warned the North that China would cut off vital oil supplies in the case of a test. Above, the U. S. aircraft carrier Carl Vinson. _____ • Within the Trump administration, two key figures are on the spot. Stephen Bannon, the chief strategist, appears to be in a after repeated with President Trump’s adviser and Jared Kushner. Mr. Trump has publicly undercut Mr. Bannon, above. Our “Daily” podcast looks at his situation. And Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, tried to recover from a whopping gaffe, saying his assertion that Hitler, in contrast to the Syrian president, did not use chemical weapons on his people was “inexcusable and reprehensible,” and that the timing — during Passover and the Christian Holy Week — “compounds that kind of mistake. ” _____ • “No one should ever be mistreated this way. ” That was the chief executive of United Airlines, trying to quell the outcry over a viral video showing a screaming Asian passenger being dragged off an overbooked airplane. But consumers threatened a boycott, lawmakers called for an investigation and, in China, the episode reached more than 770 million views on Sina Weibo. _____ • And let our latest 360 video take you to Bama County, the longevity capital of China. Eat the mushrooms. Drink the “longevity water. ” Chat with centenarians and come away feeling hopeful and fresh. Just don’t forget your skepticism: many who are drawn by promises of miracles leave only with disappointment. • The Trump business empire has 157 trademark applications pending in 36 countries, drawing a lawsuit from a team of constitutional lawyers and ethics lawyers. • Tesla excited investors with its upbeat outlook for delivering a electric car. Now its chief, Elon Musk, must deliver the goods. • Cathay Pacific, one of Asia’s biggest airlines, replaced its chief executive officer as it seeks to stem last year’s $74 million loss. • A new ad strategy uses “ ” words in TV commercials to trigger viewers’ smart speakers, like Google Home and Amazon’s Echo. • On the uselessness of job interviews: A management expert argues that recruiters use the process to try to “get to know” people — and it doesn’t work. • Coming up: China releases monthly figures for imports, exports and balance of trade. • U. S. stocks were weaker. Here’s a snapshot of global markets. • Iran’s firebrand former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, unexpectedly registered to run in May’s presidential election, a move that could appeal to who want to curtail accommodations to the West. [The New York Times] • In Italy, the death of a female vineyard worker set off months of over what the authorities, labor experts and union organizers call an elaborate system of modern slavery. [The New York Times] • Officials with India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party denounced a member of its youth wing for offering a bounty for the “severed head” of the chief minister of West Bengal state, Mamata Banerjee. [BBC] • Chinese nationals have been posing as Buddhist monks in Tokyo to prey on foreign tourists, and the Japanese police suspect they are part of a crime ring. [The Asahi Shimbun] • Cassandra Hsiao, a teenager who grew up in the U. S. is dealing with sudden fame after being accepted by all eight Ivy League schools, as well as Stanford and Johns Hopkins, thanks in part to her essay about learning English as an immigrant. [South China Morning Post] • Is running a part of your morning routine? Good news: It may be extending your life. • Adults who sleep less lose the ability to more effectively ward off ailments. • Recipe of the day: Succulent chicken with mixed mushrooms and cream is as timeless as they come. • Lorde, the New superstar, is back. Four years after her debut album, the pop prodigy offers “Melodrama,” a testimonial to heartbreak and solitude. • cats had battle scars. Researchers analyzed tens of thousands of bones retrieved from tar pits to understand the painful price of being a Pleistocene predator. • Finally, if you want to get engaged in Fiji, you’ll be needing a sperm whale tooth. The tabua, as it is known, is associated with good luck and even supernatural powers. Tough whaling laws are making the traditional talismans tough to come by. If you happen to be in Thailand this morning, don’t bother taking a shower: You’ll get soaked anyway as soon as you step outside. Songkran, the water festival that celebrates the Buddhist New Year, officially begins today and continues for several days. In some parts of the country the has already begun. The celebration, traditionally a time of purification, retains some of its Buddhist beginnings. Many Thais return home for the holiday and observe water cleansing rituals. But the purifying symbol of water has exploded into a countrywide party. People play with water guns and dump buckets of waters from the beds of pickup trucks. Some even bring out the fire hoses. Even last year’s drought couldn’t stop the festivities, though some government officials asked festival goers to downgrade to spray bottles, which befuddled one university student. “Are you kidding me?” said Krit Pongchaiassawin. “I would just get laughed off the street. ” Some Thai traditionalists are worried that the festivities have strayed too far from their origins. This year a government official warned merry makers not to “wear revealing clothes” or dance suggestively. Such transgressions will result in a fine of about $145. Evan Gershkovich contributed reporting. _____ This briefing was prepared for the Asian morning. We also have briefings timed for the Australian, European and American mornings. You can sign up for these and other Times newsletters here. Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings and updated online. What would you like to see here? Contact us at asiabriefing@nytimes. com. | 0fake |
