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Drones Are Officially Cleaning Up Ocean Trash [Watch] | Thanks to the intelligent use of technology, the world’s oceans are already getting a little bit cleaner. This is great news, considering that at present, the world’s oceans are ridden with pollution... | 1real |
Shootings In Chattanooga: What We Know About The Alleged Gunman | Shootings In Chattanooga: What We Know About The Alleged Gunman
A day after a gunman opened fire at two military centers in Chattanooga, Tenn., and killed four Marines, authorities are trying to answer the big question: Why?
At a late-night press conference, authorities said they had yet to pin down a motive. But earlier, officials identified the shooter as 24-year-old Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez, who died during the course of the attack.
So, who is he? Here's what we know so far:
— NPR's Dina Temple-Raston reports that Adbulazeez was a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Kuwait. His parents are Jordanian.
— FBI Special Agent in Charge Ed Reinhold said there is nothing that "directly ties [the gunman] to an international terrorist organization."
— Law enforcement sources tell Dina that Abdulazeez's father was investigated for ties to terrorism a couple of years ago. The Washington Post reports he was added and later removed from a terrorism watch list.
— Dina reports: "Investigators were digging into his online activity last night. He doesn't have much of an online presence and they have found no connection to terrorist groups so far. (The lack of online presence is meaningful, AQ and ISIS cases typically have a lot of online presence and griping beforehand. That didn't happen in this case.)"
— People who knew Adbulazeez told news media that they were surprised that he would do a thing like this.
"No one seems to have seen it coming. FBI officials said they had no warning of a pending attack. And his family and friends are baffled. " 'They're nice people, you know?' said Elijah Wilkerson, a neighbor whose wife went on walks with Abdulazeez. 'He must have just snapped.' " 'I never thought in a million years that it would be this guy,' said Kagan Wagner, one of his high school classmates. 'He was friendly, funny, kind.' "
— CNN reports that Abdulazeez was a wrestler and also a devout Muslim:
"He at times interrupted training sessions with fighting coach [Scott] Schraeder to pray. " 'I wouldn't call it overly religious,' Schraeder said. 'He followed his religion; he would pray at six o'clock. He'd go into our office and pray.' But he would skip prayers at times, he said. "Schraeder does not believe he was an extremist. " 'His favorite training partner to grapple with — not striking, but actually submission grapple with, when you're actually on the ground in close proximity contact with — was a Russian Jew, hardly what you would see as someone who would be a radical Islamist,' Schraeder said."
— The Washington Post reports that after graduating from high school, Abdulazeez earned an engineering degree from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 2012.
"His family was rooted in the community of Hixson, a Chattanooga suburb," the paper reports. "His father, Youssef, was employed by Chattanooga's Public Works Department."
— The Times Free Press reports that Abdulazeez had one previous run-in with police: He was arrested in April for driving under the influence.
— The New York Times relays much the same account about Abdulazeez: a young man who was living a fairly ordinary suburban life in the United States.
But recently, the paper reports, Abdulazeez may have been changing.
The Times points to a blog that the SITE Intelligence Group, an organization that tracks international terrorist groups, says was kept by Abdulazeez.
Note that we are spelling Abdulazeez's name differently from other news outlets. We have adopted the spelling used by FBI officials. | 0fake |
Party set to sack Mugabe, Zimbabweans celebrate expected downfall | HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe s ruling party will dismiss President Robert Mugabe on Sunday and reinstate Emmerson Mnangagwa, the vice-president he fired, two party sources told Reuters on Saturday, as ecstatic crowds celebrated the expected downfall. Mugabe s 37-year rule has been effectively at an end since the army seized control on Wednesday, confining him to his residence, saying it wanted to target the criminals around him. State television said Mugabe would meet military commanders on Sunday, quoting Catholic priest Fidelis Mukonori, who has been mediating in negotiations with the president. But hundreds of thousands of people had no need for a formal signal that his time had ended as they flooded the streets of Harare, singing, dancing and hugging soldiers. In scenes reminiscent of the downfall of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989, men, women and children ran alongside the armoured cars and the troops who stepped in this week to oust the only ruler Zimbabwe has known since independence in 1980. Others marched towards his lavish Blue Roof residence, but were kept away by soldiers. Under house arrest in his compound, the 93-year-old has watched support from his party, security services and people evaporate in less than three days. The sources said a ZANU-PF party central committee meeting scheduled for 10:30 a.m. (0830 GMT) would also dismiss 93-year-old Mugabe s preferred successor, his wife Grace, from her role as head of the ZANU-PF Women s League. Mugabe s nephew Patrick Zhuwao, speaking from an undisclosed location in South Africa, told Reuters the leader and his wife were ready to die for what is correct rather than step down in order to legitimise what he described as a coup. Zhuwao also said that only Mugabe, who had hardly slept since the military took over but was otherwise in good health, could call a meeting of the central committee. It was not clear from reading the party s constitution who is empowered to call such a meeting - but events appeared to have made the issue irrelevant. On Harare s streets, Zimbabweans spoke of a second liberation for the former British colony, alongside their dreams of political and economic change after two decades of deepening repression and hardship. These are tears of joy, said Frank Mutsindikwa, 34, holding aloft the Zimbabwean flag. I ve been waiting all my life for this day. Free at last. We are free at last. Mugabe s downfall is likely to send shockwaves across Africa, where a number of entrenched strongmen, from Uganda s Yoweri Museveni to Democratic Republic of Congo s Joseph Kabila, are facing mounting pressure to step aside. The crowds in Harare have so far given a quasi-democratic veneer to the army s intervention, backing its claims that it is merely effecting a constitutional transfer of power, which would help it avoid the diplomatic backlash and opprobrium that normally follows a coup. The military had been prompted to act by Mugabe s decision to sack Mnangagwa, Grace Mugabe s main rival to succeed her husband. The next presidential election is due next year. Zimbabweans abroad were also hailing the end of Mugabe s rule, not least the hundreds living in Britain who gathered outside their embassy in central London. I m ecstatic to see people give Mugabe a reality check because he has been in his echo chamber for too long, lying to himself that people still want him, said Ruva Kudambo, 37, who came to study technology and ended up staying. Tasa, a 36-year-old who refused to give his family name, said he had brought his four young children, aged 5 to 9, to the protest because they are the future of Zimbabwe . NO DIS-GRACE For some Africans, Mugabe remains a nationalist hero, the continent s last independence leader and a symbol of its struggle to throw off the legacy of decades of colonial subjugation. But to many more at home and abroad, he was reviled as a dictator happy to resort to violence to retain power and to run a once-promising economy into the ground. Political sources and intelligence documents seen by Reuters said Mugabe s exit was likely to pave the way for an interim unity government led by Mnangagwa, a life-long Mugabe aide and former security chief known as The Crocodile . Stabilising the free-falling economy will be the number one priority, the documents said. The United States, a long-time critic of Mugabe, said it was looking forward to a new era in Zimbabwe, while President Ian Khama of neighbouring Botswana said Mugabe had no diplomatic support in the region and should resign at once. The Herald, the state newspaper that has served as Mugabe s loyal mouthpiece, said ZANU-PF had called on Friday for him to go. It said ZANU-PF branches in all 10 provinces had also called for the resignation of Grace, the first lady whose ambitions to succeed her husband outraged the military and much of the country. To many Zimbabweans, she is known as Gucci Grace on account of her reported dedication to shopping, or - in the wake of an alleged assault in September on a South African model - Dis-Grace . The scenes in Harare reflect the anger and frustration that has built up among Zimbabwe s 16 million people in nearly two decades of economic mismanagement that started with the seizure of white-owned farms in 2000, the catalyst of a wider collapse. The central bank tried to print its way out of trouble by unleashing a flood of cash but that only made matters worse, leading to hyperinflation that topped out at 500 billion percent in 2008. At least 3 million Zimbabweans emigrated in search of a better life, most of them to neighbouring South Africa. After stabilising briefly when Mugabe was forced to work with the opposition in a 2009-2013 unity government, the economy has collapsed again, this time due to a chronic shortage of dollars. In October, monthly inflation leapt to more than 50 percent, according to some economists, putting basic goods beyond the means of many in a country with 90 percent unemployment. Mugabe s only public appearance since the military took over was at a university graduation ceremony on Friday morning. Decked out in blue and yellow academic gowns, he appeared tired, at one point falling asleep in his chair. A senior member of ZANU-PF said it was only a matter of time before he agreed to go. If he becomes stubborn, we will arrange for him to be fired on Sunday, the source said. When that is done, it s impeachment on Tuesday. | 0fake |
Tough choice for Trump if Congress refuses border wall financing | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is unlikely to win congressional support for funds he wants for a proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall before an Oct. 1 deadline, meaning he may have to choose between backing down on a key campaign promise or shutting down the government. The second option was a politically dangerous one before Hurricane Harvey tore through southern Texas over the weekend and it now looks even riskier. At a campaign-style rally in Phoenix last week, Trump doubled down on his earlier demands that Congress fund a Mexican border wall in government spending legislation, adding a clear threat. “If we have to close down our government, we’re building that wall,” he told supporters. Since then, lawmakers who were already struggling to hammer out a stop-gap federal spending bill before Oct. 1 to avoid a shutdown have had to factor in Trump’s threat as well. During his election campaign, Trump insisted Mexico would pay for the construction of the wall, which experts said could cost about $22 billion and take more than three years to complete. With Mexico refusing to pay, Trump has said since taking office in January that the wall will initially need U.S. funding but that he will find a way to make Mexico ultimately pay for it. A government shutdown would result if Congress is unable to agree on a spending deal or if Trump does not like the package and vetoes it. A veto would put Trump in a dangerous position of rejecting a bill approved by his own party. “Shutting down the government would be a self-destructive act, not to mention an act of political malpractice,” Republican Representative Charlie Dent said in an interview. Republicans firmly control the House of Representatives, but have only a narrow majority in the Senate, where at least eight Democratic votes will be needed to pass a spending bill. Democratic leaders firmly oppose the border wall and appear to be in no mood to do Trump a favor by including funding now. “Democrats aren’t feeling the heat over this,” Democratic strategist Jim Manley said, adding that “no Democrat is going to be cowed” by Trump’s threat to shut down the government. Without Democratic support, current and former congressional aides from both parties said they expected Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who has been sharply criticized by Trump in recent weeks, to opt for a spending bill without wall funding to get legislation to the president’s desk. Dent said he expected the Senate would “strip out” $1.6 billion that had been set aside to start building the wall in a spending measure already passed by the House, and send it back to that chamber for another vote. Dent voted for the wall funding the first time but said he would approve the spending measure without the wall money if that is what it takes to keep the government open. Asked what Congress would do if Trump vetoes a spending bill, Dent said: “We’ll have to determine what our next steps will be, but I’m hopeful he’ll sign the bill.” SHORT-TERM FIX A stop-gap spending bill would keep the government open for several months with no major changes to spending programs while lawmakers work out a longer-term deal. The U.S. Congress has relied heavily on those short-term fixes - known as continuing resolutions - for many years. Federal assistance for those affected by devastating floods triggered by Harvey could be attached to a new continuing resolution. But Trump said on Monday the hurricane recovery effort had not caused him to reconsider the option of a government shutdown. “I think it has nothing to do with it, really. I think this is separate,” he said at a news conference. He said he hoped a government shutdown would not be needed but declined to rule it out. “If it’s necessary, we’ll have to see.” If Trump signs a short-term extension without wall funding, it could delay the battle until December, when that legislation would likely expire. Trump also said on Monday that the border wall was “imperative” in order to tackle drug trafficking and crime as well as illegal immigration. The budget debate is also complicated by the need to finance support for victims of Harvey, the worst storm to hit Texas in more than 50 years, and find a deal on increasing the federal debt ceiling, which limits how much money the U.S. government can borrow. One possible escape route for Trump could be separate legislation for funding the wall. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, has introduced legislation that would authorize $15 billion over four years for border security. That would still need the support of at least eight Senate Democrats. | 0fake |
Can the G.O.P. Senate Majority Survive Donald Trump? - The New York Times | On a Sunday morning in early June, Senator Mark Kirk rolled into an uptown Chicago bar in his wheelchair to take part in the city’s 47th annual L. G. B. T. Pride Parade, wearing a red polo shirt, charcoal khakis and the abashed of a man who has already assessed his long odds of blending in. He hoisted himself up and made his way into the crowd, leaning on the cane he has used since suffering a severe stroke four years ago. A few young people wearing robin’ blue Equality Illinois approached him. They shook his hand and thanked him for being one of the few Republican senators to sponsor the Equality Act, which would extend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit discrimination against L. G. B. T. people. The encounters tended to be brief, because even in the most favorable circumstances Kirk has always been a somewhat awkward conversationalist. Crowded up against a woman wearing a rainbow tutu, he offered: “My friend has a granddaughter who wears nothing but tutus. It’d be good to get her one of those. Good for, er, political purposes. ” On his way out the door, Kirk found his path impeded by another politician: Representative Tammy Duckworth, his Democratic opponent in November’s election, who lost both of her legs to a grenade as an Army helicopter pilot during the Iraq war. The two wincingly shook hands — “Whenever you run into your opponent,” he told me later, “there’s always that fake smile” — but said nothing. Out on North Broadway, where the festivities were about to begin, Kirk climbed into the gray Mustang convertible that would ferry him through the parade. Before long, Duckworth materialized nearby. The congresswoman wore a several beaded necklaces and a halo of flowers in her hair. “Woo hoo!” she hollered as onlookers called out her name. Meanwhile Kirk — a man who is palpably of, by and for the northern suburbs of Chicago — sat in the passenger seat of the Mustang and cast a pensive gaze at the gray clouds gathering overhead. Kirk is refreshingly unvarnished as senators go and did not bother pretending to be in the parading spirit. Less than four months before Election Day, the senator’s own polls have him 3 points behind Duckworth. More than a year ago, Beltway odds makers were already rating Kirk as one of the likeliest to lose among the senators up for in 2016. Illinois is a resolutely blue state that becomes even more so in a presidential cycle, when black and Hispanic turnout in the Chicago area is especially high the last Republican from the state to hold a United States Senate seat for more than one term was Charles Percy, who left office in 1985. Although Kirk was a congressman for a full decade before winning in 2010 the Senate seat once held by Barack Obama, to this day he lacks a national or even statewide profile. And all of this was before a certain real estate tycoon decided to run for president. In a more ordinary presidential election year, a vulnerable senator like Kirk would be inclined to look to the top of the ticket for campaign support. But what happens when that position is occupied by Donald Trump — a candidate who has proposed banning Muslim immigration, has made a seemingly endless series of statements offensive to Hispanics, Jews, blacks and women and, according to Gallup polls, currently enjoys a favorable rating (31 percent) not seen since the nadir of Jimmy Carter’s presidency? The ticket has prompted gleeful Democrats to coalesce around a message that will tie every Republican office seeker to the nominee. Meanwhile, Republican leaders like Speaker Paul Ryan and the 2012 presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, have gone to the extreme of repeatedly condemning the behavior of their party’s implicitly urging Republican candidates to do whatever is necessary to avoid an Election Day apocalypse. The friction between the nominee and his party became jarringly apparent during a meeting at the Capitol Hill Club on July 7 between Trump and 41 Republican senators. A few of them accused Trump of jeopardizing the party’s prospects in November Trump fired back with insults, labeling Kirk — who was not present but has publicly criticized Trump — a “loser. ” The meeting was especially charged given the acute vulnerability of the Senate. The party currently holds a majority. Of the 34 seats up for this year, 24 are occupied by Republicans. Six of those, including Kirk’s, are in states to which the Republicans managed to lay claim in the Tea Party tsunami of 2010, but that President Obama won two years later. If Hillary Clinton wins the presidency, the Democrats need to retake only four of those six to control the Senate (because the vice president gets a Senate vote in the event of a tie). Presidential election years have increasingly brought out nonwhite voters, so 2016 was sure to be an unpleasant one for Kirk and his Republican colleagues regardless. With Trump, who has disparaged, threatened or otherwise offended many of those same voters in the past year, their collective migraine has become a yearlong cluster headache. “I have to respect the will of the voters,” Kirk said, referring to Trump’s primary victories. “If you win the election, you won the election. ” Still, he added, “In this case, I do disagree with the decision the voters made. ” Last September, as the idea that the Trump candidacy was something more than an ephemeral novelty began to sink in, Ward Baker, the executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, sent a memo to his senior staff. “Let’s face facts,” Baker wrote. “Trump says what’s on his mind, and that’s a problem. Our candidates will have to spend full time defending him or condemning him if that continues. And that’s a place we never, ever want to be. ” Baker’s memo, which was leaked to The Washington Post, instructed candidates to “run your own race” and to “show your independence” from the man he described as a “mis guided missile” — but at the same time, he cautioned, be mindful of the fact that “Trump has connected with voters on issues like trade with China and America’s broken borders. ” Even eight months before Trump effect ively claimed the nomination, Baker grasped the uniquely fraught terrain the party’s unexpected had laid out before the Republicans who would be sharing a ticket with him in November. The connection between presidential nominees and candidates is historically clear, and has become more so as the country has become more polarized. That’s especially the case when it comes to the Senate. With (for the most part) increasing frequency since 1913 — the year the 17th Amendment was passed, designating that senators would be elected by popular vote rather than by state legislatures — voters have tended to elect Senate candidates who belong to the same party as the presidential candidate they favor. Both parties still hold close the memories of the exceptional examples of this phenomenon, the bonanza years and the catastrophes. In 1980, Ronald Reagan’s victory over Carter was the crest of a tidal wave that also gave Republicans 12 Senate seats and control over the upper chamber for the first time in almost three decades. In 1964, Barry Goldwater’s support for “extremism in the defense of liberty” cost Republicans of both the Senate and the House. But Trump presents a much more complex weather system for his to navigate than either of these cases. His views are not wedded to a coherent ideological movement within his party (as Goldwater’s were) nor is his unpopularity a simple judgment on his record (as Carter’s was). Instead, Trump is a sui generis figure who must be accepted or rejected on his own terms, not artfully hedged around in the way politicians are accustomed to doing. And while Trump was undoubtedly the most popular Republican primary contestant in a field of 17, it’s still not clear how many of his opponents’ supporters will vote for their party’s pick on Election Day. For an Republican senator this fall, to back away from Trump is, by extension, to snub his millions of loyalists, the one group of party voters that is sure to show up on Nov. 8. But to go for Trump is to take leave of your Republican bona fides and embrace life as a Trump — a gamble that not a single Republican senator up for this fall appears to have the stomach for. None of this seems to overly concern Trump. When I asked him recently whether the party’s maintaining its majority in the Senate meant anything to him, he replied: “Well, I’d like them to do that. But I don’t mind being a free agent, either. ” Trump has shown similarly little interest in helping his party’s committees build the sort of war chests typically required in a campaign year. After winning the presidential nomination on a shoestring budget and with fewer paid staff members than the average candidate for governor, he has been visibly reluctant to help build much in the way of national campaign infrastructure, sending a clear message to his fellow Republicans: This fall, you’re on your own. As Ryan Williams, a strategist with the 2012 Romney presidential campaign, told me: “Traditionally, the nominee has a robust campaign that absorbs the R. N. C. effort and works in tandem with the campaigns. We did that with Romney in 2012. This time around, there’s a complete void at the presidential level. Trump’s trying to play a game of baseball and hasn’t put out an infield. ” In addition to Kirk, there are five Republican incumbents running in states that Obama won in 2012 whose fortunes are now lashed to those of the Trump campaign: Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire, Ron Johnson in Wisconsin, Marco Rubio in Florida, Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania and Rob Portman in Ohio. In May, Ayotte offered her “support” for Trump, but a spokeswoman quickly clarified to reporters that Ayotte “hasn’t and isn’t planning to endorse anyone this cycle. ” Johnson supplied messaging advice to the Trump campaign during the Wisconsin primary in April and declared the day after Trump vanquished Ted Cruz on May 3 that “I am going to certainly endorse the Republican nominee. ” Two weeks later, however, Johnson ratcheted down his endorsement to “support,” warily adding that he would “be concentrating on the areas of agreement with Mr. Trump. ” Rubio, meanwhile, has remained in a state of torment ever since his drubbing in the presidential primaries. Before announcing that he would run again for the Senate, Rubio said that he would be “honored” to help his party’s nominee, but later hedged, saying he did not expect to speak at the Republican convention on Trump’s behalf — and finally declaring he would not attend the convention at all. “I think that the Senate needs to fulfill its role as a check and balance on the president, no matter who it is,” he said last month. This was clearly intended to suggest that, if he would not blindly do the bidding of a President Trump — a notion that has prompted belittlement from Rubio’s Democratic opponents. “What’s so funny about that premise is that Rubio’s the only Senate candidate we’re running against who has proven he’s ineffective at standing up to Donald Trump,” Sadie Weiner, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s communications director, told me. Toomey and Portman, for their part, have both distanced themselves from, among other things, Trump’s claim that Gonzalo Curiel, the federal judge who is presiding over a lawsuit against Trump University, would show bias against him on account of his being “Mexican. ” But denouncing and renouncing are two different things. Come November, both Portman and Toomey may need Trump — or rather, Trump’s voters. As Steven Law, the chief executive of the conservative “super PAC” American Crossroads, told me: “According to research we’ve seen, there were demonstrably voters in 2012 who stayed home in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Specifically, there were white voters who were discouraged by the perception that Romney was a wealthy plutocrat. ” As evidenced by exit polls taken early in the primary season across the Rust Belt, Trump’s message of aggrievement has especially resonated with the voters that Law says Toomey and Portman cannot afford to alienate. Even comparably comfortable incumbents like Richard Burr of North Carolina and Roy Blunt of Missouri are ahead by narrow enough margins that one more particularly incendiary Trump statement could plausibly spell defeat in November. John McCain, whose valor as a prisoner of war Trump has mocked (“I like people who weren’t captured,” Trump told an audience in Iowa last July) this year finds himself once again struggling to avoid a primary upset at the hands of a more conservative challenger he offered his support of the nominee in May, saying of Trump’s supporters, “I think it would be foolish to ignore them. ” To donors at a private event (which was recorded and leaked to Politico) however, McCain acknowledged, “If Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket, here in Arizona, with over 30 percent of the vote being the Hispanic vote, no doubt that this may be the race of my life. ” Putting a brave face on it, some Republicans like Law insist that at the very least, Trump’s constituency is devoted enough to be counted on to show up to the polls in November. By contrast, they say, Clinton’s failure to earn the support of millennials (who went for her primary opponent, Bernie Sanders, by a staggering margin) could result in a decline in turnout that might swing some races their way. In other words, the depth of Clinton’s support is as questionable as the breadth of Trump’s, or so goes the argument. As Law — whose American Crossroads has spawned an offshoot organization, One Nation, that has made large ad buys in the states with vulnerable Republican Senate seats — told me: “In our research, we’ve found that upward of 30 to 40 percent of voters currently have a preference but aren’t satisfied with that preference. So I think there’s risk on both sides. ” I asked Law if he thought the risks really were that comparable. After all, while Clinton’s current disapproval rate is a bleak 55 percent, Trump’s is 15 points worse. In a Senate race, won’t the greater dislike of Trump make a difference? “At this stage of the game, I’m not sure you can say that,” Law replied. Of course, at this stage of the game, American Crossroads is investing huge amounts in such races, running ads that have plenty to say about Hillary Clinton and nothing about Donald Trump. ’u2009A handful of Republican senators, as a matter of principle or political prophylaxis or both, have completely disassociated themselves from their party’s nominee. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has variously termed Trump a “ xenophobic religious bigot” and a “jackass. ” Jeff Flake of Arizona has urged his colleagues to withhold their endorsement of Trump “there are certain things you can’t do as a candidate,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation. ” Ben Sasse of Nebraska has described Trump’s attacks on Curiel as “the literal definition of racism” and has called for a alternative. But Graham, Flake and Sasse aren’t up for this year. Among the avowed Trump refuseniks, only Mark Kirk is. Kirk came by his opposition status belatedly. The former Naval intelligence officer is an unassuming centrist with an unfortunate knack for narrowly missing out on national attention. In April 2013, he became the second Republican senator to support marriage, after Rob Portman (whose son is gay). Three months before that, Kirk was the first of his party’s senators to support legislation with Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat, after the Newtown massacre — but because Kirk’s standing with the National Rifle Association was already abysmal, Manchin sought out a more Republican ally in Pat Toomey as a for his bill. Still, Kirk is not without political acumen. He inveighed against Obamacare just enough to win in 2010, when Republicans largely succeeded in making House and Senate races into referendums on Obama’s legislative agenda. Six years later, Kirk took note of Trump’s ascent and fell in behind the presumptive nominee in March, though two different Kirk advisers described his support to me as “tepid” from the beginning. But, Kirk told me, he had trouble envisioning Trump as the kind of steady hand who could manage global crises the way President George Bush did during Kirk’s Navy days. “If it had been President Trump, I would have had problems,” he said. “Is he going to get angry? Is he going to start bombing?” Kirk saw his opening when Trump aired his views of Curiel. “After much consideration,“ Kirk said in a statement on June 7, “I have concluded that Donald Trump has not demonstrated the temperament necessary to assume the greatest office in the world. ” Since then, the senator has spent as much time denouncing Trump as he has Clinton. “I joke to Ben Sasse that if Trump wins, he’ll be my roommate at Gitmo,” he told me. Unendorsing Trump was perhaps a more politically viable option for Kirk than for his fellow endangered Republican senators. “I’m probably the only one around here who absolutely embraces the ” he said, referring to “moderate. ” And as the Crain’s Chicago Business columnist Rich Miller recently wrote, in Illinois “independent suburban women have been the deciding factor in just about every statewide race since 1990. ” Given Trump’s 70 percent disapproval rating among women over all, criticizing the nominee may prove not only useful to Kirk, but also — especially against a female opponent like Duckworth — imperative. Kirk’s campaign strategists have chosen to view Trump, in a sort of way, as a perverse gift for their candidate. Every outburst by Trump offers an opportunity for Kirk to hurl himself into the spotlight as a Trump denouncer. But as Duckworth’s deputy campaign manager, Matt McGrath, told me, “If the Kirk campaign is of the mind that having daily or weekly opportunities to condemn Donald Trump is going to win this election for him — well, good luck with that. ” The alternative is to somehow ignore the presidential candidate in modern political history — an approach that every vulnerable Republican senator aside from Kirk has adopted. The preferred strategy is to keep their politics local, “talking to voters like they’re running for sheriff,” as Ward Baker, the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s executive director, put it to me. The exemplar of this “Mayberry R. F. D. ” strategy is Kelly Ayotte, New Hampshire’s junior senator. Ayotte, like Kirk, won office in 2010 in what had recently been a swing state she now faces one of the Democratic Party’s top Senate recruits, the state’s sitting governor, Maggie Hassan. Ayotte has been a relentless presence in her state’s diners, farmer’s markets and pageants this year. “In a close race like this one, I think that actual interaction with voters matters,” she told me in late June. We were sitting in Ayotte’s Senate office, where I had gone in hopes of finding out what it means to “support” but not “endorse” Trump. Although she entered politics as an apolitical state attorney general who had served in both Republican and Democratic administrations, Ayotte’s Senate victory in 2010 probably would not have occurred without the endorsement of Sarah Palin, who dubbed her the Granite Grizzly. Once in office, however, Ayotte quickly allied herself with establishment Republicans like McCain and Graham. Mitt Romney named her as a potential candidate in the 2012 race, and as a female legislator in a swing state she would very likely have fared similarly this year were the Republican nominee Rubio, Jeb Bush or someone other than Trump. When I asked the former prosecutor to explain her position on the nominee, she offered a sort of smile, then proceeded into a thicket of noncommittal verbiage. “Yeah, I think, um, that, I will — basically, the way I look at ‘support versus endorse’ is: I will be voting for him,” she began. “I obviously, when I endorse someone, I’m out campaigning, I’m endorsing and asking other people — people should vote their conscience in this election. That said, it doesn’t matter — it matters, but my point is, whoever wins, I’ll be working with them on things that’ll be good for New Hampshire and the country, and I’ll be in opposition to them on things that I think aren’t good for New Hampshire and the country. ” I asked if this meant she would not be campaigning with Trump when he showed up this fall to compete in her state. “You know,” she replied, “I’m going to be focused on getting my message out to New Hampshire voters. And that means being out there with New Hampshire voters. ” She added, “I don’t anticipate, really, campaigning with other folks. ” Ayotte’s quest to establish the appropriate distance from Trump is not purely a matter of political expedience. Since her arrival in Washington, the senator — who is married to an Iraq war veteran — has styled herself as a specialist. In this arena, she said to me of Trump, “I have many disagreements with him,” before hastening to add, “I have more with the Democratic nominee. ” The of Trump’s global vision — calls to “bomb the [expletive] out of ISIS” and to reintroduce waterboarding on the one hand, a general aversion to foreign intervention and historical alliances on the other — seems anathema to a hawk like Ayotte. On these matters, her insistence to the contrary aside, the New Hampshire senator seems far more in sync with the former secretary of state than she does with the New York developer. Still, she has been willing to venture into Trump’s zone on occasion, mocking Obama for “being politically correct about how we define our enemies” and describing his military strategy against ISIS as an electoral stunt. Ultimately, the Ayotte campaign’s objective is to avoid a referendum altogether by advertising her practical skills as a bipartisan senator. Along these lines, Ayotte has made a point of emphasizing her support of the E. P. A. ’s Clean Power Plan, which seeks to address climate change by restricting emissions. (When Ayotte first ran for Senate in 2010, she spoke of climate change as an unproven theory. Since that time, she told me, “I’ve really looked at the issue and studied it further. ”) She also points to her vote for the Senate’s bipartisan legislation in 2013 — a position that ended her support from Palin, who called her a “ ” — and says that today, as she put it to me, “I want to be in the camp of solving the problem. ” Her campaign operatives also reminded me that Ayotte denounced Senator Ted Cruz last year for using the threat of a government shutdown as leverage for defunding Planned Parenthood — though this was really a tactical objection on her part, given that Ayotte has voted on six occasions to stop federal funding for the organization. Ayotte’s opponent, Hassan, intends to cite the incumbent’s votes against Planned Parenthood and her opposition to a hearing for Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, as among the reasons that she is out of step with New Hampshire voters. The looming presence of Trump amounts to a bonus for Hassan. As her campaign manager, Marc Goldberg, told me, “Trump will be just one part of this race — though maybe a significant part. ” Speaking of Ayotte, he said, “It will definitely make her life difficult on a basis. ” On that point, Ayotte’s supporters reluctantly agree. “If we had Rubio or Jeb at the top of the ticket, I’m sure the Democrats would try to tie our candidate in New Hampshire to policies they deem unpopular,” says the former Romney strategist Ryan Williams. “The difference is that Trump goes beyond the pale with statements he makes on a daily basis. He seems not to care what effect it has on the other candidates. He seems not to understand the responsibility that comes with the mantle. ” Fifteen years after his landslide defeat, Barry Goldwater penned an autobiography that he titled “With No Apologies. ” The Arizona senator in fact harbored a few regrets — among them, that he had staked out an ideological opposition to the Civil Rights Act, and that his losing candidacy (which also brought down 36 House and two Senate seats) paved the way for the four years later of Richard Nixon, whose Watergate scandal would bring dishonor to their party. But Goldwater held himself largely blameless for the outcome of the 1964 election. It was his own party’s fault, he asserted, for demonizing a conservative vision that would, 16 years later, be validated by Reagan. “By the time the convention opened,” he wrote of his fellow Republicans, “I had been branded as a fascist, a racist, a warmonger, a nuclear madman and the candidate who couldn’t win. ” By the time the 2016 Republican convention opens in Cleveland this month, Trump will also have been branded — by fellow Republicans who now revere Goldwater as a movement godfather — as a racist madman who cannot win. Some of them may show up to Cleveland in hopes of staging a delegate upheaval and in that way thwarting Trump’s coronation. But many other party notables, like Ayotte and Kirk, have already found excuses not to attend the convention. Trump did not seem particularly concerned that he might be shunned or subverted at the convention when he spoke to me by phone one recent afternoon. “I have a lot of support from senators,” he insisted. “And then some of them are neutral. ” New Hampshire’s junior senator fell squarely in the latter category, he acknowledged: “Kelly Ayotte has been silent, more or less. Honestly, I don’t mind that she’s silent. ” Somewhat cryptically, he added, “We can both be silent, to be honest with you. ” As for Kirk, Trump said he had reason to believe that the Illinois senator’s distaste for him was feigned, but he would not share his evidence for the record. He reminded me that he had won both Kirk’s and Ayotte’s states during the primaries and predicted that he would repeat that feat in November. If the two senators felt it wise to separate themselves from their party’s leader, then Trump would support, if not endorse, the idea. “I want them to do what they need to do,” he said of the vulnerable senators. “It’s fine with me. It won’t hurt me. I think it’ll hurt them, frankly. ” | 0fake |
