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Prankster, coughing fits mar Theresa May’s speech to activists | MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May s bid to reassert her dwindling authority was marred on Wednesday by a calamitous keynote speech interrupted by repeated coughing fits, a prankster and even letters of her slogan falling off the stage. May had wanted to use the Conservative Party s annual conference to bring her divided party together and pitch herself as the only person able to deliver Brexit and keep opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn out of power. She started by apologizing for her botched bet on a snap June election which stripped her party of its majority in parliament, then pitched a revitalized British Dream for which she proposed fixing broken markets and uniting the country. But her flow was interrupted by British comedian Simon Brodkin, who handed her a P45 letter, a document given to employees when they leave their job. The document had been signed by the comedian using the name of her ambitious Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. Then May began a coughing fit and was repeatedly forced to take drinks of water, even coughing into her glass, and was proffered a lozenge from her finance minister, Philip Hammond. While she was speaking, several letters fell off the slogans behind her on the stage. Some Twitter users seized on images of the missing letters to poke fun at the Conservatives: one said their glue was even failing to hold the party together. The 61-year-old May won standing ovations for pressing on with the hour-long address, in which she took a more personal tone - saying she did not mind being called the Ice Maiden and describing her great sadness at not having children. Her speech sought to offer party activists a renewal of Conservative values while making new promises to a younger generation and those just about managing . This is a Conservatism I believe in, a Conservatism of fairness and justice and opportunity for all, a Conservatism that keeps the British dream alive for a new generation, she told the cheering crowd. That s what I m in this for, she said, in a phrase she repeated at least eight times. That s what we must all be in this for. May, who was warmly embraced by her husband on stage after she had finished speaking, later poked fun at her coughing fit by tweeting an image of cough lozenges and medicine laid beside a paper copy of the address and her prime ministerial briefcase. Brexit minister David Davis told Reuters it had been a very good speech, it hit all the issues people care about . Other cabinet ministers also applauded May. Many in the audience said her coughing fit and the sudden appearance by the comedian had helped to win them over. Actually, if all that stuff hadn t happened, it would have just been another kind of wooden presentation, said Pippa Smith, a 26-year-old party member from London. It was a good speech, but I think actually it did her a favor. Opponents were less kind. Nigel Farage, the former leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party, said May was so useless that if she remained as leader then Labour s Corbyn would soon be in power. Labour lawmaker Seema Malhotra said: It just couldn t get worse than this. What a disaster. It s a shambles, not a government. But there are few obvious successors yet visible besides Johnson, who is unpopular with some Conservative lawmakers. Some activists fear that a divisive leadership contest would pave the way for an election that Corbyn s Labour could win. The conference in the northern English city of Manchester was a somber affair, light on policy and heavy on self-doubt. Despite coming second in the June election, the opposition Labour Party s annual meeting a week earlier was celebratory. After Labour s assault on some elements of capitalism, the backbone of Conservative policy, May sought to make the case for free markets and fiscal prudence. The free market - and the values of freedom, equality, rights, responsibilities, and the rule of law that lie at its heart - remains the greatest agent of collective human progress ever created, she told members. Because there has rarely been a time when the choice of futures for Britain is so stark. The difference between the parties is so clear. She tried to compete with Labour on its pledges to voters, offering 2 billion pounds to build cheaper houses, proposing a cap on what she called rip-off energy prices and to ease the burden of student debt. Labour leader Corbyn said May had simply taken a few Labour policies and watered them down. Business leaders reacted warily to May s plan for more government intervention in power and housing markets, and said big unanswered questions about Brexit would drag on the economy. But most party members said that, rather than policy, they wanted to see a return of May s confidence, crushed in the June election, when she earned the nickname Maybot for repeating catchphrases. We did not get the victory we wanted because our national campaign fell short, she told members. I hold my hands up for that. I take responsibility. I led the campaign. And I am sorry. But she also told her party to unite, as divisions over Brexit have come to the fore with a challenge by her foreign minister, Boris Johnson. The run-up to May s speech was again overshadowed by Johnson, who once more dominated the airwaves after stunning some party members at the conference by saying Libya could become a new Dubai if it could clear the dead bodies away . Let us shape up and give the country the government it needs, May said. For, beyond this hall, beyond the gossip pages of the newspapers, and beyond the streets, corridors and meeting rooms of Westminster, life continues the daily lives of ordinary working people go on. And they must be our focus today. | 0fake |
The Supermoon and Other Moons That Are Super in Their Own Ways - The New York Times | Shrug off the supermoon. Yes, it’s true that on Sunday and Monday nights the full moon will be at its closest to Earth in nearly 70 years. But to the casual observer, it probably won’t look much different from a regular full moon. Yet headlines heralding the event as some sort of don’ spectacle are everywhere. The supermoon isn’t unique in being sensationalized. Several times every year some sort of lunar activity grabs attention, whether warranted or not. That’s how we’ve ended up with events like the blood moon, the black moon, the blue moon, the strawberry moon and the harvest moon, among others. Though some of these names have historical and cultural origins, many are rooted in folklore and are often overhyped. Below you’ll find an explanation of the science and origins behind some of these events that will let you decide whether they are worth late nights or early mornings of moongazing. And if you do want to watch the supermoon, the exact time that the moon will be closest will be Monday around 6:22 a. m. Eastern time, but it may shine brighter when the sky is darkest on Sunday and Monday nights. “The supermoon is a term,” said James Lattis, an astronomer at the University of . “It’s not an astronomical term, there’s no technical definition of it. ” Supermoon was actually coined by an astrologer in the 1970s, not by a scientist. The term has come to loosely mean a full moon that is at perigee, or when the moon is at its closest position to Earth along its orbit. Now, this definition can vary, which means supermoons can occur multiple times a year, or about once every 14 months, depending on the definition you use. The next supermoon will be on Dec. 14. The supermoon on Sunday and Monday nights is supposed to be special because it is the closest the full moon will be to Earth since 1948. That means it will be the biggest and brightest full moon in about 68 years. Compared to an average full moon, this supermoon will be approximately 7 percent larger and 15 percent brighter. But most people won’t be able to tell the difference between it and a regular moon. “There’s no fireworks show, no blinking sign that says, ‘Hey, this is the supermoon! ’” said Noah Petro, a deputy project scientist for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission. Instead, the supermoon really shines when it is compared with the full moon at apogee, or its farthest position from Earth. If you place images of the two side by side, you can see the difference more easily, Dr. Petro said. The supermoon is 14 percent larger than the apogee full moon and 30 percent brighter. On average, the moon is about 238, 900 miles away from Earth. But Sunday and Monday’s supermoon will be approximately 221, 524 miles away. Astronomers measure the distance of the moon from Earth by shooting lasers to the surface of the moon, which then bounce off mirrors called retroreflectors, which were left behind by the Apollo missions and two Soviet landers. Even though most people will not notice anything special about this supermoon, Dr. Petro said it will still be a good excuse to start gazing at the night sky more regularly. A total lunar eclipse occurs when the moon moves completely behind Earth’s shadow. Recently, this event has given rise to the sinisterly named blood moon, because the moon becomes a dark as it’s consumed by Earth’s shadow. “A term like that has a number of problems,” Dr. Lattis said. “In the case of a total lunar eclipse, they aren’t always red. The term blood moon not only suggests, it exaggerates. ” Dr. Lattis also said that the reddish color of the moon during a total lunar eclipse did not have anything to do with the moon itself. Instead, it get’s its red appearance because of the way the Earth’s atmosphere scatters light. Rather than make a fuss about its sanguine color, people should admire the total lunar eclipse. Early astronomers like Aristotle used it to figure out that Earth was round by observing the shape of the shadow that the planet casts on the moon. You can expect the next total lunar eclipse in January 2018. We’ve all heard the saying “once in a blue moon,” but what does that really mean? And how often do they occur? There are two definitions that float around for the elusive blue moon. One refers to the second full moon in a calendar month. Full moons typically occur once every 29. 5 days. The other definition, which is older, says that a blue moon is the third full moon in a season that had four full moons. Typically, a season has three full moons. So to answer the question, blue moons occur about once every two and a half to three years — most recently on May 21, 2016. But depending on the definition you use, they could occur more frequently. The next one will be on Jan. 31, 2018. And no, they are not blue in color. The ominously named twin to the blue moon, a black moon is in some ways the opposite of its brother. It’s the name given to the second new moon in a month. New moons are the first phases of the moon, during which time they are not visible. The other definition is that a black moon is the third new moon in a season of four new moons. Similar to blue moons, these typically occur about every two and a half to three years — most recently on Oct. 31, 2016, which made for the Halloween black moon. Every month’s full moon has a unique name if you look at The Old Farmer’s Almanac. It bestows names like full wolf moon, full worm moon, full flower moon, full buck moon, full sturgeon moon and full beaver moon. Folklore has it that those names came from Algonquin Indian tribes and their terms for the full moon during different times of the year. But that might be debated. “No one knows whether someone made those up in the ’30s or if they go back to real Indian use because there aren’t real records prior to that,” said Gordon Johnston, an program executive at NASA who studies moon names as a hobby. June’s moon is known as the full strawberry moon or the full rose moon. The idea behind the names is that they have to do with the season when the Algonquin collected strawberries. Rose moon might have been named by Europeans. Sometimes the moon is tinged red, but that occurs in the summer because the moon appears lower on the horizon. The most recent strawberry moon happened on June 20 and coincided with the summer solstice. The harvest moon, unlike some of the other moons, has an astronomical meaning. It is the closest full moon to the autumnal equinox. Folklore says that farmers would use the light of the harvest moon to collect their crops in the fall. The harvest moon appears in September and shines brightly for a few nights in a row. Following the harvest moon is the hunter’s moon, which is thought to have provided people with extra moonlight to seek out food. Both names are relics of a more agrarian era. Now, they provide us with an opportunity to reflect on the moon’s importance to people of the past. “All of these names of the moons are due to the fact that the moon for centuries has captivated humans,” Dr. Petro said. “I wish nowadays we’d do the Super Bowl moon or modernize these names for our culture so people pay attention to the moon. ” | 0fake |
Now Hiring: Under de Blasio, New York’s Government Grows to Record Level - The New York Times | New York City is undergoing a rare explosion in city government: More people now work for the city — 287, 002 employees as of July — than at any other point in its modern history, with thousands more scheduled to join them. The projected growth finds few parallels in other major American metropolises most, like New York, trimmed their numbers after the financial crash of 2008. Some have rehired, though not at the level that New York has under Mayor Bill de Blasio. But behind all the job growth is a complicated set of factors that explain the possible benefits and costs to the city, the mayor and his supporters. Unions will see new jobs for their members, but the city will see future pension costs rise. And even if the city fails to fill all its projected job openings, there is a benefit: An unfilled job can be taken off the budget, enabling the de Blasio administration to claim savings from the absence of thousands of workers who were not hired. Every major agency is growing under Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, but some expansions seem to stand out: His latest budget would have the Sanitation Department’s number of civilian employees increasing by a third since 2014 the Department of Citywide Administrative Services’ by 20 percent and the city information technology department’s by more than 50 percent. The growth in staffing has worried some budget experts, who fear a lack of fiscal discipline at City Hall, and greater pension obligations down the road. “Every hire is $100, 000 a year, in cost of compensation,” said Carol Kellerman, the executive director of the nonpartisan Citizens Budget Commission. “If they didn’t hire any of the people who were planned for 2017, that’s a billion dollars. ” Indeed, the administration, while hiring at a breakneck pace, may be projecting a higher number of city jobs than it intends to fill, a shrewd, if not entirely transparent, maneuver that budget experts say will allow city agencies to find savings by choosing not to fill surplus jobs. In the city said in budget documents that it anticipated 320, 569 and equivalent positions by the end of the month. But by the month’s end, the city had still left 7, 000 positions unfilled, nearly all of them postings. “Any head count that an agency doesn’t reach, that’s authorized, of course I’m going to bank it of course I’m going to make it savings,” Dean Fuleihan, the head of the mayor’s Office of Management and Budget, said in an interview. He acknowledged that any unfilled positions may be cut entirely when the budget is adjusted in November. “It is a big number, I’m not denying that, and my instinct is, I’m pretty sure you’ll see that adjusted down,” Mr. Fuleihan said. (City Hall officials later disputed the notion that the count was intentionally inflated to take savings later.) The discrepancy has been greeted with some raised eyebrows among the city’s budget watchers. “The difference between the last projection and actual number has grown substantially under Mayor de Blasio,” said Doug Turetsky, the chief of staff for the city’s Independent Budget Office. “It can create a savings, a kind of fiscal cushion. ” Even if the city writes down some of its planned hiring this year, the most recent head count of 287, 002, recorded at the end of June, is still a record. The number exceeds the city’s previous peak, recorded before the financial crash of 2008, and rivals the population of entire cities, including Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. No two cities are alike, and New York’s government performs many of the tasks that in other areas are handled by the local counties. But the swift growth in its work force — up from 271, 767 workers in July 2014 and driven by spending on new teachers, correction officers and a police force expansion — appears to be unique among large cities. In Chicago, for example, there has been little change over the past three years in the number of city workers, which has hovered around 34, 000 after dropping from more than 40, 000 before the crash. The city work force in Los Angeles was 46, 237 as of June, down 3, 000 workers from its recent peak, in 2009. The Houston city government has employed roughly the same number of people, around 22, 000, for several years. Phoenix has steadily cut jobs since 2008. “Will the days of the city ever return? No, and they shouldn’t,” Ed Zuercher, the Phoenix city manager, said in a statement, adding that the city was stronger because of “the sacrifices that were made. ” Ron Galperin, the Los Angeles comptroller, said the city’s “dedicated employees are doing more with less. ” City Hall officials pointed to other cities, including Washington, Seattle and San Antonio, where the size of the municipal work force in 2015 was larger than before the recession. Mr. de Blasio’s administration has called for even more hiring by the middle of next year, with another 10, 000 workers to be added to the rolls, according to the most recent budget. The expansion has cheered the leadership of the city’s municipal unions. They did not rally behind Mr. de Blasio until after his 2013 primary win, but have since been won over by his policies, which have also included the settling of outstanding contracts. The unions have been major donors to Mr. de Blasio’s political causes, including the nonprofit Campaign for One New York and the 2014 effort to elect State Senate Democrats. for those efforts is now under investigation by state and federal prosecutors. The United Federation of Teachers has grown by roughly 5, 700 members since Mr. de Blasio took office, replenishing ranks that had been reduced by 7 percent during the recession. Though the number of teachers still lags behind that of 2008, the union has made up the difference with teaching assistants known as paraprofessionals, whose ranks have swelled under Mr. de Blasio. District Council 37’s membership also grew as agencies piled on the nonuniformed employees, particularly at the Police and Sanitation Departments, and began using city workers to perform information technology tasks that had been previously handled by outside contractors. About 300 positions were added to replace those contractors, a move that City Hall officials expect to save money over five years by lowering contracting costs. The union had roughly 125, 000 members in its latest count, according to a spokesman, about 3, 200 more than it did before Mr. de Blasio took office. The Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, a frequent antagonist of the mayor’s, has grown along with the New York Police Department. Mr. Fuleihan said the city’s current $82. 1 billion budget included some overestimation in order to dampen the blow of unanticipated events that have, in recent years, had huge effects on the budget: the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks the 2008 stock market crash and Hurricane Sandy in 2012. “You build against that happening,” he said. “We are a very rapidly growing city with new demands,” he said. “We believe that we’re being thoughtful about this. ” Mr. Fuleihan pointed to the billion dollars set aside in reserves and pension obligations that are set to be amortized by 2032, while observing the mayor’s agenda to address income inequality. City Hall officials highlighted the endorsements of its budgeting practices expressed by ratings agencies. “We put forward dramatic expansion,” Mr. Fuleihan said. “And we’re going to be constantly modifying that, to the extent that we can. ” | 0fake |
Zimbabwe civil society calls for post-Mugabe 'national dialogue' | HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe s Platform for Concerned Citizens, a civil society group, called on Tuesday for a far-reaching national dialogue involving all political parties to help plot a new course for the country after the resignation of Robert Mugabe. A National Transitional Authority must be the final outcome of a national dialogue, the PCC said in a statement. We have informed both the government and the military of our view. | 0fake |
Halloween Costumes Mocking #NoDAPL Activists Hit Social Media | Those who follow news shared by alternative media outlets have likely been educated on the ordeal taking place in North Dakota between activists with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and riot police. To... | 1real |
Ted Cruz doesn't talk about the government shutdown | Decorah, Iowa (CNN) It was the most legendary moment in Ted Cruz's young political career, winning him legions of never-going-to-leave-you activists, never-going-to-forget-this enemies and cementing the freshman senator's stature as a national phenomenon: the October 2013 government shutdown.
More than two years later, the fight to force the White House's hand to defund Obamacare that left both Republican leadership and federal employees seething has faded into the background, rather than Cruz's calling card.
Huckabee laughs during the debate, which was hosted by the Fox Business Network. His opening statement was much more serious. "There are a lot of people who are hurting today," said the former Arkansas governor. "I wish the President knew more of them. He might make a change in the economy and the way he's managing it."
Huckabee laughs during the debate, which was hosted by the Fox Business Network. His opening statement was much more serious. "There are a lot of people who are hurting today," said the former Arkansas governor. "I wish the President knew more of them. He might make a change in the economy and the way he's managing it."
Fiorina makes a point during the undercard debate. "The state of our economy is not strong," she said in her opening comments. "We have record numbers of men out of work. We have record numbers of women living in poverty. We have young people who no longer believe that the American dream applies to them. ... It's time to take our country back."
Fiorina makes a point during the undercard debate. "The state of our economy is not strong," she said in her opening comments. "We have record numbers of men out of work. We have record numbers of women living in poverty. We have young people who no longer believe that the American dream applies to them. ... It's time to take our country back."
Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, delivers remarks during the debate. "The biggest reason that we're seeing the hollowing out of middle America is the breakdown of the American family," he said. "We have been too politically correct in this country because we don't want to offend anybody to fight for the lives of our children."
Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, delivers remarks during the debate. "The biggest reason that we're seeing the hollowing out of middle America is the breakdown of the American family," he said. "We have been too politically correct in this country because we don't want to offend anybody to fight for the lives of our children."
From left, Republican presidential candidates Mike Huckabee, Carly Fiorina and Rick Santorum arrive for the "undercard" debate that took place a couple of hours before the main event.
From left, Republican presidential candidates Mike Huckabee, Carly Fiorina and Rick Santorum arrive for the "undercard" debate that took place a couple of hours before the main event.
Christie, like most of the candidates on stage, continued to be tough on the current administration. "Tuesday night, I watched story time with Barack Obama," he said of the recent State of the Union address. Christie also said "you cannot give Hillary Clinton a third term of Barack Obama's leadership. I will not do that. If I'm the nominee, she won't get within 10 miles of the White House."
Christie, like most of the candidates on stage, continued to be tough on the current administration. "Tuesday night, I watched story time with Barack Obama," he said of the recent State of the Union address. Christie also said "you cannot give Hillary Clinton a third term of Barack Obama's leadership. I will not do that. If I'm the nominee, she won't get within 10 miles of the White House."
Kasich touted his economic record as governor of Ohio. "Our wages are growing faster than the national average," he said. "We're running surpluses. And we can take that message and that formula to Washington to lift every single American to a better life."
Kasich touted his economic record as governor of Ohio. "Our wages are growing faster than the national average," he said. "We're running surpluses. And we can take that message and that formula to Washington to lift every single American to a better life."
Carson promised this week he would "insinuate" himself into the conversation when needed. After a discussion between Rubio and Christie during the debate, Carson told moderator Neil Cavuto, "Neil I was mentioned too." Cavuto asked, "You were?" Carson quipped, "Yeah, he said everybody." On a more serious note, Carson noted the "divisiveness and the hatred" in today's society. "We have a war on virtually everything -- race wars, gender wars, income wars, religious wars, age wars. Every war you can imagine, we have people at each other's throat," he said. "And our strength is actually in our unity."
Carson promised this week he would "insinuate" himself into the conversation when needed. After a discussion between Rubio and Christie during the debate, Carson told moderator Neil Cavuto, "Neil I was mentioned too." Cavuto asked, "You were?" Carson quipped, "Yeah, he said everybody." On a more serious note, Carson noted the "divisiveness and the hatred" in today's society. "We have a war on virtually everything -- race wars, gender wars, income wars, religious wars, age wars. Every war you can imagine, we have people at each other's throat," he said. "And our strength is actually in our unity."
Rubio delivers an answer during the debate. He frequently attacked President Barack Obama. "When I become president of the United States, on my first day in office, we are going to repeal every single one of his unconstitutional executive orders," the senator from Florida said. "When I'm president of the United States, we are getting rid of Obamacare and we are rebuilding our military."
Rubio delivers an answer during the debate. He frequently attacked President Barack Obama. "When I become president of the United States, on my first day in office, we are going to repeal every single one of his unconstitutional executive orders," the senator from Florida said. "When I'm president of the United States, we are getting rid of Obamacare and we are rebuilding our military."
Bush waves to the audience. The former Florida governor has been trying to build momentum that he had in the early stages of his candidacy, and he went after Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton early in the debate. "She's under investigation with the FBI right now," he said. "If she gets elected, her first 100 days, instead of setting an agenda, she might be going back and forth between the White House and the courthouse. We need to stop that."
Bush waves to the audience. The former Florida governor has been trying to build momentum that he had in the early stages of his candidacy, and he went after Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton early in the debate. "She's under investigation with the FBI right now," he said. "If she gets elected, her first 100 days, instead of setting an agenda, she might be going back and forth between the White House and the courthouse. We need to stop that."
Cruz speaks during the debate. The senator from Texas opened the event by talking about the U.S. sailors recently detained by Iran. "Today," he said, "many of us picked up our newspapers, and we were horrified to see the sight of 10 American sailors on their knees, with their hands on their heads. ... I give you my word, if I am elected president, no service man or service woman will be forced to be on their knees, and any nation that captures our fighting men will feel the full force and fury of the United States of America."
Cruz speaks during the debate. The senator from Texas opened the event by talking about the U.S. sailors recently detained by Iran. "Today," he said, "many of us picked up our newspapers, and we were horrified to see the sight of 10 American sailors on their knees, with their hands on their heads. ... I give you my word, if I am elected president, no service man or service woman will be forced to be on their knees, and any nation that captures our fighting men will feel the full force and fury of the United States of America."
Trump, who has been leading GOP polls for months, answers a question during the debate. "I'm very angry because our country is being run horribly, and I will gladly accept the mantle of anger," he said.
Trump, who has been leading GOP polls for months, answers a question during the debate. "I'm very angry because our country is being run horribly, and I will gladly accept the mantle of anger," he said.
Republican presidential candidates line up on stage before a debate Thursday, January 14, in North Charleston, South Carolina. From left are Ohio Gov. John Kasich, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and Jeb Bush. It is the sixth GOP debate of this election cycle and the first of 2016.
Republican presidential candidates line up on stage before a debate Thursday, January 14, in North Charleston, South Carolina. From left are Ohio Gov. John Kasich, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and Jeb Bush. It is the sixth GOP debate of this election cycle and the first of 2016.
On the trail, Cruz promises to repeal Obamacare, and his entire stump speech is essentially a takedown of a Washington power structure that is too timid to fight -- by any means necessary -- for what conservatives back at home actually want.
But on his six-day Iowa tour last week, Cruz didn't mention the shutdown once. It hasn't come up in the debates. Undecided voters don't ask about it in town halls.
And some supporters of his at events, who only paid attention to Cruz when he launched his campaign for president in March, couldn't exactly put their finger on why they had heard of him before.
"I follow Ted Cruz pretty closely," Jeanette Dietzenbach, a church musician, said as she waited to hear him speak here in a pizza shop's basement, "but not as far back as 2013."
Clifford Bullerman, 71, didn't remember it either when asked by a reporter, but went on at length about the 2011 shutdown in Minnesota, which he said "was avoidable."
To be sure, there are Republican diehards who recall it with fondness, recollecting Cruz's decision to read "Green Eggs & Ham" from the Senate floor as he lambasted the Affordable Care Act as a millstone on the American economy.
Joel Hefti, 47, first heard of Cruz during the Obamacare debate. "He strongly opposed it, and he was one of the few that actually stood up -- and didn't waffle," Hefti told CNN.
And other admirers, even if they don't recollect the shutdown specifically, flock to him because he has shown the spine to stand up to Washington, including on Obamacare.
"People want a candidate who has a backbone and who's not afraid to make a decision -- whether it was the right one or the wrong one, he's all in," said Brian Logie, 35.
The shutdown endeared Cruz to much of the professional right, from the rabble-rousing Senate Conservatives Fund, whose leaders are organizing on his behalf, to the Club for Growth, some of whose donors have been his biggest backers. And several of the House Republicans who also sought a shutdown have endorsed his presidential campaign.
But it is also likely to have political consequences: The shutdown -- and effort to defund Obamacare -- is sure to be rich fodder for any Democratic nominee in November.
And the shutdown has alienated him from contributors with ties to Wall Street or Washington lobbyists who serve as some of the nation's most prominent bundlers. None of his fellow senators have endorsed him, some still reeling from the fracas two years later.
Has everyone just moved on?
Cruz's closest allies maintain that he isn't running away from it, but that he, and his voters, have moved on.
"Why stick it into the dialogue when you've got so much future policy to discuss?" asked Rep. Steve King, his top backer in Iowa and a brother-in-arms during the 2013 fight, which he said was wrongly laid at Cruz's feet. "There's no upside to talking about things that will be mischaracterized."
The Obamacare fights, of which Cruz writes in his most recent book that "no battle has consumed more energy," are only gently and occasionally flicked at. When asked to draw a contrast with Trump here at Mabe's Pizza, Cruz argued that he was campaigning in the true "Iowa way," and also rattled off a series of fights that showed his mettle while others ran away from.
"Who actually has stood up on Washington?" Cruz said, beginning his usual riff on the highlights of his Senate career. "In 2013, when millions of Americans rose up against the disaster that was Obamacare and is Obamacare, I was proud to stand and lead that fight. You look at the other men and women standing on that debate stage, the natural question is: Where were they?"
It may be that Cruz does not see the shutdown today as a political winner: Twice as many people had unfavorable opinions of Cruz during the throes of the shutdown than had favorable ones, and polls taken after the impasse majorly damaged voters' impressions of the Republican Party -- even among Republicans and tea party supporters.
Scott Reed, the top political strategist for the Chamber of Commerce, which strongly opposed the Cruz gambit, said it had likely receded from the country's political conscience because of the GOP's success in the subsequent midterm elections.
"I'm not surprised it's not a fever on the campaign trail," said Reed. "It was a long time ago, and we had a great election in the meantime -- so it kind of overshadowed that critical buffoonery." | 0fake |
LEADING N. CAROLINA NEWSPAPER: Girls Need To Attempt “Overcoming Discomfort” At Sight Of “Male Genitalia” In Locker Rooms | The Leftist agenda in action blurring the lines of sexuality, while stripping humanity of any sense of individuality or morality A leading North Carolina newspaper issued an editorial last week telling girls to attempt overcoming discomfort at the sight of male genitalia, should transgender bathroom laws be enacted.In a defense of President Obama s order compelling schools to allow access to restrooms on the basis of gender identity, the Charlotte Observer editorial board compared the discomfort of school-aged girls seeing male genitalia in locker rooms to the discomfort of white people being around black people in post-segregation America. This is what the Obama administration nudged the rest of the country toward Friday, the editorial said. Yes, the thought of male genitalia in girls locker rooms and vice versa might be distressing to some. But the battle for equality has always been in part about overcoming discomfort with blacks sharing facilities, with gays sharing marriage then realizing it was not nearly so awful as some people imagined. While admitting that exposure to male genitalia is a possible outcome of transgender bathroom laws, the editorial said the notion that such laws constitute a threat to the privacy and safety of women and children is a political fiction pushed by Republicans. Those safety issues are political fiction non-transgender men wouldn t have been allowed in women s bathrooms under the Charlotte ordinance that HB 2 killed, and the 200 or so cities with similar ordinances have had no incidents involving bathroom predators, the editorial said. Via: Washington Times | 1real |
Globalist plan for human control | VIDEOS Globalist plan for human control The New World Order structure of global submission basically wants to remove free will from the human condition By Sartre 12:11 PM EST
Recognizing that there is and has been a century’s long shrouded plan to mastermind a worldwide Weltanschauung that puts a diabolical elite mastery over the billions of human beings, which make up the vast hordes of divinely created life on this planet, is a taboo topic in most cultures. The entire system of socially manufactured perception is a plot to keep people in line and docile. Mass societal pressure is dumped on anyone, who dares to put forth a confederacy organism of global rule explanation for understanding political, social and economic affairs. Keeping the enigma program for extending a cruel and deadly supremacy over mankind cannot be kept secret any longer.
A brief and concise definition of The Globalist Agenda follows:
“Simply put, the globalist movement is an alliance based on self-interest of the private international financiers and the royal, dynastic and hereditary land owning families of Britain, Europe and America which over the years have intermarried to create a self regenerating power structure that through lies and deception seeks to control everything and everyone on earth.”
Review the glaring elements that make up the demented mindset and ultimate objections of these demonic demons devoted to their satanic master.
This summary of attitudes and aims might not be earth shattering for dedicated observers of the power elite, but for those who avoid any appearance of being tagged as a tin foil wearing conspiracy kook, mustering up the courage to confront the facts of real history may be too much to contemplate. Nullifying one’s comfort zone, even if it is totally false, is not an attribute for those who never developed character of sincerity or intellectual honesty.
Prof. Dr. MUJAHID KAMRAN provides a well documented account of Who Really Controls the World? Coming from a non Western perspective, it is most encouraging that the exposure of the force beyond the scene is resonating in every corner of the planet.
“The wealthiest families on planet earth call the shots in every major upheaval that they cause. Their sphere of activity extends over the entire globe, and even beyond, their ambition and greed for wealth and power knows no bounds, and for them, most of mankind is garbage – “human garbage.” It is also their target to depopulate the globe and maintain a much lower population compared to what we have now.”
When The Communist Takeover Of America – 45 Declared Goals from “ The Naked Communist ,” by Cleon Skousen was published, most people were diverted to thinking that a Marxist ideology was the primary enemy during the cold war. Left to the perceptive and astute, the most informed understand that the totalitarian creed of collectivism was originated and implemented by Jews. The influence of designed destruction for Western institutions and heritage, which facilitate and spreads the New World Order power structure, is the sacred canon of the privileged Globalist elites.
A serious researcher cannot ignore or circumvent this historic fact. Academic censorship would have the timid stay clear of this detail to avoid being smeared as a critic of the “so called” chosen tribe. Those who buy into this asinine prerequisite, which is the height of chutzpah, would be petrified to actually review the sentiments of What world famous men said about the Jews .
Now not every wicked globalist is exclusively Jewish. However, the proportion of Judaic race identity and Talmud proponents within the Globalist circle of black magic is overwhelmingly disproportionate to their population numbers. Also, there is no one single mythos viewpoint among globalists as The Two Jewish-led Globalist Camps… In Competition For Global Control illustrates. “There are two distinct ideological globalist camps, both led by Jews — each camp competes with the other for global control: 1) THE LIBERAL CAMP 2) THE NEOCON CAMP”
The inquiry into the influence of Jewish Faces in the Government can fill several books. Yet, the bias against covering this topic is so strong that only brave souls venture into the cauldron of popular culture ostracization.
If you have the courage to venture where most will not dare, take a close look at the lists provided on THE GLOBALISTS site. The lead rundown presents: “The global elite march in four essential columns: Corporate, Academic, Political and Organized Religion . In general, the goals for globalism are created by Corporate . Academic then provides studies and white papers that justify Corporate goals. Political sells Academic’s arguments to the public and if necessary, changes laws to accommodate and facilitate Corporate in getting what it wants. Organized Religion along with church and state secures corporate, academic and political rule into a global order.”
The lists of oligarch families, Committee of 300 and organized groups of the ruling class is a combination of dynasty elements that make up their cabal syndicate of power and dominance. The Rothschild linage bears the most attention for the central blood line of the international finance and the global cartel. Nevertheless, the choreographed architecture for governance goes well beyond an analysis of money, politics and force.
In order to restrict the world view and impose a rigid abidance into an occult Babylonian religion, The Globalist Agenda contends: New Religion Based on Earth Worship
“Today, the elite are seeking to destroy the old religious belief systems and replace them with a “new age” religion based on a form of earth worship. Doing so will accomplish multiple objectives – to get people to accept lower standards of living; to accept voluntary sterilization to save mother earth thus helping to depopulate the planet; and to accept restrictions on rights and freedoms in the name of saving the environment.”
The Globalist Plan to take-down the whole World by Preston James, Ph.D postulates:
“ Set up a comprehensive multi-level secret Luciferian matrix used to induce and promote selected individuals who are willing to do anti-human debased acts in exchange for extreme rewards of fame, money and power in return for their willingness to give up their souls. This provides a cadre of deeply committed sold-out top controllers who can be later disposed of when no longer needed. With abject secrecy their whole system becomes exposed and crumbles.”
This certainly sounds similar to the way the Plutocrat Jewery deviltry operates. For an evaluation on how The Dark Agenda Behind Globalism And Open Borders works, Zero Hedge sounds a familiar theme.
“ The people behind the effort to enforce globalism are tied together by a particular ideology, perhaps even a cult-like religion , in which they envision a world order as described in Plato’s Republic. They believe that they are “chosen” either by fate, destiny or genetics to rule as philosopher kings over the rest of us. They believe that they are the wisest and most capable that humanity has to offer , and that through evolutionary means, they can create chaos and order out of thin air and mold society at will.”
Now what group of self proclaimed super elites does this most scrupulously describe?
The globalist plan for human servitude and ultimate liquidation is a direct result of the hubris from these deranged omnipotent imposters. Only through a sincere and dedicated investigation into the working of the “ Khazarian Mafia ”, a term penned by Dr. James, can one begin to comprehend the nature of the pandemic ethos that is at the core of the globalist cult.
Who better to conclude a dissecting of the Globalist Plan for Human Control than the teaching of Texe Marrs? From his Exclusive Intelligence Examiner Report you get an account you will not read in the controlled media.
“Children of hell, that’s what Jesus called the Jewish religious teachers. That was almost 2,000 years ago. Well, guess what? The Jewish religionists are even worse now, in the 21st century. They’ve had almost 2,000 years more to practice and perfect their evil religion. Today, those who practice satanic cabalism and believe in the Talmud are the children of hell a hundred times over.”
The globalists adopt the practices and mores of this perversion from the Old Testament faith of Moses, Isaac, Jacob, and the prophets. Their design for a soulless existence and final mass annihilation is the essence of archfiend wickedness. The New World Order structure of global submission basically wants to remove free will from the human condition.