Former Reagan Official Voting For Hillary Tells Trump He Is No Ronald Reagan (VIDEO) | With Donald Trump as the party s nominee, sane Republicans have been jumping ship left and right. On the final night of the Democratic National Convention, a former Reagon official told the crowd that he would be voting for Hillary Clinton and told the bigoted billionaire point blank: You are no Ronald Reagan. Doug Elmets was a spokesman and speechwriter for Republican hero Ronald Reagan. Thursday night he took the stage at the DNC and said that he would be voting for a Democrat for the first time in his life this November. I haven t just voted Republican. I worked in President Reagan s White House, he said. I recently led an effort to place a statue of Ronald Reagan in California s capitol. I m here tonight to say: I knew Ronald Reagan; I worked for Ronald Reagan. Donald Trump, you are no Ronald Reagan. Elmets made it clear that he would be voting for Hillary in 2016 not only because of Trump but because of the Republican s party alarming and bigoted platform. This year s Republican platform is the most alarming I ve ever seen. It s laced with anti-immigrant, anti-gay, anti-women positions that do not represent the views of most Americans. That is why this year, I will vote for a Democrat for the first time. The former Reagan official then spoke directly to his fellow Republicans, telling them that if they believe loyalty to our country is more important than loyalty to party; if you want a President with a good judgment, a steady hand, and the temperament to represent our Nation to the world and our children; I ask you to join me in voting for Hillary Clinton as President of the United States. Republicans with any sense and integrity are running from Trump and their own party as if it were the plague. Anyone who isn t bat-sh*t crazy, regardless of party affiliation, knows that this unhinged narcissist with a bad spray tan has no business being anywhere near the Oval Office and the nuclear codes.You can watch Elmets explain why he is jumping from a sinking conservative ship here:[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwUVkVdtCNA]Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images | 1real |
Trump blames 'both sides' for Virginia violence as many Republicans balk | WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump inflamed tension after a deadly rally by white nationalists in Virginia by insisting that counter protesters were also to blame, drawing condemnation from some Republican leaders and praise from white supremacists. In a combative news conference, Trump backed off from his Monday statements explicitly denouncing the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and white supremacists for the violence that erupted at a “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, and reverted to his weekend contention that “many sides” were to blame. “You had a group on one side that was bad,” Trump said on Tuesday. “And you had a group on the other side that was also very violent. And nobody wants to say that. But I’ll say it right now.” Trump later said, “I think there is blame on both sides and I have no doubt about it,” adding that there were “very fine people” on both sides. At the weekend rally against the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, commander of the pro-slavery Confederate army during the U.S. Civil War, many participants were seen carrying firearms, sticks, shields, and lit torches. Some wore helmets. Counter-protesters came equipped with sticks, helmets and shields. James Fields, a 20-year-old Ohio man who is said to have harbored Nazi sympathies, was charged with murder after the car he was driving plowed into a crowd of counter protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer on Saturday and injuring 19. A memorial service for Heyer is planned in Charlottesville on Wednesday. Trump’s remarks drew swift criticism from many Republican leaders. “No, not the same,” former Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney wrote on Twitter. “One side is racist, bigoted, Nazi. The other opposes racism and bigotry. Morally different universes.” U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who vied with Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, also responded in a series of Twitter posts. “The organizers of events which inspired and led to #charlottesvilleterroristattack are 100 percent to blame for a number of reasons,” Rubio began. “Mr. President, you can’t allow #WhiteSupremacists to share only part of the blame. They support idea which cost nation and world so much pain … the #WhiteSupremacy groups will see being assigned only 50 percent of the blame as a win,” Rubio added. Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke applauded Trump for his “honesty & courage” on Twitter. Richard Spencer, the head of a white nationalist group, wrote on Twitter that he was “proud of him for speaking the truth.” Richard Trumka, the president of the AFL-CIO labor federation representing 12.5 million workers, resigned from Trump’s American Manufacturing Council, joining a series of chief executives in doing so. White House officials hoping to put the controversy behind them, worried the conference would revive and intensify the controversy. Asked about next steps, one official said: “I think next steps are just to stop talking.” Hours later, the White House sent its regular “evening communications briefing” of talking points on the “news of the day” to Republican lawmakers, copies obtained by multiple news organizations, including CNN and the Atlantic, showed. The first summary point read: “The President was entirely correct – both sides of the violence in Charlottesville acted inappropriately, and bear some responsibility.” | 0fake |
Sleep Is the New Status Symbol - The New York Times | At M. I. T. ’s Media Lab, the digital futurist playground, David Rose is investigating swaddling, bedtime stories and hammocks, as well as lavender oil and cocoons. Mr. Rose, a researcher, an and the author of “Enchanted Objects: Design, Human Desire and the Internet of Things,” and his colleagues have been weighted blankets to induce a swaddling sensation and listening to recordings of Icelandic fairy tales — all research into an ideal sleep environment that may culminate in a nap pod, or, as he said, “some new furniture form. ” “For me, it’s a swinging bed on a screened porch in northwestern Wisconsin,” he said. “You can hear the loons and the wind through the fir trees, and there’s the weight of 10 blankets on top of me because it’s a cold night. We’re trying a bunch of interventions. ” Meanwhile, at the University of California, Berkeley, Matthew P. Walker, a professor of neuroscience and psychology and the director of the Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory there, is working on direct current stimulation as a cure for sleeplessness in the aging brain. Dr. Walker is also sifting through the millions of hours of human sleep data he has received from Sense, a delicately lovely polycarbonate globe designed to look like the National Stadium in Beijing that measures air quality and other intangibles in your bedroom, then suggests tweaks to help you sleep better. “I’ve got a mission,” he said. “I want to reunite humanity with the sleep it is so bereft of. ” Sense is the first product made by Hello Inc. a technology company started by James Proud, a British entrepreneur, for which Dr. Walker is the chief scientist. In Paris, Hugo Mercier, a computer science engineer, has invested in sound waves. He has raised over $10 million to create a headband that uses them to induce sleep. The product, called Dreem, has been on 500 people (out of a pool of 6, 500 applicants, Mr. Mercier said) and will be ready for sale this summer. That is when Ben Olsen, an Australian entrepreneur, hopes to introduce Thim, a gadget you wear on your finger that uses sound to startle you awake every three minutes for an hour, just before you go to sleep. Sleep disruptions, apparently, can cure sleep disruption (and Mr. Olsen, like all good sleep entrepreneurs, has the research to prove it). It is his second sleep contraption. His first, the a pair of goggles fitted with tiny lights that shine back into your eyes, aims to reset your body’s clock. He said that since 2012, he had sold 30, 000 pairs in 40 countries. For years, studies upon studies have shown how bad sleep weakens the immune system, impairs learning and memory, contributes to depression and other mood and mental disorders, as well as obesity, diabetes, cancer and an early death. (Sedated sleep — hello Ambien — has been shown to be as deleterious as poor sleep.) The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls sleeplessness a public health concern. Good sleep helps brain plasticity, studies in mice have shown poor sleep will make you fat and sad, and then will kill you. It is also expensive: Last year, the RAND Corporation published a study that calculated the business loss of poor sleep in the United States at $411 billion — a gross domestic product loss of 2. 