prompt
string | label
int32 |
|---|---|
Kathy Griffin & Hillary Clinton Are Losers, Not Victims
21st Century Wire says Those on the left need to start taking responsibility for their actions.Kathy Griffin, an alleged comedian, has received immense backlash for a stunt she pulled earlier in the week. Griffin apparently thought it would be a great idea to pose with a blood soaked effigy of President Donal Trump s decapitated head.Now, after making the incendiary, and some may say threatening, photograph, she is attempting to turn the narrative around claiming to be a victim of bullying .Similarly, Hillary Clinton is blaming a conspiracy of 1000 Russian agents working against her, fake news, Twitter bots, and misogyny for her election loss. She makes no mention of the fact that it was clear the Democratic voters wanted Bernie Sanders, not her, and that simply not being Donald Trump was not a good enough reason to vote for her.The massive problem with this scapegoating and more is discussed in the following video report: READ MORE TRUMP NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Trump FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
U.S. condemns Russia veto of probe into Syria chemical weapons use
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is “very disappointed” that Russia on Tuesday cast a veto at the United Nations Security Council against renewing a mandate to continue an investigation into who was responsible for the use of chemical weapons during Syria’s civil war. “We are disappointed, we are very disappointed that Russia put what it considered to be political considerations over the Syrian people who were so brutally murdered,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told a regular briefing.
| 1
|
Plastic Persona: Behind the Scenes of the Ted Cruz Media Machine
21st Century Wire says Most people accept that a certain amount of political campaigning is staged, and even a little contrived at times.For the most part, the public is fairly unaware of just how fabricated the political images they see on TV really are.Earlier, 21WIRE showed the abysmal scene from GOP candidate Jeb Bush s recent staged town hall meeting. As bad as that Jeb moment was, it almost pales in comparison to what s on offer here After their narrow Iowa GOP caucus victory this week, the Cruz campaign took a cheeky swipe at rival Donald Trump. Cruz communications director Rick Tyler remarked to CNN after the final results were announced, Reality hit the realty TV star in Iowa, so nobody is talking about him now, so he s trying to regain some attention on Twitter. After watching the following behind-the-scenes video out-takes from the Rafael Edward, or Ted Cruz campaign machine, one could easily make the argument that it s Cruz who is putting up the dramatic TV facade, and even using his own family members as political props. Watch
| 0
|
U.S. attorney general escalates pressure on 'sanctuary' cities
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attorney General Jeff Sessions threatened on Monday to cut off U.S. Justice Department grants to cities that fail to assist federal immigration authorities, moving the Trump administration closer to a potential clash with leaders of America’s largest urban centers. Sessions’ statements were aimed at a dozens of cities and other local governments, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, that have joined a growing “sanctuary” movement aimed at shielding illegal immigrants from stepped-up deportation efforts. Police agencies in those jurisdictions have barred their officers from routinely checking on immigration status when making arrests or traffic stops. And they have refused to lock up individuals longer than otherwise warranted at the request of federal agents seeking to deport them. Trump administration officials says the deportation crackdown is focused on illegal immigrants convicted of serious crimes. They insist public safety is jeopardized when police refuse to notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement of plans to release such a person from local custody. “Failure to deport aliens who are convicted of criminal offenses puts whole communities at risk, especially immigrant communities in the very sanctuary jurisdictions that seek to protect the perpetrators,” Sessions said at a White House news briefing. His threat to withhold grants as punishment drew swift condemnation from California and New York officials. California Senate leader Kevin de Leon, a Los Angeles Democrat, called Sessions’ threat “nothing short of blackmail,” accusing of “race-based scapegoating” in its crackdown on immigrants. Critics also argue that enlisting police cooperation in rounding up immigrants for removal undermines communities’ trust in local police, particularly among Latinos. And they question whether the administration is really targeting dangerous criminals. President Donald Trump, who made tougher immigration enforcement a cornerstone of his campaign, directed the government to cut off funding to sanctuary jurisdictions in a Jan. 25 executive order. That order has yet to be put into effect, but Sessions’ announcement seemed to be the first step in doing so. The Justice Department grants typically are used to help police improve crime-fighting techniques, buy new equipment and assist victims of crime. Sessions may find his ability to sway local decision-making through the Justice Department’s purse is limited, because only a fraction of its grant dollars flow directly to city and county governments. Federal records show the Justice Department doled out $1 billion to state governments and $430 million to nonprofits, but only $136 million directly to cities and counties last year. New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said his office would continue helping local governments “have the tools they need to protect their immigrant communities.” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, whose city is home to one of the largest U.S. immigrant communities, also denounced Sessions’ threat to use funding as a form of coercion. “L.A.’s values are not for sale,” Garcetti said. “Slashing funds for first responders, for our port and airport, for counterterrorism, crime-fighting and community-building serves no one.” So far no state has adopted policies barring cooperation with immigration authorities, though Maryland’s Democratic-controlled House of Delegates approved such legislation last week. The state’s Republican governor, Larry Hogan, has said he would veto the bill. California’s De Leon is backing a bill that would essentially make all of the most populous U.S. state a sanctuary, but he does not currently have the votes to pass it. Sessions sought to frame the debate as a public-safety issue, citing the case of a woman shot to death in San Francisco two years ago by illegal immigrant who had already been deported five times and had seven felony convictions. San Francisco may not be affected by the new restrictions, as the city and county received no funding from the department in the most recent fiscal year. However, Sessions’ order could impact other jurisdictions. New Orleans, Philadelphia, Chicago and New York City - all singled out as possibly noncompliant by an inspector general’s report last year - collectively received $15 million in Justice Department grants. According to Trump’s executive order, Sessions would have to wait until the Homeland Security Department determines what constitutes a “sanctuary city” before funding is restricted. DHS last week reported roughly 120 cities and counties that it deems uncooperative, though the agency has not finalized the list. Sal Tinajero, council member of the California sanctuary city of Santa Ana, questioned whether Sessions even had the authority to make good on his threat. “How do you take money away that Congress has already voted to allocate? You can’t. Congress has to take another vote,” he said.
| 1
|
Episode #149 – SUNDAY WIRE: ‘Part II: Another Road to Damascus’ with guests Vanessa Beeley, Ghoufran Derawan
Episode #149 of SUNDAY WIRE SHOW resumes this Sunday August 21, 2016 as host Patrick Henningsen broadcasts 3 HOURS of LIVE power-packed talk radio on ACR LISTEN LIVE ON THIS PAGE AT THE FOLLOWING SCHEDULED SHOW TIMES:SUNDAYS 5pm-8pm UK Time | 12pm-3pm ET (US) | 9am-12pm PT (US)This week s edition of THE SUNDAY WIRE is on the road broadcasting LIVE from London on the banks of the Thames. This week host Patrick Henningsen resumes the helm, covering some of the top US and international news stories this week. In the first hour we re joined by special guest LIVE from Syria, 21WIRE special contributor, Vanessa Beeley, to discuss the latest developments there and her recent incredible interview with the President of Syria s Political Advisor, as well as new revelations of a NATO-backed shadow state in Syria. In the second hour, we ll connect with another LIVE Middle East guest, a Syrian independent producer and filmmaker, Ghoufran Derawan, to talk about her own tragic story and to breakdown the truth about the Syrian Conflict. Finally, in the final segment over overdrive, we ll try to connect with and special guest from Syrian TV to discuss the Battle for Aleppo.HAVE YOUR SHOUT! VOTE & COMMENT: Has Obama-Clinton Foreign Policy Created ISIS? Strap yourselves in and lower the blast shield this is your brave new world *NOTE: THIS EPISODE MAY CONTAIN STRONG LANGUAGE AND MATURE THEMES*Direct Download the Most Recent Episode// <![CDATA[ broadstreet.zone(46707); // ]]>Sunday Wire Radio Show Archives
| 0
|
Russia-WikiLeaks Conspiracy Theory: “Clinton claim ridiculous, based on lazy US Twitter culture”
21st Century Wire says As 21WIRE reported previously, since this past summer Washington and its media surrogates have been seeding the news cycle with the talking point that Russia was responsible for the DC Leaks and WikiLeaks document dumps, and that Russia is somehow trying to hack the US elections. Here s what the Clinton campaign claimed:Once again, Russian propaganda network RT shows collusion w/ @wikileaks by promoting new email dump before even WL does. Glen Caplin (@GlenCaplin1) October 17, 2016Of course, they were completely wrong.21WIRE s Patrick Henningsen spoke to RT International about the Hillary Clinton campaign s ridiculous accusation that somehow RT News had the latest batch of emails before WikiLeaks did, and how the US media and political establishment can t comprehend a reality beyond their transient Twitter feeds. Watch: SUPPORT OUT WORK SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
‘Classified’ Emails from Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin found on Anthony Weiner’s Laptop
Looking back on the 2016 Presidential election, there was a non-stop chorus on denials by Hillary Clinton, her campaign surrogates, and the mainstream media that had not allowed any classified emails to float around her home-brew server, or onto the family of her close aids.As it turns out, Hillary Clinton was lying. A new batch of emails released by the US State Department clearly show that Anthony Weiner, convicted sex criminal and husband of Clinton s chief aid Huma Abedin, had kept classified emails pertaining to official US State Department business during Hillary Clinton s tenure as Secretary of State kept on the same laptop which Weiner used to target an underage girl and where he also kept child pornography.Among the released emails were exchanges which clearly show Hillary Clinton conspiracy with authoritarian Saudi Arabia to stop Wikileaks. The reopening of this old Clinton gaping wound is another devastating blow for the mainstream media and the Democratic Party s resistance movement, whose mission is to remove Donald Trump for office.RT International reports At least five of the 2,800 emails stored on a laptop belonging to former Democratic congressman Anthony Weiner were marked confidential and involved delicate talks with Middle Eastern leaders and Hillary Clinton s top aide.On Friday, the State Department released a batch of around 2,800 work-related documents from the email account of Huma Abedin, who served as the deputy chief of staff to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.At least five of the emails found on Abedin s ex-husband s laptop were heavily redacted and marked classified and at confidential level, the third more sensitive class the US government uses below secret and top secret. The State Department applies the confidential classification level to information that the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause damage to the national security, according to the Government Publishing Office.While the documents were not marked as classified before they were released, some of the information recovered in the emails was considered classified. It is illegal for civilians to posses or read classified documents without a security clearance.The confidential emails, which date from 2010 to 2012, concern discussions with Middle Eastern leaders.Dishonest: despite being caught multiple times, Hillary Clinton is still in denial about mishandling classified material.One of the emails has the subject Egyptian MFA on Hamas-PLO talks, referring to the Palestine Liberation Organization. The email is mostly redacted, only mentioning that it is a further update on Hamas-PA talks, referring to the Palestinian Authority.Another four-page email contains a completely redacted call sheet to prepare Clinton for an upcoming call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.A call sheet in another 2010 email includes notes to guide Clinton through a call she would make to Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal. The purpose of the call was to inform Saud about an impending WikiLeaks disclosure. This appears to be the result of an illegal act in which a fully cleared intelligence officer stole information and gave it to a website. The person responsible will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, the call sheet instructed Clinton to say.Clinton was warning the Saudis the leak could contain information related to private conversations with your government on Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan, and asked the Saudi s to help the US prevent WikiLeaks from undermining our mutual interests. During a congressional hearing in 2016, former FBI Director James Comey said Abedin regularly forwarded emails to Weiner for him to print out for her so she could deliver them to the secretary of state. The emails were released in response to a 2015 lawsuit filed by conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch against the State Department after it failed to respond to a Freedom of Information request (FOIA) seeking: All emails of official State Department business received or sent by former Deputy Chief of Staff Huma Abedin from January 1, 2009 through February 1, 2013 using a non- state.gov email address. In a statement issued Friday, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton called the release a major victory, adding that it was no surprise there were classified documents on Weiner s computer. It will be in keeping with our past experience that Abedin s emails on Weiner s laptop will include classified and other sensitive materials, Fitton said in a statement. That these government docs were on Anthony Weiner s laptop dramatically illustrates the need for the Justice Department to finally do a serious investigation of Hillary Clinton s and Huma Abedin s obvious violations of law. The emails were discovered on Weiner s laptop during an FBI investigation into allegations that he engaged in sexting with a 15-year-old girl. In September, Weiner was sentenced to 21 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to sending obscene material to a minor.The discovery of the emails led Comey to announce that the FBI was reopening an investigation into Clinton s use of a private email server 11 days before the 2016 presidential election. Clinton said the announcement contributed to her loss to Donald Trump See more at RTLast year, in effort to shore-up Clinton s crumbling reputation for being truthful to the public, her campaign published a bizarre 4,000-word fact sheet on the Clinton campaign website.As it turned out, Clinton s fact sheet was riddled with numerous false statements and other half-truths, including a lie that the FBI was conducting a security review when it was in fact conducting an investigation, and that she never sent or received classified information on her email account.This latest Weiner revelation is just another devastating blow to an already damaged political brand.Could Clinton mount a 2020 run?It s highly unlikely.READ MORE HILLARY NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Clinton FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
New Survey Shows No.1 Fear of US Citizens is Government NOT Terrorism
Americans have lost the plot when it comes to evaluating the true nature of the terrorist threat (Image Source: Wikicommons)By Matt AgoristAn extensive survey of hundreds of adults across the United States has just revealed that the thing most Americans fear more than anything else is their own government. In fact, according to the survey, no other fear even comes close to the percentage of Americans who worry about their corrupt government officials.The survey was conducted by Chapman University and it serves to back up the point that while Americans claim to live in the Land of the Free, deep down, they realize they are living in a corrupt oligarchy. The Chapman University Survey of American Fears Wave 4 (2017) provides an in-depth examination into the fears of average Americans. In May of 2017, a random sample of 1,207 adults from across the United States were asked their level of fear about eighty different fears across a huge variety of topics ranging from crime, the government, the environment, disasters, personal anxieties, technology and many others. As Statista s Niall McCarthy notes, like last year, corruption of government officials came top in 2017, with 74.5 percent of U.S. adults saying it makes them afraid or very afraid. Despite the constant fear mongering from the mainstream media and government on bogeymen terrorists plotting to steal our freedom, the public, according to this survey, is not buying it.In fact, the threat of terrorism isn t even in the top 20 fears. Terrorism comes in at twenty-two below credit card fraud and identity theft.While this survey is certainly promising, in the idea that people are waking up to government corruption, it is also a telling sign of America s ability to hold two entirely contradictory ideas as self-evident.This ability, or perhaps better defined as disability, to hold two opposing ideas, such as the spreading of freedom through war, as being logically sound, is called cognitive dissonance. When one is in a state of dissonance, they may sometimes feel disequilibrium : frustration, hunger, dread, guilt, anger, embarrassment, anxiety, etc.In order for cognitive dissonance to work, society must remain just ignorant enough to support and to believe the lies fed to them from the establishment as reality; even though this reality is a complete contradiction.Once we step back and observe society with this in mind, the reason for this contradictory mental state becomes quite obvious. It is much easier to remain delusional and in a state of suspended disbelief than it is to deal with the opposing ideas held inside one s head. How can one chant USA is number #1! while at the same time fearing the rulers of that USA?( ) If this survey shows us anything, it is that Americans would do well to entertain the uncomfortable idea that this country they hold so high up on a pedestal has actually long been on a path to become the dystopian nightmare written about in books like 1984.Americans would do well to remember the words by John Basil Barnhill in 1914 when he said, Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty. This article first appeared the Free Thought Project.READ MORE WAR ON TERROR NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire War on Terror FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
U.S. taps ex-envoy to NATO to resolve Ukraine crisis
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Friday he had chosen an envoy to lead U.S. diplomacy on the Ukraine crisis, adding that he had moved to fill the position at the urging of Russia’s leader. Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker, a longtime diplomat, will be responsible for advancing U.S. interests as set out in the 2015 Minsk agreement to curb the conflict in Ukraine’s Donbass region. He will accompany Tillerson to Kiev on Sunday, the State Department said. Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014, and Kiev accuses it of backing pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, an allegation the Kremlin denies. The Minsk agreement called for a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front line and constitutional reform to give eastern Ukraine more autonomy. “At the request of President (Vladimir) Putin, the United States has appointed ... a special representative for Ukraine, Ambassador Kurt Volker,” Tillerson told reporters after a meeting between Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko welcomed the choice, writing in a message on Twitter that it would help end what he called Russian aggression and restore Crimea to Ukraine. “Important & timely move in the interests of ending Russian aggression and restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, including Crimea,” Poroshenko tweeted. Volker was a career diplomat who served as permanent representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization under Republican President George W. Bush and Democratic President Barack Obama. He is currently a foreign policy and national security expert at the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University. “Kurt’s wealth of experience makes him uniquely qualified to move this conflict in the direction of peace,” Tillerson said in a statement. “The United States remains fully committed to the objectives of the Minsk agreements, and I have complete confidence in Kurt to continue our efforts to achieve peace in Ukraine.” Julie Smith, a former Pentagon official who worked on European and NATO policy during the Obama administration, praised the choice of Volker as Ukraine envoy, but said she was puzzled at Tillerson’s statement that he filled the position at Putin’s request. “So Ukraine didn’t matter enough to this administration to have them appoint a special envoy in the first place?” said Smith, now a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. “It was a bizarre word choice.”