Every thinking and God fearing person must resist and oppose the autocracy of the Tempter for global secularization. As more individuals assimilate into a reprobate culture that lacks faith in the divine word of God, the end collapse of society and all decency is inevitable. | 1real |
Mexico says it is too soon to bridge gulf on NAFTA views | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mexico’s economy minister on Wednesday said the first day of talks to rewrite a trade pact between the United States, Mexico and Canada produced no surprises and the three sides did not yield any ground on their positions. “I think it’s too soon to have the aspiration of narrowing, on the first day of negotiations, the differences that we obviously have,” Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo told reporters. | 0fake |
SNL Hilariously Mocks Accused Child Molester Roy Moore For Losing AL Senate Race (VIDEO) | Right now, the whole world is looking at the shocking fact that Democrat Doug Jones beat Republican Roy Moore in the special election to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions in the United States Senate. Of course, Moore s candidacy was rocked by allegations of sexually harassing and even molesting teenage girls and being banned from the mall in his hometown of Gadsden, Alabama for doing so.Even before that, Moore was an incendiary character in Alabama politics, having been removed as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court not once but twice, and having made statements such as Muslims should not be allowed in Congress and homosexuality should be illegal. Hell, he even said that the last time America was great was when we had slavery. Therefore, he was an extraordinarily damaged candidate as it was. However, despite all of this, Alabama is a deep red state, with many voters agreeing with some of Moore s more extreme positions, and some even insisting that the allegations of sexual misconduct were simply not true. That is why it was such a shock that Doug Jones pulled out a win for that Senate seat.Well, there is one entity that could not resist going all in on the fact that Roy Moore lost this race: Saturday Night Live. While doing a caricature of the results, SNL began, with its Weekend Update host Colin Jost brutally mocking Moore s alleged proclivities fore teen girls: Congratulations to Alabama s newest Senator not Roy Moore. Doug Jones has become the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in Alabama in over 20 years. Said Roy Moore: gross, over 20 years? Jost then got in a dig at Trump, for whom Moore s loss was a humiliating failure, remind everyone what Trump said of Jones win: The Republicans will have another shot at this seat in a very short period of time. It never ends! Indeed. If the sane people of America have anything to say about it, it will be a very, very long time after 2018 before the GOP is allowed to control anything. Jost continued mocking Trump: That s it? You just went all in for an accused pedophile and when he lost, [you re] just like, well, we had fun! He could be removed from office tonight and tweet: Congratulations to Robert Mueller on a great investigation. Had a fun time being president. Catch you on the flippity-flop! #DietCokeTime . Oh, if only that could be our reality, to have Trump congratulating Mueller for removing him and his entire treasonous, criminal administration. Until then, we ll have to stick to Weekend Update and the rest of SNL, and hope for the best.Watch the video below:Featured image via Scott Olson/Getty Images | 1real |
Re: Did America Really Pass The Test? – Hillary Clinton Is Going To Win The Popular Vote By A Wide Margin | Archives Michael’s Latest Video Did America Really Pass The Test? – Hillary Clinton Is Going To Win The Popular Vote By A Wide Margin By Michael Snyder, on November 9th, 2016
The 2016 election was a test, and it would be easy to assume that since Donald Trump won the election that America passed the test. Unfortunately, it may not be that simple. A closer look at the numbers reveals a very sobering reality. Yes, Donald Trump won far more electoral votes than Hillary Clinton did, and that means that he is on track to become our next president . But Hillary Clinton is going to win the popular vote, and it is likely to be by a very wide margin once all the votes are counted.
As I write this article, Hillary Clinton has a lead of 218,000 in the popular vote, but most of the votes that have not been counted are on the west coast.
In California, Hillary Clinton is leading Donald Trump by a 5,482,166 to 2,966,654 margin, and only 68 percent of the vote has been counted so far. So assuming that the ratio stays about the same the rest of the way, Clinton is going to add at least a million more votes to her lead just from the state of California.
Up in Washington state, Hillary Clinton is leading Donald Trump by more than 370,000 votes, and only 60 percent of the vote has been counted there so far. So she could easily pick up another 200,000 votes in that state.
When everything is all said and done, it seems very likely that Hillary Clinton will have received well over a million more votes than Donald Trump did in this election.
So the truth is that the American people chose Hillary Clinton, but because of some electoral college magic Donald Trump is the winner of the election.
And I am certainly very, very happy that Hillary Clinton is not going to be our next president. Four years under her “leadership” would have likely been the final nail in the coffin for our nation. My hope is that she will now disappear from national politics for good.
But just because she is not going to be our next president does not mean that we passed the test.
In this election, the American people were faced with a very stark choice. Hillary Clinton is the most wicked politician that our country has ever seen, and over the past three decades the American people have gotten to know exactly who she is and what she stands for.
And despite knowing exactly what they would be getting, more Americans voted for her than voted for Donald Trump.
If every vote counted equally, she would be our next president.
I certainly don’t mean to rain on the Trump parade. Christians, conservatives and patriots are right to celebrate this victory by Donald Trump. But the truth is that I don’t believe that we did actually pass the test that we were faced with.
As a nation, we willingly chose Hillary Clinton by a pretty substantial margin.
And don’t think that the radical left is going to forget that Trump lost the popular vote. Already, violence and protests have erupted all over the nation.
Shortly after Trump declared victory, riots broke out in Berkeley, San Jose and Oakland …
“Not my president! Not my president!” chanted anti-Trump rioters in Berkley, California as they light flares and storm the streets.
Riots erupted in Berkley, San Jose and Oakland shortly after the announcement of Donald Trump as president-elect. Rioters are breaking into stores, vandalizing cars and shooting flares.
One woman in Oakland was hit by a car on Highway 24 just after midnight and has suffered serious injuries after. When she pulled over to the right shoulder, she was surrounded by anti-Trump rioters, who vandalized her car and broke the back window, according to CHP officers.
There were reports of protesters burning American flags in some areas of the country, and there were even brawls outside of the White House .
And once the sun set on Wednesday night, the protests started again. According to USA Today , “thousands of demonstrators” have hit the streets in New York City…
In New York, thousands of demonstrators blocked off streets around Trump Tower near the busy intersection of 57th Street and Fifth Avenue, chanting “hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go” and “p—y grabs back,” a reference to tape of a Trump conversation from years back in which he One woman protester was topless while another climbed on top of a tree to see the activity. Taxis, city buses and passenger vehicles stood at a standstill.
In Boston, radical leftists were organizing a giant protest against Trump …
Far-left organizers are planning a mass protest in Boston against President-elect Donald Trump, citing the need to “immediately start fighting against him.”
Approximately 2,300 people have indicated they will gather outside the Massachusetts State House in Boston tonight for a “Boston Against Trump Rally.” According to the Facebook event page, another 5,000 people say they may be interested in attending.
“Donald Trump is the next President of the United States. We need to immediately start fighting against him. We need to build a movement to fight racism, sexism, and Islamophobia,” the event description says.
Sadly, this could be the beginning of a new era of protests, rioting and civil unrest.
Instead of coming together behind the new president, the radical left seems ready to go to war.
So even though Trump won the election, the truth is that our troubles may only just be starting. More than half the country didn’t want Trump, our nation was already more divided than it has been in decades before he won, and it won’t take much for many of our big cities to descend into utter chaos.
Without a doubt, we should be very excited that Donald Trump won the election, but an election victory is not going to magically make our problems go away.
When faced with the most monumental election in any of our lifetimes, Hillary Clinton received the most votes from the American people, and the consequences for that decision may be far more severe than most people are now anticipating.
About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and End Of The American Dream. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. | 1real |
BOMBSHELL: Ivanka Trump Just Went On Vacation With Putin’s ‘Serious Girlfriend’ | When there is talk of your father (and probable lover) and his campaign manager skipping hand-in-hand though a field of daisies with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, it s probably not a good idea to hang out with someone who is rumored to be his girlfriend but that s exactly what Ivanka Trump just did. People Magazine is reporting that daddy s little girl and Putin s likely lady friend, alleged Chinese spy Wendi Deng Murdoch (yes, she was also married to Fox News overlord Rupert Murdoch), were spotted over the weekend enjoying scenic Dubrovnik, Croatia, in Eastern Europe.Sight seeing with @wendimurdoch in DubrovnikA photo posted by Ivanka Trump (@ivankatrump) on Aug 14, 2016 at 8:04am PDTFor years, rumors swirled that Murdoch s ex and Trump s pal Putin were dating ever since the two elites divorced their wives in 2013 and 2014. The Kremlin has not confirmed nor denied the relationship, and Deng flat-out denied the accusations last month, years after they became public, but anonymous sources within the Kremlin confirmed the serious relationship. Via US Weekly:Reports of the pair have been floating around for years, ever since their respective divorces in 2014 and 2013.One insider close to the powerful leader tells Us Weekly the relationship is serious. But given Trump s decision to practically hump Putin s leg and his (and his current campaign chair s) confirmed financial ties to Putin and his allies, it would be a wise decision for Ivanka Trump to avoid even the appearance of impropriety because of her heavy involvement in daddy s campaign. Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets, Trump s son, Donald Jr., told a real estate conference in 2008, the Washington Post reports. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia. Trump s reliance on Russian money to turn anything resembling a profit may explain why he repeatedly praises the Russian leader, even denying that he invaded the Ukraine despite reality proving him wrong in a 10-second Google search. The Post explains Trump s relationship with Putin:The dynamic illustrates the extent to which Trump s worldview has been formed through the lens of commerce rather than the think tanks, government deliberations and international diplomatic conferences that typically shape the foreign policy positions of presidential candidates.It also reflects Trump s willingness to see world leaders through his own personal connections. In a Republican Party in which an ability to stand up to Putin has been seen as a test of toughness, Trump s relationship with the Russian leader is instead one of mutual flattery. Putin said in December that Trump was a colorful and talented person, a compliment that Trump said at the time was an honor. The back-and-forth has continued. In a mid-June rally, Trump cited those comments as the reason he will not reject the Russian leader. A guy calls me a genius, and I m going to renounce? Trump said. I m not going to renounce him. The next day in St. Petersburg, Putin again called Trump a colorful person and said he welcomed Trump s proposal for a full-scale resumption of U.S.-Russia ties.On the campaign trail, Trump has called for a new partnership with Moscow, overhauling NATO, the allied military force seen as the chief protector of pro-Western nations near Russia. And Trump has surrounded himself with a team of advisers who have had financial ties to Russia.If the numerous reports regarding a down-low Putin/Murdoch relationship are true, and it seems they are, this could create gigantic problems for Trump as he continues his routine of supporting Russia in all things. After all, a discreet vacation in Croatia would be a great time to discuss bigger plans like Trump s call on Russia to hack Hillary Clinton for him.If Deng s weak response years after the relationship was rumored to have begun and only after it began to get more press is true, if she has never met Putin as she says well, to use Trump s words, some people say Featured image via People Magazine/The Guardian | 1real |
The FBI intervenes in the 2016 election | License DMCA
In an extraordinary and unprecedented action, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has stepped into the 2016 presidential campaign only 11 days before Election Day, sending a letter to Congress announcing new "investigative steps" related to Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.
The three-paragraph letter by FBI Director James Comey to eight congressional committees on Friday is remarkably vague. It states that "in connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation" of Clinton's personal email server, which, Comey notes, he had previously told Congress was "completed."
He states that he has agreed to "allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation." He acknowledges that the FBI "cannot yet assess whether or not this material may be significant."
The obvious question that arises is why, given the fact that the FBI has no idea whether these additional emails contain any significant information relative to the Clinton email case, the agency should make them a public issue within days of the election. Media commentators noted that the letter violates a longstanding informal FBI ban on making politically sensitive announcements within 60 days of a US election.
Following the report of Comey's letter, the news media, citing unnamed federal law enforcement officials, said the emails in question were found on a laptop computer shared by Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her husband, former Representative Anthony Weiner. - Advertisement -
Weiner is under FBI investigation for allegedly sending sexually explicit text messages to an underage girl. Abedin announced her separation from Weiner earlier this year after the latest episode involving Weiner and sexually explicit Internet activity became public.
Comey's letter was hailed by Donald Trump and Republican Party spokesmen as tantamount to an official reopening of the FBI investigation and rescinding of the decision announced by Comey in July that no charges would be brought against the Democratic presidential candidate.
Clinton spoke to the press briefly Friday evening, demanding that the FBI provide more information about the substance of what it was reviewing, including whether there was any connection to her use of a private email server. She pointed out that more than 15 million people have already voted and that many millions more will be going to the polls over the next week as early voting continues. In response to questions, she indicated that the FBI has not contacted her and that she first learned of the letter through the media.
It is at this point impossible to determine with precision the motivation behind Comey's letter and the political forces for which he is speaking. However, his attempt to present the letter as a politically disinterested response to the discovery of new information lacks any credibility.
This direct intervention into the election by the top police-intelligence agency can only be an expression of deep crisis and profound tensions within the American ruling class and the state. The election as a whole has been dominated by the growth of social anger and anti-establishment sentiment, yet it has ended in a contest between two right-wing representatives of the richest 1 percent who are despised by huge sections of the electorate. - Advertisement -
It has plumbed the depths of political debasement on the part of both candidates -- the fascistic billionaire Trump seeking to channel discontent along the most right-wing, chauvinist and racist channels; the multimillionaire Clinton relying on sex scandals and a McCarthyite attack on Trump as an agent of Russian President Vladimir Putin to bury incriminating revelations of corruption and lying and to swing public opinion behind a policy of military escalation and confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia.
The entire process has been surrounded by an aura of violence and a breakdown of public confidence in the political system. It has unfolded under conditions of deepening economic crisis, mounting international tensions and worsening crises for US imperialism around the world, i.e., the ongoing debacle of Washington's war for regime change in Syria, the signs of disarray in the anti-Chinese "pivot to Asia," the emergence of open conflicts with imperialist "allies" in Europe, particularly Germany.
The convergence of these crises is generating bitter conflicts within the American ruling class over policy questions, magnified by fears of a rising tide of social opposition at home.
Whether the intention of Comey's letter was to inflict fatal damage to Clinton's candidacy, shore up endangered Republican majorities in the Senate and House, or fire a shot across the bow against an incoming Clinton administration, it makes clear that the next administration will be mired in crisis from the day it takes office. | 1real |
Elliott Abrams: Trump, Netanyahu ’Reset’ U.S.-Israel Relations | TEL AVIV — The meeting between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu marked a “symbolic reset of relations” after eight years of “tension” between the two countries, a top American foreign policy expert said on Friday. [Senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations Elliott Abrams said on a conference call organized by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), We have come through a period of eight years of tension at various levels, but particularly the top level. It’s clear that [former president Barack] Obama and Netanyahu didn’t get along, didn’t like each other. And that attitude was then communicated to the White House staff. You had a lot of backbiting, criticism of Netanyahu — all of that is over. We’ve returned now to the idea that there should be no daylight in public between the two governments. There will be plenty of disagreements, but those will be discussed in closed rooms and the relations at the top are obviously genuinely good. There is no artifice here about getting along. “That’s a critically important thing,” Abrams noted. “The whole US government takes its cue from the relationship at the top. ” Abrams, who also served as deputy national security adviser to President George W. Bush, added, “Other governments also pay attention. I’ve always believed that most governments, particularly in Europe, base their relationship [with Israel] on ours. They don’t want to be quite as close to Israel. So if we’re distant, they’re more distant. If we’re close, then they get closer. ” Abrams lauded Trump’s ambivalence regarding the solution as being the key to solving the conflict. The goal should never be a solution, the goal is peace. And there are many ways of moving in that direction and there are several potential endpoints. And I think that it’s useful to the Israelis and for us to remind everybody that the goal is peace. We should not let the means become more important than the end, and we should think about that goal, rather than saying there is no other possible arrangement ever than the solution. Abrams said that Trump’s request to Netanyahu to “hold back on settlements for a little bit” was not necessarily an instruction to stop building entirely. I think that [Trump was] moving back to the George W. Bush approach. And what was the Bush approach? Basically it was, don’t change the footprint [and] don’t expand the settlements geographically. Population growth, that’s different. Build up and in. In areas, if you want to build a new house, a new apartment, that doesn’t affect the Palestinians or the chances of peace really. So the Google Earth map, if you put it that way, of the settlements doesn’t change. “We had a deal with [late Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon that was basically no new settlements, no physical — territorial — expansion of settlements and no financial inducements to move to a settlement. I think this administration is moving back to that view,” he added. | 0fake |
أمريكا..نحو الإصلاح أم التمزق؟, بقلم تييري ميسان | أمريكا..نحو الإصلاح أم التمزق؟ بقلم تييري ميسان شبكة فولتير | دمشق (سوريا) | 26 تشرين الأول (أكتوبر) 2016 français Español italiano русский English Deutsch Português ελληνικά Türkçe أفسحت القضايا السياسية البحتة، على مدى عام من حملة الانتخابات الأمريكية التي شهدناها (كتوزيع الثروة، أو السياسة الشرق أوسطية)، المجال لمسائل أخرى مثل الجنس والمال.
إنه هو، عين الخطاب، وليس القضايا السياسية، من فجًر الحزب الجمهوري من الداخل، ومن يعيد الآن تشكيل رقعة الشطرنج السياسية، مفسحا المجال لانبثاق شرخ حضاري قديم.
على ضفة، تقف هيلاري كلينتون لتحث على المساواة بين الرجل والمرأة، على الرغم من أنها لم تتردد يوما بمهاجمة وتشويه سمعة النساء اللواتي أقمن علاقات عاطفية مع زوجها، وتقدم نفسها كمرشحة، ليس لميزات شخصية تتحلى بها، بل لمجرد أنها زوج رئيس سابق. تتهم دونالد ترامب بكرهه للنساء، رغم أنه لا يخفي شغفه بالجنس اللطيف.
على الضفة الأخرى، يقف دونالد ترامب ليشجب خصخصة الدولة، وعمليات الابتزاز التي مارستها شخصيات أجنبية من خلال مؤسسة كلينتون، للحصول على موعد معها في وزارة الخارجية، وإنشاء قانون أوباما للرعاية الصحية (أوباما كير) الذي لم يكن قطعا لمصلحة المواطنين، بل لمصلحة شركات التأمين الصحي؛ ويذهب إلى حد التشكيك في مصداقية النظام الانتخابي.
الانقسام الحالي، ناجم عن ثورة القيم الكاثوليكية، والأرثوذكسية، واللوثرية ضد القيم الكالفانية، المتجسدة خصوصا في الولايات المتحدة من خلال البروتستانت، والمعمدانيين والميثوديين (ديانة السيدة كلينتون).
قام أوليفر كرومويل في القرن السابع عشر بانقلاب عسكري أطاح بملك إنجلترا. مدعياً تأسيس نظام جمهوري، وتطهير روح انكلترة، عبر قطع عنق عاهلها.
انشأ نظاما طائفياً من وحي أفكار كالفن، وارتكب مجازر جماعية بحق الايرلنديين الكاتوليك، وفرض نمط حياة متزمتة، وابتدع تصميم الصهيونية: ناشد اليهود في انكلترا، ودعاهم إلى إقامة دولة يهودية في فلسطين. تٌعرف هذه الحقبة الدموية باسم " الحرب الأهلية البريطانية الأولى".
هرب أتباع كرومويل المتشددين من انجلترا بعد استعادة النظام الملكي، واستقروا في هولندا، حيث رسى البعض منهم لاحقا على ضفاف" ماي فلاور" في القارة الأمريكية، فعرفوا باسم "الآباء الحٌجًاج".
كررت حرب الاستقلال الأميركية في القرن الثامن عشر، أحداث المواجهة الكالفانية ضد النظام الملكي البريطاني، لدرجة أن الانكليز أطلقوا عليها اسم "الحرب الأهلية الثانية".
في القرن التاسع عشر، أدت الحرب الانفصالية إلى مواجهة مسلحة بين ولايات الجنوب (التي تقطنها أغلبية من المستوطنين الكاثوليك) ضد ولايات الشمال (التي يسكنها عموما مستوطنون بروتستانت).
التاريخ الذي يكتبه عادة المنتصرون، أخبرنا أن تلك الحرب كانت نضالاً من أجل التحرر من العبودية، وهي بالطبع رواية دعائية (بروباغاندا) لأن الولايات الجنوبية ألغت العبودية أثناء الحرب، بعد أن تمكنت من عقد حلف مع المملكة البريطانية).
في الواقع، لاتزال المواجهة مستمرة بين المتشددين، وبين التاج البريطاني الذي يحاول النهوض من جديد.
إنه هو ذاته، الفكر البروتستانتي المتشدد الذي دفع الإدارات المتعاقبة لكل من كارتر، وريغان، وبوش (الأب والابن على حد سواء، أحفاد الآباء الحجاج)، فضلاً عن كلينتون وأوباما لدعم الوهابية، وداعش الآن، رغم تعارضهما مع القيم السامية التي يعلنها بلدهم.
أسس الآباء الحجاج في السابق مجتمعات طائفية في بلايموث وبوسطن، وادعوا إنشاء "إسرائيل جديدة". وعلى الرغم من كونهم مسيحيين، فقد أولوا الكتابات اليهودية أهمية أكبر من الإنجيلية، فانتزعوا الصلبان من معابدهم، واستبدلوها بألواح النبي موسى. كما أجبروا النساء على وضع الحجاب وتغطية رؤوسهن بالكامل، وأعادوا تطبيق العقوبات الجسدية.
تييري ميسان ترجمة
سعيد هلال الشريفي
مصادر
سوريا | 1real |
ISIS Is a Paper Tiger | By Eric Margolis October 28, 2016
As a former soldier and war correspondent who has covered 14 conflicts, I look at all the media hoopla over tightening siege of Mosul, Iraq and shake my head. This western-organized “liberation” of Mosul is one of the bigger pieces of political-military theater that I’ve seen.
Islamic State(IS), the defender of Mosul, is a paper tiger, blown out of all proportion by western media. IS is, as this writer has been saying for years, an armed mob made up of 20-something malcontents, religious fanatics, and modern-day anarchists. At its top is a cadre of former Iraqi Army officers with military experience.
These former officers of Saddam Hussain are bent on revenge for the US destruction of their nation and the lynching of its late leader. But IS rank and file has no military training, little discipline, degraded communications, and ragged logistics.
In fact, today’s Islamic State is what the Ottoman Empire used to term, ‘bashi-bazouks,” a collection of irregular cut-throats and scum of the gutter sent to punish and terrorize enemies by means of torture, rapine, looting, and arson.
What has amazed me about the faux western war against ISIS is its leisurely nature, lack of élan, and hesitancy. In my view, ISIS was mostly created by the US and its allies as a weapon to be used against Syria’s government – just as the Afghan mujahadin were used by the US and the Saudis to overthrow the Soviet-backed Afghan government. Israel tried the same tactics by helping create Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Both were cultivated to split the PLO.
ISIS is an ad hoc movement that wants to punish the West and the Saudis for the gross carnage they have inflicted on the Arab world.
Western and Kurdish auxiliary forces have been sitting 1.5 hours drive from Mosul and the IS town of Raqqa for over a year. Instead, western – mainly US – warplanes have been gingerly bombing around these targets in what may be an effort to convince breakaway ISIS to rejoin US-led forces fight the Damascus regime.
Note that ISIS does not appear to have ever attacked Israel though it is playing an important role in the destruction of Syria. Some reports say Israel is providing logistic and medical support for IS.
The siege of Mosul is being played up by western media as a heroic second Stalingrad. Don’t be fooled. IS has only 3-5,000 lightly armed fighters in Mosul and Raqqa, maybe even less. The leaders of IS are likely long gone. IS has few heavy weapons, no air cover at all, and poor communications. Its rag-tag fighters will run out of ammunitions and explosives very quickly.
Encircling Mosul are at least 50,000 western-led soldiers, backed by heavy artillery, rocket batteries, tanks, armored vehicles and awesome air power
The western imperial forces are composed of tough Kurdish peshmerga fighters, Iraqi army and special forces, some Syrian Kurds, Iranian ‘volunteers’ irregular forces and at least 5,000 US combat troops called “advisors”, plus small numbers of French, Canadian and British special forces. Hovering in the background are some thousands of Turkish troops, supported by armor and artillery ready to ‘liberate’ Iraq – which was once part of the Ottoman Empire.
For the US, current military operations in Syria and Iraq are the realization of an imperialist’s fondest dream: native troops led by white officers, the model of the old British Indian Raj. Washington arms, trained, equips and financed all its native auxiliaries.
The IS is caught in a dangerous dilemma. To be a political movement, it was delighted to control Iraq’s second largest city. But as a guerilla force, it should not have holed up in an urban area where it was highly vulnerable to concentrated air attack and being surrounded. This is what’s happening right now.
In the mostly flat Fertile Crescent with too few trees, ground forces are totally vulnerable to air power, as the recent 1967, 1973 Israel-Arab wars and 2003 Iraq wars have shown. Dispersion and guerilla tactics are the only hope for those that lack air cover.
IS forces would best advise to disperse across the region and continue their hit-and-run attacks. Otherwise, they risk being destroyed. But being mostly bloody-minded young fanatics, IS may not heed military logic and precedent in favor of making a last stand in the ruins of Mosul and Raqqa.
When this happens, western leaders will compete to claim authorship of the faux crusade against the paper tiger of ISIS. The Best of Eric Margolis Tags: | 1real |
U.S. seeks meeting soon to revive Asia-Pacific 'Quad' security forum | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States wants a meeting soon aimed at reviving a four-way dialogue between itself, Japan, India and Australia to deepen security cooperation and coordinate alternatives for regional infrastructure financing to that offered by China, a senior U.S. official said on Friday. The so-called “Quad” to discuss and cooperate on security emerged briefly as an initiative a decade ago - much to the annoyance of China, which saw as an attempt by regional democracies to contain its advances. In an interview with Japan’s Nikkei newspaper on Wednesday, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono proposed reviving the forum, which he said he had discussed with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on the sidelines of a regional meeting in Manila in August. According to the Nikkei, the purpose would be to secure a peaceful maritime zone from Asia to Africa. It said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would officially propose the dialogue partnership to U.S. President Donald Trump on Nov. 6, when the U.S. leader visits Japan as part of an Asian tour that will also take him to China. Alice Wells, Washington’s acting assistant secretary of state for South Asia, told reporters after accompanying Tillerson on a visit to India that Washington was “looking at a working level quadrilateral meeting in the near term.” “The quadrilateral the Japanese foreign minister discussed would be building on a very productive trilateral we have with India and Japan,” she said. Wells said the idea was to bring together countries that share the same values “to reinforce those values in the global architecture.” “As we explore ways to deepen and try to inculcate some of the values - freedom of navigation, maritime security, humanitarian assistance, disaster response, transparency, obviously Australia would be a natural partner in that effort.” Wells rejected the idea the forum would be aimed at containing China, which has alarmed Asia-Pacific countries through its pursuit of territory in the South China Sea and has launched major initiatives to develop regional infrastructure. She said it would seek to coordinate alternatives for nations seeking investment in infrastructure and economic development, “that don’t include predatory financing or unsustainable debt.” “It’s hard to see a meeting of diplomats from four countries as a plan to contain China,” she said. “It’s a natural progression and convergence of interests between democratic countries in the Indo-Pacific region.” Tillerson said before visiting India that Washington saw room to invite others, including Australia, to join U.S.-India-Japan security cooperation and to create alternatives to Chinese financing that was saddling countries with “enormous” debts and failing to create jobs. | 0fake |
House Republicans to meet with Trump on Thursday: aide | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House of Representatives Republican leaders and members of the Ways and Means Committee will meet with U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday at the White House, a Republican aide said. The meeting will take place at around 1:30 p.m. (1730 GMT), the aide told Reuters on Wednesday. Congressional Republicans are expected to unveil tax reform legislation this week. | 0fake |
White House lawyer Cobb predicts quick end to Mueller probe | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House special counsel Ty Cobb predicts the cloud of an investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. election will soon be lifted from President Donald Trump and says he would be “embarrassed” if it still hangs over the president in 2018. Cobb told Reuters this week that he talks to Trump on an almost daily basis and has been in contact with the team of Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Mueller is investigating possible collusion between Trump’s campaign team and Russia, as well as possible money laundering by at least one former aide. But Cobb, who resigned from law firm Hogan Lovells to take the White House job on July 31, said in interviews on Tuesday and Wednesday he believed Mueller’s probe was “narrow” and that by the end of the year Trump should no longer be threatened by it. “I’d be embarrassed if this is still haunting the White House by Thanksgiving and worse if it’s still haunting him by year end,” Cobb told Reuters, adding: “I think the relevant areas of inquiry by the special counsel are narrow.” He declined to provide specifics backing his projected timeline, which suggests a speedier end to Mueller’s probe than several outside experts believe is likely. “The White House would be lucky if sometime in the spring of 2018 this started to wrap up, but even that I think is pretty optimistic,” said Andy Wright, former associate counsel in former President Barack Obama’s White House. “It’s a very complicated investigation.” Wright said Mueller’s team would have to track down many leads in the United States and overseas, and gather evidence from email accounts, intelligence reports and other sources. Russia’s government has denied interfering in the election and the president has denied collusion took place. Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, declined to comment on any timeline for the probe, the scope of the investigation or any interactions with the White House. Like all senior White House staff, Cobb, 66, reports to retired general John Kelly, Trump’s chief of staff. As a White House lawyer, he is in a different position than the president’s outside lawyers John Dowd and Jay Sekulow. Cobb would not be able to assert attorney-client privilege to protect his conversations with Trump from a grand jury subpoena. Trump has said he believes any investigations of his and his family’s finances would be beyond the scope of Mueller’s probe. Cobb said he believed Mueller’s 16-lawyer team was “appropriately focused” and understood “the urgency to the country and to the presidency” of finishing the probe quickly. “We have one objective, which is to bring this to a conclusion as quickly as possible,” Cobb said. | 0fake |
Blog: Our Country Has Become Worryingly Desensitized To Violence In Hot-Sauce Names | Email
As a parent, you always have to be aware of what lessons your child is learning from the world around him or her. I know that I won’t be able to protect my 9-year-old James from every bad thing out there, but on a recent trip to the grocery store, I was utterly appalled by a disturbing trend: Our country has become desensitized to violence in hot-sauce names, and it’s a big problem.
You can’t walk down your grocer’s sauce isle without being bombarded by hot-sauce names that romanticize violence. Tears of Blood, Nuclear Bombardment Chile Extract, and Death on the Toilet have become standard fare in the hot-sauce industry. An innocent trip to purchase a simple bottle of ketchup now subliminally exposes shoppers, and our impressionable children, to dozens of gruesome descriptions of burning flesh, brutal deaths, and massive ass damage.
As soon as the hot-sauce industry agreed it was okay to allow names like Cremation in a Bottle Pepper Sauce and Ass Grave Cajun Sauce to appear on store shelves, any shred of decency went out the window. An arms race began to see who could come up with the most violent and gory sauce name, society be damned. And it needs to stop before our children internalize these sorts of brutal names as the norm for hot-sauce labels.
Hot sauce has always been hot, but the names used to imply the hotness without going into the graphic detail you see today.
I took my son James to my favorite Mexican restaurant this past weekend, and he didn’t even blink when he saw a bottle with “Volcanic Crucification” written out in flames. If he isn’t bothered by this, who’s to say if he would even think twice if he one day saw a hot sauce called Ghost Pepper Throat Thresher?
I pray that we correct course in this country before anyone decides to make that hot sauce.
It wasn’t always like this. Hot sauce has always been hot, but the names used to imply the hotness without going into the graphic detail you see today. Names like Frank’s Red Hot let you know you were in for some serious heat, but left something to the imagination. But there is no longer a moral standard for hot-sauce names. Now, all it takes to begin leading a child down a bad path is for them to glance at a sauce bottle in a friend’s refrigerator door.
Whether it’s Screaming Suicide Moruga Scorpion Sauce or Habanero Holocaust Sauce, the lengths to which today’s sauces are going to outdo one another with disturbingly violent names has gotten out of control. And if you’re a parent, you know that we must do something to stop this, before it’s too late for our children. | 1real |
Looking for Love? Put On a Cat Sweater - The New York Times | For those searching for a soul mate, the website WikiHow offers an plan that could be of help. It tells the lovelorn about fruitful places to look for a mate and instructs them to do things such as make a list of the traits sought in a partner and to “start looking. ” But here at The New York Times, we have a better plan, and ours has only two steps: 1. Put on a sweater emblazoned with a cat wearing a Santa hat on the front. (Any kind of cat — calico, Siamese, Abyssinian — will do.) 2. Stand next to an elevator. (It wouldn’t hurt to put on some perfume or cologne this plan needs all the help it can get.) Then, boom! Mr. or Ms. Right will pop up. We can’t swear by this, because our data is admittedly scant. But in two wedding stories published in The Times this year, sweaters have led to love. And in three others, sightings in elevators led to marriages. O. K. we get it that the ugly Christmas sweater craze may have run its course. But you can’t argue with success, which is why these couples lead the list of the most unusual stories for 2016. The catless among us fared just as well, however. Here is our list: Cat People Our cat lovers are Caitlin Taylor Landy and Brandon Travis Ponder, who were married Aug. 27 in Rye, N. Y. and Sarah Callaway and John Rader, who were married July 23 in Birmingham, Ala. Mr. Ponder wore his Christmas cat sweater for the picture he posted on his Tinder profile in summer 2014, and Ms. Landy was intrigued by his sense of humor. Mr. Rader and Ms. Callaway met in December 2013 in Nashville when Mr. Rader and a friend (who was wearing a Christmas cat sweater) were hailing the same cab as Ms. Callaway (who was also wearing a cat sweater) and her friend. “Meow,” Mr. Rader’s friend said to Ms. Callaway, but she wound up with Mr. Rader. Asked recently to explain the romantic allure of sweaters, Mr. Rader said a number of factors came into play. “But No. 1 would be the actual girl wearing the sweater,” he said. “In addition to her, it’s a celebration of the most beautiful and wonderful time of the year, and to have a cat wearing a Santa hat is just something that is friendly and welcoming and cheerful all wrapped into one. ” Which Floor for Love? Our elevator couples are Alyssa Carbone and Jeremy Kees, who married March 19 in Montclair, N. J. Nadia Gaya and Timothy Martin, who were married April 30 in Manhattan and Kaci Lindhorst and Adam Sokoloff, who were married June 18 in New York. Ms. Carbone remembered seeing her future husband in the elevator of their Philadelphia apartment building. “He looked charming, handsome and dapper in his nice suits,” she said. Then the two got the chance to chat when an fire alarm rousted the pair and their fellow tenants and temporarily left them outside. Ms. Gaya recalls hitting the button on her elevator in her Brooklyn apartment building and out walked Mr. Martin. “I said to myself, ‘That’s the hottest guy I’ve ever seen. ’” They were introduced by the woman showing an apartment to Mr. Martin, but she did not get his last name. A few months later, they again met at the elevator and began to get better acquainted. Ms. Lindhorst did not actually spot Mr. Sokoloff in the elevator. But her roommate, a natural matchmaker, had. Ms. Lindhorst, with encouragement from her roommate, then sent a Facebook friend request to “the really attractive guy” she saw there. What is so enticing about an elevator? Jodi Hynes, communications manager of Otis Americas, the elevator company, has given it some thought. “You are instantly put into an intimate setting from the moment you step inside, then the doors close and you can’t help but make eye contact and start talking to the person standing next to you,” Ms. Hynes said. “Where that leads may not always be what you intend, but it forces you into an otherwise unexpected conversation. ” Loving the Wait Anh Tu Dang and Josh Mankiewicz, who were married May 16 in Los Angeles, met while engaged in the most frustrating of activities: waiting in an airport security line. When Mr. Mankiewicz saw Ms. Dang in 2008 at Los Angeles International Airport, suddenly the wait didn’t seem so long. “Standing ahead of me was this stunning woman,” Mr. Mankiewicz, a correspondent for “Dateline NBC,” recalled. “I was staring at her. She didn’t notice. Finally we started talking. Actually, I started talking and she responded. ” A Better View Kelly McKanna and David Hirsch, who were married July 30 in Palo Alto, Calif. had just met and had been chatting briefly at a San Francisco music festival in 2011 when he offered her a perch on his shoulders for a better view. She told him he should sit on hers instead. He hopped on, her back didn’t crumple, and love ensued. The Man Without a Face After Meegan Brooks connected online with Michael Kimiecik, she communicated with him for weeks on end without the benefit of seeing his face. His profile photo was sort of obscure. At one point, she asked him outright to post a more recent photo, and he sent a photo of himself wearing ski goggles and a hood that covered most of his face. She finally got the chance to see him up close when she flew to Michigan, and he picked her up at the airport — without anything covering his face. “He was incredibly handsome,” she said. They were married Aug. 6 in Carmel Valley, Calif. Love at First Shout The first time Akino Brown heard Dr. Dionne Hoskins, she was giving him a good at a Big Lots store in Savannah, Ga. Sparks flew — but not good ones — when she overheard Mr. Brown and a discussing the firing of another employee. Incensed by this breach in protocol, Dr. Hoskins proceeded to tell Mr. Brown just that. He was distracted, though: “All I heard was, ‘Blah blah blah,’” he said. “I drifted off, thinking about how good she looked. ” Rod Serling Would Approve Perhaps the most Twilight of our 2016 involved Allison Gans and Brian Fischer, who were married Sept. 24 in Los Gatos, Calif. The two thought they had first met on JDate in 2013, but when Ms. Gans began looking through her future husband’s childhood photos, she discovered that they had both been in the same large group that had traveled to Israel in 1997 for bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies. More digging revealed a video had been taken of a ceremony there in which a rabbi took a candle held by Ms. Gans and gave it to Mr. Fischer. The future bride and groom, though standing just inches apart, scarcely noticed each other. | 0fake |
CODE RED: Hillary Clinton Calling For Civil War If Trump Is Elected | Conservative Daily Post |
Posted by Lindsay Hayward | Nov 4, 2016 | Breaking News Hillary Clinton says Trump is “unstable” to be president and will start a nuclear war.