ERIC HOLDER Encourages DOJ To Keep Attacking Trump…STUNNING List Of Holder Scandals Reveals Why Trump Needs To Drain Obama’s Corrupt DOJ Swamp | The most corrupt Attorney General in the history of the United States is allegedly thinking of throwing his hat into the ring as a Democrat contender in the 2020 Presidential race. What better way to invigorate crooked Democrats than to call on the very people who had his back at the DOJ to keep attacking President Trump?Former Attorney General Eric Holder spoke in Los Angeles last week to promote a bill that some observers say would make California a sanctuary state, an appearance that he says is the start of a new phase of his career in which he plans to reenter the world of politics. Up to now, I have been more behind-the-scenes, Holder told Yahoo News in a new interview published Tuesday, describing his plans. But that s about to change. Holder, who served as former President Barack Obama s first attorney general, indicated that his goal is to head the legal resistance to President Donald Trump s agenda. But that may just be the tip of the iceberg.Three sources who have spoken to Holder and are familiar with his thinking told Yahoo that he may consider challenging Trump in 2020 for the White House. Now is the time to be more visible, Holder said. Now is the time to be heard. Holder made his voice heard on Twitter yesterday, as he called on the DOJ and FBI to keep up their attacks on President Trump:To the career men & women at DOJ/FBI: your actions and integrity will be unfairly questioned. Be prepared, be strong. Duty. Honor. Country. Eric Holder (@EricHolder) June 30, 2017Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton whose legal group has helped to expose numerous Holder scandals had this to say about Eric Holder s tweet:Obama's first corrupt AG encourages continued Deep State attacks on @realDonaldTrump. https://t.co/9dacBFmdZd Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) July 1, 2017Eric Holder s scandalsContempt of Congress On June 28, 2012, Eric Holder became the first and only US Attorney General in American history to be held in Contempt of Congress on both civil and criminal grounds. The US House vote was 255-67, with Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and 16 other Democrats walking out in protest and refusing to vote. President Obama called the action politically motivated and cited Executive Privilege for refusing to remove his own Attorney General. It then fell on Eric Holder s own Justice Dept to prosecute him, which it declined to do.Black Power Eric Holder s earliest scandal dates back to his college days at Columbia. There, he was campus leader of a black power organization and a public supporter of the Black Panther Party. He organized sit-ins at the school demanding that the ROTC office be officially renamed in honor of Malcolm X.Fort Hood cover-up After the 2009 Fort Hood massacre by US Army Major Nidal Hasan which took 13 lives, the Justice Dept report on the incident refused to mention Hasan s extreme Islamic beliefs and instead ruled the mass shooting a workplace incident, not an act of terror.Spying on Associated Press The Justice Dept was caught spying on Associated Press by collecting months worth of phone records at the news wire, as well as the home phones of reporters and editors. The telephone records the DoJ secretly investigated included the phones at the AP s offices in Washington DC, New York, Hartford, and even the AP s phone inside the US House of Representatives.Spying on Fox News The DoJ monitored the personal email and phone of a Fox News reporter, as well as the Fox News phones in New York and Washington. The Justice Dept said the news outlet had temporarily lost its press freedom when its reporter received classified information from a CIA whistleblower.War on Gun Owners AG Holder has said that his interpretation of the US Constitution is that the Second Amendment guaranteeing the right to keep and bear arms only applies to the Militia. And to him, the Militia is the modern day National Guard and Reserves. Researchers have pointed out that in every instance where state and local authorities have sought the legal advice from the DoJ on proposed gun control laws, the Justice Dept has approved every single one.Protecting Black Power and Voter Intimidation On Election Day in 2008, the New Black Panther Party had set up at Philadelphia polling places, threatening white voters, hurling racial slurs and stopping white voters from voting. The tactics were caught on video and the assailants were identified. After a national outrage, the DoJ refused to take action on either the hate crimes or the Voting Rights violations.Stimulus Program Out of President Obama s $800 billion 2009 Stimulus Program , AG Holder was handed $1 billion of the money to be handed out to local law enforcement officials across the country. Most of the stimulus money turned out to be used as kick-backs to Obama campaign contributors, including Eric Holder who himself was a top campaign bundler for the 2008 Obama campaign.Foreigners voting in US Elections Through his entire tenure, the Attorney General has steadfastly insisted that voters not be required to prove their identity when casting a ballot. The AG publicly touts that his DoJ has challenged two dozen state laws and Governor s executive orders requiring voters to show an official ID before voting.Foreign Terrorists have Rights The DoJ declared that foreign terrorists captured almost anywhere other than a military battlefield were entitled to the same civil rights as US citizens.Buying the Justice Dept In his book Extortion , author Peter Schweizer details how President Obama chose the people who would head his Justice Dept he sold the positions. When President Obama established his Justice Department staff after the 2008 election, something unprecedented happened, Schweizer writes, For the first time, at least half a dozen senior positions were occupied by individuals who had been campaign bundlers (fund raisers) for a presidential candidate, including not only Attorney General Eric Holder but also senior officials who dealt with criminal and civil prosecutions. Those high level Justice Dept appointees who are accused of buying their jobs are, Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli, Deputy Associate Attorney General Karol Mason, and Associate Attorney General Tony West. Stealing 1,000,000 American Homes Immediately after the housing collapse of 2007 and the economic collapse of 2008, America s largest mortgage lenders began criminally foreclosing on hundreds of thousands of American families without cause and using robo-signing machines . Most didn t even have mortgages, much less with those banks. Sheriff s across the country removed a half million American families at gun point for no legitimate reason, only because banks had fraudulently filed foreclosure papers. The number of victims was so large, the DoJ cut off new claimants in 2012 when the number of properties stolen by six Wall Street banks hit 750,000. Since then, hundreds of thousands more families have been refused any justice or reimbursement at all by AG Holder. And for the 750,000 families the Justice Dept sued the banks for and settled with, the banks were ordered to pay each family an average of $2,000 each $2,000 as total reimbursement for a $100,000 home criminally stolen, and all the furniture and possessions inside when the bank and police forced the families into the street. The settlement negotiated by the Justice Dept also bars the victims from ever suing the banks to get their money back. The five banks that stole one million American homes and businesses and were protected by AG Holder and the DoJ were Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, and Ally Financial.Prosecuting Journalists When Anonymous hackers leaked documents from Defense Dept contractors showing that the corporation had a program to spy on the American people inside and outside their homes, a number of news outlets covered the story. Three, including the New York Times, The Guardian and ProPublica, along with a handful of freelance journalists, included links to the leaked material online where it was posted by Anonymous for the whole world to see. The DoJ arrested and prosecuted one freelance reporter, charging him with 17 different criminal counts, all because he included the same website link that the other publications published for their readers.Protecting UBS Bank When the DoJ was forced to sue UBS bank for defrauding its customers, AG Holder had to recuse himself because UBS was his former client when he worked at a Washington law firm.Protecting Illegal Immigrants In 2010, the Arizona Legislature passed a law giving its State Police the authority to check the immigration status of anyone police suspected of being here illegally. The DoJ sued the state of Arizona to overturn the law, insisting it was the DoJ s privilege to enforce the country s immigration laws, not the states.Jon Corzine and MF Global Connection Former Democratic New Jersey US Senator Jon Corzine left office to lead the financial firm MF Global, where he stole, pocketed or gambled away $1.6 billion he authorized taking from customers bank accounts. The bank s law firm at the time was Covington & Burlington. Both AG Holder and Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer were recent employees of that firm. The DoJ chose Associate Attorney General Tony West to prosecute Corzine and MF Global. West came from the firm Morrison & Foerester, which was handling MF Global s assets at the time.DoJ Hiring Discrimination In 2011, documents were revealed showing that AG Holder and the Justice Dept s Civil Rights Division used political litmus tests to hire employees. After President Obama s election in 2008, Holder publicly announced that the Justice Department was going to be looking for people who share our values. FBI Assassination Plot of Occupy Wall St leaders In 2011, two separate FBI offices Houston and Jacksonville published internal memos detailing a proposal to identify, photograph and assassinate Occupy Wall Street leaders using snipers. MIT students sued for the details and won. But the DoJ only turned over partial excerpts of 5 of the 17 known FBI documents on the secret project. AG Holder has refused to release the remaining documents or explain the secret assassination program at all.Lying to Congress In 2011, the DoJ admitted to providing false testimony to Congress in their investigation of the Justice Dept and Fast and Furious.Assassinating American Citizens With the targeted killing of Americans beginning in 2011, President Obama became the first President to order the death of an American citizen without charge, trial or conviction. He went on to assassinate an American child using the same secret targeted killing program. AG Holder not only publicly approved the President s legal authority, but personally endorsed it.Fast and Furious In 2012, the US House voted AG Eric Holder in Contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over thousands of documents exposing the true account of the DoJ s secret gun trafficking operation which supplied over 2,000 military weapons to Mexican drug cartels. The gun-running operation began in 2009 and was run out of the Phoenix US Attorney s office along with the BATF.Protecting Mexican Drug Lords In 2012, national media outlets confirmed that the drug lord and prime target of the DoJ s secret Fast and Furious operation, Manuel Celis-Acosta, was actually taken into custody by the Justice Dept twice during the program. But both times the DoJ released him without charges.Anti-white prosecutions In 2013, when the violent knockout game trend was circulating social media, the DoJ got involved and prosecuted a perpetrator for hate crimes. But while the dozens of videoed attackers were all black and admitted targeting white victims, AG Holder found the only known white perpetrator and charged him instead.Too Big to Jail In 2013, AG Holder testified before Congress answering America s question of why not a single banker went to jail for the criminal activity that led to the global economic collapse in 2008. He explained that Wall Street financial institutions had become too big and too important. He freely admitted that the Justice Department had its hands tied and couldn t prosecute any of the banks for fear that it would lead to their collapse and that would lead to another global financial crash.Spying on Americans In 2012, two US Senators warned the American people that they d be horrified if they knew how President Obama and AG Holder were interpreting and executing the Patriot Act. Forbidden by law from telling America themselves, the US Senators called on the AG to declassify the DoJ s interpretation of the counter-terrorism law. AG Holder refused. The ACLU sued and the Supreme Court agreed. The DoJ still refuses.Protecting Senators Reid and Lee In 2012, the DoJ announced it would not get involved in a criminal investigation of US Senators Harry Reid and Mike Lee. In a multi-state criminal scandal that already forced the Utah Attorney General to resign, local Republican and Democrat District Attorneys asked the DoJ for help because the two accused criminals are US Senators. AG Eric Holder refused. After ABC News broke the story, one outlet described the criminal accusations against Senators Reid and Lee as, a massive crime ring that involves gambling, bribery, kickbacks and influence peddling. Protecting the Director of the Office of National Intelligence In 2013, ODNI Director James Clapper testified to Congress that the NSA isn t collecting massive amounts of intelligence on all Americans as Edward Snowden s leaks revealed. He later admitted that his testimony was a lie, but that in the interest of national security, he was above the law and not answerable to Congress. A number of Congressmen called on AG Holder to charge Clapper with Contempt of Congress. Eric Holder refused.War on Medical Marijuana Patients Even though medical marijuana is legal on the state, county and local level in 23 states and DC, the DoJ has led hundreds of military-style raids on legal medical marijuana pharmacies across the country. Rather than target drug cartels and illegal drug dealers, the DoJ has violently arrested hundreds of cancer victims, AIDS patients, dying senior citizens and war wounded. | 1real |
‘Has She Had A Brain Aneurysm?’: Glenn Beck Concerned Over Sarah Palin’s Erratic Behavior (VIDEO) | It finally dawned on Glenn Beck that his buddy Sarah Palin isn t quite right in the head. Last night on his television show, Beck expressed concern for Sarah Palin s erratic behavior lately and wondered if she suffered a brain aneurysm, according to Right Wing Watch. The half-term Governor of Alaska had thrown her full support behind Donald Trump s bid for the White House, then after his win she attacked him for the Carrier deal, calling it Crony Capitalism. For once in her life, she got something right but she should have known that Trump would pull such a move. Beck called Palin s enthusiastic endorsement of Trump crazy. Sincerely, has she had a brain aneurysm? Beck said Monday night on his program. Because I don t know what has happened to her. Because before Palin attacked the Carrier deal, Trump was considering her for a cabinet position. She s totally unqualified for the position of Secretary of Veterans Affairs, but Trump is also unqualified to be leader of the free world so it kind of makes sense he chose her. But, Beck thought she would have done a fine job in that capacity.Beck said Palin attacking Trump over the Carrier deal is absurd, because you own it, Sarah. You brought it to the table. He said he would do that! Beck and his staff members decided that maybe Palin is lashing out at Trump because she is just butt-hurt over the fact that she may not get the V.A. secretary position after all.Watch:The political arena in this country is so insane that Glenn Beck is making sense. Glenn. Fucking. Beck. Let that sink in for a moment.Sarah Palin does own this. Instead of draining the swamp, Trump is filling it with terrifying creatures. Everything Trump accused Hillary Clinton of, he is doing. Trump hasn t even been sworn in yet and he s plagued with scandals. But, Hillary s emails were made into a scandal so he s going to be the next president.Photo: J.D. Lasica via Flickr. | 1real |
Donald Trump, Matteo Renzi, Shinzo Abe: Your Tuesday Briefing - The New York Times | Good morning. Here’s what you need to know: • Tensions between China and Donald J. Trump are escalating even before the takes office. A editorial in the overseas edition of People’s Daily, the official organ of the Communist Party of China, denounced Mr. Trump for speaking with Taiwan’s president, while Mr. Trump posted messages on Twitter that stepped up pressure on Beijing. The Taiwanese appear to be cautiously embracing his attention. _____ • Mr. Trump is meeting with a broadened range of candidates for secretary of state, including a former ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman. Top NATO officials begin two days of meetings today in Brussels, their last before Mr. Trump, who has expressed ambivalence about the organization, takes office. Mr. Trump added a former rival to his Cabinet, naming the retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, above, to oversee efforts to lift American cities. Here’s the latest on the transition, including former Vice President Al Gore’s meeting with Mr. Trump and an effort by hundreds of scientists to persuade Mr. Trump that climate change is real. _____ • “We must never repeat the horror of war. ” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s announcement that he will visit Pearl Harbor, the Hawaiian naval base Japan attacked in World War II, effectively reciprocates President Obama’s May trip to the Japanese city of Hiroshima, where the U. S. dropped a nuclear bomb to end the war. Ashton Carter, the U. S. defense secretary, is in Japan to meet with Defense Minister Tomomi Inada and Mr. Abe. _____ • Rebels who have lost much of their grip in the Syrian city of Aleppo must withdraw completely or be killed as “terrorists,” Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said. He also said that the American secretary of state, John Kerry, had already submitted a proposal for the routes and timing of the fighters’ departure, and that Russia and the United States would opens talks in Geneva almost immediately. _____ • movements across Europe are among the winners after a constitutional referendum in Italy failed and the country’s prime minister, Matteo Renzi, resigned. Britain’s Supreme Court began what is expected to be four days of hearings on the government’s efforts to retain a free hand in organizing the exit from the European Union. The verdict is expected later in January. • Europe’s political disruptions have created new potential for volatility, but in the short term markets are up. Oil rose to its highest level since July 2015, and the Dow Jones industrial average reached a record high. • Masayoshi Son, the Japanese investor who bought Sprint in 2013, has made two ambitious moves in a bid to make his SoftBank Group the future’s most important technology business. • Shares in Duet Group rose on news of an offer of about $5. 4 billion from Li the Hong Kong billionaire whose proposed deals in Australia have raised concerns about foreign investors. • Uber is getting serious about artificial intelligence, acquiring Geometric Intelligence, an A. I. company, and launching an lab for A. I. research. The company wants a hand in how the computers behind vehicles think and make decisions on the road. • Japan will release October wage data, seen as crucial in judging the progress of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic programs. • Here’s a snapshot of global markets. • Thousands mourned in India after J Jayalalitha, the influential chief minister of southern Tamil Nadu state, died after suffering a heart attack on Sunday night. [BBC] • Pakistan honored Abdus Salam, a Nobel laureate who belonged to the persecuted Ahmadi minority, by naming a top physics department after him two decades after his death. [The New York Times] • Rohingya Muslims face chronic discrimination in access to medical care in Myanmar, a study shows. [The New York Times] • John Key, who abruptly resigned as New Zealand prime minister, did not have the support of some prominent citizens. [Stuff. co. nz] • The death toll in the “Ghost Ship” warehouse fire in Oakland, Calif. rose to 36 and could climb still higher. [The New York Times] • In a test of Bhutan’s press freedom, a journalist has been accused of libel for sharing a Facebook post that hints at corruption within the country’s elite. [The New York Times] • North Koreans shopping in Dandong, a Chinese border city, seem to favor tiny memory cards and teddy bears. [Reuters] • Japan’s top golfer, Hideki Matsuyama, 24, has put together a streak that calls to mind Tiger Woods at the same age: three consecutive tournament titles, and four in his past five starts. • Bob Dylan sent the Nobel Prize committee a speech to be read on his behalf when he is awarded the literature prize in Stockholm on Saturday. Patti Smith, the musician and writer, will perform his “A Hard Rain’s Fall,” as a tribute. • New studies show that men and women in their 60s and 70s who trained with weights developed muscles on a par with an average . • Government officials in Japan say they are alarmed by a stark disregard for environmental issues among young people. • A mystery man who stole a bucket filled with 86 pounds of scrap gold (worth $1. 6 million) from an armored truck in Midtown Manhattan two months ago has still not been identified, despite security video of him waddling across town. Children aren’t the only fans of St. Nicholas, that is, Santa Claus. He’s a hit with pawnbrokers, too. His feast day is celebrated today across Europe with reminders of his legend of leaving gold coins in shoes for boys and girls. He’s the pawnbrokers’ patron saint . The business of offering quick cash for personal items has been criticized for exploiting the poor. But some say the spheres that hang outside pawn shops are meant to symbolize St. Nick’s generosity, evoking the bags of gold he is said to have used to save three sisters from being sold into slavery. Another theory is that the spheres originated with the Medicis, the powerful Italian bankers who sponsored artists during the Renaissance. Golden circles appear on their family crest. That may explain how New York City’s power brokers came to admire St. Nick. “The religion the world wants today,” a guest at a banquet devoted to the saint said in 1900, “is a religion like that of St. Nicholas, that lays the hands of brotherly love upon the crying needs of our helpless brethren. ” Kenneth R. Rosen contributed reporting. _____ Photographs may appear out of order for some readers. Viewing this version of the briefing should help. Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings. What would you like to see here? Contact us at asiabriefing@nytimes. com. | 0fake |
Hillary Live-Tweeted During Trump’s Speech, And It Was Absolutely ON POINT (TWEETS) | As the last night of the Republican National Convention concluded, Donald Trump gave his acceptance speech of the Republican nomination for President of the United States. As hard as it is to believe, alas it is true, and now the only thing to do is to move forward to make sure he never steps foot inside the Oval Office.Doing her part to make sure Trump never becomes president was none other than Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton as she live tweeted throughout Trump s rather bizarre speech.She started off by stating the obvious with words that were likely the inner monologue of every sane American across the country. She said: We are better than this. We are better than this. Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 22, 2016Which we are, and come November that will be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.Hillary then retweeted The Briefing and corrected Trump s claims of being able to successfully make deals. Which he did, but at the cost of others proving the only person Trump cares about is himself.Fixed it for you. #RNCInCLE https://t.co/2hZP2qRWNj pic.twitter.com/9zZll0Ftr4 The Briefing (@TheBriefing2016) July 22, 2016Hillary also retweeted The Briefing with their very valid claim that Trump s tax policies will do nothing but help the top while the middle class still suffer an unjust tax burden.Donald Trump's plan mostly benefits billionaires and millionaires like Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/KAWLrRTIhr The Briefing (@TheBriefing2016) July 22, 2016Then came Trump s big moment when he said I m with you, but Hillary fixed that, too, because he s with you as so long as you re not a woman, African-America, LGBT, Muslim, Latino, etc."I m with you*" @realDonaldTrump*Not included: women, African Americans, LGBT people, Muslims, Latinos, immigrants Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 22, 2016To be completely honest, the only person Trump is with is himself. In fact, it seems he doesn t so much want to be president, but rather just prove to himself and his ginormous ego that he can win and be popular. What a sad life he must lead that he has to go so far to seek approval and feel loved.Good on Hillary Clinton for calling him out every step of the way.Featured image via Justin Sullivan/Getty Images | 1real |
'Is this the Trump we know?' South Koreans wax sanguine after Trump visit | SEOUL (Reuters) - By the time Donald Trump departed Seoul on Wednesday, the sometimes bellicose American president seemed to have mollified South Koreans who had been bracing for more confrontational rhetoric over North Korea, trade, and defense spending. Throughout his 24-hour swing through South Korea, Trump, who in a September speech at the United Nations had threatened to totally destroy North Korea and had dismissed dialogue with Pyongyang as a waste of time , took a more restrained tone. In his first trip to South Korea as president, Trump also significantly toned down his criticism of what he once called a horrible free trade deal with South Korea. He says now he will find a fair and reciprocal deal after earlier threatening to terminate the pact. The apparent newfound bond between Trump and liberal South Korean President Moon Jae-in, and the U.S. President s willingness to make a deal with North Korea - albeit on his terms - could begin to assuage fears of a catastrophic war with nuclear-armed North Korea. Trump s willingness to talk about revising the bilateral trade agreement, rather than scrapping it entirely, could also reassure markets worried about the fallout on major exporters such as Samsung, Hyundai and LG Electronics. Trump s speech to South Korea s National Assembly on Wednesday, interrupted by applause about 20 times with a standing ovation at the end, praised a free and flourishing South, in contrast to the horror of life in North Korea. On South Korea s largest internet portal, Naver.com, some of Moon s supporters welcomed the address. They said Trump displayed a greater knowledge of the two Koreas than his previous statements had indicated. Far from the madman the media portrays, Trump came across as perfectly normal, smart, and well-mannered, read one of the more than 1,200 posts on Naver.com. Another wrote: Wow, best speech ever. I feel so safe to have such a great U.S. president who is so determined to resolve North Korean issues. Naver.com blocks out the usernames on comments to keep them anonymous. South Koreans were feeling a little less safe earlier this week when the Pentagon, in a letter to U.S. lawmakers, gave a blunt assessment of what war on the Korea peninsula would look like. A ground invasion would be the only way to locate and secure all North Korea s nuclear weapons with complete certainty, and Pyongyang could use biological and chemical weapons in any conflict, it said. Seoul, the densely populated capital with some 25 million residents, lies an hour s drive from the border. The U.S. military presence in South Korea has long been seen as a bulwark against the North and its nuclear threat. The United States decisively intervened in the 1950-53 Korean War, which has left the two Korea s technically still at war, since it ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. While the sprawling U.S. military bases housing some 28,500 troops have not been without controversy - some critics contend they undermine the country s sovereignty - the U.S. security umbrella is also deeply embedded in the national psyche. Underscoring the importance Seoul attaches to the alliance at a time of increased tensions with Pyongyang, South Korean officials rolled out a reception fit for the first state visit by an American president in 25 years, according to the presidential Blue House. Moon, who took office in May, had campaigned for more dialogue with North Korea. He appeared to be the target of criticism from Trump, who said after North Korea s nuclear test in September: South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing! But Moon led a charm offensive, proclaiming a special bond forged between President Trump and myself after a lengthy meeting at the presidential Blue House. He personally joined Trump during a tour of a U.S. base, as well as during an ultimately aborted visit to the demilitarized zone on the border with North Korea. I wouldn t say we didn t have any concerns, a South Korean government official said. But the fact that he received a standing ovation (for his speech) could mean that he dispelled such concerns, delivered the message we wanted him to deliver, and wrapped up his trip successfully, said the official who asked for anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the matter. In his speech to the National Assembly, where several lawmakers brandished signs reading No war, we want peace , Trump paid homage to the 67-year-old alliance that divides the oppressed and the free . He noted that in less than one lifetime, South Korea climbed from total devastation to among the wealthiest nations on earth . Trump also reassured South Koreans the Korean War would not be repeated. We will not allow American cities to be threatened with destruction. We will not be intimidated. And we will not let the worst atrocities in history be repeated here, on this ground we fought and died so hard to secure, he said. And while Trump painted a dystopian picture of life in North Korea, he refrained from any threats of pre-emptive action against the North. On Tuesday, Trump said it would in the North s interest to come to the table and to make a deal . It all seemed reassuring to an anxious South Korean public. I think people might have felt they got to see the real Trump after he visited South Korea, said Kim Jun-seok, a political science professor at Dongguk University. And we heard many things that were positive about South Korea. It was all enough for people to think, Is this the Trump we know? | 0fake |
TRUMP RESPONSE TO LEFTIST THREATS: “Get Off My Lawn” | It s actually quite refreshing to see someone on the right who is unafraid to take off the gloves. His message to those who support amnesty is pretty clear and he s not backing down to political pressure from the left. Firing back at Univision for its refusal to air his Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants, the outspoken mogul and GOP presidential candidate has barred anyone who works for Univision from the greens of his Miami golf course.In a letter Friday to Randy Falco, Trump advised the Univision CEO that under no circumstances is any officer or representative of Univision allowed to use Trump National Doral, Miami its golf courses or any of its facilities. Trump also demanded that Falco, whose company s Miami office is next door to Trump National Doral, immediately stop work and close the gate which is being constructed between our respective properties. Trump gave Falco one week to take care of that matter, or we will close it. The letter was dispatched a day after Univision declared it was canceling its coverage of the Miss USA pageant July 12 on its UniMas network as well as the Miss Universe pageant, which had been scheduled to air on the flagship Univision channel next January, and was severing its business relationship with the Miss Universe Organization, which produces both pageants. The reason: what Univision called insulting remarks about Mexican immigrants recently voiced by Trump, a part owner of Miss Universe.During his presidential campaign kickoff speech last week, Trump had portrayed immigrants from Mexico as bringing drugs, they re bringing crime, they re rapists, and some, I assume, are good people. He also called for building a wall along the southern border of the U.S. The remarks drew condemnation from the Mexican government as biased and absurd, and sparked Univision s announcement.Trump, who has said his criticism was directed against U.S. policymakers, not the Mexican people or its government, stated Thursday that Univision would be defaulting on an ironclad contract if it doesn t air the pageants. He pledged to take legal action against the company.He also accused the New York-based Univision of having ties to Mexico that led the network to submit to pressure from Mexican leaders to punish him for pro-U.S. positions he expresses as a presidential candidate. They don t want me saying that Mexico is killing the United States in trade and killing the United States at the border, Trump had said.In a P.S. to his letter, which was addressed to Univision s Manhattan headquarters, Trump continued on that track. Please congratulate your Mexican Government officials for having made such outstanding trade deals with the United States, he wrote Falco. However, inform them that should I become President, those days are over. We are bringing jobs back to the U.S. Also, a meaningful border will be immediately created, not the laughingstock that currently exists. The letter was signed, Sincerely, Donald J. Trump. When asked for comment on Trump s letter, Univision seemed to be treating it as par for the course.A memo to Univision management on Thursday directed that, as part of the company s decision to cut ties with Miss Universe, employees should not stay at Trump properties while on company business or hold events/activities there. | 1real |
WASHINGTON RESTAURANT Tells Local Sheriff Deputies They’re Not Welcome…Tells Them To “Spread the word” [VIDEO] | Except when someone tries to rob them or break into their home or restaurant then, of course the sheriff deputies will be welcome Are you feeling lucky? SEDRO-WOOLLEY, Wash. The sheriff of a county about 70 miles north of Seattle says a restaurant owner has asked that law enforcement no longer dine there.Skagit County Sheriff Will Reichardt said on Facebook that after four deputies finished lunch at Lucky s Teriyaki in Sedro-Woolley Thursday, the owner asked them not to eat there anymore.Reichardt says the deputies were told that customers didn t like law enforcement there. The sheriff says his chief deputy called the owner later Thursday and says the request was confirmed along with a request to spread the word among other law enforcement agencies.UPDATE: The owner of the Lucky Teriyaki broke down in tears Thursday night and said cops are welcome at his restaurant will even get free meals on Monday after a public backlash to a report by the Skagit County sheriff said the man had told deputies that law enforcement officers were no longer welcome at his establishment.The man s son said it had all been a misunderstanding and he apologized for the incident.WATCH HERE: The incident came to light on Thursday when Skagit County Sheriff Will Richard posted a message on his Facebook page that he was left speechless after learning that the owner of the teriyaki restaurant asked his deputies not to return to eat there because other customers didn t like law enforcement there. Q13FOX | 1real |
TRANSGENDER ANTIFA THUG Starts To Burn American Flag…Pro-Trump Biker Gives Him Big Surprise [VIDEO] | Climate march s are happening all over America. Many of the same groups like Antifa who turned out to burn, riot and loot in Washington DC during Trump s inauguration and who ve been turning up in Berkeley, CA to shut down speech rights of conservatives came to show their disdain for America. A transgender man was caught lighting a small American flag on fire and holding it up like a small child at show-and-tell to share with his anti-American friends. He got a big surprise however, when a pro-Trump, pro-American biker caught a glimpse of the burning American flag.Watch video below:https://twitter.com/TEN_GOP/status/858700002654388224An Iowa City Press-Citizen photographer captured the incident in which Matt Uhrin used a fire extinguisher to put out the blaze before taking the flag from protesters. The demonstrators said they were protesting against what they call the Republican agenda, which includes positions on gay rights, civil rights and the controversial Bakken oil pipeline.Here is the video showing Matt Uhrin, an American hero, taking on a whole crowd of losers to defend our flag. It s hard not to shed a tear when you see how bravely he defended the honor of our US flag against this large group of degenerates who have no idea our flag stands for.Happening now: a confrontation on the ped mall as people burn an American flag as protest. pic.twitter.com/aPkMdls6oQ Stephen GruberMiller (@sgrubermiller) January 26, 2017Police cited two protesters, Kelli Ebensberger, 21, of Iowa City, and Paul Osgerby, 23, of Ames, for open burning, which is a simple misdemeanor. | 1real |
Twitter Continues to Hemhorrage Executives as Head of Asia Pacific Bolts - Breitbart | Twitter has lost its sixteenth leader in the last twelve months in its ongoing slide from chaotic cultural relevance into clean and curated silence. [As Twitter continues its desperate efforts to render its platform wholly antiseptic — even going so far as to employ a powerful AI moderator — another member of its leadership has made for the proverbial lifeboats. Twitter Head of Asia Pacific Aliza Knox is the latest in a line of executives to flee the company. She was preceded by China Head Kathy Chen, India and Southeast Asia Head Parminder Singh, and the Rishi Jaitly, as well as Australia’s Karen Stocks. For anyone keeping track, that makes it a whopping 60% of executives gone in 2016 alone — even if you exclude VPs and above. Knox worked almost five years for Twitter after her time at Google, expanding Twitter’s presence to nine offices and more than 100 employees in their Asia Pacific unit. She ended her time with a fond farewell from her coworkers and employees and finished by passing the torch to her replacement, Maya Hari. #Amazing 4. 5 years at @Twitter! Proud to have built a great APAC team to hand over to @Maya_Hari. Thanks for the farewell! #LoveWhereIWorked pic. twitter. — alizaknox (@alizaknox) March 31, 2017, In a statement released to TechCrunch, Twitter said: We thank Aliza for her contributions and leadership over the past four years and a half years. She pioneered Twitter’s Asia Pacific business (outside of Japan) championed our expansion into new markets and businesses such as Indonesia and China export advertising, set up our Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore, and led our diversity initiatives across the region. Unfortunately, new blood hasn’t been enough to recover from Twitter’s continual decline. Twitter stock managed a meager 16 cent earning per share in the fourth quarter, missing revenue forecasts once again. It’s less than 1% in revenue growth, disheartening to even the foremost members of the company. Is there any way for Twitter to pull up, or has it already tweeted its last? Aliza Knox, as well as those before her, have made their opinion all too clear. Follow Nate Church @Get2Church on Twitter for the latest news in gaming and technology, and snarky opinions on both. | 0fake |
EPA confirms White House freeze on grants, contracts ends Friday | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said that a freeze handed down by President Donald Trump’s White House on new contracts and grants that has led to fears of delays in toxic pollution cleanups would be completely reversed on Friday or at latest on Monday. The freeze has led to widespread concerns in states and cities about potential delays in efforts to monitor and clean up toxic pollution, particularly lead pollution in drinking water, that would put the health of Americans at risk. The agency allocates nearly $4 billion annually on projects ranging from cleaning up polluted industrial sites to testing air and water for toxins. Doug Ericksen, a former Washington state senator who is the EPA’s new communications director, said in an email that $3.8 billion of the $3.9 billion in contracts and grants was cleared on Wednesday night. “The remainder should be cleared today. There might be a very small number left for Monday, but not likely.” The EPA has not issued any news releases about ending the freeze, which has led to uncertainty. On Thursday, a day after Ericksen said the vast majority of the contracts and grants were cleared, five Democratic senators, including Edward Markey and Tom Carper, wrote a letter to Trump “with alarm” urging him to “immediately reverse this troubling action.” Ericksen said they should rest assured. “No projects are delayed or cut. None. Not sure how much more clear I can be,” he said in the email. U.S. Representative Dan Kildee from Flint, Michigan, home to the lead poisoning crisis in drinking water, also wrote to Trump this week asking when the freeze would be lifted. An EPA spokeswoman told Kildee’s office that $100 million in congressional aid would not be affected by the freeze. But Kildee was uncertain whether contracts and grants centering on testing and expertise about the lead crisis would be delayed. A Kildee spokesman said on Friday that the congressman had still not gotten a written response to his letter from Trump or the EPA. The EPA sent employees an internal memo late on Friday, seen by Reuters that said it was making progress in lifting the freeze, which it called standard practice during a transition. “As of today, we have completed review of our grant programs,” the memo said. “The review of contracts is nearly complete, with very few contracts still under review,” the memo said, without elaborating. | 0fake |
US Drone Strike In Afghanistan Kills, Wounds Several Civilians | US Drone Strike In Afghanistan Kills, Wounds Several Civilians The attack targeted the home of a suspected 'Taliban commander.' | October 29, 2016 Be Sociable, Share! In this July, 2008 photo, a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper takes off from Joint Base Balad, Iraq. (Photo/U.S. Air Force by Tech. Sgt. Richard Lisum via Wikimedia Commons)
A US drone strike has killed and wounded a number of civilians in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province today, though exact numbers are as yet unclear, with officials claiming that the home at the center of the attack was owned by a suspected Taliban commander.
The putative commander does not appear to have been among the casualties, though at least four people were killed within the house, and the blast also wounded a number of people in the surrounding area. At least seven children and five women are in the hospital for treatment related to the strike.
Official Afghan statements only labeled the 12 wounded as civilians, and everyone else was not a civilian. Locals offered varying estimates, and the Taliban claimed two civilians killed and over 30 wounded in their own report on the attack.