28 percent. Companies now fight “presenteeism,” a neologism that describes the lackluster performance of employees, with sleep programs like Sleepio, an online sleep coach, and sleep fairs, like the one hosted last month in Manhattan by Nancy H. Rothstein, director of Circadian Corporate Sleep Programs and otherwise known as the Sleep Ambassador, for LinkedIn. For the last few years, Ms. Rothstein has been designing sleep education and training programs for a number of Fortune 500 companies. At the LinkedIn sleep fair, she taught attendees how to make a bed (use hospital corners, please) and gave out analog alarm clocks. (It was her former husband’s snoring, she said, that led her to a career as a sleep evangelist.) If sleep used to be the new sex, as Marian Salzman, a trend spotter and chief executive of Havas PR North America, proclaimed 10 years ago, today it is a measure of success — a skill to be cultivated and nourished — as a “human potential enhancer,” as one West Coast entrepreneur told me, and life extender. “Sleep is the single most effective thing you can do to reset your brain and body,” Dr. Walker of U. C. Berkeley said. “We have a saying in medicine: What gets measured, gets managed. ” Sleep entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley and beyond have poured into the sleep space, as branders like to say — a $32 billion market in 2012 — formerly inhabited by mattress and pharmaceutical companies. “I can see sleep being another weapon in competitive parenting and ” Ms. Salzman said. “If you want your child to succeed, do you have to buy them these sleep devices? Sleep is personal, it’s class, not mass, and now the sleep industry is based on technical services, customized for me. It’s a bizarre marriage of high tech and low tech. Chamomile tea is going to have a resurgence, as the antithesis to the whole pharma thing. ” The familiar paradigm of success used to center on the narrative of the short sleeper: Corporate titans and world leaders — like Martha Stewart and our last two presidents — counted abbreviated rest as proof of their prowess. It turns out that short sleepers, as they are known, may have a genetic mutation, as Arianna Huffington pointed out in her 2016 book, “The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life One Night at a Time. ” (It’s worth noting that George W. Bush, formerly a sleep outlier among his presidential peers for clocking in around nine hours of nightly along with a daily nap, is newly popular.) The Army has proclaimed sleep a pillar of peak soldier performance. Jeff Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon, who used to take a sleeping bag to work when he was a lowly computer programmer, has said that his eight hours of sleep each night were good for his stockholders. Ms. Huffington’s new company, Thrive Global, whose investors include the internet entrepreneur Sean Parker and the venture capital firm Greycroft Partners, is working with Accenture, JP Morgan Chase and Uber, among other companies, on antiburnout programming, which educates their employees on the importance of sleep. Aetna, the health care company, is paying its workers up to $500 a year if they can prove they have slept for seven hours or more for 20 days in a row. But the growing pile of apps, gizmos and gurus — some from unlikely corners — has led to “pandemonium in the bedroom,” Ms. Rothstein said. In 2015, the actor Jeff Bridges made a album, “Dreaming With Jeff,” a project for Squarespace, that reached No. 2 on Billboard’s New Age chart and raised $280, 000 for the No Kid Hungry campaign, for which he is the national spokesman. He collaborated with Keefus Ciancia, the composer and music producer, on a truly weird collection of stories, musings about death and also a humming song, with Mr. Bridges’s familiar gruff voice and all manner of ambient sounds that many listeners found more alarming than . “I don’t know where this is leading,” Mr. Bridges said the other day, “but I’m steeping myself in the subject. We’re working on something called Sleep Club, which will be sort of a hub for all things sleep related. ” “Dreaming With Jeff” made me anxious, as did “Sleep With Me,” a podcast by Drew Ackerman, a gravelly voiced librarian in San Francisco, whose “boring bedtime stories” are designed to cure insomnia and are downloaded at a rate of 1. 3 million a month, as The New Yorker reported last year. I’m more drawn to the thousands of “songs” in Spotify’s Sleep Sound Library, particularly “full gutters” and “office ” and I have a white noise machine. But recently, desperately, I craved a more substantial intervention, perhaps a cure for the 3 a. m. fretting that has plagued me for years. Mr. Mercier sent me his Dreem headset, a weighty crown of rubber and wire that he warned would be a tad uncomfortable. The finished product, about $400, he said, will be much lighter and slimmer. But it wasn’t the heft of the thing that had me pulling it off each night. It skeeved me out that it was reading — and interfering with — my brain waves, a process I would rather not outsource. I was just as wary of the goggles, $299, which make for a selfie in a darkened room. My eye sockets glowed a deep fluorescent green, and terrified the cat. The Ghost Pillow, $85, has “ technology” designed to keep your head cool. It is wildly comfy, but when I read what it is made from, a polyurethane foam, I lost sleep. I bought a Good Night Light LED Sleep bulb, $28, which comes with its own “patented technology” to support your body’s melatonin production. I can’t tell if that’s what happened, but since the bulb is too dim for my eyes, I struggled to read my sleep aid, a worn copy of “The