Former president, Bill Clinton, allowed rangers to die in Somalia because he wouldn’t send air support. There were actually 4,417 military deaths from 1993-1996 alone under the reign of Clinton. He obviously rubbed off on his wife for not having any respect at all for our brave men and women in uniform. How to turn $12,000 in retirement savings into $1.3 Millon over the next 5 years.... Read More
Hillary also denied air support to soldiers in Benghazi who died horrific deaths while she was Secretary of State.
Ambassador Chris Stevens was brutally beaten to death and murdered in Benghazi, his lifeless body dragged throughout streets of full-fledged violence, terrorists cheering and applauding. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and President Obama did nothing .
Except for blame the tragedy on a video at the victims’ military funeral ceremony as their coffins crossed in front of the stage, where Hillary Clinton stood.
It was a terrorist attack- the attack came in two separate waves, including suicide bombers. WikiLeaks confirms that Hillary told her daughter that she knew it was not because of ‘some video’.
So, how else does Bill influence Hillary? Does he encourage her to lie because it’s what he personally does? Or does lying simply come naturally for her?
Over the past month, WikiLeaks has poured out incriminating evidence proving corruption within our liberal government.
They’ve also released countless emails exposing the fraudulent activities tied to the Clinton Foundation, which is currently being investigated by the FBI.
What other shocking lies have been revealed about the Clintons by WikiLeaks?
“Instead of dark and divisive, it’s hopeful and inclusive. It’s big-hearted, not small-minded. It is about lifting people up, not putting them down,” Hillary Clinton stated in front of a “massive” crowd in Ohio, unveiled to be photo-shopped to include more people than were actually present by duplicating the ones that were already there. Hillary Clinton crowd in Ohio, photoshopping to make her rally look bigger
“It’s a vision that says, and I believe this with all my heart, we are stronger together.” Concludes former Secretary of State.
Words like “hopeful,””big-hearted,” and “lifting people up” are the same cliches she fed the people of Haiti. They bought what she was selling- Americans should not make this grave mistake. This will actually bring about the civil war she speaks of- instead of Haitian immigrants protesting in front of the Clinton Foundation office in NY, all Americans will be protesting in front of the White House in D.C..
Clinton warned that Trump could bring the nation to war “because of his unstable character,” which is hilarious.
According to Breitbart , “Clinton specifically referred to the Civil War, suggesting that the country faced a similar threat of divisiveness from Donald Trump.”
Breitbart continues, “Clinton warned that it would only take a few minutes of instability from Trump launching the United States into a full scale nuclear war.”
How can she make a leader of another nation so distrusting of her after she sells them 20% of American uranium, aiding them in building the very nuclear technology she claims they will use? Putin hates her and she’s not even president!
Hillary Clinton also said, “Abraham Lincoln understood a house divided against itself cannot stand, and that was over the greatest of challenges – the challenge posed by slavery – and we fought a civil war.”
Crooked Hillary Clinton doesn’t reserve the right to quote the great Abraham Lincoln. She is the one with the track record of inflicting people to slavery backed by her actions in Haiti.
She is full of hypocrisy, her lack of character is exhausting from what’s been provided by WikiLeaks via her own email correspondence. But her own words are what incriminate her the most.
“It was called Hillarycare before Obamacare!” Then she claims she never supported Obamacare.
“Chelsea was jogging at the twin towers when they were hit.” No, Hillary, Chelsea was just at home, in bed, cited by you after people called you out for lying. Hillary Clinton is a pathological liar.
She lies about everything, it’s in her nature. Hillary Clinton is a sociopath that lies for no apparent reason.
Speaking of lies, WikiLeaks also proved that the women suddenly accusing Donald Trump of sexual misconduct were paid by the Clintons.
It doesn’t take the support of deleted emails to show that women suddenly coming forward (against the only other candidate) with just weeks left until a huge election are obviously meant to shift attention away from the real issues of Hillary’s email server.
Trump has overcome lies and scandals perpetrated by Hillary Clinton, spewed by the mainstream media as well as our very own president and guess what? He has kept his cool. Donald J. Trump, American strength and integrity.
Donald Trump has overcome adversity throughout this presidential campaign and shown incredible strength in his character. He’s had to humbly address obvious lies and falsely organized scandals, media slander, biased-coverage, rape-allegations by women he met once and the list just keeps going.
Not once did President Donald Trump, I mean, republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, get enraged and act like a looney. With everything thrown at him over the past few weeks, he has handled these vicious attacks swimmingly well.
“Imagine him in the Oval Office facing a real crisis,” she told her supporters. “Imagine him plunging us into a war because somebody got under his very thin skin.”
We need a strong leader, one that is going to bring about change. We need someone who can remain calm when dealing with a crisis, not act petty or prioritize covering up corruption to saving lives. America needs Donald Trump as president.
Hillary Clinton encourages our own people to fight with one another instead of come together. Vote for Donald Trump, let’s truly stand together as one, against the corruption Americans currently face.
It’s time American citizens stopped sitting back, accepting another apology from Hillary Clinton for lying. We need to break up with her, not appoint her as leader of our nation.
Let’s truly make America great again. | 1real |
SNL Absolutely DESTROYS GOP Candidates In Cold Opening (VIDEO) | There was plenty of crazy material from the Republicans this week and in order to cover as much of their embarrassing antics as possible, NBC s Saturday Night Live broke with their usual format and jammed four openings on their show last night. The result was a series of hilarious and stinging skits.It all began with Beck Bennett as Jake Tapper when he hosted the week-in-review montage which highlighted Darrell Hammond as Donald Trump telling the world how great he his with a bewildered looking Chris Christie, played by Bobby Moynihan, staring in the background. Hammond-as-Trump said: I really am running the best campaign, aren t I? The media s saying they haven t seen anything like this, not since Germany in the 1930s. I mean, everyone loves me: racists, ugly racists, people who didn t know they were racist. Then it was the hilarious Kate McKinnon playing Hillary Clinton giving a victory speech for her post-Super Tuesday victory: Thank you for trusting that I, Hillary Clinton, can bring this country together. Just like I brought these ten black people and one Muslim person together behind me tonight for this speech. Then it was Bennett-as-Tapper interviewing Ted Cruz, played by Taran Killam, but not before a warning for the audience that they were about to see Ted Cruz s whole face. Asked about Thursday s GOP debate, Killam-as-Cruz said: The debate was so much fun. I talked policy, I laid out my plan for America, and right at the end I ate a tiny, little white booger off my lip. Then finally Mitt Romney, played by Jason Sudeikis, joined Bennet-as-Tapper to discuss Donald Trump: For the last nine months, I ve sat down and watched Donald Trump say something every day that was either racist or sexist. And we in the GOP we do not say racist and sexist things; we imply them subtly over decades and decades of policy. Watch the clip here:Featured image via screenshot | 1real |
DEMOCRATS AND LIBERAL MEDIA UNCOVERED: ‘Agreement’ Between Veteran Reporter And DNC Exposed | The Wikileaks e-mails are an incredible study in political destruction and corruption. The media has no shame in their clear effort to push Hillary to be our next president. It s really sickening to see that the media has compromised any integrity they ever had so they can put the CLINTON GRIFTERS back in the White House. It s like some kind of mafia crime family thing where there s clear coordination in doing unscrupulous things under the table to get your way. Pretty sick! A Politico reporter let an employee of the Democratic National Committee read a story he wrote about presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton prior to its publication, according to emails allegedly sent by DNC staffers released by WikiLeaks on Friday.According to an email purportedly sent by Mark Paustenbach, the national press secretary and deputy communications director at the DNC, he made an agreement with Ken Vogel, chief investigative reporter at Politico, to read a copy of one of Vogel s stories ahead of time. Let me know if you see anything that s missing and I ll push back, Paustenbach wrote in an email to a fellow DNC staffer. Read more: The Blaze | 1real |
’Manchester’: The Missing Word in the Fourth Circuit’s Ruling - Breitbart | The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit refused Thursday to overturn fully a lower court ruling that blocked President Donald Trump’s new executive order suspending travel from several countries. [The opinion and dissents cover 205 pages. (The list of supporting briefs from organizations takes up two pages by itself.) But amidst the arguments, there is a key word missing from the entire document: “Manchester. ” The opinion of the court was clearly written before Monday evening’s horrific terror attack. And while court rulings do not generally follow current events, the way those rulings are received by the public is affected by the context. The Manchester attack makes the case for Trump’s executive order. True, the terrorist was a British citizen, and so he would not have been stopped by a similar executive order, had one hypothetically existed the United Kingdom. However, the bomber had traveled to Syria and Libya, two of the countries identified by the order as places where terror is rampant and whose governments lack the ability to vouch for their citizens at foreign ports of entry. The fact that those countries were relevant to the Manchester attacks boosts the administration’s argument that it needs to review its procedures for screening foreigners from countries to prevent enemies from infiltrating. What the Fourth Circuit’s decision essentially says is that President Donald Trump is uniquely unable to make any decisions on immigration policy because of things he said about Muslim and Islam during the 2016 campaign. In other words, the judiciary wants to disarm America in the face of a spreading global threat. The timing could not have been worse, and this decision is likely to provoke more of a public backlash than any that have preceded it. Joel B. Pollak is Senior at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak. | 0fake |
5 things you need to know about the Dakota Access Pipeline protests | VIDEOS 5 things you need to know about the Dakota Access Pipeline protests Early reports of protesters being armed and violent have proven to be misinformation spread to demonize the opposition By Nick Bernabe - October 28, 2016
A small Standing Rock Sioux site in North Dakota called the Sacred Stone Camp has been propelled into the national news narrative following their stand against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Due in part to independent media coverage of the ongoing standoff, the Sacred Stone camp has grown into a formidable opposition against the $3.8 billion, 1,200-mile long pipeline.
Due to misinformation coming from law-enforcement, political favoritism toward the pipeline builders, and the media’s blatant reluctance to report on the pipeline, it’s hard to tell truth from fiction. Anti-Media , along with our partners in the independent media and our embedded journalist at the opposition encampment, have been covering the unfolding standoff continuously. Here are five things you need to know. 1. Who is opposing the pipeline — and why
The Standing Rock Sioux tribe is leading the opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline. They have been joined by the largest tribal coalition in over 100 years in their stand against the pipeline. The coalition is also comprised of activists, allies, and environmentalists, collectively known as “water protectors,” at the Sacred Stone Camp, an encampment close to the location where the pipeline is planned to cross the Missouri River in North Dakota. According to the Sacred Stone camp website , they are opposing the pipeline because “[t]he Dakota Access threatens everything from farming and drinking water to entire ecosystems, wildlife and food sources surrounding the Missouri .”
The Standing Rock Sioux also say the pipeline is violating treaty land , Sioux territory that was established many years ago by the federal government. “We will not allow Dakota Access to trespass on our treaty territory and destroy our medicines and our culture.”
The opposition to the pipeline spreads across several states and is not opposed solely by Native Americans. Farmers, ranchers, and landowners are also opposed to the pipeline. Many of them have had their land taken from them against their will and given to the pipeline via eminent domain. 2. The U.S. government and the pipeline corporation are continuing a long tradition of disrespecting Native Americans
The United States has a very bad reputation for treating Native Americans, the original inhabitants of this land, as less than human. In many instances in the past, the land where Native Americans lived was deemed to be of higher value than the Natives’ lives.
Such has been the case in North Dakota — not only now, but in the past as well. According to The Atlantic :
“The land beneath the pipeline was accorded to Sioux peoples by the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868. Eleven years later, the U.S. government incited and won the Great Sioux War, and ‘renegotiated’ a new treaty with the Sioux under threat of starvation. In that document, the tribe ceded much of the Laramie land, including the Black Hills of South Dakota, where many whites believed there to be gold.”
After the federal government relegated the Sioux people to the “Great Sioux Reservation” in 1851 , the treaty was re-written and “renegotiated” by force whenever resources were discovered or when the U.S. government wanted land. Essentially, the Sioux people were victims of U.S.-sanctioned murder, and their land was stolen because gold was discovered on it.
Fast forward to 2016 and the Sioux people are once again making a stand on land that was once — and still is, according to the tribe — theirs. How is the government reacting to this stand? By brutally arresting the Native American water protectors for trespassing . If that is not a miscarriage of justice, I don’t know what is.
Further, Energy Transfer Partners, the company pulling the strings behind the DAPL, has deep pockets, and its lobbyists have cozied up to federal, state, and local governments with jurisdiction over the pipeline route. This could explain why the company began its construction of the pipeline on Army Corps of Engineers land without even securing an easement , which is required by law. Dakota Access LLC, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners, has also used the strong-arm of government to force farmers and landowners to hand over their land to the pipeline against their will. 3. Violent acts are being carried out in North Dakota, but not by the water protectors
Violence is breaking out at the Dakota Access Protest site, but the protesters have nothing to do with it. Pipeline police, bolstered by the North Dakota National Guard and sheriffs imported from around the country, have turned the standoff into a war zone. Water protectors are regularly pepper sprayed, tear gassed, and violently arrested. Over the weekend, 127 people were detained in the biggest mass arrest to date.
Militarized police at the Dakota Access Pipeline site are decked out in riot gear, armed with military grade weapons, use armored cars or MRAPs with snipers on top of them, and have regularly used LRADs, a type of mass crowd dispersal weapon that uses a high pitched noise to hurt people’s ears — sometimes permanently .
Early reports of protesters being armed and violent have proven to be instances of misinformation spread by law enforcement apparently seeking to demonize the opposition. No credible reports of violence by the protesters have been confirmed or prosecuted. Nearly all arrests stem from trespassing charges or crimes of journalism.
When protesters initially began using civil disobedience to physically shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline site, they were confronted violently by security guards from British mercenary firm G4S. The mercs sicced dogs and used pepper spray on the protesters in an assault that went viral and helped catalyze even more support for the water protectors. 4. Independent media is under attack at the Dakota Access Pipeline — and the corporate media is ignoring it
Independent media’s broadcasts over the Internet are basically the only reason people around the country and the world now know about the struggle at Standing Rock. Unfortunately, journalists are not immune to the police crackdowns in North Dakota. Dozens of journalists have now been arrested, and an arrest warrant was issued for high-profile journalist Amy Goodman. One independent media outlet, Unicorn Riot , saw four of their journalists arrested in one day in North Dakota. One filmmaker is facing up to 45 years in prison for filming acts of civil disobedience against the pipeline.
Anti-Media ’s journalist on the ground, Derrick Broze, was tased by law enforcement while covering the protests on Thursday as this article was being written.
Meanwhile, the national corporate media ignored the battle against the Dakota Access Pipeline as long as they could. For months, despite the DAPL emergence into the national narrative, ABC and NBC refused to air any coverage about it. A woman was arrested for protesting the pipeline on her own farm after Dakota Access LLC gained access to it against her will via eminent domain — yet there was still no corporate media coverage on the incident. 5. How you can help the opposition
Now that you see what water protectors are up against in North Dakota, here’s what you can do to help. Get yourself to the Sacred Stone Camp. The water protectors need reinforcements as people are regularly arrested. The bigger the stand, the more likely the pipeline’s construction will be halted. Here’s how to get there . Send supplies or donations. Water protectors need your help with supplies and funding. Go to this link to send supplies. Go to this link to donate to the cause. Support independent journalists that risk arrest to bring you the news from the front lines. Follow Sacred Stone Camp on Facebook. Share this article.
For 10 more ways to get involved, click here. | 1real |
Rubio: Many Humanitarian Questions About Trump’s Immigration Enforcement - Breitbart | Sunday on ’s “Facing South Florida,” while discussing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memos on the new guidelines for how to implement the Trump administration’s executive order on immigration, Sen. Marco Rubio ( ) questioned the “humanitarian rationale” behinds those memos. Rubio said, “We need to acknowledge that there is no right to illegally immigrate to the United States. Then there is the human side, and that is, okay, there is no legal right but is there not a humanitarian rationale for perhaps allowing some of the people here legally to remain because they have been here a long time because they are good people because they were brought here as children. ” He continued, “The answer is I think quite frankly they’ll have a lot of questions about whether it’s the best use of our resources. ” Rubio added, “I think the implementation of it is much more intense from what I’m hearing. Stories I’m hearing of how it’s actually being implemented. For example, individuals who have never had a run in with the law somehow take a stop sign they get pulled over, they could get turned in, and they can’t prove they been here for two years, and they are deported out of the country. I think if that’s the way it’s applied you are going to have to spend a lot of money to do it number one and you are going to have to deal with the humanitarian reality that over time the America people are going to say maybe this is not what we meant. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 0fake |
Clintons earned $10.75 million in 2015, paid 34.2 percent federal tax rate | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton on Friday released her 2015 tax returns, which showed the Democratic presidential nominee and her husband had $10.75 million in income that year and paid an effective federal tax rate of 34.2 percent. In 2015, the Clintons made $1 million in charitable contributions, mostly to the Clinton Foundation; former President Bill Clinton brought in nearly $5.3 million in speaking fees; and the former secretary of state reported income of $3 million from publisher Simon & Schuster for her book on her tenure at the State Department. Clinton’s running mate, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, along with his wife, Anne Holton, released 10 years of tax returns. They paid an effective federal tax rate of 20.3 percent in 2015. “Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine continue to set the standard for financial transparency,” Clinton campaign aide Jennifer Palmieri said in a statement. “In stark contrast, Donald Trump is hiding behind fake excuses and backtracking on his previous promises to release his tax returns.” It is customary for U.S. presidential candidates to make their tax returns public, although they are not required by law to do so. Clinton’s tax returns have been made public, in some form, every year since 1977. Trump, a New York businessman, and his lawyers have cited an audit by the Internal Revenue Service as a reason for his refusal to release his returns. Trump also has said his taxes are no one’s business and that they reveal little. “Your move,” Clinton campaign aide Ian Sams said on Twitter, linking to the Democratic nominee’s returns. The Trump campaign dismissed Clinton’s action, saying in a statement: “This document release is nothing more than an attempt at distraction and misdirection” from controversy about her use of a private email server when she was secretary of state. The IRS has said Trump can release his tax returns even while under audit. On Thursday, Trump’s special counsel, Michael Cohen, told CNN he would not allow Trump to release them until the audits are complete. Trump’s critics, including 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and other fellow Republicans, have said his refusal raises questions about his net worth, his charitable contributions, his business dealings and various other ties, including with Russia. Clinton has pounced on the issue, releasing an online video on Friday highlighting high-profile Republicans urging Trump to release his taxes. On Thursday, she raised the issue during an economic speech in Michigan. “He refuses to do what every other presidential candidate in decades has done and release his tax returns,” she told the crowd. Politico has reported that Trump paid zero to very little taxes for two years in the 1990s, and a New York Times business columnist on Friday quoted a number of tax lawyers and accountants saying that could still be the case. Federal tax rates have become an issue in the presidential election. Clinton has endorsed a rule named after billionaire investor Warren Buffett that would ensure those making more than $1 million a year pay a tax rate of at least 30 percent. President Barack Obama also backs the proposal. At a Clinton rally last week in Omaha, Nebraska, Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N) conglomerate is based there, challenged Trump to meet and exchange tax returns. Buffet said that he too was under IRS audit and Trump is “afraid” not of the tax-collection agency but of voters. Clinton’s campaign has released tax returns going back to 2007. The Clintons, who now live in Chappaqua, New York, paid an average effective federal tax rate of about 32 percent from 2007 to 2014 and an effective combined tax rate of approximately 40.5 percent. The Clintons’ 2015 return showed that, unlike most Americans, just $100 of their income came from wages. Their main investment was a low-cost index mutual fund, and the Clintons reported dividend and interest income of $109,000. | 0fake |
Alabama’s Last Execution was an Atrocity | Email
The last time Alabama played God, executing death row inmate Christopher Brooks by lethal injection on January 21, 2016, The Montgomery Advertiser and al.com published a column of mine in which I wrote: “Initial reports out of Alabama are that the execution went as ‘smoothly’ as killing a reasonably healthy 43-year-old man can go. In any event, it appears there was no visible evidence Brooks suffered bodily distress as the lethal drugs were administered, prompting Alabama Prison Commissioner Jeff Dunn to say that the execution with the controversial sedative drug midazolam ‘went exactly as planned[.]” ( See “ Executions are hardly an exact science ,” on February 8, 2016, and “ Courts denied phone to attorneys of man condemned to death ,” on February 9, 2016).
Boy, was I wrong. I was wrong just like Commissioner Dunn, and every media representative and Alabama law enforcement official in attendance was wrong – for painting Mr. Brooks’ execution as a peaceful passing, like he just curled up in a comfy hammock and dozed off – never to wake again.
In a federal court filing on April 15, 2016, that has been inexplicably unreported in the media, Mr. Brooks’ federal defenders, who additionally represent Ronald Bert Smith (scheduled for execution on December 8), allege that after Mr. Brooks was injected with the controversial drug midazolam – the first in Alabama’s three-drug execution cocktail which is supposed to anesthetize the prisoner so that they are “insensate” (completely lacking any physical sensation) – a witness to Brooks’ execution, a federal investigator, Ms. Terri Deep, saw that “Mr. Brooks’ left eye opened after the consciousness assessment and, assuming they even noticed, no one from the ADOC [Alabama Department of Corrections] took any action.”
The filing further alleges that: (1) “[t]he fact that Mr. Brooks’ eye opened indicates he was feeling sensation contemporaneous with, or prior to, injection of the paralytic. Therefore, he was sensate at the time he was executed by injection of potassium chloride,” (2) “[t]he final drug, potassium chloride, disrupts the normal electrical activity of the heart and induces cardiac arrest by stopping the heart from pumping blood. Potassium chloride traveling in the blood stream from the site of injection towards the heart causes an extreme burning sensation as it moves through the body destroying the internal organs,” and (3) in the event the inmate is not properly anesthetized, “potassium chloride will cause excruciating pain” (citing a 2016 report by the National Institutes of Health).
In “ The death penalty in Alabama: What’s it really like ?,” published by The Montgomery Advertise r in April, I discussed in graphic detail what it means when lethal drugs are administered to a condemned person who is not “insensate,” a word commonly used in the death penalty context to, as the Supreme Court put it, “eliminate any meaningful risk that a prisoner would experience pain from the subsequent injections” ( Baze v. Rees , 553 U.S. 35, 49 (2008)).
I wrote:
“That first drug is supposed to put you down, painlessly, like a dog – your eyes just close and you ‘go to sleep’ forever. Except often, it don’t work like that. Because when that first drug don’t do the trick and your eyes close like your sleepin’, but really, you’re not, they inject them next drugs and then your muscles stop workin’, your lungs can’t breathe, and your beaten broken-down heart goes bust. And then, Jesus H. Christ have mercy, you feel it, every sharp stinging step of the way. Like your insides are melting, ‘cause they are … they’re melting from the inside out … they’re burnin’, bubblin’, liquefyin’ … like a bonfire raging inside of you … and you’re the witch. You ever hear that expression a death by a thousand cuts? The needle, the ‘big jab,’ the ‘stainless steel ride,’ – whatever you want to call this lethal injection business – it may be worse.”
Attached to their filing pending before The Honorable Chief District Judge W. Keith Watkins, Smith and Brooks’ federal defenders have attached a sworn affidavit from Ms. Deep about her observation that “[b]efore the curtains were closed, Mr. Brooks’ left eye opened, and was still open when the execution chamber curtains were closed.” Medical experts, they allege, indicate that it is medically impossible for Mr. Brooks’ eye to have opened during his execution unless he was experiencing exactly that type of “excruciating pain” the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution forbids.
Alabama’s Attorney General’s office, beleaguered Governor Robert Bentley, and ADOC have not, to this date, offered any substantive response to the federal defenders’ claims about what now appears to be yet another shameful example of a botched U.S. execution – in which a death row inmate was forced to suffer cruel and unusual punishment – in the name of justice.
Tommy Arthur’s execution in Alabama, scheduled for November 3, will mimic Mr. Brooks’ gruesome demise if allowed to proceed. Ronald Bert Smith’s execution date follows closely after on December 8. Will the people of Alabama allow these executions to go forward in their name, or will they, in the name of all that is good, and all that is right, demand that Governor Bentley immediately declare a halt to all state executions?
Why? Because Alabama may have just burned a man alive. Join the debate on Facebook Stephen Cooper is a former D.C. public defender who worked as an assistant federal public defender in Alabama between 2012 and 2015. He has contributed to numerous magazines and newspapers in the United States and overseas. He writes full-time and lives in Woodland Hills, California. | 1real |
Some Sept. 11 families join criticism of Trump immigration order | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Several relatives of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington criticized President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration on Tuesday, saying they did not want the memories of those killed used to justify harming refugees. Trump last Friday banned travel into the United States by people from seven Muslim-majority countries, leading to protests, confusion and legal challenges. “This is totally unacceptable,” John Sigmund, whose sister, Johanna Sigmund, died inside the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, told reporters on a conference call. “It goes against everything we stand for as Americans.” The text of the order specifically made reference to the hijacked plane attacks, which killed about 3,000 people. But the relatives who spoke on Tuesday pointed out that none of the Sept. 11 Islamist militant hijackers was from any of the seven countries named in Trump’s order. Trump’s order halted travel by people with passports from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days, and stopped resettlement of refugees for 120 days. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, two from United Arab Emirates and one each from Lebanon and Egypt. The White House has described the order as necessary “to protect the American people from terrorist attacks by foreign nationals admitted to the United States.” Sept. 11 family members said Trump’s action would sow mistrust among Muslim Americans and hurt refugees from war-torn countries. Most of the relatives are members of September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, a group formed in 2002 that opposed the war in Iraq. “I am actually sickened by President Trump’s use of 9/11 in this executive order,” said Terry McGovern, whose mother was killed at the World Trade Center. “Don’t use our loved ones, and specifically my mother, to turn away refugees.” Not all Sept. 11 families may agree, however. Kathleen Ganci, the widow of a fire department official killed in the attacks, told The New York Times she supported efforts to restrict travel to ensure national security. “There’s many, many fine Muslim people in this world, but there’s many many people who want to kill us, and we need to vet them, and we need to find out,” she was quoted as saying. | 0fake |
THE UNSTOPPABLE RISE OF COMMON SENSE: “The Left can’t stand it but all over Europe and America politicians are on the rise who put their own countries and culture first” | For the first time since World War Two, the two centrist parties in Austria have lost and The Freedom Party, led by Norbert Hofer, looks set to win.Austria could be the first European country to be led by the populist right. It is a momentous day. Right-thinking commenters and the European elite are aghast. But I couldn t be happier.In Austria, European governments see a mirror of their own future.Look long and hard my friends, because this is coming your way. A new populist politics is back in the ascendant, defending national identity and protecting the rights of true nationals from the drain of immigration. And this is just the start of things to come.Make no mistake: the author of this Europe-wide phenomenon is Merkel.She has penned a new era in history, in which Europe rejects an open-door policy to immigration which would lead to our women being the target of archaic cultures and religions, and rape being a helpless man s only response to the provocative sight of an unveiled woman.But this is more than a rejection of European immigration policy. This is individual nations asserting their right to self-govern. Peoples voting to protect their sense of self and reassert sovereignty.These nations do not want to be part of some amorphous whole, a blancmange of nonsense led by a German. And they are fighting back in city squares chanting never again .Hofer says: To those in Austria who go to war for Islamic State or rape women, I say to those people: This is not your home. I have a strong sense many of you would vote for a British leader with precisely these views.And Hofer is not alone.The Danish People s Party has 21 per cent of the vote and publicised its policy of removing valuables over the value of 1,045 from immigrants to pay for their welfare. It also placed adverts in Lebanese newspapers warning against migration to Denmark.The UK, on the other hand, advertises its benefits and accommodates migrants in hotels.In Finland the populist Right argues that true Finns take priority in social and healthcare spending.The UK prioritises immigrants for school places and council homes and gives away healthcare for free.Marine Le Pen s National Front (FN) is the biggest nationalist challenge to Europe s liberal democratic traditions. She has modernised the party and mobilised support in the face of terror attacks.It suits the Left to throw out insults and put lazy labels on these political parties, seeking to marginalise or discredit them In Germany, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Switzerland parties which espouse the same views are also on the rise.Questioning immigration, the EU and the establishment, while promoting a strong sense of nationalist sentiment, is now entirely salonfaehig , as German-speakers would say.Their ugly word for passable in your living room or, as we would say, socially acceptable.Merkel, for the record, is not salonfaehig in my home.The Swiss even use controversial black-sheep posters to make their point about immigration.But it suits the Left to throw out insults and put lazy labels on these political parties, seeking to marginalise or discredit them despite their obvious electoral success and democratic support. It calls these parties the Far Right, hoping you will close your eyes, picture a skinhead with a beer belly and an England flag tattooed on his forehead, and snigger.But remember, this breed of lazy socialists also mocked Donald Trump, and will continue to do so as he ascends the steps to the White House.They smirk, cocooned in their London bubble as will no doubt still be listening to the BBC still calling Donald Trump a buffoon even as he descend the stairs from Air Force One.Meanwhile Americans want him to speak up on their behalf. To be the voice of the people, to Make America Great Again, to halt immigration, protect their cultural identity and reassert their right to look after their own culture first.It s no coincidence Hofer and Trump both use the same slogan: America/Austria First!And these words are being echoed all around Europe. Restrict immigration, self-govern, reassert the right to put your own people first.And as I look west towards Trump in the White House, east to Hofer in Austria and Le Penn resurgent in France, north towards the Danish People s Party with the toughest immigration rules in Europe, and south to the stronghold of the Swiss People s Party I see a political compass whose true direction is set on national identity and sovereignty.This movement is supported by people living in their cultural homeland, working hard, paying taxes, looking for someone, anyone, to speak up for their rights, their country, their future.And if Merkel continues the madness of trying to fast-track Turkey into the EU, millions more will join them.Just as if Britain has the guts to vote to leave the EU, I have no doubt citizens all over Europe will start demanding that they too get a vote.All over the Western world, multiculturalism is being rejected in favour of national identity. The surge of populist politics of the Right reflects a deeper will of the people to take back power from those who believe we are all equal. We all have rights.We are not. We do not.If you come to our country and fight for Islamic State, rape our women, and then ask Europe to defend your human rights, this is not your home.Our NHS, our schools, our local doctors surgeries they are not yours to monopolise either. Our children should come first.The balance of power is shifting. Raising the specter of fascism is just lazy labelling.Via: Katie Hopkins Daily Mail | 1real |
Trump Wants To Know Why Nobody Talked About Russian Hacking BEFORE The Election – Spoiler: They Did | Donald Trump has dismissed the CIA findings that Russia interfered in the election to help him win as ridiculous. Then, he claimed the whole Russian hacking thing is just a creation of the media and said Democrats are using it as an excuse for his massive win. For months during the campaign, Trump was hammered for his disturbing bromance with Putin and his public call for Russian hackers to find Hillary Clinton s missing emails. Now, Trump wants to know why nobody was talking about the Russian hacking problem before the election. The same Russian hacking even he has been talking about for months.Unless you catch hackers in the act, it is very hard to determine who was doing the hacking. Why wasn t this brought up before election? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2016Even if you ignore the general news about Trump s involvement with Russia (and the fact that we bloggy people on the left have been jumping up and down screaming about it for what seems like forever), the issue was raised in all three presidential debates.In the first debate, Clinton brought up the subject of Russian hacking and Trump responded with this gem: I mean, it could be Russia, but it could also be China. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, okay? Clinton brought it up again during the second debate. We have never in the history of our country been in a situation where an adversary, a foreign power, is working so hard to influence the outcome of the election, she said. And believe me, they re not doing it to get me elected. They re doing it to try to influence the election for Donald Trump. Trump responded, maybe there is no hacking. But they always blame Russia. And the reason they blame Russia because they think they re trying to tarnish me with Russia. I know nothing about Russia. I know I know about Russia, but I know nothing about the inner workings of Russia. And the third debate featured this exchange:TRUMP: [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, from everything I see, has no respect for this person.HILLARY CLINTON: Well, that s because he d rather have a puppet as president of the United States.TRUMP: No puppet. No puppet.CLINTON: And it s pretty clear TRUMP: You re the puppet!CLINTON: It s pretty clear you won t admit TRUMP: No, you re the puppet.CLINTON: that the Russians have engaged in cyberattacks against the United States of America, that you encouraged espionage against our people, that you are willing to spout the Putin line, sign up for his wish list, break up NATO, do whatever he wants to do, and that you continue to get help from him, because he has a very clear favorite in this race.The outrage over Russia s meddling in our election began when the Democratic National Committee was hacked in June. June! This is not the first time we are having this discussion, not by any stretch of the imagination.Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images | 1real |
BOOM! Poll Shows Support For Trump With Blacks SURGES…DESTROYS Romney’s Numbers With LATINO Voters [VIDEO] | Pandering Hillary just took a YUGE hit!Republican Donald Trump is surging with African American voters and gaining more support from Latino voters than Mitt Romney and John McCain.The latest LA Times Daybreak poll has Hillary up by just six-tenths of a point.Trump is surging with black voters and doing better with Latino voters than Romney or McCain.In the last ten presidential election cycles the highest black vote share for a Republican was 12% for Bob Dole in 1996. Trump has 14.6% of the black vote in today s LA Times poll.Here are just a few examples of support for Trump from the Black and Hispanic community:Black Votes Matter That's why people are leaving the Democratic Plantation of chains! #SelfMade #Trump2016 Voters pic.twitter.com/lnQjlVswf9 Florida Street Team (@ChatRevolve) August 15, 2016#LatinosForTrump want #HillaryClinton in Jail where she belongs for lying to #Latinos es Mala la vieja #Trump2016 pic.twitter.com/tEWXt5mScF Florida Street Team (@ChatRevolve) August 14, 2016#FireTrumpIn4Words Latinos Are Voting Trump #Trump2016 #MAGA #Miami #Ohio #PA #Virginia #BlacksForTrump pic.twitter.com/8i1Mx97LqU Florida Street Team (@ChatRevolve) August 13, 2016If Donald Trump captured 25 percent of the African American vote he would win in a landslide.And Trump has 26.7% of the Latino vote.Mitt Romney gained 21 percent of the Latino vote in the 2012 election. Senator John McCain received 23 percent of the Latino vote in the 2008 election. Via: Gateway Pundit | 1real |
Crushed: Trump’s Hollywood Walk of Fame Star Smashed With Sledgehammer (VIDEO) | 0 88 0 1 After running one of the most divisive presidential campaigns in US history, the Trump brand has taken a hit -- literally.