| 1
|
PHILIPPINES: 2016 Washington’s Fury as Philippine’s Elections Threaten US Anti-China Policy
Duterte takes clear lead in Philippine elections. (Photo: IBT)Andrew Korybko The DuranMay 2016: As Filipinos choose their next President on Monday, prospect of election of anti-establishment candidate threatens the geopolitical viability of the US s Pivot to Asia.The Philippines votes for its next President on Monday. Whilst the rest of the world pays little attention, strategists in Washington are worried.The electoral frontrunner is Rodrigo Duterte, an eccentric, no-nonsense former mayor from the southern island of Mindanao who commands a Trump-like popularity and an equally loyal following. He has shaken Philippine politics to its core over the past couple of months, defying establishment pundits who just as they did with Trump wrongly predicted that his campaign would fizzle out over the course of each passing week.Having totally underestimated just how dissatisfied most Filipinos are with the status quo, Duterte s rivals missed the chance to outshine him by his anti-system rhetoric. With the race in its final days that is now too late. Instead also paralleling what happened with Trump there are desperate calls for coalitions and deals to stop him.Should these fail and should Duterte win on Monday, he promises a geopolitical revolution unlike anything the Philippines has ever seen in its history. Pivoting To Asia Through The PhilippinesThe US s Pivot to Asia was announced by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the fall of 2011 with the unstated but obvious goal of containing China. Key to this strategy is the rebalancing as the Pentagon calls it of an estimated 60% of its overseas forces to the Asia-Pacific theatre. Such a major deployment requires many more bases than the US currently has in the region. The US has therefore sought the help of the loyal leader of its former Philippines colony, Benigno Aquino III, to find a way to re-open its bases in the Philippines which under popular pressure were closed in the 1990s.Using the China threat as the plausibly justifiable reason for doing so, but aware that the Philippines people still resent their former coloniser and are proud of having forced the US to close its Philippines bases at the end of the Cold War, the US has devised what it calls an Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) that allows for the rotational presence of American troops in at least five separate bases, one of which is located on the strategic island of Palawan that abuts the South China Sea.Although not legally permanent or officially controlled by the US, this wink-and-a-nod arrangement would in reality allow the US to redeploy its forces to the Philippines, returning the Philippines archipelago to the role of the US s second unsinkable aircraft carrier (alongside Japan) which it had during the Cold War.The China Containment Coalition The Pentagon plans to use the Philippines as the maritime lynch of its China Containment Coalition (CCC), gathering all of its allies navies together and deploying them within provocative striking range of China s claimed islands.The other three members of the US-led Quadrilateral Security Dialogue Japan, India, and Australia would find their own way to rotate their military units throughout the Philippines islands as well, thereby forming the core of the CCC.To add a regional element to this mix, the plan is for the Philippines and Vietnam, both of which contest some of China s maritime claims, to intensify their strategic cooperation to the point of a mutual defence treaty. This would draw Vietnam into the network of the anti-China coalition being built up by Washington by using the defence ties between Vietnam and the Philippines to making the members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue de facto allies of Vietnam.Altogether, the Pentagon plan is to produce a critical mass of hostile states near China s southern maritime border which backed by the US could quickly counter any moves by Beijing thereby containing it to the East Asian mainland.Duterte s RevolutionEverything was proceeding according to plan until Duterte began to question the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement . While his running mate has said Duterte would honour the agreement, he added that he would do so from a position of strength .Back in October 2014, Duterte went on record to say the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement should be scrapped if it allowed US servicemen in the Philippines to avoid justice for any crimes they committed.This pinpoints an issue very sensitive for Filipinos who have vivid memories of how US troops were able to escape punishment for acts of gross misbehaviour whilst the US military occupied its bases in the Philippines. Public anger over this issue was one of the key factors in mobilising local opposition to the bases and explains why many Filipinos oppose their return.Since it is impossible to imagine such an incident not arising at some point, it is all but inevitable that a situation will occur which will fulfil Duterte s criterion for scrapping the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement Taken together with Duterte s assertion that he intends to deal with the US from a position of strength it is easy to see how this might trigger the process of revoking the agreement.No Filipino politician has previously spoken about the US in this way. Moreover other things he has said also suggest an intention to send a strongly independent line.Not surprisingly the Pentagon-affiliated publication Starts and Stripes , which writes for US servicemen servicemen and their families, published a scathing critique of Duterte just last week. Here are some excerpts: With Filipinos set to choose among five candidates on May 9, Duterte, the incumbent mayor of Davao City who has said the U.S. should not meddle in our affairs, holds a strong lead, according to the most recent poll released Sunday.Duterte is very popular now because people are sick and tired of the same old, same old, said Virginia Bacay Watson, a professor at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu. He s kind of a fresh face, fresh perspective, compared to the other elites who are running. Duterte has presented himself to voters as a straight-talker who is not part of the Manila elite someone who can get things done even if he needs to bend the rules to do so. That includes the country s foreign affairs. He feels that American influence is too strong, that we re too dependent on U.S. intervention in anything we do, said Babe Romualdez, an opinion columnist for The Philippine Star newspaper who has interviewed the candidates one-on-one about their platforms on the U.S. military and relations with China. He was an activist when he was a student and young lawyer, Romualdez said. I get a sense that he s saying the same things that most of the militants say. In Romualdez s interview with the front-runner, the candidate said we really don t need the Americans to deal with the Chinese because the Chinese want to talk to us alone. If I become president I m going to reach out to the Chinese and talk to them alone without American intervention, he said.Duterte publically opposed the Visiting Forces Agreement with the U.S. of which the EDCA was an amendment and claimed in 2013 that he had rejected a request by the U.S. to establish Davao as a base of operations for drones.Earlier this year, he was quoted saying that although the country was now bound by the EDCA, he had reservations about the presence of foreign troops. He added, We will not allow the building of structures. Clearly, Duterte is not the sort of leader the Pentagon envisaged for the Philippines. If he becomes Philippine President there will inevitably be concern in Washington that its elaborate plans for an anti-Chinese coalition in the region could be scuttled.The New Silk Road Pays A Pit Stop To The PhilippinesWorse still for the US Duterte is saying the Philippines and China could have peaceful and pragmatic relations with each other, engaging in bilateral dialogue over their disputes without the meddling interference of the US.What that would mean for the US is that the Philippines might become a tacit Chinese ally, which would completely upend the regional strategic balance.That is not what Duterte is actually calling for, but he did say is that he not only would be open to talking to Beijing, but would even further and engage in joint exploration in the South China Sea. Further, in seeking to develop the decades-neglected infrastructure of one of the most promising economies of Asia, Duterte has suggested that he would be open to inviting China to build a railroad and other types of connective projects that Beijing has become globally renowned for. This would of course mean replacing US contractors traditionally heavily entrenched in the Philippines with cheaper and possibly more efficient Chinese ones potentially causing US companies to lose out from billions of dollars of construction deals.Joint maritime exploration and infrastructure cooperation between the Philippines and China has the potential to turn the entire Philippines archipelago into the latest pit stop for China s New Silk Road, presenting the US with its biggest geopolitical setback since the reunification of Crimea with Russia.Concluding ThoughtsThe entire future of the US s Pivot to Asia hangs in the balance as Filipinos go to the polls in what is shaping up to be the most pivotal election in their country s history.While the US and its allied politicians are preaching a campaign of anti-Chinese fear mongering and war, Rodrigo Duterte is bucking the system and preaching the benefits the Philippines could reap from more pragmatic policies.By questioning the need for the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement and subtly threatening to subvert it, Duterte has made himself the US s enemy number one amongst politicians from the Asia-Pacific. No other individual is speaking out in this way and unlike others who have come before him, he seems to command a high level of genuine people support.If Duterte succeeds in winning the Presidency, it could represent a paradigm shift in Philippine history and the region s geopolitics, resulting in the US losing its second unsinkable aircraft carrier and having its Pivot to Asia ie. its plan to contain China fail before it has even properly got underway.***READ MORE PHILIPPINES NEWS AT 21ST CENTURY WIRE S: PHILIPPINES FILESSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
2017 NDAA: Obama Signs “Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act”
21st Century Wire says In typical NDAA signing fashion, Obama signed the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) quietly and with little fan fare as Americans are distracted by the mholiday festivities. What dirty tricks can we expect to see in the 2017 NDAA? Coming from the policy makers that struck down the Smith Mundt Act and legalized indefinite detention of Americans in past iterations, we re sure it can t be benign this year. The Hypocrisy of legalizing propaganda (overturning the Smith Mundt Act) then creating an act to counter propaganda: What are we to make of this new Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act included in the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act? The politicians and the mainstream media outlets have shown their cards yet again with a massive contradiction in policy. In one iteration of the NDAA policy makers overturn Smith Mundt thereby legalizing state sponsored propaganda to be used on the citizens of the United States and in the latest iteration we see the NDAA include an act to counter disinformation and propaganda. We can easily make the connection that in the wake of the Fake News hash tag war that has been unleashed upon independent media, with FaceBook partnering with government sponsored Fact Checking sites and algorithms being put in place to remove so-called Fake News from social media feeds, that this latest addition to the NDAA does not bode well for independent media and has massive potential to be abused for political purposes. Tyler Durden Zero HedgeLate on Friday, with the US population embracing the upcoming holidays and oblivious of most news emerging from the administration, Obama quietly signed into law the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which authorizes $611 billion for the military in 2017.In a statement, Obama said that:Today, I have signed into law S. 2943, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017. This Act authorizes fiscal year 2017 appropriations principally for the Department of Defense and for Department of Energy national security programs, provides vital benefits for military personnel and their families, and includes authorities to facilitate ongoing operations around the globe. It continues many critical authorizations necessary to ensure that we are able to sustain our momentum in countering the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and to reassure our European allies, as well as many new authorizations that, among other things, provide the Departments of Defense and Energy more flexibility in countering cyber-attacks and our adversaries use of unmanned aerial vehicles. Much of the balance of Obama s statement blamed the GOP for Guantanamo s continued operation and warned that unless the Congress changes course, it will be judged harshly by history, Obama said. Obama also said Congress failed to use the bill to reduce wasteful overhead (like perhaps massive F-35 cost overruns?) or modernize military health care, which he said would exacerbate budget pressures facing the military in the years ahead.But while the passage of the NDAA and the funding of the US military was hardly a surprise, the biggest news is what was buried deep inside the provisions of the Defense Authortization Act.Recall that as we reported in early June, a bill to implement the U.S. very own de facto Ministry of Truth had been quietly introduced in Congress. As with any legislation attempting to dodge the public spotlight the Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act of 2016 marks a further curtailment of press freedom and another avenue to stultify avenues of accurate information. Introduced by Congressmen Adam Kinzinger and Ted Lieu, H.R. 5181 seeks a whole-government approach without the bureaucratic restrictions to counter foreign disinformation and manipulation, which they believe threaten the world s security and stability. Also called the Countering Information Warfare Act of 2016 (S. 2692), when introduced in March by Sen. Rob Portman, the legislation represents a dramatic return to Cold War-era government propaganda battles. These countries spend vast sums of money on advanced broadcast and digital media capabilities, targeted campaigns, funding of foreign political movements, and other efforts to influence key audiences and populations, Portman explained, adding that while the U.S. spends a relatively small amount on its Voice of America, the Kremlin provides enormous funding for its news organization, RT. Surprisingly, Portman continued, there is currently no single U.S. governmental agency or department charged with the national level development, integration and synchronization of whole-of-government strategies to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation. Long before the fake news meme became a daily topic of extensive conversation on such discredited mainstream portals as CNN and WaPo, H.R. 5181 would task the Secretary of State with coordinating the Secretary of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence, and the Broadcasting Board of Governors to establish a Center for Information Analysis and Response, which will pinpoint sources of disinformation, analyze data, and in true dystopic manner develop and disseminate fact-based narratives to counter effrontery propaganda.In short, long before fake news became a major media topic, the US government was already planning its legally-backed crackdown on anything it would eventually label fake news. * * *Fast forward to December 8, when the Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act passed in the Senate, quietly inserted inside the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Conference Report.And now, following Friday s Obama signing of the NDAA on Friday evening, the Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act is now law.* * *Here is the full statement issued by the generously funded Senator Rob Portman (R- Ohio) on the singing into law of a bill that further chips away at press liberties in the US, and which sets the stage for future which hunts and website shutdowns, purely as a result of an accusation that any one media outlet or site is considered as a source of disinformation and propaganda and is shut down by the government.President Signs Portman-Murphy Counter-Propaganda Bill into LawPortman-Murphy Bill Promotes Coordinated Strategy to Defend America, Allies Against Propaganda and Disinformation from Russia, China & OthersU.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) today announced that their Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act legislation designed to help American allies counter foreign government propaganda from Russia, China, and other nations has been signed into law as part of the FY 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Conference Report. The bipartisan bill, which was introduced by Senators Portman and Murphy in March, will improve the ability of the United States to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation from our enemies by establishing an interagency center housed at the State Department to coordinate and synchronize counter-propaganda efforts throughout the U.S. government. To support these efforts, the bill also creates a grant program for NGOs, think tanks, civil society and other experts outside government who are engaged in counter-propaganda related work. This will better leverage existing expertise and empower our allies overseas to defend themselves from foreign manipulation. It will also help foster a free and vibrant press and civil society overseas, which is critical to ensuring our allies have access to truthful information and inoculating people against foreign propaganda campaigns. Our enemies are using foreign propaganda and disinformation against us and our allies, and so far the U.S. government has been asleep at the wheel, Portman said. But today, the United States has taken a critical step towards confronting the extensive, and destabilizing, foreign propaganda and disinformation operations being waged against us by our enemies overseas. With this bill now law, we are finally signaling that enough is enough; the United States will no longer sit on the sidelines. We are going to confront this threat head-on. I am confident that, with the help of this bipartisan bill, the disinformation and propaganda used against us, our allies, and our interests will fail. The use of propaganda to undermine democracy has hit a new low. But now we are finally in a position to confront this threat head on and get out the truth. By building up independent, objective journalism in places like eastern Europe, we can start to fight back by exposing these fake narratives and empowering local communities to protect themselves, said Murphy. I m proud that our bill was signed into law, and I look forward to working with Senator Portman to make sure these tools and new resources are effectively used to get out the truth. NOTE: The bipartisan Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act is organized around two main priorities to help achieve the goal of combatting the constantly evolving threat of foreign disinformation from our enemies Continue this report at Zero HedgeREAD MORE MSM LIES AT: 21st Century Wire MSM Watch Files
| 0
|
It’s Official: Trump is POTUS 45
Today Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States of America. The new president gave a resounding speech that was a major break from tradition clearly an anti-establishment and anti-Washington speech, resuming his campaign stance of characterizing Washington DC as a corrupt, elitist cadre of career-minded, self-serving politicians. Oligharchs in attendance looked noticeably uncomfortable with Trump s words.Trump also went into full populist mode, casting aside globalism in favor of the national interest: From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land, Trump said soon after Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath of office. From this day forward, it s going to only be America first, America first. Expect a wild first 100 days READ MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER@ 21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
Al Gore says Trump driving, not weakening, climate change momentum
LONDON (Reuters) - Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore said on Friday that President Donald Trump’s rejection of the Paris climate change agreement was fueling, rather than weakening, momentum among environmental activists. Gore, whose follow-up to his 2006 Oscar-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” is showing in movie theaters worldwide this month, said governments and companies had stepped up since Trump’s decision in June to withdraw from the 2015 global pact. “The entire world the next day re-doubled their commitments to the Paris agreement and in the U.S, the governors of our largest states and hundreds of mayors, thousands of business leaders all stood up to fill the gap and said ‘We are still in the Paris agreement,’” Gore told Reuters Television. “I do think that the reaction to Donald Trump is actually driving much more momentum in the climate movement,” he added. Gore’s new documentary, “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power,” argues that fighting climate change is a moral battle, on a par with the civil rights movement in the United States or the fight for gay rights. Shot mostly before Trump’s election, it also shows the Republican on the 2016 campaign trail promising to abolish environmental regulations and boost the coal and oil industries. “An Inconvenient Truth” is credited with bringing climate change into mainstream political discourse in the United States a decade ago. It won the best documentary Oscar in 2007 and helped propel Gore to a Nobel Peace Prize, which he shared with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
| 1
|
House committee postpones hearing on Puerto Rico
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources, with oversight of Puerto Rico, on Thursday postponed until further notice a hearing on the island’s recovery from Hurricane Maria and the role of a federally appointed oversight board. The spokesman for the committee said the hearing that had been planned for Oct. 24 would be rescheduled due to scheduling conflicts with witnesses. Earlier on Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would work with Congress to approve grants and loans to help rebuild Puerto Rico after last month’s devastating hurricane.