The Nangarhar Province has been heavily targeted by US warplanes over the past several months, though generally trying to tamp down a growing ISIS faction therein. The Taliban has had a presence in Nangarhar throughout the US occupation, as indeed they have almost everywhere along the Pakistan border. | 1real |
THIRD GRADE BOYS COMPLAIN About 9 Year Old Girl Using Boys’ Bathroom…Boys Told To Stand Closer To Urinals | Girls aren t the only gender who will suffer embarrassment, humiliation and even the prospect of sexual predators in their bathrooms and locker rooms. Shame on American parents for not making more of a fuss about this horrendous decree by a dictator with only seven months left in his final term A Southwest Elementary School parent said he s keeping his three sons out of school until the Howell, MI Public Schools Board of Education explains why a girl is using the boys bathroom.Matt Stewart said his 9-year-old son informed him Friday that there was a girl in the bathroom and the girl was told to look at the wall while boys were told to stand closer to the urinals. He said his son indicated the information came from a school staff member. I have three children in Southwest Elementary School and they are being humiliated and intimidated, Stewart said Wednesday. Our kids are absent from school until there s a policy in place that keeps them from being humiliated or intimidated. The bottom line: A 9-year-old girl is in the boys bathroom with my son, the father said, adding there is no precaution to keep the girl from walking out of a stall and seeing a male classmate urinating.Messages to Southwest Principal Jennifer Goodwin and district Superintendent Erin MacGregor as well as public information officer Tom Gould were not returned late Wednesday.School board President Michael Yenshaw said the matter is not one that has reached the board at this time, and Vice President Stacy Pasini said she preferred to have no comment. It does not pertain to an immediate threat to the public safety of the district, Yenshaw s written reply stated. It may also involve FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) issues, which limit the content of information that the district is permitted to release.FERPA is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records.Stewart said he spoke with the school principal and MacGregor, both of who would not confirm if the third-grade female student is transgender due to privacy issues.Stewart sought an approved policy through the Freedom Of Information Act, but was told there is no districtwide policy in place on the issue of transgender bathroom use. He said MacGregor took ownership for the final decision on this matter allowing students to use the bathroom of their choosing. This was (decided) quietly, behind closed doors, Stewart said.The issue of transgender usage of bathrooms exploded nationally after the passage of House Bill 2 in North Carolina, which became law March 23. It bans transgender people from using bathrooms that don t match the gender on their birth certificate.Via: Livingston Daily | 1real |
BLACK PASTORS RALLY FOR SEN JEFF SESSIONS: “Charge of racism leveled at anyone with whom the left disagrees” [VIDEO] | Black pastors rally in Washington for AG nominee Jeff Sessions.RT if you also think he will make a FANTASTIC Attorney General! pic.twitter.com/Y1Uv4NSIf4 Tennessee GOP (@TEN_GOP) January 10, 2017 | 1real |
'You're fired' - Trump effigy feels the heat on UK bonfire night | LONDON (Reuters) - He turned “You’re fired” into his reality show catch-phrase, but it was Donald Trump who went up in flames on Saturday - or at least an effigy of him did, as part of Britain’s annual Bonfire Night celebrations. An 11-metre-high (36 feet) model of the Republican U.S. presidential candidate was burned at a fireworks display in the town of Edenbridge, 30 miles (50 km) south of London. The sculpture showed Trump, complete with his trademark mop of hair, holding his Democratic rival for the White House, Hilary Clinton, in a headlock, and sporting a pair of Mexico-themed boxer shorts. “I think he would be quietly amused,” artist Frank Shepherd said of his muse. Britain celebrates the failed attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605 by letting off fireworks and lighting bonfires with an effigy of the “Gunpowder Plot” leader Guy Fawkes on top. The celebrations in Edenbridge also feature effigies of unpopular celebrities and in the past have included former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, former Prime Minister Tony Blair, deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and disgraced American cyclist Lance Armstrong. Other contenders for this year’s choice included Philip Green, the billionaire former owner of failed retail chain BHS who is under pressure to resolve the firm’s pension problems, and Sam Allardyce who quit as England soccer manager in September, after one game in charge, after a newspaper sting. Effigies of Trump, including one of him sitting atop a Mexican border control wall, were also due to go up in smoke on Saturday at a fireworks display in the town of Lewes, 60 miles south of London. | 0fake |
Ireland demands 'significantly more clarity' from UK over Brexit border | DUBLIN/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Ireland needs Britain to provide significantly more clarity on its plans for the Irish border, Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said on Thursday, denting hopes that London was on the verge of a deal to move on to the second phase of Brexit talks. But British Prime Minister Theresa May s room to offer additional concessions to Dublin appeared extremely limited as the Northern Ireland party propping up her government hinted it might withdraw its support if she gives too much. Avoiding a so-called hard border on the island of Ireland is the last major hurdle before Brexit talks can move to negotiations on Britain s future trade relationship with the EU and a possible two-year Brexit transition deal. A mis-step by May could bring down the British government or spook British businesses fearful of a cliff-edge Brexit without a transition deal. We are looking for significantly more clarity than we currently have from the British negotiating team, Coveney told parliament in Dublin, adding that constructive ambiguity from Britain would not suffice. Hopefully we will make progress that will allow us to move on to Phase 2 in the middle of December, he said. If it is not possible to do that, so be it. Britain in the coming days needs to demonstrate sufficient progress on three key EU conditions a financial settlement, rights of expatriate citizens and the Irish border for leaders to give a green light to trade talks at a summit on Dec. 14-15. With significant progress on the financial settlement and citizen rights, a deal on the Irish border would pave the way for Brussels to offer British Prime Minister Theresa May a transition deal as early as January. Britain s Times newspaper, without citing a source, said London was close to a deal after a proposal to devolve more powers to the government of its province of Northern Ireland so that it could ensure regulations there did not diverge from the EU rules in place south of the border across the island. The border between EU-member Ireland and the British region of Northern Ireland will be the UK s only land frontier with the bloc after Brexit, and Dublin fears a hard border could disrupt 20 years of delicate peace in Northern Ireland. Ireland has called on Britain to provide details of how it will ensure there is no regulatory divergence after Brexit in March 2019 that would require physical border infrastructure. But any attempt at a solution will have to convince Northern Ireland s pro-Brexit Democratic Unionist Party, whose 10 members of parliament are propping up May s government. The party ratcheted up the pressure on Thursday by suggesting it might withdraw its support for May s government. If there is any hint that in order to placate Dublin and the EU they re prepared to have Northern Ireland treated differently to the rest of the United Kingdom, then they can t rely on our vote, DUP member of parliament Sammy Wilson said in an interview with the BBC. European Council President Donald Tusk, who last week set an absolute deadline of Monday for May to demonstrate sufficient progress on the three issues, is due to fly to Dublin on Friday for talks with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in a bid to break the deadlock. May will then hold talks in Brussels on Monday with EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker and his chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, and will hope to secure a green light to trade talks at a summit on Dec. 14-15. Barnier said on Wednesday the summit would be able to discuss a transition period and that the EU would define a framework next year of the new partnership with Britain that would follow the transition. May has insisted she wants any new offers to be met with simultaneous assurances from the EU that it will maintain the open trading relationship which businesses are demanding to know soon if they are to maintain investment levels in Britain. | 0fake |
Russia accuses U.S. of trying to provoke North Korean leader 'to fly off handle' | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia accused the United States on Thursday of trying to provoke North Korean leader Kim Jong Un into flying off the handle over his missile program to hand Washington a pretext to destroy his country. In some of his most robust comments on the subject to date, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also flatly rejected a U.S. call to cut ties with Pyongyang over its nuclear and ballistic missile program and said U.S. policy towards North Korea was deeply flawed. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have flared after North Korea said it had successfully tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile on Wednesday in a breakthrough that put the U.S. mainland within range of its nuclear weapons. Russia has condemned the test, like others before it, as a provocation, but Lavrov said the way the United States was handling the situation was dangerously provocative. The latest U.S. actions look designed to deliberately provoke Pyongyang into taking new extreme action, Lavrov told reporters in Belarus, according to a Russian Foreign Ministry transcript. Lavrov said he was referring to joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises planned for December, which he said U.S. officials had intimated to Russia would not take place until spring to open a window for tensions to be defused. We were encouraged by that approach. And then suddenly ... they announced large-scale exercises in December. We have the impression that it was all done specially to get Kim Jong Un to fly off the handle and take another reckless step. The air forces of the United States and South Korea are scheduled to hold a regular joint drill early next month with six U.S. F-22 Raptor stealth fighters taking part. The Americans need to explain to us all if they want to find a pretext to destroy North Korea. Let them say it directly ... then we can take a decision about how to react, said Lavrov. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Wednesday called for other countries to sever all ties with Pyongyang, including cutting trade links and expelling North Korean workers. Moscow sells oil products to North Korea and thousands of North Korean workers toil in Russia, sending remittances back to the authorities in Pyongyang. Lavrov said Haley s call for the world to isolate North Korea was wrong. We regard this negatively, Lavrov said. We have already said many times that sanctions pressure has exhausted itself. He also complained that the United States was totally ignoring a U.N. demand for talks with North Korea. I think it s a big mistake, said Lavrov. | 0fake |
NEW YORK TIMES BUSTED: Undercover Video Exposes Editor for Bias Against Trump [Video] | Project Veritas latest installment in the American Pravda series takes aim at The New York Times, the supposed paper of record. In the first part of this series, Nicholas Dudich, Audience Strategy Editor for the Times extensive video library speaks candidly about how his left political bias influences his editorial judgement and reveals an unusual connection to former FBI Director James Comey, and a strange association with domestic terror group Antifa.Since this video came out, the New York Times released a statement saying they ve launched an investigation:This should have been done when hiring this former antifa thug who also worked for Clinton.RT reported:In the video, Dudich calls himself the gatekeeper for all the New York Times videos posted online, saying that his imprint is on every video we do. Any video that goes on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram I have a hand in that, Dudich said.When talking journalistic ethics, Dudich is captured sarcastically making air quotes while he said that he will be objective working for the Times before quickly admitting: no I m not. That s why I m there. According to the New York Times ethical handbook, employees must do nothing that might raise questions about their professional neutrality or that of The Times. As a journalist, I m not able to give any money to any political organization. I m not able to volunteer for any political organization. I m not able to work for any nonprofit or charity. Like, there s a lot of guidelines and ethics, Dudich said.However, before joining the Times, Dudich worked social media on the 2012 presidential campaign of former President Barack Obama and the 2016 presidential campaign of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.When asked how he was able to be politically active and still work as a journalist, Dudich said that he had to leave his job at ABC to take a job where he wasn t deemed a journalist anymore in order to work for the Clinton campaign.Dudich said he made the sacrifice in order to work against Trump, who he said was a threat. I saw the threat and I was like, I want to do something, Dudich said. Trump was a threat and still is a threat, right? Trump is a threat, the interviewer interjects. He s a threat. Oh, he s a threat to everything, Dudich added.Read more President/co-founder of The Dream Corps and CNN contributor Van Jones Rich Polk CNN s Van Jones calls Russia nothing burger video edited, right-wing propaganda At one point, Dudich explains his idea to make Trump resign or leave office by going after his businesses and his dumb f**k of a son, Donald Jr., and Eric. Target that. Get people to boycott going to his hotels, Dudich said. If you can ruin the Trump brand and you put pressure on his business and you start investigating his business and you start shutting it down, or they re hacking or other things. He cares about his business more than he cares about being President. He would resign. Or he d lash out and do something incredibly illegal, which he would have to. | 1real |
Nevada judge rejects Trump request for order over early voting | (Reuters) - A Nevada judge on Tuesday rejected Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s request for records from a Las Vegas polling place that the campaign said had allowed people to vote after a deadline last week. Trump and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton are in a close contest for Nevada’s six electoral votes in Tuesday’s election after a long and contentious campaign. Nevada is one of several states that permits early voting, and Las Vegas is viewed as a base of support for Clinton. Nevada state law says voters who are in line at 8 p.m., when the polls close, must be allowed to cast their ballots. Trump’s lawsuit, filed in a Nevada state court on Monday, said election officials violated state law because they allowed people to join the line after 8 p.m. at a polling location at a Latino market during last week’s early voting period. Trump, a New York businessman and reality TV personality who had never previously run for political office, said last month that he might not accept the outcome of the national election if he thinks it is unfair. “Today may be the last time that ordinary citizens are able to stand up and say ‘No’ to an overreaching, unaccountable government controlled by a ruling establishment,” Charles Munoz, the Nevada state director for Trump’s campaign, said in a statement after the ruling. The suit had asked the court to order officials to preserve various records from the Cardenas Market and to segregate ballots from the voting machines at issue. At a court hearing in Las Vegas on Tuesday, a county attorney argued that election officials already preserve records. Sturman agreed, saying she did not want to issue an order that could help reveal which candidates were chosen by particular voters. The Trump campaign also asked for information about poll workers on duty at the market, and Sturman said she was concerned they might face threats for helping people vote. “Have you watched Twitter? Do you watch any cable news shows? People can get information and harass them,” the judge said. Clinton spokesman Glen Caplin said the campaign was pleased by the ruling. He described Trump’s suit as “a desperate response to the record turnout we’re seeing in Nevada and across the country.” Dan Kulin, a spokesman for the Clark County Office of Public Communications, said that when early voting was taking place on Friday “most if not all” polling places had lines at the time they were scheduled to close. “As has been our practice for many, many years, those early voting locations continued processing voters until the lines were gone,” Kulin said. | 0fake |
Trump Announces New Cabinet Appointees-Coincidentally, Most Are Former Celebrity Apprentice Contestants | Thursday, 10 November 2016 Trump's only worry is, "Who to fire first?"
Trump Tower, NY Trump gave his 18th press conference in 4 days to announce more of his selections for his Cabinet.
"Many people have remarked that many of my selections came from my old TV show, Celebrity Apprentice. Well, I was secretly trying all those people out for my Cabinet. So I will be deducting the cost of this from my taxes. Among other things. If I ever get around to filing them. Anyways, here is the list of my appointees. Also, I'll admit I'm reemploying many of these people because I know how much fun it will be to fire them all again" said Trump. Trump's comment on each appointee is in parentheses.
Dept. of State-Dennis Rodman-("And he's going straight to North Korea!")
Dept. of the Treasury-Donald Trump, Jr. ("Just to make it stays in the family")
Dept. of Commerce-Howard Stern ("Because he promised to destroy all the tapes of when I was on his show")
Dept. of Agriculture-Clint Black ("I was torn between him and that other hayseed, Trace Adkins")
Dept. of Defense-Jesse James ("I think he'll be good because he's scary looking and that's good when you're going up against somebody")
Dept. of Homeland Security-Andrew "Dice" Clay ("Another position where you just want a tough-looking dude.")
Dept. of Energy-Gary Busey ("Gary might have his faults, such as being severely crazy, but he did do a great job in that Buddy Holly thing and he is the most energetic person I know!")
Dept. of Interior-Sharon Osborne ("I gotta stick a dame in here somewhere or I'll get in trouble and she's a pretty tough broad.")
Dept. of Housing and Urban Development-Sinbad ("I'm not sure what this department does, but I'm told it would be a good place to put my African-American.")
Dept. of Health and Human Services-Cheryl Tiegs ("Because anybody feels better after looking at her!")
Dept. of Labor-Carnie Wilson ("Because she looks like she might go into labor at any time")
Dept. of Veteran Affairs-Jose Canseco ("I think maybe on a good day Jose could handle SOME kind of job if we keep an eye on him!)
Dept. of Education-Geraldo Riveras ("If this joker doens't give away any secrets, I don't know what his problem is
My daughter Ivanka asked me to give her a Cabinet position and so she's Secretary of Fashion now" Make Al N.'s day - give this story five thumbs-up (there's no need to register , the thumbs are just down there!) | 1real |
Twitter Temporarily Censored Drudge Report Tweets Behind ’Sensitive Content’ Filter - Breitbart | Earlier today, users on Twitter reported that tweets from the official account of the Drudge Report were being hidden from users behind a “sensitive content” filter. [A screenshot published on the British news site Westmonster revealed the filtering of the Drudge Report, one of the largest and conservative sites on the web. The only way to unblock tweets marked as “sensitive” by Twitter is to by checking a box in your account’s “safety” settings. By making the system rather than Twitter provides a censored, filtered service to its users by default. Reports of the Drudge Report’s account being put behind the filter were confirmed by a Breitbart reporter and by ZeroHedge, which reported that “hardly any tweets were visible” from the Report’s account when they logged in to Twitter earlier today. The censorship was lifted later in the day, and tweets from the Drudge Report are now visible, even when users to Twitter’s “sensitive content” filtering. However, Twitter has not explained why the Drudge Report was placed behind the filter in the first place, and has not responded to a request for comment from Breitbart News at this time. Twitter started experimenting with labelling entire user accounts as “sensitive” earlier this month. Recently, we reported that the social media company is using IBM’s “Watson” supercomputer to identify “abusive” accounts on Twitter. Twitter’s bias against conservatives is . The company frequently bans or locks the accounts of conservative users who have not broken its terms of service, while allowing threats of violence against the President and First Lady to run rampant on the platform. You can follow Allum Bokhari on Twitter, add him on Facebook, and download Milo Alert! for Android to be kept up to date on his latest articles. | 0fake |
Xi wants China to spruce up toilets to boost tourism, quality of life | BEIJING (Reuters) - China must keep up efforts to revolutionize its toilets until the task is completed, state media quoted Chinese President Xi Jinping as saying on Monday, amid efforts to boost the domestic tourist industry and improve the quality of life. Xi launched the toilet revolution in 2015 as part of a drive to improve standards of domestic tourism in China, which he said suffers from deep-seated problems of a lack of civility. The toilet issue is no small thing, it s an important aspect of building civilized cities and countryside, Xi said, according to the official Xinhua news agency. As an emerging industry, Chinese tourism needs an upgrade in both hardware and software to continue strong growth, Xinhua reported Xi as saying. China s National Tourism Administration recently announced plans to build and upgrade 64,000 toilets between 2018 and 2020. But the toilet revolution is about more than just giving sightseers a better holiday experience; it is also about creating a more civilized society, Xinhua added. Since coming to power in 2012, Xi has often visited homes in the countryside and makes checks to see if the locals use pit toilets, besides stressing that village modernization requires sanitary toilets, Xinhua said. In a course-setting speech to a meeting of the ruling Communist Party in October, Xi redefined the principal contradiction facing Chinese society for the first time since 1981, saying the current need was not just for more growth, but more equal growth to satisfy people s desire for a nice life . China s tourism industry has upgraded 68,000 toilets over the last three years, completing about 19 percent of the task, Xinhua said, in what it called universally welcomed renovations. | 0fake |
FBI Director Comey’s ‘Leaked’ Memo Explains Why He’s Reopening the Clinton Email Case |
21st Century Wire says…
21WIRE reported on Friday about the FBI’s surprising announcement that it would be reopening the Clinton email case due to new evidence of ‘classified information’ found on sex cheat Anthony Weiner’s (newly estranged husband of Clinton chief aid Huma Abedin) computer which was subject to a seperate investigation. Will this really yield anything significant in the 10 days running-up to the Nov 8th election, or is this just clever Democrat party smoke and mirrors? It seems that Washington’s political tricksters have already sprung into action…
After Comey’s shock announcement, a “leaked” memo appeared out of nowhere, supplied to Fox News , in which Comey and the FBI seem to be going through a routine set of prescribed political moves designed to implement damage control.
ELITE CIRCLES: FBI head James Comey and friend Hillary Clinton.
Certainly, a desperate Democratic Party, and an even more desperate Obama White House (over the last 3 weeks, Obama and his wife Michelle have been out campaigning more that Hillary Clinton herself), could be pressuring or nudging the FBI on this volatile issue which could easily tilt a close presidential race against Donald Trump. Aside from the obvious potential of another Clinton scandal, yesterday’s FBI move could also be a prelude to the following possible scenarios: Protect the President, who is already deeply tied to the Clinton email cover-up Democratic Party Machine has created a distraction to cover-up latest Wikileaks dump. FBI are trying to restore lost public confidence over allegations of favoring Hillary Clintons. Create a controlled explosion this weekend to clear the decks for another salacious Trump scandal next week.
NOTE: Despite calls from the Clinton camp for FBI to disclose what they have (which they cannot by law anyway, you’d think Hillary would have already known that), it is highly unlikely that the FBI will release any real specifics before the election – if they have anything at all. It’s just too early to tell.
SEE ALSO: FBI James Comey was board member of HSBC – Clinton Foundation & Drug Cartel ‘bank of choice’
The FBI director stoked outrage last month when he announced that he would not recommend the Justice Department seek an indictment against Clinton or any of the other parties to the investigation – allowing Clinton to dodge any criminal probe before the election – despite the fact that Comey stated to a Congressional investigative committee that Clinton was “extremely careless,” and that Clinton openly lied about her handling classified information on her unsecured private server throughout her tenure as the US Secretary of State.
Zero Hedge adds:
“Now, it is the democrats turn to rage at Comey and the FBI, although Comey likely did not have much choice: had he kept the information secret, it certainly would have leaked as we predicted; as such his best recourse was to come clean, although many have speculated about the cryptic nature of the disclosure. Needless to say, all Comey would need to do to regain the Demcorats’ trust and favor is to announce in just a few days that nothing material has been found and that the second probe is also over.”
Here is “leaked” (aka ‘just covering my ass) memo from FBI director James Comey:
Watch this space. Here is a highlight reel of Hillary Clinton lying on at least 5 occasions when asked direct questions about her illegal private email server:
. READ MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 Files
SUPPORT 21WIRE – SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 1real |
2016 Republican race enters a new, volatile phase | The fight for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination appears to be moving into a new, more fluid phase.
No longer is the question merely whether or how Donald Trump can be stopped.
The recent rise in the polls of retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson — Trump’s low-key stylistic opposite — has shown that the celebrity billionaire may not be the only one who can tap the appetite of many in the party’s angry base for an outsider.
And after Wednesday’s chaotic and freewheeling debate, there also is a new dynamic on the establishment side of the race.
Former Florida governor Jeb Bush’s once-formidable campaign appears to be nearing a state of collapse, made worse by his flailing on the stage in Colorado.
That has provided an opening to his onetime ally, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who is getting a new look from the party establishment — an ironic situation, given Rubio’s roots as an insurgent tea party favorite in 2010.
“Marco Rubio now has probably the best shot to emerge as the mainstream alternative to Trump and Carson,” said Ari Fleischer, who was press secretary for President George W. Bush.
More broadly, Fleischer, who is not committed to any of the 2016 candidates, predicted that the GOP is about to enter “a condensed version of where it was four years ago, where the party is volatile and shopping around.”
That could help Ted Cruz, who also made a strong showing in the debate. The firebrand senator from Texas, widely despised by the Washington Republican hierarchy, is looking to nudge out Trump and Carson among voters who are looking for a candidate to supplant the old order.
“I don’t think the party is going to nominate anybody who has not been elected before,” said Stuart Stevens, who was a top strategist for 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney.
Also likely to force some clarity in the coming weeks is the calendar. The first contest, in Iowa, is barely more than three months away.
So the focus for all the leading contenders will have to shift, from raising their profiles nationally to refining the strategies and organization it will take to put specific states in their column.
“The campaign is really in a nuts-and-bolts stage,” said Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski. “It’s about getting on the ballot, organizing, and making sure people understand what caucuses are in Iowa and other states and teach them how to participate. It’s about getting people committed and ready.”
Lewandowski said Trump’s campaign is already hiring staff for states that do not hold their primaries until March.
“Our approach is to execute and meet the criteria to get on the ballot in all 50 states, in five territories and in the District of Columbia. That’s a full-time job,” he added. “This campaign is doing all of the things necessary for long-term success.”
At the same time, Trump seemed to be moderating and refining his message as he campaigned outside Reno, Nev., Thursday afternoon.
Where he previously has devoted his rallies to slinging insults at his opponents and boasting about his poll numbers, Trump focused instead on describing the professional and life experience he would bring to the White House.
He also cited issues where he claimed to have led before it was a popular thing to do — including opposing the Iraq war and aggressively combating illegal immigration.
“That’s the kind of thinking we need in the country,” Trump said. “A lot of the people in the audience, maybe in your small way you have that same thinking.”
Bush, campaigning in New Hampshire, insisted that his struggling candidacy should not be counted out. The former Florida governor, who is polling in the single digits almost everywhere, insisted, “We’re doing fine.”
But he appeared to acknowledge that he had not helped his prospects with his showing in the debate.
“Look, there are two types of politicians. There are the talkers and there are the doers,” Bush told the crowd. “I wish I could talk as well as some of the people on the stage, the big personalities on the stage, but I’m a doer.”
Rubio, meanwhile, must capitalize — quickly — on whatever interest and momentum may be generated by his debate performance. He spent the morning making the rounds of six network and cable television shows and the remainder of the day fundraising in Denver and Chicago. He will be in Iowa on Friday.
On “CBS This Morning,” Rubio declined to criticize Bush personally and said the differences between the two will be fleshed out in terms of policy.
“I’m going to continue to tell people who I am, what I’m for. There are policy differences between us — we’ll discuss those. Americans deserve to hear those. But I’m not going to change my campaign,” he said.
“Jeb is my friend, I have admiration for him. I’m not running against him. I’m running for president.”
Cruz, meanwhile, is building what GOP insiders say is a strong organization. The campaign says that it has 77,000 volunteers on the ground, with 6,000 in the first four voting states.
Fundraising has also been robust — and was reignited by the debate, during which the senator trained his fire on the CNBC moderators and the media. A Cruz aide said more than $1 million had poured in since Wednesday night’s debate.
There will be growing pressure on candidates who are getting no traction to get out of the race. On Thursday, for instance, the New York Times editorial board called upon New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to abandon his bid.
“New Jersey is in trouble, and the governor is off pursuing a presidential run that’s turned out to be nothing more than a vanity project,” the paper wrote. “Mr. Christie’s numbers are in the basement, and he’s nearly out of campaign cash. This is his moment, all right: to go home and use the rest of his term to clean out the barn, as Speaker John Boehner would say.”
Christie, for his part, tweeted, “Can’t read the article because I don’t have a subscription, but I can tell you this — I am not going anywhere.”
Robert Costa in Colorado and Jenna Johnson in Nevada contributed to this report. | 0fake |
Iran takes hard stance on key provisions in nuke deal | Iran took a hard stance on two of the biggest demands of world powers in a final nuclear deal Thursday, rejecting any extraordinary inspection rules and warning that if the U.S. and other countries re-impose sanctions after the deal is done, it will ramp up enrichment of bomb-making materials.
A senior Iranian negotiator told reporters outside Vienna the U.N. nuclear agency’s standard rules governing access to government information, sites of interests and scientists should be sufficient to ensure that Iran’s program is solely for peaceful purposes. Anything beyond that would be unfair, he said.
However, the U.S. and some other countries want Iran to take the extra step.
"We should be realistic," said the Iranian official, who briefed members of the news media on condition he not be quoted by name. The man also questioned the legitimacy of countries that don’t accept the International Atomic Energy Agency’s jurisdiction demanding that Iran be subject to tougher requirements than any other nation. RIA-Novosti reported that Russia also backed Iran’s position that additional inspection guidelines for Iran weren’t necessary.
The official was making a clear reference to Israel, a state widely presumed to maintain an undeclared nuclear arsenal.
The marker is expected to be a cause for concern for the Obama administration and other world powers who are hoping to come to an agreement that would curb Iran’s atomic program for a decade in exchange for relief from crippling sanctions.
The hard stance from Iran comes as the head of the IAEA visited Tehran Thursday to deal with issues surrounding the deal and to seek "clarification" of possible military dimensions of programs, The Wall Street Journal reported.
“I believe that both sides have a better understanding on some ways forward, though more work will be needed,” Director-General Yukiya Amano said in a statement.
Amano's trip, described by both western and Iranian officials as potentially important in unlocking a deal, also covered the sensitive issue of access to military sites by IAEA inspectors, The Journal reported.
Iran has committed to implementing the IAEA’s “additional protocol” for inspections and monitoring as part of an accord. The protocol gives the IAEA expanded access to declared and undeclared nuclear sites, and to the sensitive information of more than 120 governments that accept its provisions.
However, the rules don’t guarantee monitors don’t guarantee monitors can enter any site they want to and offer no specific guidelines about sensitive military sites – an issue with Iran, given the long-standing allegations of secret nuclear weapons work at its Parchin base near Tehran.
Instead, the agency’s regulations allow governments to challenge such requests and offer alternative proposals for resolving concerns, such as providing additional documents or access to nearby locations.
For that reason, U.S. officials maintain that rules for inspection must go beyond those laid out by the IAEA for all sides to come to an agreement.
Even as Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has defiantly rejected such access, U.S. officials have sought to differentiate between what Iranian officials were saying is for domestic consumption and what they were promising in the negotiating room.
Tehran says its program is solely for peaceful energy, medical and research purposes, but wants a deal to level the mountain sanctions that have crippled its economy.
President Obama has said the U.S. would maintain its ability to snap sanctions back into place if Iran cheats as some officials don’t trust Iran to hold up its end of the bargain. Iran has said that ability goes two ways.
If Iran is facing the re-imposition of penalties, and the U.S. and its partners don’t uphold their commitments to provide economic relief, he said “Iran has the right to go back to its program as it wishes.”
The official didn't spell out what that meant, but Iran would have several options, such as installing new centrifuges, enriching uranium at levels closer to weapons-grade or restarting activity with material that can be used in warheads where it has pledged to do no such thing.
However, the official said the Islamic Republic would have no need to revert back to its previous capacities if the deal is favorable.
Russia's deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said his government also opposes any automatic re-imposition of international sanctions. Russia and the United States are negotiating alongside Britain, France, Germany and China.
There were few public signs of progress as the high-level negotiations entered a sixth day Thursday after diplomats blew through a June 30 deadline and extended an interim accord by a week. Work was progressing, albeit slowly, officials said.
"Not at breakthrough moment yet," British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond tweeted.
Hammond had a morning meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who also consulted top diplomats from China, France, Germany and the European Union. Kerry met Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif late Thursday.
Speaking at the Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said all participants had "the serious intention to finalize a deal," but cited numerous unresolved issues.
"The last steps are the most difficult ones," he told reporters.
Negotiators have given themselves until at least July 7 to reach agreement.
The Associated Press contributed to this report | 0fake |
BRILLIANT: [VIDEO] SHERIFF CLARKE EXPLAINS HOW #BlackLIESMatter IS BASTARD CHILD OF #HandsUpDontShoot LIE | Nothing like a good dose of Sheriff Clarke to expose the lies of the left After showing a clip of the confrontation between Hillary Clinton and some Black Lives Matter representatives in which things became tense and Clinton was clearly uncomfortable, Sheriff David Clarke is asked to weigh in on what is happening.He leads off by saying, Hillary meet Frankenstein, they created this monster and now they realize that if you cannot continue to feed it the beast the beast will turn on you and eat you and that s what s going on here. He said that he refers to the group as Black Lies Matter because they are perpetuating lies built upon a foundation of lies, the bastard child of the original lie of the Hands Up Don t Shoot narrative built upon the justified self-defense shooting of hood rat Michael Brown.Sheriff Clarke describes the group as a conglomeration of misfits, noting their ranks include retreads and operatives from the occupy movement, organized labor, criminals, black racialists, cop haters and anarchists. He fails to include their funding source, billionaire America-hater George Soros. Any Marxist associated or otherwise subversive movement in this nation invariably has the stain of Soros visible just below the surface.Sheriff Clarke says, No longer in the United States, and I think that I m living proof of that, no longer can blacks as a whole claim victim status except for one situation. They are victims to the Democrat Party in the United States of America and what modern liberalism has done to the black family. The speak to the absurdity of Democrat candidate for president Martin O Malley caving to Black Lives Matter pressure to walk back a statement that all lives matter.Clarke says It s an example of the monster that they ve created that they cannot feed anymore. They re not in control of this movement. This was created to mobilize the black vote for the 2016 election. The problem is we ve got a long way to go and there s only so long that you can keep that sort of negative movement going before you lose control of it. I though O Malley, his reaction after that was pathetic. They point to how well the cowering to the black thugs has demonstrated the lack of character on the part of both O Malley and Barry Surrender the mic Sanders and their unfitness for the world leadership stage.They also note the hypocrisy of the faux-movement in that only the black lives which they can use to foment unrest matter. The black on black violence is never mentioned and it doesn t matter because it carries with it no political capital. Via: Rick Wells | 1real |
WOW! WASHED UP LIBERAL CHER Uses Tweet About France Terror Attack To Remind Followers She Once Won An Award There | Translation: I m so sorry for your loss but wanted to use this moment to point out I won an award for my acting in Nice!Literate translation of Cher s illiterate tweet: My broken heart (emoji translation) goes out to people of France. I was just THERE. France is the world s Treasure box (heart emoji). Spent MANY (misspelled in tweet) July s SIMCER70 s (not sure what that means). won Cannes (misspelled Cannes) Best Actress for Mask My goes out 2PPL OF FRANCE. I Was Just THERE. France is the worlds Treasure box Spent MANNY JULY S SIMCER70swon Canne Best Actress 4 mask Cher (@cher) July 15, 2016 | 1real |
The Padres Have San Diego, and the Spotlight, to Themselves - The New York Times | PEORIA, Ariz. — Wil Myers hates the feeling of batting gloves, so he never wears them. This time of year, especially, he spends a lot of quality time with his bats, twirling them like batons in the San Diego Padres’ clubhouse, gripping and waggling them around in his massive hands. He needs to build up calluses on his palms. “They’re a little soft now,” said Myers, the Padres’ first baseman. “I’m already cracking there a little bit. ” Feelings are raw, too, on the San Diego sports scene. The departure of the Chargers for Los Angeles last month did not hit Myers personally he is not a football fan, not even of the Carolina Panthers, who play less than a mile from his home in North Carolina. But the Chargers’ move leaves the Padres as the only major pro sports team in town, and a singular entity in baseball. Every other team in the majors has at least one neighbor in the N. F. L. the N. B. A. or the N. H. L. Only the Padres have a whole market to themselves. Yet after their sixth losing season in a row, at they cannot offer a winning alternative to soothe the loss of the Chargers. “It stings, collectively, throughout the city, and everybody feels that,” Padres Manager Andy Green said. “I don’t think it’s really our responsibility to try to replace the Chargers I don’t think we’re capable of doing that, nor are we trying to do that. But we’re going to try to rally this city together behind a team that is building something for the future of San Diego and recognizing that we’re San Diego’s team. ” The Padres have been San Diego’s team since 1969, when they joined the National League as a expansion franchise that lost 110 games. All these years later, in generic white and navy, they still have not won a championship. The Chargers never won a Super Bowl, either they were routed in their only appearance, in 1995, just as the Padres were swiftly beaten in the World Series of 1984 and 1998. The memory of that latter run, at least, sustains the current group. “You talk to Trevor Hoffman, and he talks about what the fans were like when they were making their World Series push,” said Austin Hedges, a young catcher who lives in town, speaking of the Padres’ former star closer. “It’s an incredible city that loves their sports teams. We don’t really think about the Chargers being gone we just know what we’re capable of and what we want to bring to the city, and that’s a championship. ” For this season, anyway, the Padres might be further from that goal than any other team. They recently signed Myers, who had 28 homers and 28 steals last season, to a $83 million contract extension. But several positions are unsettled, and with few reliable starters, Green has said he may consider a piggyback style of game management, with starters replaced quickly by long relievers. Far below the surface, though, the Padres believe they are positioned well. Last summer, with several teams restricted in their spending allotments, General Manager A. J. Preller poured $70 million into the draft and international markets. He also made several trades for prospects, bolstering a farm system whose talent level has risen to third in baseball, from 20th, in rankings by ESPN’s Keith Law. Only the Braves and the Yankees rank higher. Preller was perhaps too aggressive in his trades he was suspended for a month late last season after the commissioner’s office determined the Padres had not provided complete medical records to rival teams. But the result of the whirlwind season, Preller hopes, will be the kind of foundation that has helped his old team, the Texas Rangers, win throughout this decade. “When you build something, you’re not trying to be mediocre, where you have a team that, if you hit everything, can win 85 games and get a wild card,” he said. “Hopefully you’re able to build it where you’ve got a chance to have a window for a number of years and you have waves of talent coming in, so even if you don’t get a lot of things right, you still have so much depth and so many players that you can have a chance to win games every year and compete for a World Series. That’s the we have, and I think the fans understand. ” Soon after the Padres hired Preller in August 2014, he engineered a flurry of trades for veterans like Matt Kemp, Craig Kimbrel and Justin Upton. The fans responded, with attendance rising to 2. 45 million in 2015, the highest since 2007, when the Padres were coming off consecutive division titles. But when the 2015 team flopped, Preller pivoted quickly, dealing away some of the newcomers and letting others leave for compensation. While one trade backfired badly (acquiring Kemp from the Dodgers for catcher Yasmani Grandal) it was a worthwhile strategy the Padres needed a jolt, and Preller had planned to rebuild the farm system, anyway. He said it was healthy to raise expectations at the start, so fans would understand that the team would try anything to win. “You find out a lot when people expect you to do well,” Preller said. “Sometimes it can be easier when people view you as the underdog and there’s not a lot of expectation on exactly what you’re going to do. When you really have it going well is when you have expectations for your franchise and you’re able to meet or exceed those expectations every year. That’s the franchise we want to get to, and we’re hopefully building toward that. ” The Padres acquired their best prospect, the center fielder Manuel Margot, before last season in a trade with the Boston Red Sox. Last summer, in the Futures Game in San Diego, Margot made a leaping catch to rob a home run. He returned for a cameo after hitting . 304 with 30 steals in Class AAA. “Manny Margot is a really exciting baseball player,” Green said. “He plays with a big smile on his face. He flies around the field. He’s kind of a slasher at the plate who’s going to hit the ball all over the yard, take competitive and be a real threat on the basepaths. ” Padres fans have heard about prospects before, of course every losing team likes to promote its future. The difference now is that fans have no local alternative. The spotlight is theirs, and the Padres promise a good performance. They just need time. “We could become very popular,” Myers said. “We start winning, the city rallies around us — once we do take that next step to being a great team, I think it could be really cool for the city. ” | 0fake |
Ben Carson Reminds Us Why We Hate Him – Suggests Where Harriet Tubman Belongs (VIDEO) | Not to let us be disappointed in hearing something ludicrous come out of his mouth in so long, Dr. Ben Carson just dropped a doozy on us while he was being interviewed on Fox News.Still unable to keep his eyes open for more than half a second at a time, Carson was asked his opinion about Harriet Tubman being placed in the twenty-dollar bill. He seemed flabbergasted at the notion and said that former President Andrew Trail of Tears Jackson, who is currently on the $20, was a tremendous secretary err, umm president and he believes he should get to hold his place on currency.When asked what he thought of Harriet Tubman, he said I love Harriet Tubman. I love what she did, but we can find another way to honor her, and that not being bad enough, he said maybe a $2 bill. Tubman risked everything to free herself and others who were being held as property, and then was a key participant in trying to get women the right to vote. Being recognized on the $20 bill is the least we can do to continue to honor her and her legacy. To say that she belongs on currency that is barely in use, and could likely be considered a joke, is not only condescending, but outright insulting..@RealBenCarson: Maybe Harriet Tubman should go on the $2 bill https://t.co/OMPuGSp82N pic.twitter.com/ZtHY9s2WNi POLITICO (@politico) April 20, 2016Featured Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images | 1real |
Mike Pence Somehow Makes Trump’s Khan Family Disaster EVEN WORSE (TWEET) | Ever since Khizr and Ghazala Khan gave their powerful speech at Hillary Clinton s Democratic National Convention, Trump has been attacking them for calling him out on his anti-Muslim rhetoric.The Khans are the parents of a slain Muslim soldier who was killed while fighting for America but that didn t stop Trump from insulting and disrespecting them. Trump not only criticized Mrs. Khan for not speaking during the speech (which was really because the grieving Gold Star mother was afraid she would burst into tears) and telling the Khans that he, too, had made so many sacrifices.TwitterSince these remarks, Trump has received backlash from both Democrats and Republicans who recognize how heartless and cowardly it is to attack the parents of a slain soldier. Hillary Clinton herself denounced Trump s criticism of Ghazala, calling Trump s attacks insulting the family of a fallen soldier Captain Khan, an American Muslim who sacrificed his life to protect his unit and other soldiers as a taxi raced toward a base containing a bomb. If you didn t think the response from Trump could get any worse, you re severely underestimating him and his team. On Sunday night, Trump s running mate released a statement that first appeared to be a defense of the Khan family until the true nature of his statement was revealed. Mike Pence, in a Facebook post, claimed that even though Trump s recent actions show that he does NOT care at all about the Kahns, Trump actually cares very much. Pence, whose own son is a Marine, wrote, Captain Khan gave his life to defend our country in the global war on terror. Then of course, Pence goes on to blame President Barack Obama and Clinton for ISIS and doubled down on Trump s proposal to ban Muslims from coming into the United States. Pence wrote: By suspending immigration from countries that have been compromised by terrorism, rebuilding our military, defeating ISIS at its source and projecting strength on the global stage, we will reduce the likelihood that other American families will face the enduring heartbreak of the Khan family. What a way to honor a Gold Star family! You can check out Pence s Facebook post below:Featured image via John Moore / Getty Images | 1real |
BREAKING: Active Shooter Azusa, CA Polling Station, Multple Injured 1 DEAD (LIVE BLOG) | We Are Change
ISIS encouraged attacks on U.S. polling stations in a message they posted to the internet earlier in the week.
Now it seems that ISIS might be carrying out those threats it’s been reported that an active shooter is around the Azusca, California polling station.
One person has been reported killed, Four reported injured according to the LATimes, but this number may climb this is an active shooting situation the shooter is said to be heavily armed and anyone near Azusca California is advised to seek safety.
Update: One person has died as a result of the shooting near a polling station in Azusa; at least 3 others injured https://t.co/XB9VWafNWp pic.twitter.com/9kHlI22PSV
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) November 8, 2016
(THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS STORY, AND WILL BE UPDATED AS NEW INFORMATION BECOMES AVAILABLE.)