In 2007, Donald Trump was granted a coveted spot on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work on his reality show, “The Apprentice.” With limited real estate, the decision to enshrine reality stars on the sidewalk has always been controversial.
Trump’s star has become especially unwelcome. — MEFeater Magazine (@mefeater) October 26, 2016
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, a man dressed as a city worker used a sledgehammer and pickaxe to deface the presidential hopeful’s star, removing the brass star and scraping his name from the sidewalk. — Ol' QWERTY Bastard (@TheDiLLon1) October 26, 2016
According to Deadline , the vandal has been identified as Jamie Otis, who said he intended to remove the entire section of sidewalk in order to sell it at auction. Proceeds, he said, would go toward supporting the multiple women who have accused Trump of sexual assault.
The stars are maintained by the Hollywood Historic Trust, and the group has already said that the individual responsible will be prosecuted "to the full extent of the law," and repairs are already underway. — Adelle Nazarian (@AdelleNaz) October 26, 2016
"The Hollywood Walk of Fame is an institution celebrating the positive contributions of the inductees," said Leron Gubler, head of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, according to Deadline. "When people are unhappy with one of our honorees, we would hope that they would project their anger in more positive ways than to vandalize a California State landmark."
If found guilty, the individual responsible could face up to three years in jail and a fine of $10,000.
The Trump star has been vandalized on a number of occasions since he began his presidential campaign. In January, a vandal spray-painted a reverse swastika over the star. — afterglow (@afterglow2046) October 26, 2016
Two similar incidents occurred over the summer. In June, a mute sign was spray-painted over the spot. One month later, a street artist erected a miniaturized wall around the star, a reference to the Republican candidate’s proposal to construct a barrier along the US-Mexico border.
Of course, given that his divisive rhetoric on the campaign trail appears to be affecting his brand, Trump may soon start defacing his own properties. Amid rumors that the billionaire is removing the Trump name from his hotels, the Trump organization has announced plans to launch a new brand under the less identifiable name "Scion." ... | 1real |
New Wikileaks emails: Bernie is a Jerk, Megyn Kelly a Bimbo and More |
WikiLeaks has published its 33rd tranche of emails from the hacked account of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta.
The whistleblowing organization has now published more than 55,600 emails in a series of daily online releases which it said were building towards the November 8 presidential election.
Emails released Sunday included messages accusing Chelsea Clinton of using Clinton Foundation funds for her wedding as well as leaked transcripts of Bill Clinton’s fundraising speeches.
WikiLeaks has claimed its email publishing servers suffered a sustained DoS attack after it released #DNCLeak2 over the weekend.
THERE ARE 2 ADDITIONAL LEAKS ADDED TO THIS STORY COMPARED TO THE STANDARD RT STORY. THEY ARE AT THE BOTTOM.
Goldman Sachs speeches
In an email from January 23, 2016 Clinton Research Director Tony Carrk quoted the Democratic presidential nominee apparently expressing little appetite for prosecuting rogue Wall Street bankers.
In the mail to Clinton campaign Director of Communications Jennifer Palmieri, Press Secretary Brian Fallon and Podesta, Carrk said he was sending excerpts from Clinton’s Goldman Sachs speeches.
“I’m not interested in, you know, turning the clock back or pointing fingers,†Clinton is reported to have told Tim O’Neill, formerly of SJU Wall Street Trading Room and Credit Suisse, following a paid speech.
Clinton apparently then went on to recommend that the financial sector take a leading role in setting out regulations for their own troubled industry: “The people that know the industry better than anybody are the people who work in the industry. There’s nothing magic about regulations, too much is bad, too little is bad.â€
Less than one year earlier, Democratic media adviser Mandy Grunwald suggested to Podesta in another communication leaked Monday that Clinton should take a conciliatory tone with regard to Wall Street.
“I would include something from the Maggie Haberman piece on HRC’s Goldman Sachs speech,†writes Grunwald.
“Something like, “When HRC recently spoke to bankers at Goldman Sachs, instead of holding them accountable for their activities that crashed the economy, she told them that banker bashing was foolish and had to stop. She said “soothing” that we all got into our economic problems together.”
‘Illegal ivory’ as leverage on China
Hillary Clinton directed her now-campaign chair Podesta to use reports of illegal elephant tusk smuggling by Chinese government officials as “leverage†during a 2014 White House visit to the nation.
Three days before President Obama’s visit to Beijing in November 2014, the former secretary of state highlighted a NY Times article on how Chinese delegates reportedly smuggled home poached ivory from Tanzania.
A message from Clinton’s hrod17@clintonemail.com opens by praising Podesta’s “teasing†of reporters and “flashes†of a smile at a recent press conference before asking the then-White House adviser to raise the ivory story with China’s president directly.
“On China, I know you’ll be in Beijing next week, so am sending a news report about how Xi’s official party on its visit to Tanzania loaded up their planes w poached ivory, likely w full knowledge of [President Jakaya] Kikwete’s government,†Clinton writes.
“Please raise this issue directly w XI, both because it is critical on the merits but also because it’s another way you can gain some leverage with the Chinese.â€
The email subject line was, “Below is what I sent POTUS on election and China poaching.â€
A ‘fact sheet’ provided by the White House regarding Obama’s visit shows discussions centered on the ebola crisis, economic relations, and a “shared vision for Afghanistan.†An effort to work together to “stop the trade in illegal wildlife products†is also mentioned.
Clinton ‘totally blew’ crime question
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio thought Clinton “totally blew†a debate question about her support for a controversial federal crime bill passed by her husband.
In a March 2016 email , de Blasio was less than impressed with Clinton’s attempt to pass off a question on mass incarceration to her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders back in March.
“Hillary was fantastic on the gun control answer, then totally blew the mass incarceration question,†de Blasio wrote to Podesta.
The question was posed during a live CNN debate by anchor Don Lemon, who asked Clinton why black people should trust her to end a pattern of mass incarceration when she supported a 1994 law which many blame for “locking up a generation of black men.â€
Clinton began her answer by reminding people that Sanders also supported the bill, a tactic which appears to have irked Mayor de Blasio.
“Why on Earth did she say ‘Are you going to ask Senator Sanders that question?’ instead of just addressing the issue,†de Blasio wrote.
“When she makes it about her, she loses the high ground. Stating the obvious, I know, but she keeps doing it‌â€
Podesta brothers plan to influence India on NGO clampdown
Podesta sought to enlist the help of his lobbyist brother to influence an Indian Intelligence Bureau crackdown on Greenpeace and a key donor, the Ford Foundation, Monday’s leaked emails reveal.
Correspondence between John and Tony Podesta from May 2015 show the pair planned a lunch with the Indian ambassador to discuss a “very serious situation†facing Greenpeace in which the Indian government accused the group of financial irregularities. The claims eventually led to the cancellation of its license to operate there.
The bid to influence India’s decision-making came at the request of Karen Sack, managing director of conservation group Ocean Unite, who asked if John Podesta could get in touch with his brother at The Podesta Group.
“Apparently The Podesta Group has the contract for the Republic of India in the US, but Kumi [Naidoo, Greenpeace executive director] has no way to reach Tony or another principal,†Sack writes.
John Podesta forwarded the “small request†to his brother, highlighting Kumi Naidoo’s large following globally.
“Want to talk to the head of Greenpeace? Kumi Naidoo is a very well known South African with a big international following, but I think the GOI [Government of India] likely to stick it to them.â€
He also explained he was trying to use his influence to help the Ford Foundation charity, which had similarly “got on the wrong side of GOIâ€. However, he expressed a belief that their issue “can be more easily resolved.â€
A reply from Tony Podesta proposes a lunch with an Indian ambassador as well as confirmation he would be “happy†to talk to Greenpeace.
A leaked July 2015 email about funding shows Podesta describing global charity the Ford Foundation as a “ mainstay †for the Center for American Progress think-tank, which he founded in 2003.
Clinton’s emails could ‘either win 49 states, or lose 49 states’
As previously reported , in March of 2015, Clinton’s camp were debating whether Hillary should make a joke about her “email situationâ€.
Staffers were “nervous†about the “potentially nuts†move and, in freshly leaked correspondence, sought advice from Philippe Reines – a former senior adviser from Clinton’s days as Secretary of State and someone who was likely privy to the contents of said emails.
“Trust me, most of the email themselves are funnier than any joke we can come up with. Read in total by America she would either win 49 states, or lose 49 states. I go back and forth,†said Reines.
“But I would not make a joke just for the sake of making a joke, because email retention = Benghazi,†he warned.
“We can’t jam State to release them at this point, but if Dan [Schwerin, Clinton’s speech writer] can think of a light way to say “I am proud of the work we did at State and hopefully at some point everyone will be able to read what’s in them as a way to better understand that work‌†Reines suggested.
Bernie Sanders is a Jerk
We have previously reported about the agreement between Bernie Sanders and Clinton Campaign. We have also previously reported about Hillary’s others insults about Bernie’s supporters: basement-dwellers, bucket of losers, stupid millennials, etc. but now here’s another one.
This email is part of the DNC Leaks not of Podesta. DNC insider Hilary Rosen was caught emailing Jon Reinish and telling him that “Bernie Sanders is a petty jerk”: yes, she has a statement coming out. he is a petty jerk
Trump is right, Megyn Kelly is a Bimbo
Another DNC Leak email says that Donald Trump is right about Megyn Kelly. Yes she is a BIMBO! Well well well but you freaks of nature were saying Trump is a sexist for saying that. Then that means you too are sexists you Democrat liars.
Source
| 1real |
WATCH TRUMP DELIVER HILARIOUS Message To “Bernie Supporters” Who Tried To Disrupt His MI “Thank You” Rally | President-elect @realDonaldTrump to protester: The election ended 3 weeks ago, darling TCT #Tucker @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/fozZM13tUY Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) December 10, 2016 | 1real |
BREAKING #BALTIMORE RIOT VIDEOS: REPORT Black Guerrilla Family, Bloods And Crips Contracted To attack Baltimore Police | Pray for these police officers, the innocent citizens, residents and business owners in Baltimore Here is a recruitment flyer that was posted by the Black Panthers leading up to the start of the riots in Baltimore on Saturday: WFLA News Channel 8Looting a CVS pharmacy, because nothing says Justice for Freddie Grey like looting a drug store:This video is from last night. It gives America a view of what an unarmed society looks like when they are threatened by criminal behavior.https://youtu.be/fR1gCfh7J1IThis recently released video shows an attack by three men who knock a man on his back and then descend on him, kicking him and hurling objects at him as he appears to be knocked unconscious.https://youtu.be/HqJ5izcZrBgBefore protests over Freddie Gray s death turned chaotic, an unlikely alliance was born in Baltimore on Saturday: Rivals from the Bloods and the Crips agreed to march side by side against police brutality.The alleged gang members are pictured on social media crowding together with Nation of Islam activists, who told The Daily Beast they brokered the truce in honor of Gray, who died last week after sustaining spinal injuries while in police custody.In one photo, a gang activist in a red sweatshirt crouches to fit into a group photo with rivals decked out in blue bandanas. I can say with honesty those brothers demonstrated they can be united for a common good, said Carlos Muhammad, a minister at Nation of Islam s Mosque No. 6. At the rally, they made the call that they must be united on that day. It should be commended. The detente was only a small part of the demonstration drawing 1,200 people to Baltimore s City Hall, but it raised eyebrows among activists. Are things so bad that even Baltimore s gang adversaries are joining forces to combat law enforcement? We can unite and stop killing one another, Muhammad told The Daily Beast, and the Bloods and the Crips can help rebuild their community. DeRay McKesson, an organizer known for his work in Ferguson, also confirmed the street-crime ceasefire. He live-tweeted Saturday s mostly peaceful demonstration, which later descended into clashes with police and smashed storefronts and cop cars, and alerted followers of a possible respite in gangland. The fight against police brutality has united people in many ways that we have not seen regularly, and that s really powerful, McKesson told The Daily Beast. The reality is, police have been terrorizing black people as far back as we can remember. It will take all of us coming together to change a corrupt system. Still, it s not the first time gangsters called a truce to focus on another foe. In August, the MadameNoire web publication reported on two former Bloods and Crips rivals in St. Louis now protesting against police in Ferguson, Missouri who held a sign in red and blue letters: NO MORE CRIPS. NO MORE BLOODS. ONE PEOPLE. NO GANG ZONE. Young black men are dying from the police and they are dying from the gangs too, one activist said. But this is a bigger problem, so we took it upon ourselves to focus our energy on making a better solution for the community we live in. On Sunday, Baltimore police announced that 35 people were arrested and six police officers were injured in demonstrations.The unrest prompted a mayoral press conference on Saturday evening, when Gray s twin sister Fredericka made her first public statements. My family wants to say, can you all please, please stop the violence? she pleaded. Freddie Gray would not want this. But before Fredericka spoke, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake thanked those who were discouraging violence and even singled out Nation of Islam s peacekeeping efforts. I want to also thank the Nation of Islam, who have been very present in our efforts to keep calm and peace in our city, she said.Seriously? Thanking the Nation of Islam for promoting peace and calm? What planet has she been living on? Via: The Daily Beast | 1real |
Russia says Lavrov-Tillerson meeting to discuss Syria, global security | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will discuss global security, including the Syria, North Korea and Ukraine situations, during the latter’s visit to Moscow, the ministry said on Wednesday. Tillerson is to visit Russia on April 11-12, and Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement it “positively evaluated the new U.S. administration’s efforts to improve ties” with Moscow. | 0fake |
Martha Raddatz and Anderson Cooper Steered Debate With Sharp Questions - The New York Times | They dug for revelations, extracting news nuggets — a rarity on a debate night — like Donald J. Trump’s admission that he had used a nearly loss to avoid paying federal income taxes for years. They pressed for specifics, interrupting the candidates to demand concrete strategies for handling conflict in Syria and reforming the nation’s health care system. And they posed blunt, provocative questions at a forum that typically feels more like public broadcasting than cable news: Had Mr. Trump ever sexually assaulted a woman? Did Hillary Clinton really believe that her use of a private email server was not “extremely careless”? The duo overseeing Sunday’s presidential debate, Anderson Cooper of CNN and Martha Raddatz of ABC News, seemed to cast off the pressures on this year’s crop of moderators — Is mandatory? Are interruptions O. K.? — and put themselves directly in the mix of a encounter. The immediate response was praise from many journalists and some grumbling from partisans. One prominent critic, in fact, was sharing the debate stage: Mr. Trump, who did not hesitate to make his complaints known in real time. “Why aren’t you bringing up the emails?” he asked Mr. Cooper, after Mr. Trump believed he had been unfairly cut off. When Mr. Cooper replied, accurately, that the moderators had asked about Mrs. Clinton’s email server, Mr. Trump threw up his hands. “One on three,” he muttered, suggesting that the panel was siding with Mrs. Clinton against him. Later, Mr. Trump again questioned the umpires. “You know what’s funny? She went a minute over, and you don’t stop her,” he said to Ms. Raddatz, who had cut him off. “When I go one second over it’s like a big deal — ” “You had many answers,” Ms. Raddatz replied. Mr. Trump did face notably sharp questions about the recording that surfaced Friday in which he boasts about kissing and grabbing women. “You bragged that you have sexually assaulted women — do you understand that?” Mr. Cooper asked. When Mr. Trump dismissed the comments as “locker ” Mr. Cooper pressed several times — “Have you ever done those things?” — until Mr. Trump finally asserted that he had not. The moderators also pushed Mrs. Clinton. Ms. Raddatz, discussing the candidate’s paid speeches to Wall Street banks, asked, “Is it O. K. for politicians to be ?” Mr. Cooper asked Mrs. Clinton how she could “unite a country” after dismissing half of Mr. Trump’s supporters as “deplorable. ” There were moments, too, where the moderators chastised the audience for cheering — and sternly cut off the candidates — as they tried to the atmosphere that seemed to quickly envelop the room. “The audience needs to calm down here,” Ms. Raddatz said, turning to the crowd. When Mr. Trump interrupted Mrs. Clinton at one point, Mr. Cooper rebuked him, saying, “She didn’t talk when you talked. ” Some conservatives were unimpressed. “I may not care for Trump, but he beat Hillary tonight fair and square even with Martha Raddatz trying to defeat him,” Erick Erickson, a commentator, wrote on Twitter. One group that appeared shortchanged was the undecided voters sitting onstage, who, between the moderators’ tough questions and the candidates’ heated exchanges, received relatively little airtime. The moderators appeared willing to buck the debate’s format when they deemed a particular interaction newsworthy or illuminating. This tactic was from the one Elaine Quijano used in the debate last week, who often cut off candidates’ answers so she could move to her next question. And the moderators eschewed the minimalist approach by Lester Holt of NBC in the first debate, who was less assertive and often remained silent for minutes at a time. If the first debate became something of a referendum on the role of the moderator — to or not to ? — the buildup to Sunday’s event was more focused on the raucous nature of the evening. Mr. Trump, a temperamental figure under the best of circumstances, walked onstage Sunday facing a growing revolt within his own party and even his own ticket: His running mate, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, issued a statement declaring that Mr. Trump “has to show what is in his heart when he goes before the nation tomorrow night. ” Walking into this fray were Mr. Cooper and Ms. Raddatz, experienced moderators both, who were already preparing for unique challenges. The choice of Mr. Cooper, who is gay, prompted grumbling among some conservatives, who questioned his personal politics. Ms. Raddatz was the subject of a Breitbart News report on Sunday scrutinizing her coverage of President Obama. Although Ms. Raddatz moderated the debate in 2012, that event was seen by 51 million viewers. At the high end, Sunday’s event was estimated to attract nearly twice that. Network executives were predicting a huge audience, in part because many Americans are home on Sunday evenings. But the extraordinary events of the last few days significantly raised those expectations. Last month’s debate between Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton was seen by about 84 million Americans — a record for presidential debates, but shy of the 100 million or more viewers that typically tune in for the Super Bowl. Typically, the second debate sees a drop in viewers. Still, in 2008, the second matchup between Barack Obama and John McCain attracted nearly 11 million more viewers than their first in 1992, the second debate among Bill Clinton, George Bush and Ross Perot outscored the first by about seven million viewers. | 0fake |
Patients Lose Sight After Stem Cells Are Injected Into Their Eyes - The New York Times | Three women suffered severe, permanent eye damage after stem cells were injected into their eyes, in an unproven treatment at a loosely regulated clinic in Florida, doctors reported in an article published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine. One, 72, went completely blind from the injections, and the others, 78 and 88, lost much of their eyesight. Before the procedure, all had some visual impairment but could see well enough to drive. The cases expose gaps in the ability of government health agencies to protect consumers from unproven treatments offered by entrepreneurs who promote the supposed healing power of stem cells. The women had macular degeneration, an eye disease that causes vision loss, and they paid $5, 000 each to receive injections in 2015 at a private clinic in Sunrise, Fla. The clinic was part of a company then called Bioheart, now called U. S. Stem Cell. Staff members there used liposuction to suck fat out of the women’s bellies, and then extracted stem cells from the fat to inject into the women’s eyes. The disastrous results were described in detail in the journal article, by doctors who were not connected to U. S. Stem Cell and treated the patients within days of the injections. An accompanying article by scientists from the Food and Drug Administration warned that stem cells from fat “are being used in practice on the basis of minimal clinical evidence of safety or efficacy, sometimes with the claims that they constitute revolutionary treatments for various conditions. ” Kristin C. Comella, the chief science officer of U. S. Stem Cell, said in an interview that the clinic did not need F. D. A. approval because it was treating patients with their own cells, which are not a drug. She said the treatments were comparable to patients’ receiving grafts of their own skin — a procedure not a drug. Two of the eye patients sued the clinic and settled, but it has faced no other penalties. Ms. Comella said it no longer treats eyes, but continues to treat five to 20 patients a week for other problems like torn knee cartilage and degenerating spinal discs. All three women found U. S. Stem Cell because it had listed a study on a government website, clinicaltrials. gov — provided by the National Institutes of Health. Two later told doctors they thought they were participating in research. But no study ever took place, and the proposed study on the site had no government endorsement. Clinical trials do not need government approval to be listed on the website. Legitimate research rarely, if ever, charges patients to participate, scientists say, so the fees should have been a red flag. But many people do not know that. Promising research in eye disease and other conditions is taking place. But researchers and health officials have been warning for years that patients are at risk from hundreds of private clinics that have sprung up around the United States and overseas, offering treatments for all manner of ailments, like injured knees, damaged spinal discs, neurological diseases and heart failure. Businesses promising “regenerative medicine” have multiplied, with little or no regulation. Stem cells, which can develop into many different types of cells, are thought to have tremendous potential to repair or replace tissue damaged by disease, injury or aging. But so far, the F. D. A. has approved only a few products to treat certain blood disorders. The women in Florida suffered detached retinas, in which the thin layer of cells that send signals to the optic nerve pulls away from the back of the eye — a condition that usually needs prompt surgery to prevent blindness. Doctors who examined the patients said they suspected that the stem cells had grown onto the retina and then contracted, pulling it off the eyeball. One woman had such high pressure inside her eyes — about three times the normal level — that it may have damaged her optic nerves. Doctors operated quickly to relieve the pressure, but she became blind. “The really horrible thing about this is that you would never, nobody practicing good medicine would ever do an experimental procedure on a patient on both eyes on the same day,” said Dr. Thomas A. Albini, an author of the article who saw two of the patients, at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Standard practice, he said, is to treat one eye at a time, usually the worse eye first, so that if something goes wrong at least the patient still has one eye left with some vision. Dr. Albini said his team alerted the F. D. A. after the second patient showed up. “They did send an investigator who took statements from us,” he said. “They apparently wrote up a report, which as far as I know is still not finished or available for public consumption. ” Andrea Fischer, a spokeswoman for the F. D. A. said the agency could not comment on whether an investigation had been conducted. Two of the women were not available for interviews because their lawsuit settlements in 2016 included nondisclosure agreements, according to their lawyer, Andrew B. Yaffa, of Coral Gables, Fla. He also was barred from discussing the case, but a publicly available complaint he filed in July 2016 details one patient’s story, and states that the injections were performed by a nurse practitioner who was introduced as a physician. The third patient did not sue, but did not respond to a request for an interview made through her doctor. (The patients were not named in the journal article.) Ms. Comella, from U. S. Stem Cell, said that an independent review board had approved the proposed eye study, including the plan to treat both eyes at once. She said a total of three patients ever received eye injections at the clinic, and were not part of a trial. She declined to confirm that they were the same three patients described in the journal article, but the article links the women to the clinic. Ms. Comella said a trial never did begin, because the first three cases “ended the way they ended, so we decided not to go forward with any additional patients. ” She declined to discuss the cases further, citing the nondisclosure agreement. But she said that U. S. Stem Cell had successfully treated thousands of patients for other conditions, and that it was misleading to draw attention to “a handful of adverse events. ” U. S. Stem Cell also makes money by training doctors to extract stem cells from fat. And in a blog post on Tuesday its chief executive, Mike Tomás, said the company expected to open clinics throughout the Middle East, in Kuwait, Dubai and Qatar. But the company, which is a penny stock, is struggling financially, and as recently as last fall warned investors that its poor financial situation put it at risk of going out of business. Clinics like U. S. Stem Cell that extract stem cells from fat fall into a gray zone. Regulations say stem cells do not have to be F. D. A. approved if they are the patient’s own and are “minimally manipulated” — but some clinics may stretch that term to suit their own purposes. The F. D. A. website has a page that warns “the hope that patients have for cures not yet available may leave them vulnerable to unscrupulous providers of treatments that are illegal and potentially harmful. ” The F. D. A. article in The New England Journal of Medicine suggested that adverse events from treatments “are probably much more common than is appreciated, because there is no reporting requirement when these therapies are administered outside clinical investigations. ” Like the Florida patients, people who consult clinicaltrials. gov may assume that the studies listed there have been approved by the F. D. A. or the National Institutes of Health, but that is not necessarily the case, Renate Myles, an N. I. H. spokeswoman, said. In an email, Ms. Myles said, “The information on ClinicalTrials. gov is provided by the study sponsor or principal investigator and posting on ClinicalTrials. gov does not necessarily reflect endorsement by the N. I. H. ClinicalTrials. gov does not independently verify the scientific validity or relevance of the trial itself beyond a limited quality control review. ” Ms. Myles said that the site urges patients to consult their own doctors about joining studies and includes caveats in multiple places. “However, we agree that such caveats need to be clearer to all users and will be adding a more prominent disclaimer in the near future,” she added. | 0fake |
Republican Governor Is Letting Employers Ignore Minimum Wage Increase Passed By Voters | If this becomes a Republican strategy across the country, the American people will suffer greatly.Maine voters approved state minimum wage increase to $9 an hour earlier this year by a 10 point margin. That s means the state government must honor the will of the people and punish any employer that doesn t comply with the law.But Governor Paul LePage is opening the door for employers to openly ignore and defy the law, which sets a dangerous precedent that Republicans will likely employ around the nation in order to get around the minimum wage laws they hate.The strategy is simple, just don t enforce the law and let employers treat employees like slaves.And that s what LePage is toying with as he tests his strategy out for the next month.According to an announcement by the Tea Party governor,From Jan. 7, 2017, when the new minimum wage law is scheduled to go into effect, and until Jan. 31, 2017, the department will not bring enforcement actions against any employer who fails to comply with the change in the tip credit or the minimum salary requirement for overtime-exempt workers. Employers are expected to follow the law and pay the minimum hourly wage of $9.In short, when the law takes effect on January 7th, employers can ignore it at least until January 31st. That is, unless LePage decides to extend the length of the time-period, which he could do since he s an asshole.And this could end up becoming a strategy used by other Republicans in other states and even at the federal level since Donald Trump and the GOP control the government, including the Justice Department and the Labor Department.Mainers for Fair Wages campaign manager Amy Halsted blasted LePage for defying the voters and every hardworking person who desperately needs the wage increase. Governor LePage has now gone beyond ignoring the will of Maine voters and is flat-out encouraging employers to commit wage theft, she said. Refusing to enforce the minimum wage law, and especially the increase in the base wage for tipped workers from $3.75 to $5 an hour, is a slap in the face to tens of thousands of Mainers who are working hard and too often struggling to afford heat, food and medicine. But LePage doesn t care. In fact, he accused supporters of the minimum wage increase of attempted murder and said they should be put in prison. To me, when you go out and kill somebody, you go to jail, he said. Well, this is attempted murder in my mind because it is pushing people to the brink of survival. You know what really pushes people to the brink of survival? Not paying them enough to provide themselves with basic human needs like food, clothes, healthcare, and shelter. If anyone should be behind bars it s politicians like LePage and the greedy rich people who oppose raising the minimum wage.At some point, you can only trod over the masses for so long before they snap. Anger and desperation will boil over and the bottom line is that the working poor outnumber the wealthy few so they would be wise to take care of the people who work long hours for far less pay to help make them rich.Featured Image: Flickr | 1real |
Trump To Make It Legal To Marry Your Daughter As 1st Act In Office | 0 Add Comment
DESPITE not taking office until January of next year, President elect Donald Trump has revealed the first executive order he will issue when he takes power.
“I know this is an issue close to the American people’s heart, believe me, so I’ll be making marrying your beautiful daughter legal. It’s going to be great, we’ll have the best incest, believe me,” an emotional Trump declared.
Trump surprised political commentators who expected his first act in office to be something he pledged to do during his campaign such as the wholesale rounding up of Muslim Americans, a $6 billion tax cut for the wealthy or the punishment of women who have abortions.
“We’re going to incest bigly. This is my number one priority America, no one has more respect for the bond between a father and his more attractive of two daughters,” beamed the soon to be president, who had as recently as last week stated the right to free speech, as outlined in the US constitution, could do with some changing.
Insiders close to Trump sought to reassure some of his supporters, stating that he would waste no time in Making America Great Again.
“We understand people’s passion for having their fortunes turned around by a president who pledged to bring jobs back, but he also wants to make people as equally vulnerable as you suffer first, so please be patient,” a Trump aide explained.
Ivanka Trump was unavailable for comment as she was last seen fleeing for the Canadian border. | 1real |
Two Somali soldiers wounded in gun fight with fellow troops | MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Two Somali soldiers were wounded in a gun fight with other troops on Monday, a police officer said, a worrying internal rift for a military with a history of factionalism that is fighting a resurgence by militant Islamists The al Shabaab group is suspected of being behind the country s single deadliest attack on civilians this month that killed at least 358 people. Nur Ali, a police officer, told Reuters the brief fighting took place in the Yaqshid district of the capital Mogadishu and was triggered by a misunderstanding between the district commissioner and security forces. The district commissioner s home guards and security forces exchanged gunfire, Ali said, adding that soldiers briefly seized the commissioner s office. The dispute was resolved, Ali said, but not before two soldiers were wounded. Somali s military is often troubled by low morale caused by missed salaries, factionalism and defections. The country has been virtually lawless since the early 1990s after dictator Siad Barre was deposed. Al Shabaab has not claimed responsibility for the twin bombing on Oct. 14 that flattened several buildings but it has carried out attacks on security targets over the years as it fights to topple the western-backed government, often also killing civilians. | 0fake |
Is the Supreme Court poised for a shift to the right? | Washington (CNN) The nine Supreme Court justices will emerge Monday from behind a long red velvet curtain and take their assigned seats on the bench to begin a new term. But most people will still be thinking of the historic nature of the cases decided last term and the fact that for the first time, the left side of the Roberts' court won more 5-4 cases than the right.
The Justices of the US Supreme Court sit for their official photograph on October 8, 2010, in Washington.
Was it a blip? Or has the Supreme Court gone liberal?
Many court critics have also questioned the wisdom of the 2010 Citizens United v. FEC decision, which opened the floodgates for campaign financing, allowing outside groups to spend record amounts. Millhiser said the ruling "gave billionaires a far-reaching right to corrupt American democracy."
Many court critics have also questioned the wisdom of the 2010 Citizens United v. FEC decision, which opened the floodgates for campaign financing, allowing outside groups to spend record amounts. Millhiser said the ruling "gave billionaires a far-reaching right to corrupt American democracy."
Critics say the court makeup is part of the problem, noting that most justices have been white men from privileged backgrounds. It's an issue, they argue, that can sometimes lead to paternalistic language, as in a 2006 abortion ruling that said "some women come to regret their choice to abort the infant life they once created and sustained."
Critics say the court makeup is part of the problem, noting that most justices have been white men from privileged backgrounds. It's an issue, they argue, that can sometimes lead to paternalistic language, as in a 2006 abortion ruling that said "some women come to regret their choice to abort the infant life they once created and sustained."
Other scholars such as Clark Neily of the libertarian public interest law firm Institute for Justice defend the court, saying Brown v. Board of Education -- which led to school desegregation, including in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957 -- shows that the court is often "better than the other branches of government and society in general."
Other scholars such as Clark Neily of the libertarian public interest law firm Institute for Justice defend the court, saying Brown v. Board of Education -- which led to school desegregation, including in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957 -- shows that the court is often "better than the other branches of government and society in general."
The court has been on the wrong side of history numerous times, says author Ian Millhiser of the Center for American Progress. It issued decisions that legitimized Jim Crow segregation, approved the forced sterilization of a woman against her will and forced Japanese-American citizens into internment camps during World War II.
The court has been on the wrong side of history numerous times, says author Ian Millhiser of the Center for American Progress. It issued decisions that legitimized Jim Crow segregation, approved the forced sterilization of a woman against her will and forced Japanese-American citizens into internment camps during World War II.
They point to a 1918 ruling that struck down a federal law banning child labor, which left the practice in place for another two decades. The court said the law was "repugnant to the Constitution" because it violated states' rights. At the time, millions of children worked in dangerous mines, dank sweatshops and textile mills such as this one in Vermont in 1910.
They point to a 1918 ruling that struck down a federal law banning child labor, which left the practice in place for another two decades. The court said the law was "repugnant to the Constitution" because it violated states' rights. At the time, millions of children worked in dangerous mines, dank sweatshops and textile mills such as this one in Vermont in 1910.
Another major ruling upheld Obamacare subsidies; had it gone the other way, millions could have lost their health care tax credits. Some legal scholars say the court's historical mission has been to block change, not validate it, by defending the status quo and ruling in favor of "wealth, power and privilege."
Another major ruling upheld Obamacare subsidies; had it gone the other way, millions could have lost their health care tax credits. Some legal scholars say the court's historical mission has been to block change, not validate it, by defending the status quo and ruling in favor of "wealth, power and privilege."
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that same-sex marriage is legal nationwide, a decision that profoundly affects the lives of millions of Americans. Some legal scholars see the court's movement on gay rights issues as proof that it is a force for change. But others say the court's role is largely the opposite.
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that same-sex marriage is legal nationwide, a decision that profoundly affects the lives of millions of Americans. Some legal scholars see the court's movement on gay rights issues as proof that it is a force for change. But others say the court's role is largely the opposite.
Judicial conservatives and some Republican presidential candidates feel abandoned by Chief Justice John Roberts for his vote -- once again -- in favor of the Affordable Care Act, despite the fact that he dissented in other cases they care about concerning issues like gay marriage and housing discrimination.
During last month's Republican presidential debate, Ted Cruz, who like Roberts served as a law clerk to the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist, suggested that Roberts' record was comparable to that of retired Justice David Souter. In conservative legal circles, Souter's nomination, by George H.W. Bush, was a disaster because the practically unknown nominee ultimately ended up voting on a consistent basis with the Court's more liberal wing. Cruz and others still blame the elder Bush for throwing away a precious chance to shape the Court. Souter retired in 2009 after 19 years on the bench giving President Barack Obama his first chance to nominate a justice.
Liberals, however, dismiss any such notion the Roberts court has veered to the left.
"The claim that Chief Justice Roberts is a liberal is preposterous," said Elizabeth Wydra of the Constitutional Accountability Center, a group that takes a progressive position in many of the hot button cases that come before the court. "To be sure, he deserves credit for rejecting the legally meritless claims against the Affordable Care Act, but if you look at his 10 years on the Court, he has unquestionably moved the law in a conservative direction."
Indeed, any conservative furor might die down this term as the Court takes up affirmative action, voting rights, public sector unions and possibly abortion. Roberts' votes in those cases are expected to soothe some of his conservative critics.
"I would expect a return to the norm," said Irving L. Gornstein, executive director of the Supreme Court Institute at Georgetown University Law Center, "in which the right side of the Court wins the majority but by no means all of the big cases, with Justice (Anthony) Kennedy again the key vote in most of the big cases."
As recent years have proved, there is no reliable means of predicting how the Court will rule. And several of the most high-profile cases this term offer justices a choice between ruling on broad or narrow grounds.