| 1
|
Moscow in talks with U.S. to create cyber working group: RIA report
MOSCOW/LONDON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Moscow and Washington are in talks to create a joint cyber security working group, Russia’s RIA news agency reported on Thursday, citing Andrey Krutskikh, a special presidential envoy on cyber security. “The talks are underway ... different proposals are being exchanged, nobody denies the necessity of holding the talks and of having such contacts,” Krutskikh said, according to RIA. Svetlana Lukash, a Russian official who was at the recent G20 summit of global leaders in Hamburg, said earlier this month that Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump had agreed to discuss cyber security questions, either via the United Nations or as part of a working group. However, U.S. and European intelligence and security officials told Reuters on Thursday they were not participating in the talks, which they said were confined to mid-level political officials. One of the officials, who like the others spoke on condition of anonymity, said cooperation on cyber security was a “pipe dream” while Russia continues to deny that it hacked last year’s U.S. presidential election, as three U.S. intelligence agencies concluded publicly in January. On an Air Force One flight home from Europe last weekend, Thomas Bossert, Trump’s top counterterrorism adviser, told reporters it would be premature to suggest the United States would be talking to Russia about a possible cyber security “partnership.” “A partnership suggests that you’ve reached a place where you believe that you have a trusted relationship and you’ve come to some common agreement on ideals and goals and behaviors,” he said. “I don’t believe that the United States and Russia have come to that point yet in cyberspace,” Bossert said. “And until we do, we wouldn’t have the conversation about partnership. But we had to have a dialogue, and that’s where we’ll start.” Trump said earlier this month he had discussed the idea of creating such a group with Putin at the Hamburg summit. Senior U.S. Republicans greeted the idea with incredulity, saying Moscow could not be trusted, and Trump later appeared to back away, saying in a post on Twitter: “The fact that President Putin and I discussed a Cyber Security unit doesn’t mean I think it can happen. It can’t.” Widespread concern and confusion about the possible cyber working group reflects the Trump administration’s struggles to articulate a clear approach to international cyber security issues amid inconsistent statements by the president and ongoing personnel changes. Chris Painter, a widely respected bureaucrat who led the U.S State Department’s international engagement on cyber security, is leaving his post at the end of the month amid media reports that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson plans to shutter Painter’s entire office. Painter is scheduled to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee next week about cyber diplomacy. White House cyber coordinator Rob Joyce told reporters on Wednesday that no final decision had been made about Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues, but said the State Department would continue to play a prominent role in developing cyber norms and brokering international agreements. “I am confident that Secretary Tillerson is not going to impair cyber security,” Joyce said.
| 1
|
Boiler Room – #UniteTheRight Coverage with Hesher, Andy Nowicki, Patrick Henningsen, FunkS0ul & Randy J
Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room tonight 6:00 PM PST | 8:00 PM CST | 9:00 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for bar fly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR host Hesher and along side Andy Nowicki (the Alt Right Novelist) reporting LIVE from the #UniteTheRight rally in VA, Patrick Henningsen of 21st Century Wire and FunkSoul & Randy J (21WIRE & ACR contributors), for this special broadcast of BOILER ROOM.Today on the show the ACR Brain-Trust is having an emergency meeting to cover Andy Nowicki s experience at the Unite The Right rally in VA. Hesher, FunkSoul, Randy J and Patrick Henningsen were also covering the live updates of the news scene at the very same rally, where several cars were involved in a hit and run style event that ended with multiple injuries and fatalities reported.Direct Download Episode #121Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved! Reference Links, for your consideration and research:
| 0
|
Lake Oroville Dam Spillway Damage Results in Evacuation Orders to 188,000 People
21st Century Wire says The Oroville dam in Northern California has sustained sink hole damage in the main spillway and over 188,000 residents of the local area have been told to evacuate. Helicopters are dropping rocks into areas of erosion to try to prevent ground from eroding further downstream of the primary and the never before used secondary, passive spillways at the dam.ABC10 noted late last week that the amount of water in the Oroville dam is challenging the design of the dam (due to the sink hole having formed in the spillway which required the outflow to be slowed) with 185,000 cubic feet of water per second are coming into the dam and only 41,000 going out.There is a passive spillway that has now been forced into use as the water levels rise and more rain is expected later this week, but its unknown what the down stream effects will be as this auxiliary spillway has never been used before. It has the potential of causing a lot of damage spilling downstream into the Feather River and towards residential areas. Reports indicate they have increased the outgoing water from the main spillway to lessen the potential damage of the use of the passive spillway.Join ABC10 below for live updates and ongoing reports on this developing situation at the Oroville Dam ABC 10At least 188,000 people living downstream of California s Oroville Dam were ordered to evacuate late Sunday as officials said an emergency spillway was dangerously eroding and a failure could cause uncontrolled floodwaters to pour out of the lake.Water began flowing over the emergency spillway at the Oroville Dam in Northern California on Saturday for the first time in its nearly 50-year history after heavy rainfall.Evacuation orders still in place. We will work to keep updating everyone. Be safe. https://t.co/xjYGk6B8VF Yuba County (@YubaCounty) February 13, 2017Crews are hard at work reinforcing the integrity of the levee adjacent to Tyler Island. Stay tuned to our social media for continued updates pic.twitter.com/6UIgIbCjWm SacramentoOES (@SacramentoOES) February 13, 2017The Paradise Alliance Church is not longer accepting new evacuees. If seeking shelter visit https://t.co/zmTLivT9tA for updated list. Butte County, CA (@CountyofButte) February 13, 2017Butte County offices in the Oroville area will remain CLOSED tomorrow due to the #OrovilleSpillway evacuations. @ButteSheriff @CA_DWR Butte County, CA (@CountyofButte) February 13, 2017Continue this developing story with live updates at ABC10READ MORE US NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire US FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
Trump Faces Off With CNN’s Jake Tapper Over Event Fistacuffs
21st Century Wire says After last Friday night s clash between Democratic Party students and Republican Trump supporters in Chicago, mainstream media outlets, Republican and Democratic candidates are all taking aim at Donald Trump going into the pivotal Super Tuesday primary contest.Watch as CNN s Jake Tapper and Donald Trump tossel on-air, as the CNN presenter accuses the Republican front runner of causing violence at his rallies
| 0
|
PHILIPPINES: 2016 Washington’s Fury as Philippine’s Elections Threaten US Anti-China Policy
Duterte takes clear lead in Philippine elections. (Photo: IBT)Andrew Korybko The DuranMay 2016: As Filipinos choose their next President on Monday, prospect of election of anti-establishment candidate threatens the geopolitical viability of the US s Pivot to Asia.The Philippines votes for its next President on Monday. Whilst the rest of the world pays little attention, strategists in Washington are worried.The electoral frontrunner is Rodrigo Duterte, an eccentric, no-nonsense former mayor from the southern island of Mindanao who commands a Trump-like popularity and an equally loyal following. He has shaken Philippine politics to its core over the past couple of months, defying establishment pundits who just as they did with Trump wrongly predicted that his campaign would fizzle out over the course of each passing week.Having totally underestimated just how dissatisfied most Filipinos are with the status quo, Duterte s rivals missed the chance to outshine him by his anti-system rhetoric. With the race in its final days that is now too late. Instead also paralleling what happened with Trump there are desperate calls for coalitions and deals to stop him.Should these fail and should Duterte win on Monday, he promises a geopolitical revolution unlike anything the Philippines has ever seen in its history. Pivoting To Asia Through The PhilippinesThe US s Pivot to Asia was announced by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the fall of 2011 with the unstated but obvious goal of containing China. Key to this strategy is the rebalancing as the Pentagon calls it of an estimated 60% of its overseas forces to the Asia-Pacific theatre. Such a major deployment requires many more bases than the US currently has in the region. The US has therefore sought the help of the loyal leader of its former Philippines colony, Benigno Aquino III, to find a way to re-open its bases in the Philippines which under popular pressure were closed in the 1990s.Using the China threat as the plausibly justifiable reason for doing so, but aware that the Philippines people still resent their former coloniser and are proud of having forced the US to close its Philippines bases at the end of the Cold War, the US has devised what it calls an Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) that allows for the rotational presence of American troops in at least five separate bases, one of which is located on the strategic island of Palawan that abuts the South China Sea.Although not legally permanent or officially controlled by the US, this wink-and-a-nod arrangement would in reality allow the US to redeploy its forces to the Philippines, returning the Philippines archipelago to the role of the US s second unsinkable aircraft carrier (alongside Japan) which it had during the Cold War.The China Containment Coalition The Pentagon plans to use the Philippines as the maritime lynch of its China Containment Coalition (CCC), gathering all of its allies navies together and deploying them within provocative striking range of China s claimed islands.The other three members of the US-led Quadrilateral Security Dialogue Japan, India, and Australia would find their own way to rotate their military units throughout the Philippines islands as well, thereby forming the core of the CCC.To add a regional element to this mix, the plan is for the Philippines and Vietnam, both of which contest some of China s maritime claims, to intensify their strategic cooperation to the point of a mutual defence treaty. This would draw Vietnam into the network of the anti-China coalition being built up by Washington by using the defence ties between Vietnam and the Philippines to making the members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue de facto allies of Vietnam.Altogether, the Pentagon plan is to produce a critical mass of hostile states near China s southern maritime border which backed by the US could quickly counter any moves by Beijing thereby containing it to the East Asian mainland.Duterte s RevolutionEverything was proceeding according to plan until Duterte began to question the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement . While his running mate has said Duterte would honour the agreement, he added that he would do so from a position of strength .Back in October 2014, Duterte went on record to say the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement should be scrapped if it allowed US servicemen in the Philippines to avoid justice for any crimes they committed.This pinpoints an issue very sensitive for Filipinos who have vivid memories of how US troops were able to escape punishment for acts of gross misbehaviour whilst the US military occupied its bases in the Philippines. Public anger over this issue was one of the key factors in mobilising local opposition to the bases and explains why many Filipinos oppose their return.Since it is impossible to imagine such an incident not arising at some point, it is all but inevitable that a situation will occur which will fulfil Duterte s criterion for scrapping the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement Taken together with Duterte s assertion that he intends to deal with the US from a position of strength it is easy to see how this might trigger the process of revoking the agreement.No Filipino politician has previously spoken about the US in this way. Moreover other things he has said also suggest an intention to send a strongly independent line.Not surprisingly the Pentagon-affiliated publication Starts and Stripes , which writes for US servicemen servicemen and their families, published a scathing critique of Duterte just last week. Here are some excerpts: With Filipinos set to choose among five candidates on May 9, Duterte, the incumbent mayor of Davao City who has said the U.S. should not meddle in our affairs, holds a strong lead, according to the most recent poll released Sunday.Duterte is very popular now because people are sick and tired of the same old, same old, said Virginia Bacay Watson, a professor at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu. He s kind of a fresh face, fresh perspective, compared to the other elites who are running. Duterte has presented himself to voters as a straight-talker who is not part of the Manila elite someone who can get things done even if he needs to bend the rules to do so. That includes the country s foreign affairs. He feels that American influence is too strong, that we re too dependent on U.S. intervention in anything we do, said Babe Romualdez, an opinion columnist for The Philippine Star newspaper who has interviewed the candidates one-on-one about their platforms on the U.S. military and relations with China. He was an activist when he was a student and young lawyer, Romualdez said. I get a sense that he s saying the same things that most of the militants say. In Romualdez s interview with the front-runner, the candidate said we really don t need the Americans to deal with the Chinese because the Chinese want to talk to us alone. If I become president I m going to reach out to the Chinese and talk to them alone without American intervention, he said.Duterte publically opposed the Visiting Forces Agreement with the U.S. of which the EDCA was an amendment and claimed in 2013 that he had rejected a request by the U.S. to establish Davao as a base of operations for drones.Earlier this year, he was quoted saying that although the country was now bound by the EDCA, he had reservations about the presence of foreign troops. He added, We will not allow the building of structures. Clearly, Duterte is not the sort of leader the Pentagon envisaged for the Philippines. If he becomes Philippine President there will inevitably be concern in Washington that its elaborate plans for an anti-Chinese coalition in the region could be scuttled.The New Silk Road Pays A Pit Stop To The PhilippinesWorse still for the US Duterte is saying the Philippines and China could have peaceful and pragmatic relations with each other, engaging in bilateral dialogue over their disputes without the meddling interference of the US.What that would mean for the US is that the Philippines might become a tacit Chinese ally, which would completely upend the regional strategic balance.That is not what Duterte is actually calling for, but he did say is that he not only would be open to talking to Beijing, but would even further and engage in joint exploration in the South China Sea. Further, in seeking to develop the decades-neglected infrastructure of one of the most promising economies of Asia, Duterte has suggested that he would be open to inviting China to build a railroad and other types of connective projects that Beijing has become globally renowned for. This would of course mean replacing US contractors traditionally heavily entrenched in the Philippines with cheaper and possibly more efficient Chinese ones potentially causing US companies to lose out from billions of dollars of construction deals.Joint maritime exploration and infrastructure cooperation between the Philippines and China has the potential to turn the entire Philippines archipelago into the latest pit stop for China s New Silk Road, presenting the US with its biggest geopolitical setback since the reunification of Crimea with Russia.Concluding ThoughtsThe entire future of the US s Pivot to Asia hangs in the balance as Filipinos go to the polls in what is shaping up to be the most pivotal election in their country s history.While the US and its allied politicians are preaching a campaign of anti-Chinese fear mongering and war, Rodrigo Duterte is bucking the system and preaching the benefits the Philippines could reap from more pragmatic policies.By questioning the need for the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement and subtly threatening to subvert it, Duterte has made himself the US s enemy number one amongst politicians from the Asia-Pacific. No other individual is speaking out in this way and unlike others who have come before him, he seems to command a high level of genuine people support.If Duterte succeeds in winning the Presidency, it could represent a paradigm shift in Philippine history and the region s geopolitics, resulting in the US losing its second unsinkable aircraft carrier and having its Pivot to Asia ie. its plan to contain China fail before it has even properly got underway.***READ MORE PHILIPPINES NEWS AT 21ST CENTURY WIRE S: PHILIPPINES FILESSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
THOUGHT POLICE: US Border Control Wants to Study Your Facebook, Twitter Accounts