The post BREAKING: Active Shooter Azusa, CA Polling Station, Multple Injured 1 DEAD (LIVE BLOG) appeared first on We Are Change .
| 1real |
Former Egyptian Ambassador: Trump Should Undo Obama’s Sponsorship of Muslim Brotherhood | TEL AVIV — President Abdel Fatah Sisi’s visit to the United States later this month will be an opportunity to undermine the Muslim Brotherhood’s standing in Washington, a former Egyptian ambassador to the US said. [Abdel Raouf told Egyptian paper Alshorouk that “ relations are entering a new phase, and the degree of their success relies on Egyptian efforts. ” “Presidents Trump and Sisi can break the ice created during the Obama administration,” he said. “Without doing injustice to Obama, he adopted the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood. ” He added that during Obama’s presidency, “the Muslim Brotherhood shifted their international center of gravity from London to Washington. In recent years the Muslim Brotherhood penetrated American institutions and think tanks, and disseminated their ideology as an alternative to extremism. ” The Muslim Brotherhood forged ideas and promoted people “that were recruited even by the National Security Council, and from there they disseminated the marketable view that their Islamic model is a moderate one that serves as a counterweight to terror and extremism, and this view found resonance in the United States. ” Conversely, the former ambassador said, “Egypt should distance itself from the concept of an Islamic international, i. e. advocate a democratic modern and that steers clear of extremism, and separates church and state. ” Sisi’s visit will be an “important opportunity to lay out Egypt’s vision for the region, especially after years of cool relations [with the US],” said. “I think Trump is a president with original ideas, and what characterizes him is his ability to champion them bravely and resolutely. ” | 0fake |
Trump's defense chief, at DMZ: 'Our goal is not war' | PANMUNJOM, KOREAN DEMILITARIZED ZONE, (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis peered across South Korea s heavily fortified border with the North on Friday, saying America s goal was not to wage war with Pyongyang but to convince leader Kim Jong Un to give up his nuclear arsenal. North Korean provocations continue to threaten regional and global security despite unanimous condemnation by the United Nations Security Council, Mattis said in prepared remarks as he visited the demilitarized zone (DMZ) dividing the peninsula. As Secretary of State Tillerson has made clear, our goal is not war, but rather the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. | 0fake |
LIBERAL LUNATIC CHRIS MATTHEWS Scolded By Piers Morgan for Trashing Trump Family [Video] | Who knew former CNN anchor Piers Morgan would criticize MSNBC s Chris Matthews! Matthews keeps comparing the Trump family to the former royal family of Russia the Romanovs.It s not just one passing comment but several! The Russian royal family lived a lavish life before being lined up and shot by the incoming communists. It s a horrific story and Matthews keeps comparing the Trumps to the tragic royal family. Liberal Lunacy!MORGAN RIPPED INTO THE LUNACY OF THE MATTHEWS THEORY ABOUT TRUMP: We re expected to believe that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin get together, and they plan the mass murder of children to make some kind of point that they re no longer best buddies. Really? Really? We think this a legitimate conspiracy theory flying? https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=pBP5-kRofEwThe video that Morgan is referring to of Chris Matthews comparing the Trumps to the Romanovs is below:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7kabB63sc4Piers Morgan went on to explain the history of the Romanov family. The Romanovs were all slaughtered at the start of what would become the communist Soviet Union. Whatever your view of the Romanovs, that s not really a comparison I don t think anyone in the American media should be making about the Trump family, he said. What are we supposed to deduce from that comment that, somehow, Jared, Ivanka, and Donald are all going to be murdered by communists? Hannity said the media is at a new low for how they portray Trump and his family, including his 10-year-old son Barron and wife Melania.Matthews has repeatedly compared the two families over the last couple months. Matthews likened President Donald Trump s daughter Ivanka and his son-in-law Jared Kushner s White House roles to the Romanovs last week. He also asked on Inauguration Day why the Trump family reminded him of the Romanovs.Via:WFB | 1real |
85-Year-Old Marathoner Is So Fast That Even Scientists Marvel - The New York Times | MILTON, Ontario — It was a day for talking, not running. Snow was piled along the streets. The driveway was icy. Ed Whitlock’s shoulder hurt. His face had been puffy. He did not feel well enough for the cemetery. At a visitor’s urging, Whitlock showed his display of novelty trophies. A beer can for winning a series of races as a . (“There’s still beer inside! ”) A coffee mug for becoming the first (and still only) person older than 70 to run a marathon in under three hours. A baseball for throwing out the first pitch at a minor league game. “It bounced three times to the catcher,” Whitlock said a few days before Christmas. “My arm is terrible. ” It is not his arm, but his legs and lungs that have made him a scientific marvel and octogenarian phenom. In October, at 85, he set his latest record, completing the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 3 hours 56 minutes 34 seconds and becoming the oldest person to run 26. 2 miles in under four hours. Having set dozens of records from the metric mile to the marathon, Whitlock remains at the forefront among older athletes who have led scientists to reassess the possibilities of aging and performance. “He’s about as close as you can get to minimal aging in a human individual,” said Dr. Michael Joyner, a researcher at the Mayo Clinic who has studied performance and aging. Whitlock’s career has been as unorthodox as it is remarkable. For starters, he trains alone in the Milton Evergreen Cemetery near his home outside Toronto. He runs laps for three or three and a half hours at a time, unbothered by traffic or the eternal inhabitants or the modern theories and gadgets of training. At the Toronto Marathon, he raced in shoes and a singlet that was 20 or 30 years old. He has no coach. He follows no special diet. He does not chart his mileage. He wears no monitor. He takes no ice baths, gets no massages. He shovels snow in the winter and gardens in the summer but lifts no weights, does no situps or . He avoids stretching, except the day of a race. He takes no medication, only a supplement that may or may not help his knees. What he does possess is a slight build: He is 5 feet 7 inches and weighs 110 to 112 pounds. He also has an enormous capacity an uncommon retention of muscle mass for someone his age a floating gait and an unwavering dedication to pit himself against the clock, both the internal one and the one at the finish line. “I believe people can do far more than they think they can,” said Whitlock, a retired mining engineer who was born in greater London and speaks with British . “You have to be idiot enough to try it. ” Four years ago, at 81, Whitlock underwent a battery of physiological and cognitive tests at McGill University in Montreal. One of the tests measured his VO2 max, the maximum amount of oxygen that can be consumed and used by the muscles during exercise. It is measured in milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute. The higher the number, the greater a person’s aerobic fitness. A top skier might have a VO2 max of 90, compared to 20 for those living independently in their 80s. Mr. Whitlock’s score was an exceptional 54. That is roughly equivalent to someone of college age who is a recreational athlete, said Russell Hepple, an exercise physiologist who performed the tests on Whitlock at McGill with his colleague and wife, Tanja Taivassalo. A VO2 max reading of 54 appears to be unsurpassed for people tested in their 80s, said Scott Trappe, the director of the laboratory at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. who has studied Swedish skiers who continued to perform at high levels into their 80s and early 90s, including the 1948 Olympic champion Martin Lundstrom. “There’s nothing higher than that in the literature,” Trappe said of Whitlock. “It’s phenomenal physiology. ” At McGill, Whitlock also underwent imaging and biopsy testing of his muscles. The smallest functional entity of muscle is called a motor unit, which consists of a neuron and the muscle fibers it activates. The number of functioning motor units declines with age. For example, a healthy young adult has about 160 motor units in the shin muscle, called the tibialis anterior, which helps lift the toes. In an octogenarian, that number could have declined to about 60 motor units, Hepple said, but Whitlock retained “closer to 100. ” This preservation might largely be explained, he said, by a chronically elevated level of circulating chemicals, called neurotrophins, which protect and nurture neurons, helping them survive. “That’s a big advantage,” said Hepple, who has recently moved to the University of Florida and is continuing to analyze his study of Whitlock and other aging athletes. “If you have more motor units, in the context of age, that would be reflected in better maintenance of muscle mass, which in turn would translate into better strength. ” Even though Whitlock’s Prince Valiant hair has long grown white and thin, a photograph of him running in his early 20s shows a physique remarkably similar to his octogenarian build, Hepple said. “It really is an astounding picture,” he said. “Normally a person of Ed’s age might lose a third to 40 percent of their muscle mass over that span. For him to have more or less the same mass as he had in his 20s, that’s really something. ” Beyond genetics, there are other factors that surely have contributed to Whitlock’s stunning endurance, said Joyner of the Mayo Clinic. He compared Whitlock to Joan Benoit Samuelson, the 1984 Olympic marathon champion who has continued to run hour marathons into her late 50s and has said she will attempt the extraordinary feat into her 60s. Neither Whitlock nor Benoit Samuelson could be considered extroverts. Yet athletes like them who remain highly active as they age “haven’t killed off their inner ” Joyner said. He described them, in general, as curious, relatively unconstrained and full of “physical and emotional vigor,” not so different from the older aunt or uncle who insists on shooting squirt guns at family reunions. “There are biological factors I’m not naïve about that,” Joyner said. “But the message with these people is not that they’re freaks. It is that a whole lot of aging, with a bit of luck, is under some volitional control. ” Inevitably, though, even Whitlock has made some concessions to growing older. His weight before the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in October dropped to 105 pounds, and he wonders whether he is experiencing some muscle wasting. His marathon time at age 85, 3:56:34, is more than an hour slower than the 2:54:48 he ran in Toronto at age 73 in what is widely considered his greatest masters race. Adjusted for age, that race was the equivalent of a runner in his prime completing a marathon in 2:04:48, which is less than two minutes off the current world record of 2:02:57. Writing in The New York Times, the running journalist Marc Bloom said that Whitlock’s performance in 2004 may have made him “the world’s best athlete for his age. ” For that startling race, Whitlock’s training log showed that he did 43 training runs of three hours apiece. He did not measure the distance, but his speed at the time suggested that a run could cover more than 20 miles, perhaps as many as 22 or 23, not much shorter than the distance of a full marathon. “I was much better prepared for that race than I have ever been before or since,” Whitlock said. In 2016, he set another flurry of records, including a half marathon run in 1:50. 47. But there were also more frequent interruptions in training — aches in his shoulder, knee, hip and groin. He was limited to 16 training runs of three hours for the most recent Toronto Marathon. His race pace of 9:01 per mile, while impressive, was nearly two and a half minutes slower than the 6:40 pace he ran at 73. “When you get to my age, the rate of deterioration is accelerating,” Whitlock said. “I’m sure every year, every six months, make a difference. I don’t seem to be able to consistently train. Whether that’s a permanent situation, I’m hoping not. ” The next looming marathon record is for age 90 and beyond. Fauja Singh of England ran 5:40:04 at the purported age of 92 in 2003, but his mark has not been ratified because he has been unable to produce a birth certificate. Otherwise, statisticians list the record variously as 6:35:47 or 6:46:34. “We’ll see if I’m running when I’m 90,” Whitlock said. “You never really know if you’ve run your last race or not. I think I do have longevity in my genes” — an uncle lived to 107, he said — “but you never know, you might get hit by a bus. ” As a schoolboy in London in the 1940s, Whitlock said, he ran a mile in 4:34. He later belonged to the same running club, Walton Athletic, as did Chris Chataway, who paced Roger Bannister to the first minute mile, in 1954, and Alan Turing, the mathematician who broke Germany’s Enigma code in World War II. Whitlock’s running career ebbed late in college when he sustained an injury to the Achilles’ tendon in his right foot. Upon graduating in 1952 from the Royal School of Mines at Imperial College in London, he emigrated to Canada, north of Toronto, and did not run for nearly two decades, until he was 41. “No one was running there at the time,” he said. “I was in no mood to be a pioneer. ” He kept in reasonable shape by refereeing soccer matches, cycling and walking. Whitlock’s long layoff from running, scientists said, probably saved wear and tear on his joints. He has also taken a year off three times to recover from aching knees. “He knows when to rest,” said Ken Young, a of the Association of Road Racing Statisticians. Whitlock’s first marathon came in 1975, at age 44, out of parental concern. His youngest son, Clive, 14 at the time, had run every day for a year and wanted to attempt a marathon. “We did our best to try to persuade him out of that,” Whitlock said. “He was not to be denied. ” Father and son ran in 3:09, and four years later, at 48, Whitlock ran his fastest marathon, in 2:31. He became more devoted to the event after retiring and attempting to become the first person 70 or older to run 26 miles 385 yards under three hours. In running and exercise science circles, he has become “a rock star,” Trappe said Amby Burfoot, the winner of the 1968 Boston Marathon and a longtime editor at Runner’s World magazine who continues to run at 70, said, “For a guy who looks like a wind could blow him down, Ed just keeps going and going, setting his own path and records and no one can come close to them. ” Asked why he kept running, Whitlock candidly said he enjoyed setting records and receiving attention. His approach remains pragmatic. He does not experience a runner’s high, he said, and does not run for his health. He finds training to be drudgery and even racing brings as much apprehension as joy. “The real feeling of enjoyment,” he said, “is getting across the finish line and finding out that you’ve done O. K. ” | 0fake |
Comment on Physicists discover humans have souls by William Brandon Shanley | Posted on November 6, 2016 by Dr. Eowyn | 1 Comment
Religion and science need not be at loggerheads for, once again, science discovered something Christians have long believed — that we each have a soul.
Yesterday, an article in the UK rag, The Sun , told of a scientific discovery that that actually is several years old: Physicists have discovered the equivalent of the soul, i.e., something that endures after the death of our bodies.
To begin, physicists like renowned British physicist Sir Roger Penrose now believe that human consciousness is something ineffable that’s “beyond the computational laws of physics”. Watch and listen as Penrose grapples at describing our consciousness in the video below, beginning at the 2:11 mark:
“To me, there is something outside the computational laws of physics. And when I wrote my book, ‘The Emperor’s New Mind,’ I was trying to develop this idea, and I was trying to say, ‘Well, there is something else out there.’ What could it be? Where is the biggest gap in our understanding of physics? . . . most of these things don’t have a direct bearing on what the brain does . . . . This big gap is within present-day quantum mechanics . . . maybe that gap is where the theory has to be outside a computational system.”
According to Penrose and other physicists, our consciousness is “a packet of information” that’s stored at a quantum or sub-atomic level in microtubules within human cells. When a person dies, his or her quantum information (or consciousness) leaves the body and is released into the universe, only to return to the body’s cells if the host is brought back to life. Penrose argues that this explains why people can have near-death experiences, and believes that this quantum information amounts to a soul leaving the body :
“If the patient dies, it’s possible that this quantum information can exist outside the body, perhaps indefinitely, as a soul.”
From Wikipedia :
“Microtubules are a component of the cytoskeleton , [cellular skeleton] found throughout the cytoplasm . . . . The outer diameter of a microtubule is about 24 nm [nanometre * ] while the inner diameter is about 12 nm . . . . Microtubules are very important in a number of cellular processes. They are involved in maintaining the structure of the cell and, together with microfilaments and intermediate filaments , they form the cytoskeleton . They also make up the internal structure of cilia and flagella .They provide platforms for intracellular transport and are involved in a variety of cellular processes, including the movement of secretory vesicles , organelles , and intracellular macromolecular assemblies (see entries for dynein and kinesin ). They are also involved in chromosome separation ( mitosis and meiosis ), and are the major constituents of mitotic spindles , which are used to pull apart eukaryotic chromosomes .”
* Note: One nanometre is one-billionth of a metre.
Dr. Hans-Peter Dürr , former head of Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich, said:
“What we consider the here and now, this world, it is actually just the material level that is comprehensible. The beyond is an infinite reality that is much bigger. The body dies but the spiritual quantum field continues. In this way, I am immortal.”
As reported four years ago by Australia’s News.com on Oct. 31, 2012, Sir Roger Penrose and Dr. Stuart Hameroff , Professor Emeritus at the Departments of Anesthesiology and Psychology and Director of the Center of Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona, developed a quantum theory of consciousness asserting that our souls are contained inside structures called microtubules within our brain cells. Our experience of consciousness is the result of quantum gravity effects inside these microtubules – a process they call orchestrated objective reduction (Orch-OR). In a near-death experience the microtubules lose their quantum state, but the information within them is not destroyed. Or in layman’s terms, the soul does not die but returns to the universe.
Dr Hameroff explained the theory at length in the documentary Through the Wormhole , which was aired on the Science Channel:
“The quantum information within the microtubules is not destroyed, it can’t be destroyed, it just distributes and dissipates to the universe at large. If the patient is resuscitated, revived, this quantum information can go back into the microtubules and the patient says ‘I had a near death experience’. [If the patient dies, it is] possible that this quantum information can exist outside the body indefinitely – as a soul.”
See also: | 1real |
Kim Jong Un praises nuclear program, promotes sister | SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea s leader Kim Jong Un said his nuclear weapons were a powerful deterrent that guaranteed its sovereignty, state media reported on Sunday, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump said only one thing will work in dealing with the isolated country. Trump did not make clear to what he was referring, but his comments seemed to be a further suggestion that military action was on his mind. In a speech to a meeting of the powerful Central Committee of the ruling Workers Party on Saturday, a day before Trump s most recent comments, state media said Kim had addressed the complicated international situation . North Korea s nuclear weapons are a powerful deterrent firmly safeguarding the peace and security in the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia, Kim said, referring to the protracted nuclear threats of the U.S. imperialists. In recent weeks, North Korea has launched two missiles over Japan and conducted its sixth nuclear test, and may be fast advancing toward its goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. North Korea is preparing to test-launch such a missile, a Russian lawmaker who had just returned from a visit to Pyongyang was quoted as saying on Friday. Donald Trump has previously said the United States would totally destroy North Korea if necessary to protect itself and its allies. The situation proved that North Korea s policy of byungjin , meaning the parallel development of nuclear weapons and the economy was absolutely right , Kim Jong Un said in the speech. The national economy has grown on their strength this year, despite the escalating sanctions, said Kim, referring to U.N. Security Council resolutions put in place to curb Pyongyang s nuclear and missile program. The meeting also handled some personnel changes inside North Korea s secretive and opaque ruling center of power, state media said. Kim Jong Un s sister, Kim Yo Jong, was made an alternate member of the politburo - the top decision-making body over which Kim Jong Un presides. Alongside Kim Jong Un himself, the promotion makes Kim Yo Jong the only other millennial member of the influential body. Her new position indicates the 28-year-old has become a replacement for Kim Jong Un s aunt, Kim Kyong Hui, who had been a key decision maker when former leader Kim Jong Il was alive. It shows that her portfolio and writ is far more substantive than previously believed and it is a further consolidation of the Kim family s power, said Michael Madden, a North Korea expert at Johns Hopkins University s 38 North website. In January, the U.S. Treasury blacklisted Kim Yo Jong along with other North Korean officials over severe human rights abuses . Kim Jong Sik and Ri Pyong Chol, two of the three men behind Kim s banned rocket program, were also promoted. State media announced that several other high ranking cadres were promoted to the Central Committee in what the South Korean unification ministry said could be an attempt by North Korea to navigate a way through its increasing isolation. The large-scale personnel reshuffle reflects that Kim Jong Un is taking the current situation seriously, and that he s looking for a breakthrough by promoting a new generation of politicians, the ministry said in a statement. North Korea s foreign minister Ri Yong Ho, who named Donald Trump President Evil in a bombastic speech to the U.N. General Assembly last month, was promoted to full vote-carrying member of the politburo. Ri can now be safely identified as one of North Korea s top policy makers, said Madden. Even if he has informal or off the record meetings, Ri s interlocutors can be assured that whatever proposals they proffer will be taken directly to the top, he said. | 0fake |
BEAU BIDEN’S WIDOW Is Having An Affair…With His Married Brother | The grieving daughter in law of Vice President Joe Biden has formed a relationship with Hunter Biden, the younger brother of her late husband, according to a bombshell report.Beau Biden, the former attorney general of Delaware, died in 2015, shocking the entire family and playing into his father s decision to stay out of the race to succeed President Obama after decades in politics.Hunter Biden, 47, separated from his wife Kathleen in 2015. He has now taken up with his brother s widow, the couple said in a statement to the New York Post s Page Six, which acknowledged their love and support. Hallie and I are incredibly lucky to have found the love and support we have for each other in such a difficult time, and that s been obvious to the people who love us most. We ve been so lucky to have family and friends who have supported us every step of the way, they said in a statement.Vice President Joe Biden, who has mostly stayed out of the limelight since leaving office, also issued a statement along with his wife Jill, acknowledging the sadness that brought the new couple together.They offered their complete support to the unusual pairing. We are all lucky that Hunter and Hallie found each other as they were putting their lives together again after such sadness. They have mine and Jill s full and complete support and we are happy for them, Joe and Jill Biden said.A source told the New York Post Hunter and Kathleen separated in October 2015, five months after Beau Biden s death. Daily Mail | 1real |
Thai king's remains laid to rest at end of five-day ceremony | BANGKOK (Reuters) - The bones and ashes of Thailand s late King Bhumibol Adulyadej were brought to their final resting places on Sunday, the fifth and last day of an elaborate funeral ceremony that drew hundreds of thousands of mourners to the streets of Bangkok. King Bhumibol, the world s longest reigning monarch when he died last year at the age of 88, ruled Thailand from shortly after World War Two and was revered as a stabilizing figure through coups, protests and natural disasters. The $90 million royal funeral drew mourners clad in black from across the country to Bangkok, where King Bhumibol was cremated on Thursday in an elaborate gold crematorium built for the ceremony outside the Grand Palace. (Interactive Graphic tmsnrt.rs/2leWzcQ) Over 19 million Thais - more than a quarter of the 69 million population - participated in ceremonies by presenting symbolic sandalwood flowers to be burned at temples and crematorium replicas across the country, according to the government. On Sunday, the late king s bones were moved to the Chakri Throne Hall, where royal relics are kept within the Grand Palace in a ceremony that involved senior monks from temples across the country. His son, new King Maha Vajiralongkorn, led the religious rite. On Sunday evening, Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana led the final royal procession on horseback to the Wat Rajabopidh and Wat Bovoranives temples where her grandfather s ashes were placed in keeping with a ceremony steeped in religious symbolism and tradition. Mourners, some in tears, were gathered outside the temples. I will always have him stored in my heart. Whether as pictures, however old and torn, the memory of him will always be kept in my heart, said Chalermporm Prabutr, 72. Wat Rajabopidh was built by the late king s grandfather, King Chualalongkorn, and houses the remains of other royals including the late king s father, Prince Mahidol and the princess mother, Srinagarindra. Some of the late king s ashes were also be laid at Wat Bovoranives, the temple where he entered the monkhood in 1956 after his grandmother s death, a custom for Buddhist males after the death of a relative. Wat Bovoranives is also the center of the more austere strain of Thai Buddhism founded by the late king s great grandfather, King Mongkut. Many Thais have worn black for the past year in mourning for King Bhumibol. The military government has told people to wear bright clothes from Monday, when the mourning period formally ends. | 0fake |
HILLARY Mentions Support For Country She And Bill Screwed…Starts Coughing Again…”It Chokes Me Up” [VIDEO] | Watch:Here s the truth about the Clinton Foundation and how they helped the Haitians:https://youtu.be/26GC23zZi2A | 1real |
KICK BUTT MOM Sends BRUTAL Message to Rioting, Crybaby Anti-Trump Punks: “If you’re on any government assistance…I would cut you off!” | This isn t the first time outspoken conservative grandmother Peggy Hubbard has offered her opinion on organized groups of thugs who disrupt cities, roadways and residential areas in an attempt to gain sympathy for their cause. Here she is 2 years ago giving the Ferguson rioters a piece of her mind: | 1real |
House GOP Now Eyeing Repeal of Gun Ban for Military Veterans - Breitbart | With the Social Security gun ban repealed and the lead ammunition ban revoked, the House is now eyeing a repeal of the gun ban for U. S. military veterans. [The gun ban for military veterans works in the same way the Social Security gun ban was designed to work, and was actually a precursor to the Social Security ban. In the Social Security ban, the Social Security Administration (SSA) could investigate beneficiaries who were under mental duress and needed help managing their finances. Following the investigation, the beneficiaries could be turned over to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) and prohibited from making firearm purchases. In the gun ban for military veterans, the Veterans Administration does the investigation of military personnel receiving disability benefits. If the VA declares said recipients “incompetent,” those recipients are turned over NICS and barred from buying firearms. In the gun ban for military veterans, the Veterans Administration does the investigation of military personnel receiving disability benefits. If the VA declares said recipients “incompetent,” those recipients are turned over to NICS and barred from buying firearms. As seen with the Social Security gun ban, the gun ban for military veterans operates by using the broad language of mental health to deny natural rights to those who served our country in uniform. The reports that military veterans turned over to NICS are “subject to a lifetime ban on the acquisition and possession of firearms, unless he or she successfully petitions for ‘relief from disabilities. ’” The legislation that will end the gun ban for military veterans is House Committee on Veteran Affairs chairman Phil Roe’s ( ) Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act. Roe’s Act has already passed in committee and will be taken up by the full house as early as this week. On December 5, 2012, Breitbart News reported that Senator Chuck Schumer ( ) was supporting an amendment to strip gun rights from military veterans via the language of mental health. Schumer defended the action, saying, “If you are mentally ill, whether you’re a veteran or not, just like if you’re a felon, if you’re a veteran or not, and you have been judged mentally infirm, you should not have a gun. ” AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart. com. | 0fake |
Crushing Hillary: Trump’s Landslide by the Numbers | EndingFed News Network | ( New York Times Results by County) The media won’t tell you this but Donald Trump CRUSHED Hillary Clinton in the recent election in three key areas: For one, the above results by county show that he picked up a significant amount of the counties in the US. The picture is clear that most counties in America voted for Trump . Secondly, the media is also hiding from you that Trump CRUSHED Hillary in the Electoral College (EC). As of today, most if not all media outlets show that Trump won the election with only 279 EC votes. But the truth is Trump also won Michigan with 16 EC votes and Arizona with 11 EC votes for a total of 306 EC votes. Hillary only won 228 EC votes but it looks like she barely won New Hampshire which should put her at 232 EC votes. As a result, Trump won 57% of all EC votes. HIllary turned in the Democratic Party’s worst Electoral College performance in 28 years. With only New Hampshire left to be called, Clinton has turned in the Democratic Party's worst Electoral College performance in 28 years pic.twitter.com/APU85Ty50q
— Dan O'Donnell (@DanODradio) November 9, 2016 Thirdly, in total states it was a landslide. Trump won 31 states to 19 states won by Hillary or 62% of the states. The mainstream will argue that Hillary beat Trump in the popular vote which appears accurate. According to the NYT she won 59,923,027 to Trump’s 59,692,974 for a difference of only 230,053 or 0.4%. But in California and New York Hillary beat Trump by a combined 4 million votes. If not for these two huge liberal states, Hillary would have gotten shellacked in the popular voting as well. The mainstream media will not tell you but Trump won BIGLY!
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BRILLIANT NIGEL FARAGE On How THE GOP Can Win “Real” America Back [Video] | Former British lawmaker Nigel Farage, who successfully led the Brexit campaign, shared his advice on how the GOP can win back the White House: Inspire and engage with real America. We lost touch here with real England and real Britain, and I suspect that much of Washington has lost touch with real America, Farage stated. | 1real |
There’s More to Rosé Than You May Think - The New York Times | Summer arrives, and along with it, rosé and enough wine clichés to float a cruise ship. You may have heard endless odes to “the pink wine” and its “moment in the sun,” how “it’s not just a drink, it’s a lifestyle,” and so on. It’s not just rosé season, it’s silly season. Prepare yourselves for plenty more foolishness about rosé from marketers, who have a product to sell, and from wine writers, who ought to know better. Some will argue that rosé, unlike other wines, is absolved from critical evaluation. It’s fun, it’s carefree, it’s casual. Leave it alone, they will say. Or as Jay McInerney, the novelist and wine writer, once put it, “Anyone who starts analyzing the taste of a rosé in public should be thrown into the pool immediately. ” Here at Wine School, our critical antennas are always tuned in. No wine is immune from evaluation, though situations like pool parties, picnics and casual are not conducive for critical pontifications. Wine oratory and pretentiousness are never welcome, though judgment always is. Even a lighthearted wine should be earnestly produced and offer some level of interest beyond a pretty color. Why shouldn’t rosé be treated like other wines? Such thinking is an insult to rosé, and to consumers, though a boon for cynical producers, who may take it as a free pass to make bad rosé. You’ll have no trouble finding plenty of that. At Wine School, we always try to separate common sense from nonsense. With rosé, that begins by ignoring efforts to diminish expectations. Educated consumers should demand more from a wine than labels or celebrity . Such marketing may well have contributed to rosé’s skyrocketing seasonal popularity, but we’re more interested in which wines we like, which ones we don’t, and why. As many bad rosés as you may find — manufactured industrially to create precisely the right shade of pink and just the right fruit aromas, with maybe a little sweetness for the lovers — good rosés abound, too. These are likely to be bone dry, though not always. They will be balanced with aromas, flavors and colors arrived at naturally, without manipulation on the assembly line. For the last month, we have been focusing on rosés from Provence, the region historically associated with rosé and the pastoral images it conjures. While good rosés can be found from almost every wine region in the world, we are dealing with fundamentals, so Provence seemed a good place to start. As usual, I recommended three wines and invited readers to drink them and share their thoughts by commenting at nytimes. . The three bottles I selected were: Commanderie de Peyrassol Côtes de Provence Rosé 2015, Mas de Gourgonnier Les Baux de Provence Rosé 2015 and Château de Pibarnon Bandol Rosé 2015. Not surprisingly, these are very young wines. Almost all the rosé sold each summer is from the most recent vintage. Consumers, for really no particularly good reason, demand it, so producers rush their bottles to market in May. As a result, the vast majority of rosés are made to drink immediately. They are easy, ephemeral, and by the time Labor Day rolls around and wine shops are slashing prices, they are already on their way down. But the most serious rosés will benefit from a little more bottle age. If you see good Bandol rosés from 2014 or even earlier, or bottles from other top Provençal producers like Clos Cibonne or Château Simone, try them. They are likely to be more expensive than the easier rosés, but you may be surprised at the complexity that has developed. I would have wanted to pick older rosés just for fun, but frankly, they are not widely enough available for our purposes. So the 2015s were the choice. The Mas de Gourgonnier, made primarily of grenache but with small amounts of cabernet sauvignon, cinsault, syrah and mourvèdre, was the tasting of wildflowers, red berries and citrus. It could have been the proverbial wine: light, lively and fresh. The Commanderie de Peyrassol had a little more going on. It’s made of cinsault, grenache and syrah in proportions that depend on the vintage, and I found it long, deep and earthy, with flavors of lime, anise and hot rocks. That underlying mineral edge made it especially delicious. Yet it, too, was fresh and lively and could fill that poolside role well. The Pibarnon, by contrast, seemed bigger, maybe a little too big for the pool party. It was made mostly of mourvèdre, with the remainder cinsault, and it was deeper and more complex than the other two. I usually love Bandol rosés for their savory chalk and licorice flavors, but this one had an added touch of what seemed to me ripe tropical fruit. Sniffing the wine, it seemed intrusive, though I enjoyed the fruit and gravelly flavors on the palate. Each of these wines went beautifully, I thought, with a dish of wild salmon with garlic butter, from an exceptional and easy recipe by my colleague Melissa Clark. Anchovies and garlic are signature Provençal flavors, and perhaps that accounts for why the dish and the wines seemed such a triumphantly delicious pairing. Not everybody found the rosés to be as versatile with food as their reputation suggests. Jane Montgomery of Washington, D. C. reported that she loved drinking a Whispering Angel rosé from Château d’Esclans. “It was crisp and airy and tasted like you’d just licked a rocky outcropping along the beach,” she said. “Interestingly, it was also the least successful wine pairing experience I’ve ever had. ” She said that the wine didn’t clash with her meal of grilled kebabs and fattoush, but that it added nothing, and she wondered whether all rosés from the region were similarly lacking in versatility. I understand her frustration. A synergy of food, wine and conversation is always my goal at a meal. I’m at a loss to explain the failure of this pairing, though. It seemed to me to be a good one. Other readers reported mixed results. Ferguson of Princeton, N. J. who found all three rosé selections, said that a pairing with winter squash risotto was a dud but that the wines were wonderful with a pizza with anchovies, olives and caramelized onions. Not unexpected. As Ferguson noted, salty foods are very good with Provençal rosés. On the other hand, Brian Hall of Highland Park, Ill. likened rosé to a utility player in baseball because of its versatility, and suggested that this quality allowed rosé to be enjoyed rather than just in the summer. Jammer in Vermont has also become a rosé drinker, and offered an enticing, if novel image: “There is nothing as lovely as having a rustic lamb dinner on a snowy New England winter night accompanied by a lovely Bandol from Provence. ” I’ve long been in favor of freeing rosé from its summer confinement. Serious rosés transcend the imagery of marketers, as Jammer suggests, and despite some of the pairing failures, I still believe rosé can complement a variety of foods that people want to eat . One reader had a particularly innovative idea for rosé. VSB, to honor the 13th anniversary of wiping out debt, created a Freedom Pink cocktail. I’m not usually one to add anything to wine, but this seemed intriguing. Here’s the recipe: “Muddle 2 sliced strawberries and 8 raspberries in the bottom of a pint glass. Add 6 ounces of the Peyrassol or other rosé. Fill with seltzer, stir gently to float the fruit, add a few ice cubes. Garnish with a sprig of mint. ” Now that’s versatility. | 0fake |
HILLARY SCUMBAGS TORCH Navy Veteran’s Home For Supporting Donald Trump [Video] | Smith flies three flags in front of his house: the American flag, the POW flag, and the Navy flag. We supported Trump from when he started running for office, says Matthew s wife Brittany. We never made it public. We never had a sign in our backyard, so no one really knew we were pro Trump. But Matthew says he s been very active on Facebook, with posts supporting Trump, the Second Amendment, and other conservative causes. Investigators are looking into possible connections with arsonists. Earlier this month, anti-Trump graffiti was sprayed on two mobile homes near Mango. Investigators say someone tried to light one of them on fire. The Smiths, who have two young children, say times have been hard recently.Read more: FOX13 | 1real |
Trump says to approve lifting restrictions on South Korea missile payload limits | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump gave his in principle approval to lift restriction on South Korea s missile payload capabilities, the White House said on Monday. Trump agreed to strengthen joint military capabilities during a call with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and gave conceptual approval for South Korea to buy billions of dollars of weapons from the United States. North Korea said it tested an advanced hydrogen bomb for a long-range missile on Sunday, prompting global condemnation and a U.S. warning of a massive military response if it or its allies were threatened. | 0fake |
Trump Gets P*SSED As TODAY Hosts Slam His ‘Lying’ Campaign Manager Over And Over (VIDEO) | A smart presidential candidate would immediately fire their campaign manager if he were charged with battery especially if the person he assaulted was a female reporter. But, as Donald Trump has proven time and again, he is not a smart candidate. Instead of firing Corey Lewandowski, he called into all of the morning shows and defended him on Wednesday. Unfortunately for him, his interview on TODAY went downhill quickly as he was met with fierce opposition from the hosts.Host Savannah Guthrie dispensed of pleasantries and immediately asked Trump is he would acknowledge that his campaign manager lied when he said he never touched reporter Michelle Fields. The billionaire immediately started making excuses for Lewandowski. Guthrie cut him off and said: He said he didn t touch her and the video shows he touched her. Is that not a lie? The Republican frontrunner responded, I really don t know. It s not all that surprising that a man who lies more than three-quarters of the time can t tell when someone else is being untruthful. But then he had the audacity to say: She made up this story, Savannah. If Fields made up the story, why has his campaign manager been charged with a crime? Clearly Trump is grasping at straws.After some more back and forth with Guthrie, Trump asked host Matt Lauer if he was going to destroy a man s life after what happened? Lauer didn t rise to the bait, he said: Right after this incident, Corey Lewandowski tweeted that he was calling bull-blank on Ms.Fields. He tweeted that she was delusional and he tweeted that he never touched her. The video tape easily and plainly shows that, in fact, he did grab her and did pull her. Whether you want to debate whether she almost fell down or not, he didn t tell the truth. If you re President of the United States and a member of your staff, your chief of staff, goes to the American people and publicly doesn t tell the truth in the way that Corey Lewandowski hasn t told the truth, would you put up with it? Trump responds by saying it was so minor that his campaign manager probably didn t even know it happened. SERIOUSLY? At that point you can hear Trump clearly getting annoyed that the hosts would not allow him to get his talking points out. When Lauer says they will have to agree to disagree and attempts to end the interview, the Republican got really nasty and again accused the media of trying to ruin a great man.If this is his idea of a good man, I d hate to see who he thinks is bad.Watch the explosive interview below:Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | 1real |
Iraqi authorities gain first foothold at Kurdish frontier with Turkey | ANKARA/BAGHDAD/ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi troops deployed on Tuesday at one of the main land crossings with Turkey, gaining a foothold at the Kurdish-held frontier for the first time in decades and imposing one of Baghdad s central demands on the Kurds. Iraq s entire land border with Turkey is located inside the Kurdish autonomous region, and has been controlled by the Kurds since before the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. But since the Kurds staged a referendum on independence last month that Baghdad considers illegal, the central government has demanded a presence at all border crossing points. The Iraqis set up positions between the Turkish and the Iraqi Kurdish checkpoints at the Habur border crossing between the Turkish town of Silopi and the Iraqi town of Zakho, a security source in Baghdad said. Vehicles crossing the border would now be subject to three checks by Turks, Iraqi forces and the Kurds. Habur border gate has been handed over to the central (Iraqi) government as of this morning, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told members of his ruling AK Party in parliament in Ankara. Officials from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said they had not relinquished control of the crossing. Discussions were ongoing to allow Iraqi oversight at the border, Hoshyar Zebari, a former Iraqi foreign minister now working as an adviser to the KRG, told Reuters. An Iraqi official showed Reuters pictures of the Iraqi flag being raised at the border gate, where Iraqi and Turkish soldiers were deployed and Turkish flags also hoisted. Control of the border region is of crucial importance for the landlocked Kurdish region. An oil pipeline runs from northern Iraq into Turkey, carrying crude exports which are the principal source of funds for the Kurds. The balance of power between Iraqi central government forces and the autonomous Kurdish region has been transformed since the Kurds staged their referendum on Sept. 25. Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi ordered his forces to recapture all territory held by the Kurds outside the borders of their autonomous region, and most of it was seized this month within a matter of days. Baghdad is also demanding control of all border crossings with Turkey and Iran. Abadi has won backing from both Tehran and Ankara for his moves against the Kurds. However, in a move to help defuse tensions with the Kurds, he said on Tuesday Baghdad would start paying soon the salaries of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and civil servants working for the KRG. The semi-autonomous KRG has been struggling to pay the Peshmerga and its employees since 2014, after Baghdad stopped payments to it because of a dispute about oil-sharing revenue. The cost of a three-year war on Islamic State added to the Kurdistan region s financial difficulties, and fall of the oil region of Kirkuk to Iraqi forces halved the KRG s oil income. The Peshmerga took over the multi-ethnic region of Kirkuk in 2014, after the Iraqi army collapsed in the face of Islamic State, preventing the militants from controlling its oilfields. Iraq s military said a delegation headed by army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Othman al-Ghanmi was visiting the area, to take control of Kurdish-held international border checkpoints with both Turkey and Syria Zebari, the Kurdish government adviser, said the Kurds were prepared to accept Iraqis at the airports and border posts to have oversight, to make sure everyone is in compliance , but any such presence must be achieved through negotiations, not force. The split between the Kurds and the Iraqi central government is a particular challenge for Washington, which is closely allied to both sides. The United States had urged the Kurds not to hold the referendum, worried it would precipitate a backlash. The referendum and ensuing dispute with Baghdad has also exposed deep rifts within the Kurdish leadership. Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani announced on Sunday he would step down, and accused security forces loyal to a rival political party of high treason for yielding territory to the central government without a fight. The KRG and the central government held talks from Friday till Sunday to resolve their conflict. Yildirim said Turkey had agreed to open another border gate with Iraq as part of a route that would lead to the city of Tal Afar, some 40 km (25 miles) west of Mosul and home to a predominantly ethnic Turkmen population. Iran will reopen all its border crossings with Iraq s Kurdistan region in the coming days, lifting restrictions imposed after last month s Kurdish vote in favor of independence, its chief of staff Major General Mohammad Baqeri said on Monday. | 0fake |
Iraq Shi'ite paramilitary calls for ban on U.S. nationals | BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq’s Popular Mobilization on Sunday called on the Iraqi government to ban U.S. nationals from entering Iraq and to expel those who are already in the country, in a reaction to the new U.S. travel curbs on Iraqis. Popular Mobilization is mainly a coalition of Shi’ite paramilitary groups armed and trained by Iran to fight Islamic State. It became an Iraqi government-approved body last year. The call to ban U.S. nationals came in a statement published by its spokesman, Ahmed al-Assadi. | 0fake |
Rand Paul: I won the debate last night | Killing Obama administration rules, dismantling Obamacare and pushing through tax reform are on the early to-do list. | 0fake |
Selling ‘Regime Change’ Wars to the Masses | Selling ‘Regime Change’ Wars to the Masses October 28, 2016
Propaganda is now such a pervasive part of Western governance that any foreign leader who resists the prevailing power structure can be turned into a demon and made a target of a “regime change” war, explains John Pilger.