Pursuit of Love,” by Nancy Mitford, and knocked off a good earlier than usual. I was up again at 3 a. m. however, as my new Sense pod alerted me the next day, through an app on my phone. And again at 5 a. m. when the cat swatted the pod off the night stand and it glowed red in protest. “There was a noise disturbance,” the app explained. My sleep summary, as provided by Sense, was both compelling and . Why is my air quality “not ideal”? And how comfortable am I sharing my sleep habits with a Silicon Valley ? Ms. Rothstein, the sleep ambassador, is less bothered by privacy concerns than by the temptation to wakefulness that phone interfaces pose. And nearly every gizmo seemed to have one. “I’d like to have a survey done to show how many people are also reading their texts while they’re tracking their sleep,” Ms. Rothstein said. “If you want to improve your sleep, you have to make some changes. Your Fitbit and your Apple Watch are not going to do it for you. We’ve lost the simplicity of sleep. All this writing, all these websites, all this stuff. I’m thinking, Just sleep. I want to say: ‘Shh. Make it dark, quiet and cool. Take a bath. ’” Ms. Rothstein taught me her relaxation recipe, a practice that mixed gratitude with body awareness and breathing. Start with your toes, she said, and thank your body parts for their hard work. (My favorite: “Knees, I know it’s not always easy for you. You can rest now. ”) Still, the best sleep I’ve had in weeks cost $22, and lasted 33 minutes. It was a Deep Rest “class” at Inscape, a meditation studio in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan designed by Winka Dubbeldam, the Dutch architect, to evoke the temple at Burning Man, and other esoteric spaces, and created by Khajak Keledjian, a founder, with his brother, Haro, of Intermix, which they sold to the Gap for $130 million in 2013. Mr. Keledjian, a meditator, aims to make the practice both secular and modern: a “mindful luxury,” he said. Though there are human “facilitators” in each class, who gently touch the feet of snoring attendees if they get too loud, the practice is guided by a recording made by an Australian female member of Mr. Keledjian’s company. “We call her ‘Skye,’” he said. It was lunchtime on a rainy Tuesday, and I settled onto a soft mat outfitted with a bolster, a pillow and a cozy fleece blanket. “Skye” urged me to stay awake, and then delivered a script like Ms. Rothstein’s, in mellifluous antipodean tones. I drifted once or twice, and from the muffled snorts of the other attendees, they did too. That night, I slept until dawn. | 0fake |
BREAKING NEWS: Reince Priebus Makes Early Return Home From Trump’s First Foreign Trip | The White House confirmed to FOX Business that Priebus would be heading back to Washington D.C. after the stop in Saudi Arabia, part of the president s visit to the Middle East, and insisted this was always part of the administration s plan.Natalie Strom, assistant press secretary at the White House, told FOX Business, It has always been planned for Reince to return to Washington following the Saudi Arabia portion of the trip. It s a big week in D.C. for the president s agenda with our budget release coming soon and discussions continuing on tax reform, so he s needed back at home for that. When asked which other officials would be coming home, Strom said, Only a few senior administration officials are staying on for the whole trip, which is typical for these kinds of trips. They re attending the stops that most pertain to their responsibilities. Off the top of my head I know that Secretary [of State] Tillerson and General McMaster won t be on for the entirety. As FOX Business reported Friday, Priebus s position in the White House is once again in jeopardy as National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney are a few of the candidates under consideration to replace him if the president decides to go that route, according to sources close to the situation.On Friday, the White House did not deny the possibility that Priebus could be replaced.While the administration may believe it s typical for some officials to stay and others to head home, according to experts outside the White House, it s unusual for a chief of staff to head home early on such an important trip. FOX Business | 1real |
Genetically Modified Crops in U.S. Fail to Deliver Expected Yields | Genetically Modified Crops in U.S. Fail to Deliver Expected Yields 10/31/2016
ALL GOV
The controversy over genetically modified crops has long focused on largely unsubstantiated fears that they are unsafe to eat.
But an extensive examination by The New York Times indicates that the debate has missed a more basic problem — genetic modification in the United States and Canada has not accelerated increases in crop yields or led to an overall reduction in the use of chemical pesticides.
The promise of genetic modification was twofold: By making crops immune to the effects of weedkillers and inherently resistant to many pests, they would grow so robustly that they would become indispensable to feeding the world’s growing population, while also requiring fewer applications of sprayed pesticides.