Here are some notable cases to watch:
In Texas, high school seniors who graduate in the top 10% of their class are automatically admitted to any Texas state university.
In addition to the "Top Ten Percent" program, the school also considers race and other factors for admission. Since Fisher did not qualify for the program, she applied with other applicants, some of whom were entitled to racial preferences. Fisher, who is white, was denied admission.
Fisher says that since UT already had a race-neutral plan in place, it shouldn't have layered on another program that took race into consideration.
Her lawyers argue that the use of race is only permissible when there is no other race neutral alternative available. They hope the Court will "send a clear message" that public universities must only use race as a "last resort."
It's worth noting that Fisher is not asking the justices to forbid race-conscious admissions plans at public universities all together. That means the Court could rule against the University of Texas, but still leave open a crack for other schools to take race into consideration in their admissions programs. The question for many is how big that crack might be.
The University of Texas argues its use of race is simply one factor among many in its effort to create a diverse student body, saying that its race-neutral programs often target socioeconomic and related factors, and are not an adequate substitute.
It's the second time the Court has taken up Fisher's case. Three years ago, the justices agonized over it for nine months before issuing a very narrow opinion and sending the case back down to the lower court for another look. The short and unexpected opinion suggests the justices were at loggerheads. Now the case is before them once again and eight justices (Justice Elena Kagan is recused from the case because she dealt with it in her previous job as Solicitor General) will most likely rule more definitively.
Another case targets the issue of "one person one vote," a doctrine dating back to the Earl Warren court when the Supreme Court held that state legislative districts must be drawn so they are equal in population.
But the Court never explicitly defined population. Does it refer to the general population? Or to the population that can vote? Or something in between? That is the crux of Evenwel v. Abbott.
Currently most states look to the total population of the district when drawing state lines. But the challengers in this case argue that Texas must primarily look at the total number of eligible voters in the state.
Sue Evenwel, a resident of Titus County, and others argue that their vote is worth less than people in neighboring districts because those districts have fewer residents who are eligible to vote.
In court briefs, Evenwel's lawyers say, "the Texas legislature redrew the Senate map without attempting to ensure that each Senate district has approximately the same numbers of eligible voters."
The case has political implications. It raises questions not only about the representation of children and persons with felony convictions, but also immigrants.
In general, rural districts tend to be more Republican than urban districts that often include more non-voters.
A collection of civil-rights groups has filed a brief in support of Texas.
"The Constitution declares equality before the law, that's the fundamental premise for a representative democracy," says Katherine Culliton-Gonzalez of the Advancement Project, a civil-rights organization.
"Each person should be a whole person, and each person has a right to representation whether you are a child, an immigrant or no matter what your race," she said.
In 1977, the Court ruled that the First Amendment allows public-sector unions to require non-member employees to pay union fees for expenses related to workplace bargaining, such as wage disputes and contract negotiations. The employees don't, however, have to pay fees for anything considered to be ideological advocacy.
Justice Samuel Alito and other conservatives on the Court have questioned that Court precedent, and it could be vulnerable this term in a case called Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association.
Rebecca Friedrichs and other public school teachers filed suit arguing that the supposed distinction between collective bargaining and ideological advocacy is blurred. They contend that the fees for collective bargaining speech in fact advance a distinct political viewpoint on matters such as seniority or pay raise.
Terry Pell, of the Center for Individual Rights, a non-profit public interest firm representing the Friedrichs plaintiffs, says for example, "When the union presses for seniority based school assignment policies it is stepping into one of the most hot button issues in education reform today."
The case comes at a time when unionization in general is declining and the future of unions has been a target in the current presidential campaign.
"I don't think if the plaintiffs win this case it will be the death knell for public sector unions," says Ann C. Hodges, a professor of law at the University of Richmond, who notes that public-sector unions continue in the 25 states that currently forbid mandatory fees. "However, it will make it more difficult for unions to provide representation for workers because those who pay dues will have to subsidize representation for workers who don't pay and there will be a disincentive for workers to join."
"The real story this term has yet to be written--and could come from the cases that are on their way to the Court," says Stephen I. Vladeck, of American University Washington College of Law and a CNN contributor. That might include a challenge to President Barack Obama's immigration policies as well as a return to the issue of the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay.
Two of the most likely cases that justices might take up concern abortion and the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive mandate.
The Court has not heard an abortion case since 2007 and might take up a challenge that goes straight to Court precedent testing what makes up an undue burden for a woman seeking an abortion.
At issue are two aspects of an abortion law in Texas that if allowed to go into effect, could close all but 10 clinics.
One provision requires that doctors who perform abortions have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. The others mandate that clinics upgrade their facilities to hospital-like standards.
Texas says that the aim of the law is to protect women's health. But abortion providers who are challenging the law say that Texas' real aim is not to protect women's health, but to close clinics.
The Court might also agree to hear a case challenging the so called "contraceptive mandate" in the Affordable Care Act brought by non-profit groups such as the Little Sisters of the Poor.
While churches are exempt from the mandate, the Obama administration has set up an accommodation for nonprofits that object to having to provide certain contraceptives as a violation of their religious beliefs.
The groups say the accommodation still makes them complicit in providing the coverage. | 0fake |
NYC REFUSED TO ARREST 5 Illegals Including A Sexual Abuser…You Won’t Believe Why! | You might want to sit down for this one The policy of NYC is so upside down and crazy that you might now believe it! The policy is to just let criminal illegal aliens roam the streets instead of deporting them or locking them up. I kid you not! The theory from the brainiacs at city hall is that this promotes public safety .PROMOTES PUBLIC SAFETY???WELL, ICE ISN T PUTTING UP WITH THIS ANY MORE! THEY ARRESTED THE CRIMINALS ANYWAY!Earlier this week, U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced in a press release that they arrested five illegal aliens from four different countries, including an Indian national wanted for assault and sexual abuse, after New York City refused to cooperate federal immigration law.New York City is a sanctuary city, meaning that they do not demand their police department cooperate with federal immigration laws nor requests from immigration officials, particularly on orders such as detainers. Detainers serve as a legally-authorized request, upon which a law enforcement agency may rely, to continue to maintain custody of an alien for up to 48 hours so that ICE may assume custody for removal purposes, according to the October 18 press release. But some cities simply catch and release these criminals in hopes of promoting cooperation between the city and the illegal alien community.In fact, Mayor Bill De Blasio orders that the New York City Police Department routinely ignore these requests. De Blasio officials have said that their sanctuary city policies promote public safety.All of these men are illegal aliens and all have been arrested for various degrees of drug possession or violence in the past. But, NYPD has never reported them to authorities. In their desire to appear politically correct, De Blasio s administration is allowing criminals to roam the streets.HOW IS THIS PROMOTING PUBLIC SAFETY?READ MORE: TH | 1real |
U.S. airlines brace themselves, passengers for Hurricane Irma | (Reuters) - As Hurricane Irma bore down on the southern United States on Wednesday, airlines adjusted flight schedules, made cancellations and assured passengers they would not have to pay unusually high fares ahead of the storm s arrival. Irma, the second powerful hurricane to approach the United States in as many weeks, was expected to make landfall in Florida by the weekend. It had already pummeled islands in the Caribbean with rain, pounding winds and surging surf by Wednesday. While the storm s precise trajectory remained uncertain, airlines preemptively canceled flights in the likely affected regions and put in place travel waivers for customers to reschedule plans. American Airlines, the largest U.S. carrier by passenger traffic, said on Wednesday it would begin winding down operations in south Florida, including Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, on Friday. Miami-bound flights arriving on Friday from Europe and South America were canceled. American, Delta Air Lines and JetBlue all announced fare caps on flights out of Florida - $99 on JetBlue and American and $399 on Delta - for residents trying to get out of the storm s path. We want those trying to leave ahead of the hurricane to focus on their safe evacuation rather than worry about the cost of flights, JetBlue spokesman Doug McGraw said. Airlines have been criticized in the past for raising prices in the wake of deadly episodes and, as Irma approached, some social media users accused carriers of engaging in price-gouging schemes ahead of the dangerous storm. In response, Senators Richard Blumenthal and Edward Markey called on the U.S. Department of Transportation on Wednesday to launch an investigation into potential opportunistic fare hikes by airlines. It would certainly be offensive if airlines who rely on publicly supported infrastructure and have been bolstered by American taxpayers for nearly a century used this opportunity to impose unconscionable costs on consumers, they wrote in a letter to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. Accusations of unfair pricing techniques have been investigated in the past, including after a deadly Amtrak derailment in 2015, but U.S. officials said last year they found no evidence of wrongdoing in that instance. United Airlines, which took a substantial financial hit when Hurricane Harvey slammed into Texas last week, said it had suspended operations out of San Juan, Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory that was being raked by the very powerful Category 5 hurricane on Wednesday afternoon, and had extended a travel waiver to include cities in south Florida. In some cases, carriers added flights and upsized aircraft out of Florida and the Caribbean before the storm struck to accommodate as many passengers evacuating the area as possible. Fort Lauderdale-based Spirit Airlines said it expected its largest operational hub to be affected and planned to move its operations center to Detroit on Thursday evening. Beyond U.S. airlines, Canadian carriers Air Transat and WestJet Airlines both launched evacuation operations on Wednesday to remove passengers that could be affected by Hurricane Irma in the Dominican Republic, and Air Canada allowed passengers to change flights in impacted areas free-of-charge. WestJet, Canada s second-largest carrier, operated rescue flights to Punta Cana and Puerto Plata on Wednesday and could make additional trips to Santa Clara and Cayo Coco, Cuba, on Thursday, airline spokeswoman Lauren Stewart said. Carnival Cruise Lines, which has major operations in Florida, canceled two of its Bahamas-bound cruises and said it was likely that other schedules would be affected as the storm s path and impact became more clear. | 0fake |
When Obama Admin Went After Banks, It Forced Them to Give Big Money to Some...Questionable Groups | Share on Twitter
A new study shows that after the Obama administration's Department of Justice (DOJ) collected billions in settlement money from U.S. banks after the mortgage collapse of 2008, it directed millions upon millions of dollars to several non-government organizations.
Peter Schweitzer, author of the book “Clinton Cash” and founder of the Government Accountability Institute , told Fox News's Megyn Kelly that tens of millions of dollars from the record-breaking settlements in the bank deals were sent to these ' charitable' groups , some of whose jobs would be to get out the vote for... Democrats:
“The banks are obviously eager to settle [and not go to trial]. [P]art of that settlement... will go to the victims of the crime you committed, but some of the money will go to pay restitution in the form of giving that money to non-profit organizations. These are non-profit organizations that are overwhelmingly progressive and serve as an adjunct to the Democratic party.”
One group he mentioned on “ The Kelly File ” was fairly benign-sounding:
“One organization that has received millions of dollars is in New York called the Asian Americans for Equality. Sounds like a great idea, right? The problem is, when you look into this organization which got money from banks via the Department of Justice, this is an organization affiliated with the Communist Workers Party. I didn't even know the Communist Workers Party was around anymore and, in fact, the organization that received this money is sympathetic to the North Korean regime.”
Indeed, the New York Times reports that many of the founders of Asian Americans for Equality (AAE) were active members of the Communist Workers Party, though AAE has since distanced itself from any modern-day ties.
In August, Andy Koenig of the Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce wrote in The Wall Street Journal about the giveaways by the DOJ to friendly groups, or as he put it, “a handout to the administration's allies” [emphasis added]:
"Some groups on the list—Catholic Charities, for instance—are relatively nonpolitical. Others—La Raza, the National Urban League, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition and more—are anything but.
Many of these groups engage in voter registration , community organizing and lobbying on liberal policy priorities at every level of government. They also provide grants to other liberal groups not eligible for payouts under the settlements. Thanks to the Obama administration, and the fungibility of money, the settlements’ beneficiaries can now devote hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars to these activities."
Judicial Watch began an investigation in 2012, and here's what it said about how the Obama administration ladled out the vast amounts of money:
“The Department of Justice (DOJ) will determine which 'qualified organizations' get leftover settlement cash and Democrat-tied groups like the scandal-plagued Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and the open-borders National Council of La Raza (NCLR) stand to get large sums based on the hastily arranged deal which got court approval in just a few days.”
The disgraced ACORN , the group that used protests to pressure banks into giving mortgages to people who couldn't qualify , was among those receiving Obama justice department funds. The group is now known under its new name, Mutual Housing Association of New York.
The DOJ also gave funds to the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, which carries the very name of the legislation signed into law by Bill Clinton — The Community Reinvestment Act — believed by many to be responsible for the implosion of the mortgage-lending industry.
Some additional groups receiving the bank settlement money included:
Minneapolis High Rise Representative Council [ACORN affiliate]
La Raza | 1real |
Turkey says U.S. isolated on Jerusalem, issuing threats | ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey said on Wednesday the United States has isolated itself by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel s capital and accused it of threatening countries that might vote against it on the matter at an emergency U.N. General Assembly session. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, whose country has led Muslim opposition to Washington s stance on Jerusalem, was speaking before leaving Istanbul with the Palestinian foreign minister to attend Thursday s gathering in New York. With his Dec. 6 decision, President Donald Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy, and upset an international consensus enshrined in U.N. resolutions, that treated Jerusalem s status as unresolved. Israel captured East Jerusalem in a 1967 war and Palestinians want it as the capital of a future state they seek. Trump s move stirred outrage among Palestinians and in the Arab world, and concern among Washington s Western allies. On Monday, the United States vetoed a U.N. Security Council draft resolution calling on it to withdraw its declaration. Thel 14 other council members, including close U.S. allies such as Japan and four European Union countries, backed the draft. On Thursday there ll be a vote criticizing our choice, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Twitter. The U.S. will be taking names. Cavusoglu said that was a threat, and called on Washington - a NATO ally of Turkey - to change course. We expect strong support at the UN vote, but we see that the United States, which was left alone, is now resorting to threats. No honorable, dignified country would bow down to this pressure, Cavusoglu told a news conference held together with his Palestinian counterpart Riyad al-Maliki. We want America to turn back from this wrong and unacceptable decision, Cavusoglu said earlier in the Azeri capital Baku, where he met Iranian and Azeri ministers. God willing, we will push through the General Assembly a resolution in favor of Palestine and Jerusalem, he said. The rare emergency session of the 193-member U.N. General Assembly was called at the request of Arab and Muslim states. Palestinian U.N. envoy Riyad Mansour has said the General Assembly would vote on a draft resolution calling for the U.S. declaration to be withdrawn. Such a vote is non-binding, but carries political weight. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has lambasted Trump s move, and hosted a summit of Muslim leaders last week which called for East Jerusalem to be recognized as the capital of Palestine. Israel calls Jerusalem its indivisible and eternal capital. From now on we will be more active in defending the rights of Palestinians. We will work harder for the international recognition of an independent Palestinian state, Cavusoglu told reporters in Baku. | 0fake |
McCain vows to block proposed separation of NSA, cyber command | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator John McCain said on Tuesday he would use his power to block the confirmation of a key cybersecurity official if necessary to prevent any Obama administration move to separate the U.S. Cyber Command from the National Security Agency. “I do not believe rushing to separate the ‘dual hat’ in the final months of an administration is appropriate, given the very serious challenges we face in cyberspace,” McCain, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said at a hearing. “Dual hat” refers to one individual holding both positions. Current and former U.S. officials told Reuters in August that President Barack Obama’s administration was preparing to elevate the stature of the Department of Defense’s Cyber Command, including separating it from the NSA. Officials argued that the focus of the NSA, a spy agency responsible for electronic eavesdropping, is gathering intelligence, often favoring the monitoring of an enemy’s cyber activities. Cyber Command’s mission is geared more to shutting down cyber attacks - and, if ordered, counter attacking. McCain said the two agencies must work closely together to protect U.S. national security and he would block any nominee if that person was not nominated both to run the NSA and lead Cyber Command. He also said he wanted the administration to provide his panel with detailed plans of its proposed reorganization. “This committee does not take well to being stonewalled while their colleagues in the administration leak information to the press,” McCain said. Admiral Mike Rogers, the current NSA director and head of Cyber Command, told the hearing that he did not think it was in the best U.S. national security interest at this point to separate the two functions. | 0fake |
WHO says attack on Syria vaccine store leaves children at risk | LONDON (Reuters) - The World Health Organization said on Friday it had received reports of an attack on medical facilities in eastern Syria that had destroyed a store containing more than 130,000 vaccine doses against measles and polio. If confirmed, the WHO said, the attack would put thousands of children at risk of these serious infectious, viral diseases. Both can spread rapidly in areas of conflict. We unequivocally condemn these actions. Vaccines are not a legitimate target of war, the WHO s representative in Syria, Elizabeth Hoff, said in a statement issued late on Friday. The WHO said the reports it received were of an attack on a vaccine cold room at health facilities in al-Mayadin, near Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria. The WHO did not say whether the reports it received gave any detail on who carried out the reported attack. The store had held 100,000 doses of measles vaccine, 35,000 doses of polio vaccine, plus syringes and other equipment. Until a new cold room is built and the required cold chain equipment - including solar fridges, cold boxes and vaccine carriers - are delivered, this will delay ... routine immunization for vulnerable children in the area, Hoff said. Polio - a viral disease that can cripple its victims - and measles - which can cause diarrhea, blindness and can kill - tend to break out in war zones because low vaccine coverage leaves gaps in population immunity, exposing children to infection. The WHO previously tackled a polio outbreak in the same area of Syria in 2013-2014. The UN health agency said that in its last polio vaccination campaign in Deir al-Zor it reached more than 252,000 babies and children. | 0fake |
Seeking to deport Rohingya, India tells court has evidence of militant links | NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India s home ministry said on Monday it would confidentially share intelligence information with the Supreme Court showing Rohingya links with Pakistan-based militants, in a bid to get legal clearance for plans to deport 40,000 Rohingya Muslims. The Supreme Court is hearing an appeal lodged on behalf of Rohingya against the deportation plan proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi s Hindu nationalist government. India s home ministry submitted an affidavit to the court arguing that the hardline stance was justified by the security threat posed by illegal immigrant Rohingya, hundreds of thousands of whom have fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh, from where many have crossed into India. The ministry said the illegal influx of large numbers of Rohingya into India began four to five years ago, long before an exodus that saw more than 400,000 Rohingya flee to Bangladesh since Aug. 25 to escape a Myanmar military counter-insurgency offensive that the United Nations has called ethnic cleansing . The affidavit went on to say the government had reports from security agencies and other authentic sources indicating linkages of some of the unauthorized Rohingya immigrants with Pakistan-based terror organizations and similar organizations operating in other countries. It also said there was information on Rohingya involvement in plots by Islamic State and other extremist groups to ignite communal and sectarian violence in India. Senior home ministry official Mukesh Mittal said the Indian government would privately show the court material gathered from sensitive investigations to substantiate the claims in its affidavit. Lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who filed the plea on behalf of two Rohingya men, will file a rejoinder to the government s affidavit, his office told Reuters. The court will next hear the matter on Oct. 3. Meantime, police said on Monday that they had arrested a suspected member of al Qaeda who they believed was trying to recruit Rohingya living in the country to fight security forces in Myanmar. Senior police officer Pramod Kushwaha told Reuters that British national Shauman Haq, 27, was arrested near a bus stop in Delhi on Sunday. He had come to India via Bangladesh. Rohingya in India voiced worries that they were being unfairly tainted by the allegations and sought more understanding for their plight. We feel helpless and hopeless, said Rohingya youth leader Ali Johar, who came to India in 2012 and lives with his family in a Delhi settlement. The world s largest democracy has given us shelter but they should handle this situation more empathetically. Modi s government has been criticized by activists for not speaking out against Myanmar s recent military offensive against Rohingya insurgents, and right-wing groups in India have begun vilifying Rohingya living there. The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Buddhist-majority Myanmar and regarded as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots that date back centuries. More than 800,000 Rohingya currently live in Bangladesh. | 0fake |
THE 1 PERCENTER BABY: Chelsea’s Daughter Is Clearly Not One Of Those ‘Everyday People’ Her ‘Dead Broke’ Granny Is Championing | But then again, with all of the cash flowing into the Clinton Slush Fund from foreign countries no designer should be out of reach for any member of the Clinton crime syndicate Becoming a grandmother has made Hillary Clinton think long and hard about what kind of world she wants to leave behind for future generations a world in which every American will have the same opportunities as nine-month-old Charlotte Clinton-Mezvinsky. In Hillary Clinton s America, for example, every infant child will be swathed in the hippest fabrics from the hottest celebrity fashion barons.The Daily Mail reports:Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton remembered late family friend Oscar de la Renta in a touching tribute at Monday night s CFDA Awards, and revealed that he sent her newborn daughter a special dress soon before he died, which she believes is likely one of the last pieces he ever designed.Chelsea, 35, spoke at the celebrity-packed fashion event about some of her favorite memories of the beloved designer, whom she had known since her father, former US President Bill Clinton s years in the White House.In her speech, she revealed how Mr. de la Renta boosted her self esteem with a dress he sent her as a teenager and made her daughter Charlotte one very lucky little girl by sending her a dress of her own before he passed away.The elite fashion designer, who passed away last year, also designed the stunning dress Hillary wore to Chelsea s wedding ceremony in 2010. It was during a stay at de la Renta s beachfront mansion in the Dominican Republic that Hillary decided to run for president in 2016 as a champion of everyday Americans. This entry was posted in Politics and tagged Chelsea Clinton, Hillary Clinton. Bookmark the permalink.Via: WFB | 1real |
Inside Venezuela’s Crumbling Mental Hospitals - The New York Times | The psychiatric hospital here in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, has long been a forgotten place, filled with forgotten people. But with Venezuela suffering from a severe economic crisis, this mental institution has almost no drugs to control the afflictions tormenting its patients. At the invitation of doctors, reporters from The New York Times visited six psychiatric wards across the country. All reported shortages of medicine, even food. The one here, El Pampero Hospital, hasn’t employed a psychiatrist in two years. It has running water for only a few hours a day, and food is scarce. Omar Mendoza, pictured above, is one of many undernourished patients. He lost half his weight this summer and is down to about 75 pounds. The glue that keeps this hospital in order — the sedatives, tranquilizers and medications — is nearly all gone. In courtyards, women who are functional while medicated are now curled on the floor hallucinating, crying, screaming, rocking back and forth for hours. The doctors and nurses here are aghast at what is taking place, caught between anger and feelings of helplessness. The nursing staff debates daily: Who gets the few remaining pills? Who is the most unstable, or suffering the most? They reduce doses, doling out pills into small metal cups with the fluidity of Las Vegas casino dealers. El Pampero also suffers from shortages of basic and cleaning supplies. There is no soap, no shampoo, no toothpaste, no toilet paper. Patients relieve themselves in the common areas and patio area, and clean themselves only with water. Nurses fear that patients in the men’s ward are more likely to become violent when they are unmedicated. Two of the men in this photograph murdered members of their families before their schizophrenia was diagnosed. One decapitated his mother, and the other stabbed his stepfather. We found Cleofila Carillo crying softly under a mosquito net. The morning before, her unmedicated bunkmate had leapt on top of her, beaten her, bitten off her nose and eaten it. Doctors said she needed full reconstructive surgery, but because of the shortages, they did not have the medical supplies to perform it. All they could do was apply a bandage. Without sedatives, nurses say, they must restrain patients or lock them in isolation cells to keep them from harming themselves. That is what happened to Raul Martínez, who was suffering a psychotic episode. A nurse tied him to a gurney. Patients eat three times a day, but there is never enough food from the government. Members of the hospital staff solicit donations during their time off. Medical records show that over half of the patients in the men’s ward are underweight. Clothes are also in short supply at the hospital. Many patients in the women’s ward wear only and few have shoes. The clothing they do have is ill fitting and threadbare. Nurses fashion belts out of surgical gloves and pieces of rope to keep patients’ pants from sliding off their slight frames. Down the hall, Ms. Carillo’s attacker had been isolated and locked inside a small solitary confinement cell. She yelled at nurses when they asked why she had bitten off and swallowed her roommate’s nose. “It wasn’t me, I did not do it,” she repeated, claiming that she did not know what they were talking about. When Yusmar Torres had no medication to control her mood disorder and depression, she constructed a noose out of a bedsheet and threatened to commit suicide. The staff stripped her of her clothes for safety and put her in a solitary confinement cell, where she was left for days. There are few light moments in El Pampero, but every Friday morning, therapists put on salsa music and hold a dance for the 10 percent of patients who are stable enough to participate. Before the medicine shortages, the recreation center held weekly sewing, cooking and sculpture classes, even a farming program. One therapist said: “When patients have their medicines, they can do really complex crafts. Now they just do simple tasks. ” Mr. Martínez, who suffers from schizophrenia but has little medication, took a nap under his bed. He also suffers from depression. The head nurse, Evila García, fed a blind patient as a stray cat roamed the women’s ward dining hall. Several stray dogs and cats live in the hospital, and the dogs often sleep with patients in their beds. Nurses worry about parasites because the animals have not had their shots and have not been dewormed, but some patients find comfort in them. The Venezuelan government denies that its public hospitals are suffering from shortages, and has refused multiple offers of international medical aid. Josefina Zapata, a patient suffering from psychosis and epilepsy, was in solitary confinement. She was not violent, but the hospital staff did not have the anticonvulsants she needed. The staff regularly kept her locked in this cell, on a mattress on the floor, so that when she started convulsing, she was less likely to hurt herself. The vast majority of patients living at El Pampero have been abandoned by their families and rely completely on the state to meet their basic needs. “May God have mercy on us,” the head nurse said. | 0fake |
Is Traditional Polling Underselling Donald Trump’s True Strength? - The New York Times | Hillary Clinton’s lead in general election polls has faded over the last few weeks. One reason might be that a growing number of Republicans are coalescing around Donald Trump’s candidacy. Another part of the explanation? Fewer telephone polls. So far this year, telephone surveys have tended to show Mrs. Clinton leading by a slightly larger margin than those conducted online. There hasn’t been a telephone survey since Mr. Trump beat back all his rivals early this month. So Mrs. Clinton’s seeming lead has seemed to shrink particularly fast. Why does Mr. Trump do better in online polls? And are the online polls right? The prevailing theory of Mr. Trump’s edge in online surveys is “social desirability bias” — the idea that poll respondents might be less likely to divulge a socially undesirable opinion, like support for a controversial candidate like Mr. Trump, to a live interviewer than in an online questionnaire. This is not an entirely new phenomenon for Mr. Trump. He fared better in online surveys during the Republican primaries than he did in telephone surveys, a tendency first identified by Jonathan Robinson at Catalist, a data firm associated with the Democratic Party. The pattern lasted all the way through the end of the primary season. The online pollster Morning Consult conducted a study indicating that social desirability bias drove his edge. Thomas Edsall, writing in the The New York Times, raised the possibility that the same phenomenon explains Mr. Trump’s strength in the online polls right now, suggesting that Mr. Trump could outperform traditional surveys showing a wide lead for Mrs. Clinton. Social desirability bias might well be helping Mr. Trump in online polls. But it’s a lot less clear now than it was during the primary season. And even if that is what’s going on, there’s no reason to assume the online polls are right. With the primary season effectively over, I think we can say, with some qualifications, that the surveys were probably more accurate than the online surveys. Why? The actual results just weren’t as good for Mr. Trump as the balance of online surveys predicted they would be. Mr. Trump has now won 41 percent of the popular vote — including the string of recent contests where he clearly broke through and outperformed his prior vote tallies. On Super Tuesday, he won just 34 percent of the vote — and he won about 39 percent between then and the New York primary. But the online surveys showed Mr. Trump at 38 percent as early as the new year, broke 40 percent around Super Tuesday, and were in the by March 15. His actual vote tallies consistently trailed the online surveys. They look a lot more like what the surveys showed at the time. The Upshot published a series of demographic models throughout the primary season that estimated how Mr. Trump might have fared if the country had voted on that date. At the time, our estimates showed Mr. Trump did not approach 40 percent of the vote until March 15. With the benefit of hindsight, we can do even better: Take all of the results so far, and estimate how Mr. Trump would do in a national primary held at any given stage of the race. These estimates, based on the actual results, consistently match more closely with the live interview surveys than the online ones. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the social desirability bias theory is wrong. It’s possible that other differences between online and polls — likely voter models or sampling procedures — accounted for Mr. Trump’s additional strength. All told, it’s not enough evidence to make me think that the online polls are more accurate about Mr. Trump than the surveys. Mr. Trump’s advantage in online polls is a lot less clear in the general election than it was in the primary. It does seem to exist. Mrs. Clinton generally leads Mr. Trump by less in online surveys. On balance, though, Mr. Trump has about 2. 5 more points in polls. He’s actually earning a smaller share of the vote in online surveys than in the polls — the exact opposite of what one might expect if he were being hurt by social desirability bias in polls. So what’s going on? The main difference between the online and polls is there are vastly more undecided voters in the online surveys. In the surveys, there are correspondingly more supporters of Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump, with Mrs. Clinton apparently gaining slightly more ground. Why are there so many undecided voters? It’s a methodological quirk, relating to the way that online pollsters have to ask questions. Consider, for instance, how the typical NBC Street Journal poll, a survey, asked the horse race question in March: “And, if the election for president were held today, and Donald Trump were the Republican candidate and Hillary Clinton were the Democratic candidate, for whom would you vote?” Notice that “undecided” or “other” or “don’t know” isn’t a stated option? Live interview pollsters can do that, since the respondent is free to say “other” or “I don’t know,” and the interviewer can record it as such. In the poll, 9 percent volunteered “other” or “neither,” and 2 percent weren’t sure. But this is a lot more challenging for an online pollster. If you put “don’t know” or “other” as an option, a lot of people are going to take it. But if you don’t include it, you have a problem: What will the truly undecided voters do? They could provide an unreliable answer or leave the survey. If you provide them the option to “skip,” they might skip through the whole questionnaire. In the end, many of the online pollsters give voters the option to choose undecided. Voters are taking it in huge numbers. You can see the effect in another type of NBC News survey: those conducted online by SurveyMonkey. At the beginning of May, the first NBC general election poll included an explicit “don’t know” option. Mrs. Clinton led, 43 to 37, with 19 percent selecting “don’t know. ” But in their second survey, conducted after Mr. Trump emerged triumphant, “undecided” was no longer an option. Respondents could go out of their way to skip the question and leave it blank, but they couldn’t simply say “undecided. ” The result? Mrs. Clinton led, 49 to 44 percent, with just 7 percent electing to skip the question. This doesn’t mean there isn’t a social desirability bias against Mr. Trump. One could imagine, for instance, that Mr. Trump would receive notably more support in the online surveys if they had as few undecided voters as the surveys. But it does make it harder to compare the results of the online and surveys, since there’s no way to be sure whether Mr. Trump would still be doing better if there were fewer undecided voters. You could imagine, for instance, that a bunch of Bernie Sanders’s supporters will take the “don’t know” option, simply to spare themselves from having to support Mrs. Clinton. In the most recent YouGov online survey, 30 percent of Mr. Sanders’s supporters were selecting either “someone else,” “not sure” or “wouldn’t vote. ” But in the recent New York News survey, just 9 percent wound up in those categories. Mrs. Clinton was the beneficiary: She held 82 percent of Mr. Sanders’s supporters, but just 55 percent in the YouGov poll. (Mr. Trump did fare better among Mr. Sanders’s supporters in the YouGov poll, earning 15 percent of the vote, than in The New York News poll, where he won 10 percent.) My guess is that Mr. Trump would still fare slightly better in the online surveys than in the polls, even if the number of undecided voters was equal. Mrs. Clinton tends to lead by a hair more among decided voters, even after removing the “undecided” voters. But it’s not clear that it’s a social desirability effect, or that it’s more accurate. | 0fake |
OHIO LOSER Brags About Abandoning Motorist In Snowstorm On Social Media Over Trump Bumper Sticker On Car…Goes Viral | A prolific Trump foe found viral fame after boasting about abandoning a driver stuck in the snow as punishment for supporting the President-elect.Troy Brown, from Winchester, Ohio, shared an image of a car that had slid off the road and was pointing into a ditch, with no obvious way to escape unaided.He captioned the image: I was going to help her but she has a #Trump sticker on her car #CallYoPresident. It was shared approvingly some 1,700 times.Brown posts extensively about political issues like Black Lives Matter on his Facebook page:He then tried to capitalize on his fleeting celebrity by advertising merchandise with the photo on it. Heatstreet | 1real |
Liberals Brilliantly Troll The GOP With A Petition To Make Their Convention An ‘Open Carry Event’ | Every time a school shooting happens, the idiots on the right yank out the memes and propaganda declaring that the school being a gun free zone is why it was chosen. They call the shooter a lone wolf or mentally ill and point out this his sister s college roommate was a Democrat. The gun had nothing to do with it, and had there been more guns in the school it wouldn t have gone down how it did.On that one they are correct. Most experts agree that if you put more guns in a dangerous situation, especially where people are running and panicking, you re going to end up with a deadly crossfire and more people will die senselessly. Still, the NRA-controlled Republican party stands by their platform of more guns for everyone, no matter who, in every situation, no matter what. Going out for breakfast? Bring your gun; a criminal (who has every right to a gun) might be there with a gun. Headed to the movies? Arm yourself. Some mentally ill guy with a gun (who has every right to carry it) may be there looking to calm the voices in his head.Guns, guns, guns. With more than 300 million instruments of death in circulation, not including the homemade versions, the likelihood that we ll ever see an end to the senseless violence is pretty slim. All we can do is point out the stupidity, abhor the violence and mock the hypocrisy when we see it happening around us. That s exactly what one anonymous liberal did when he or she wrote and uploaded a petition to change.org.The Republican National Convention, you see, is being held at the Quicken Loans Arena, which is a gun free zone. What better way to make them eat their own stupid words than at their official clown convention. The petition, a masterpiece of leftist trollery, takes aim at the Party, its leaders and base by calling for the following five points of action:1. From the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland: A suspension of their policy preventing the open carry of firearms on the premises of the arena from July 18-21, 2016 to coincide with the Republican National Convention.2. From the National Rifle Association: An immediate condemnation of the egregious affront to the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution constituted by the gun-free zone loophole to the state law.3. From Ohio Governor John Kasich: A concerted effort to use his executive authority to override the gun-free zone loophole being exploited by the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.4. From Reince Priebus and the Republican National Committee: An explanation of how a venue so unfriendly to Second Amendment rights was chosen for the Republican Convention. Further, we demand a contingency plan to relocate the convention to another location should the Quicken Loans Arena refuse to honor the constitutional rights of the RNC guests to open carry firearms during the convention.5. From all Republican candidates for President: You have been brave in raising awareness about the immense dangers posed by gun-free zones. In order to ensure the safety of your supporters, delegates and all attendees at the convention in July, you must call upon the RNC to rectify this affront to our Second Amendment freedoms and insist upon a suspension of the Quicken Loans Arena s unconstitutional gun-free zone loophole. Every American is endowed with a God-given Constitutional right to carry a gun wherever and whenever they please.The best part about this masterpiece is that some right-wing extremist social media pages have begun to catch on and post support for it, because yes, they are that stupid. You can read and sign the petition HERE. The comments are priceless, too. Enjoy!Featured image from The Cleveland Patch | 1real |