By John Pilger
American journalist Edward Bernays is often described as the man who invented modern propaganda. The nephew of Sigmund Freud, the pioneer of psychoanalysis, it was Bernays who coined the term “public relations” as a euphemism for spin and its deceptions.
In 1929, as a publicist for the cigarette industry, Bernays persuaded feminists to promote cigarettes for women by smoking in the New York Easter Parade – behavior then considered outlandish. One feminist, Ruth Booth, declared, “Women! Light another torch of freedom! Fight another sex taboo!” Edward Bernays, a pioneer in the modern use of propaganda.
Bernays’s influence extended far beyond advertising. His greatest success was his role in convincing the American public to join the slaughter of the First World War. The secret, he said, was “engineering the consent” of people in order to “control and regiment [them] according to our will without their knowing about it.”
He described this as “the true ruling power in our society” and called it an “invisible government.”
Today, the invisible government has never been more powerful and less understood. In my career as a journalist and filmmaker, I have never known propaganda to insinuate our lives and as it does now and to go unchallenged.
Tale of Two Cities
Imagine two cities. Both are under siege by the forces of the government of that country. Both cities are occupied by fanatics, who commit terrible atrocities, such as beheading people. But there is a vital difference. In one siege, the government soldiers are described as liberators by Western reporters embedded with them, who enthusiastically report their battles and air strikes. There are front-page pictures of these heroic soldiers giving a V-sign for victory. There is scant mention of civilian casualties. Samantha Power, Permanent Representative of the United States to the UN, addresses the Security Council meeting on Syria, Sept. 25, 2016 (UN Photo)
In the second city – in another country nearby – almost exactly the same is happening. Government forces are laying siege to a city controlled by the same breed of fanatics.
The difference is that these fanatics are supported, supplied and armed by “us” – by the United States and Britain. They even have a media center that is funded by Britain and America.
Another difference is that the government soldiers laying siege to this city are the “bad guys,” condemned for assaulting and bombing the city – which is exactly what the good soldiers do in the first city.
Confusing? Not really. Such is the basic double standard that is the essence of propaganda. I am referring, of course, to the current siege of the city of Mosul by the government forces of Iraq, who are backed by the United States and Britain, and to the siege of Aleppo by the government forces of Syria, backed by Russia. One is good; the other is bad.
Behind the Fanatics
What is seldom reported is that both cities would not be occupied by fanatics and ravaged by war if Britain and the United States had not invaded Iraq in 2003. That criminal enterprise was launched on lies strikingly similar to the propaganda that now distorts our understanding of the civil war in Syria. U.S.-backed Syrian “moderate” rebels smile as they prepare to behead a 12-year-old boy (left), whose severed head is held aloft triumphantly in a later part of the video. [Screenshot from the YouTube video] Without this drumbeat of propaganda dressed up as news, the monstrous ISIS and Al Qaeda and the Nusra Front and the rest of the jihadist gang might not exist, and the people of Syria might not be fighting for their lives today.
Some may remember in 2003 a succession of BBC reporters turning to the camera and telling us that British Prime Minister Tony Blair was “vindicated” for what turned out to be the crime of the century, the invasion of Iraq. The U.S. television networks produced the same validation for George W. Bush. Fox News brought on former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to effuse over then-Secretary of State Colin Powell’s fabrications.
The same year, soon after the invasion, I filmed an interview in Washington with Charles Lewis, the renowned American investigative journalist. I asked him, “What would have happened if the freest media in the world had seriously challenged what turned out to be crude propaganda?”
He replied that if journalists had done their job, “there is a very, very good chance we would not have gone to war in Iraq.”
It was a shocking statement, and one supported by other famous journalists to whom I put the same question — Dan Rather of CBS, David Rose of the Observer, and journalists and producers in the BBC, who wished to remain anonymous.
In other words, had journalists done their job, had they challenged and investigated the propaganda instead of amplifying it, hundreds of thousands of men, women and children would be alive today, and there would be no ISIS and no siege of Aleppo or Mosul.
There would have been no atrocity on the London Underground on July 7, 2005. There would have been no flight of millions of refugees; there would be no miserable camps.
When the terrorist atrocity happened in Paris last November, President Francoise Hollande immediately sent planes to bomb Syria – and more terrorism followed, predictably, the product of Hollande’s bombast about France being “at war” and “showing no mercy.” That state violence and jihadist violence feed off each other is the truth that no national leader has the courage to speak.
“When the truth is replaced by silence,” said the Soviet dissident Yevtushenko, “the silence is a lie.”
Punishing Independence
The attack on Iraq, the attack on Libya, the attack on Syria happened because the leader in each of these countries was not a puppet of the West. The human rights record of a Saddam or a Gaddafi was irrelevant. They did not obey orders and surrender control of their country. Ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi shortly before he was murdered on Oct. 20, 2011.
The same fate awaited Slobodan Milosevic once he had refused to sign an “agreement” that demanded the occupation of Serbia and its conversion to a market economy. His people were bombed, and he was prosecuted in The Hague. Independence of this kind is intolerable.
As WikLeaks has revealed, it was only when the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in 2009 rejected an oil pipeline, running through his country from Qatar to Europe, that he was attacked. From that moment, the CIA planned to destroy the government of Syria with jihadist fanatics – the same fanatics currently holding the people of Mosul and eastern Aleppo hostage.
Why is this not news? The former British Foreign Office official Carne Ross, who was responsible for operating sanctions against Iraq, told me: “We would feed journalists factoids of sanitized intelligence, or we would freeze them out. That is how it worked.”
The West’s medieval client, Saudi Arabia – to which the U.S. and Britain sell billions of dollars’ worth of arms – is at present destroying Yemen, a country so poor that in the best of times, half the children are malnourished.
Look on YouTube and you will see the kind of massive bombs – “our” bombs – that the Saudis use against dirt-poor villages, and against weddings, and funerals. The explosions look like small atomic bombs. The bomb aimers in Saudi Arabia work side-by-side with British officers. This fact is not on the evening news.
Refined Messengers
Propaganda is most effective when our consent is engineered by those with a fine education – Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Columbia – and with careers on the BBC, the Guardia n, the New York Times , the Washington Post . New York Times building in New York City. (Photo from Wikipedia)
These organizations are known as the “liberal media.” They present themselves as enlightened, progressive tribunes of the moral zeitgeist. They are anti-racist, pro-feminist and pro-LGBT. And they love war. While they speak up for feminism, they support rapacious wars that deny the rights of countless women, including the right to life.
In 2011, Libya, then a modern state, was destroyed on the pretext that Muammar Gaddafi was about to commit genocide on his own people. That was the incessant news; and there was no evidence. It was a lie.
In fact, Britain, Europe and the United States wanted what they like to call “regime change” in Libya, the biggest oil producer in Africa. Gaddafi’s influence in the continent and, above all, his independence were intolerable.
So Gaddafi was murdered with a knife in his rear by fanatics, backed by America, Britain and France. Hillary Clinton cheered his gruesome death for the camera, declaring, “We came, we saw, he died!”
The destruction of Libya was a media triumph. As the war drums were beaten, Jonathan Freedland wrote in the Guardian : “Though the risks are very real, the case for intervention remains strong.”
Intervention – what a polite, benign, Guardian word, whose real meaning, for Libya, was death and destruction.
According to its own records, NATO launched 9,700 “strike sorties” against Libya, of which more than a third were aimed at civilian targets. They included missiles with uranium warheads. Look at the photographs of the rubble of Misurata and Sirte, and the mass graves identified by the Red Cross. The Unicef report on the children killed says, “most [of them] under the age of ten.”
As a direct consequence, Sirte became a capital of ISIS.
Ukraine is another media triumph. Respectable liberal newspapers such as the New York Times , the Washington Post and the Guardian , and mainstream broadcasters such as the BBC, NBC, CBS, CNN have played a critical role in conditioning their viewers to accept a new and
dangerous Cold War. All have misrepresented events in Ukraine as a malign act by Russia when, in fact, the coup in Ukraine in 2014 was the work of the United States, aided by Germany and NATO.
Inversion of Reality
This inversion of reality is so pervasive that Washington’s military intimidation of Russia is not news; it is suppressed behind a smear-and-scare campaign of the kind I grew up with during the first Cold War. Once again, the Russkies are coming to get us, led by another Stalin, whom The Economist depicts as the devil. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, flanked by Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria “Toria” Nuland, addresses Russian President Vladimir Putin in a meeting room at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on July 14, 2016. [State Department Photo] The suppression of the truth about Ukraine is one of the most complete news blackouts I can remember. The fascists who engineered the coup in Kiev are the same breed that backed the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Of all the scares about the rise of fascist anti-Semitism in Europe, no leader ever mentions the fascists in Ukraine – except Vladimir Putin, but he does not count.
Many in the Western media have worked hard to present the ethnic Russian-speaking population of Ukraine as outsiders in their own country, as agents of Moscow, almost never as Ukrainians seeking a federation within Ukraine and as Ukrainian citizens resisting a foreign-orchestrated coup against their elected government.
There is almost the joie d’esprit of a class reunion of warmongers. The drum-beaters of the Washington Post inciting war with Russia are the very same editorial writers who published the lie that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
A Freak Show
To most of us, the American presidential campaign is a media freak show, in which Donald Trump is the arch villain. But Trump is loathed by those with power in the United States for reasons that have little to do with his obnoxious behavior and opinions. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaking to the AIPAC conference in Washington D.C. on credit: AIPAC)
To the invisible government in Washington, the unpredictable Trump is an obstacle to America’s design for the Twenty-first Century. This is to maintain the dominance of the United States and to subjugate Russia, and, if possible, China.
To the militarists in Washington, the real problem with Trump is that, in his lucid moments, he seems not to want a war with Russia; he wants to talk with the Russian president, not fight him; he says he wants to talk with the president of China.
In the first debate with Hillary Clinton, Trump promised not to be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into a conflict. He said, “I would certainly not do first strike. Once the nuclear alternative happens, it’s over.” That was not news.
Did he really mean it? Who knows? He often contradicts himself. But what is clear is that Trump is considered a serious threat to the status quo maintained by the vast national security machine that runs the United States, regardless of who is in the White House.
The CIA wants him beaten. The Pentagon wants him beaten. The media wants him beaten. Even his own party wants him beaten. He is a threat to the rulers of the world – unlike Hillary Clinton who has left no doubt she is prepared to go to war with nuclear-armed Russia and China.
The Clinton Danger
Clinton has the form, as she often boasts. Indeed, her record is proven. As a senator, she backed the bloodbath in Iraq. When she ran against Obama in 2008, she threatened to “totally obliterate” Iran. As Secretary of State, she colluded in the destruction of governments in Libya and Honduras and set in train the baiting of China. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressing the AIPAC conference in Washington D.C. on credit: AIPAC)
She has now pledged to support a “no-fly zone” in Syria – a direct provocation for war with Russia. Clinton may well become the most dangerous president of the United States in my lifetime – a distinction for which the competition is fierce.
Without a shred of public evidence, Clinton has accused Russia of supporting Trump and hacking her emails. Released by WikiLeaks, these emails tell us that what Clinton says in private, in speeches to the rich and powerful, is the opposite of what she says in public.
That is why silencing and threatening Julian Assange is so important. As the editor of WikiLeaks, Assange knows the truth. And let me assure those who are concerned, he is well, and WikiLeaks is operating on all cylinders.
Today, the greatest build-up of American-led forces since World War Two is under way – in the Caucasus and Eastern Europe, on the border with Russia, and in Asia and the Pacific, where China is the target.
Keep that in mind when the presidential election circus reaches its finale on Nov. 8. If the winner is Clinton, a Greek chorus of witless commentators will celebrate her coronation as a great step forward for women. None will mention Clinton’s victims: the women of Syria, the women of Iraq, the women of Libya. None will mention the civil defense drills being conducted in Russia. None will recall Edward Bernays’s “torches of freedom.”
Scott McClellan, who had been George W. Bush’s press spokesman, once called the media “complicit enablers.” Coming from a senior official in an administration whose lies, enabled by the media, caused such suffering, that description is a warning from history.
In 1946, the Nuremberg Tribunal prosecutor said of the German media: “Before every major aggression, they initiated a press campaign calculated to weaken their victims and to prepare the German people psychologically for the attack. In the propaganda system, it was the daily press and the radio that were the most important weapons.” | 1real |
The Political Songs Of Leonard Cohen | It was rare for poet and singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen to venture into the realm of politics, however, quite a few of his songs, including some of his love songs, were infused with a bleakness that confronted morality and the darkness of humanity. He also wrote a song of hope and possibility about the experiment of democracy in the United States that, perhaps, takes on a new kind of resonance in the wake of the election of Donald Trump.
Cohen was asked in 2014 if songs can offer solutions to political problems. He replied, “I think the song itself is a kind of solution.”
And so, to pay tribute to a troubadour who died at 82 and whose artistic work only seemed to get better as he aged and his voice grew deeper, here is a retrospective on some of the more philosophical and sociopolitical songs he composed.
“Joan Of Arc” (1971) Cohen declared in an interview for Rolling Stone in 1971, “Women are really strong. You notice how strong they are? Well, let them take over. Let us be what we’re supposed to be – gossips, musicians, wrestlers. The premise being, there can be no free men unless there are free women.” He believed it was just for women to gain control of the world.
With that context, this elegiac narrative takes on greater gravitas. It consists of a dialogue between Joan of Arc and the Fire, as she is burnt at the stake. The women’s movement was flourishing at the time, and Cohen saw Joan of Arc as a symbol of courage. Yet, he also recognized she may have been lonely because she had to disguise herself as a male soldier, and he imagined what it was like to fight English domination of France and in her final moments face down the fact that she would never return to what could be considered an ordinary life.
“Dance Me To The End Of Love” (1984) During a CBC radio interview in 1995, Cohen said the song came from “hearing and reading or knowing that in the death camps” during the Holocaust “beside the crematoria” the string quartet would be “pressed into performance” while “this horror” unfolded. Cohen sings in the opening, “Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin. Dance me through the panic ’til I’m gathered safely in. Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove.” The song represents an embrace of passionate acts in the face of atrocities and death.
“If It Be Your Will” (1984) This is a truly grim song in which Cohen is probably using the specter of a benevolent oppressor or fascism as a metaphor for the next stage of a relationship. And yet, the lyrics are subtle enough that Cohen may be addressing morality and how easy it is to convince men to carry out heinous acts. He sings, “All your children here in their rags of light/In our rags of light/All dressed to kill/And end this night/If it be your will.”
“First We Take Manhattan” (1987) The song is about terrorism or militant extremism. It is told from the perspective of an individual who tried to work within the system in order to change it. That failed. Now the individual has taken solace in the “beauty of his weapons” and turned to Manhattan and to Berlin to make his or her mark.
In a 2007 interview for XM Radio, he said, “There’s something about terrorism that I’ve always admired. The fact that there are no alibis or no compromises. That position is always very attractive. I don’t like it when it’s manifested on the physical plane. I don’t really enjoy the terrorist activities, but psychic terrorism. I remember there was a great poem by Irving Layton that I once read, I’ll give you a paraphrase of it. It was ‘well, you guys blow up an occasional airline and kill a few children here and there’, he says. ‘But our terrorists, Jesus, Freud, Marx, Einstein. The whole world is still quaking.'”
What Cohen meant, albeit in a very cynical way, is the philosophies of these people have such a history of being used to justify horrible acts. He never engages with the subject fully (and probably never wanted to do so), but Cohen’s song clearly approaches the issue of state-sponsored political violence versus political violence of the individual.
“Everybody Knows” (1988) It is one of the most well-known songs he ever recorded. The wry cynicism diagnoses the realities of a cruel world. In the neoliberal age of austerity, the opening lyrics are exceptionally appropriate, “Everybody knows that the dice are loaded. Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed. Everybody knows that the war is over. Everybody knows the good guys lost. Everybody knows the fight was fixed. The poor stay poor, the rich get rich. That’s how it goes. Everybody knows.”
Cohen sings, “Everybody knows that you’re in trouble.” Those in charge of the social order are indifferent to the pain and suffering of the masses. But are the owners and politicians capable of maintaining control? Because everybody also knows that it is coming apart.
“Democracy (1990) Cohen described in an interview with Paul Zollo that he wrote the song after the Berlin Wall came down. “Everyone was saying democracy is coming to the east, and I was like that gloomy fellow who always turns up at a party to ruin the orgy or something. And I said, ‘I don’t think it’s going to happen that way. I don’t think this is such a good idea. I think a lot of suffering will be the consequence of this wall coming down.'”
That seems strikingly backward. But it motivated Cohen to ask, “Where is democracy really coming?” He thought there may be more democracy coming to the United States. From a love of America, he wrote a song that is really about the irony of America, “a song of deep intimacy and affirmation of the experiment of democracy in this country.” He added, “This is really where the experiment is unfolding. This is really where the races confront one another, where the classes, where the genders, where even the sexual orientations confront one another. This is the real laboratory of democracy.”
Given the American exceptionalism of Cohen’s statement, he could have easily produced something with lyrics Lee Greenwood would have proudly belted out on stage. However, each time Cohen sings, “Democracy is coming to the USA,” there is a raw irony it, like he does not believe the forces running this nation are capable of democracy. Then, there’s the inimitable line, “I’m sentimental, if you know what I mean. I love the country but I can’t stand the scene.” It makes it clear Cohen was a disappointed idealist. Like so many, he liked the idea of America but seeing it play out on that “hopeless little screen” was never quite what he had in mind.
“The Future” (1990) For this song, Cohen’s character looks into the future, and it is not good at all. It is so frightening, in fact, that he thinks he would be willing to see fascist society restored. “Give me back the Berlin wall. Give me Stalin and St Paul. Give me Christ or give me Hiroshima.”
The song hurdles onward into more nostalgia for familiar horror, “Destroy another fetus now. We don’t like children anyhow. I’ve seen the future, baby: it is murder.” He has no hope that humanity can right itself. Civilization can try and erect a social order with a tyrant or it can unravel tyranny and push for something more just. Yet, inevitably, to Cohen’s character, there will be murder. In which case, what really is the right thing to do?
“On That Day” (2004) Cohen wrote this as a response to the September 11th attacks. It is an artifact that represents reactions to what happened. He sings, “Some people say it’s what we deserve for sins against god, for crimes in the world.” There are others who blame it on the fact that women live “unveiled” or because the country has its fortunes as well as people who are subjugated. Whatever the case may be, Cohen does not seek to settle the discussion. Rather, he seems more interested in whether those who survived were able to press onward. So he poses a rhetorical question: “Did you go crazy or did you report on that day?” Then the song abruptly ends.
“Amen” (2012) This song comes from the latter era of Cohen’s life, where the sultry nature of his music took on a much more wistful and brooding characteristic. He wrote about love but love in a time of war or love with inescapable horror all around.
In “Amen,” the character Cohen channels desperately wants to love. He must first see through the terror around him. He does not think he can love until the “victims are singing and laws of remorse are restored.” He does not think he can love until the “day has been ransomed and night has no right to begin.” He awaits some kind of redemption and only then will he be able to feel wanted again, but there is too much despair and destruction right now for the character to indulge in pleasure.
“Almost Like the Blues” (2014) We live in a world of permanent war, and so, in this gorgeously layered piece of music, Cohen grapples with atrocities he witnessed. “I saw some people starving. There was murder, there was rape. Their villages were burning. They were trying to escape. I couldn’t meet their glances. I was staring at my shoes. It was acid. It was tragic. It was almost like the blues.”
Few of Cohen’s songs are as profound. The song, which appears on “Popular Problems,” could easily be grappling with what goes through the minds of war criminals. He sings, “I have to die a little between each murderous thought, and when I’m finished thinking, I have to die a lot.” The soldier witnesses torture or is party to it. He witnesses killing or is party to it. “And there’s all my bad reviews.” It seems his superiors are unhappy with his performance. Maybe, they do not think he is killing enough. Whatever the case may be, he has lost his grip on morality entirely and finds himself confronting the scope of his sins.
“A Street” (2014) To Cohen, “Popular Problems” was all about dealing with defeat . He told the Telegraph the lyrics were about facing down failure, disappointment, bewilderment—especially the “dark forces that modify our lives.” What is a person to do?
“Recognize that your struggle and your suffering is the same as everyone else’s,” Cohen suggested. “I think that’s the beginning of a responsible life. Otherwise, we are in a continual savage battle with each other with no possible solution, political, social, or spiritual.”
While referring to “A Street,” which is about a faltering romance during war, he added, “When I say ‘the party’s over but I’ve landed on my feet . I’m standing on this corner where there used to be a street,’ I think that’s probably the theme of the whole album. Yeah, the scene is blown up, but you just can’t keep lamenting the fact. There is another position. You have to stand in that place where there used to be a street and conduct yourself as if there still is a street.”
In a very basic sense, the master of romantic despair, the high priest of pathos, has now gone up to that Tower of Song, meant people have to find ways to keep living. They have to exist, and by existing, that is in and of itself an act of resistance to all the depravity that unfolds around them.
The post The Political Songs Of Leonard Cohen appeared first on Shadowproof .
| 1real |
Fake News on Deportation Checkpoints Causes Panic in California | A series of fake news hoaxes over social media, which falsely suggested authorities had set up immigration checkpoints aimed at deporting illegal aliens, caused panic this weekend across California. [“It appears that unknown subjects are trying to create a public panic and we want our community to be assured that this is a complete hoax,” the Fontana Police Department said in a statement, according to the Los Angeles Times. “We understand that fake news can spread quickly via social media and encourage you to always fact check things you read or hear. ” U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Spokeswoman Virginia Kice told the Daily Bulletin, “We don’t do checkpoints. ” According to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, the rumors about the immigration checkpoint were traced to the Mr Checkpoint account on Twitter, which tweeted, “NOW #InlandEmpire Immigration Checkpoint #Ontario near Euclid Ave 60 Freeway. ” @jr1224_ it was on Mr. Checkpoint. They usually get DUI checkpoints correct they use police scanners. Haven’t passed by personally though. — jaime (@himay3000) February 3, 2017, However, once Mr Checkpoint discovered those rumors were fake news, it posted on Facebook: “[]Looks like we have false reports of Immigration Checkpoints. Many people had messaged this and it looks like intentional misinformation that was meant to spread confusion negativity. ” It added, “Please move past this so we can shift back to positive energy. ” It’s all about love! pic. twitter. — Mr. Checkpoint (@MrCheckpoint) February 3, 2017, Trying to figure out this whole immigration checkpoint thing going on in Ontario right now. I’m hoping we don’t see more of these.. 😫 — Mr. Checkpoint (@MrCheckpoint) February 2, 2017, We received several reports of an immigration checkpoint that were found to not have occurred. Deleting that tweet and will keep you posted. — Mr. Checkpoint (@MrCheckpoint) February 3, 2017, Some social media users reportedly stated that the brief detentions of some individuals in airports this past weekend, coupled with protests that wound up backing up traffic for hours, amplified concerns. “Rumors currently being circulated — primarily on social media, claiming the agency has set up checkpoints at multiple locations in Los Angeles — or that the agency is conducting random ‘raids’ are completely baseless,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice told the Times. “The agency is working diligently to address these false reports, and we urge the media not to give them credence. It only encourages people to act irresponsibly. ” Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter and Periscope @AdelleNaz | 0fake |
How to Have a Luxury Vacation for Less - The New York Times | Who doesn’t like the idea of a luxury vacation? Ponying up the money for an upscale getaway, on the other hand, isn’t nearly as appealing as going on one. Fortunately, says Joel Widzer, an expert on saving money on travel and the author of the book “The Penny Pincher’s Guide to Luxury Travel,” there are ways to cut the cost of a fancy trip. Here, he shares tips for a lavish getaway on a limited budget. BE A HOTEL LOYALIST. Favoring one hotel brand, such as Marriott, Starwood, Hilton or Hyatt, has major saving benefits, according to Mr. Widzer. “Hotel brands reward frequent guests who sign up for their loyalty programs with room upgrades, free hotel nights and free breakfast, and they even waive annoying fees such as the cost of valet parking,” he said. Loyalty pays off at independently owned properties, too. If you’re a traveler who returns to the same destination often, say Paris or Lake Tahoe, it’s a good idea to keep staying at the same hotel there. Mr. Widzer, for example, used to stay at the same luxury boutique property on his frequent trips to Santiago, Chile, and by his third visit, he was treated to freebies such as a minifridge stocked with his favorite snacks, free airport transfers and upgrades to a suite — perks worth several thousand dollars over time. USE CREDIT CARD POINTS ON CHAIN HOTELS. Those points you accumulate every time you put a charge on your card aren’t just good for buying airline tickets, Mr. Widzer said. With certain credit cards, travelers can redeem the points they earn for accommodations at luxury hotels, like using points earned on a Chase Ultimate Rewards card toward stays at properties around the world. TRAVEL WHEN OTHERS AREN’T. When destinations have fewer travelers, prices are lower. Head to Sardinia in August, for example, and hotel rates and inflated prices are in store. But a trip in October means mild weather and prices at hotels and on services such as boat rentals that are up to 50 percent lower than during peak season. FOR AN EXOTIC DESTINATION OR A MULTICITY TRIP, CONSIDER A PACKAGE TOUR. Planning an upscale vacation without using a luxury tour provider for a major city or a popular destination such as Maui isn’t difficult, but it is logistically harder to pull off an affordable yet lavish getaway to less common destinations such as Ethiopia or on themed multicity trips, such as the capital cities of the Eastern Bloc. In instances like these, Mr. Widzer said, it’s cheaper to rely on a company that specializes in upscale tours (Abercrombie Kent and Tauck are two). “These trips can be either group or private, and since these companies can negotiate favorable prices through their local contacts, their tours have a lot of inclusions such as meals, tickets to cultural performances and access to tourist attractions,” he said. | 0fake |
Sean Hannity Gets Wrecked For Yelling At Time Magazine For Calling Out Trump’s Lie | Fox News host Sean Hannity is having a Twitter meltdown after Time called out Donald Trump for claiming that the magazine called him regarding the Person of the Year award and that he declined the offer.Time magazine corrected Trump in a tweet, writing, The President is incorrect about how we choose Person of the Year. TIME does not comment on our choice until publication, which is December 6. The magazine calling out Trump was too much to bear for Trump cult member Sean Hannity who called it bullshit just hours after Time denied the former reality show star s bizarre claim. I call total Bullshit on Time. Answer the question; did you or did you not call the WH and say @realDonaldTrump @POTUS was being considered for person of the year and ask for an interview? Hannity tweeted Friday.I call total Bullshit on Time. Answer the question; did you or did you not call the WH and say @realDonaldTrump @POTUS was being considered for person of the year and ask for an interview? https://t.co/DaqfDBsr0V Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 25, 2017And again.So @Time is worse than Fake News @CNN. The coming ice age, The Big Cool ha. https://t.co/mppoFtFsvc Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 25, 2017Sean really wants the magazine s attention.Waiting https://t.co/90GSYMVVKU Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 25, 2017Twitter users, of course, are calling out Liddle Sean.You re questioning Time? Why aren t you questioning the man who hung fake Time covers of himself in his resorts? It s sad you haven t caught on to his lies yet, Sean. Mrs. SMH (@MaraLaGoFuckYou) November 25, 2017pic.twitter.com/UJtVSaKgOF What the Fork (@WhattheForkLLC) November 25, 2017Only the finest make it on @TIME @POTUS44 @MichelleObama pic.twitter.com/fGLX2Rzgwo NAT (@N_A_T_39) November 25, 2017LMAO! Let s look at this logically. @Time magazine has been in business 93 years. It s never gone bankrupt. It s a respected institution.@realdonaldtrump has gone bankrupt 4 times, has been caught in scores of lies including a fake Time cover mounted on his golf club walls. pic.twitter.com/ywzr96arh1 Annalise Brown (@SWFLib) November 25, 2017Donnie can t stand the idea of Obama being Time s Man of the Year in the first year of his presidency. He knows he ll never be half the man or the President @BarackObama was, and it s eating him up inside. pic.twitter.com/ROMxC3oc7C Annalise Brown (@SWFLib) November 25, 2017As this woman notes, Trump has always been obsessed with Time magazine.Honey, just get the man warm milk and one for yourself Also. pic.twitter.com/LMV9lwg9Lx kastherine (@Mercedes8_S) November 25, 2017Find a comfy chair. Drink some warm milk. And wait for the voices to stop. Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) November 25, 2017With Trump s history, a man who literally hangs photoshopped Time magazine covers featuring his big stupid face, on the walls of at least 4 of his golf courses, we re pretty it s not Time magazine who is lying.Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images. | 1real |
U.S. will stand be steadfast ally to Britain as Brexit takes shape: Tillerson | LONDON (Reuters) - The United States will stand by Britain as it exits the European Union, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday after a meeting with British foreign minister Boris Johnson in London. While Brexit does present unique challenges to the British people, please know that you have a steadfast ally in the United States, Tillerson said at a news conference. We will stand by our ally as Brexit continues to take shape. We look forward to continuing this long relationship. | 0fake |
OkCupid Wins The Internet With PERFECT Response To The Charlottesville Neo-Nazi On Their Site (TWEETS) | While the President of the United States seems to be very, very confused about how racism, violence, and bigotry should be dealt with, many Americans are not. In response to the horrific white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, numerous politicians and companies have raised their voices and taken a stand against white supremacy in a way that Donald Trump has not. One of the best responses so far has come from online dating site OkCupid, who responded perfectly when it discovered that neo-Nazi Chris Cantwell was one of its members.Cantwell recently got his 15 minutes of fame when he was seen in a viral video crying about being arrested by police after the Charlottesville attack. Once OkCupid was alerted that Cantwell was a member on the dating website, the company worked quickly to show that white supremacist values would not be tolerated. In response, white supremacist Chris Cantwell has been banned from OkCupid for life! This is the perfect response to a hateful imbecile who stated publicly in the viral video that neo-Nazis like himself were not nonviolent and we ll fucking kill these people if we have to. OkCupid made an entirely appropriate move to not only protect its other members from dating a dangerously unstable psychopath like Cantwell, but to also show that these attitudes should not be tolerated in any degree.To add an extra sting to the end of Cantwell s dating life (especially after he looked so pathetic in that video), OkCupid followed up their banning announcement with this perfect tweet:Bravo. We certainly hope this will encourage more companies to handle intolerant individuals in the same way. When we can t count on our president to do what should be morally obvious, we must count on each other to uphold the true values of this country.Featured image is a screenshot | 1real |
Crybaby Trump Revokes Washington Post Press Credentials, Newspaper Responds With Middle Finger | On Monday, Donald Trump accused the President of the United States of being an ISIS sympathizer and when the Washington Post reported on it, he threw a tantrum that culminated in his taking the unprecedented step of banning one of the biggest newspapers in the country from having access to his campaign. To put that in its proper context, during the height of the Watergate scandal, an event begun by two Washington Post reporters, President Richard Nixon didn t even try to pull press credentials. It was literally unthinkable.On Facebook, Trump went on a rant about how unfair the Washington Post was being for accurately quoting him.I am no fan of President Obama, but to show you how dishonest the phony Washington Post is, they wrote, Donald Trump suggests President Obama was involved with Orlando shooting as their headline. Sad!Based on the incredibly inaccurate coverage and reporting of the record setting Trump campaign, we are hereby revoking the press credentials of the phony and dishonest Washington Post.To be clear, Trump is as is often the case openly and unapologetically lying. Earlier in the day, he went on Fox News and remarked that the reason Obama can t stop terror attacks in the United States is because he doesn t want to. We re led by a man who is a very look, we re led by a man that either is, is not tough, not smart, or he s got something else in mind. And the something else in mind, you know, people can t believe it. People cannot they cannot believe that President Obama is acting the ways he acts and can t even mention the words radical Islamic terrorism. There s something going on. It s inconceivable. And when reporters asked him to clarify, he refused, and cryptically added that he would let people decide for themselves what he meant. Trump who has been on record for years as being a birther knows what conclusions his fans will draw. Why rock the boat by turning that particular dog whistle into a bull horn?By one count, Trump has banned at least seven media outlets from covering his campaign due to unflattering treatment. (This doesn t include the news programs or journalists whom Trump simply refuses to talk to because of personal beefs.)We count at least 7 outlets Trump has barred from events Nat Review, Daily Beast, HuffPo, Buzzfeed, WaPo, Politico, DMR, who else? Alexandra Jaffe (@ajjaffe) June 13, 2016A few more: Mother Jones and Univision. There are likely others. There will likely be more soon.So when the Washington Post was added to the list, the paper s editor Marty Baron released a scathing statement calling Trump on his fascistic view towards the free press. Donald Trump s decision to revoke The Washington Post s press credentials is nothing less than a repudiation of the role of a free and independent press. When coverage doesn t correspond to what the candidate wants it to be, then a news organization is banished. The Post will continue to cover Donald Trump as it has all along honorably, honestly, accurately, energetically, and unflinchingly. We re proud of our coverage, and we re going to keep at it. In short, don t expect the Washington Post to just roll over. They are going to continue to go after Trump wherever and whenever he tries to pull a fast one on the American people.Trump has also flirted with the idea of getting rid of the free press altogether once he is president. On at least one occasion Trump told his supporters that he would open up libel laws and viciously and aggressively sue any media outlet that tries to criticize him. With such a fundamental danger to America s First Amendment, only one news network embraced Trump s moves towards tyranny: His friends at Fox.Stuart Varney on Fox Business calls @washingtonpost reporters looking into Trump "henchmen" of Jeff Bezos. pic.twitter.com/F8CxcNeOZn John Whitehouse (@existentialfish) May 12, 2016They must assume they re safe. With the sunny coverage they give Trump, it s unlikely that they ll lose their credentials any time soon.Featured image via Gerardo Mora/Getty Images | 1real |
It Took A Scathing Letter From Canada’s Prime Minister To Make Fox News FINALLY Correct Fake Story | Fox News couldn t wait to try to spin the Quebec mosque attack. Jumping on early reports, Fox tweeted yesterday, Suspect in Quebec mosque terror attack was of Moroccan origin, reports show. Well, this turned out not to be the case at all. In fact, the shooter was actually a white man who had quietly become a Trump-loving right-wing extremist.However, Fox never bothered to take down the post once the truth became clear. I mean, a right-wing nutjob shooting up a mosque hardly helps convince their poorly educated viewers that every Muslim is a terrorist, now does it? The Moroccan guy ended up just having been a witness to the deadly attack. So, the news channel (and I use that word very loosely), tweeted this follow-up statement but failed to delete the original post.@FoxNews Mosque attack suspect formally charged w/ six counts of murder; Second man cleared, identified as a witness https://t.co/oRzxGHEXDm Fox News (@FoxNews) January 30, 2017Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was not about to let Fox get away with using his nation s tragedy to advance their bigoted agenda. Trudeau s director of communications, Kate Purchase, tweeted out an entire letter to Fox on Tuesday afternoon demanding that Fox either retract or update the tweet to reflect the suspect s actual identity. Earlier today I sent an email to @FoxNews about their misleading tweet yesterday. We will continue to stand up for our citizens (1/3) pic.twitter.com/sGz47PxMcb Kate Purchase (@katepurchase) January 31, 2017(2/3) pic.twitter.com/QLABzidxa4 Kate Purchase (@katepurchase) January 31, 2017(3/3) pic.twitter.com/PosgwkBJqR Kate Purchase (@katepurchase) January 31, 2017Following the scathing letter, Fox finally deleted the tweet which claimed that the shooter had been Moroccan rather than a Trump-loving white guy. After the tweet was deleted, Trudeau s director of communications thanked them for finally removing the misleading information.Thank you @FoxNews for deleting the tweet. We appreciate it. Kate Purchase (@katepurchase) February 1, 2017Mediaite reports that Fox gave them this statement: FoxNews.com initially corrected the misreported information with a tweet and an update to the story on Monday. The earlier tweets have now been deleted. We regret the error. Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images | 1real |
Connecticut readies austerity budget vote, aims to cut around $1 billion | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Connecticut’s lawmakers are aiming to pass an austerity budget for the coming financial year on Wednesday that cuts spending by nearly $1 billion as the state struggles with revenues that are falling well short of projections. Details of a deal reached between Governor Dannel Malloy and fellow Democrats were sparse early on Wednesday afternoon as budget staffers rushed to prepare the documents ahead of a vote later in the day. The budget for fiscal year 2016-2017, which starts on July 1, will cut spending by $830 million, divert $100 million from transportation and other funds and sweep $30 million from various agency accounts, said Adam Joseph, a spokesman for Connecticut Senate Democrats. The spending plan is aimed at closing a $960 million hole in next year’s finances that officials have blamed on falling capital gains tax receipts due to a volatile stock market. Malloy proposed an $18.14 billion general fund budget in February that cut discretionary spending but did not raise taxes. Since then the projected revenue shortfall for next year ballooned from $560 million to its current $960 million. The state’s legislative session ends at midnight on Wednesday but the budget vote could keep legislators up until the small hours. Both chambers of Connecticut’s General Assembly are dominated by Democrats. Connecticut, despite being one of the wealthiest states in the nation on a per capita income basis, has struggled to recover from the financial crisis and recession of 2007-2009. The state also faces a gap of around $260 million in the current fiscal year, despite a series of cuts. Malloy has said 2,000 state employees could be laid off in what he calls a “new economic reality.” The governor has also frozen pay rises for managers in state government. | 0fake |
Comment on Facebook Daughter’s Day Hoax Is A Sign Of The Times by para kazanmak | Subscribe My daughter and me
Yesterday was National Daughter’s Day! I know this because Facebook told me so; well, maybe not Mark Zuckerberg himself, but all my friends on Facebook were posting pictures of their daughters and celebrating National Daughter’s Day so it must be true, right?