Twenty years ago, Europe largely rejected genetic modification at the same time the United States and Canada were embracing it. Comparing results on the two continents, using independent data as well as academic and industry research, shows how the technology has fallen short of the promise.
An analysis by The Times using U.N. data showed that the United States and Canada have gained no discernible advantage in yields when measured against Western Europe, a region with comparably modernized agricultural producers like France and Germany . Also, a recent National Academy of Sciences report found “there was little evidence” that the introduction of genetically modified crops in the United States had led to yield gains beyond those seen in conventional crops.
At the same time, herbicide use has increased in the United States, even as major crops like corn, soybeans and cotton have been converted to modified varieties. And the United States has fallen behind Europe’s biggest producer, France, in reducing the overall use of pesticides, which includes both herbicides and insecticides.
One measure, contained in data from the U.S. Geological Survey , shows the stark difference in the use of pesticides. Since GM crops were introduced in the United States two decades ago for crops like corn, cotton and soybeans, the use of toxins that kill insects and fungi has fallen by a third, but the spraying of herbicides, which are used in much higher volumes, has risen 21 percent.
By contrast, in France, use of insecticides and fungicides has fallen 65 percent and herbicide use has decreased 36 percent.
To Learn More: | 1real |
Japanese woman, confined by parents for years, found frozen to death: police | TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese police said on Wednesday they have arrested a couple whose 33-year-old daughter froze to death in a tiny room where they had confined her for years because they believed she had a form of mental illness that made her violent. Western Japan s Osaka Prefectural Police Department said Airi Kakimoto s body was found in a state of extreme malnutrition after her parents reported the death on Saturday. She was 145 cm (4.76 ft) tall and weighed just 19 kg (42 lb). Police said Yasutaka Kakimoto, 55, and Yukari Kakimoto, 53, had confessed that they fed their daughter only once a day and kept her in a 3-square-metre room for some 15 years. Our daughter was mentally ill and, from age 16 or 17, she became violent, so we kept her inside the room, police quoted her parents as saying. People with mental and physical disabilities and their families can still suffer stigma and shame in Japan despite some changes in public attitudes. Police said the parents added the small room - fitted with a camera and a double door that could only be unlocked from the outside - to their house and equipped it with a makeshift toilet and tube to a water tank outside. About 10 surveillance cameras were installed outside the single-storey home, which was surrounded by a 2-metre high fence, police said. The parents found their daughter dead on Dec. 18 but they reported the death Saturday. We wanted to be together with our daughter, police quoted them as saying. Police said the couple were arrested on suspicion of illegally disposing of a body, a step that often precedes more serious charges. | 0fake |
ARRESTED: MUSLIM US ARMY VET Charged With Plotting Terror Attack In US On Behalf Of ISIS | A U.S. Army veteran was recently arrested on charges that he plotted a coordinated terrorist attack on behalf of the Islamic State against civilian targets and military installations in Kansas City.Federal investigators believe Robert Hester wanted to murder his former military comrades and civilians through a series of bus and train attacks to be carried out on President s Day, the Washington Post reported Thursday.Hester was arrested following a months-long FBI investigation during which the 25-year-old met with undercover FBI agents who were posing as ISIS operatives and expressed his desire to reap mass casualties in the United States.Hester, a father of two, served a short stint in the Army beginning in 2012. He faced a series of disciplinary issues and received a general discharged in 2013.Three years later, Hester had converted to Islam, changed his name, and was posting anti-government messages to social media.The Army veteran was arrested last week and was charged with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.In late January, Hester met with one undercover FBI agent posing as an ISIS contact who asked the veteran to purchase a series of items that could be used to make bombs, including 9-volt batteries, duct tape, copper wire, and nails. Hester brought the bomb supplies to a later meeting and handed them over to the undercover agent.Hester s final meeting with the undercover agents was last week, where he brought a box of nails to be used as shrapnel for the bombs. He told agents on Friday that it felt good to help strike back at the true terrorist. First on social media, then during face-to-face meetings with an undercover FBI employee, this defendant repeatedly expressed his intent to engage in acts of violent jihad against the United States, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri Tammy Dickinson said in a statement. He believed he was part of an ISIS-sponsored terrorist attack that would result in the deaths and injuries of many innocent victims. WFB | 1real |
#NoDAPL Spills Over: Musicians Boycott Dakota Access Pipeline CEO’s Record Label & Festival | Videos #NoDAPL Spills Over: Musicians Boycott Dakota Access Pipeline CEO’s Record Label & Festival ‘I do not play for oil interests. I do not play for companies who defile nature, or companies who attack demonstrators with trained attack dogs and pepper spray,’ declared singer-songwriter Jackson Browne. Be Sociable, Share! A water protector stares down police off highway 134, October 27. (Photo: Derrick Broze)
AUSTIN, Texas — When it comes to the Dakota Access pipeline, musicians want to stop the music.