Treasury's Mnuchin: Trump's proposed corporate tax rate 'not negotiable' | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday that President Donald Trump’s proposal for a cut in the corporate income tax rate to 20 percent was “not negotiable.” “The president’s number one issue that is not negotiable is 20 percent corporate taxes,” Mnuchin said at an event hosted by The Atlantic in Washington. On Wednesday, the Trump administration unveiled the biggest U.S. tax overhaul in three decades, but the plan prompted criticism that it favors cutting taxes for business and the wealthy. It included lowering the corporate income tax rate and implementing a new 25 percent tax rate for pass-through businesses such as partnerships to boost the economy. | 0fake |
Trump says union head who accused him of lying has 'done a terrible job' | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Donald Trump clashed on Wednesday with a union official who accused the president-elect of lying about the number of jobs saved in a deal to keep air conditioner maker Carrier from moving some jobs from Indiana to Mexico. Chuck Jones, president of United Steelworkers Local 1999, which represents workers at United Technologies Corp’s Carrier plant in Indianapolis, in an interview on CNN criticized Trump for at least the second time in two days over the deal. Trump, in a Twitter post on Wednesday, offered a sharp reply: “Chuck Jones, who is President of United Steelworkers Local 1999, has done a terrible job representing workers. No wonder companies flee country!” On Tuesday, Jones told The Washington Post that when Trump spoke at the Carrier factory last week, “He got up there and, for whatever reason, lied his ass off.” Indiana state officials have agreed to give Carrier $7 million in tax breaks to encourage it to keep about 1,100 jobs in the state, although about 300 of the jobs are in the company’s headquarters and were not scheduled to go to Mexico. Only 800 of the positions are union factory jobs, and Carrier still plans to send an estimated 1,300 jobs to Mexico. Some employees are disappointed, Jones said on CNN on Wednesday. “We had a lot of our members, when the word was coming out of 1,100, they thought that they would have a job,” he said. In more remarks on CNN later on Wednesday, Jones responded to Trump’s Twitter post. “That’s pretty low-down, low life,” he said. “He doesn’t like to be challenged, and I challenged him.” Trump, who made tough talk on trade a centerpiece of his election campaign, had vowed to impose hefty tariffs if Carrier did not reverse course on shifting jobs to Mexico. Trump posted another tweet after Jones’ later remarks on CNN. “If United Steelworkers 1999 was any good, they would have kept those jobs in Indiana,” Trump wrote. | 0fake |
Putin, Trump to discuss North Korea on Tuesday: IFX cites Kremlin aide | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump will discuss North Korea when they hold a telephone conversation on Tuesday, Interfax news agency cited Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov as saying. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier on Tuesday that the conversation would focus on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad s visit to Russia which he made on Monday. | 0fake |
Congressional Black Caucus Condemns Trump: He’s A Racist Who Cozies Up To White Supremacists | Democratic members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) condemned Donald Trump and his unbelievably tone-deaf attempt at African-American outreach, slamming him as a racist who has spent his entire campaign cozying up to white supremacists.The CBC convened a conference call on Tuesday to denounce Trump, and accused his campaign of not only perpetuating stereotypes but also deliberately dog whistling to white supremacists in an effort to turn their bigotry into votes.Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) said that the Republican nominee is one of the most racist, sexist and bigoted candidates to launch a bid for the White House in modern history, and accused Trump of having a kinship with white supremacists. He knows the audience he s trying to reach out to and it s not African-Americans, Meeks said. He s trying to appeal to David Duke and the racists of the world with what they think are stereotypes. He s trying to appeal to the worst of the white supremacists and others he s been catering to in the campaign to try and help them with turnout. In the past few days, Trump has attempted to pander to minority voters but has done an exceedingly poor job of it. In an effort to garner votes from African-Americans he claimed that their communities are war zones and that they live in fear of being shot at any moment. Trump s big selling point was that since black Americans live in poverty, have poor education, and a lack of job opportunities they might as well vote for him. After all, it isn t like they have anything to lose, right?Trump s blatant racism and p*ss poor excuse for minority outreach aren t going over well with African-American voters or lawmakers.CBC Chairman G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) blasted Trump for giving speeches supposedly meant to draw black voters to crowds that are overwhelmingly white and said that the GOP nominee s so-called outreach is a slap in the face to the African-American community. If Donald Trump truly cared about African-Americans, he d disavow his long history of hateful and racist attacks against our community, he d apologize for having discriminated against black families he d disavow his support for white supremacists and white supremacy, Butterfield said.The Democrats taking part in Tuesday s call ripped Trump s past history of discriminatory housing practices during his years as a real estate investor and his habit of exploiting minority workers as a builder.They noted that his campaign has been littered with bigotry from the very beginning when he announced his candidacy by calling all Mexicans rapists. Since then, he has been reluctant to disavow the Ku Klux Klan and David Duke, called for all Muslims to be banned from entering the United States, accused a judge of being incapable of impartiality because of his Mexican heritage, and has refused to believe that President Obama was born in America.In response to Trump and his racist rhetoric, Democrats say they are pushing their minority voter registration efforts into overdrive and plan to set records with black and Hispanic turnout at the polls in November. To say that minority voters are eager to cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton to make sure that Trump never gets anywhere near the White House would be an understatement. Donald Trump is a voter registration machine and a citizenship-advocating engine, said Rep. Luis Guti rrez (D-Ill.). This is a little bit of thank you, because our community has never been so united or energized since that moment you set foot in national arena. Trump has said repeatedly that he will do great with African-Americans and Hispanics. It is hard to know what in the world ever gave him that idea, but his outreach isn t helping his cause and surely won t convince minority voters to turn a blind eye to the fact that he has built his entire campaign on bigotry.Featured image via Mark Wilson/Getty Images | 1real |
A Growing Coalition Of Electors Is Working Feverishly To Stop Trump | There are all kinds of pushes designed to stop Trump from officially taking office in January. There s a petition on Change.org with over four million signatures calling on electors to make Hillary president. A recount effort is underway in three crucial battleground states. There are calls for investigations into his conflicts of interest, which could be unconstitutional and could prevent him from legally taking office.And now, a group of electors has gotten together to start raising money for a three-week mad dash to stop Donald Trump s election. It s true that these are Democratic electors, but their goal is to successfully lobby enough of their Republican counterparts to put someone ahem sane into the White House.The group is calling itself the Hamilton Electors, presumably after founding father Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton described both the need and the purpose of the Electoral College in Federalist No. 68 as the following: [The Electoral College] affords a moral certainty, that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications. Trump is eminently unqualified for the office of the president, and yet he won the necessary electoral votes. Therefore, if we look at what Hamilton said, our electors are obligated to reject Donald Trump and choose someone else.It s not yet clear what the Hamilton Electors will actually do with the money they raise, but their endgame is clear: Stop Trump in any legal way possible. They have already registered a 527 non-profit organization, and Colorado Democratic elector Michael Baca and his compatriots are looking to replace Trump with a more mainstream Republican.Wait, what? Why a mainstream Republican? Because as much as it should go to Hillary given the popular vote totals, the electors they have to convince to reject Trump are never going to do it if their alternative is a Democrat, and especially if it s Hillary. A mainstream Republican, such as John Kasich, is an alternative that many Republicans could probably get behind. This, however, means convincing Democratic electors in addition to Republican electors.Someone like Kasich could do a lot to halt the progress we ve made over the last 8 years, but he s sane, at the very least. He also won t be flying off the handle on Twitter at every single last perceived slight. He has his problems, but at least we can be reasonably sure the country will survive to see 2020.Under Trump ? There s a lot less of a guarantee, especially with Congressional leaders signaling that they re ready to work with him. And, as some are pointing out, the electors have an obligation to ensure that we don t put a demagogue into the White House. And there is currently no law or precedent preventing the College from choosing its own candidate.There have been no overt signs that Republican electors will get behind the Hamilton Electors, however, the Democratic coalition says they re getting through to at least some of them. Even a split vote, where Trump doesn t get 270 electoral votes on Dec. 19, might help because that would send it to Congress and they d have the final say.Unfortunately, they d probably choose Trump anyway.If someone else, like Kasich, Mitt Romney, or another mainstream Republican managed to get 270 electoral votes, there would likely be some serious problems. That s particularly true for Trump voters, the RNC, and Congress. The chances that the Hamilton Electors will succeed in their efforts are slim, but at least we have a group in the Electoral College that s trying.Featured image by Drew Angerer via Getty Images | 1real |
Trump promised to repeal Obamacare. Now what? | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Republican President-elect Donald Trump vowed on the campaign trail to repeal Obamacare, but making good on that promise may be easier said than done. President Barack Obama’s 2010 national healthcare reform law extended medical insurance to 25 million more people by expanding the Medicaid plan for the poor and creating subsidized coverage for individuals. Republican lawmakers, who have voted more than 50 times to repeal all or part of the law, have begun pressing Trump to deliver. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday repealing Obamacare is a “pretty high item on our agenda” for the new Congress. But a complete repeal of Obama’s Affordable Care Act may not be immediately in the cards, as Republican lawmakers now hold 51 seats in the Senate at latest count, well short of the 60 seats required to overturn it. Instead, health policy experts said, Trump could try to dismantle key elements through a process called budget reconciliation. That would allow him to eliminate funding for the income-based subsidies that make the new insurance plans affordable, or cut the money providing expanded Medicaid benefits in 31 states. “Some of the policy experts on the Republican side would say tearing it up and starting over would be very disruptive,” said Paul Howard, director of health policy at the conservative Manhattan Institute. Parts of the law have been weakened through legal challenges. Several of the largest U.S. health insurers have pulled out of the exchanges for individual coverage after losing money on a sicker-than-expected group of patients. Consumers not eligible for government subsidies have seen premiums rise sharply, including a projected average increase of 25 percent for 2017. Scrapping the law altogether without a clear plan for providing replacement coverage for so many people would be politically risky, experts said. Trump also would face a tight deadline were he to try to dismantle the insurance exchanges by 2018; many state-based health insurance regulators require insurers to submit plans for the upcoming year by April or May - only a few months into a new administration. Trump also could seek changes to other provisions of the law, such as a tax on medical device makers, or the so-called “Cadillac tax” that is due to hit rich employer-based healthcare plans in 2020. However, some elements could not be eliminated by depriving the law of funds. For instance, the law prevents insurers from denying coverage to people based on their health or pricing insurance based on gender. Mandatory coverage of preventive benefits also would be unaffected - short of a complete repeal. It also is not clear if Trump would try to reverse the individual mandate, which requires people to purchase health insurance or pay a penalty. The goal of the requirement was to broaden the pool of policyholders to include more healthy Americans. Aetna Chief Executive Officer Mark Bertolini said on Thursday at a New York Times Dealbook conference that some elements of the law are so popular that they are likely to continue, even if there is something Trump calls “repeal.” They include allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ plans and people with health problems to buy insurance without paying more. Medicaid could continue to expand, he said, though with a different type of federal financing. Trump’s surprise victory over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton rattled healthcare investors on Wednesday, depressing shares in hospital operators and some insurers. Medicaid focused health insurer Molina Healthcare Inc. fell nearly 16 percent, and hospital chain Tenet Healthcare Corp dropped 25 percent. Large insurers, who have been losing money on the exchanges, gained, with Anthem Inc. up 1.5 percent. Enrollment opened on Nov. 1 for 2017 coverage and once those plans are purchased, it would be legally difficult for Trump to cancel them before the one-year contracts run out, said Molina Healthcare Chief Executive Officer Dr. Mario Molina. “Any changes they make will have to be on a prospective basis to begin in 2018,” Molina said. It’s not clear what Trump’s plan to replace Obamacare would look like. Options he raised on the campaign trail include replacing the Obamacare individual coverage with high-deductible healthcare plans, and lumping the sickest people together into high-risk pools that are insured separately. “I think there is going to be a lot of confusion and a lot of anxious people,” Molina said. Among the worries for some people covered under Obamacare is how long it will last. Before the law took effect, Marc Dobin, a 57-year old mediator and lawyer in Jupiter, Florida, said his insurer put a surcharge on his premium because he has heart stents. Under Obamacare, insurers are barred from charging more for pre-existing conditions. “Imagine the disaster if, part way through the year, they cancel it,” Dobin said. For others, the cost of premiums bolstered their support for Trump. Crista Simmons, 63, a piano teacher in Kalamazoo, Michigan, spends about a third of her gross income on premiums and medical care. “There are people who pay more in premiums than their mortgage,” she said. | 0fake |
Quid Pro Quo? Wikileaks Email Reveals Clinton Campaign Eyeing Paul Ryan’s Relative for SCOTUS | Email
New Wikileaks email dumps have revealed massive corruption surrounding Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta . In one email dated February 29, 2016, an article sent by Hillary advisor Sara Solow to Podesta and Hillary's foreign policy advisor Jake Sullivan indicates that the Clinton campaign is considering House Speaker Paul Ryan's relative for the Supreme Court.
Ketanji Brown is the subject of the article. She is relate to Paul Ryan by marriage and is a judge on the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
The email reads, "She was confirmed by without any Republican opposition in the Senate not once, but *twice*. She was confirmed to her current position in 2013 by unanimous consent – that is, without any stated opposition. She was also previously confirmed unanimously to a seat on the U.S. Sentencing Commission (where she became vice chair)."
"Her family is impressive. She is married to a surgeon and has two young daughters. Her father is a retired lawyer and her mother a retired school principal. Her brother was a police officer (in the unit that was the basis for the television show * The Wire *) and is now a law student, and she is related by marriage to Congressman (and Speaker of the House) Paul Ryan."
Earlier this month, he even said he would not campaign for nor support his party's nominee, Donald Trump . In fact, some supporters of Trump have theorized that Ryan was somehow behind or involved in the leak of the tape in which Trump made sexually crude comments about women.
If you claim this is merely circumstantial, then I think there is no hope for you understanding just how corrupt DC has gotten, and this is the very Paul Ryan I warned you about in 2012, which everyone said he was "so conservative." Sadly, many didn't listen and voted for liberal Mitt Romney and him. Perhaps Paul Ryan's records and emails should be leaked and maybe we just might see that he's willing to engage Hillary in a pay-to-play scheme . Don't forget to Like Freedom Outpost on Facebook , Google Plus , & Twitter . You can also get Freedom Outpost delivered to your Amazon Kindle device here . shares | 1real |
Singapore detains two for 'terrorism-related' activities | SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore said on Thursday it has detained a Singaporean man and a woman for affiliations to radical Islamist groups under the country s tough security law that allows for detention without trial. The man, 25 year-old Abu Thalha bin Samad, is a member of the Southeast Asian Islamist group, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), and was educated and trained in JI-linked schools in the region, the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement. The Singapore government worked with a regional government to deport him back to Singapore for his arrest, the ministry said, but it did not disclose from which country. He was duty-bound to carry out whatever instructions the JI leaders had for him, including performing armed jihad and sacrificing his life for the JI s violent cause, the ministry said. The woman detained is Islamic State supporter Munavar Baig Amina Begam. The 38-year-old Singaporean housewife is originally from India and the second woman in Singapore to be detained under the Internal Security Act. She is an ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) supporter and harbored the intention to make her way to the conflict zone to join ISIS, the ministry said in the statement. To influence others to support ISIS, Amina shared materials promoting terrorism on social media, which ... encouraged others to fight and die as martyrs, it added. Neither of the two was available for comment. Last week, Singapore banned two popular foreign Muslim preachers from entering the city-state because, it said, their views bred intolerance and were a risk to social harmony. As concern grows about the spread of militancy, there has been a significant rise in the number of detentions under the country s security law. At least 14 radicalized Singaporeans have been put under restriction or detention orders under the ISA since 2015, up sharply from 11 cases between 2007 and 2014, according to data from the ministry. Diverse, affluent Singapore is majority ethnic Chinese with sizeable minority ethnic Malay and ethnic Indian communities, and numerous foreign workers from Asia and beyond. Singapore said late last year it had deported nearly 70 foreigners including five maids for suspected radicalism over the previous two years. Authorities in neighboring Indonesia, which has the world s largest Muslim population, said last year they had arrested six Indonesian suspects with links to Islamic State who were plotting attacks on Singapore. | 0fake |
null | If you ever want the true story to the Rothschild estate just let me know ive got all the proof you need …. | 1real |
Talking Trumpism: A New Political Journal Enters the Fray - The New York Times | William F. Buckley Jr. said he would rather be governed by the first 2, 000 names in the Boston phone book than by the faculty of Harvard. But one evening late last month, the Harvard Club in Midtown was as good a place as any to go looking for the intellectual future of conservatism. The occasion was the unveiling of American Affairs, a tweedy quarterly journal dedicated to giving intellectual heft and coherence to the amorphous ideology known, for lack of a better term, as Trumpism. Not that the words “Donald Trump” came up during the presentation, though Julius Krein, the journal’s founder and editor, did pay the man sideways tribute with a quotation from the French critic Roland Barthes’s classic 1957 essay “The World of Wrestling. ” “Our politics, like Barthes’s wrestling, has become a spectacle of excess, which has no sense of time, and no logic of the future,” Mr. Krein said, drawing a chuckle from the crowd of more than 100. He then turned to a matter: rethinking the entire War policy consensus. “We in America no longer have any idea what the future should be, much less how to build it together,” he said. That’s big talk for a quarterly with an initial print run of 300 copies and whose first issue mixes articles on economics and international affairs with more abstract offerings like a disquisition on Hegel and work. But the history of modern conservatism is paved with journals whose influence belied their small circulations, including The Public Interest, which became the chief organ of neoconservatism in the 1970s and ’80s, and National Affairs, founded in 2009 to promote “reform conservatism. ” In an interview, Mr. Krein described the journal as aiming to appeal to fans of both Foreign Affairs and the Slovenian Marxist provocateur Slavoj Zizek. More seriously, he said, the magazine seeks to fill the void left by a conservative intellectual establishment more focused on opposing Mr. Trump than on grappling with the rejection of globalism and dogma that propelled his victory. “A lot of people on the right are looking back and seeing an agenda that is a complete failure, presided over by a bunch of nonentities,” he said. “It’s a joke. ” So far, the right is definitely reading. Matthew Continetti of The Washington Free Beacon, in an article reposted by National Review, called the first issue “lively and and at times deeply insightful. ” Ross Douthat of The New York Times, a strong critic of Mr. Trump, noted the journal in a recent column, though he called the ideas on offer “not quite as daring as I had hoped. ” Over on the left, Jeet Heer of The New Republic was less appreciative. discussion of “civic friendship” and “covenantal nationalism,” Mr. Heer said, effectively “whitewashes” Mr. Trump’s “racial demagoguery” and authoritarianism and “aims to hoodwink elite conservatives into believing that Trump is just like them. ” Mr. Krein says the point is exactly the opposite. “Trump is not like them, and that’s what makes him attractive — at least on a policy basis,” he said. He continued: “There has to be a sense of a distinct political community. I don’t think it has to be ethnic or racial, but there has to be a distinct American citizenship that matters. ” Mr. Krein grew up in Eureka, S. D. and studied political philosophy at Harvard with the noted conservative scholar Harvey C. Mansfield before going into finance, working at Bank of America, the Blackstone Group and smaller firms. (He now works on the journal.) He’s also a skilled connector, as the crowd at the Harvard Club attested. The main event was a discussion of globalization between Peter Thiel, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur and Trump supporter, and Slaughter, the president and chief executive of the think tank New America. (Mr. Krein said he met Mr. Thiel several years ago though a reading group dedicated to the philosopher Leo Strauss.) During the cocktail hour, Mr. Thiel chatted with the philanthropist and Trump donor Rebekah Mercer, while writers and editors from The Washington Free Beacon, First Things, National Review, The American Conservative and other mostly outlets worked the room. William Kristol of The Weekly Standard, a staunch summed up the crowd as “a mix of normal people who come to conservative events, some interesting people who are distinctively Trumpian and a few lunatics. ” And himself? “I’m representing the deep state,” Mr. Kristol joked. The journalist Michael Lind, a member of the magazine’s advisory board (and a former conservative turned advocate of “liberal nationalism”) credited Mr. Krein with “trying to scramble the categories of left, right and center. ” “We’ve already seen a partisan realignment,” Mr. Lind said. “What we’re now seeing is an intellectual realignment, as both parties’ intellectuals try to catch up with their bases. ” American Affairs grew out of The Journal of American Greatness, a pseudonymously written blog that Mr. Krein — a sometime contributor to The Weekly Standard — and others started last spring, out of frustration that no outlet wanted to publish their long, learned, essays. (It abruptly shut down in June, declaring that what began as an “inside joke” had started being taken too seriously another offshoot, American Greatness, set up shop in July.) The site is most famous for publishing Publius Decius Mus, the pseudonymous author of the incendiary essay “The Flight 93 Election,” who was unmasked last month as Michael Anton, who is now a senior staff member at the National Security Council. Mr. Krein, who wrote as Plautus, said his own favorite contributions included “The Red Album,” a satire of “#NeverTrump paranoia” modeled on Joan Didion’s classic essay “The White Album. ” The first issue of American Affairs is similarly eclectic, if more squarely in the policy journal tradition. Mr. Anton wrote a critique of “the liberal international order,” and the economist David P. Goldman, better known for his columns under the pen name Spengler, contributed a essay on technology and the United States. Mr. Krein’s essay on James Burnham’s critique of the “managerial elite” takes whacks at both parties. The second issue, Mr. Krein said, will include more surprises, mixing newcomers with some prominent names one wouldn’t expect to see there. As for the biggest name in American politics, Mr. Krein said the magazine took no “intellectual cues” from President Trump. “These are our ideas,” he said. “We hope there’s some overlap, but we aren’t going to sit around cheerleading the administration. ” | 0fake |
Donald Trump Tried To Manipulate Stock Market Against One American Company; It Worked For A Few Hours | Donald Trump hates Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, the world s number one online retailer. Trump doesn t hate Bezos because he received a package late or even because (as he claims) Amazon is responsible for a lot of brick and mortar stores closing down. Trump hates Bezos because the Amazon boss also owns the Washington Post, a newspaper that has been relentlessly following the Trump/Russia story.On Wednesday, Trump lashed out at Bezos via Twitter, causing Amazon stocks to significantly dip, before rebounding.Amazon is doing great damage to tax paying retailers. Towns, cities and states throughout the U.S. are being hurt many jobs being lost! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2017This tantrum caused Amazon s stocks to lose 1.2 percent of their value before going back up and then back down a far more modest .4 percent.Don t let Trump s sudden concern for small businesses fool you. It s all about revenge for the Washington Post. In the past, Trump has wrongfully accused Amazon of not paying taxes, which is rich from the White House occupant who refuses to show his tax returns.Trump has also accused Bezos of using the Washington Post as a tax shelter, despite the fact that the Washington Post is completely separate from Amazon.This is far from the first time Trump has lashed out as companies whose CEOs have someone offended the thin-skinned dictator.He went after Lockheed Martin, whose stock quickly tumbled:Based on the tremendous cost and cost overruns of the Lockheed Martin F-35, I have asked Boeing to price-out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 22, 2016On Monday, he attacked Merck Pharmaceutical because their CEO, Ken Frazier, dared resign from Trump s manufacturing council after Trump s offensive reactions to the racists who held a violent march in Charlottesville, VA.Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President s Manufacturing Council,he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2017While this might not be technically illegal, manipulating the stock market via the bully pulpit is highly unethical. It s coercion. It s anti-free market. Trump s Twitter account needs to be shut down. Now.The upside, though, is that when Trump tweeted complaining about Boeing before he took office, its stock took a major dive. By contrast, his recent tweets have had a much, much more modest effect. In other words, very few people are taking the Blusterer in Chief seriously.Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images | 1real |
Susan Rice: U.S. Must Integrate LGBT Rights into Gov’t and Foreign Policy | October 28, 2016 Susan Rice: U.S. Must Integrate LGBT Rights into Gov’t and Foreign Policy
National Security Advisor Susan Rice told students at American University in a speech on LGBT rights Wednesday that the “United States must continue to integrate LGBT rights into our government and foreign policy,” including “creating a more diverse national security workforce.”
“This is an issue that I’m particularly passionate about, and one that President Obama has prioritized,” Rice said, “because without tapping America’s full range of races, religions, ethnicities, social and economic experiences—without embracing people of every sexual orientation and gender identity—we’re leading in a complex world with one hand tied behind our back.”
Rice, who once served as U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said that “whether we are talking about race, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity, this fight for equal rights is what our history and values demand.” | 1real |
The Wall Street Journal Just Slammed Trump As A ‘Fake President’ For Lying So Much | This is especially monumental since the Wall Street Journal is a conservative newspaper.Donald Trump is running out of supporters, and that includes his supporters within the media.The straw that appears to have broken the camel s back is Trump s accusation that President Obama wiretapped him during the 2016 Election. Of course, Trump offered zero evidence to back up his claim then and he still hasn t provided any now.But when FBI Director James Comey testified to Congress under oath that Trump s wiretapping accusation is complete bullshit, whatever shred of credibility Trump had left imploded in an instant and now some right-wing media outlets are backing away from him.Fox News began distancing themselves from Trump after he threw them under the bus because Sean Spicer repeated a claim that President Obama enlisted British intelligence to wiretap Trump, which was basd o a conspiracy theory offered up by Fox legal analyst Andrew Napolitano, who has since been refuted by the network and removed from all programming indefinitely.And now the Wall Street Journal appears to also be coming to their senses.In a piece published on Tuesday, the Journal slammed Trump for clinging to his lies about Obama like a drunk person clinging to an empty bottle. The President clings to his assertion like a drunk to an empty gin bottle, rolling out his press spokesman to make more dubious claims, the Journal wrote. Sean Spicer who doesn t deserve this treatment was dispatched last week to repeat an assertion by a Fox News commentator that perhaps the Obama Administration had subcontracted the wiretap to British intelligence. The Journal then pointed out that Trump did this all the time during the election and that he was able to get away with it at the time because his supporters did not care about the truth. As Trump said during the campaign, he could have murdered someone in broad daylight on the street and his supporters would have still voted for him.But Trump is in the White House now, and that means his usual tired rhetoric and outrageous accusations horrify more people than it amuses because the American people as a whole are watching. And most of them despise Trump and are terrified of what he will do next.Trump s credibility has imploded here and abroad as he has caused international incidents between us and some of our strongest allies. For instance, he insulted Great Britain and Germany in the week alone and has also insulted Mexico, Australia, and China. How is Trump going to convince other nations to support our foreign policies if he can t even get along with the nations we get along with the most? All of this continues the pattern from the campaign that Mr. Trump is his own worst political enemy, the Journal continues. He survived his many false claims as a candidate because his core supporters treated it as mere hyperbole and his opponent was untrustworthy Hillary Clinton. But now he s President, and he needs support beyond the Breitbart cheering section that will excuse anything. As he is learning with the health-care bill, Mr. Trump needs partners in his own party to pass his agenda. He also needs friends abroad who are willing to trust him when he asks for support, not least in a crisis. The Journal then concluded by calling attention to the fact that Trump s poll numbers are in the toilet and that Americans think he s a fraud. Two months into his Presidency, Gallup has Mr. Trump s approval rating at 39%. No doubt Mr. Trump considers that fake news, but if he doesn t show more respect for the truth most Americans may conclude he s a fake President. Frankly, it s too late for Trump to rebuild his credibility, assuming he had any to begin with. He refuses to admit he was wrong and refuses to apologize even when he is proven wrong beyond a shadow of a doubt. He has lied so much in just the first 60 days of his presidency that even Richard Nixon would be embarrassed.At this point, Trump needs to resign or he should be impeached. America cannot afford to put up with his lies any longer. He is going to cause an international incident someday that could get us all killed because he couldn t keep his big mouth shut. He s a disgrace to the nation and out Constitution and he must be stopped before he humiliates America worse than he has already.Featured image via Olivier Douliery Pool/Getty Images | 1real |
Erdogan: Soon Europeans ’Will Not Walk Safely on Their Streets’ | Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has warned the European Union (EU) that if the diplomatic spat between Turkey and several European countries continues, Europeans won’t be able to walk their own streets safely. [President Erdoğan made the comments Wednesday in what is another increase of tensions between Turkey and the EU that began when Germany and the Netherlands banned several Turkish ministers from holding campaign rallies for the upcoming Turkish referendum. Erdoğan has threatened Europe before, but this time he threatened the safety of Europeans if the row continues, Die Welt reports. “If you continue to behave like this, not a single European, not a single Westerner will be able to take a step on the road safely anytime in the world,” Erdoğan said at a press conference adding: “We as Turkey are calling on Europe to respect human rights and democracy. ” Erdoğan did not go into specifics of the threat, though many Turks living in countries like Germany and the Netherlands have expressed massive support for him following the failed coup attempt last year. Shortly after the coup, tens of thousands of Turkish expats attended a rally in Cologne, Germany, to express support for Erdoğan. On the night two Turkish ministers were refused entry in the Netherlands earlier in March, hundreds of Turks flooded the streets of Rotterdam and rioted. Following the actions of the Netherlands, Erdoğan and his government have suspended diplomatic relations with the Dutch and even accused the country of being complicit in the Srebrenica massacre calling them “Nazi remnants“. Germany has also seen heated rhetoric from Ankara and Turkish press who depicted German Chancellor Angela Merkel as a Nazi on the cover of newspaper Gunes. Many in Europe are concerned what effect the row will have on the migrant deal made between the EU and Turkey last year. The deal rapidly slowed the number of migrants crossing from Turkey to Greece from hundreds a day to dozens. The Turks have made it clear that the deal is on the table and have threatened to scrap it and send 15, 000 migrants a month to Europe. Erdoğan said the political bloc can “forget about” the migrant deal and that it is, for all intents and purposes, dead. The Turkish government has threatened the deal before when Ankara became frustrated with the lack of access to the bloc for Turkish citizens. More troubling has been a recent report that showed an abnormal increase in the number of migrant arrivals over the past week. Some have attributed the rise in sea landings to improved weather conditions, while others question whether this may be the first signs of the end of the migrant deal. Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson@breitbart. com | 0fake |
After a Disappointing Debate, Donald Trump Goes on the Attack - The New York Times | Donald J. Trump lashed out on Tuesday in the aftermath of a disappointing first debate with Hillary Clinton, scolding the moderator, criticizing a beauty pageant winner for her physique and raising the prospect of an attack on Bill Clinton’s marital infidelities in the final stretch of the campaign. Having worked assiduously in recent weeks to cultivate a more disciplined demeanor on the campaign trail, Mr. Trump cast aside that approach on Tuesday morning. As Mrs. Clinton embarked on an ebullient campaign swing through North Carolina, aiming to press her newfound advantage, Mr. Trump vented his grievances in full public view. Sounding weary and impatient as he called into a Fox News program, Mr. Trump criticized Lester Holt, the NBC News anchor, for asking “unfair questions” during the debate Monday evening, and speculated that someone might have tampered with his microphone. Mr. Trump repeated his charge that Mrs. Clinton lacked the “stamina” to be president, a claim critics have described as sexist, and suggested that in the future he might raise Mr. Clinton’s past indiscretions. Defying conventions of political civility, Mr. Trump leveled cutting criticism at a beauty pageant winner, Alicia Machado, whom Mrs. Clinton held up in Monday night’s debate as an example of Mr. Trump’s disrespect for women. Mr. Trump said on Fox he was right to disparage the former Miss Universe because of her weight. “She was the winner and she gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem,” said Mr. Trump, who was the pageant’s executive producer at the time. Mrs. Clinton has already been broadcasting an ad highlighting crude remarks from Mr. Trump about women she answered his taunts about her marriage with a rhetorical shrug, telling reporters Mr. Trump was free to run whatever kind of campaign he preferred. On board her campaign plane, she plainly relished her moment of apparent triumph, and poked fun at Mr. Trump’s morning lamentations. “Anybody who complains about the microphone,” she said, “is not having a good night. ” Mr. Trump’s setback in the debate represents a critical test in the final six weeks of the race. Having drawn closer to Mrs. Clinton in the polls, Mr. Trump now faces an intensified clash over his personal temperament and his attitudes toward women and minorities — areas of grave concern for many voters that were at the center of the candidates’ confrontation on Monday. Against Mr. Trump’s brooding, Mrs. Clinton cut a strikingly different profile on the campaign trail on Tuesday, emerging emboldened from her encounter with the Republican nominee. At a rally in Raleigh, N. C. Mrs. Clinton, brandishing her opponent’s debate stumbles, assailed Mr. Trump’s comments suggesting he avoided paying taxes and welcomed the 2008 financial crisis as a buying opportunity. “What kind of person would want to root for nine million families losing their homes?” Mrs. Clinton asked the crowd. “One who should never be president, is the answer to that question. ” Having shaken at least temporarily the malaise of the past month, Mrs. Clinton must seek to gain a durable upper hand over Mr. Trump, who before the debate had been delivering a more focused message on trade, immigration and national security. Mr. Trump’s comportment on Tuesday threatened to undermine his gains of the past month, and recalled his practice during the Republican primaries and much of the general election of belittling political bystanders in language that alienated voters, like attacking the Muslim parents of an Army captain killed in Iraq and a Hispanic federal judge. It remains to be seen if Mr. Trump will approach the remainder of the race with the unfiltered abandon of his comments Tuesday morning. By the day’s end, Mr. Trump had returned to a caustic but somewhat more conventional script, attacking Mrs. Clinton in bitter language at a rally in Melbourne, Fla. Blasting Mrs. Clinton as a “vessel for her friends, the donors,” Mr. Trump exhorted the crowd, “We’re going to get rid of that crooked woman. ” And Mr. Trump again complained at the event about how he had been treated by Mr. Holt, whom he referred to as “the M. C. ” The fear among Republicans is that Mr. Trump will confront adversity by continuing to swing impulsively at politically inopportune targets, dragging the party again into needless and damaging feuds, as he did for most of the summer. The notion of raising Mr. Clinton’s infidelity is particularly controversial among Mr. Trump’s advisers, who have sent conflicting signals about that line of attack. Kellyanne Conway, Mr. Trump’s campaign manager, said in a CNN interview that he deserved credit for holding back from that particular subject, saying Mr. Trump had been “polite and a gentleman. ” But Rudolph W. Giuliani, a former New York City mayor and a close confidant of Mr. Trump’s, called for a far harsher approach. Mr. Trump, he told a reporter for the website Elite Daily, had been “too reserved” in his confrontation with Mrs. Clinton. Mr. Giuliani recommended attacking Mrs. Clinton for having questioned Monica Lewinsky’s credibility in claiming an affair with Mr. Clinton. He also called Mrs. Clinton “too stupid to be president. ” Mr. Giuliani has his own complex marital history: He is on his third marriage as mayor, he surprised his second wife by announcing his plans to separate from her at a news conference. Should Mr. Trump follow the path prescribed by Mr. Giuliani, it could transform the final six weeks of his candidacy into an onslaught of unrestricted personal vituperation — a risky course that would probably please Mr. Trump’s political base at the cost of his broader appeal. But Democrats signaled on Tuesday that they would welcome an extended battle with Mr. Trump over matters of temperament and personal character. Priorities USA Action, a “super PAC” supporting Mrs. Clinton, released a television ad highlighting a debate exchange in which Mr. Trump said his temperament was his “strongest asset,” along with clips of Mr. Trump using obscene and violent language. And Mrs. Clinton’s running mate, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, said in a television interview that Mr. Trump had appeared “flustered” and “ran out of gas. ” During a campaign stop in Orlando, Fla. Mr. Kaine suggested that Mr. Trump was too unsteady for the White House. “If you’re that rattled in a debate,” he said, “try being president. ” Still, among Mr. Trump’s core voters, there is clearly an appetite for blunter and more personal attacks on Mrs. Clinton, and at his rally in Florida, several said they hoped Mr. Trump would be harsher in the next debate. “I’m glad he was a gentleman,” said Fran Hadjilogiou, 75, of Indian Harbour Beach. “He should just go get her next time. ” Jim Clapper, 66, of Palm Bay, said he hoped Mr. Trump would bring up Mr. Clinton’s infidelity “every chance he gets. ” “He ought to bring it up every day so that the young people in this country know what went on with that family,” Mr. Clapper said. | 0fake |