Patrick Henningsen 21st Century WireIf this latest proposal from the US becomes policy, it could be a major watershed point for the globalized police state, allowing governments to not only to profile you, but also to target and even exclude individuals based on their online speech and activity. This week we learned that US border control have been running a shadow test program behind the scenes, where travelers into the US are asked to declare their online presence , including any social media accounts and associated blogs.The US Federal Register states, Collecting social media data will enhance the existing investigative process and provide Department of Homeland Security (DHS) greater clarity and visibility to possible nefarious activity and connections by providing an additional tool set which analysts and investigators may use to better analyze and investigate the case. In the hive mind of the state, the term nefarious is proven to be a flexible one, and could encompass persons of any political or intellectual persuasion who travel internationally. Where does it end?So who are these arbiters of political thought and social discourse?According to this recent report by The Guardian, the deciders are likely to be hourly wage earners working for the TSA, or contractors working under the banner of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Initially, these workers would be tasked with analyzing your online presence : US Customs and Border Protection s proposed change would add a line on both the online and paper forms of the visa application form that visitors to the US must fill out if they do not have a visa and are planning on staying for up to 90 days.The following question would be added to both the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (Esta) and I-94W forms: Please enter information associated with your online presence Provider/Platform Social media identifier. Thus far, the DHS claim they are only running a limited pilot program , one which the agency is keeping confidential and out of the public eye. Officials claim that the secrecy surrounding this controversial program is because they don t want to reveal their methods for identifying a potential terror threat. Millions of visitors disembark in US each week (Photo: Flickr user Tom May via Fast Company)In practical terms, with 10 million visa applications and over 77 million visitors annually what we are really seeing here is a giant big data capturing exercise that will quickly generate an additional column on your personal database sitting alongside your standard personal, facial recognition and other biometric ID information, as well as your travel history, and anchored by the RFID chip already embedded in most international passports.How the DHS expects its border control staff to properly vet and verify the information in question before a traveler passes through border security is hard to ascertain. The potential for misinformation is ever present.Eventually, processing this amount of data will probably be farmed out to high speed intelligent, or A.I. computer systems. Similar high-end, algorithm-based analytical surveillance programs like PRISM is already being used by US and UK government agencies to trawl through masses of public online activity, so it only stands to reason that A.I. will eventually perform the job of flagging-up any undesirables.If you went by the US media rhetoric you d think that Facebook and Twitter were the number one causes of global terrorism. No surprise then, that the battle cry for this latest DHS program has to be last December s apparent ISIS-inspired terrorist event in San Bernardino, and the subsequent controversy over the FBI s ability access to one of the suspect s encrypted iPhone 5C.What s more likely to be driving this grand security directive is not necessarily some effective plan to keep people safe , but rather, highly lucrative commercial interests.CIA is investing in firms that specialize in sifting through social media postshttps://t.co/nDVBvKt0bz pic.twitter.com/jiWZgQhYDX RT America (@RT_America) April 15, 2016No Private SpacesPerhaps the most troubling aspect of this story has to do with assessing the relationship between the individual and the government and the expectation of privacy in a so-called democratic or free society.In this instance, the government is adopting a blanket policy of judging a person as guilty until proven innocent. By ceding this expectation to the government, an individual consenting to this arrangement by forgoing his or her right to privacy and due process. As history shows us time and time again, once you give this away, it s very difficult to get back.In a BBC interview this week, Joseph Lorenzo Hall, chief technologist at the Centre for Democracy and Technology points out one of the fundamental flaws in the government s new regime, as he explains: It s very hard to see travellers not filling out this item even though it s optional as they may fear not getting entry into the country. Democracy in general requires having spaces free from government scrutiny and increasingly social life happens online. We would have a poor society if people were chilled from participating in social activity online so I really hope they rethink this. Now many Americans might look at this story and think, This doesn t affect me, it s only for foreigners. While that may seem true on the surface, the reality is that this DHS system is designed for Americans too. Consider it phase one. Besides this, do not be surprised if whatever rights you deny your neighbor, will eventually be denied of you too.This is what technocracy looks like it s brutal, unforgiving, and ultimately unresponsive to common sense and reason. Worst of all, it pretends to be driven by a perceived public interest in safety and security, but in reality the only security that s ever achieved through such measures are secure profits for a select number of corporate firms fortunate enough to win corporate contracts in the ever-expanding security theatre that is Homeland Security. Author Patrick Henningsen is also founder and editor at 21st Century Wire, and an independent foreign and political affairs analyst for RT News International. He is also the host of the SUNDAY WIRE talk radio program which airs live every Sunday on the Alternate Current Radio Network. Support our work and Become a Member at 21WIRE.TVREAD MORE WAR ON TERROR NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire War on Terror Files
| 0
|
Boiler Room EP #127 – The Oppression Commiseration (And Similar Topics)
Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room tonight 6:00 PM PST | 8:00 PM CST | 9:00 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for bar fly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher and Spore along side Andy Nowicki the Nameless One & Randy J for the hundred and twenty seventh episode of BOILER ROOM. Turn it up, tune in and hang with the ACR Brain-Trust for this weeks boil downs and analysis and the usual gnashing of the teeth of the political animals in the social reject club.This week on the show the ACR Brain-Trust is back with another meeting of the Social Reject Club in the No Friends Left Zone and the gang is discussing Morgan Freeman promoting the #TrumpRussia psyop, the most expensive cities in the US, Jim Carrey s odd behavior captured recently on camera, the general degeneracy of Hollywood, Evergreen State College settling $500,000 claim by professors who were told to leave campus for being white, the upcoming Free Speech Week at Berkeley and much more.Direct Download Episode #127Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved! Reference Links, for your consideration and research:
| 0
|
Trump Swings Back at Author of Fake Dossier: ‘Failed Spy’ Might Face Libel Action
21st Century Wire says In a Tweet, Donald Trump hints at libel action in response to the Trump dossier which was allegedly compiled by former MI6 officer, Christopher Steele.Is the Donald going to take the next logical step in battling fake news in the mainstream media, pushed by his political opponents and take one of their intelligence thugs to court? Keep an eye on this developing story. Alexander Mercouris The DuranDonald Trump has lashed out at Christopher Steele, the former British MI6 officer who compiled the Trump Dossier.Steele worked in Russia for MI6 in the 1990s and at one time headed MI6 s Russian desk. It turns out that he was also the case officer of Andrey Litvinenko, the FSB defector the British authorities accuse the Russians of murdering with polonium. It seems that Steele has however not actually travelled to Russia for twenty years, making it unclear how he contacted the various Russian insiders who he says provided him with the information he used to compile the Trump Dossier.In any event, Trump in a tweet has now called Steele a failed spy It now turns out that the phony allegations against me were put together by my political opponents and a failed spy afraid of being sued . . . Totally made up facts by sleazebag political operatives, both Democrats and Republicans FAKE NEWS!The reference to Steele being a failed spy afraid of being sued suggests that Trump is considering bringing a libel action against him. If so then Steele will have to explain the contents of the Trump Dossier before a British court. Given that despite certain recent changes British libel laws are amongst the most rigorous in the world, that would make for a very interesting court case Continue this report at The DuranRead More Election News at: 21st Century Wire Election CoverageSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER@ 21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
PROPAGANDA: Star Trek Beyond – Social Justice Warriors in Space
Jay Dyer 21st Century WireThe last Star Trek reboot saw Benedict Cumberbatch as Kahn, the berserk super soldier who was angry about the Federation doing some such nefarious thing to his people group. This installment included curious references to false flags which I detailed here.Before that, in the initial reboot, there was an angry alien who attacked the Federation over his tribal group being shat upon (or, Shatnered upon!). So, for the third time in a row, we have roughly the same plot of dispossessed discontent tribalists and unique people groups who become terrorists when their way of life is encroached upon by the United Nations, er, NATO, er, New World Order, er Federation.We have seen this pattern often in the Star Trek, but in the recent installment, it s even more pronounced as we discover the character Sulu is gay. Indeed, trans-specism and the destruction of people groups under liberal tyranny has always been the worldview of Star Trek Gene Roddenberry was a rabidly atheistic globalist (or, as an even darker possibility, was Roddenberry a member of an occultic group known as The Nine, ?).There is some interesting evidence connecting Roddenberry (connected to the Esalen Institute which I covered here) to esoteric groups, mind control and the Rand Corporation. This would explain the many gnostic, scientistic, platonic and at times interestingly philosophical episodes, in the original series and its Next Generation successor.Secret Sun blog explains: So if you were hawking a sci-fi religion, who better to approach than the creator of the sci-fi sensation of the early/mid 70s? From 2008:In early 1975, a broke and depressed Roddenberry was approached by a British former race car driver named Sir John Whitmore, who was associated with a strange organization called Lab-9. Though unknown to the public, Lab-9 were ostensibly a sort of an independent version of the X-Files, dedicated to the research of paranormal phenomena. However, Lab-9 had another, more complex agenda- they later claimed to be in contact with a group of extraterrestrials called the Council of Nine Lab-9 had wanted to hire Roddenberry to write a screenplay based on the Council of Nine s imminent return .Lab-9 flew him out to their headquarters, located on a large estate in Ossining, NY. There, Roddenberry met and interviewed several psychics, and prepared the groundwork for his script.Roddenberry wrote a script called The Nine, in which he fictionalized his experiences at Lab-9 and the message for humanity that the Council of Nine wished to convey Beam me up, RAND!(T)his was no ragtag bunch of hippie phreaks that Roddenberry was dealing with Roddenberry biographer Joel Engel noted that Whitmore introduced Roddenberry to several key figures in the British Broadcasting Corp. as well. In regard to the connection to RAND, Opsecnews states:According to the TrekPlace website Harvey P. Lynn, Jr. (?-1987), a member of the prestigious RAND Corporation, provided Star Trek original series creator Gene Roddenberry with scientific and technical advice during preproduction of the series.On the Rand Corporation s website the question is asked whether a RAND researcher designed the initial bridge of the Enterprise. The answer given is, A Rand researcher, Harvey Lynn, was consulted, but as a private citizen, not as part of a RAND project. However in an interview from 1965 Jeffrey Hunter, who played captain Christopher Pike in the Star Trek pilot The Cage and preceded William Shatner as first captain of the Enterprise stated, The things that intrigues me the most is that it is actually based on the Rand Corporation s projection of things to come. Except for the fictional characters, it will be like getting a look into the future and some of the predictions will surely come true in our lifetime. The inherent contradiction that Star Trek continually demonstrates is the contradiction of the liberal philosophy and I mean in this in the classically liberal sense, that radical egalitarianism and atomistic individualism creates a horrid collective gathered around nothing more than liberalism itself. In this way, liberalism and its epistemic and cultural relativism can only allow for itself, and must destroy and exclude all other options, including even non-liberal democracy.In numerous Star Trek episodes, we even see the Prime Directive of the Federation s commitment to not violating an existing culture violated under the pretended facade of liberal rights and values. Western NGOs and foundations fulfill this very role today, with a cover of aiding the downtrodden, while secretly working for western political ends, as we see in the Soros-funded White Helmets scam. (If anyone doubts RAND connections to Hollywood, let s not forget the 2014 faux scandal of The Interview). Ironically, the new film demonstrates this toxic cultural imperialism explicitly. GlobalResearch explains: Aside from not addressing the darker side of US foreign policy, Hollywood movies like Forrest Gump carry subliminal messages. In the words of the US culture and entertainment magazine Rolling Stone: The message of Forrest Gump was that if you think about the hard stuff too much, you ll either get AIDS or lose your legs. Meanwhile, the hero is the idiot who just shrugs and says Whatever! whenever his country asks him to do something crazy. What Rolling Stone is saying that listen to what you are commanded to do.Then there are movies like American Sniper that collapse US foreign policy into the simplistic notion of individual characters. What this does is collapse the event and the soldiers into one, which means that if ones criticize a US war that you are attacking the soldiers and their convictions. This is hiding behind the soldiers and detracting from the real issue of an illegal invasion and occupation. Nor is there any mention of Abu Ghraib or the false weapons of mass destruction lies. Rolling Stone had this to say about American Sniper: Sniper is a movie whose politics are so ludicrous and idiotic that under normal circumstances it would be beneath criticism. The only thing that forces us to take it seriously is the extraordinary fact that an almost exactly similar worldview consumed the walnut-sized mind of the president who got us into the war in question. It s the fact that the movie is popular, and actually makes sense to so many people, that s the problem, it also adds. In fact, as a result of the movie there was an increase in hate crimes in the US and negative feelings towards Arabs and Muslims. I was tempted to draw up an elaborate analysis of symbols and deeper meanings, but depth was absent in this film. Other than an odd similarity between the terrorist character as a former soldier who went mad from radicalism (traditionalism!) being similar to the D.C. sniper event, Admiral Krall is merely a representation of any cultures or people groups who want a more traditional, organic existence and reject the Federation s globalism. As such, they are terrorists who are impelled by their fury and insanity to bomb the glorious, multi-cultural megalopolis space city Yorktown. In other words, all groups that aren t on board with globalism and liberal, inverted monoculture are terrists destined to attack New York.Krall thus represents the life-extension inherent in the damned traditionalism that will not die in the face of globalism. Krall is a grotesque icon of the film s view of patriarchal, honor-based societies as a perpetual reptilian madness that humans must evolve beyond. If you don t accept homo-mono-globo-liberalism, you are a terrorist that will unleash bioweapons in New York.The Holy United Nations and the space brothers have told the Pentagon humanity must evolve beyond distinctions and borders, and Gene and the pope are is its prophets. By the way if the citizens of the multi cultural Yorktown space station can beam about at will, why didn t they just beam Admiral Krall into space when he had the bio weapon?Oops! #StarCuck #captainJamesTKuckREAD MORE HOLLYWOOD NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Hollywood FilesTo hear Jay s full podcasts, see more information and learn how you can become a subscriber to JaysAnalysis.Jay Dyer is the author of the forthcoming title, Esoteric Hollywood: Sex, Cults and Symbols in Film from Trine Day. Focusing on film, philosophy, geopolitics and all things esoteric, JaysAnalysis and his podcast, Esoteric Hollywood, investigates the deeper meanings between the headlines, exploring the hidden aspects of our sinister synthetic mass media matrix.
| 0
|
Trump says he'll urge Muslim leaders to fight extremism during Mideast trip
NEW LONDON, Conn. (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would use his upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia to challenge the leaders of Muslim countries to “fight hatred and extremism” while pursuing a peaceful future for their faith. Speaking to the graduating class of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, Trump said he would seek new partners in the region because “we have to stop radical Islamic terrorism.”
| 1
|
Trump tells China's Xi he believes there is solution to North Korea
BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump told Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday that he believes, like Xi, that there is a solution to the North Korea issue. It was too bad that past U.S. administrations let trade get out of kilter but we will make it fair to both sides, Trump also told Xi as they begun formal talks at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.