Actually, I Googled it, and guess what??? September 24 is NOT National Daughter’s Day…According to Wikipedia , National Daughter’s Day is August 11th. This little snippet in Wikipedia also stated that National Daughter’s Day originated from the Bible. I have done some more digging, and honestly, I can’t find proof for either the day or the fact that the Bible calls for it. So it got me to thinking…
How did a day, which didn’t actually exist, go viral in just a few hours on Facebook? There has to be a need which something like this fills or else the entire Facebook population wouldn’t have jumped on it so quickly.
Then it hit me. We love our daughters! It really is that simple. We love our daughters so much that we felt we needed to tell them so publicly on Facebook. I saw some of the cutest baby pictures and some of the sweetest words of love scroll through my Facebook feed yesterday. Mothers and fathers discussing how sweet their little girls were and exclaiming pride in the women they had become. All ages were represented. It was really quite moving, and it was a wonderful change from the politics and hatred I normally see there.
My question is, why did we need to create a fictitious holiday to say these things. We all know our society is in desperate need of love, but yesterday also proved that our society is desperate to show love. It is OK to tell the world you love your daughter, or for that matter, your son, your wife, your husband, your life partner, your best friend, your ex, your mailman, your mother, your dog, or your local friendly hardware store worker. You don’t need a special occasion or an official day. We don’t have to all agree it is OK to do it on that particular day.
Just love. Show it openly. Tell the world and Facebook. Do it every day. It’s in your DNA. You need it.
I declare today National I Am Going To Post About Who I Love Day…every day.
By the way… My daughter, Mallory, is intelligent, beautiful, and compassionate, and I am blessed that she calls me Mom. Just thought I would throw that in since it is National I Am Going To Post About Who I Love Day! Now faith, hope, and love remain—these three things—and the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13 About Melanie Tubbs
Melanie Tubbs is a professor, pastor, mother, Mimi, and true Arkansas woman. She lives with six cats and two dogs on a quiet hill in a rural county where she pastors a church and teaches history at the local university. Her slightly addictive personality comes out in shameful Netflix binges and a massive collection of books. Vegetarian cooking, reading mountains of books for her seminary classes, and crocheting for the churches prayer shawl ministry take up most of her free time, and sharing the love of Christ forms the direction of her life. May the Peace of Christ be with You. Connect | 1real |
House Intelligence Chair Nunes: Surveillance of Trump Transition Team ’Incidentally Collected’ - Breitbart | .@DevinNunes: Information was ”incidentally collected” about people involved in Trump transition surveillance not related to Russia probe. pic. twitter. Wednesday, the House Intelligence Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes ( ) said the U. S. intelligence community “incidentally collected” information on President Donald Trump transition team. Nunes said, “So first I recently confirmed that on numerous occasions, the intelligence community incidentally collected information about U. S. citizens involved in the Trump transition. Details about U. S. persons associated with the incoming administration, details with little or no apparent foreign intelligence value were widely disseminated in intelligence community reporting. Third, I have confirmed that additional names of Trump transition team members were unmasked. And fourth and finally I want to be clear, none of this surveillance was related to Russia or the investigation of Russian activities or of the Trump team. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 0fake |
LOL! WATCH ANTIFA THUG Cry Like A Baby After Berkeley Police Unmask and Arrest Her | Americans watched in horror as live chopper video showed a massive group of Antifa thugs chasing down a lone Trump supporter like a pack of hungry wolves. Once they finally caught the Trump supporter, they surrounded him and began to beat him mercilessly. There were no police in sight.We had an exclusive conversation with a Bernie Sanders supporter who is also a Berkeley resident, who was beaten bloody after feeling compelled to step in help and defend the free speech rights of Trump supporters. The Sanders supporter was shocked to see that one of the Soros supported, Antifa thugs who attacked him was a woman. Although he didn t agree with everything they stood for, he still believed they had the right to free speech and that the Antifa thugs, Black Lives Matter and BAMN (By Any Means Necessary) had no business using violence or the threat of violence to silence them.Watch how the tough woman who was wearing a mask, responded to the Berkeley police officers who, according the Bernie Sanders supporter we talked to, had mostly moved to the perimeter of the violence and were allowing it to happen. For anyone who has a hard time believing that women are a part of this violent group, watch this disgusting thug cry like a baby while disrespecting the Berkeley police officers who arrested her.***LANGUAGE WARNING***A member of ANTIFA screams for her service animal. Probably shouldn't be out rioting if you need a service animal. pic.twitter.com/V3wuVn08lo Based Monitored (@BasedMonitored) August 28, 2017Here s another video showing a tough female Antifa thug flexing her muscles from behind a mask: https://twitter.com/LeighMartinezTV/status/901897070092574721Antifa thugs beat, and then poured urine on the small group of Trump supporters who came out to support a Trans woman in MLK Park who organized a rally for peace.#Antifa beat and pour urine on Trump supporter at #Berkeley. pic.twitter.com/OHYS6YN8L6 Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) August 27, 2017 | 1real |
THE AMERICAN PUBLIC CAN NO LONGER DEAL WITH THE LIMITLESS CORRUPTION OF THEIR GOVERNMENT | Home › ECONOMIC › THE AMERICAN PUBLIC CAN NO LONGER DEAL WITH THE LIMITLESS CORRUPTION OF THEIR GOVERNMENT THE AMERICAN PUBLIC CAN NO LONGER DEAL WITH THE LIMITLESS CORRUPTION OF THEIR GOVERNMENT 8 SHARES
[10/28/16] MARY WILDER -The federal government has really been dropping the ball over the last few decades. Time and time again they prove that they are completely untrustworthy and do not care about the citizens of the United States’ best interests. As the recent Wikileaks emails have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, those that hold positions of power within the federal government are owned by the corporations that continue to put financial gain over individual freedom. It’s a scary reality, but there’s no denying it any longer.
Unfortunately this has been what Americans deal with for decades now. Nothing has ever been done about it because the American people felt as though there is nothing they could do in order to stop it. However, it appears as though we have lately gotten to the point where we are unwilling to put up with the corruption of our government any longer.
In an article published on The Daily Sheeple , Charles Hugh Smith writes that the ruling elite “have bamboozled, conned and misled the bottom 95% for decades, but their phony facade of political legitimacy and ‘the rising tide raises all boats’ has cracked wide open, and the machinery of oppression, looting and propaganda is now visible to everyone who isn’t being paid to cover their eyes.”
So what does this realization mean for the future of America? Hopefully that the rest of our country will continue waking up and opening their eyes to the truth. The longer the masses avoid the acknowledging the truth in regards to the federal government, the longer their control over the American people will last. During a time when our individual liberties are under attack every day, there is nothing more important than sending the message that we control our own lives.
Of course, it is also extremely important to prepare for retaliation. These are people whose entire existence revolves around being able to control the populous. They are most likely not going to go down without a fight. When we begin rejecting their corruption on a mass level, they will definitely do everything in their power to silence the outspoken ones. You could argue that it has already begun in regards to social media. Other forms of expression are probably next.
Human lives should be more valued than big governments. It’s time that we all realize that and completely reject the global elite’s plans to enslave us all. Our lives very well could depend on it. Post navigation | 1real |
White Men Threw Eggs, Shouted Racial Slurs At Black Woman Waiting For Bus | On Friday, St. Louis police arrested two 30-year-old white men in connection with a racially motivated attack on a Black woman.According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jesse Reed and David Ragain, both of Jefferson County, Missouri, maliciously attacked the woman as she was waiting at a public bus stop.The men threw eggs and shouted racial slurs at the victim, according to police.The men were taken into custody after police identified one of the suspects vehicles, using video from surveillance cameras.Both Reed and Ragain are charged with assault motivated by discrimination, a third-degree felony. They are currently being held on a $20,000 bond.St. Louis police believe that the pair has carried out similar attacks against people of color in the past. They are asking any person who believes they were targeted by the two men to come forward. These weren t two white teenagers on a joy ride, St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said during an interview with the Post-Dispatch.Indeed, this was a deliberate, planned and unprovoked act of hate, carried out by two adult men.As reported here, hate crimes like this can have a lingering psychological impact both on the targeted victim and on the Black community as a whole.Racially motivated attacks cause generalized terror in the group to which the victim belongs, inspiring feelings of vulnerability over the other members, who could be the next victims. People of color have been terrorized by racist whites since the United States was founded.Over the past year racially motivated attacks have become more and more common across the U.S., a fact which can be directly attributed to the rise of Donald Trump.Trump s racist hate speech has been cited as the motivation for everything from targeted racist mailings, directed at members of the Latino community, to the brutal assault and beating of a homeless man by two Boston-area brothers.As Addicting Info reported here:Since last September, America s Voice has been tracking instances where Trump, his staff and his supporters have assaulted or harassed immigrants and Latinos. As you can imagine, his special brand of xenophobia and racism has caused a lot of white nationalists to feel comfortable with their hate for others. Using reports of Trump inspired racist attacks, the group created an interactive map which shows just how dangerous the candidate s hate speech really is.While we hear Trump and his supporters talk a lot about the dangers of Muslim terrorists in the U.S., racist white terrorists remain the most common, and the most dangerous threat to American citizens.Residents of the United States are seven times more likely to be killed by a right-wing terrorist than a Muslim terrorist. Nearly 60 percent of hate crimes committed in the United States are motivated by racial and ethnic bias. Another 20 percent are motivated by gender identity and sexual orientation. Religiously motivated hate crimes, attacks on Muslims, Jews, atheists and other non-Christian groups, also account for nearly 20 percent of hate crimes.Contrary to Trump s propaganda, we don t need a watch-list to identify who the real terrorists are. We have more than enough evidence to identify the hateful, violent and dangerous groups that are terrorizing the American people.Featured image via limecools on Flickr | 1real |
Trump says actively considering breaking up big banks: Bloomberg TV | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said he was actively considering breaking up big banks, Bloomberg Television reported on Monday. Trump’s comments could give a push to efforts to revive the Depression-era Glass-Steagall law that separated commercial lending from investment banking. Reviving such a law would require an act by Congress. “I’m looking at that right now,” Trump said on Monday in an interview with Bloomberg News in the Oval Office. “There’s some people that want to go back to the old system, right? So we’re going to look at that.” While campaigning for president, Trump had expressed support on the campaign trail for a “21st-century Glass-Steagall.” White House spokesman Sean Spicer told a news briefing that Trump had expressed interest in the issue and had been briefed on it by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin but was not ready to discuss it publicly. “We’re not at a point where we’re ready to roll out details of that yet,” Spicer said. “He is actively looking at options and considering things.” One of Trump’s top economic advisers, Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council, reiterated Trump’s support for the concept during a private meeting with lawmakers on April 6, a White House spokesperson told Reuters. U.S. stocks sharply pared gains on Monday after Trump’s comments and the S&P 500 bank index dropped nearly 1 percent before rebounding. | 0fake |
Clinton, Comey and the E-mail Scandal: Is There a Rebellion at the FBI? | Email
The Clintons are a “crime family” and Hillary a “pathological liar,” said former assistant FBI director James Kallstrom during an interview Sunday. And it appears his belief is shared by current rank-and-file FBI agents, as a rebellion has apparently been brewing within the bureau.
The latest shocking news on this front is that despite a plea deal to destroy laptops (evidence) belonging to Clinton associates, those devices were not destroyed and are still in the possession of the FBI. As the Daily Caller reports : Washington D.C. attorney Joe DiGenova said on The David Webb Show on SiriusXM Friday night that despite the FBI agreeing to destroy the laptops of Clinton aide Cheryl Mills and ex-campaign staffer Heather Samuelson as part of immunity deals made during the initial investigation of Clinton’s email server, agents involved in the case refused to destroy the laptops. “According to the agreement reached with the attorneys who handed over their laptops, the laptops were to be destroyed per the agreement after the testimony was given — the interviews were given — by the attorneys. The bureau and the department agreed to that,” DiGenova said. “However the laptops contrary to published reports were not destroyed and the reason is the agents who are tasked with destroying them refused to do so. And by the way the laptops are at the FBI for inspection by Congress or federal courts.” DiGenova said the laptops have already been subpoenaed and the FBI is waiting for Congress to ask for them.
As to this report’s credibility, American Thinker’s Thomas Lifson notes that “DiGenova, a former US Attorney and Washington, DC superlawyer is no flake. He has plenty of contacts within the FBI and a reputation to protect. So I take his words on Sirius/XM’s David Webb show quite seriously.”
Ever since FBI director James Comey (shown above) shook the political world Friday by announcing that the bureau was reopening the investigation into Clinton’s illegal use of a private e-mail server, theories as to why he’s acting now have proliferated. After all, since consensus was that Comey was covering for the Democrats at the Obama administration’s behest, no one expected a revisiting of Clinton’s criminality just over a week before the election.
Of course, given that tens of thousands of e-mails — some apparently Clinton related — were recovered from ex-congressman Anthony Wiener’s laptop during an investigation into his having sent illicit text messages to a 15-year-old girl, the most obvious explanation is that of Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein , that whatever was found is “a real bombshell.” As Thomas Lifson wrote in “3 competing theories on why the FBI re-opened the Hillary email server investigation,” “It is possible that something so dramatic came up in the pertinent emails that postponing a public reaction by not announcing the reopening of the investigation would, [sic] be regarded as political interference by covering up a smoking gun until after the election. In this scenario, Comey is assuming the evidence cannot be suppressed, and that he would be held accountable after it comes out. This scenario also indicates that we could be headed for a constitutional crisis, involving the possible indictment of a president-elect before an election. Or the evidence being turned over to the House of Representatives for impeachment hearings.”
The second theory Lifson outlined was one put forth by radio host Rush Limbaugh. As Lifson wrote, “By announcing an FBI Investigation resuming, Comey is putting a lid on further attention to Wikileaks. I guess this means that Clinton forces will argue we must wait for the investigation to be complete (after the election) before speaking about what the evil Russians are planting into our politics.”
Lastly, Lifson wrote that Comey “might be seeking to restore his badly damaged reputation, recognizing that the damage he has inflicted on the FBI is substantial. Three days ago, American Thinker published an open letter from a retired FBI agent, Hugh Galyean, that laid out some of the damage Comey has inflicted on the institution he leads. There is little doubt that this reached many in the FBI family, putting in print what people have only whispered about. If those silenced voices start speaking out, Comey could face a serious loss of face. In this scenario, he is heading off a staff rebellion, possibly including mass resignations.”
This last theory is lent great credence by the news that the plea-deal laptops were never destroyed. If that story is true, it reflects a rebellion more serious than most anyone had imagined — with agents defying a direct order . This also adds weight to a related theory: that agents are so disgruntled that not only could some “resign and reveal,” but that active personnel could actually leak the truth to the media. If this is the case, Comey might be trying to get out ahead of such a development.
None of this is hard to imagine. While the FBI director is a political appointee perhaps chosen based on party or ideological loyalty, rank-and-file agents didn’t join the bureau for political power or money. They often are people who chose their career because they wanted to serve their country, and many (if not most) take their oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic” very seriously. And word has it that they have no respect for Comey, viewing him as a “dirty cop.”
The aforementioned James Kallstrom vindicated this assessment, saying “that FBI Director James Comey and the rest of the FBI’s leadership were responsible for holding back the investigation, not the rest of the bureau,” reports the Hill . “‘The agents are furious with what’s going on, I know that for a fact,’ he said.”
This is, apparently, because the agents know what Kallstrom does. As the Hill further writes: “The Clintons, that’s a crime family, basically,” Kallstrom said. “It’s like organized crime. I mean the Clinton Foundation is a cesspool.” ... He also blasted Attorney General Loretta Lynch, claiming that she impeded the investigation into Clinton’s private server. “The problem here is this investigation was never a real investigation,” he said. “That’s the problem. They never had a grand jury empanelled, and the reason they never had a grand jury empanelled, I’m sure, is Loretta Lynch would not go along with that.” “God forbid we put someone like that in the White House,” he added of Clinton.
This appears standard FBI sentiment. I personally know of an ex-agent — someone with knowledge of Clinton “crime family” dealings — who I’m told is having trouble sleeping at night due to the prospect of a Clinton presidency.
Two other people who may now have trouble finding the arms of Morpheus are Clinton and her longtime aide and confidante (and rumored lesbian lover) Huma Abedin. Abedin, who has questionable Islamic connections , is Anthony Wiener’s estranged wife and is apparently responsible for the Clinton-related e-mails found on his laptop. Note that Abedin may have legal problems herself, having sworn under oath that she relinquished “all devices” and having signed, under penalty of perjury, a document stating she wasn’t retaining any copies of the relevant materials.
Whether or not the new Clinton e-mails contain devastating information, they certainly provide an excuse for Director Comey to reopen the investigation, thus controlling a bureau rebellion that could lead to his own scandalization and career destruction. He may now realize that it’s a matter of Clinton — or him.
Whatever the case, this unprecedentedly scandal-ridden campaign — with Project Veritas, WikiLeaks, and now FBI revelations and a story that, as radio host Michael Savage put it, only a Shakespeare could write — should have a wild closing week. Logic dictates that Halloween will be followed by the scariest revelations yet, likely the result of another WikiLeaks dump. Hold on to your seats; the ride has just begun. Photos of Hillary Clinton and James Comey: AP Images Please review our Comment Policy before posting a comment
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The Biggest Secret: How Reptilian-Human Hybrids Run Our World | “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” – Martin Luther King
Controversy has become the mantra of the whirlwind that is David Icke ’s life over the past few decades.
Since the early 90’s, he has challenged people’s parameters of reality suggesting that all is not what it seems in regards to how our world is run.
David’s verdict is clear; the people that lie at the top of our power structures are hiding a sinister secret, one that would make anyone sound crazy if it were verbalized.
Since the dawn of civilized man, the ruling class have been controlled by extra-terrestrial/ dimensional beings, with an agenda which ultimately establishes the human race as mindless and robotic slaves to a system based on fear and control.
It is easy to see why this theory has attracted so much back-lash.
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” – Martin Luther King Controversy has become the mantra of the whirlwind that is David Icke’s life over the past few decades. Since the early 90’s, he has challenged people’s parameters of reality suggesting that all is not what it seems in regards to how our world is run.
David’s verdict is clear; the people that lie at the top of our power structures are hiding a sinister secret, one that would make anyone sound crazy if it were verbalized.
Since the dawn of civilized man, the ruling class have been controlled by extra-terrestrial/ dimensional beings, with an agenda which ultimately establishes the human race as mindless and robotic slaves to a system based on fear and control.
It is easy to see why this theory has attracted so much back-lash.
Icke made an infamous appearance on a national television talk show in 1991 where he announced to the world that he was being channeled information which warned him of impending devastation by natural disasters.
The ridicule which proceeded after the interview was said by Icke to be a nightmare for him and his family. He couldn’t walk down the street without being laughed at.
Icke later states that the laughter had “set him free” in a sense, allowing him to move forward with his messages to the world without now having worry about what people thought about him.
In the decade that followed Icke pumped out book after book, traveling the world giving long lectures on the nature of reality, testing people’s truth’s in regards to who is really running our world (4).
Today Icke leads a similar schedule, having just completed his 8 hour arena world tour which was sold out in multiple countries.
During the extended lecture he touches upon topics such as the holographic universe, the pseudo moon matrix, and his most infamous theory regarding a reptilian hybrid race that is controlling our world.
To begin to explain the complex theory, Icke discusses the current fear state of our world.
“The fear of what other people think is the state of perception that stops people [from] making a difference… you can only make a difference in a world of uniformity if you operate outside of that uniformity… we either take that on or we don’t, in which case nothing changes. “We are now at this place where we can go down one track and experience freedom like we’ve never even understood what freedom is. We go down the other one, the one that the control structure wants, then we’re headed for an Orwellian-fascist global state.” David Icke, The Lion Sleeps no More (3). Icke proposes that mankind has been manipulated to become “unconscious” through the use of programming by media and politics, the tyrannical control over our food, water, and air supply, the dumbing down of the masses by pharmaceutical drugs and alcohol, and the list goes on.
“But the manipulation doesn’t stop there”, as Icke states about exploring the never ending depths of the rabbit hole.
Quetzalcoatl – the Mesoamerican human-eating, reptilian deity
The ruling class, the bankers, the royal family, the presidents and prime ministers , have created the illusion of being separate ruling bodies when in fact they have always been on the same “team” of sorts.
There is a bloodline that has been strategically kept intact for ages. The Burkes Peerage and Baronetage, a comprehensive aristocratic genealogy resource, reveals that all 44 U.S. presidents have carried European royal bloodlines into office over the course of history.
This includes Bill Clinton , the Bush family , Barack Obama, John Kerry, and so on and so forth (6).
Portion of the global elite’s family tree
If we truly live in a democratic system, how is it that every single person brought into office has been of French and European royal descent? What are the chances of this considering the U.S. fought for their independence of Europe in the 1700s?
The Burkes Peerage makes a strong suggestion that elections are not really based on a public voting system, but rather they are based upon the highest percentage of royal genes.
To make things even more peculiar is the fact that Brad Pitt, Madonna, Marilyn Monroe, and Tom hanks (some of Hollywood’s biggest stars) also descend from this lineage. What could all of this imply?
Icke goes on to illuminate the theory of quantum physics, which states that our physical reality is a projection within our mind, and that at the most basic quantum level, the solidity of matter is false, existing as vibrations instead of atoms.
When the light from matter reflects into our eyes, the cells pick up the light (which travels as a wavelength measured from 390nm-700nm, the visible light spectrum) and transmutes the vibrations or wave-forms into an image within the brain.
This is the same for sound; it is a vibration until it is decoded by the brain (Suddenly The Matrix plot doesn’t seem so far-fetched).
The human brain can only see an extremely limited spectrum of energy, as we know there are a plethora of different forms of energy in our universe and thousands of different frequencies around us at any given moment that we cannot see, such as radio and radiation waves.
Icke suggests that ET’s and other beings exist in our universe, but they operate at a frequency just above what the human mind is said to be able to detect(3). This could explain the strange sightings of UFO’s that seem to appear and disappear in an instant.
Could it be that the UFO’s or ET’s are advanced enough that they can raise or lower their frequency to come in and out of the visible light frequency spectrum?
This is something that Icke says the ruling elite are aware of, knowledge that is used to manipulate mankind into thinking that our experience is limited to a 3D reality.
Icke says the reptilians control the globalists extra-dimensionally through the manipulation of human DNA
It is no secret today that the world is ruled by money and power. Corporations and banks have more power than the people do, and this is something that is beginning to become recognized by a large majority of the population.
There is a world government which oversees the regulation of the entire planet and all of its systems, says Icke. This world government is called the Illuminati by many, although there are multiple names for the different levels of this organization.
Behind the closed doors at the highest levels of government, secret societies rule with malevolence. The problem is that anyone who learns this information and speaks out publicly as a leading force against these secret societies is quickly silenced.
John Kennedy’s assassination is a perfect example of this. In his famous last speech, not too long before he was shot, he touches upon the subject of the secret ruling class,
“The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and secret proceedings… “For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence – on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day.
“It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific, and political operations.” – John F Kennedy (8)
In his arena tour, Icke discusses the disturbing events that take place behind closed doors at the annual meeting of the global leaders.
“They follow a religion that dates back to the beginning of civilization”, he states. The secret societies take part in and worship a pocket of consciousness, that most call Satanism, in which they perform esoteric rituals that entail ceremonial chanting, gratuitous sexual activities, and even blood sacrifice.
Icke alludes to this in his seminar correlating the globalist cult to the chain of missing children and underground world of sex trafficking.
The Catholic Church is a big player in this disturbing hidden world, Icke says. Earlier in 2013, Pope Benedict XVI became the first Pope to resign since the 1400s.
Some argue that the real reason was due to Benedict being blackmailed for surfacing information about the Catholic Church’s ritual abuse of children and homosexuality within the Vatican (7).
Neil Brick, a victim of satanic ritual abuse, founded S.M.A.R.T (Stop Mind Control and Ritual Abuse Today) in 1995, an organization which aims to expose and put to an end to the ritual abuse of children by the Vatican and other secret power circles.
Neil states that thousands of children are captured each year and are manipulated through mind control to perform grotesque acts involving sex and torture (5).
Chrystine Oksana’s 1994 book, “Safe Passage to Healing”, expands on this topic:
“Ritual Abuse usually involves repeated abuse over an extended period of time. The physical abuse is severe, sometimes including torture and killing. The sexual abuse is usually painful, humiliating, intended as means of gaining dominance over the victim. “The psychological abuse is devastating and involves the use of ritual indoctrination. It includes mind control techniques which convey to the victim a profound terror of the cult members… most victims are in a state of terror, mind control and dissociation.” — Chrystine Oksana, Safe Passage to Healing Many have come forward with unsettling stories about their abuse by different power circles such as the Vatican or the secret men’s clubs like the one held annually at Bohemian Grove in California.
This information may be difficult to process for most. Human beings are naturally compassionate for one and other; we don’t want to believe that these sorts of things happen, especially not by the hands of the people that we’ve “elected” to power.
So what could be the true reason behind these real-life horror movie stories? Icke says that it goes far beyond the physical constraints of the visible light spectrum.
WATCH THE VIDEO:
Alex Jones’ secret footage of a Bohemian Grove Ritual
“We are clearly massively missing the point. The vast majority who investigate this will not go any further…because a.) Their belief systems won’t let them and b.) They fear what other people will think about them. There is the level we see unfolding in the news, and then there is the other dimensional non-human level.
The rabbit hole goes deeper and deeper .
“It is all about the control and programming of perception… at one level we see the dark-suits sitting at the big round table making the decisions, then at the next we have the secret societies, and then we go beyond the frequency of visible light… Satanism is a network that interacts with the beings that are controlling our vibrational state from a frequency above us.”
“Wolfgang and the Devil”, Michael Pacher, 1483 — Note the reptilian form the devil takes on
Icke says that these extra-dimensional beings that the globalists worship stem from the constellations Orion, Sirius, and Draco. Thousands of years ago, the reptilian beings intervened on planet Earth and began interbreeding with humans.
Not physically, however, but rather through the manipulation of the human coding, or DNA. Icke states that it is no coincidence that humans have fundamental reptilian genetics within their brain. He refers to an excerpt from the Bible, which hints at the crossbreeding of men and “gods”,
“There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the songs of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bear children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.” – Genesis, 6:4
Icke connects more biblical stories to the intervention of the reptilian race. He alludes to the “fall of man,” the story of how Adam and Eve became manipulated by the serpent.
The reason, he goes on to say, that 95% of human DNA and a large majority of our brain goes unused is due to this intervention of the reptilian race, placing a limitation on our potential as conscious beings.
These beings were more advanced in the technological sense, seeing our DNA as software which could be tainted with, creating a hybrid middle man to control the human population within the visible light spectrum.
Half human and half reptilian, they were perceived as demi-gods at the time by the people . Icke explains that the Caduceus, the common medical symbol we see today, is based around this DNA manipulation.
The Caduceus contains two serpents spiraling around a scepter that has wings, in the shape of the double-helix DNA strand.
Because these hybrids at the time possessed knowledge that most didn’t, they were able to slip into positions of power, specifically in the ancient areas of Sumer, Babylon, and Mesopotamia.
As these areas began to separate and colonize elsewhere, the reptilian bloodlines spread out, becoming the royal families of the world.
This is said to be why the royal family maintains their genetics. Similarly, the ancient Chinese emperors believed they had the divine right to rule because they were connected to the “serpent gods”.
Icke says there is a common theme between royalty and serpent worship around the world. This can be seen in early images of ancient cultures such as the Hindus, Cambodians, Greeks, Nordics, Africans, Native Americans, Koreans, and Australians to name a few (1).
Icke recounts in his seminar about his discussions with Credo Mutwa , a South-African based Zulu shaman, during which Mutwa tells of African legends about the Chitauri, the reptilian like “gods” who ascended from the heavens in monstrous vessels which burned through the atmosphere.
These so called gods became the dictators of the people, taking away the potentiality and power of the human race (2, 3).
“One other thing that our people say is that the Chitauri prey upon us like vultures. They raise some of us. They fill some of us with great anger and great ambition. And they make these people they’ve raised into great warriors who make terrible war.
“But, in the end, the Chitauri do not allow these great leaders, these great war chiefs and kings, to die peacefully. “The warrior chief is used to make as much war as possible, to kill as many of his people and those he calls enemies, and then, in the end, the warrior chief dies a terrible death, with his blood being spilled by others.” (2), Credo Mutwa on the reptilian-hyrbid leaders.
Over time these bloodlines created a sort of trans-national web of control, and as history progressed they rooted themselves deeper and deeper into the systems and structures that were developed by man.
Today they make up the secret societies (Illuminati, etc.) which pull the strings in regards to the direction that society follows.
Read: New (Reptilian) World Order — Complete History of Reptilian Control
They have created the ultimate prison, one without bars with the illusion of freedom keeping the masses from wanting to escape. They have created illusory lines separating countries to cause segregation among the people who are ignorant to the truth.
They have created massive distractions with media, politics and entertainment, and they have dumbed down the general population through the poisoning of our food, air, and water supply (3).
So what is the ultimate goal of these hybrid bloodlines? Some argue it was originally for our planet’s supply of gold, which they need to stabilize the atmosphere of their own planet. Others suggest that it more has to do with tyranny.
The New World Order (NWO) isn’t a new concept to most. In the early 90’s President Bush publicly announced that the NWO was the eventual goal for the United States. A NWO is not the peaceful state of freedom that these leaders try to present it as.
The NWO is an Orwellian state based around absolute control in which the population is maintained under 500 000 million people. It takes away the power of the public, turning them into mindless robots who do the bidding of the fortunate ruling class; a more extreme case of the current state of the world.
It is a one world government that calls all the shots. This is what the hybrids want; power and control. Whatever the intention is behind the control structures, it is obvious that it is not in harmony with the well-being of mankind or the planet.
Icke ends his seminar with a glimpse of hope for humanity, stating that its time for humanity to get up off of our knees and to take matters back into our own hands,
“What if vast numbers of people say ‘well we’re not doing it’? They’d have no power whatsoever. Their power comes in our acquiescence. What we need isn’t compliance, what we need is a global non-comply-dance. [They] cannot grant our freedom, nor can [they] take it away.”
David Icke’s theories may be difficult to grasp for some, but what is undeniable is the fact that when you listen to his propositions, he makes a damn good argument with his case. In the end it is up to you to decide what truth you wish to believe.
We encourage you to do your own research. This is a time of great change in the world. The people have begun to wake up, deciding for themselves what resonates as truth and what doesn’t.
We live in an era of mass information sharing, thanks to advent of the internet. People are connecting from all over the world to share knowledge and create change on a massive scale. The most important thing for each of us to do during this time is to become informed as much as possible.
Ultimately it is we who have the power to create what we want as a society. When we tune into our true potential, anything is possible.
Fear will not create this change; it will only feed the old systems which the ruling class have already established. Love will be the forerunner for the fast approaching new Earth.
Collective-Evolution
SOURCE | 1real |
UK says seeking to build on 'momentum' for Brexit talks breakthrough | LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is seeking to build on the recent momentum in the Brexit divorce talks with the European Union before a summit next month, a spokeswoman for Britain s Department for Exiting the European Union said on Tuesday. We are exploring how we can continue to build on recent momentum in the talks so that together we can move the negotiations on to the next phase and discuss our future partnership, the spokeswoman said. She was responding to reports in British newspapers that Britain and the EU had reached agreement on a Brexit divorce bill which is likely to total around 50 billion euros, potentially heralding a breakthrough in the negotiations. | 0fake |
null | The Jews hold moral, historical and legal title to all Jerusalem including the Temple Mount. Zion, the City of David, the Apple of God's eye. The Islamos are interloping squatters there and I'm surprised Israel tolerates their presence.
There is also no history of anything called a palestinian people, language or culture. The argument is a 70 year old MB political construct simply to justify continual war against Israel.