Exiled son of Yemen's Saleh takes up anti-Houthi cause | SANAA/DUBAI (Reuters) - The powerful exiled son of Yemen s slain ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh vowed on Tuesday to lead a campaign against the Houthi movement that killed his father after he switched sides in the civil war. The intervention by Ahmed Ali Saleh, a former leader of the elite Republican Guard once seen as a likely successor to his father, gives the anti-Houthi movement in Sanaa a potential figurehead, after a week of fighting that saw the Houthis rout Saleh s supporters in the capital. Yemen s war, pitting the Iran-allied Houthis who control Sanaa against a Saudi-led military alliance backing a government based in the south, has brought what the United Nations calls the world s worst humanitarian crisis. The world body says millions of people may die in one of the worst famines of modern times, caused by warring parties blocking food supplies. Saleh had helped the Houthis win control of much of the country s north including Sanaa, and his decision to switch allegiances and abandon the Houthis in the past week was the most dramatic change on the battlefield in years. But the Houthis swiftly crushed a pro-Saleh uprising in the capital and shot him dead in an attack on his convoy. Tens of thousands of Houthi supporters staged a rally in the capital on Tuesday to show support for their leader and celebrate the death of Saleh. They chanted slogans against Saudi Arabia and its allies. Mahmoud Ali al-Houthi, head of the movement s Revolutionary Committee, denied allegations that the group was executing members of Saleh s party after their capture: We have been treating some of Saleh s sons and we haven t executed them, he told the crowd. Sanaa saw no fresh fighting on Tuesday after five days of combat that the Red Cross said killed more than 230 people. The Saudi-led coalition struck the city with 25 air strikes overnight, but U.N. and Red Cross aid flights were able to land at the airport, U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Yemen Jamie McGoldrick said. People are now emerging from their houses after five days being locked down basically as prisoners, McGoldrick told a U.N. briefing by phone from Sanaa. They are now seeking safety, moving their families in case things erupt again and at the same time seeking medical treatment and trying to pacify very terrified kids who have endured five days of relentless shelling, shooting and ground fire and air strikes. The Saudi cabinet, in a statement that did not mention Saleh by name, said it hoped the Sanaa uprising against the Houthis would help rid sisterly Yemen of repression, death threats, ... explosions and seizure of private and public property . The death of Saleh, who once compared ruling Yemen to dancing on the heads of snakes, deepens the complexity of the multi-sided war. Much is likely to depend on the future allegiances of his loyalists, who had previously helped the armed Houthi group, which hails from the Zaidi branch of Shi ite Islam that ruled a thousand-year kingdom in northern Yemen until 1962. In a statement sent to Reuters by an aide, his son said his father was killed at the hands of the enemies of God and the country . Ahmed Ali said he would confront the enemies of the homeland and humanity, who are trying to obliterate its identity and its gains and to humiliate Yemen and Yemenis . In an earlier statement carried by Saudi state media, Ahmed Ali said he would lead the battle until the last Houthi is thrown out of Yemen ... the blood of my father will be hell ringing in the ears of Iran. The Arabian peninsula s poorest country, Yemen is one of the most violent fronts in a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, who have also backed opposing sides in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere across the Middle East. The Saudi-led coalition appears to have been counting on Saleh s decision to switch sides to tip the balance of the war. Saleh, who ruled in Sanaa from 1978-2012, had a strong following in Yemen, including army officers and armed tribal leaders who once served under him. During the years the ex-president was allied to the Houthis, Yemeni political sources say Ahmed Ali was living incommunicado under house arrest at a guarded villa in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi, where he had served as ambassador. The UAE is a key member of the mostly Gulf Arab alliance that sees the Houthis as a proxy of their arch-enemy Iran. The Gulf countries had struggled to make gains against the Houthi-Saleh alliance despite thousands of air strikes backed by Western arms and intelligence. They have used their air and sea power to tightly restrict imports, action that the United Nations says could lead to mass hunger. Ahmed Ali may be the family s last chance to win back influence. A nephew of the former leader, Tareq Mohammed Abdullah Saleh, a senior military commander, was also killed during clashes with the Houthis, Saleh s party said on Tuesday. Residents reported that fighting had subsided but that Saudi-led coalition jets pounded several targets, including the downtown presidential palace where a governing body led by Houthi-Saleh politicians had regularly convened. The Houthi leader, Abdul Malek al-Houthi, hailed Saleh s death in a speech on Monday as a victory against a treasonous conspiracy by Yemen s Saudi enemies and called for Tuesday s mass rally at a parade ground near the site of the air strikes. In the southern city of Aden, where the Saudi-backed government is based, residents set off fireworks and expressed joy. Saleh was hated throughout southern Yemen after he launched a war to unify the country in 1994, lobbing ballistic missiles at the city. But his legacy is mixed. He is still loved in much of the north and many supporters will bear a grudge towards his killers. Some feared Saleh s death would only create more instability in Yemen. We expect things will get worse for us. This will be the beginning of a new conflict and more bloodshed. The war will not end soon, said Aswan Abdu Khalid, an academic at the psychology department at the University of Aden. | 0fake |
Fannie, Freddie revamp plan unlikely this year, dividends in focus | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An overhaul of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is highly unlikely to make it into this year’s legislative calendar, Congressional staffers say, possibly shifting the new administration’s immediate focus to allowing the mortgage financing institutions’ to rebuild depleted capital. Fannie and Freddie stocks soared late last year when President Donald Trump’s pick for Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the companies that have been in government conservatorship since the 2008 financial crisis should be privatized. Hedge funds and other investors have been lobbying for the removal of government controls over the mortgage giants’ profits, which since 2012 have been transferred to the Treasury, and their eventual privatization. The shares dipped when Mnuchin seemed to backpedal on the privatization pledge during his January confirmation hearing and suffered another setback last month when a court rejected investors’ suit against the dividend transfers. Congressional staffers say the Senate Banking Committee has begun weekly bipartisan staff briefings on Freddie and Fannie reforms, but it is starting from scratch. The House Financial Services Committee is focused on other legislation, such as renewing the flood insurance program and rolling back parts of the Dodd-Frank financial reform, pushing the mortgage giants’ revamp down the to-do list, they say. Instead, investors’ focus is shifting to how Mnuchin and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt, an Obama Administration holdover, will manage the dividends transfers. Analysts expect the two institutions to make a full $10 billion dividend payment for the fourth quarter on March 31. But investors will be looking for any indication from Watt or Mnuchin about whether they plan to allow the mortgage firms to retain profits later on and begin the slow recapitalization process. Though rebuilding an adequate capital buffer would take years - as long as two to three presidential administrations, according to one analyst - it would eventually allow Fannie and Freddie to leave government conservatorship, returning value to their investors. Watt has warned the mortgage giants have a dangerously thin capital buffer. Mnuchin said during his confirmation hearing he favored finding a “bipartisan fix.” The two will likely wait for congressional inaction to become a de facto impasse before letting Freddie and Fannie hold on to their profits, analysts said, estimating a decision could be made two or three quarters out. “Mnuchin has been out there talking about a bipartisan agreement,” Heights Securities analyst Edwin Groshans told Reuters. “That process will have to play out until it in essence fails. When that process fails, that would open the opportunity for Mnuchin and Watts to act.” Tim Pagliara, an investor who founded Investors Unite, a coalition of more than 1,000 Fannie and Freddie investors, told Reuters he did not expect an imminent legislative fix and called the situation in Congress “fluid.” “The focus is going to continue to be on the court cases and what the administration is going to do – and what they’ve said they’re going to do,” Pagliara added. President Donald Trump’s administration generally supports transferring government programs to the private sector. Trump donor John Paulson runs three hedge funds in which the president has invested and which held stakes in the mortgage institutions. Mnuchin, under the terms of a government ethics agreement, divested between $1 million and $2 million he had in Paulson’s funds. Fannie and Freddie provide stability to the U.S. housing market by buying mortgages and bundling them into government-backed securities. During the financial crisis, they received $187 billion in government aid and by now have repaid $265 billion via dividend payments to the Treasury. FHFA’s Watt has warned the payments have depleted the companies’ capital buffer and that by January 2018 they will have “no ability to weather quarterly losses.” Fannie was required by law to keep a minimum capital reserve of about $33 billion and Freddie $29 billion headed into the 2008 bailout, which suspended those requirements. Industry analysts, shareholders and advocacy groups - both conservative and liberal - all believe that the same 2008 bailout law gives Watt the authority to allow the companies to begin rebuilding capital, without waiting for Congress. | 0fake |
Egypt to launch building project in Sinai: Sisi | CAIRO (Reuters) - President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Saturday Egypt will in the next two to three years embark on a $5.60 billion construction project in the Sinai peninsula whose north has been gripped by an Islamist insurgency. While coast of the south of the peninsula is peppered with Red Sea tourist resorts, North Sinai province is underdeveloped and lacks basic infrastructure and job opportunities. Security forces have battled Islamist militants in the mainly desert region, stretching from the Suez Canal eastwards to the Gaza Strip and Israel, since 2013. Militants have killed hundreds of police and soldiers. Sisi ordered armed forces to end the insurgency within three months after an attack on a mosque in North Sinai last month killed more than 300 people. It was the worst militant attack in Egypt s modern history. We have entrusted the ministry of housing and the engineering authority with a national project of comprehensive urban planning, Sisi said at a ceremony to inaugurate a development project in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia. The president said the project would cost 100 billion Egyptian pounds and that it would be carried out whether he remained in power or not. He did not provide a start date, sources of funding or specific details of what would be built under the project. | 0fake |
Study: Extreme Protest Tactics Reduce Support for Causes - Breitbart | A study conducted at the University of Toronto concluded that extreme protest tactics such as blocking traffic, damaging property, and rioting actually reduce popular support for the political movements that employ them. [The study, which was conducted by Professor Matthew Feinberg of the University of Toronto, is entitled “Extreme Protest Tactics Reduce Popular Support For Social Movements,” and suggests that unusual protest tactics such as rioting reduce support for the movements that choose to employ them. Feinberg claims that he was inspired to study the effects of such forms of protests during his time as a graduate student at UC Berkeley, a time in which he claims he attended many protests himself. Feinberg and his graduate advisor at UCB began to wonder “which tactics would be more successful than others and which tactics could” backfire. Feinberg set up experiments in which research participants were exposed to videos of the protest tactics of members of animal rights groups, Black Lives Matter, and protesters. Feinberg concluded that the more extreme a protest became, the less likely the participant was to support the movement. In an interview with Campus Reform, Feinberg claimed that participants were especially turned off by the protesters who chose to block traffic. “What we found most startling was in the protests. When participants were exposed to the traffic blocking video — the participants regardless of their political ideology — showed an increase in support when presented with that video,” Feinberg said. Asked about the recent riots at his alma mater in response to a visit by Breitbart Senior Editor MILO, Feinberg remarked that the protesters’ conduct could definitely be considered “extreme protest behaviors,” suggesting that their efforts in attracting support to their movement have likely backfired. | 0fake |
NOT NEWS: [Graphic Video] Michigan Woman Runs Over Rival With Car Following Street Brawl | This is a story that will never make the news. A woman uses a car to intentionally hit another woman (this is the second time she s used her car as a weapon to hit another human being) but unfortunately, it s just another day of black on black crime, so it doesn t fit the media s narrative A wild fight between two 19-year-olds along a Michigan street Monday came to a dramatic end when one ran over her rival with a car.What began as a fight in the middle of the street with onlookers encouraging and sometimes interfering with the one-on-one showdown devolved into a hit-and-run, shocking video shows. Let them fight, at least one bystander yells repeatedly.Police have issued a warrant for Jalin Smith-Walker, accused of being behind the wheel during the graphic assault, The Grand Rapids Press reported. It was a fight between two former friends. It ultimately ended with blows being thrown, Grand Rapids Sgt. Terry Dixon told the Press.Smith-Walker has been charged with assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder.***Warning***This is a violent video with graphic language.Smith-Walker smiled broadly in her police mug shot after being arrested a few miles from the mall.After Monday s brawl in which the two tussled on the hood of one car, video shows a woman who police claim is Smith-Walker get into a car across the way and pull into the street.Via: NY Daily News | 1real |
Creeping Progress in Pledge to Cut Calories in Sugary Soda - The New York Times | It hasn’t been a good year for the troika that dominates soft drink sales, PepsiCo and Dr Pepper Snapple. The public’s attention on the health effects of sugary sodas has continued to increase, slowing growth and increasing political pressure. This year, soft drink companies and their lobbying group, the American Beverage Association, spent $38 million to defeat proposals to impose taxes on sugary drinks in four cities: San Francisco, Oakland and Albany in California, and Boulder, Colo. The companies lost all of those fights. Now, seven cities around the country have a soda tax. One way the companies have tried to get ahead of the tax efforts is by vowing to reduce the calories in their products. In September 2014, they committed to reducing calories 20 percent nationwide by 2025 and focus on 10 communities where rates of obesity, heart disease, hypertension and diabetes are among the highest. The effort has been underway for about a year now, and as the beverage association prepared to release research about the efforts, it invited a handful of reporters to see what had been done to encourage consumption of healthier beverages in three stores in the neighborhood in Brooklyn, one of the 10 sites the companies promised to focus on. Here are the findings and observations, which suggest that the companies have a long way to go to meet their goal. The average American consumed an estimated 199 calories a day from beverages in 2014, when beverage companies made their pledge, and that fell to 198. 7 calories a day the next year, according to research by Keybridge Public Policy Economics, an independent firm paid by the beverage association to conduct the study. That is a decline of less than 1 percent, far off the pace need to reach a 20 percent drop over a decade. To achieve their 2025 goal, the companies must reduce calories to 159. 2 calories per person per day. Americans actually increased the volume of beverages they consumed by 2. 2 percent from 2014 to 2015, largely because they drank more water. Consumers drank less soda, but substituted bottled coffee and tea, sports drinks and energy drinks, according to Robert F. Wescott, president of Keybridge. “The increase in water — it’s not replacing something else,” he said. The companies are offering several alternatives to traditional soda, and have retooled older products to reduce calories. This has often been done quietly, with subtle changes to the drinks. “Consumers won’t buy something if you tell them you’ve changed it,” said Michael Morel, sales director for Brooklyn at the Bottling Company of New York. Pepsi, for instance, reformulated nine varieties of Brisk, an iced tea and juice line it owns together with Unilever. Using a combination of caloric and noncaloric sweeteners, PepsiCo lowered calories in the drinks by as much as 44 percent. “There was a dramatic decrease in calories in Brisk — but not in sales,” Mr. Wescott said. “Calorie decreases like that need to accelerate to meet the 2025 target. ” More additions are coming. The Dr Pepper Snapple Group has nearly doubled sales of seltzers over the last several years as part of its effort to encourage greater consumption of drinks. On Tuesday, the company announced it was paying $1. 7 billion for Bai Brands, a maker of enhanced waters with just five calories, thus expanding its portfolio of drinks. The companies have also renegotiated their agreements with grocery chains and bodegas in to give better placement to drinks. For instance, Coke Zero and other drinks from are now standing cheek by jowl with traditional Powerade and other beverages on shelves at the Ideal Food Basket in . “We didn’t sell any of those products here before,” said Kamau Brown, ’s director of sales and operations for the New York City metro region. and the other beverage companies have also persuaded retailers to let them to add racks and cardboard display cases, which effectively create additional shelf space for the products. This ensures that stores don’t lose revenue from sweetened products until products demonstrate solid sales, Mr. Brown said. For instance, 33. bottles of Smart Water, which has no calories, were displayed on a wire rack at a price of four for $5. A cardboard display of different flavors of Aloe Gloe, a new enhanced water line from Coke, offered two small cardboard “bottles” for $4. But the products are not far away. Separating the Smart Water and Aloe Gloe displays were two shopping carts filled with bottles of ginger ale and Pepsi Wild Cherry, on sale for $2. 99. The companies are using a variety of promotions designed to encourage greater sales of and drinks. At the deli, for instance, PepsiCo’s drinks are sold for 99 cents. had a variety of “buy one, get one free” offers on displays that encouraged consumers to get an of small 7. cans of Coke Zero if they bought the same size pack of classic Coke. All three big beverage companies have signs that read, “Balance what you eat, drink and do” and show images of some products. Pepsi’s, for instance, shows bottles of Gatorade and Aquafina, its water brand. But a small bottle of classic Pepsi is also featured front and center. Moussad Elghandour, a Yemeni immigrant who owns the Utica Express Deli in said that the promotions were driving sales — but that sugary drinks were also selling well. Changing demographics in the neighborhood, he said, noting specifically a higher number of white residents, were also responsible for the changing mix of drinks he’s selling. “Some people care about themselves, their health. Some people don’t,” Mr. Elghandour said. | 0fake |
YES! NEWT GINGRICH Rips Into ABC Anchor Over Anti-Trump Coverage [Video] | 1real | |
FLASHBACK: BERNIE SANDERS’ Socialist Democrat Party Asks, “Why Not Peace With Hitler?” [VIDEO] | If I found out my college-age daughter was attending a Bernie Sanders rally, she would #FeelTheBern when her tuition payments were shut off. And for all of the parents who say it s just a phase or they ll eventually come around, you re not teaching your kids anything. If your child is out campaigning for a declared Democrat Socialist, whose primary goal it is to take what you ve earned and give it to someone else, you should be ashamed of yourself for providing financial support to your self-absorbed child.We live in the greatest nation on earth. It s hard to even fathom that we have a declared Democrat-Socialist even registering in the polls. Here s a great flashback video that was taken in NYC in 1941, and posted by Weasel Zippers. It perfectly illustrates what the pacifist, Socialist Democrat party is all about. Can you imagine what our world would look like today if the majority of Americans took these people seriously?We ve spent the last 7 years watching our President go from nation to nation apologizing for the greatness of America. We don t need another pacifist leading our nation, we need strong leader who will restore our international reputation. We need a President who believes in the greatness of America and will do everything in their power to reverse the damage our current President has done.Make sure you share this video with friends and family. | 1real |
Ballot Access: Another Way Dems and the GOP Screw Third Parties | "A multi-party system is normal," says Richard Winger, publisher and editor of Ballot Access News. "You only have a two party system if there's repression. It's not natural."
With both major parties offering up two of the most unpopular presidential candidates in modern history, many voters (and the media) are paying more attention to third party options such as Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party and Green Party nominee Jill Stein.
But while independent candidates are gaining in popularity, getting them on the ballot to vote for them can be a long and costly process.
"There's so many ways in which the United States is near the bottom of democracy," says Winger, an expert in election law and ballot access. "There's been unbelievable hostility in the last few months to minor parties."
This hostility has resulted in states changing their ballot access rules—sometimes at the last minute—in an effort to exclude minor parties from the ballot.
One recent example of this was Gary Johnson's fight to remain on the ballot as a presidential candidate in Ohio after the secretary of state threatened to remove his name thanks to a frequently used rule that allows placeholder candidates when fulfilling ballot access requirements (read more about the incident here.)
"Ohio law explicitly says people who use the independent candidate petition procedure put a substitution committee on the petition," states Winger. But when it came time to remove the placeholder name and add Gary Johnson's, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted "acted like he never heard of such a thing!" Winger exclaimed.
Johnson eventually qualified for the ballot as an independent candidate after his supporters turned in the necessary 5,000 petition signatures to Husted in late August.
"They act like the secretary of state did the Libertarians a big favor by letting them use this thing which has been used all along," Winger says. "It's just so maddening."
Reason TV recently sat down with Winger to discuss which states have the worst ballot access laws, why the major parties give independent candidates such a hard time when it comes to getting on the ballot, and the consequences of a two party duopoly.
"This is one the things that anchors me being a libertarian," says Winger. "Before the government got involved in printing ballots we had total freedom."
Produced by Alexis Garcia. Camera by Alex Manning and Paul Detrick. Music by Alex Fitch.
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Subscribe to our podcast at iTunes. | 0fake |
LOL! DEMOCRATS Express Concerns Over Possible Cheating By Democrats In DNC Chair Vote | A progressive group charged Saturday that the Democratic National Committee s reliance on paper ballots in the race for DNC chair raises questions of transparency, tainting the process.The DNC had planned on using both an electronic system, as well as paper ballots, but switched gears minutes before the vote when interim Chair Donna Brazille announced they would rely on the ballots in part because of concerns over spotty internet service.Now there s a party member you can trust the former interim chair Donna Brazille, who secretly passed CNN s debate questions to Hillary Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Committee, pointed to reports that said some DNC members are concerned over blowback they could receive from the Bernie Sanders-aligned forces that are supporting Rep. Keith Ellison if their support for former Labor Secretary Tom Perez became public. Paper ballots instead of visible and accountable voting is something that Debbie Wasserman Shultz would be proud of, Mr. Green said on Twitter, alluding to the former chair, who resigned after hacked emails showed DNC members were biased against Mr. Sanders in the 2016 primary race.The group also highlighted a DNC rule that said secret ballots are not permitted and the results should be shared with the candidate or their campaign in the case that the contest goes beyond the first ballot. Washington Times | 1real |
Day After Tomorrow climate scenario: Scientists think global warming causes cold weather | Thu, 27 Oct 2016 14:52 UTC From the University of Sheffield and "The Day After Tomorrow" department comes this climate disaster movie plot wherein global warming, er, climate change, cause the polar jet stream to go wacky and freeze us extra good in winter. Really. No mention of what caused similar weather during the " Little Ice Age " between roughly AD 1300 and 1850 , except that they are sure they've ruled out "natural variation" now. The movie plot from IMDB : As Paleoclimatologist named Jack Hall is in Antartica, he discovers that a huge ice sheet has sheared off. But what he does not know is that this event will trigger a massive climate shift that will affect the world population. Meanwhile, his son Sam is with friends in New York to attend an event. There they discover that it has been raining non-stop for the past 3 days, and after a series of weather-related disasters begin to occur over the world, everybody realizes the world is entering a new Ice Age and the world population begins trying to evacuate to the warmer climates of the south. Jack makes a daring attempt to rescue his son and his friends who are stuck in New York and who have managed to survive not only a massive wave but also freezing cold temperatures that could possibly kill them. The paper press release via Eurekalert, they even have a scientist named "Hall": Extreme cold winters fueled by jet stream and climate change: Scientists agree for first time that climate change may be intensifying the effects of the jet stream , causing extreme cold weather in the UK and US Study could improve long-term forecasting of winter weather in most populous parts of the world More accurate forecasting could help communities, businesses and economies prepare for severe weather and make life and cost-saving decisions Scientists have agreed for the first time that recent severe cold winter weather in the UK and US may have been influenced by climate change in the Arctic, according to a new study. The research, carried out by an international team of scientists including the University of Sheffield, has found that warming in the Arctic may be intensifying the effects of the jet stream's position, which in the winter can cause extreme cold weather , such as the winter of 2014/15 which saw record snowfall levels in New York. Scientists previously had two schools of thought. One group believe that natural variability in the jet stream's position has caused the recent severe cold winter weather seen in places such as the Eastern United States and the UK. The other camp includes scientists who are finding possible connections between the warming of the Arctic - such as melting sea ice, warming air temperatures, and rising sea surface temperatures - and the emerging pattern of severe cold winter weather. Now, Professor Edward Hanna and Dr Richard Hall from the University's Department of Geography, together with Professor. James E. Overland from the US Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), have brought together a diverse group of researchers from both sides of the debate. The researchers have found that the recent pattern of cold winters is primarily caused by natural changes to the jet stream's position ; however, the warming of the Arctic appears to be exerting an influence on cold spells, but the location of these can vary from year to year. Previous studies have shown that when the jet stream is wavy there are more episodes of severe cold weather plunging south from the Arctic into the mid-latitudes, which persist for weeks at a time. But when the jet stream is flowing strongly from west to east and not very wavy, we tend to see more normal winter weather in countries within the mid-latitudes. "We've always had years with wavy and not so wavy jet stream winds, but in the last one to two decades the warming Arctic could well have been amplifying the effects of the wavy patterns," Professor Hanna said. He added: "This may have contributed to some recent extreme cold winter spells along the eastern seaboard of the United States, in eastern Asia, and at times over the UK (e.g. 2009/10 and 2010/11). "Improving our ability to predict how climate change is affecting the jet stream will help to improve our long-term prediction of winter weather in some of the most highly populated regions of the world. "This would be hugely beneficial for communities, businesses, and entire economies in the northern hemisphere. The public could better prepare for severe winter weather and have access to extra crucial information that could help make live-saving and cost-saving decisions." The study, Nonlinear response of mid-latitude weather to the changing Arctic, is published today (26 October 2016) in the journal Nature Climate Change on 26 October 2016. The research was partly sponsored by the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) and the Climate and Cryosphere (CliC) project of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). It further cements the University's position at the forefront of climate change research and gives geography students at Sheffield access to the latest innovations in environmental science. Comment: In other words, "natural variations mostly account for the cold weather, but global warming causes cold weather"? Global warming stopped years ago, and is itself a natural variation over the long term. Humanity better face it: the global climate is self-regulating, and ice ages happen regularly. The Gulf Stream would probably be a better phenomenon to analyze in this regard: Fire and Ice: The Day After Tomorrow . | 1real |
Turkey's enemy of interest rates targets banks to boost growth | ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan is encouraging businesses to borrow and spend to power the economic growth that has underpinned his long rule. But after years of expanding credit, some Turks are wary. Ankara hardware store owner Nurgul says she and her husband have never taken out a loan for their joint business and she is suspicious of banks. I think they want more people in debt, she said. I ve borrowed for my mortgage and that left me with an excessive amount of debt. The president, who has purged the civil service of suspected opponents since an attempted coup last year and is expected to run for reelection in 2019, shares her mistrust. He dubs interest rates means of exploitation and has declared himself their enemy. Since winning a narrow victory in a referendum in April to create a powerful new executive presidency, he has had Turkey s banks in his sights, calling on them to cut interest rates to contribute to the country s growth. We will pressure the banks, especially state banks, he said last week. We will pave the way for investors to access credit easily. Government stimulus measures include expanding a credit guarantee fund, guaranteeing some of the loans banks write to smaller businesses. It has backed loans worth 210 billion lira ($60 billion) so far. Bank loans grew by 12 percent in the first seven months of this year, almost double the rate in same period last year, according to regulatory data, a trend some economists say is worrying. Turkey has had one of the largest private credit expansions of any emerging market over the last decade, said William Jackson of Capital Economics in London. Typically when you get credit booms on that scale, they are followed by a rise in non-performing loans and strains in the banking sector, he said. It s hard to say when those might emerge, but I think it s clearly a big risk. Non-performing loans are at 3.1 percent after 3.2 percent last year. Cemil Ertem, chief economy adviser to the president, said he expected the ratio to fall to 2-2.5 percent in time, on the back of stiff selection criteria applied by the credit guarantee fund. Since becoming prime minister nearly a decade and a half ago, Erdogan has built his reputation on years of stellar growth. His AK Party has embarked on massive infrastructure projects, building roads, hospitals, subways and high-speed rail, and lifting millions out of poverty. In 2002, Turkey s per capita GDP averaged $3,660, behind both Libya and Gabon, according to World Bank data. Last year, it was three times that at around $11,000. Turkey now sits comfortably among the world top 20 economies and government ministers expect expansion of at least 5 percent this year, after a slowing to 3.2 percent last year. The economy is a priority after the referendum process, said Hatice Karahan, an Erdogan adviser. Soner Cagaptay, a fellow at the Washington Institute think-tank and author of The New Sultan: Erdogan and the Crisis of Modern Turkey , said sustaining prosperity was vital for the president s election prospects. Erdogan wins because he delivers economic growth. He has built a plurality - not yet a majority - that supports the AKP because he lifted so many people out of poverty, Cagaptay said. The AKP has a loyal support base of religious conservatives but needs economic growth to retain its wider appeal, analysts say. Hurt by a faltering economy, it took 41 percent of the vote in June 2015 parliamentary elections, its worst showing since coming to power, although it regained ground in a second vote that year. Cagaptay estimates that about 10 percent of the electorate, or roughly 20 percent of AKP voters, are not die-hard Erdogan supporters. It s that base that could easily abandon him should there be an economic collapse, he said. While credit rating agency Fitch rates Turkey s debt as junk - citing the political risks that followed the failed coup attempt - it notes the economy is stronger than its peers. The government recorded a 1 percent budget deficit last year, one of the lowest in emerging markets, despite sheltering 3 million refugees from the war in neighboring Syria. But that is now changing. Stimulus measures will weaken fiscal performance in 2017, Fitch said in July, referring to government forecasts of a deficit of 2 percent of GDP this year. That figure is still relatively strong and the government said last month Turkey would maintain fiscal discipline by reeling in spending. Rather than borrowing, some economists say Turkey should focus on boosting its saving rate and foreign investment, something the government has pledged to do, along with an emphasis on structural reforms to spur growth. Foreign investment stood at $12.3 billion last year, down by more than $5 billion from a year ago, amid concern over the rule of law. Some 150,000 people have been sacked or suspended from their jobs since the coup attempt and 50,000 people have been arrested. | 0fake |
Senators urge U.S. to close lead testing gaps, citing Reuters investigation | (Reuters) - Some influential U.S. senators are urging a federal agency to take action to ensure more children are tested for lead poisoning, citing a Reuters investigation that found millions are missing required lead tests, leaving some vulnerable to lifelong health effects. In a three-page letter to be sent on Friday, U.S. senators including Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Deborah Stabenow of Michigan, all Democrats, called on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), to re-evaluate its lead screening policy for millions of Medicaid-eligible children. The senators want CMS to improve U.S. blood lead testing rates they called “dismal,” and to ensure all state Medicaid programs comply with testing rules and provide treatment for children with elevated blood lead levels. Medicaid is a U.S. government program that provides health care for low-income and disabled people. The letter, provided to Reuters by Brown’s office, cites a June Reuters investigation (reut.rs/1YgbjCX) detailing how millions of U.S. children are falling through the cracks of early childhood lead testing requirements. Though Medicaid has long required children in the program to receive blood lead tests at ages one and two, Reuters obtained data from nearly a dozen states showing that only 41 percent of Medicaid-eligible children were tested as required in 2014. Those shortfalls left some children vulnerable to prolonged and preventable lead exposure, which can stunt their cognitive development and cause permanent mental and physical ailments. Concerns about childhood lead exposure have grown sharply after children in Flint, Michigan were poisoned by lead-tainted drinking water starting in 2014. Across the country, more than 500,000 U.S. children have elevated lead levels, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Another exposure risk is old lead paint in millions of homes built before 1978. In Cleveland, Ohio, for instance, 13.7 percent of children tested had elevated levels of lead in their blood, Reuters found. “Children in Ohio are being poisoned by their own homes,” Senator Brown said on Thursday. “To protect our children, we need better coordination between federal and state health agencies and Medicaid physicians.” Experts cited several factors for the gaps: some doctors do not order the tests or are unaware of Medicaid and state rules; children miss appointments or parents do not follow up on test referrals; and Medicaid and health departments do little to enforce testing. The testing guidelines are often confusing, and federal and state data on lead testing contain gaps. In the letter, the lawmakers urge CMS to take steps to get more children tested and to review and update its lead screening protocols, and help guide state Medicaid administrators to make sure all at-risk children get screened. | 0fake |
Max Keiser: ‘Trump’s presidency will be an acid test for US constitution’ | 17 mins ago 3 Views 0 Comments 0 Likes It's fair to say, Europe's been shocked by Trump's Europe's Trump's RT LIVE http://rt.com/on-air | 1real |