| 1
|
MSM Fake News: How Washington Post Sexed-up its ‘Facebook Russian Bot’ Conspiracy
This is a story about how once trusted mainstream media outlets like Washington Post and the New York Times have used their vast platforms to distort reality and spread disinformation en masse to both the American and global public. It s also a story about a new excuse industry which has sprung up to medicate Hillary Clinton s tragic defeat.The article below, written by award-winning journalist Robert Parry, reveals the shocking extent to which the establishment is willing to go to achieve both domestic political, and international geopolitical outcomes.In September, we were told by multiple US mainstream media that suspected Russian operators used Facebook and Twitter accounts to spread anti-Clinton messages which somehow affected the electoral outcome in 2016. This was followed by a dramatic announcement by Facebook officials that they had responded to the crisis by shutting down several hundred accounts (approx. 470) suspected to have been created by a firm linked to the Kremlin who used Russian bot accounts to purchase $100,000 worth of Facebook post ads 3,000 ads in total over a 3 year period (that s only $33,000 per year) which we re told were pushing divisive issues during and after the American election campaign (so said the New York Times).As it turns out, the story was not only wildly exaggerated, it provided a convenient smoke screen to cover-up another case of real collusion.The scale of American propaganda is simply breathtaking.In this single passage taken from the recent New York Times scoop on the alleged Facebook Russian Bot phenomenon, you can see the full compliment of packaged lies which has become a set piece in US mainstream discourse now: The Russian information attack on the election did not stop with the hacking and leaking of Democratic emails or the fire hose of stories, true, false and in between, that battered Mrs. Clinton on Russian outlets like RT and Sputnik. Far less splashy, and far more difficult to trace, was Russia s experimentation on Facebook and Twitter, the American companies that essentially invented the tools of social media and, in this case, did not stop them from being turned into engines of deception and propaganda. It gets worse though. What the Washington Post and others like the New York Times have obscured from the American people through this massive propaganda exercise is the Obama Administration and partisan Democrats own role in helping to generate this contrived conspiracy, or fake news. In the absence of any actual evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia what we have now is a case of Silicon Valley giant Facebook, actually colluding with the White House and the Federal government officials in order to help fabricate a highly politicized false conviction. Here are some of the main points in the article below: Powerful politicians pressured Facebook executives to come up with any evidence to support the Democratic Party s theory of Russian meddling. The Washington Post and others tried to convince a naive portion of the public to believe that somehow $100,000 in transient Facebook ad impacted the tens of billions of dollars spent during U.S. political spending for the 2016 election cycle. With all of the hype about Russian operatives, the mainstream media has not produced evidence to show who bought the ads.As journalistic hoaxes go, this is one of the biggest we ve seen.Perhaps an even bigger fraud in all of this however, is how a corporate mainstream media outlet like the Washington Post can use it s unlimited resources and media might to push out a blatantly fake narrative, intentionally distorted to deceive the public in order to achieve some partisan political objective and then site on the board of the establishment s First Draft project which they claim is leading the fight against fake news . How can a major purveyor of fake news be left to lead the fight to tackle fake news ? This is the danger of allowing an establishment cartel comprising of the corporate media, Facebook, Google and other tech monopolies to devise their own information policing regime.More on this incredible story from award-winning Consortium News here . . By Robert ParrySome people are calling the anti-Russian hysteria being whipped up across the U.S. mainstream news media a new golden age of American journalism, although it looks to me more like a new age of yellow journalism, prepping the people for more military spending, more information warfare and more actual war.Yes, without doubt, President Trump is a boorish and dangerous demagogue, now highlighted by his reckless speech before the United Nations last week, his schoolyard Tweet taunts toward North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and his ugly denunciation of black athletes for protesting against police killings of often unarmed African-Americans.And, yes, I know that some people feel that the evidence-lite and/or false allegations about Russian meddling are the golden ticket to Trump s impeachment. But the unprofessional behavior of The New York Times, The Washington Post and pretty much the entire mainstream media regarding Russia-gate cannot be properly justified by the goal of removing Trump from office.Ethically in journalism, the ends however much you might wish them to succeed cannot justify the means, if those means involve violating rules of evidence and principles of fairness. Journalism should be a place where all sides get a fair shake, not where some get a bum s rush.But the U.S. mainstream media has clearly joined the anti-Trump Resistance and hates Russian President Vladimir Putin, too. So, we are given such travesties of journalism as appeared as a banner headline across the front page of Monday s Washington Post, another screed about how Russia supposedly used Facebook ads to flip last November s election for Trump.The article purports to give the inside story of how Facebook belatedly came to grips with how the company s social network played a key role in the U.S. election, but actually it is a story about how powerful politicians bullied Facebook into coming up with something anything to support the narrative of Russian meddling, including direct interventions by President Obama and Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee and a key legislator regarding regulation of high-tech industries.Finding the Evidence In other words, Facebook was sent back again and again to find what Obama and Warner wanted the social media company to find. Eventually, Facebook turned up $100,000 in ads from 2015 into 2017 that supposedly were traced somehow to Russia. These ads apparently addressed political issues in America although Facebook has said most did not pertain directly to the presidential election and some ads were purchased after the election.Left out of the Post s latest opus is what a very small pebble these ads were even assuming that Russians did toss the $100,000 or so in ad buys into the very large lake of billions of dollars in U.S. political spending for the 2016 election cycle. It also amounts to a miniscule fraction of Facebook s $27 billion in annual revenue.So the assertion that this alleged meddling and we ve yet to see any evidence connecting these ads to the Russian government played a key role in the U.S. election is both silly and outrageous, especially given the risks involved in stoking animosities between nuclear-armed Russia and nuclear-armed America.Facebook: Colluding with government.Even the Post s alarmist article briefly acknowledges that it is still unclear who bought the ads, referring to the purchasers as suspected Russian operatives. In other words, we don t even know that the $100,000 in ads over three years came from Russians seeking to influence the U.S. election. (By comparison, many Facebook advertisers even some small businesses spend $100,000 per day on their ads, not $100,000 over three years.)But this diminutive effort by suspected Russian operatives doesn t stop the Post from going on and on about fake news and disinformation, albeit again without offering evidence or specifics of any Russian fake news or disinformation. It has simply become Official Washington s new groupthink to say that everything linked to Russia or its international TV network RT is fake news or disinformation even though examples are lacking or often turn out to be false accusations themselves.For instance, there is nothing in the Post s article acknowledging that nothing from the various Democratic email disclosures, which have been blamed on Russia (again without real evidence), has been identified as untrue. So, how can truthful information, whether you like how it was obtained or not, be fake news or disinformation ?Falsehood as FactBut Monday s Post expos simply asserts the claim as flat fact. Or as the article asserts: what Russian operatives posted on Facebook was, for the most part, indistinguishable from legitimate political speech. The difference was the accounts that were set up to spread the misinformation and hate were illegitimate. In responsible journalism, such an accusation would be followed by a for-instance, giving an example of the misinformation and hate that the Russian operatives note how they have been magically transformed from suspected Russian operatives to simply Russian operatives were disseminating.But there is no example of the Russian misinformation and hate, a classic violation of the reporting principle of show, don t tell. In this story, it s all tell and no show.Indeed, what is shown in the article is often contradictory to the story s conclusion. The article says, for instance, A review by the company found that most of the groups behind the problematic pages had clear financial motives, which suggested that they weren t working for a foreign government. But amid the mass of data the company was analyzing, the security team did not find clear evidence of Russian disinformation or ad purchases by Russian-linked accounts. So, Facebook initially after extensive searching did not find evidence of a Russian operation. Then, after continued pressure from high-level Democrats, Facebook continued to scour its system and again found nothing, or as the Post article acknowledged, Facebook had searched extensively for evidence of foreign purchases of political advertising but had come up short. That prompted Warner to fly out to Silicon Valley to personally press Facebook executives to come up with the evidence to support the Democrats theory about Russia paying for carefully targeted anti-Clinton ads in key districts.The Post s article reported that Finally, [Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex] Stamos appealed to Warner for help: If U.S. intelligence agencies had any information about the Russian operation or the troll farms it used to disseminate misinformation, they should share it with Facebook. The company is still waiting, people involved in the matter said. Under PressureStill, faced with extraordinary pressure from senior Democrats, Facebook finally delivered the desired results, or as the Post reported, By early August, Facebook had identified more than 3,000 ads addressing social and political issues that ran in the United States between 2015 and 2017 and that appear to have come from accounts associated with the [St. Petersburg, Russia-based] Internet Research Agency. So, the ads covering three years, including post-election 2017, only appear to be associated with some private Russian operation that only allegedly has ties to the Kremlin. And the total sums of the ad buys are infinitesimal compared to what it actually takes to have any real impact on Facebook or in a U.S. presidential election.If the context of this story were changed slightly say, it was about the U.S. government trying to influence public opinion in another country (which actually does happen quite a bit) the Post would be among the first news outlets to laugh off such allegations or dismiss the vague accusations as a conspiracy theory, but since these allegations fit with the prejudices of the Post s editors, an entirely different set of journalistic standards is applied.What the article also ignores is the extraordinary degree of coercion that such high-level political pressure can put on a company that recognizes its vulnerability to government regulation.As Facebook has acknowledged in corporate filings, Action by governments to restrict access to Facebook in their countries could substantially harm our business and financial results. It is possible that governments of one or more countries may seek to censor content available on Facebook in their country, restrict access to Facebook from their country entirely, or impose other restrictions that may affect the accessibility of Facebook in their country for an extended period of time or indefinitely. In the event that access to Facebook is restricted, in whole or in part, in one or more countries or our competitors are able to successfully penetrate geographic markets that we cannot access, our ability to retain or increase our user base and user engagement may be adversely affected, we may not be able to maintain or grow our revenue as anticipated, and our financial results could be adversely affected. Avoiding RealityIn other words, another way to have framed this story is that powerful politicians who could severely harm Facebook s business model were getting in the face of Facebook executives and essentially demanding that they come up with something to support the Democratic Party s theory of Russian meddling. The Democratic leaders wanted this finding as an explanation for Hillary Clinton s (image, left) stunning defeat, rather than going through the painful process of examining why the party has steadily lost ground in white working-class areas across the country.What is missed in these Russia-bashing articles is that the Democratic brand has been sinking for years, including massive losses in statehouses across the country as well as in Congress. The party s decline was not a one-off event with Donald Trump suddenly snaking away with significant parts of the white working class because the Russians bought some Facebook ads.However, instead of looking in the mirror, national Democrats demanded that Facebook executives ferret out whatever tiny or imaginary information there might be about some Russians buying Facebook ads and then allow those coerced findings to be fed into the excuse industry for why Hillary Clinton lost.And, what about the Post s repeated accusations about Russia engaging in disinformation and fake news without offering a single example? Apparently, these assertions have become such articles of faith in the U.S. mainstream media that they don t require any proof.However, honest journalism demands examples and evidence, not just vague accusations. The reality is that the U.S. government has stumbled again and again when seeking to paint RT as a disinformation outlet or a vehicle for undermining American democracy.For instance, the Jan. 6 report on alleged Russian cyber operations, released by Obama s Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, included a lengthy appendix, dated from 2012, which decried RT for such offenses as allowing a debate among third-party presidential candidates who had been excluded from the Republican-Democratic debates; covering the Occupy Wall Street protests; and citing the environmental dangers from fracking. The idea that American democracy is threatened by allowing third-party candidates or other American dissidents to have a voice is at best an upside-down understanding of democracy and, more likely, an exercise in hypocritical propaganda.False AccusationsAnother misfired attempt to discredit RT came from Obama s Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Richard Stengel, who issued a Dipnote in April 2014, which helped establish the narrative of RT as a source of Russian disinformation.For instance, Stengel claimed that RT reported a ludicrous assertion that the United States had spent $5 billion to produce Ukraine s regime change in February 2014.But what Stengel, a former managing editor of Time magazine, apparently failed to understand was that RT was referring to a public speech by Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland to U.S. and Ukrainian business leaders on Dec. 13, 2013, in which she told them that we have invested more than $5 billion in what was needed for Ukraine to achieve its European aspirations. In other words, the RT report wasn t ludicrous at all.Nuland also was a leading proponent of regime change in Ukraine who personally cheered on the Maidan demonstrators, even passing out cookies. In an intercepted pre-coup phone call with U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt, Nuland discussed who should run the new government and pondered with Pyatt how to glue or midwife this thing. So, Stengel was the one disseminating false information, not RT.Similarly, senior U.S. politicians, including Hillary Clinton, and the U.S. mainstream media have falsely asserted that all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies signed off on the Russia-did-it hacking claims.For months, that canard was used to silence skepticism. After all, how could you question something that all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies confirmed to be true?But it turned out that as DNI Clapper, himself a hardline Russia-basher, belatedly acknowledged the Jan. 6 report on the alleged Russian hacking was the work of hand-picked analysts from only three agencies, the CIA, FBI and NSA, and the assessment itself admitted that it was not asserting the Russian conclusion as fact, only the analysts opinion.The New York Times finally retracted its use of the fake claim about all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies in late June 2017 although it wouldn t let the lie lie, so instead the Times made misleading references to a consensus among U.S. intelligence agencies without using the number Continue this story at Consortium NewsREAD MORE RUSSIAGATE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Russiagate FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
ORLANDO ‘KNOWN WOLF’ Watched by FBI, Worked with DHS, Amid Crisis Actors, Drills & CI’s
Shawn Helton 21st Century WireOrlando s Pulse nightclub shooting is said to be the largest mass shooting in American history and in less than 24 hours, investigators already determined the incident to be an ISIS-related attack prior to a full forensic analysis.In this report we will attempt to answer a number of questions about a number of anomalies and unlikely coincidences surrounding this global media event.We re told that this tragic attack was carried out by an international security firm employee turned radicalized gunman but is there more to the story? SELFIE OBSESSED SHOOTER Omar Mateen is the alleged Orlando nightclub shooter (Image Source: nbcnews)QUESTION: Is this is another, in a long line of Daily Shooter events designed to evoke an emotive, polarized and highly politicized response, rather than a rational and reasoned one?The Orlando ShootingIn the early hours of Sunday, June 12th, Omar Mir Seddique Mateen, also listed as Omar Mateen by media outlets, was said to have killed 49 people, wounding some 53 others at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in what is being described as the deadliest mass shooting in America.According reports, Mateen is also said to have pledged allegiance to ISIS via a 911 call while carrying out the apparent large scale mass shooting and hostage situation, having been utterly cool and calm as suggested by some larger media outlets upon finishing his rampage.RELATED: (VIDEO) Active Shooter and Terror Drills: The Truth WILL Shock YouAdditionally, Mateen, was first stated to have used an AR-15 rifle, along with a small handgun (legally obtained through two security licenses). However, reports later changed and updated the alleged shooter s weapons of choice to the Sig Sauer MCX .223 caliber rifle and a Glock 17 9mm semi-auto pistol.The following is an extensive Rand Corporation evaluation of the NYPD and it reveals the following statistics as they relate to firearm accuracy: According to a 2008 Rand Corporation study evaluating the New York Police Department s firearm training, between 1998 and 2006, the average hit rate during gunfights was just 18 percent . When suspects did not return fire, police officers hit their targets 30 percent of the time.21WIRE, was able to track down an individual trained in all types of firearm training, who also questioned the alleged shooter s ability to to be so accurate, confirming the study above.Continuing the Orlando shooting timeline We were then told Mateen, took club goers hostage while carrying out the alleged terror related shooting around 2am.The shooting occurred at Pulse nightclub a popular LGTB venue, was thought to have had some 300 people inside of the club during the time of the shooting. We ve also been told that authorities were unable to stop the gunman for until 3 hours after the initial attack.The Washington Post reported: Three hours after Mateen first began shooting, they breached the building detonating an explosion on an exterior wall and ramming it with an armored vehicle. Traumatized club-goers escaped into the night, and then the gunman appeared in the opening, heavily armed and seemingly ready for what is known in law enforcement as suicide by cop. While some 30 lives have said to have been saved, how many were injured due to the explosive charge set of by police during the breach?According to a timeline of events, police were able to notify 24 of the victims families just two hours after the shooting at 7:30 am. This appears to be a significant detail when you consider the meticulous nature of crime scene investigation, as detectives are tasked with the time consuming and often difficult process of properly identifying individuals.In the Orlando shooting case, there would have (particularly in this scenario) been great bodily harm and perhaps unrecognizable victims who may or may not have had proper ID (fake ID s) on their person during the shooting.There appears to be a lack of footage surrounding the shooting itself, rescue operations performed or bodies at the stated crime scene extremely strange in the age of social media. SHOW OF FORCE A full-scale militarized response to the Pulse crime scene shooting. Did club goers become victims of friendly fire or was something else at