Only one state solution exists: Israel. | 1real |
MSNBC “ANALYST” Shocks Host When He Makes Outrageous Claim About Jared Kushner: “That’s a major allegation. I mean that’s kind of a stretch” [Video] | Naveed Jamali is supposed to be a professional analyst on MSNBC but we re guessing that s just too much to ask of these news hacks. He makes the claim that Jared Kushner is a double agent for the Russians! He goes on to make claims about others in the Trump administration with ZERO evidence! To say this is way past crazy is an understatement! The liberal media must have all gotten their orders to saturate the airwaves with horrible lies about Trump s inner circle. This is dangerous stuff because there is no evidence at all but people will come away with a tainted view of Kushner no matter what happens.Jamali: You look for patterns and this is a clear pattern emerging. It s a pattern that shows a consistent effort to deceive. And when you have that, there s only one conclusion you can draw, again from an intelligence standpoint that this man (Jared Kushner) was either a Russian agent, either aspiring to be a Russian agent or was in fact a Russian agent.Ruhle: Hold on, this man being Jared Kushner? You really think he wants to be a Russian agent? Why would he be a Russian agent? That s a major allegation. I mean that s kind of a stretch, This is bonkers! | 1real |
NIGHTMARE SCENARIO: FOX NEWS Reports Obama Can Appoint Supreme Court Justice On Jan 3rd…Could This Be His Final ‘SCREW YOU AMERICA’ Act? | Pray for our nation FOX News reported this afternoon that Barack Obama can appoint a left-wing Supreme Court Justice after the Republican Senate adjourns on January 3, 2016.Obama will then have 17 days to nominate a far left justice to the Supreme Court.11 of 12 previous recess appointments were approved by the senate.This came up in discussion after news broke that conservative Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead today.This would be his last eff-you to the American people before he leaves office.God help us.WATCH:https://youtu.be/4IQsJjJC5_kVia: Gateway Pundit | 1real |
Nepal scraps $2.5 billion hydropower plant deal with Chinese company | KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepal has scrapped a $2.5 billion deal with China Gezhouba Group Corporation to build the country s biggest hydropower plant, citing lapses in the award process, the energy minister said. The cabinet has canceled the irregular ... agreement with Gezhouba Group to build the Budhi Gandaki hydroelectric project, Energy Minister Kamal Thapa, who is also the country s deputy prime minister, said on Monday in a twitter post in Nepali after a cabinet meeting. He did not give further details. Nepal s rivers, cascading from the snow-capped Himalayas, have vast, untapped potential for hydropower generation, but a lack of funds and technology has made Nepal lean on neighbor India to meet annual demand of 1,400 megawatts (MW). In June, a Maoist-dominated coalition government awarded a contract to China Gezhouba Group Corporation to build a 1,200 MW plant on the Budhi Gandaki river, about 50 km (32 miles) west of Kathmandu, to address acute power shortages. Critics say the $2.5 billion project was handed to the Chinese company without any competitive bidding, which is required by law, and a parliamentary panel asked the government that succeeded the Maoist-led coalition to scrap the deal. Speaking in Beijing on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said he was unaware of the reports but said China maintained very good relations with Nepal and enjoyed cooperation in many areas and projects. Gezhouba did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment and did not answer telephone calls. China and India jostle for influence with aid and investment in infrastructure projects in Nepal. Kathmandu has cleared a 750 MW project to be built on the West Seti River in the western part of the country by China s state-owned Three Gorges International Corp. It has also permitted two Indian companies - GMR Group and Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited - to build one hydropower plant each, both capable of generating 900 MW of power each, mainly to be exported to India. | 0fake |
CodeSOD: Classic WTF: Injection Proof'd | Founder, The Daily WTF It's Thanksgiving, in the US. Be thankful you're not supporting this block of code. --Remy
“When a ‘customer’ of ours needs custom-developed software to suit their business requirements,” Kelly Adams writes, “they can either ‘buy’ the development services from the IT department, or go to an outside vendor. In the latter case, then we’re supposed to approve that the software meets corporate security guidelines.”
“Most of the time, our ‘approval’ is treated as a recommendation, and we end up having to install the application anyway. But recently, they actually listened to us and told the vendor to fix the ‘blatant SQL-injection vulnerabilities’ that we discovered. A few weeks later, when it came time for our second review, we noticed the following as their ‘fix’.” internal static string FQ(string WhichField) { string expression = ""; int num2 = Strings.Len(WhichField); for (int i = 1; i <= num2; i++) { string str = Strings.Mid(WhichField, i, 1); if (str == "'") { str = str + "'"; } expression = expression + str; } return Strings.Trim( Strings.Replace(Strings.Replace(Strings.Replace(Strings.Replace( Strings.Replace(Strings.Replace(Strings.Replace(Strings.Replace( Strings.Replace(Strings.Replace(Strings.Replace(Strings.Replace( Strings.Replace(Strings.Replace(Strings.Replace(Strings.Replace( Strings.Replace(Strings.Replace(Strings.Replace(Strings.Replace( Strings.Replace(Strings.Replace(Strings.Replace(Strings.Replace( expression, "xp_", "", 1, -1, CompareMethod.Text), "sp_", "", 1, -1, CompareMethod.Text), "--", "-", 1, -1, CompareMethod.Binary), "alter table", "", 1, -1, CompareMethod.Text), "drop table", "", 1, -1, CompareMethod.Text), "create table", "", 1, -1, CompareMethod.Text), "create database", "", 1, -1, CompareMethod.Text), "alter table", "", 1, -1, CompareMethod.Text), "alter column", "", 1, -1, CompareMethod.Text), "drop column", "", 1, -1, CompareMethod.Text), "drop database", "", 1, -1, CompareMethod.Text), "1=1", "", 1, -1, CompareMethod.Text), "union select", "", 1, -1, CompareMethod.Text), "/*", "", 1, -1, CompareMethod.Text), "*/", "", 1, -1, CompareMethod.Text), "boot.ini", "", 1, -1, CompareMethod.Text), "../", "", 1, -1, CompareMethod.Text), "%27", "", 1, -1, CompareMethod.Text), ";dir", "", 1, -1, CompareMethod.Text), "|dir", "", 1, -1, CompareMethod.Text), "<script", "", 1, -1, CompareMethod.Text), "</script>", "", 1, -1, CompareMethod.Text), "language=javascript", "", 1, -1, CompareMethod.Text), "language=\"javascript\"", "", 1, -1, CompareMethod.Text)); }
Kelly adds, “of course this time, when we told them the application was still vulnerable so long that a hacker typed ‘1 = 1’ instead of ‘1=1’, they told us were beeing too picky, and had us install the application anyway.” [Advertisement] Manage IT infrastructure as code across all environments with Puppet . Puppet Enterprise now offers more control and insight, with role-based access control, activity logging and all-new Puppet Apps. Start your free trial today! | 1real |
His Doctors Were Stumped. Then He Took Over. - The New York Times | They called him the Beast. David Fajgenbaum was the fittest of his friends at the University of Pennsylvania’s medical school, a gym addict and former quarterback at Georgetown. His mammoth hands seemed more suited to spiraling footballs than the fine fingerwork a might need. He had endurance to match, taking multiple hits and returning to the field to play on. “This guy was a physical specimen,” said his former roommate, Grant Mitchell, who used to walk to work with him. When they would arrive at the hospital for his obstetrics rotation, his friend recalled, “he would basically coerce me into doing on the tree outside. ” In July 2010, that all changed. The woke up at night drenched in sweat. His lymph nodes were swollen. He felt stabs of abdominal pain, and odd red bumps began sprouting across his chest. Most bizarre of all, he felt very tired — so tired that he began slipping into empty exam rooms between patients, stealing naps to get through the day. “Guys, I think I’m dying,” he recalled telling his friends. A visit to the emergency room confirmed his fears. A doctor told him that his liver, kidneys and bone marrow were not working properly. Even more troubling, the doctor had no idea why his body was failing. “What do you think is going on?” he remembers the doctor asking him. Pursuing the answer to that question, it turned out, would become his life’s work. It would transform Dr. Fajgenbaum from a patient on the brink of death five different times, whose illness stumped specialist after specialist, to one of the leading researchers in his field. He has even used himself as his own test subject, and may have discovered a treatment for his rare disease. His story, which has been circulating inside medicine, is more than one person’s remarkable journey, however. It offers a look into the world of rare diseases, a corner of medicine that continues to frustrate — and flummox — those who seek cures for obscure conditions. About 95 percent of all rare diseases have no approved drug treatments. Fewer than 8, 000 people in the United States are found to have Dr. Fajgenbaum’s condition in any given year. But taken as a whole, rare diseases are not unusual: An estimated 30 million people in the country — or about 10 percent of the population — are living with one of the nearly 7, 000 rare diseases that have been identified. Prompted by financial incentives passed by Congress, the drug industry is hotly pursuing treatments for a throng of rare diseases. That has led to breakthroughs in several conditions, including cystic fibrosis and spinal muscular atrophy. Nevertheless, with a small number of subjects to study and relatively few people to sell new drugs to, many rare diseases are overlooked by doctors and scientists, hampered by a lack of resources and public awareness. Dr. Fajgenbaum’s condition is one of the many that have been given relatively little attention. Initially, doctors thought he had a common form of cancer. A CT scan — a series of images that give doctors a clearer picture of what is going on inside the body — revealed a body riddled with enlarged lymph nodes, a hallmark of lymphoma. The news struck a particularly cruel blow: Only a few years earlier, while Dr. Fajgenbaum was in college, his mother died of brain cancer. He declined rapidly as his immune system went haywire. A retinal hemorrhage, a type of ministroke, temporarily blinded his left eye. Fluids leaked out of his blood vessels, a sign that his liver was failing. Over the next two weeks, he gained about 70 pounds of extra fluid and his brain fogged over. For those who knew him as the Beast, the transformation was jarring. “Even when he got sicker and sicker and eventually went into the hospital, it was kind of like this, oh, weird, Dave must have some really awful virus — that’s one hell of a flu,” his friend Dr. Mitchell said. When Dr. Fajgenbaum’s brain started slowing down, Dr. Mitchell said, the severity of the illness sunk in. “I would ask him a simple question, and he would answer in a couple words, like 30 seconds to a minute later,” he said. Dr. Mitchell and the other medical students scoured textbooks and the internet, searching for clues. The top medical experts at Penn, meanwhile, were not having much more luck. Lymphoma was just one theory. Others thought it might be a severe case of lupus or even mononucleosis. But test after test was inconclusive. Finally, the doctors tried a huge dose of steroids. Slowly, his body began to fight its way back. His kidneys and liver began functioning again, and the extra fluid receded. Seven weeks after he was admitted, Dr. Fajgenbaum walked out of the hospital. It was September 2010. “I remember asking the doctor, saying, ‘What was this? ’” he said. “And I remember the doctor saying, ‘We don’t know what it was, but let’s just hope it doesn’t come back. ’” It took only one month for symptoms to come rushing back, while he was convalescing at his childhood home in Raleigh, N. C. Doctors there shipped a piece of his lymph node to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, where pathologists finally pinpointed his disease. The condition, called Castleman disease, was so rare that doctors at the hospital in Raleigh had no experience with it. Castleman disease had been known since the 1950s but has remained largely a mystery. A hallmark of the condition is enlarged lymph nodes, and most people with the disease — about — have a form that affects just one part of the body and can usually be cured through surgery. The form ravaging Dr. Fajgenbaum’s body — multicentric Castleman disease — is even more rare and deadly. Only about 1, 200 to 1, 500 people are discovered to have it every year in the United States. It defied classification, occupying a no man’s land between cancer and immune disease. Doctors weren’t sure of the cause in patients like him: Some believed it was a type of cancer, while others thought it was an inherited genetic disorder, or was triggered by a virus. One thing was clear: The disease was deadly. Only about 65 percent of people with the condition live for five years after it is diagnosed, studies have shown. Over the next few years, Dr. Fajgenbaum alternated between extended periods of relative health and frightening relapses. His condition stumped even leading experts in the disease, people like Dr. Frits van Rhee of Little Rock, Ark. who has treated the largest number of patients — about 100 — with Castleman. The tools that Dr. van Rhee and others had were blunt and harmful in their own right. More than once, Dr. Fajgenbaum underwent a devastating, course of chemotherapy that annihilated his immune system in an effort to knock his disease into remission. Dr. Fajgenbaum was also granted emergency access to siltuximab, a drug that Johnson Johnson was developing for people with his form of multicentric Castleman disease, which would be approved in 2014. That year, in 2011, Dr. van Rhee secured a rare exception to try it on Dr. Fajgenbaum. But the drug, like other previous treatments, did not work. Dr. Fajgenbaum was undaunted. With the zeal he once devoted to a personal best — 375 pounds, reached six months before he first fell ill — he dove into the scientific research on Castleman disease and began to familiarize himself with the world’s top experts. On Sundays, his roommate tried to coax Dr. Fajgenbaum out of his bedroom, with its white board covered in notes, organizational plans tacked to the wall. He rarely succeeded. “I’m on the couch watching TV, and Dave is just cranking away on Castleman,” Dr. Mitchell recalled. The more Dr. Fajgenbaum learned, he said, the more he realized how much the field that studied Castleman was in disarray. Researchers focusing on the disease used different terminology to describe the condition, making it difficult to compare published work. Leading experts weren’t in regular communication, and studies were being done over again, even though previous ones had failed. “It became just abundantly clear that just because you have smart people thinking about a problem doesn’t mean that it’s coordinated at all,” he said. One of the people he called was Dr. Thomas Uldrick, a clinical researcher at the National Cancer Institute who had studied multicentric Castleman disease. The two struck up a correspondence. “Clearly he was a very bright medical student, and he was scared of dying from this disease,” Dr. Uldrick recalled. He also began collaborating with Dr. van Rhee, who knew that Dr. Fajgenbaum was a different kind of patient after he arrived armed with charts, graphs, timelines and slide presentations. “There are patients who keep meticulous records,” Dr. van Rhee said with a chuckle, “but he was definitely in the top 1 percent. ” In spring 2013 Dr. Fajgenbaum earned his medical degree, and a few months later he entered the Wharton School at Penn, reasoning that, to solve the tangled mystery of Castleman disease, business smarts would serve him well. But in December of that year he got sick again, with his blood platelets dropping so low that he barely avoided a fatal brain bleed. This time, though, he was able to use his relapse to further his search for a cure. For months, Dr. Fajgenbaum had been collecting weekly blood samples that served as snapshots of his immune system, tabulating the results in a spreadsheet and adding them to a detailed slide presentation that he had been preparing since he received the diagnosis. And when it was clear the disease had returned, he persuaded his doctors to remove a piece of a lymph node, test it and save it for future research. After a round of chemotherapy, he improved enough to be discharged and started looking into what secrets the tests might reveal. It turned out that five months before he started noticing symptoms in December, his T cells — one of the key weapons in the body’s immune arsenal — had starting activating, preparing for a fight even though there was no apparent threat. Then, about three months before his relapse, he noticed that he had started producing more VEGF, a protein that instructs the body to make more blood vessels, and is another sign of an immune system gearing up. These two hints gave him an idea: Maybe the problem was with one of the body’s communication lines, the one that triggered production of VEGF and also told the T cells to begin activating. If Dr. Fajgenbaum could get his body to shut down that communication line — known as the mTOR pathway — he might be able to stop his immune system from overreacting and prevent a relapse. The discovery was exhilarating. “I felt like I was part of steering the ship,” Dr. Fajgenbaum said. “This time I was part of this team. ” With this major clue in hand, he and his doctors turned to potential treatments, existing drugs that were known to shut down the mTOR pathway. The one that seemed the best option was practically hiding in plain sight. Sirolimus, also known as Rapamune, was commonly given to kidney transplant patients to prevent their bodies from rejecting the organ. The drug had been on the market for years and was known to have few serious side effects. “I wouldn’t think I ever could have prescribed this to another patient, or told a patient to try it, because we just didn’t have very much data,” Dr. Fajgenbaum said. “But at this stage, I’d had four episodes, and I’d failed everything the doctors had ever given me. ” In choosing to become his own test subject, Dr. Fajgenbaum was following a long line of medical researchers who have experimented on themselves. At the turn of the 20th century, government researchers studying yellow fever in Cuba allowed themselves to be bitten by mosquitoes who harbored the disease one researcher caught the fever and died. In 1929, Dr. Werner Forssmann inserted a catheter into the vein of his arm and guided it to his heart to prove that the procedure worked (he shared in a Nobel Prize for his work in 1956). As recently as 2005, Dr. Barry Marshall won the Nobel after drinking a broth infected with bacteria to prove that it caused ulcers. This activist approach, Dr. Uldrick said, did not sit well with everyone. “There was some tension between the various doctors about who was driving the boat,” he said. But the idea that Dr. Fajgenbaum needed to try something new was unanimous: Chemotherapy had worked three times, but the powerful drugs take a heavy toll and can themselves cause cancer if given too often. Dr. Fajgenbaum eventually prevailed. In January 2014, he stopped taking his old cancer drugs and started on sirolimus. Six months passed, then a year. The weekly blood tests showed that his immune system was returning to normal. Dr. Fajgenbaum, his health improving, returned to the other challenges that were hampering progress in the field of Castleman disease. He started the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network, a nonprofit whose mission was to prioritize and coordinate research into the disease, which operates out of the Perelman School of Medicine at Penn. Dr. Fajgenbaum, an assistant professor of medicine at the school, and his collaborators assembled an advisory panel of the world’s experts in the disease and set an agenda for answering the most pressing questions. First on the list is figuring out the cause: Is the disease genetic, a form of cancer or caused by a virus? As always, the work is intensely personal. Last summer, he drove to Allentown, Pa. to collect a blood sample from a patient with Castleman disease. He placed the vials in his vest pocket, explaining that he needed to keep the blood warm so the tests he had planned would work properly. “You remind me of a mother hen,” the patient said with a laugh. That gave him an idea: Dr. Fajgenbaum sat on the vials as he drove two hours back to Philadelphia, the car heater cranked up to ensure they were warm. It was a sweaty ride back, but worth it. “These samples are precious,” he said. In medical research, discoveries come slowly and take twists and turns that no one saw coming. Seasoned researchers have learned to rein in their optimism and to know that true breakthroughs can take years, if not decades, to realize. Not Dr. Fajgenbaum. “I almost wish that every disease had a David to be a part of the charge,” said Dr. Mary Jo Lechowicz, a professor at the Emory University School of Medicine, who has studied Castleman disease and serves on the network’s advisory board. Dr. Fajgenbaum’s mission to take on his own disease is also typical of the world, said Max Bronstein, the chief advocacy and science policy officer at the EveryLife Foundation for Rare Diseases in Novato, Calif. “A lot of patient organizations emerge to take on these huge challenges in rare diseases,” he said. “I don’t think there’s one correct model for each disease there’s been so many different approaches. ” Last month, Dr. Fajgenbaum marked his anniversary since starting on sirolimus, a period more than twice as long as any of his other remissions. “I feel 100 percent,” he said. These days, Dr. Fajgenbaum, now 31, walks through the hallways of Penn’s medical center, his frame again projecting the easy confidence of the athlete he once was. But he jokes that he would have to pull out photos of his days as a quarterback to explain to people why his friends still call him the Beast. Now, he said, every time he tries to exercise, his mind wanders back to an email he needs to write or a call he needs to make. “It’s not because I don’t have the energy to do it it’s because all of my energy is going toward this disease,” he said. Not everyone is convinced that sirolimus is what has been keeping him healthy. Dr. van Rhee noted that while the results in Dr. Fajgenbaum are promising, his is just one case and treatments need to be proven in many more people. “I think the finding is very interesting,” he said, “but we need to see whether a similar mechanism is active in other patients. ” But Dr. Fajgenbaum said he grew more confident every day that it is the drug that is helping. He has begun sharing his experience with more doctors and researchers, is conducting laboratory tests to see if the drug is likely to work in other patients and has started writing an article about his experience for a medical journal. Soon, he hopes, doctors will begin prescribing the drug to other patients. Dr. Fajgenbaum is optimistic about the drug’s chances but is aware medical science is unpredictable. “Who knows maybe it will work for only a small percentage,” he said. “So we’ve still got a lot of work ahead of us. ” He now oversees the network’s research from his office in the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, five floors above the emergency room where he first learned his body was falling apart. It is also the same building where he spent weeks in the I. C. U. so sick that he said his final goodbyes to friends and family. At first, when he learned his office would be in the same building, he felt anxious, unsure if he wanted the constant reminder of the ordeal he had endured. A few months ago, Dr. Fajgenbaum was called to the I. C. U. to meet a patient who had just found out he had Castleman disease. He spoke to the patient about enrolling him in a new study, and as he looked out the window, realized the view looked familiar. On his way out, he bumped into a nurse who remembered him. She noted that he had stayed in the same room as a patient. Ultimately, he said, he is glad for the proximity. “I didn’t think that I would ever get to leave the hospital, and now here I am, fighting back,” he said. “It’s the ultimate motivator. ” | 0fake |
MARKO, SOON, ET AL: To Put America First Is to Put Our Planet’s Climate First - Breitbart | The article below was contributed by Istvan Marko, J. Scott Armstrong, William M. Briggs, Kesten Green, Hermann Harde, David R. Legates, Christopher Monckton of Brenchley, and Willie Soon. [On June 2, 2017, in a Letter regarding US withdrawal from Paris climate agreement addressed to the MIT community, Professor Rafael Reif, president of MIT, criticized President Trump’s decision to exit the Paris Climate Accords. In this refutation, we propose to clarify the scientific understanding of the Earth’s climate and to dispel the expensively fostered popular delusion that global warming will be dangerous and that, therefore, the Paris Agreement would be beneficial. Professor Reif wrote, “Yesterday, the White House took the position that the Paris climate agreement — a landmark effort to combat global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions — was a bad deal for America. ” There is no science unambiguously establishing that CO2 is the chief cause of the warming observed since the end of the Little Ice Age. The opposite has been repeatedly demonstrated. Ice cores have revealed that changes in CO2 concentration follow, rather than precede, changes in temperature. During the last deglaciation, the latest records show atmospheric CO2 lagging temperature by 50 to 500 years. Our enterprises and industries return to the air some of the CO2 that was formerly present there, and some warming may be expected. That warming will be small and beneficial. Professor Humlum and colleagues have demonstrated that changes in CO2 concentration follow changes in temperature after about months. The between changes in temperature and consequent changes in CO2 concentration are caused by outgassing of CO2 from the oceans when they warm and uptake by the oceans as they cool. In addition, the growth rate of the atmospheric CO2 has been slowing recently, linked to an enhanced terrestrial biosphere uptake. Our contribution to atmospheric CO2 adds to the effect of these fluctuations, but it does not add much. One of us (Harde 2017) has reached similar conclusions. Professor Reif’s assertion that global temperatures can be regulated by an international agreement to atone for our sins of emission is, therefore, at odds with scientific knowledge regarding cause and effect. King Canute’s warning to his English courtiers in 1032 A. D. that even the divinely anointed monarch could not command sea level should be heeded by bombastic intergovernmental agencies a millennium later. The professor’s assertion is, moreover, logically invalid, since the Paris agreement permits China and India to industrialize without limit on their emissions. Besides, the Paris agreement is not binding. Under its terms, no nation is compelled to sin no more, and many — even including Germany and Denmark, the leaders in renewable energies — now appear unlikely to meet the agreement’s targets. The Paris agreement is, in practice, a political tool for suppressing growth and redistributing wealth. Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, former chairman of the IPCC, said, in resigning in 2015, that the environment was his “religion,” and Ms. Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the U. N. Framework Convention on Climate Change until last year, openly stated in 2015 that the goal was to overturn capitalism — in her words, “to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the industrial revolution. ” Professor Reif writes, “The scientific consensus is overwhelming. ” The late author Michael Crichton, in his Caltech Michelin Lecture 2003, said, “In science consensus is irrelevant. … There is no such thing as consensus science. If it’s consensus, it isn’t science. If it’s science, it isn’t consensus. Period. ” Doubt is the seedcorn of science. Consensus is a political notion which, when pleaded, indicates that the pleader is totalitarian. As Abu Ali ibn said in the eleventh century: The seeker after truth [his splendid definition of the scientist] does not place his faith in any mere consensus, however venerable or widespread. Instead, he subjects what he has learned of it to his scientific knowledge, and to investigation, inspection, inquiry, checking, checking and checking again. The road to the truth is long and hard, but that is the road we must follow. The alleged “consensus” is nothing more than an agreement that the weather has warmed in the past 300 years. Yet the quantum and attribution of warming are hotly debated among climatologists. Even today, measuring global temperature is subject to errors, biases, missing data, and subjective adjustments. The estimation of global average temperature from satellite data is relatively new and employs a completely different temperature measurement method from the older methods. Nevertheless, the satellite data and balloon data have provided essentially identical estimates. Neither displays a worrying trend. Both are increasingly at odds not only with the surface temperature records, all of which have been adjusted ex post facto so as to show more warming than the original raw data showed, but also with the alarming projections of the serially unreliable computer models of climate on which the U. N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change profitably but misguidedly relies. Scientists agree that climate changes. It has done so since the first wisps of the Earth’s atmosphere formed, but they disagree on the causes of climate changes, including the mild warming since the Little Ice Age. Legates et al. (2015) for example, found that only 0. 3 percent of 11, 944 articles on climate and related topics, published during the 21 years of 1991 to 2011, had explicitly stated that recent warming was mostly . Professor Reif wrote, “As human activities emit more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the global average surface temperature will continue to rise, driving rising sea levels and extreme weather. ” In the last 20 years, we have released more than a third of all the CO2 produced since the beginning of the industrial period. Yet global mean surface temperature has remained essentially constant for 20 years, a fact that has been acknowledged by the IPCC, whose models failed to predict it. NOAA’s State of the Climate report for 2008 said that periods of 15 years or more without warming would indicate a discrepancy between prediction and observation — i. e. that the models were wrong. Just before the recent naturally occurring el Niño event raised global temperature, there had been 18 years and 9 months without any global warming at all. The climate models relied upon by the IPCC and the politicians they advise have predicted warming at about twice the rate observed during the past 27 years, during which the Earth has warmed at 0. 4 °C, about half of the 0. 75 °C warming rate implicit in IPCC’s explicit 1990 prediction that there would be 1. 0 °C warming from . Green and Armstrong (2014) conducted validation tests of the models and found that their forecasts were much less accurate than assuming there had been no global warming at all. The relative inaccuracy of the IPCC projections increased with longer ( ) horizons. Even forecasts of natural global cooling at a rate of 1 ºC per century were much more accurate over long periods than the IPCC’s projections of dangerous global warming. Ten years ago, Al Gore asserted that global temperatures had reached a dangerous “tipping point,” with extreme warming imminent and unavoidable. Professor Scott Armstrong challenged Mr. Gore to a bet based on the (2009)) scientific forecast of global mean temperatures. Mr. Gore declined the bet, but theclimatebet. com website keeps track of how the bet would have turned out. With the life of the bet due to end at the end of this year, the cumulative monthly error in the IPCC’s 0. 3 ºC per decade prediction is 22 percent larger than the error from the benchmark prediction of no warming at all. Why does Professor Reif continue to champion the notion of dangerous manmade global warming when it is so greatly at odds with observation? Professor Reif wrote, As human activities emit more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the global average surface temperature will continue to rise, driving rising sea levels and extreme weather. ” The average sea level rise since 1870 has been 1. .5 mm (about a twentieth of an inch) per year. Professor Mörner, a renowned researcher who has published more than 500 articles on this topic, has been unable to find observational evidence that supports the models’ predictions of dramatically accelerating sea level rise. Professor Reif wrote, “As human activities emit more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the global average surface temperature will continue to rise, driving rising sea levels and extreme weather. ” Observations during the last few decades indicate that extreme events, including tornadoes and hurricanes, have been decreasing, rather than increasing, both in number and in intensity. Moreover, the total accumulated cyclonic energy has also been declining. As MIT Emeritus Professor Richard Lindzen has explained, the decline in storminess is a consequence of reduced temperature differentials between the tropics and that arise when global average temperatures are warmer. Professor Reif wrote, “As the Pentagon describes it, climate change is a “threat multiplier” because its direct effects intensify other challenges, including mass migrations and conflicts over existential resources like water and food. ” Milder temperatures and increased CO2 levels green the planet, instead of browning it. Deserts are retreating, and vegetation cover has increased throughout recent decades. The production of maize, wheat, rice, and soybeans is at a record high. More CO2 in the air helps plants by CO2 fertilization. Our planet has seen more than 20 percent greening during the past three decades, half of which is due to the action of CO2. Forecasts of droughts are also not borne out by experience. For example, since the Australian Chief Climate Commissioner Professor Tim Flannery warned that dams would no longer fill owing to lack of rain, Australia has been subjected to a series of dramatic floods and overflowing dams. Governments’ naïve belief in Professor Flannery’s warnings appear to have led to policy actions and omissions that exacerbated flooding and failed to take full advantage of the rainfall when it came. The most comprehensive recent study of the worldwide extent of droughts (Hao et al. 2014) found that for 30 years the percentage of the Earth’s land mass under drought or severe drought has been declining. Though the U. N. Environment Program had published in 2005 a document predicting 50 million climate refugees by 2010, to date there have been no bona fide climate refugees. Nor has mass migration owing to global warming been observed. The one person recognized as a climate refugee had his demand rejected by the Supreme Court of New Zealand. He has returned to his island home, where he remains safe from inundation. Professor Reif wrote, “The carbon dioxide our cars and power plants emit today will linger in the atmosphere for a thousand years. ” The average residence time of a CO2 molecule in the Earth’s atmosphere is about four to seven years. Taking into account multiple exchanges leads to an estimate of a mean lifespan of 40 years (Harde 2017). Rather than a problem, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the prime nutrient for plants. Indeed, plants grow more strongly when CO2 concentrations are much higher than they currently are, which is why commercial greenhouses add CO2 to the air. The current CO2 concentration is higher than for 800, 000 years, but it is far lower than at almost any time in the previous history of our planet. Nor is CO2 a pollutant. It is a colorless, odorless gas that is not toxic to humans and other animals even at concentrations much higher than we are currently experiencing. It is also one of the most important fuels for phytoplankton, which use carbon dioxide for energy and that release oxygen. Up to 75 percent of the oxygen present in the air originates in the phytoplankton photosynthetic process. Moreover, during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras, there were long periods during which the levels of CO2 were much higher than today, but the temperatures were far colder. We are not aware of any explanation that squares the global warming theory with that fact. Professor Reif wrote, “In 2016 alone, solar industry employment grew by 25 percent, while wind jobs grew 32 percent. ” Growing jobs by subsidy is easy, provided that one cares nothing for the far greater number of jobs destroyed by the additional taxation, energy price hikes, or public borrowing necessary to pay for the subsidy. Several studies have shown that the creation of one “green” job results in the loss of two jobs elsewhere in the economy. Despite all those subsidies, solar power accounts for 0. 9 percent and wind generation for 5. 6 percent of total U. S. electricity production. Electricity itself is a small fraction of total energy consumption, including transportation, industrial processes, and heating. The alternative energy companies survive through heavy subsidies and supportive regulations. For example, SunEdison received $1. 5 billion in subsidies and loan guarantees, and yet it was compelled to file for bankruptcy. Solyndra is another example. “renewable” energy is cripplingly expensive to the customer but is often unprofitable even after massive subsidies from taxpayers. Europe is suffering from political rejection of fossil fuels: energy prices have soared, millions of poor people are unable to pay their energy bills, and businesses are relocating to where energy is cheaper. Theirs is not an example the U. S. should wish to follow. By withdrawing from the Paris agreement, President Trump did a wonderful thing for America and the world. He showed that advocacy masquerading as science should not be the basis for political decisions. He showed that to put America first is to put the planet first. And, by rejecting the of global warming, he began the long and necessary process of waking up the likes of Professor Reif to the fact that the diversion of time, effort, and trillions of dollars away from real environmental problems and towards the bogus but (to MIT) profitable of supposedly catastrophic global warming is as bad for the planet as it is for true science. | 0fake |
Trump Said The Media Lied About His PATHETIC Inauguration Crowds. CNN’s Response Is PERFECT (VIDEO) | Donald Trump is absolutely LIVID that the crowd for his presidential inauguration crowd yesterday was so pathetic and small (like his hands) in comparison to the massive turnout for former President Barack Obama s two inaugurations.He started throwing a temper tantrum yesterday, and it s continued into today as the Women s March On Washington drew massive support from around the world, making history as the largest, most widespread protest against a President.The resistance to his presidency has bothered Trump so much that he went off on the media in a speech at the CIA, claiming that the media has been lying about his shamefully low attendance numbers. Despite the fact that many Americans witnessed just how any empty the inauguration was through live footage, Trump is still trying to convince everyone that the media is dishonest. He s gotten so desperate for approval and attention that he actually put photos of the crowd (comprised mostly of his own VIPs) in the White House press briefing room in a sorry attempt to show that people actually attended his big day. However, one of Trump s main targets in the press has just hit back.CNN, a network that Trump has called fake news , ran a segment on Trump s ridiculous claims by talking about Trump s CIA speech. Jim Acosta, a CNN reporter that Trump had attacked recently, explained Trump s numerous comments to his colleague, Jake Tapper. After the long list of childish remarks and behavior was finished, Tapper couldn t have been more hysterical as he completely deadpanned and said: I can t think of anything more important to the American people. The moment was so awkward and perfect, that CNN closed the topic completely and that s what hurts Trump the most. Nothing makes him more upset than when attention is taken away from him. You can watch this moment below:Featured image via screenshots | 1real |
Review: In ‘Queen of Katwe,’ a Pawn Finds Her Crown Through Chess - The New York Times | “Irresistible” is one of those adjectives that critics should handle with utmost care. No matter how universally charming or winning a movie or a performance might seem to be, there is always a chance that somebody, somewhere, will be able to resist it. For all I know that may be the case with “Queen of Katwe,” but if there is anyone out there capable of remaining unmoved by this sports story, I don’t think I want to meet that person. To be fair, the film, directed by Mira Nair, based on Tim Crothers’s book and enabled by the magical corporate synergy of Disney and ESPN, belongs to a genre that specializes in defeating skepticism and swelling the stoniest hearts. Just as surely as a creaky door or a clap of thunder will summon shivers of fright the thousandth time you hear it, so will the spectacle of a scrappy group of strivers following their unlikely coach to victory bring lumps to throats and tears to eyes. Did “Hoosiers” make you cry? “Queen of Katwe” will wreck you. Katwe is a poor township outside of Kampala, the Ugandan capital, and it is the hometown of Phiona Mutesi, a chess prodigy played by Madina Nalwanga in her film debut. Phiona lives with three siblings under the watchful, tired eye of their mother, Nakku Harriet (Lupita Nyong’o) who has lost her husband and another child and who scratches out a living selling food on the street. The family never has enough money, and Uganda is depicted as a country of stark inequalities ruled by an unforgiving cash economy. Shelter, schooling, medical treatment and transportation to the hospital after an accident must be paid for up front. Harriet, her mouth a permanent frown, is nearly consumed by worry and fatigue. Her eldest daughter, Night (Taryn Kyaze) has taken up with an unsavory guy on a motorbike. The middle children, Phiona and her younger brother, Brian (Martin Kabanza) scarcely have enough to eat. Chess enters their world thanks to Robert Katende (David Oyelowo) who teaches the game to Katwe’s children as part of a youth ministry. Robert, whose own youth was scarred by poverty and war, has an engineering degree but lacks the connections that would help land him a job working for the government or a private company. He is an inspiring coach — when Mr. Oyelowo wants to inspire you, you are darn well going to be inspired — and also a sly and cheerful class warrior. He his way into a chess tournament held at a snooty private school, and proudly leads his charges into battle against opponents who are reluctant to shake their hands. The sight of schoolboys beaten by a girl — a poor girl, at that — would be satisfying even if “Queen of Katwe” were a less vivid and engaging movie. In Ms. Nair’s hands, Phiona’s story has a richness and unpredictability that separates it from other, superficially similar movies. It also has the buoyant, cleareyed feel for the particulars of culture and place that is among this director’s great gifts, evident in films as different as “Mississippi Masala,” “Monsoon Wedding” and “Vanity Fair. ” Phiona’s circumstances are harsh, and the film hardly minimizes the brutal choices and painful limitations placed on women like Harriet and Night. Nor does it suggest that winning chess matches is a magical solution to the world’s injustice. “Hope is not a tactic,” Robert likes to say. But despair is not a strategy, and Ms. Nair and the screenwriter, William Wheeler, refuse to turn African life into a pageant of grimness and deprivation. “Queen of Katwe” is likely to be embraced by young viewers, and there is nothing here they won’t be able to handle. Adults, meanwhile, can surrender to some melodramatic pleasures, as the busy plot takes in Harriet and Robert’s struggles as well as Phiona’s. But in the end it is Ms. Nalwanga who will rivet all eyes in the way that untrained, naturally charismatic screen performers sometimes can, especially when supported by actors with the technical expertise of Ms. Nyong’o and Mr. Oyelowo. Ms. Nalwanga’s watchful, quiet presence conveys both shyness and determination, a habit of humility in tension with an almost superhuman intelligence. Phiona’s awakening sense of her talent is the engine that drives the main plot of “Queen of Katwe” and also what makes it an affecting character study. When she starts to learn chess, she can barely read, and her growing awareness of the powers of her mind is thrilling to watch. Ms. Nair makes this process as visible, as palpable — as irresistible — as any boxing match or soccer game. “Queen of Katwe” is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). A few scary moments and hints of sexuality. Running time: 2 hours 4 minutes. | 0fake |
JILL STEIN’S PA Vote Recount Effort Not Looking Good For Crooked Hillary | We mentioned in an article yesterday that the real objective behind this recount effort is probably not to find voter fraud, but to strip Trump of the electoral votes in the traditionally blue, must-win states of PA, WI, and MI. If these state are in the process of a recount effort, Trump cannot use their electoral votes in the final tally. A Republican majority Congress would then have to vote to allow Trump to use the votes. The hope is likely that this action would throw Trump s presidency into question with voters, thus setting him up as an illegitimate President in the minds of American citizens. The good news is, the possiblity of a recount in the state of Pennsylvania with 20 electoral votes, is not looking too good for Hillary right now Jill Stein s Hillary Clinton s effort to recount presidential votes in three swing states already appears to be sputtering in Philadelphia.While Stein, a former presidential candidate, has raised millions of dollars and filed for a recount in Wisconsin, the process in Pennsylvania is much more complicated. Candidates cannot file for a recount themselves. Instead, they either have to go to court and attempt to prove widespread voter fraud (there s no evidence of that at this point) or organize a voter-initiated recount effort.Stein s team is going for the latter, asking for thousands of volunteers across Pennsylvania to mobilize. For a voting division also known as a precinct to be recounted, three voters from that division must sign and file an affidavit.As of noon Monday, the Philadelphia city Board of Elections had received petitions for 35 of the 1,686 voting divisions in Philadelphia, according to City Commissioner Al Schmidt. He s spoken with organizers who expect another 15 to be filed. That means that only about 50 of the 1,686 voting divisions in Philadelphia, or about 3 percent, would be recounted as a part of Stein s effort.Stein needed more than 5,000 people in Philadelphia alone to sign petitions to file for a recount and would have had to mobilize about 30,000 people statewide to get a full recount going in Pennsylvania. She contends that though her campaign is targeting recounts in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, it is not coordinating with the campaign of Hillary Clinton, who lost all three of those states to President-elect Donald Trump. The Green Party candidate has so far raised nearly $7 million to spearhead the recount.Wanda Murren, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of State, said in a statement Monday afternoon that the state is working to gather information from the 67 counties regarding their progress in certifying election returns. She said some counties have already certified their elections, therefore closing the five-day window to petition at the county level for a recount.The deadline for voters to file for a recount is the end of the day today.Meanwhile, officials in Allegheny County have said they will delay certifying their election results as activists are filing petitions seeking a recount. BillyPenn | 1real |