Jack Greenberg, a Courthouse Pillar of the Civil Rights Movement, Dies at 91 - The New York Times | Jack Greenberg, a lawyer who became one of the nation’s most effective champions of the civil rights struggle, leading the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc. for 23 years and using the law as a weapon in its fight for racial justice before the United States Supreme Court, died on Wednesday at his home in Manhattan. He was 91. His wife, Deborah Cole Greenberg, confirmed his death. She said he had been treated for Parkinson’s disease for decades. Mr. Greenberg was part of a legendary civil rights legal team assembled by Thurgood Marshall, the founding of the legal defense fund and later the first Supreme Court justice. When Mr. Marshall hired him as an assistant counsel in 1949, Mr. Greenberg was just 24 and the civil rights movement, too, was taking wing. A son of Jewish immigrants and a product of New York City, he had developed an abiding intolerance of injustice — some of it witnessed in the Navy — that propelled him into law and into Mr. Marshall’s sights. Mr. Greenberg joined a team that, like him, was idealistic yet pragmatic, deliberate yet unafraid. Besides Mr. Marshall there were Robert L. Carter, Constance Baker Motley, Spottswood W. Robinson III and others. Mr. Greenberg was neither the first white nor the first Jew to work for the civil rights of blacks. But he was one of the most powerful white figures in the movement in the 1960s and ’70s, a distinction that led to friction with both blacks and Jews. Still, Mr. Greenberg helped achieve through the courts what the political system had denied Southern blacks: voting rights, equal pay for equal work, impartial juries, equal access to medical care, equal access to schools and other benefits of citizenship broadly enjoyed by whites. The genius of his legal team, Mr. Greenberg told The New York Times in 2014, was “the ability to be creative in matters of legal and social justice. ” At 27, he helped argue two of the five cases that led to the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which declared an end to the “separate but equal” system of racial segregation in the public schools. “I was a kid,” Mr. Greenberg said in the interview. “Seven lawyers argued the cases. I was one of them. Now I’m the only one still alive. ” In all, he was involved in more than 40 civil rights cases before the Supreme Court. One was Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education, in which the court, ruling in 1969, hastened the integration of schools by declaring that a standard of “all deliberate speed,” established in a second Brown case, had become an excuse for delays in Mississippi and should no longer apply anywhere. Another case was Griggs v. Duke Power Company, which led to a 1971 decision offering protections against job discrimination on the basis of race. And in Furman v. Georgia, in 1972, the court effectively placed a moratorium on executions nationwide that would last four years. Mr. Greenberg helped represent the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963 when Dr. King was jailed in Birmingham, Ala. after leading a march there against segregationist laws. The episode led Dr. King to write his influential “Letter From Birmingham Jail. ” In the 1960s, Mr. Greenberg established a law project to help the poor fight for their rights under federal programs. He campaigned against the death penalty as racially discriminatory. Under his leadership, the fund supported civil rights efforts on behalf of women, and and gay men and lesbians. And he helped found the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. When Mr. Marshall joined the federal bench in 1961, he named Mr. Greenberg to succeed him as of the defense fund, passing over Mr. Carter and other blacks on the staff and incurring their resentment. Tensions with blacks surfaced soon after Mr. Greenberg took over the fund. The New York Amsterdam News said the appointment could just as well have gone to a black lawyer. Some thought that the day had passed in which a black civil rights organization needed the leadership of whites, no matter how well intended. Mr. Greenberg played down the friction, telling the journalist Louis Lomax that “civil rights is not a Negro cause it is a human cause. ” Speaking in 2014, he insisted that the transition was smooth. “There was no controversy,” he said. “Thurgood was no dummy. He spoke to everyone on the board. They all agreed that it was the right decision to make. I would run the place but carry out what I thought were his wishes. ” But in 1974, Mr. Carter, by then a Federal District Court judge, wrote a letter to Mr. Greenberg in which he asserted that the legal defense fund under Mr. Greenberg had tried to limit the participation of black lawyers in an observance of the 20th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. Publicity about the event, Judge Carter wrote, had tended “to give the impression that the strategy, planning and preparation that went into Brown” had been “culled from the brains of white lawyers. ” Mr. Greenberg, he wrote, had played “at best a secondary role” in Brown. In response, Mr. Greenberg called the letter “an unfortunate mischaracterization. ” Judge Carter died in 2012. Roy Wilkins, who led the N. A. A. C. P. in 1974 and who was regarded as a voice of moderation, also complained that Mr. Greenberg and the Legal Defense Fund had tried to take all the credit for the 1954 case. The fund was founded in 1939 as the legal arm of the N. A. A. C. P. but separated from its parent group in 1957. The groups’ uneasy relationship was further strained later in the ’70s when delegates to an N. A. A. C. P. convention in Louisville resolved to withdraw permission to the defense fund to use the initials in its name. Mr. Greenberg refused to alter the name. A painful episode for Mr. Greenberg came in 1982, at Harvard Law School, when the Harvard Black Law Students Association and others objected to his teaching a civil rights course jointly, on a visiting basis, with Julius L. Chambers, a black lawyer and educator. The group called on students to boycott the course, which had previously been taught by Derrick Bell. Mr. Chambers and Mr. Greenberg taught the course anyway, and many prominent blacks came to Mr. Greenberg’s defense. “The objection that Mr. Greenberg is white is nothing more than blatant racism,” Bayard Rustin, chairman of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, a civil rights group, wrote in a letter to The Times. But Mr. Bell, who supported the boycott, later wrote that “black students boycotted the course not because Greenberg was white, as some media pundits charged, but because students felt the visiting post should go to someone who could be considered for a permanent position. ” Mr. Greenberg’s friction with Jewish groups centered on his support for affirmative action. Leaders of the League thought he had gone too far in embracing the policy as a remedy for racial discrimination in the job market. They saw it as discrimination against whites and believed it would lead to a system of racial quotas. When Mr. Greenberg left the legal defense fund in 1984, its staff had grown to 25 lawyers from its original handful, and its annual budget had more than tripled, to $1. 9 million ($4. 4 million in today’s dollars). That same year he drafted a landmark New York City law (Local Law 63) that denies tax exemptions to men’s clubs and other private clubs that discriminate on the basis of gender or race. The Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality in 1988. Mr. Greenberg left the legal defense fund in 1984 to become a professor of law at Columbia University, where he had been an adjunct professor since 1970. In 1989 he was named dean of Columbia College. He stepped down as dean in 1993 in a university but remained a professor at the law school until retiring last year. At Columbia he became particularly engaged with the plight of the Roma, a traditionally nomadic ethnic group often reviled in Europe, concluding in a 2010 report that they continued to be segregated from other students in the schools. “No European or national judicial or administrative organ has ordered the cessation of segregation in any school,” he wrote, “nor have they addressed the principal means of evasion, white flight. ” Jack Greenberg was born on Dec. 22, 1924, the son of Max Greenberg, who was born in Poland and became a certified public accountant without finishing college, and the former Bertha Rosenberg, who was born in Romania. The family lived in Brooklyn and the Bronx while Jack was growing up and, he wrote, instilled in him “an abiding concern for those who are disadvantaged. ” In his 1994 book, “Crusaders in the Courts: How a Dedicated Band of Lawyers Fought for the Civil Rights Revolution,” Mr. Greenberg recounted joining other children in throwing rocks at a Chinese man and forever feeling shame for what he had done. Mr. Greenberg served in the Pacific with the Navy during World War II and went ashore in a landing ship tank in the invasion of Iwo Jima. In the Navy, he wrote, it upset him that all the officers were white and all the stewards who served them were black. He received a bachelor’s degree from Columbia and a law degree from Columbia Law School, where a professor, Walter Gellhorn, encouraged him to pursue his interest in civil liberties and recommended him to Mr. Marshall. Mr. Greenberg’s marriage to Sema Ann Tanzer ended in divorce in 1970. She died in 2013. He married Deborah Cole in 1970. Besides his wife, who is the founding director of the Columbia Law School’s AIDS Law Clinic, he is survived by three children from his first marriage, David, Sarah and Ezra Greenberg (a fourth child, Josiah, died in 2011) his wife’s two children, Suzanne Greenberg and William Cole, whom Mr. Greenberg adopted a brother, Daniel and five grandchildren. Mr. Greenberg was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal in 2001 by President Bill Clinton. He remained committed to the idea of an integrated society while acknowledging that full equality had not yet been achieved — “that in many ways the lives of blacks are not as good as that of whites,” as he wrote in a 2005 memoir of the Brown case. But that case, he said, should always give Americans reason to take heart. “Brown continues to stand for Americans’ determination to live up to the ideals of their Constitution,” he wrote, “and for the proposition that our Supreme Court can be a catalyst for fundamental change. ” | 0fake |
UNDERCOVER VIDEO EXPOSES Obama’s Lies About “Gun Show Loopholes” | Steven Crowder exposes the lies Obama has been telling Americans every time he steps in front of a microphone to address gun control. The Left will stop at nothing to take our guns. Lying about how easy it is to get a gun through the gun show loophole seems to be a coordinated effort by the Left.Please share this video (the truth) with everyone you know.Watch this video expose the lies of the gun control Left: | 1real |
Timeline: Trump questions then honors "one China" policy | (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to honor the longstanding “one China” policy in a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, a major diplomatic boost for Beijing which brooks no criticism of its claim to neighboring Taiwan. The following are some of the major developments in U.S.-Sino relations since Trump won the U.S. presidential election in November. Dec 2 - Trump speaks by phone with President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan, a move that is likely to infuriate China, which considers the self-ruled island its own, and complicate U.S. relations with Beijing. China lodges swift protest, blaming Taiwan for the petty move. Dec 11 - Trump says the United States did not necessarily have to stick to its long-standing position that Taiwan is part of “one China,” questioning nearly four decades of U.S. policy. Dec 12 - China expresses “serious concern” after Trump said the United States did not necessarily have to stick to its long-held stance that Taiwan is part of “one China”. Dec 14 - In a veiled warning to Trump, China’s ambassador to the United States says Beijing will never bargain with Washington over issues involving its national sovereignty or territorial integrity. Jan 11 - Taiwan scrambles jets and navy ships after a group of Chinese warships, led by its sole aircraft carrier, sailed through the Taiwan Strait, the latest sign of heightened tension between Beijing and the island. Jan 12 - Trump’s then nominee for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, says China should be denied access to islands it has built in the contested South China Sea, describing the placing of military assets there as “akin to Russia’s taking Crimea” from Ukraine. Feb 3 - China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, tells Michael Flynn, Trump’s National Security Advisor, that China hopes it can work with the United States to manage and control disputes and sensitive problems. Feb 9 - Trump breaks the ice with Xi in a letter that says he looks forward to working with him to develop relations. Feb 9 - Trump changes tack and agrees to honor the “one China” policy during a phone call with Xi. | 0fake |
OBAMA COZIES UP TO ANOTHER COMMUNIST LEADER TO DISCUSS HUMAN RIGHTS… AND TPP? | So much for the US refusing to work with countries who are guilty of some of the worst human rights violations in the world From Human Rights Watch: Vietnam s human rights record remains dire in all key areas. A one-party communist state suppresses virtually all forms of political dissent, using a broad array of repressive measures. Freedom of expression, association and assembly are tightly controlled. The police routinely use torture and beatings to extract confessions and punish detainees. Religious minorities and activists are harassed, intimidated and imprisoned. The criminal justice system lacks independence and operates under the direction of the government and party. State-run drug rehabilitation centers exploit detainees as forced laborers making goods for local markets and export. Despite the pressure, increasing numbers of courageous bloggers and activists are vocal in calling for democracy and greater freedoms.A coalition of 14 human rights groups strongly condemns the Feb. 2014 decision by an appeals court upholding a 30-month prison sentence for Vietnamese human rights lawyer and blogger Le Quoc Quan. Mr. Quan has been detained since December 2012.The groups believe Mr. Quan s detention is politically motivated and a reaction to his blog, where he frequently exposes human rights violations by the Vietnamese government. Mr. Quan is a victim of a coordinated government crackdown on bloggers, citizen journalists and pro-democracy activists.Meanwhile President Barack Obama met Tuesday with Vietnamese communist party leader Nguy n Ph Tr ng in the hopes of strengthening ties between the two nations. The President also welcomes the opportunity to discuss other issues, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership, human rights, and bilateral defense cooperation, the White House said in a statement.The meeting came nearly four decades after the Vietnam War. Since that time, the two countries have made efforts to improve diplomatic relations. In just the past two years, Obama has met with Vietnam s President Tr ng T n Sang and Prime Minister Nguy n T n D ng. Like in any relations between two countries in the world, Vietnam and the U.S. have differences on a number of issues, such as perception on democracy, human rights and trade, Tr ng wrote, according to NPR. To resolve differences, I believe the most effective way would be open and constructive dialogues. Via: Daily Caller | 1real |
Dallas Police Chief Tells Congress To Shove Their Thoughts And Prayers: ‘Do Your Jobs!’ (VIDEO) | It started out as an observation, then it turned into a joke, and but it s become downright insulting. Each time America suffers from another horrific mass shooting, Republicans in Congress send their thoughts and prayers and do absolutely nothing else. Rather than work towards solutions, conservative politicians have found that merely saying a prayer before bed somehow absolves them of their reprehensible inaction towards gun violence.And Dallas Police Chief David Brown, like so many of us, is absolutely fed up.At a press conference updating the country about the investigation into the ambush of police officers in Dallas following a peaceful anti-police brutality march, he didn t remain silent about the culpability of Congress. In short, Chief Brown has had a lot of long days trying to fulfill his obligation to the public and get answers, but he s noticed lawmakers can t say the same. It s been business as usual and that means no business on finding solutions to mass shootings.Dallas Police Chief Brown to Congress: Do your job pic.twitter.com/rhhoWPKSVX Colin Jones (@colinjones) July 11, 2016Brown is not alone. Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings (D) recently pointed out something that conservatives had hoped would go unnoticed: Open Carry, the movement that allows Texans the right to carry AR-15s nearly anywhere in public, didn t help during the police ambush, and actually made everything much, much worse. Rawlings said Dallas police Chief David Brown told him that people running through the shooting scene with rifles and body armor required officers to track them down and bring them to the police department. Whether that was time that could have been spent trying to find and stop the shooter is something police will have to comment on. Major Max Geron of the Dallas PD didn t mind answering that question: There was also the challenge of sorting out witnesses from potential suspects. Texas is an open carry state, and there were a number of armed demonstrators taking part. There was confusion on the radio about the description of the suspects and whether or not one or more was in custody. Dallas police have every right to feel frustrated and sickened by the response from both their state Republican Party and the ones in Washington, D.C. Law enforcement agencies have repeatedly warned pro-gun lawmakers that these fanatical pushes to put guns in every citizen s hands and in every corner of public life means putting both civilians and cops at risk. It makes policing harder. It makes mass murder easier. And it makes the lines between good guy with a gun and bad guy with a gun impossible to separate.To be clear, Democrats need to bear some responsibility for inaction as well. After massacres at Sandy Hook and Aurora, there was motivation from Americans to finally fix this problem and Democrats let it slip through their fingers. Following Orlando, progressive lawmakers seemed to show signs that enough was enough, but they need to keep at it.The way forward is simple: Congress needs to put the lives of American citizens above the rights of an AR-15. Do. Your. Jobs.Watch an extended cut of Police Chief Brown s comments below: On the subject of guns, @DallasPD says the policy makers need to do their jobs https://t.co/Aa2LZ0VlCn pic.twitter.com/kjXACzLJC8 CBS News (@CBSNews) July 11, 2016Featured image via CBS News | 1real |
Ralph Toledano Resigns From Puig in Fashion World Upheaval - The New York Times | PARIS — The turmoil that has been roiling the corporate and the creative sides of the fashion world has not spared one of the industry’s most opaque groups: Spain’s fragrance and fashion conglomerate, Puig. Ralph Toledano, one of French fashion’s most executives, has unexpectedly resigned as president of Puig’s fashion division and chief executive of Nina Ricci and Jean Paul Gaultier. A spokesman for Puig, Loïc Seailles, confirmed Mr. Toledano’s resignation, saying it was to pursue other interests, but declined to say when or whether the company would release a statement. Mr. Toledano declined to comment on his departure. However, his exit is among the most significant management upheavals of the year thus far. Known as “Mr. Paris Fashion Week” because of his position as chairman of French fashion’s governing body, the Fédération Française de la Couture, du des Couturiers et des Créateurs de Mode. Mr. Toledano, 65, is also widely respected in the industry as a talent spotter. Before joining Puig in 2012, he had been responsible for hiring such celebrated designers as Alber Elbaz (whom Mr. Toledano brought to Paris as creative director of Guy Laroche) and Phoebe Philo at Chloé. At Puig, Mr. Toledano was responsible for recruiting a new generation of creative talent, such as the designers Guillaume Henry at Nina Ricci and Julien Dossena at Paco Rabanne. Mr. Toledano’s exit is the latest in an unprecedented wave of executive changes in the fashion industry, as it attempts to come to grips with a slowdown in luxury spending because of lower tourist travel and geopolitical uncertainty. In the past two years, for example, Kering, the French parent company of brands such as Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, has changed either the creative or management leadership at more than three quarters of its 15 luxury companies. In Britain, Burberry has welcomed Marco Gobbetti as its new chief executive, as Christopher Bailey steps back from that role to become president and chief creative officer. Céline, the French brand owned by Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, also named a new chief this year, and in the United States, Stefan Larsson resigned as the head of Ralph Lauren. Puig derives the bulk of its revenue from its business as a licensed perfume maker for big brands such as Valentino and Prada, and it also owns the small couture and businesses Paco Rabanne, Jean Paul Gaultier and Carolina Herrera, as well as those brands’ respective perfume businesses. For Puig, the changes at the top have been relatively recent. Earlier this year, François Kress, chief executive of Carolina Herrera, left that brand after a public kerfuffle around the hiring of the designer Laura Kim as effectively a creative . It was a move made without the knowledge of Mrs. Herrera herself, and one that resulted in a lawsuit, now settled. Ms. Kim is currently director of Herrera rival Oscar de la Renta. Puig’s fashion brands have been struggling to compete with rivals that have invested significantly more resources in building their distribution, digital presence, image and product assortment. Several people who have left Puig said they felt the group appeared to be more focused on its financial performance than on building fashion brands over the long term, which required patience and major investments that would weigh on its bottom line. Mr. Toledano, for example, oversaw the folding of Jean Paul Gaultier’s business into its haute couture operations in 2014 to stem the company’s losses. Jean Paul Gaultier’s fashion business is estimated to generate annual sales of about 20 million euros, or about $21. 7 million — a very small sum compared with its perfume revenues, estimated between €150 million to €200 million. While Mr. Toledano has declined to reveal his future plans, he is expected to continue in his role at the Fédération Française. And at Puig, there are two new executives waiting in the wings. Sophie Templier, a former close associate of Mr. Toledano’s from Chloé, has been named managing director at Nina Ricci. And Bastien Daguzan, a graduate of IFM (l’Institut Français de la Mode) and the chief executive of the French fashion brand Christophe Lemaire, is expected to be named the new managing director of Paco Rabanne, a brand estimated by analysts to generate several hundreds of millions of euros in perfume sales, driven by best sellers such as 1 Million. (Mr. Daguzan and Puig declined to comment on his imminent arrival at Puig.) Whether Ms. Templier and Mr. Daguzan will have the kind of chemistry with their creative partners that can transform a fashion brand into a hit remains to be seen. However, Nina Ricci’s designer, Mr. Henry, hired in 2014, is expected to stay on — at least until the end of his contract, which lasts another two years, according to recruiters. | 0fake |
Syrian Rebels Brace for a Trump Cutoff, and Look for a Silver Lining - The New York Times | BEIRUT, Lebanon — The hours are ticking down to what the Syrian government and its main ally, Russia, say could be the most devastating aerial assault yet on besieged districts in the Syrian city of Aleppo. The Obama administration has offered no military lifeline even to rebel groups it has vetted and backed. But Donald J. Trump, the American has gone a step further, at least in his remarks, suggesting that he will end all support to rebels and perhaps even treat the Syrian and Russian governments as allies in the fight against the Islamic State. Some rebels and civilian supporters say such a move might not make much practical difference, and would at least put the American position out in the open, instead of hiding it behind condemnations of Bashar the Syrian president. Seeking a silver lining, some rebels express hope that American allies like Saudi Arabia and Turkey would then go it alone and defy United States orders not to provide more sophisticated weapons to rebels — though in the short term, such a cutoff could mean losing supplies of American antitank guided missiles. “At least today we can get rid of the burden of this harmful friend,” said Hisham Skeif, a member of a local council of rebels and civilians in an part of Aleppo, where, the United Nations says, 250, 000 people are trapped. Referring to the United States, he added, “Today, we know that they are really and practically not backing us, whereas before, we considered them our friend while they were implementing our opponents’ agenda. ” But other rebel leaders, as well as policy analysts in the Middle East and in Washington, caution that it is too early to determine from a few statements how Mr. Trump will approach the complicated war, which contains several interlocking conflicts. In suggesting that he would abandon support for rebel groups in Syria, Mr. Trump appeared to be referring to a covert C. I. A. program. The effort has coordinated aid from the United States and its allies — at its peak, close to $1 billion a year — for rebel groups fighting Mr. Assad that were deemed relatively moderate by United States officials, including several of the main groups in and around Aleppo. But some of those groups, in a separate offensive aided by Turkey, have pushed the Islamic State back from the Turkish border and appear to be on the verge of retaking the city of Al Bab from the extremist group, which Mr. Trump has vowed to defeat. A Pentagon program supports other rebel groups working with Kurdish militias to fight the Islamic State. “We don’t consider his statements to represent the new U. S. administration stance,” said Bassam Hajj Moustafa, the political spokesman for the Nour rebel faction, which lost its American support after being deemed too close to groups. Mr. Moustafa called Mr. Trump’s statements “a show” tainted by earlier “racist, problematic comments,” adding, “We’re not taking them seriously, and they will be deleted later. ” Frederic C. Hof, a former Obama administration official who has been a vociferous advocate for more robust intervention against Mr. Assad, said it was too early to predict Mr. Trump’s Syria policy — especially since he had more to learn about the conflict. “No doubt Mr. Trump will learn during the course of his intelligence briefings,” Mr. Hof wrote in an essay published by the Atlantic Council, a Washington policy institute, that Mr. Assad’s “collective punishment policy” and “mass homicide” of opponents drives recruitment for the Islamic State and Al Qaeda. Ending United States support for rebels would only push them closer to groups, Mr. Hof and other analysts say. Mr. Trump’s statements about Syria so far, Mr. Hof noted, came in a domestic political campaign in which he emphasized the threat of the Islamic State and played on fears of Muslims among his base, with no room for the nuances and contradictions of the Middle East. For instance, Mr. Trump has vowed to be tougher on Iran — which, along with Russia, provides decisive support to Mr. Assad. Mr. Trump’s victory was closely watched across Syria. Like people the world over, Syrians reacted instantly with a mix of surprise, enthusiasm, despair and confusion. Syrian officials generally welcomed the result, and an adviser to Mr. Assad, Bouthaina Shaaban, said the government was ready to work with Mr. Trump. Syrian officials and their main allies, Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, had drawn up their military plans to come as close as possible to taking back all of Aleppo by January, out of concern that if Hillary Clinton won the election, she might increase support for rebels or enact a zone. Nizar 50, serving coffee in a Damascus hotel, called Mr. Trump “more straight and clear than Clinton,” saying he “wants to ally with Russia and Assad. ” But some Assad supporters expressed trepidation about Mr. Trump for the reasons many in the opposition cited: his comments denigrating Muslims and his vows to reduce the flow of Syrian refugees into the United States. A guard at the entrance to a area around the Sayeda Zeinab shrine said Mr. Trump would be little different in practice from Mr. Obama. “A dog gave birth to a puppy,” he said. Some Syrian opponents of Mr. Assad agreed, saying they expected little real help from the United States in a war that has killed 400, 000 people and displaced half of Syria’s population. Others, though, were crestfallen, seeing Mr. Trump as similar to authoritarian figures like Mr. Assad and his allies, Vladimir V. Putin in Russia and Abdel Fattah in Egypt. “Assad in Syria, Putin in Russia, Sisi in Egypt,” Malek Tarboush, a photographer in eastern Aleppo, said in a Twitter post. What could be worse? “Trump. ” On Sunday night, fighting in Aleppo appeared to be worsening. Doctors reported that at least six people in rebel territory, including children, were killed when a government artillery round hit a car. New leaflets dropped over rebel territory promised safety to anyone willing to leave, an offer so far met with skepticism on the rebel side, with the government saying rebels refused to let people out. “We give you 24 hours only to take the decision to leave,” one leaflet read. “Your worn, rotten leadership outside is unable to get you out. ” | 0fake |
Spike Lee Unveils Anti-Trump Nike Sneakers | Filmmaker Spike Lee posted a photo to Instagram of himself holding up a pair of custom Black History Month Air Jordan 1s, in an apparent show of protest against President Donald Trump. [One shoe featured the slogan “RESIST” while the other shoe read “REPEL AGENT ORANGE,” a moniker popularized by rapper Busta Rhymes, who referred to Trump as “President Agent Orange” during a performance at the 59th annual Grammy Awards this month. “RESIST — REPEL AGENT ORANGE. DATS DA PUTIN TRUTH, RUTH. ? . BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY,” Lee wrote in the caption below the photo. “Shout Out To My Man Busta Rhymes. Special Shout Out To Tip, Ali And The Rest Of The Tribe. Artwork By Danielle Mastrion. ” RESIST — REPEL AGENT ORANGE. DATS DA PUTIN TRUTH, RUTH. ? . BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY. Shout Out To My Man Busta Rhymes. Special Shout Out To Tip, Ali And The Rest Of The Tribe. Artwork By Danielle Mastrion. A post shared by Spike Lee (@officialspikelee) on Feb 16, 2017 at 9:00am PST, Last February, the director called Trump’s presidential candidacy “madness” and said his election “could be the end of us all. ” In January, Lee blacklisted RB and soul Chrisette Michele’s music after the agreed to sing at Trump inauguration. “I Wuz Thinkin’ ’bout Using Chrisette’s BLACK GIRL MAGIC In My Netflix Series SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT … . NOT ANYMORE,” Lee wrote on Instagram. Lee is now soliciting musical submissions from independent artists for his upcoming She’s Gotta Have It TV show — the same series for which he barred Michele’s music. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson | 0fake |
GARY JOHNSON IS A COMPLETE IDIOT….And Here’s Why [VIDEO] | 7% of Americans actually claim they ll vote for leftist candidate and faux Libertarian, Gary Johnson in the upcoming presidential election. No words | 1real |
AS HILLARY CRASHES AND BURNS… The Dems Look To A Recycled Rich White Guy To Save Their “Diverse, Working Class” Party | Is the world s biggest global warming liar getting ready for a Bush vs Gore re-match?Democrats more and more desperate to find anybody but Hillary Clinton to be their nominee are now looking to Al Gore to save them.That s right. Al Gore.Should Gore toss his hat into the ring and Joe Biden jump in, that would put five old white men against one old white woman for the Democratic Nomination. Not a Hispanic or African-American in the bunch.It s a stark contrast to the GOP field, with a woman, African American, two Latinos and some younger than 60!Gore won the popular vote in 2000, as you may recall from the harping Democrats made for George W. Bush s entire term. According to BuzzFeed, they re getting the old gang together. The senior Democrat and other sources cautioned not to overstate Gore s interest. He has not made any formal or informal moves toward running, or even met with his political advisers about a potential run.Gore who s now probably a billionaire has spent most of his post Vice-President career focusing on causes that cost American jobs like opposing the Keystone XP pipeline.The senior Democrat and other sources cautioned not to overstate Gore s interest. He has not made any formal or informal moves toward running, or even met with his political advisers about a potential run.A member of Gore s inner circle asked to be quoted pouring lukewarm water not, note, cold water on the chatter. This is people talking to people, some of whom may or may not have talked to him, the Gore adviser said.Via: DownTrend | 1real |
Former Lebanese PM says Hariri will return to Lebanon | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Former Lebanese prime minister Fouad Siniora said on Tuesday that the head of his political party, Saad al-Hariri, who resigned as prime minister on Saturday in Saudi Arabia, will return to Lebanon. Hariri s return to Lebanon is a priority said Siniora, adding that he had spoken by phone to Hariri on Monday. | 0fake |
At DAPL, Confiscating Cameras as Evidence of Journalism | Reprinted from fair.org by Janine Jackson Militarily Armed Police License DMCA
While elite media wait for the resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline to go away so they can return to presenting their own chin-stroking as what it means to take climate change seriously , independent media continue to fill the void with actual coverage.
One place you can go to find reporting is The Intercept ( 10/25/16 ), where journalist Jihan Hafiz filed a video report from North Dakota, where the Standing Rock Sioux and their allies continue their stand against the sacred site--trampling, water supply--threatening project.
Hafiz reports that after a morning of prayer, Standing Rock activists
were attacked by police forces who used pepper spray and beat protesters with batons". Dozens of officers, backed by military trucks, police vans, machine guns and nonlethal weapons, violently approached the group without warning.
As the demonstrators attempted to leave, the police began beating and detaining them. Several Native American women leading the march were targeted, dragged out of the crowd and arrested. One man was body-slammed to the ground, while another woman broke her ankle running from the police. The military and police trucks followed the protesters, as nearly a hundred officers corralled them into a circle. Among the arrested were journalists--including Hafiz--a pregnant 17-year-old and a 78-year-old woman. - Advertisement -
Once jailed, Hafiz and others were refused phone calls and received no food or water for eight hours. Women were strip-searched, two women fainted from low blood sugar and another had her medication taken away.
On her release, Hafiz was told, "Your camera is being held as evidence in a crime."
That crime, of course, would be journalism . And it's hard to believe law enforcement would feel so cavalier about treating it that way if more reporters were actually committing it. Protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline License DMCA - Advertisement -
Since the last time FAIR checked on how much coverage corporate media were giving the Dakota Access struggle ( FAIR.org , 9/22/16 ), ABC and NBC have ended their blackout, airing one story apiece on their national news shows: NBC 's Today show (10/11/16) had 71 words about the arrest of actor Shailene Woodley at the site, and ABC 's Good Morning America (10/23/16) ran 70 words on how "a protest over construction of an oil pipeline turned violent."
For news from Standing Rock, people would do better to follow #NODAPL on Twitter , and check out resources like SacredStoneCamp.org and Indian Country Today . View Ratings | Rate It http://fair.org
FAIR , the national media watch group, has been offering well-documented criticism of media bias and censorship since 1986. We work to invigorate the First Amendment by advocating for greater diversity in the press and by scrutinizing media ( more... ) | 1real |
DELUSIONAL DEMOCRAT AL GREEN: “I Will Draw Up Documents of Impeachment” [Video] | Texas Democrat Rep. Al Green announced on Wednesday he would draw up articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. This is the second time he s done this he s obviously got Trump Derangement Syndrome!Two delusional Democrats can t let this go Trump derangement syndrome!Now There Are Two: Rep. Brad Sherman Joins Rep. Al Green in Call to Impeach Trump https://t.co/GoebRqz8zO pic.twitter.com/BhXq7LDpUq Mediaite (@Mediaite) June 7, 2017OUR PAST REPORT ON AL GREEN S CALL FOR IMPEACHMENT: Spewing falsehoods has become the favorite pastime of Democrats It s really pitiful to watch Last night, following the release of the Washington Post fake news on Trump and Russia, several videos immediately came out repeating the same fake news. It s uncanny that the media could be so coordinated in their reports on President Trump Of course, we believe there s something to that.Two Congresscritters have come out to call for the impeachment of President Trump .With ZERO evidence of ANY wrongdoing, it s laughable One of our favorites is Maxine Waters but this next Congressman runs a close second. Al Green claims Trump was hobnobbing with the Russians Haha!Congressman Al Green just released a statement on why he believes President Trump should be impeached. This statement is laughable. Was Al Green elected because of his name? Voters can be that way, ya know This guy is the definition of clueless! Who elects these brainiacs?Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) has suggested impeachment during TV interviews, but Green is the first member of Congress to formally call for impeachment hearings.Green said Trump s own public statements showed he fired Comey over the Russia investigation, which he said was grounds for impeachment:Waters and Green are a total joke! These are just two of the jokers running Washington. This is truly scary. | 1real |
ATLANTA JUDGE Punished for Telling the Truth About Radical Antifa Protesters “Tearing Down Monuments” | And once again, the snowflakes want to erase parts of history they know nothing about. And what s more, they attack and penalize those who try to defend it.This week, an Atlanta judge was suspended upon posting his thoughts about Confederate monuments and so called anti-fascist protesters on Facebook. Judge James Hinkle wrote, It looks like all of the snowflakes have no concept of history. It is what it is. Get over it and move on. He went on to add, The nut cases tearing down monuments are equivalent to ISIS destroying history. ISIS AND ANTIFA BELOW- BOTH HATE AMERICA AND DEAL WITH CONFLICT BY USING VIOLENCE AND DESTRUCTION.He noted that, Confederate monuments in Virginia have the rear ends of horses facing north. Following these posts, Hinkle was told by Gwinnett County s chief magistrate that he was suspended. Chief Judge Kristina Blum released the following statement: I have made it clear to all of our judges to conduct themselves in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity, impartiality, and fairness of the judiciary. I consider any violation of those principles and policies to be a matter of utmost concern. Hinkle, who also served as the mayor of Grayson for over twenty years, previously made his views well known on social media when he posted he was proud to be a deplorable infidel. While many have been calling for his permanent removal, Hinkle has stated that he did not see what he did wrong. But you know, he went on to say, with the way things are going in the world today, I guess everything s controversial. JUDGE HINKLE RESIGNED AFTER TELLING THE TRUTH AND BEING PUNISHED FOR IT. WE DON T BLAME HIM Read more: Daily Caller | 1real |
Thank You FBI: The Clinton Email Investigation Has Shifted The Poll Numbers Significantly In Trump’s Favor | Home » Headlines » World News » Thank You FBI: The Clinton Email Investigation Has Shifted The Poll Numbers Significantly In Trump’s Favor
“Worse than Watergate”
Donald Trump has all the momentum now. Unless something changes, Americans are going to go to the polls on November 8th with an FBI criminal investigation hanging over the Clinton campaign like an ominous cloud, and that is very good news for Trump…
From Michael Snyder :
Will it be enough to propel him to victory on election day? Trump’s poll numbers were improving even before we learned that the FBI had renewed its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails, and the new survey results that came out over the weekend and on Monday make it clear that Clinton’s “certain victory” is not so certain after all.
Unless something changes, Americans are going to go to the polls on November 8th with an FBI criminal investigation hanging over the Clinton campaign like an ominous cloud, and that is very good news for Trump.
The Clinton campaign was hoping that this renewed investigation would not “move the needle”, but unfortunately for them that appears not to be the case. Hillary’s unfavorable rating just hit an all-time high, a whopping 45 percent of all Americans believe that this scandal is “worse than Watergate”, and a Rasmussen survey has found that 40 percent of all undecided voters that are leaning toward voting for Hillary Clinton are still open to changing their minds before election day.
And even before this story broke on Friday, Clinton was having a difficult time getting her voters to the polls. According to the New York Times, early voting among young adults and African-American voters is significantly down compared to 2012, and those are demographic groups that Clinton desperately needs to turn out in large numbers.
But of course the key to winning the election is getting to 270 electoral votes, and poll numbers appear to be shifting in the key swing states that Trump and Clinton both desperately need. For a moment, I would like to examine what the numbers currently look like in some of the most important states…
Florida
Without Florida, Donald Trump has absolutely no chance of winning. This is something that even the Trump campaign has admitted. That is why it was so alarming that most of the polls in October had Hillary Clinton leading in the state.
Fortunately for Trump, a new survey that was conducted on Sunday shows him leading in Florida by four points.
Georgia
Georgia wasn’t supposed to be a problem. Georgia has traditionally been a deep red state, but polling throughout this election season had shown a very tight race. This had Republicans deeply concerned and the Clinton camp very happy.
But now the momentum has seemingly shifted and the latest poll has Trump up by seven points.
North Carolina
Mitt Romney won North Carolina in 2012, and Donald Trump very much needs to win it if he hopes to be triumphant on November 8th. Hillary Clinton was shown to be leading in the eight most recent polls before the email story broke, but in the first major survey conducted afterwards she is now down by two points.
Ohio
No Republican has ever won the presidency without Ohio, and Trump knows how important it is to his chances. The three most recent polls conducted before the FBI renewed the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails all showed a tie, but now the very first survey conducted afterwards shows Trump up by five points.
Colorado
Hillary Clinton has consistently been in the lead in Colorado throughout this campaign, and most experts didn’t give Trump much of a chance in the state, but the latest survey shows that Clinton’s lead has been whittled down to just one point.
Arizona
A survey that was conducted in mid-October showed Clinton having a five point lead in John McCain’s home state, but now the latest major poll has Trump up by two points.
Nevada
One of the most important swing states out west is Nevada, and most surveys showed Hillary Clinton with a strong lead throughout the month of October. Unfortunately for her, a poll that was conducted on Sunday shows Donald Trump with a four point lead.
Clearly Trump has the momentum at this point, and it will be very interesting to see how the numbers change over the next few days.
And as we learn more about what is in these newly discovered emails, will her fellow Democrats stick with her? Already, some are publicly wavering. The following example comes from WND…
Longtime Clinton confidante and former Democratic pollster Doug Schoen told Fox News the newly renewed FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server is forcing him to “reassess” his support for the Democratic nominee for president.
Schoen, a Fox News contributor, made the comments to host Harris Faulkner during a live television appearance Sunday night on “Fox Report Weekend.”
Public opinion is shifting quickly, but the bad news for Trump is that more than 23 million Americans have already voted. So millions upon millions of Americans cast their votes before they even learned of this new FBI investigation. If the race is very close, that could end up making the difference.
And of course the race could dramatically change once again if the FBI comes to some sort of resolution about these new emails prior to November 8th. On Monday, CNNreported that a resolution before election day did not appear to be likely…
FBI officials are unlikely to finish their review of new emails potentially related to its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private server before the November 8 election.
The initial work of cataloging top Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s emails found on her estranged husband Anthony Weiner’s laptop could be done in the next few days, US law enforcement officials told CNN.
But the investigators are expected to spend more time doing other work, including likely working with other federal agencies to determine what — if any — classified materials are in the emails. This makes it unlikely there will be a resolution prior to the election.
However, late on Monday evening the Drudge Report reported that the L.A. Times has learned that investigators may have a “preliminary assessment” completed “in coming days”…
LA TIMES TUESDAY: FBI Investigators had planned to conduct new email review over several weeks. It now hopes to complete ‘preliminary assessment’ in coming days, but agency officials have not decided how, or whether, they will disclose results publicly… Developing…
Whether good or bad, I do believe that the American people deserve to hear something conclusive about these emails before November 8th.
If nothing is found to implicate Clinton, the American people should be told that.
And if evidence of very serious crimes is discovered, there is no way in the world that should be held back until after the election.
Even if it throws the election into complete and utter chaos, the American people deserve to know the truth.
But will we get it?
Stay tuned, because I think that this is going to be a crazy week. | 1real |
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