play? (Image Source: radaronline)The Times Union stated the following after the Pulse nightclub shooting: Orlando police Chief John Mina says an extra officer was working at the Pulse nightclub in full uniform. The officer engaged with the shooter near an entrance. Additional officers entered, and engaged the suspect in another gunbattle. The shooter retreated to the bathroom.Mina says, At that time we were able to save and rescue dozens and dozens of people and get them out of the club. Officers then secured everything, and the SWAT team was brought in. Mina says officers then set up for an explosive breach on the bathroom wall. Mina says he made the decision to breach the wall, which created a hole through which dozens of clubgoers were rescued. Then the suspect exited through the same hole, and engaged in another gunbattle with officers. Shooter Omar Mateen was then killed. Why do early reports state that police engaged with the suspect, prior to the gunman shooting anyone or reportedly calling 911 this appears to directly contradict the main media narrative?Additionally, by police Chief John Mina s admission, a fully uniformed officer was working at Pulse nightclub. While it is not that unusual for police be at or sometimes moonlight at clubs as security, the details of how and exactly when the shooting occurred remain partially obscured in mainstream media reports.While ISIS media arms and social media accounts reportedly praised the attack, there has been wide scale condemnation of the shooting the world over including the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation who discussed this horrible act, but warned of political campaigning and self-serving agendas, following the tragic events.Continuing the article stated the following:Saudi Arabia s Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki told The Associated Press in a text message Monday that Mateen first visited Saudi Arabia for 10 days in March 2011 and again a year later in March 2012 for eight days. Not since the San Bernardino shooting last December, has the public s perception been so arrested by a media-driven wave of hyperreality following what appears to be another confusing heavily coordinated incident, with an uncanny police and emergency response.Crime Scene Questions, Multiple Shooters WitnessedThough the Orlando shooting attack was officially stated to have been carried out around 2am, The Daily Mail published Facebook posts from people apparently inside the club that contradict the main timeline, suggesting the shooting happened much earlier.Here are the Facebook comments featured in the Daily Mail for review If these time stamps are correct and the posts have not been doctored in any way, then these posts present a pretty major crack in the official timeline of events at Pulse nightclub.Here s the animated YouTube personality Peekay Truth outlining the Daily Mail time discrepancy associated with the Orlando shooting . The UK s Independent published an article displaying an eyewitness account that directly contradicts the lone gunman theory pushed by all major media outlets in the aftermath of the shooting: Police did not immediately name the gunman or provide a possible motive for the attack but officials have classified the rampage as a domestic terrorism incident , Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said. Javer Antonetti, 53, told the Orlando Sentinel newspaper he was near the back of the dance club when he heard gunfire. There were so many (shots), at least 40, he said. I saw two guys and it was constant, like pow, pow, pow, . From a logistical stand point Mateen s ability to carry out the shooting by himself seems to be another questionable aspect to an increasingly troubled case.Another club eyewitness Jon Alamo, heard 20, 40, 50 shots, and then The music stopped. While the stress of the incident could account for some differences, forensically it s hard to believe Mateen would have been able to have the ability to shoot over hundred people with only 50 some shots.According to multiple eyewitness accounts people inside the club mentioned that there was possibly as many as four shooters in around the area. The witness seen in the image below described the following: Then he[Mateen] called someone he knew and he mentioned that he was the fourth shooter, and there were three others. The witness also stated that the alleged shooter may have called police or a news agency stating that America should stop their bombing campaign on ISIS. Security Background & Alleged AbuseThe 29-year old Mateen, an Afghani-American was located in Port St. Lucie, Florida, about 120 miles outside of Orlando. In 2013, Mateen was placed under a terror watch list for 10 months (interviewed two to three times by the FBI 2013-14) and had worked for one of the largest security firms in the US since 2007, G4S Secure Solutions, headquartered in Jupiter, Florida and formerly part of a CIA-linked government contractor and security firm, Wackenhut Corporation.G4S, as it turns out, was the very first designated and certified Department of Homeland Security (DHS) contractor and recently secured a $234 million dollar contract with the federal cabinet department. In addition to apparently providing security solutions for 90 percent of U.S. nuclear facilities, G4S, according to border patrol sources has also been tasked with the transportation and release of illegal immigrants inside the interior of the United States.At least one of Mateen s roles with G4S, was to transport and provide security for prisoner youths in Florida. In 2012, G4S congratulated Mateen for five years of service according to a company newsletter.Zero Hedge reported the following concerning G4S: And this is where the Mateen-G4S link emerges: as JW reported previously, a security company contracted by the U.S. government is driving the OTMs from the Border Patrol s Tucson Sector where they were in custody to Phoenix, sources said. The firm is the abovementioned G4S, the world s leading security solutions group with operations in more than 100 countries and 610,000 employees. G4S has more than 50,000 employees in the U.S. and its domestic headquarters is in Jupiter, Florida. Mateen remained on staff to guard prisoners despite media reports that he harassed a co-worker and expressed hateful views in the workplace and was the subject of a federal investigation for terrorism between 2013-14 for some 10 months. According to reports, the FBI dropped the investigation after Mateen admitted to the work place harassment, adding that he was responding to harassment from others over his beliefs.Mateen is also stated to have previously worked at Martin Correctional Institution from 2006-07, prior to being featured in a short interview (as an actor?) in a major Hollywood designer documentary called The Big Fix in 2012, discussing the BP oil spill at Deep Water Horizon.Here you can see Mateen at the 36 minute mark, taking what appears to be a quasi-albeit scripted activist-type stance, even though he works for the world s largest security contractor. Clearly, Mateen was acting in this real documentary.. What is the public to make of Mateen s own acting and film background as it relates to America s largest mass shooting are we again seeing a clear link between Hollywood and military/security services?Indeed, Mateen has been featured in another documentary from 2013, called Love City Jalalabad, a feature supposedly depicting progressive Afghani youth and a quest for social change.Also According to Times Union: The security company that employed the Orlando nightclub gunman says it has no record of a co-worker s complaints that the shooter was angry, profane and threatened violence.The company, G4S, says in a statement Monday that it has no record of any complaint by Daniel Gilroy against Omar Mateen. Mateen died in a gun battle with police after a mass shooting that left 49 people. However, Gilroy has maintained that Mateen began harassing him, sending as many as 20 or 30 text messages a day and more than a dozen phone messages. Gilroy said his employer, G4S, did not intervene. After Gilroy left G4S, according to the security firm: Gilroy told company officials in June 2015, shortly after he left the firm, that his co-workers were good men and women that put in an honest day s work and genuinely like to work as a team and contribute. Further adding to confusion surrounding Mateen s character, Mateen s ex-wife Sitora Yusufiy, has publicly stated that she was abused during their brief marriage. (Photo Illustration by Shawn Helton @21WIRE)Return of the Daily ShooterDuring most of 2015 if you remember, there was a barrage of active shooter crimes seen domestically within the US as well as parts of Europe, with many of the apparent shooters already known to authorities.21WIRE dubbed 2015 The Year of the Daily Shooter, as string of unreal shooting events rippled across America, many of which took place over the summertime, bleeding over into the chill of fall.While the public was still trying to comprehend the shocking and questionable Charlie Hebdo Attacks in early January of 2015, things began heating up in early May, when it was reported that two Islamic gunmen allegedly opened fire outside of a cartoon art exhibition and alleged free speech contest featuring provocative images of the Prophet Muhammad in Garland, Texas.While the incident was quickly labeled a terror attack, along with the vague and forensically undefined ISIS inspired tag for dramatic effect, reports stated that a pair of shooters, Elton Simpson (shadowed by a paid FBI informant) and Nadir Hamid Soofi, targeted a bizarre Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest that was organized by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, led by anti-Islamic Israeli lobbyist, Pamela Geller.It was a staged event that clearly echoed the Charlie Hebdo story line, with the usual trial by social media tweets suggesting guilt before all evidence was in.Within a short period of time following the suspicious events in Garland, it was revealed that Simpson, one of the alleged suspects in the Garland shooting, had been under the watchful eye of the FBI for nearly a decade and was in close contact with an undercover informant during that time, similarly outlining the intelligence-linked Kouachi Brothers who were implicated in the Charlie Hebdo incident.And just as the dust was settling after high profile shootings in the spring, we learned there was even more Trouble in the Homeland with yet another alleged terror inspired individual named Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez. As bizarre and conflicting reports emerged regarding a shooting on July 16th at a US Marine Corps strip mall recruitment center and a secure Navy Operational Support Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the focus of media coverage gave the false perception that people were shot within the mall area out in the open. However, only 48 hours later, it was revealed that victims of the shooting event were actually shot and killed inside of a secure Navy Reserve Training facility. By then the national media narrative had already been disseminated and set into the minds of the public.As we ve said before, whether it s the grafting of an overseas terror based story line or the concept of a rogue patriot-like lone wolf persona, we see a psychic assault on the masses, one that could potentially convince the public into giving up their civil liberties. CANDID CAMERA Omar Mateen s father s(Seddique Mateen) media presence and Congressional/CIA company has caused quite a stir concerning the background of the Orlando shooter. Seddique posted Facebook pictures from last year featuring political connections and Reps. Charles Rangel, Dana Rohrabacher, and Ed Royce. (Image Source: buzzfeed) Similarly, during the aftermath of 2014 s Canadian Parliament shooting, here at 21WIRE, we outlined many of the primary markers used in certain terror related events and mass shootings.The incident like other events such as the Boston Bombing, Sandy Hook and other bizarre attacks in recent years, have often distorted public opinion, pushing the populace towards new security measures in the wake of heavily coordinated and stylized events.(Left Image: therightscoop) The suspected Parliament Hill and National War Memorial shooter Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, had the perfect modus operandi and r sum to be an informant for either a law enforcement or intelligence agency.Historically, government operators have often made use of low-life criminals, and mentally disturbed individuals as part of a larger agenda domestically and abroad: According to the Globe and Mail, Zehaf-Bibeau was already designated as a high risk traveller by the Canadian government s security services who had also seized his passport. Could this be the reason why the shooter had snapped? Was he being targeted or being pressured into becoming an informant? Much was made of Zehaf-Bibeau s recent conversion to Islam, especially from the reactionary neoconservative tribe on Fox News, while those on the left called for tighter gun restrictions.We should make note of the formulaic scripting often seen following these kinds of events: Alleged connections to terror or terror networks, as with security links Suspect recently radicalized views on religion. Sensational media projections bring in additional storylines for dramatic effect. An unknown motive for the crime said to be committed followed quickly by a presumed motive without evidence. Politicians, law enforcement and media call the incident a terror attack before all evidence is reviewed.Time and time again, we ve seen this same choreographed narrative pushed by mass media and authorities only to be exposed at a later date.Readers should refer to the informant game we outlined in 2014 here at 21WIRE, which provided historical context about the FBI s confidential informant past, as it relates to the Orlando shooting: Human Rights Watch explains, The 214-page report, Illusion of Justice: Human Rights Abuses in US Terrorism Prosecutions, examines 27 federal terrorism cases from initiation of the investigations to sentencing and post-conviction conditions of confinement. It documents the significant human cost of certain counter-terrorism practices, such as overly aggressive sting operations and unnecessarily restrictive conditions of confinement. The list of terror informants and puppets is as long as it is colorful, starting with the infamous Underwear Bomber , who was allowed to travel to the US without a passport and was accompanied by an intelligence agent on his flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.Who can forget the FBI s ill-fated 1993 World Trade Center bombing attempt, where FBI handlers trained the driver and gave them explosives and worst of all stood by and watched as their sting subjects went ahead and detonated their concoction underneath the world s tallest building in New York City. Incidentally, after the 1993 attack, the FBI was said to have tried to lure Emad A. Salem, (played role in 1993 WTC bombing) a former Egyptian army officer who was a prized undercover operative back into a role as a confidential informant, with agents suggesting he should go into the Witness Protection Program. (Graphic: UK Column)Other recent FBI terror stooge/informant nightmares include:Tamerlan Tsarnaev (see his informant story here) Buford Rogers (see his informant story here) Jerad Miller (see his informant story here) Naji Mansour (see his informant story here) Quazi Mohammad Nafis (see his informant story here) Mohamed Osman Mohamud (see his informant story here) Timothy McVeigh (see his informant story here) Elton Simpson (see his informant story here)But how does this relate to the Orlando club shooting?Drills & Informants Shortly after the Pulse shooting attack it was revealed that Mateen had been attending services at a Mosque, meeting with a known FBI informant named Marcus Dwayne Robertson (image, left who also played role in 1993 WTC bombing), a former US Marine turned bank robber turned radical imam. Here s this passage from Fox News describing Robertson s role: It is no coincidence that this happened in Orlando, said a law enforcement source familiar with Robertson s history of recruiting terrorists and inciting violence. Mateen was enrolled in [Robertson s online] Fundamental Islamic Knowledge Seminary.Robertson and several associates were rounded up for questioning early Sunday, according to law enforcement sources, a development his attorney refused to confirm or deny. Another intriguing part of the Orlando shooter case was the fact that Orlando s Orange County had been running a number of mass casualty drills in recent years.For those unfamiliar, these Emergency response drills often take place prior to a real-life active-shooter scenario. The Orlando Sentinel reported in October 2nd, 2015, one day after the Oregon shooting, which also saw drills prior to the campus shooting at Umpqua Community College: During the Emergency Nurses Association s annual meeting on Friday, a mock shooter blew himself up, killing and injuring 100 local volunteer actors.There was blood, screams and moans, wounds and dead people all fake to create a realistic training environment for more than 40 nurses who had signed up for the exercise.They quickly began tending to patients, assessing the extent of their injuries.The nurses association had worked with several Orlando-based companies for nearly a year to set up the drill on at the Orange County Convention Center, which by coincidence took place a day after the shooting at a community college in Roseburg, Oregon, where 10 people died and seven were wounded. Branding Crisis(Left side) HASHTAG FRENZY Another huge hashtag campaign in less than 24 hours after a major attack. (Image Scource: heavy)While the apparent Orlando shooting attack on the surface appears to be another tragedy in America, one should take note at the breakneck speed at which media marketing campaigns have been rolled out globally since the violent incident, including ready-made hashtag slogans as reported by CBS news: Immediately after reports of the incident surfaced online, alarmed social media users began posting concerns and condolences under the hashtags #PrayForOrlando, #PrayersForOrlando, and #PulseShooting. Within hours of the Orlando shooting, many celebrities took to twitter to politicize and polarize the event before all the evidence had been properly reviewed.Media Hoaxing, Crisis Actors & Other AnomaliesThere have been many methods used to shutdown critical thinking in the aftermath of a crisis, as media organizations, politicians and celebrities are often used to misdirect the public s attention to detail.In an article entitled, Where Have All the Crisis Actors Gone? , written by Dr. James Tracy, we see a clear connection between forms of social media and law enforcement when a coordinated an active-shooter event is about to go live. Here s an excerpt below: Yet there may be much more to the Visionbox Crisis Actors project reverberating through the flurry of alleged shooting incidents taking place since the early 2010s. For example, Visionbox is proficient in using social media such as Facebook and Twitter to broadcast a catastrophic event to both participant actors and the public at large. In addition, the theatric entourage/ is also knowledgeable at crowdsourcing, or monitoring how an event is relayed and interpreted through the body politic via Facebook, Twitter, and so on. In December 2012 Visionbox Crisis Actors produced a detailed 73-page syllabus, Social Media in Emergency Management, an instructional class foregrounding the central role of social media to coordinate and convey a catastrophic event. The YouTube channel Stranger than Fiction News displays media interview with an eyewitness Janiel Gonzales, who stated that there was another person preventing people from leaving Pulse nighclub.Additionally, the YouTube video montages another interview with a professional actor and model named Luis Burbano admitting he was blocking an exit at the time of the shooting . Here s another YouTube video from End Times Headline News, which raises important questions concerning the crime scene The Politics of Mass Shootings Like other mass shooting events, there appears to be deliberate attempt to radically manipulate public opinion following each major incident, the Orlando shooting is no exception. We ve already seen the Orlando shooting attack send political rivals Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton into campaign overdrive.This type of subliminal propaganda has become a doorway for all hot button socio-political issues including gun control/reform and for those concerned over mental illness background checks and security.Once again, the media plays a crucial role not in informing and educating the public, or even investigating a crime, or questioning the state s methods and motives in any high-profile event.In 2015, The Washington Post published an article listing the apparent number of mass shootings in America. According to the Mass Shooting Tracker the definition of a mass-shooting event has been changed to include a larger number of shootings.However, perhaps the most glaring and obvious grandstanding seemed to occur in Obama s 2015 legacy interview, as he expressed his inability to change gun laws during the course of his presidency. Here is an excerpt from the BBC interview: You mentioned the issue of guns, that is an area where if you ask me where has been the one area where I feel that I ve been most frustrated and most stymied it is the fact that the United States of America is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient common-sense, gun-safety laws. Even in the face of repeated mass killings. FRAMING REALITY Mateen s wife, Noor Salman and their young child. Reports suggest that Disneyland may have also been a target. (Image Scource: foxnews)Family DesignsUntil recently in media, there was almost no discussion of Mateen s current wife Noor Salman In 2013 Omar Mateen married Noor Zahi Salman and they reportedly have a 3-year-old son together.According to public records, Noor Zahi Salman, age 30, has scrubbed her social media history: Omar Mateen lived in St. Lucie County, Florida, with his second wife, Noor Zahi Salman, but it is not clear if they were together or separated at the time of the shooting. Mateen sold his sister, Mariam Seddique, the house in April 16 for $10 (Quit Claim Deed). The Telegraph stated