Hillary Clinton: Wall Street's favorite enemy | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton began her presidential campaign by promising to do what it takes to rein in Wall Street. Boosted by Wall Street’s toughest critics, U.S. senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic candidate has declared “the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top” and said she would raise bank fees and tighten banking regulations. She has encouraged regulators to break up too-risky banks. And yet, Wall Street appears unperturbed by the prospect of a Clinton presidency. In fact, the banking industry has supported Clinton with buckets of cash and stocks have sold off on days when the Clinton campaign stumbles. Privately, bankers say that they trust her to remain a pragmatist who will keep the current regulatory regime laid down by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform legislation passed in 2010. “I don’t think Clinton wakes up thinking about Wall Street,” one senior banking industry lobbyist said. There are hints in apparently leaked email discussions among Clinton’s campaign staff that bankers are not far off the mark when they count on her to tread lightly. Pressed during the campaign by progressive Democrats to call for a revival of the Glass-Steagall Act that would require separation of commercial and investment banking, Clinton ultimately refused. She also weighed another progressive favorite - a tax on financial transactions- but instead recommended a far narrower plan to tax only canceled orders by high speed traders. Ultimately, what bankers most like about Clinton is that she is not Donald Trump. Many financiers fear her unorthodox Republican rival could disrupt global trade, damage geopolitical relationships and rattle markets, industry analysts and participants say. “Those are the kind of things that corner offices think about,” said Karen Shaw Petrou of Federal Financial Analytics Inc, whose firm advises financial firms about U.S. regulatory policy. “The overriding concern about Trump has dominated people’s thinking.” Trump’s candidacy has upended traditional political alliances and bankers that usually contribute more to the Republicans have been flinging money at Clinton. Employees of the 17 largest bank holding companies and their subsidiaries have been sending her $10 for every $1 they contributed to Trump, according to a Reuters analysis. In 2012, the same group contributed twice as much to Republican candidate Mitt Romney as it did to President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign. People who work for hedge funds and private equity firms have contributed more than $56 million to Clinton’s presidential campaign and the supporting groups that face no legal cap on donations. Trump’s campaign and related groups received just $243,000 from donors in the same sector, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. “It’s basically going with the devil you know over the devil you don’t,” said Brian Gardner, a managing director of New York investment firm Keefe Bruyette & Woods. What also helped, he said, was the familiarity with Hillary and Bill Clinton dating back to the 1990s when her husband was president and ushered in a period of financial deregulation. “There is a closeness and a comfort level between the titans on Wall Street and the Clintons,” he said. For bankers, the biggest worry is a scenario where Clinton wins and the Democrats take control of the House and the Senate, with progressives such as Warren and Sanders holding sway over everything from new tax laws to appointments of regulators. Already, Warren has called for immediate dismissal of the Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White. Last year, Warren successfully led a movement to derail Obama’s plan to appoint banker Antonio Weiss to the top job at Treasury. Warren and other progressives will press Clinton to be tough on Wall Street in return for their campaign support. Clinton “leaned heavily on Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, and progressive ideas, when she needed to excite voters,” Adam Green with the Progressive Change Campaign Committee said. “Elizabeth Warren has proven she’s a very powerful ally to have on your side. And it’s well known she’s also a formidable opponent to have against you,” Green said. However, recent polls suggest it is unlikely that Democrats will take the House and the future of the Senate is far from certain. Even if the Senate goes Democratic, it is likely to be led by New York Senator Chuck Schumer, a moderate who has represented Wall Street with the industry’s backing. Clinton has said she will propose a “risk fee” on the largest financial firms and tighten up rules which allow banks to circumvent bans on proprietary trading by investing in hedge funds. Like Trump, she has proposed to end the tax break that private equity investors enjoy, termed “carried interest.” Yet such provisions will be probably tied up in a much larger tax initiative that will involve months, if not a year or more, of horse trading in Washington. Ultimately, it could end up overshadowed by other progressive goals, such as infrastructure funding, college affordability, or raising the minimum wage. Those are the causes that Clinton has prioritized and they are likely to supersede her anti-bank rhetoric, say bankers. One industry trade group representative said: “We’re not in her top 10 to take care of.” | 0fake |
JUDGE JEANINE PIRRO DECLARES WAR On Hillary…Leaked E-Mails Prove The Election Was Rigged [Video] | Judge Jeanine Pirro rips into Crooked Hillary for her collusion in rigging the election process so she would come out on top of Bernie Sanders: | 1real |
TRAITOR: GOP Senator Lindsey Graham TRASHES and THREATENS President Trump…Tells Voters He Won’t Back Down On AMNESTY PUSH | Senator Lindsey Graham made a bold announcement the other day when he told his constituents in South Carolina that if they were against amnesty for illegals and outsourcing, to vote him out. Most Republicans outside of the state of South Carolina have been scratching their heads for years over the popularity of the pro-climate change, war-hawk and pro-amnesty Senator Graham in his home state. It seems like this might be the perfect time for voters in South Carolina to replace the liberal senator who is clearly a traitor to the president and to the Republican Party.Watch Senator Lindsey Graham tell his allies at CNN that President Trump is weak for publicly addressing his concerns about his AG Jeff Sessions:Sen. Lindsey Graham says President Trump is demonstrating "weakness" through his attacks on AG Jeff Sessions https://t.co/a92rbGyWC1 CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 26, 2017Watch Senator Graham, as he threatens President Trump during an interview with NBC over the possibility that he may fire or go after the DOJ s special counsel Robert Mueller, who was hired by the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein to investigate possible ties to Russia and the Trump campaign.WATCH: "Any effort to go after Mueller could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency," says Sen. Lindsey Graham. pic.twitter.com/x2scZCKUIo NBC News (@NBCNews) July 27, 2017Senator Graham has been jealous of Donald Trump since the primaries where Graham got shellacked by Donald Trump. Watch his embarrassing appearance on the Daily Show with Trevor Graham during the primary elections, as he accuses Donald Trump, as well as his own party of being racists and xenophobes .Go to the 3:47 mark to watch Lindsey Graham ask Noah Trevor of The Daily Show if he s a citizen or if he has a green card to which Trevor replies, no . Graham then proceeds to tell Noah Trevor that If I were you, I d be in a hurry. If Trump wins, your days are numbered pal. Young, black, liberal guys from Africa is not gonna work with him. Watch Graham tell his constituents he ll be supporting amnesty whether they agree with him or not. He actually urges South Carolina citizens to vote against him if they disagree with him. He talks about illegal aliens kids like their all sweet young children looking for a better life. Someone should tell him about MS-13 the most dangerous international gang in the world that is growing in numbers as Obama opened the flood gates for them to come in while he was president:Watch pro-man made climate change Lindsey Graham attempt to shame President Trump prior to his decision to pull out of the Paris Climate deal:Last but not least, and or anyone who may have forgotten, RINO Lindsey Graham also warned Republicans to back off their attacks on Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, as Graham warned Republicans risk getting Burned on Benghazi issue. | 1real |
BREAKING: NO CHARGES For Police Officer In Shooting Death Of #KeithScott…Ex-Con Muslim Who Beat Wife, Kids, Previously Shot At Cops | Riots erupted in Charlotte after police officers shot and killed Keith Lamont Scott. Rioters didn t care that Scott had a history of shooting at cops, they didn t care that he was abusive to his wife and small child. Keith s mom said he was a devout Muslim. Black Lives Matter had an agenda and to hell with facts. Several months later, the real story comes out and it turns out the police officers were only acting in self-defense when they shot and killed the belligerent, armed with a stolen gun, fired at police #KeithLamontScott. Just announced: No charges will be brought against Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officer Brentley Vinson in the September shooting death of a man in University City, District Attorney Andrew Murray announced Wednesday.Keith Lamont Scott, 43, was shot Sept. 20 in a confrontation with officers outside his apartment.Murray said that evidence in the case shows that Scott stepped out of his SUV with a gun in his hand and ignored at least 10 commands from the five officers on the scene to drop it.Murray: Ofcr Vinson acted lawfully when he shot Scott. No charges will be filed. pic.twitter.com/HXq7Ldn5vL Mark Becker (@MarkBeckerWSOC9) November 30, 2016Murray: I know that some in the community will be frustrated but I'm asking we should not jump to conclusions pic.twitter.com/dN5hW6Q1Q0 Mark Becker (@MarkBeckerWSOC9) November 30, 2016Murray said that Scott obtained the gun which had been stolen in Gaston County 18 days before the confrontation. One bullet was found in the chamber of the gun, the safety was off and Murray said Scott s DNA was found on the grip and ammunition slide.Murray said that speculation in the community that Scott was unarmed initial reports from a family member on Facebook said he was holding a book were untrue. A reading book was not found in the front or back seats of Mr. Scott s SUV, Murray said.Officer Vinson s gun was examined after the shooting and four bullets were missing, Murray said. Guns taken from the other officers at the scene had not been fired, he said.People who claimed on social media that they had seen the shooting and Scott was unarmed were later found to be in error three people who d made the claim told State Bureau of Investigation agents in interviews that they hadn t actually seen the shooting.WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT: The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department released the full-length dash camera video of the fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott. Scott s family asked the police to release the video to the public. CMPDMurray said he ran the evidence in the case past 15 veteran prosecutors in his officer and they were unanimous in their recommendation that there was insufficient evidence to charge Vinson in the case.In the aftermath of Scott s death, Charlotte was roiled by two nights of rioting and nearly a week of street demonstrations. After street violence, dozens of arrests and the death of one man in uptown, Gov. Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency.Murray: Scott's widow told CMPD Detectives that Scott did not own a gun but her texts suggest otherwise Mark Becker (@MarkBeckerWSOC9) November 30, 2016Murray: live round found in chamber of scott's gun pic.twitter.com/NTQTOviPSl Mark Becker (@MarkBeckerWSOC9) November 30, 2016Murray: Scott's DNA on slide and grip of the gun pic.twitter.com/Q5dBX2CKwm Mark Becker (@MarkBeckerWSOC9) November 30, 2016Murray: totality of evidence does not support shot to Scott's back being first pic.twitter.com/m82mDuPFZN Mark Becker (@MarkBeckerWSOC9) November 30, 2016https://twitter.com/JaredWyand/status/803991294406230016 | 1real |
First charges filed in U.S. special counsel's Russia investigation: source | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal grand jury on Friday approved the first charges in the investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, a source briefed on the matter told Reuters. The indictment was sealed under orders from a federal judge so it was not clear what the charges were or who the target was, the source said, adding that it could be unsealed as early as Monday. The filing of charges by the grand jury in Washington was first reported on Friday by CNN, which said the target could be taken into custody as soon as Monday. U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in January that Russia interfered in the election to try to help President Donald Trump defeat Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton through a campaign of hacking and releasing embarrassing emails, and disseminating propaganda via social media to discredit her campaign. Special counsel Robert Mueller, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is investigating whether Trump campaign officials colluded with those Russian efforts. “If the Special Counsel finds it necessary and appropriate, the Special Counsel is authorized to prosecute federal crimes arising from the investigation of these matters,” Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said in a May 17 letter appointing Mueller. Sources familiar with Mueller’s investigation said he has used that broad authority to investigate links between Trump aides and foreign governments as well as possible money laundering, tax evasion and other financial crimes. Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, declined to comment on Friday. Trump, a Republican who was elected president last November, has denied allegations that his campaign colluded with Russians and condemned investigations into the matter as “a witch hunt”. The Kremlin has denied the allegations. Mueller’s investigation also includes an effort to determine whether Trump or any of his aides tried to obstruct justice. The special counsel’s team has conducted interviews with former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, former spokesman Sean Spicer and other current and former White House officials. In July, FBI agents raided the home in Virginia of Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, whose financial and real estate dealings and prior work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine are being investigated by Mueller’s team. Mueller was appointed to lead the investigation a week after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, who was heading a federal probe into possible collusion with Russia. Trump initially said he fired Comey because his leadership of the FBI was inadequate and hurt morale, but in a later interview with NBC he cited “this Russia thing” as his reason. The Russia investigation has cast a shadow over Trump’s nine-month-old presidency and widened the partisan rift between Republicans and Democrats. Republican lawmakers earlier this week launched investigations to examine several of Trump’s longstanding political grievances, including the FBI probe of Hillary Clinton’s emails and her alleged role in a sale of U.S. uranium to a Russian firm. Mueller’s team has also investigated Michael Flynn, who was an adviser to Trump’s campaign and later briefly served as his national security adviser. Flynn was fired from that post in February after misleading Vice President Mike Pence about the extent of his conversations with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak last year. While he was on Trump’s campaign team, Flynn also had a $600,000 contract from a Turkish businessman to help discredit U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by Turkey’s government of instigating a failed coup in July 2016. Former CIA director James Woolsey, who was also an adviser to the Trump campaign, has alleged that Flynn discussed with the businessman and two Turkish government ministers the idea of covertly spiriting Gulen out of the United States to face charges in Turkey. Jonathan Franks, a spokesman for Woolsey, said on Friday that Woolsey and his wife have been in communication with the FBI and Mueller’s team about the claim. Woolsey and his wife, Nancye Miller, “have responded to every request, whether from the FBI, or, more recently, the Office of the Special Counsel,” Franks said in a statement. Flynn has previously denied through a spokesperson that such a plan was ever discussed. Reuters reported on Thursday that Woolsey and his wife last year pitched a $10 million project to the same Turkish businessman who had agreed a smaller contract with Flynn. They did not win a contract. Bidding for a lobbying or consulting contract with a foreign company or government is not illegal but Flynn came under scrutiny because he waited until March to retroactively register with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for the work he did on the Gulen project. | 0fake |
Former Navy SEAL and Harvard Grad “Body-Slams” #FakeNews CNN Host [VIDEO] | Former Navy SEAL and GOP Rep. Scott Taylor, R-Va., body-slammed #FakeNews CNN in an interview on Monday saying that they and the rest of the liberal media are getting played by President Donald Trump. He criticizes them for covering his tweets and not focussing on the real issues . I think every time he does this you guys overreact and I say you guys, I mean the media in general. You guys play right into his hands. You guys are playing right into his hands. You overreact, and then he s able to use that politically, Taylor said. You ve got to start reporting on news. This is not really news. He said the media needs to talk about real issues . You re falling into a trap by covering tweets all the time. There s a lot of news out there There s a lot of focus on health care, a lot of focus on veterans, a lot of focus on the South China Sea. There s a lot of news out there to cover. Source: Washington Examiner | 1real |
Trump Campaign Manager And CEO Outed As Members Of A Secret Far-Right Extremist Group | The Southern Poverty Law Center released a report on Wednesday, outing both of the newest additions to the Trump campaign as members of a secretive far-right extremist group made up of the most powerful conservatives and white supremacists in the United States.In what was described as a shakeup, Trump hired conservative pollster Kellyanne Conway and Breitbart bigwig Stephen Bannon as his campaign s CEO (Whatever the hell that is, since presidential campaigns don t have CEO s.)According to the SLPC s report, Conway and Bannon are members of the Council for National Policy (CNP). This right-wing group is known for its secrecy and is comprised of some of the country s most powerful conservatives. The CNP is an intensely secretive and shadowy group of what The New York Times once described as the most powerful conservatives in the country, reads the SPLC report. In addition, it is so tight-lipped that it tells people not to admit their membership or even name the group. Revealing when or where the group meets, or what it discusses, is also forbidden. The membership rolls also boast some of the most notorious white supremacists in the country as well. The CNP is not controversial so much for the conservatives who dominate it activists of the religious right and the so-called culture wars, along with a smattering of wealthy financiers, Congressional operatives, right-wing consultants and Tea Party operatives as for the many real extremists who are included. The report states that the CNP s members include Michael Peroutka, a neo-Confederate who for years was on the board of the white supremacist League of the South; Jerome Corsi, a strident Obama birther and the propagandist hit man responsible for the Swift boating of John Kerry; Joseph Farah, who runs the wildly conspiracist news operation known as WorldNetDaily; Mat Staver, the Liberty Counsel leader who has worked to re-criminalize gay sex; Philip Zodhaites, another anti-gay activist who is charged with helping a self-described former lesbian who kidnapped her daughter from her former partner and fled the country; and a large number of other similar characters. Earlier this year, the SPLC got their hands on the CNP membership directory for 2014. This document showed that Bannon had been a regular member and Conway had served as a member of the group s executive committee. It is unknown what their current standing with the group is today.When the SPLC first published the original article on the CNP several months ago, they pointed out that it is very much within their rights to operate in secret. However, this means that the group also provides an important venue in which relatively mainstream conservatives meet and very possibly are influenced by real extremists, people who regularly defame LGBT people with utter falsehoods, describe Latino immigrants as a dangerous group of rapists and disease-carriers, engage in the kind of wild-eyed conspiracy theorizing for which the John Birch Society is famous, and even suggest that certain people should be stoned to death in line with Old Testament law. The SPLC concluded that it is not known how their contacts within the CNP may have affected Conway and Bannon. But they reiterated what they wrote in May: At a time of extreme political polarization in our society, in the middle of an ugly presidential contest which has featured an almost unsurpassed record of ethnic, racial and sexual insults and lies, Americans deserve to know who their ostensible leaders are mixing with as we collectively decide our country s future. That is as true of campaign leaders as it is of political candidates, the SPLC added.Trump has been trying to distance himself from the alt-right, the modern term for white supremacists, especially after Hillary Clinton gave a blistering speech calling out his ties with the fringe element. Bannon s connection to Breitbart has drawn scrutiny, as the blogspot is known for its racist, sexist, and anti-Semitic content. But from the looks of it, Trump and his campaign are sitting right in the laps of these right-wing extremists. Conway and Bannon s involvement with the CNP just made that abundantly clear.Featured image via Rawstory and Liberal America | 1real |
State of Hawaii asks judge to clarify Trump travel ban ruling | (Reuters) - The state of Hawaii on Thursday asked a federal judge in Honolulu to clarify a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this week which reinstated parts of President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban. In a court filing, the state of Hawaii said the U.S. government intended to violate the Supreme Court’s instructions by improperly excluding from the United States people who actually have a close family relationship to U.S. persons. | 0fake |
Trump decides to skip White House press dinner | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he would not attend the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, a high-profile event that draws celebrities, politicians and journalists. “I will not be attending the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!”, Trump wrote on Twitter. On the campaign trail and in the White House, Trump has had a strained relationship with the press, calling journalists “the enemy of the people” and frequently criticizing outlets and individual reporters whose coverage he does not like. The reporters’ group said it would go ahead with its April 29 dinner despite Trump’s absence. The Washington event typically draws movie stars, politicians and business leaders to hear a humorous speech by the sitting president. The dinner “has been and will continue to be a celebration of the First Amendment and the important role played by an independent news media in a healthy republic,” said Jeff Mason, a Reuters White House correspondent who heads the association this year. Ronald Reagan was the last president to sit out the event after he was shot in 1981. Some news outlets such as Bloomberg News and the New Yorker have said they will not host the lavish after-parties that have been a fixture of past events. On Friday, the White House excluded several major U.S. news organizations, including some it has criticized, from an off-camera briefing held by the White House press secretary. Reporters for CNN, The New York Times, Politico, The Los Angeles Times and BuzzFeed were not allowed into the session in the office of press secretary Sean Spicer, a decision that drew strong protests. The event occasionally makes news: in 2011, President Barack Obama delivered a scathing evisceration of Trump, joking that the mogul, who sat stone-faced in the audience, would move on from questioning Obama’s citizenship to figuring out “did we fake the moon landing.” Critics say the event encourages journalists to cozy up to politicians they should cover aggressively. | 0fake |
UK announces new troop deployment near Russia's borders | Military British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon (Photo by AFP)
British Defense Minister Michael Fallon says the UK is set to deploy hundreds of troops to the Baltic region in Europe to support its NATO allies in the face of a “more assertive Russia.”
Fallon told a NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels on Wednesday that Britain would send 800 soldiers to Estonia to fulfill its pledge to deliver one of four battalions to NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence in Eastern Europe.
“Backed by a rising defense budget, this deployment of air, land and sea forces shows that we will continue to play a leading role in NATO, supporting the defense and security of our allies from the north to the south of the alliance,” Fallon said.
NATO had announced in July that it would deploy, on a rotational basis, four multinational battalions to Poland and the Baltic states—Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania—to deter what it referred to as “any Russian incursion.”
During his address at the meeting, Fallon also said that four British Typhoon fighter jets would be dispatched to Romania under the NATO Southern Air Policing mission, which is supposed to protect the Baltic states' airspace against possible attacks from Russia.
“This is about two things: reassurance, and that needs to be done with some formidable presence, and deterrence,” Fallon had said in an earlier interview. “This is not simply a trip-wire….This is a serious military presence.”
The move is likely to draw criticism from Moscow, which has been angered by NATO’s military buildup on its Western borders.
The US-led military alliance cut its ties with Moscow in 2014 and has been reinforcing its presence near Russia’s borders ever since.
The UK and Russia have strong disagreements over a number of issues, mainly the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine.
The two countries’ military forces have been involved in a series of aerial and naval confrontations, with Britain sending its jets and warships on several occasions to intercept Russian bombers and naval fleets.
The latest of those encounters occurred on Thursday, when the Russian aircraft career Admiral Kuznetsov and its seven-ship task force were “shadowed” by two British warships on a course to sail through the North Sea and English Channel, on their way to Syria. Loading ... | 1real |
Sudan summons U.S. charge d'affaires over Trump immigration order | CAIRO (Reuters) - Sudan summoned the U.S. charge d’affaires on Sunday to complain about an order by President Donald Trump that temporarily bans the entry of its citizens to the United States. The Sudanese foreign ministry said in a statement the decision sent a “negative message”, coming two weeks after the United States announced it would ease economic sanctions on Sudan. It urged the United States to reconsider the decision. Trump on Friday put a four-month hold on allowing refugees into the United States and temporarily barred travelers from Syria and six other Muslim-majority countries including Sudan, saying the moves would help protect Americans from terrorist attacks. | 0fake |
BEWARE THE UNITED NATIONS PUSH FOR “GLOBAL GOVERNANCE” FOR THE “GOOD OF THE PLANET” | Beware of this agenda that s Agenda 21 for those who aren t familiar with the term sustainable development. Your every move will be micromanaged for the common good . I am really disappointed in the Pope s position on this and many other things. He s so far left on so many issues but the fact that he s buying into the global warming scam is very disturbing. The UN plans to launch a brand new plan for managing the entire globe at the Sustainable Development Summit that it will be hosting from September 25th to September 27th. Some of the biggest names on the planet, including Pope Francis, will be speaking at this summit. This new sustainable agenda focuses on climate change of course, but it also specifically addresses topics such as economics, agriculture, education and gender equality. For those wishing to expand the scope of global governance , sustainable development is the perfect umbrella because just about all human activity affects the environment in some way. The phrase for the good of the planet can be used as an excuse to micromanage virtually every aspect of our lives.So for those that are concerned about the growing power of the United Nations, this summit in September is something to keep an eye on. Never before have I seen such an effort to promote a UN summit on the environment, and this new sustainable development agenda is literally a framework for managing the entire globe.If you are not familiar with this new sustainable development agenda, the following is what the official United Nations website says about it The United Nations is now in the process of defining Sustainable Development Goals as part a new sustainable development agenda that must finish the job and leave no one behind. This agenda, to be launched at the Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015, is currently being discussed at the UN General Assembly, where Member States and civil society are making contributions to the agenda.The process of arriving at the post 2015 development agenda is Member State-led with broad participation from Major Groups and other civil society stakeholders. There have been numerous inputs to the agenda, notably a set of Sustainable Development Goals proposed by an open working group of the General Assembly, the report of an intergovernmental committee of experts on sustainable development financing, General Assembly dialogues on technology facilitation and many others. Posted below are the 17 sustainable development goals that are being proposed so far. Some of them seem quite reasonable. After all, who wouldn t want to end poverty . But as you go down this list, you soon come to realize that just about everything is involved in some way. In other words, this truly is a template for radically expanded global governance . Once again, this was taken directly from the official UN website 1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture3. Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation, and foster innovation10. Reduce inequality within and among countries11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts (taking note of agreements made by the UNFCCC forum)14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification and halt and reverse land degradation, and halt biodiversity loss16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable developmentAs you can see, this list goes far beyond saving the environment or fighting climate change .It truly covers just about every realm of human activity.Another thing that makes this new sustainable development agenda different is the unprecedented support that it is getting from the Vatican and from Pope Francis himself.In fact, Pope Francis is actually going to travel to the UN and give an address to kick off the Sustainable Development Summit on September 25th His Holiness Pope Francis will visit the UN on 25 September 2015, and give an address to the UN General Assembly immediately ahead of the official opening of the UN Summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda. This Pope has been very open about his belief that climate change is one of the greatest dangers currently facing our world. Just a couple of weeks ago, he actually brought UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to the Vatican to speak about climate change and sustainable development. Here is a summary of what happened On 28 April, the Secretary-General met with His Holiness Pope Francis at the Vatican and later addressed senior religious leaders, along with the Presidents of Italy and Ecuador, Nobel laureates and leading scientists on climate change and sustainable development.Amidst an unusually heavy rainstorm in Rome, participants at the historic meeting gathered within the ancient Vatican compound to discuss what the Secretary-General has called the defining challenge of our time. The mere fact that a meeting took place between the religious and scientific communities on climate change was itself newsworthy. That it took place at the Vatican, was hosted by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and featured the Secretary-General as the keynote speaker was all the more striking. In addition, Pope Francis is scheduled to release a major encyclical this summer which will be primarily focused on the environment and climate change. The following comes from the New York Times The much-anticipated environmental encyclical that Pope Francis plans to issue this summer is already being translated into the world s major languages from the Latin final draft, so there s no more tweaking to be done, several people close to the process have told me in recent weeks. I think that we can get a good idea of the kind of language that we will see in this encyclical from another Vatican document which was recently released. It is entitled Climate Change and The Common Good , and it was produced by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. The following is a brief excerpt Unsustainable consumption coupled with a record human population and the uses of inappropriate technologies are causally linked with the destruction of the world s sustainability and resilience. Widening inequalities of wealth and income, the world-wide disruption of the physical climate system and the loss of millions of species that sustain life are the grossest manifestations of unsustainability. The continued extraction of coal, oil and gas following the business-as-usual mode will soon create grave existential risks for the poorest three billion, and for generations yet unborn. Climate change resulting largely from unsustainable consumption by about 15% of the world s population has become a dominant moral and ethical issue for society. There is still time to mitigate unmanageable climate changes and repair ecosystem damages, provided we reorient our attitude toward nature and, thereby, toward ourselves. Climate change is a global problem whose solution will depend on our stepping beyond national affiliations and coming together for the common good. Such transformational changes in attitudes would help foster the necessary institutional reforms and technological innovations for providing the energy sources that have negligible effect on global climate, atmospheric pollution and eco-systems, thus protecting generations yet to be born. Religious institutions can and should take the lead in bringing about that change in attitude towards Creation.Read more: Zero Hedge | 1real |
U.S. approves license for Ukraine to buy small arms from U.S. firms | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department has approved an export license for Ukraine to buy certain light weapons and small arms from U.S. manufacturers, spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Wednesday. Department records show Ukraine has bought small amounts of those types of weapons for several years, both before and after the 2014 Russian annexation of Ukraine s Crimean peninsula. The department notified Congress of the decision on Dec. 13, Nauert said, adding that the U.S. government was not selling the weapons directly to the Kiev government but was allowing Ukraine to buy from U.S. manufacturers. Under the previous two administrations, the U.S. government has approved export licenses to Ukraine, so this is nothing new, Nauert said. The license covers weapons in categories such as semi-automatic and automatic firearms up to, and including, .50 caliber weapons. It also includes combat shotguns, silencers, military scopes, and flash suppressors, as well as parts. Nauert said the U.S. government had not directly provided lethal defensive equipment to Ukraine, nor had it ruled out doing so. U.S. exporters can apply for direct commercial sales licenses at any time and those are reviewed by the State Department on a case-by-case basis, she said. | 0fake |
Turkey's Erdogan presses world leaders to help Myanmar's Rohingya | ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey s President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday he was pressing world leaders to do more to help Myanmar s Rohingya Muslims, who face what he has described as genocide. Nearly 400 people have been killed in northwest Myanmar over the past week in insurgent attacks on security posts and an army crackdown. Aid agencies estimate that 73,000 Rohingya have fled to neighboring Bangladesh from Myanmar since violence erupted. You watched the situation that Myanmar and Muslims are in, Erdogan said in Istanbul, where he was attending the funeral of a Turkish soldier. You saw how villages have been burnt... Humanity remained silent to the massacre in Myanmar . He said Turkey would raise the issue at the United Nations General Assembly in New York later this month. As current head of the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation, Erdogan had discussed the violence with around 20 world leaders. There are some leaders we can achieve results with and some that we cannot. Not everyone has the same sensitivity, he said. We will do our duty, Erdogan said, adding that Turkey was continuing to deliver aid to the region. Myanmar has urged Muslims in the northwest to cooperate in the search for insurgents, whose coordinated attacks on security posts and an army crackdown have led to one of the deadliest bouts of violence to engulf the Rohingya community in decades. The treatment of Buddhist-majority Myanmar s roughly 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya is the biggest challenge facing leader Aung San Suu Kyi, accused by Western critics of not speaking out for a religious minority that has long complained of persecution. Erdogan said on Friday that the death of hundreds of Rohingya in Myanmar over the past week constituted a genocide aimed at Muslim communities in the region. Hundreds more refugees on Sunday walked through rice paddies from the Naf river separating the two countries into Bangladesh, straining scarce resources of aid groups and local communities already helping tens of thousands. | 0fake |
Boiler Room #105 – Quantum Swamp Chess | Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room tonight 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 guests for the hundred and fifth episode of BOILER ROOM. Turn it up, tune in and hang with the ACR Brain-Trust for this weeks boil downs and analysis and the usual gnashing of the teeth of the political animals in the social reject club. Listen to Boiler Room EP #105 Quantum Swamp Chess on Spreaker.Direct Download Episode #105Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved!Reference Links: | 1real |
Prostate Cancer Study Details Value of Treatments - The New York Times | A new study offers important information to men who are facing difficult decisions about how to treat prostate cancer in its early stages, or whether to treat it at all. Researchers followed patients for 10 years and found no difference in death rates between men who were picked at random to have surgery or radiation, or to rely on “active monitoring” of the cancer, with treatment only if it progressed. Death rates from the cancer were low over all: only about 1 percent of patients 10 years after diagnosis. But the disease was more likely to progress and spread in the men who opted for monitoring rather than for early treatment. And about half the patients in the study who had started out being monitored wound up having surgery or radiation. The patients are still being followed, which should reveal whether the death rate will eventually increase for the men assigned to monitoring. Doctors say the findings should help reassure men that surgery and radiation are equally reasonable choices in the early stages of the disease. “I can counsel patients better now,” Dr. Freddie C. Hamdy, a leader of the study from the University of Oxford, in England, said in an interview. “I can tell them very precisely, ‘Look, your risk of dying from cancer is very, very small. If you receive treatment you will get some benefit. It will reduce the disease from growing outside your prostate, but these are exactly the side effects you might expect. ’” Active monitoring involves regular clinic visits with physical exams of the prostate, periodic biopsies and blood tests for antigen, or PSA, a substance that may indicate the disease is worsening. Between 40 and 50 percent of men with early prostate cancer in the United States now choose active monitoring. The study, published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine, was the first to include detailed information from patients about the side effects of treatment. Men who had surgery to remove the prostate were the most likely to have lingering impotence and urinary incontinence. Those given radiation reported bowel problems after six months of treatment (usually with gradual improvement) but not urinary incontinence. Sexual function also diminished after radiation, but recovered somewhat. But there were no differences among the three groups in anxiety, depression or their feelings about how their health affected their quality of life. Dr. Peter T. Scardino, a prostate surgeon and chairman of the department of surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York who was not involved in the study, said the research was important because there was little previous data comparing surgery, radiation and careful monitoring in men with early prostate cancer. Dr. Scardino said the findings helped confirm that active monitoring is a valuable approach for many men. He said that it was appropriate for a third to a half of men with early prostate cancers, and that only a third of those patients would need treatment within 10 years. But Dr. Scardino emphasized that the monitoring must be done regularly and with great care, for the rest of a patient’s life. He added that an important message from the study is that early prostate cancer is not an emergency, and men have time to decide what to do about it. Worldwide, there were 1. 1 million cases of prostate cancer and 307, 000 deaths from it in 2012, the latest year data were collected by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. In the United States, about 181, 000 cases and 26, 000 deaths are expected in 2016. The average age at diagnosis is 66 in the United States, and the disease rarely occurs in men under 40. Most men who have prostate cancer do not die from it, according to the American Cancer Society. The disease often grows very slowly — but not always. Some cases are potentially deadly, but tests cannot always tell which ones. The uncertainty leaves many men in a quandary, particularly because of the bowel, bladder and sexual problems from treatment. In 2012, the United States Preventive Services Task Force, an independent panel of experts picked by the government, recommended against routine screening for prostate cancer with the PSA test. The group said screening finds many tumors that may never have harmed the patient, and leads too many men into unneeded surgery or radiation, with their troubling side effects. Dr. Hamdy’s team set out to address the quandary. They studied 1, 643 patients in Britain ages 50 to 69 who had early prostate cancers, found with routine PSA testing and then a biopsy if the PSA was abnormal. All the cancers were localized, meaning they were confined to the prostate and had not spread to nearby tissue outside the gland, or to distant organs. The patients had PSA measurements of 3 or higher, and about three quarters had a Gleason score of 6 the rest had higher Gleason scores. Gleason scores are a measure of aggressiveness and range from 6 to 10 in cancers, with higher scores being worse. The patients were then assigned at random to one of three groups: A third had surgery, a third had radiation, and a third had active monitoring. Though death rates from the cancer did not differ, more men on active monitoring had progression. The disease spread to distant parts of the body in 33 men on monitoring, 13 who had surgery and 16 who had radiation. The differences were statistically significant. Other progression, to nearby tissue outside the prostate, was also more common with monitoring: 112 cases, compared with 46 each in the surgery and radiation groups. As time went on, more and more of the monitored patients wound up having treatment. Dr. Hamdy said not all those who left monitoring actually needed treatment. “We know that 80 percent of them had not shown signs of progression,” he said, adding that anxiety on the part of the patients or their doctors, or some suspicion of progression, may have pushed them into treatment. Robert Boulton, 76, a retired maker of rubber gloves, was initially assigned to active monitoring but switched to radiation treatment after four years, when his PSA went up. In an interview, he said two doctors recommended the treatment and one opposed it, so he went with the majority advice. He said his only side effect was what he called “man boobs,” swelling in the breast area from the hormonal treatment that is given along with radiation. “I’m feeling fine now,” he added. “No problems. ” Another patient, Douglas Collett, 73, was also assigned to active monitoring in 2008 and has stayed with it. When he was first told he had cancer, he wanted to get rid of it immediately, he said. But when he learned more about the disease and the side effects of treatment, waiting made more sense, and he actually felt relieved when he was picked for the monitoring arm of the study. He realizes the disease could progress, he said, and if it does he will probably have radiation to treat it. In the meantime, he said, “I’m fit as a flea. ” | 0fake |
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