Kelcy Warren, CEO of Energy Transfer Partners, the corporation building the controversial $3.8 billion pipeline, also owns Music Road Records, a small record label which presents the annual Cherokee Creek Music Festival in Austin, Texas.
The Indigo Girls announced in September that they would not be playing at the next festival, slated for May 2017.
Reaffirming their support for “ Standing Rock, the Standing Rock Sioux, their friends and allies in protecting their sacred land and water by stopping the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline and all pipelines that carry dirty oil and threaten massive ecosystems, ” the folk rock duo also encouraged other musicians to cancel their plans to perform at the festival.
Emily Saliers, one half of the Indigo Girls, recently explained that she hadn’t realized Warren was responsible for both the pipeline and the music festival until a fan alerted her to the connection via Facebook.
“Once we found out, we immediately started talking about what can we do to rectify the situation and our presence in something that is completely the antithesis of what we stand for as artists and as allies for Native communities,” Saliers told Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman on Thursday.
In addition to playing at the festival twice, Saliers and her musical partner, Amy Ray, also contributed a song to a tribute album published by Music Road to honor the legacy of singer-songwriter Jackson Browne. Saliers and Ray said they reached out to Browne and the other musicians on the album, then contacted Warren to inform him of the growing boycott. VIDEO: Emily Saliers of the @Indigo_Girls reads letter to #DAPL CEO Kelcy Warren, urging him to halt construction on Dakota Access pipeline pic.twitter.com/gD98Uu7rdY
— Democracy Now! (@democracynow) November 4, 2016
Ray read from the letter to Warren on Democracy Now!: “Sadly, we realized that the bucolic setting of your festival and the image it projects is in direct conflict with the proposed Dakota Access pipeline, a project your company, Energy Transfer Partners, is responsible for spearheading. This pipeline violates the Standing Rock Sioux nation’s treaty rights, endangers the vital Missouri River, and continues the trajectory of genocide against Native peoples.”
In a statement published by Indian Country Today Media Network , Browne vowed to donate all the profits from the Music Road tribute album to the Standing Rock “ water protectors .” Like Saliers and Ray, Browne said he’d been unaware of Warren’s involvement in the pipeline when he met him and agreed to have Music Road produce the album. He continued: “I do not play for oil interests. I do not play for companies who defile nature, or companies who attack demonstrators with trained attack dogs and pepper spray. The list of companies I have denied the use of my music is long. I certainly would not have allowed my songs to be recorded by a record company whose owner’s other business does what Energy Transfer Partners is allegedly doing — threatening the water supply and the sacred sites of indigenous people.”
Amy Goodman noted in a Nov. 3 editorial co-written with Denis Moynihan that, “Kelcy Warren is a Texas oil billionaire several times over, and might not be easily deterred by a threatened boycott.”
The notion that Warren may not be moved by a boycott isn’t stopping music fans from taking up the cause. A group of activists and fans from Denton, Texas, are asking musician Hal Ketchum to end his association with Music Road, and they’re planning to protest his concert there on Wednesday night.
In addition to dabbling in the music industry, Warren and Energy Transfer Partners also spend millions influencing U.S. elections . Energy Transfer Partners PAC spent over $869,000 in the 2014 and 2016 federal election cycles, according to OpenSecrets , a project of the Center for Responsive Politics.
Andrew Wheat, research director at Texans for Public Justice , an Austin-based nonprofit that tracks the influence of money and corporate power, told MintPress News that Warren, himself, has spent far more influencing elections on the state level. He was awarded a position on the board of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, likely due to his largesse. | 1real |
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