that, Salman lived in a suburb of Chicago before moving to Fort Pierce with Mateen in November 2012. In December 2015 she is believed to have left Florida and moved in with relatives in Rodeo, California. She has not spoken publicly and has scrubbed her social media accounts since the attack. Early indications suggest the Orlando shooter s back story could shape up like the San Bernardino shooting, involving multiple arrests, with international backgrounds that could shine a light on other clandestine activities linking both terror and security.San Bernardino, along with staged-managed events like the sensational Garland Shooting in April 2015, and the highly engineered Paris Attacks (January & November of 2015) and many other shootings in year s past have conveniently opened the door for sweeping national security changes, while at the same time reigniting the old War on Terror meme, rebranded as the War on Radical Islam , for new audiences to be politically seduced by from western media and politicians alike. IDENTITY CRISIS Mateen frequented gay night clubs according to those who knew him. (Image Source: abcnews)The UK s Telegraph reported the following: The man who murdered 49 people at a gay club in Orlando was a closet homosexual who used gay dating apps and frequented gay bars, according to friends and locals in the city.On Tuesday police were considering pressing charges against Omar Mateen s second wife, Nour Salman, 30, who told the FBI she went with him to scope out possible targets, and that she had tried to stop him from carrying out the attack. Wouldn t this drastically alter the main narrative of the alleged shooter s hate crime motive?Big Questions RemainAll too often we see the persona of any alleged killer being touted as hard evidence, despite the fact that even strong circumstantial evidence of any apparent crime would likely result in many hours of analysis, debate and procedural, potentially without a definitive conclusion, even if the evidence eventually reached a court room setting.Here s a recent report at 21WIRE, discussing Mateen s father s government ties and the rapidly failing Orlando shooting narrative: For the media, and every other political leader in the US, this was now classified as a hate crime , and so case closed. In other words, a simple story line with real traction was now baked firmly into this event about a homophobic, ISIS-inspired, crazed lone gunman who went postal in a Orlando gay nightclub, and coincidentally, on the eve of an international Gay Pride celebration day. Just 24 hours later, we learn from a report in the Orlando Sentinel that the alleged shooter Omar Mateen was in fact a frequent visitor for years at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando. It was definitely him. He d come in for years, and people knew him, one customer said. Another Pulse customer, Kevin West, even stated on record that he had been talking with Mateen for up to one year on a gay-chat mobile app. So, based on this updated information, this could not have been a hate crime because Omar Mateen was most likely gay himself, albeit in the closet.Likewise, this change in the story would also nullify much of the identity politics rhetoric currently being spun around this incident like this statement released by Hillary Clinton within hours of the main event :REDUX: Media Spoils the Crime SceneIncredibly, we re told on Wednesday that, once again, the media has ransacked another alleged shooter s home on live TV (also recall the Virginia live TV shooting). Just like the scripted aftermath of San Bernardino this past December, any chance to recover any new forensic information is now lost, as the media taints another crime scene in a large-scale terror related investigation.During the San Bernardino media ransacking exercise, a scrum of reporters tore through the alleged shooters apartment. In Orlando, the affair was paired down to only one media crew at a time. Here is MSNBC-UNIVSION reporter pretending to discover the ID of the shooter and family:MEDIA ALLOWED INSIDE TERRORIST HOUSEAttempts to dilute this obvious media operation were aired by networks like CBS, who ran the headline: Possible Burglary at Orlando Shooter s Home : The Orlando shooting attack appears like many other phantom shooting events, with a hybrid of real implications and unreal aspects, uncanny twists and turns linking Hollywood and security services, the FBI, near a backdrop of resorts, golf professionals, retirees and of course, Disneyland.Surreal is an understatement.Here s 21WIRE s Patrick Henningsen with Brian Gerrish and Alex Thompson discussing the nature of these security linked and terror events on the UK Column END OF PART ONEStay tuned for more Orlando shooting updates READ MORE ORLANDO SHOOTING NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Orlando FilesHelp support us by becoming a 21WIRE Member at: 21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
U.S. energy head: Nuclear power rescue helps national security
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. energy secretary defended his plan to reward nuclear plants with incentives against criticism it would manipulate markets by telling a congressional hearing on Thursday that a strong domestic nuclear industry boosted national security. Rick Perry pushed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Sept. 29 to issue a rule within 60 days that would reward aging nuclear and coal-fired power plants that store 90 days of fuel on site. He has said those plants should be supported for their ability to boost the reliability of the U.S. power grid. Many U.S. representatives at the hearing, including Democrat Frank Pallone, said the plan favored aging industries, killed free markets and would saddle consumers with higher power bills. One lawmaker pointed to a study by ICF Consulting that said power bills could rise $800 million to $3.2 billion annually if FERC issued Perry’s plan. But Perry said the federal government had disregarded nuclear power for decades at a risk to national security. “If we lose our supply chain, if we lose our intellectual chain of supply of bright scientists because we basically pushed the nuclear industry back, then we’re going to lose our role as a leader when it comes to nuclear energy in the world,” Perry said. That in turn could hurt the country’s ability to address nuclear nonproliferation, Perry said. The United States has more nuclear power reactors than any other country. But Russia, China and other countries are rapidly building nuclear plants and some in the industry worry those countries could become the world’s top nuclear innovators. Perry’s plan has divided the energy industry, with coal and nuclear interests squaring off against natural gas drillers, solar and wind power, and consumer groups. It is unclear what FERC will decide on the plan. The agency, an independent arm of the Energy Department, declined a request to lengthen a comment period on Perry’s plan. Republican Representative Pete Olson suggested that Perry was more in favor of free energy markets when he was governor of Texas. But Perry said the notion that energy markets were free and without subsidies was a “fallacy.” Pallone said a study that Perry had directed Energy Department staff to conduct concluded the grid was already reliable and that most recent grid outages were caused by problems in energy transmission, not by power plants. Several coal plants were forced to shut by recent hurricanes because their mounds of coal supply were soaked by heavy rains. Perry said his plan was a directive for FERC, but he added that he initiated it to start a conversation about protecting people from outages during extreme storms.
| 1
|
Boiler Room EP #68 – 4 Non-Binary Blondes & Social Justice Triggly Convulsions
Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at 6 PM PST | 9 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher, & Spore along with Andy Nowicki of Alt Right Blogspot, Jay Dyer from jaysanalysis.com, Jamie Hanshaw (author of Weird Stuff: Hollywood Mind Control) Randy J, and hopefully Daniel Spaulding. Tonight the Boiler Gang is talking about Birlfriends and Bothfriends , Spore takes Red Hot Chilli Pepper s Flea to task for his SJW oriented remarks against Clint Eastwood, Daniel Spaulding brings a clip of former CIA Director, Michael Morell, saying that We need to Kill Russians and Iranians to a smug Charlie Rose, the absurdity of the main stream media and left wing establishment kettle calling pot black with regards to Trumps supposed connections to Russia and much more on this August 11th edition of Boiler Room.Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved!BOILER ROOM IS NOT A POLICTALLY CORRECT ZONE! LISTEN TO THE SHOW IN THE PLAYER BELOW ENJOY!Reference Links:
| 0
|
Exposing the Shakespearean tragedy of the “Russia Hacking” hoax
Sunday Wire host Patrick Henningsen delivers another blow to the Resistance exposing the Shakespearean tragedy of the Russia Hacking hoax and explains why Hillary Rodham Clinton might have very well been one of the worse presidential candidates in US history as well as why it s wrong for US federal government to brand RT America as a foreign agent. Enjoy the rant READ MORE RUSSIA-GATE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Russia-Gate FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
'Get off of Twitter': As Trump nears Day 100, some stirrings of discontent
CLEARWATER, Fla. (Reuters) - Some of his supporters fret that President Donald Trump is backing himself into a corner with promises that can’t be kept. Others lament he is not pulling America from international conflicts as he vowed – or say he should “get off of Twitter.” Those grumbles are early warning signs for Trump as he marks his 100th day in office on Saturday. They were heard in Reuters interviews with Trump supporters in “swing” counties that went for Democrat Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 but then flipped for Trump last year – a slice of the electorate dominated by white voters that is crucial to the Republican’s re-election hopes and that Democrats want to win back. Reuters visited the same four places - Pinellas County in Florida, Northampton County in eastern Pennsylvania, Macomb County outside of Detroit, Michigan, and Gates County in rural North Carolina - right after the Nov. 8 election. What reporters found this time in more than two dozen interviews is that Trump voters are largely standing with their man but with signs of restlessness, mainly over foreign policy, concerns over getting legislation through Congress and some skepticism that he won’t be able to follow through with promises – from building a wall along the Mexican border to repealing Obama’s signature healthcare law. But rather than bash Trump, many largely blamed Democrats and Republicans alike, a fractured Congress, the federal judiciary, and what they see as a hostile news media. They showed a willingness to trust the president almost implicitly, saw him as a tireless worker, and appreciated his efforts to secure the border and curb immigration. They had little interest in the in-fighting between his senior aides in the White House. “Maybe sometimes I question what’s going on,” said Karen Mayer, 47, an attorney in Clearwater, a west coast Florida city in Pinellas County, where the majority of its 500,000 voters went for Obama in 2008 and 2012 but then flipped for Trump last year. He prevailed over Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton by slightly more than 1 percent of the vote there. “But at the same time, I have faith that he has a strong team,” Mayer said. In a statement touting Trump’s record in the first 100 days, the White House highlighted, among other things, his attempts to streamline government by proposing a lean budget, and his aggressiveness in foreign affairs, particularly with regard to challenging Russia and Iran. If Trump has reason to worry about his re-election prospects, it should be because of supporters like Brian McCann, 48, who owns a real estate firm in Northampton, Pennsylvania. “I think he’s finding out that he can’t follow through on all his talk,” he said. “Internationally, I think he’s creating more tensions than solutions.” That was the main reason that Holly Peseski, 46, a legal assistant in Mt. Clemens, Michigan, graded Trump’s tenure as a “B-minus” so far. “I don’t like the recent bombings he’s done,” Peseski said, referring to U.S. missile strikes on a Syrian airfield and a huge bomb dropped on a militant hideout in Afghanistan. “He was a little too quick to act.” Peseski had another complaint about Trump: “I wish he’d get off of Twitter.” The counties Reuters visited reflect the rural, suburban and largely white coalition that carried Trump to the White House. Trump was able to flip these counties and dozens more like them powered by an enthusiastic voter base that included many people who had not cast ballots in years, as well as some Democrats who crossed over largely because of their dislike of Clinton. An analysis of Reuters/Ipsos polling data shows slippage in Trump's approval ratings, with lower enthusiasm among white men without a college degree, the core of his political base. In comparing Trump’s approval rating in the first 20 days of his tenure to a 20-day period in April, Reuters also found a rise in disapproval among independents, college-educated adults, people with below-average incomes, white women and white Millennials. Those women voters were important to Trump’s victory. He beat Clinton 53 percent to 43 percent among white women, who comprise 37 percent of the electorate. In Pinellas County, for instance, white women are by far the largest demographic among its more than 275,000 registered voters. Trump beat Clinton there by a little more than 5,000 votes. David Jolly, a former Republican congressman who lost his Pinellas-based seat in November in part, he said, because of his criticism of Trump, has seen few signs that the president’s support is fading, but at the same time, “he’s not picking up new supporters.” Trump’s overall approval rating in Reuters/Ipsos polling has declined steadily over the past two weeks and is now at its lowest level since he took office, with 40 percent of Americans now approving of his performance in office. Some voters interviewed in the swing counties identified the struggling effort to replace Obama’s healthcare law as an early worry about Trump. Walter Watson, 62, a retired art teacher in Gatesville, a town of about 320 people in rural Gates County, North Carolina, said he did not like the way Trump and Republicans tried to rush through a new healthcare plan without giving it what he thought was proper consideration. “You got to be careful, because this is a life and death issue for a lot of people,” Watson said. His sparsely populated county backed Obama with 52 percent of the vote in 2012, but Trump won it with 53 percent in 2016. Congress is the biggest hindrance to Trump’s success, many of those interviewed said. “I don’t think he’s going to be able to do even half of what he claimed,” said Bob White, 71, a retired finance worker in Clinton Township in Michigan. “I don’t think Congress is going to go along with him.” But even as they express skepticism that Trump can achieve all of his campaign promises, his supporters are sticking with him for now. “I think he’s trying,” said Watson. “But he probably overstated what he could do, because even a president has limits.”
| 1
|
Trump presses China on North Korea ahead of Xi talks
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump held out the possibility on Sunday of using trade as a lever to secure Chinese cooperation against North Korea and suggested Washington might deal with Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs on its own if need be. The comments, in an interview published on Sunday by the Financial Times, appeared designed to pressure Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of his visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida this week. “China has great influence over North Korea. And China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won’t. And if they do that will be very good for China, and if they don’t it won’t be good for anyone,” Trump was quoted as saying, according to an edited transcript published by the newspaper. Asked what incentive the United States had to offer China, Trump replied: “Trade is the incentive. It is all about trade.” Asked if he would consider a “grand bargain” in which China pressured Pyongyang in return for a guarantee the United States would later remove troops from the Korean peninsula, the newspaper quoted Trump as saying: “Well if China is not going to solve North Korea, we will. That is all I am telling you.” It is not clear whether Trump’s comments will move China, which has taken steps to increase economic pressure on Pyongyang but has long been unwilling to do anything that may destabilize the North and send millions of refugees across their border. It is also unclear what the United States might do on its own to deflect North Korea from the expansion of its nuclear capabilities and from the development of missiles with ever-longer ranges and the capacity to deliver atomic warheads. Trump’s national security aides have completed a review of U.S. options to try to curb North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs that includes economic and military measures but leans more toward sanctions and increased pressure on Beijing to rein in its reclusive neighbor, a U.S. official said. Although the option of pre-emptive military strikes on North Korea is not off the table, the review prioritizes less-risky steps and “de-emphasizes direct military action,” the official added, saying it was not immediately known if the National Security Council recommendations had made their way to Trump. The White House declined comment on the recommendations. Trump and Xi are also expected to discuss Chinese ambitions in the South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year, when they meet on Thursday and Friday. China claims most of the resource-rich South China Sea, while Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims on the strategic waterway. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke on Sunday with China’s top diplomat, State Councilor Yang Jiechi, about Xi’s visit “and other issues of bilateral and regional importance,” a State Department official said on condition of anonymity. China’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday about the call that Yang had described the meeting between Xi and Trump as being of “great significance” for peace, stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and the world at large. Tillerson told Yang that the United States would do its utmost to ensure that the meeting had “positive results,” the ministry said. Trump’s deputy national security adviser, K.T. McFarland, said there was a “real possibility” North Korea could be capable of hitting the United States with a nuclear-armed missile by the end of Trump’s four-year term, the Financial Times reported. McFarland’s estimate appeared more pessimistic than those of many experts. “The typical estimates are that it will take five years or so,” said Siegfried Hecker, a former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States and a leading expert on North Korea’s nuclear program. Such estimates are notoriously hard to make both because of the scarcity of intelligence about North Korea and uncertainty about how high a success rate Pyongyang might want for such missiles. John Schilling, a contributor to the “38 North” North Korea monitoring project, said Pyongyang might have missiles capable of limited strikes on the U.S. mainland by the end of Trump’s term, but “it will most likely be a bit later than that.” “I doubt that any missile they could put into service by the end of 2020 will be very reliable, but perhaps it doesn’t have to be - one or two successes out of six launches against the U.S. would be a political game-changer to say the least,” Schilling said.
| 1
|
Kerry’s Lunacy: ‘US Would Be Justified Shooting Down Unarmed Russian Jets’
21st Century Wire says As 21WIRE reported yesterday, imperial bureaucrats in Washington and their court scribes in the mainstream media propaganda industry continue the charade of the Roman mindset, believing that the US has eminent domain over the entire planet and all must kneel in the presence of old glory.It s statements like this that indicate how with each passing day, NATO is fast becoming a defunct organization.As he hopelessly clings to his outdated Cold War script, Bonesman and US Secretary of State John Kerry continues to be completely detached from reality Jason Ditz Antiwar.comUS officials are still on about yesterday s incident, in which a pair of unarmed Russian jets flew within 30 feet of a US destroyer in the Baltic Sea, something US officials described as a simulated attack that proved Russia s unprofessional nature.Today, Secretary of State John Kerry declared the flights provocative and insisted the USS Donald Cook would ve been well within its rights to shoot down the planes under the rules of engagement they are placed under.Which is a stunning claim, since the USS Donald Cook is deployed in the peaceful Baltic, off the coast of the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, and the US and Russia are not at war. That they have rules of engagement allowing them to unilaterally attack Russian aircraft at all seems unwise.Russian Major General Igor Konashenkov says he is baffled by the US reaction, saying the Russian jets were operating well within their safety guidelines, and that the US freedom of navigation near a Russian naval base does not at all cancel the principle of freedom of flight for Russian aircraft. READ MORE NATO NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire NATO Files
| 0
|
Trump warns Democrats Obamacare will die without cash infusion
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump warned Democrats on Sunday that Obamacare was in trouble and would die without government funding, apparently referring to the possibility of ending federal subsidies to help lower-income people buy health insurance. “Obamacare is in serious trouble. The Dems need big money to keep it going - otherwise it dies far sooner than anyone would have thought,” Trump said in a Twitter post. Republicans want to repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act but have not agreed on a replacement.
| 1
|
FLASHBACK: ‘The Syrian War: What You’re Not Being Told’ (About Chemical Weapons)
21st Century Wire says Back in August 2013, United Nations investigators led by Carla Del Ponte found evidence that alleged chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian military were actually staged by US, Saudi and Qatari-backed jihadist rebels. By definition, this was a false flag attack. Regardless of the facts, western media and political leaders still decided to blame Damascus for the incident. The object of this game was simple: to engineer a virtual violation of Obama s famous Red Line, providing the legal pretext, however spurious, for the use of Western military force against the nation state of Syria under the guise of the great 21st century western military intervention tactic known as the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). This video was uploaded by Storm Clouds Gathering on Sept 3, 2013, and it demonstrated how when the entire mainstream media is going one way pushing a fraudulent event for the purposes of generating a new war alternative media outlets were reporting the truth. History is on the side of alternative media, not for the likes of CNN, ABC, NBC, BBC and Al Jazeera. That was the week when everyone in the west thought that the US-led military action against Syria was a fait accompli. Thanks to a brief wave of sanity which swept through the British Parliament, the US could not proceed forward without appearing Hilteresque themselves. Despite all the hype and all the mainstream media fake news, Washington and London s official conspiracy theory was that Assad crossed a red line by using sarin gas against his own people. Here is a timely analysis, one with a wider geopolitical scope, delivered by Aaron Hawkins founder of Storm Clouds Gathering. Watch: SUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
U.S. loan to Puerto Rico a start, but more aid to come: official
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. federal government is working on a long-term plan to help Puerto Rico rebuild after Hurricane Maria tore up the island territory’s power grid and other infrastructure three weeks ago, an administration official said on Wednesday. The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote on Thursday on a disaster relief bill that includes a $4.9 billion loan for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands as part of a $36.5 billion package to help Americans recover from hurricanes and wildfires. But the loan is intended to be a short-term measure to help the cash-strapped island territory pay urgent bills, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “The Community Disaster Loan cannot and does not address the recovery, rebuilding and future of Puerto Rico, which the administration intends to address with a more long-term solution in concert with the Puerto Rican government, oversight board, court and Congress,” the official said. The broader package set for the House vote includes $576.6 million for wildfire efforts, $16 billion for the National Flood Insurance program and a provision enabling low-income Puerto Ricans to receive emergency nutrition assistance. House Speaker Paul Ryan is set to travel to Puerto Rico on Friday with a bipartisan group of lawmakers to see the hurricane damage, a spokesman said. The White House last week asked government agencies to begin estimating how much money is needed to help hurricane-hit states and territories recover and rebuild. Puerto Rico, home to 3.4 million American citizens, is in a particular bind, already grappling with nearly $72 billion in debt before Hurricane Maria - the worst storm in almost a century - hit its shores. Estimates of the cost to its economy range as high as $95 billion. Puerto Rico’s Governor Ricardo Rossello has asked for $4.6 billion as a “down payment on hurricane recovery efforts,” including $3.2 billion in block grants. The oversight board charged with resolving Puerto Rico’s debt crisis told the U.S. Treasury Department that the island’s government would run out of money at the end of the month without help. The loan is earmarked for payroll and pensions, but cannot be used for debt service.
| 1
|
Lake Oroville Dam Spillway Damage Results in Evacuation Orders to 188,000 People
21st Century Wire says The Oroville dam in Northern California has sustained sink hole damage in the main spillway and over 188,000 residents of the local area have been told to evacuate. Helicopters are dropping rocks into areas of erosion to try to prevent ground from eroding further downstream of the primary and the never before used secondary, passive spillways at the dam.ABC10 noted late last week that the amount of water in the Oroville dam is challenging the design of the dam (due to the sink hole having formed in the spillway which required the outflow to be slowed) with 185,000 cubic feet of water per second are coming into the dam and only 41,000 going out.There is a passive spillway that has now been forced into use as the water levels rise and more rain is expected later this week, but its unknown what the down stream effects will be as this auxiliary spillway has never been used before. It has the potential of causing a lot of damage spilling downstream into the Feather River and towards residential areas. Reports indicate they have increased the outgoing water from the main spillway to lessen the potential damage of the use of the passive spillway.Join ABC10 below for live updates and ongoing reports on this developing situation at the Oroville Dam ABC 10At least 188,000 people living downstream of California s Oroville Dam were ordered to evacuate late Sunday as officials said an emergency spillway was dangerously eroding and a failure could cause uncontrolled floodwaters to pour out of the lake.Water began flowing over the emergency spillway at the Oroville Dam in Northern California on Saturday for the first time in its nearly 50-year history after heavy rainfall.Evacuation orders still in place. We will work to keep updating everyone. Be safe. https://t.co/xjYGk6B8VF Yuba County (@YubaCounty) February 13, 2017Crews are hard at work reinforcing the integrity of the levee adjacent to Tyler Island. Stay tuned to our social media for continued updates pic.twitter.com/6UIgIbCjWm SacramentoOES (@SacramentoOES) February 13, 2017The Paradise Alliance Church is not longer accepting new evacuees. If seeking shelter visit https://t.co/zmTLivT9tA for updated list. Butte County, CA (@CountyofButte) February 13, 2017Butte County offices in the Oroville area will remain CLOSED tomorrow due to the #OrovilleSpillway evacuations. @ButteSheriff @CA_DWR Butte County, CA (@CountyofButte) February 13, 2017Continue this developing story with live updates at ABC10READ MORE US NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire US FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
White House intruder was on grounds for 16 minutes before arrest: Secret Service
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A man who jumped over the White House fence last week was on the grounds for 16 minutes before he was apprehended, the U.S. Secret Service said in a statement on Friday. “The Secret Service can confirm that at no time did the individual gain entry into the White House,” the statement said.
| 1
|
BOILER ROOM – EP #45 – Horror Hotel, Trump Gatecrash & Cynical Ploys
Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at 6 PM PST | 9 PM EST every Wednesday. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher, & Spore along with Andy Nowicki from Alt Right Blogspot, Jay Dyer of Jays Analysis & ACR contributor Randy J and Boiler Room Presidential Candidate select: Stewart Howe. In this broadcast listeners will be hearing us go around the BOILER ROOM on a veritable feast of topics including Donald Trump steamrolling the GOP and gatecrashing Glenn Beck s Cruz Caucus event, some esoteric analysis with Jay Dyer in the realms of serial killers, Dune and more, the Clinton Epstein connections and the usual conversational holes the Boiler crew somehow seems to dig themselves in and out of. If you want to participate, bring something interesting to throw into the boiler Join us in the ALTERNATE CURRENT RADIO chat room.BOILER ROOM IS NOT A POLICTALLY CORRECT ZONE!
| 0
|
‘Journalistic Malpractice’: CNN Slammed for ‘Biased’ Coverage in Favour of Hillary
21st Century Wire says This definitely needed to be said.Host of popular internet news shows The Young Turks, Cenk Uygur, has slammed the mainstream media for journalistic malpractice after they fraudulently announced that Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic nominee prior to the result of the California primary.Here at 21WIRE, we informed our readers last week that such big politik dirty tricks would be played.Uygur appeared on CNN saying: Brian, you guys, and I mean all of the establishment press, totally tilted the playing field here from day one by counting those superdelegates, Superdelegates do switch their votes all the time, they switched it in 2008. Hillary Clinton had a 100-superdelegate lead which completely vanished in 2008, But if you count them in the official tally, when you know they can, and often do switch their votes, and have not voted yet, that is simply incorrect, that s not journalism. From day one, which was absolutely incorrect, it was in fact journalistic malpractice which indicates an establishment bias. Watch the full interview here: EVERYTHING ON ELECTION 2016: 21st Century Wire Election Files
| 0
|
Why Not A Probe of ‘Israel-Gate’
21st Century Wire says Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s.As the mainstream media in the United States continues to double down on Russia-Gate , Parry begs the question, why not probe an Israel-Gate.Robert Parry is a past guest of Patrick Henningsen Live on 1100KFNX and Alternate Current Radio and his last interview can be found hereMore on this article from Consortium News (Image by Brendan Smialowski AFP) Robert Parry Consortium NewsThe other day, I asked a longtime Democratic Party insider who is working on the Russia-gate investigation which country interfered more in U.S. politics, Russia or Israel. Without a moment s hesitation, he replied, Israel, of course. Which underscores my concern about the hysteria raging across Official Washington about Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign: There is no proportionality applied to the question of foreign interference in U.S. politics. If there were, we would have a far more substantive investigation of Israel-gate.The problem is that if anyone mentions the truth about Israel s clout, the person is immediately smeared as anti-Semitic and targeted by Israel s extraordinarily sophisticated lobby and its many media/political allies for vilification and marginalization.So, the open secret of Israeli influence is studiously ignored, even as presidential candidates prostrate themselves before the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both appeared before AIPAC in 2016, with Clinton promising to take the U.S.-Israeli relationship to the next level whatever that meant and Trump vowing not to pander and then pandering like crazy.Congress is no different. It has given Israel s controversial Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a record-tying three invitations to address joint sessions of Congress (matching the number of times British Prime Minister Winston Churchill appeared). We then witnessed the Republicans and Democrats competing to see how often their members could bounce up and down and who could cheer Netanyahu the loudest, even when the Israeli prime minister was instructing the Congress to follow his position on Iran rather than President Obama s.Israeli officials and AIPAC also coordinate their strategies to maximize political influence, which is derived in large part by who gets the lobby s largesse and who doesn t. On the rare occasion when members of Congress step out of line and take a stand that offends Israeli leaders they can expect a well-funded opponent in their next race, a tactic that dates back decades.Well-respected members, such as Rep. Paul Findley and Sen. Charles Percy (both Republicans from Illinois), were early victims of the Israeli lobby s wrath when they opened channels of communication with the Palestine Liberation Organization in the cause of seeking peace. Findley was targeted and defeated in 1982; Percy in 1984.Findley recounted his experience in a 1985 book, They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel s Lobby, in which Findley called the lobby the 700-pound gorilla in Washington. The book was harshly criticized in a New York Times review by Adam Clymer, who called it an angry, one-sided book that seems often to be little more than a stringing together of stray incidents. Enforced SilenceSince then, there have been fewer and fewer members of Congress or other American politicians who have dared to speak out, judging that when it comes to the Israeli lobby discretion is the better part of valor. Today, many U.S. pols grovel before the Israeli government seeking a sign of favor from Prime Minister Netanyahu, almost like Medieval kings courting the blessings of the Pope at the Vatican.During the 2008 campaign, then-Sen. Barack Obama, whom Netanyahu viewed with suspicion, traveled to Israel to demonstrate sympathy for Israelis within rocket-range of Gaza while steering clear of showing much empathy for the Palestinians.In 2012, Republican nominee Mitt Romney tried to exploit the tense Obama-Netanyahu relationship by stopping in Israel to win a tacit endorsement from Netanyahu. The 2016 campaign was no exception with both Clinton and Trump stressing their love of Israel in their appearances before AIPAC.Money, of course, has become the lifeblood of American politics and American supporters of Israel have been particularly strategic in how they have exploited that reality.One of Israel s most devoted advocates, casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, has poured millions of dollars in dark money into political candidates and groups that support Israel s interests. Adelson, who has advocated dropping a nuclear bomb inside Iran to coerce its government, is a Trump favorite having donated a record $5 million to Trump s inaugural celebration.Of course, many Israel-connected political donations are much smaller but no less influential. A quarter century ago, I was told how an aide to a Democratic foreign policy chairman, who faced a surprisingly tough race after redistricting, turned to the head of AIPAC for help and, almost overnight, donations were pouring in from all over the country. The chairman was most thankful.The October Surprise MysteryIsrael s involvement in U.S. politics also can be covert. For instance, the evidence is now overwhelming that the Israeli government of right-wing Prime Minister Menachem Begin played a key role in helping Ronald Reagan s campaign in 1980 strike a deal with Iran to frustrate President Jimmy Carter s efforts to free 52 American hostages before Election Day.Begin despised Carter for the Camp David Accords that forced Israel to give back the Sinai to Egypt. Begin also believed that Carter was too sympathetic to the Palestinians and if he won a second term would conspire with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to impose a two-state solution on Israel.Begin s contempt for Carter was not even a secret. In a 1991 book, The Last Option, senior Israeli intelligence and foreign policy official David Kimche explained Begin s motive for dreading Carter s re-election. Kimche said Israeli officials had gotten wind of collusion between Carter and Sadat to force Israel to abandon her refusal to withdraw from territories occupied in 1967, including Jerusalem, and to agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state. Kimche continued, This plan prepared behind Israel s back and without her knowledge must rank as a unique attempt in United States s diplomatic history of short-changing a friend and ally by deceit and manipulation. But Begin recognized that the scheme required Carter winning a second term in 1980 when, Kimche wrote, he would be free to compel Israel to accept a settlement of the Palestinian problem on his and Egyptian terms, without having to fear the backlash of the American Jewish lobby. In a 1992 memoir, Profits of War, former Israeli intelligence officer Ari Ben-Menashe also noted that Begin and other Likud leaders held Carter in contempt. Begin loathed Carter for the peace agreement forced upon him at Camp David, Ben-Menashe wrote. As Begin saw it, the agreement took away Sinai from Israel, did not create a comprehensive peace, and left the Palestinian issue hanging on Israel s back. So, in order to buy time for Israel to change the facts on the ground by moving Jewish settlers into the West Bank, Begin felt Carter s reelection had to be prevented. A different president also presumably would give Israel a freer hand to deal with problems on its northern border with Lebanon.Ben-Menashe was among a couple of dozen government officials and intelligence operatives who described how Reagan s campaign, mostly through future CIA Director William Casey and past CIA Director George H.W. Bush, struck a deal in 1980 with senior Iranians who got promises of arms via Israel in exchange for keeping the hostages through the election and thus humiliating Carter. (The hostages were finally released on Jan. 20, 1981, after Reagan was sworn in as President )Continue this article at Consortium NewsREAD MORE MIDDLE EAST NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire MIDDLE EAST FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
Hollywood Suffers Meltdown Over Trump’s Withdraw from Paris Climate Deal
Hollywood is having kittens over US President Trump s recent snub of the Paris Climate Agreement. Especially upset are the elite cadre of multi-millionaire celebrities, along with various and sundry billionaires like Elon Musk, who still believe the earth is heating up because of anthropogenic global warming, aka man-made Co2. Already, the EU has rejected Donald Trump s offer to renegotiate the Paris Agreement, opting instead to bypass Washington DC by working with US CEOs, city mayors and state governors to implement the climate accords.What Hollywood, Elon Musk, Bernie Sanders and the rest, will not tell you is that the earth is already entering a global cooling phase which could lead to a mini ice age. Unlike trace warming over a 500 year period, a cooling phase can radical alter the viability of normal life in the Northern Hemisphere, including frosts that will lead to the failure of large parts of the agriculture sector which can lead to severe food shortages which can make food scarce and much more expensive.More on this report from Lifezette .Leonardo DiCaprio on his private yacht, incredibly worried about global warming.Todd Barnes LifezettePresident Trump s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord has sparked widespread hysteria in juice bars and luxury spas across Hollywood.As a candidate, Trump vowed to cancel the Paris climate deal slamming what he called draconian climate rules. The Paris accord is very unfair at the highest level to the United States, the president told a gathering Thursday in the Rose Garden.House Speaker Paul Ryan praised the president s decision and thanked him for withdrawing from this bad deal. The Paris climate agreement was simply a raw deal for America, Ryan said. Signed by President Obama without Senate ratification, it would have driven up the cost of energy, hitting middle-class and low-income Americans the hardest. But some of Hollywood s most esteemed scientists fear the president s decision will put the nation on a slippery slope to the hothouse an apocalyptic future with melting igloos and polar bears unable to put their Coca-Colas on ice. If this is true he will have the death of whole nations on his hands, warned scientist-actor Mark Ruffalo. People will be looking to the USA for retribution for what they loose [sic]. I wonder which nation will be the first to spontaneously combust Iceland? Liechtenstein? Beauty and the Beast star Josh Gad took a break from playing make-believe to ponder our fate. Our children & our grandchildren have all just been handed a dark future because of a man who tweets at 3:00 AM & doesn t trust science, Gad tweeted.Cher, who apparently has some sort of graduate level degree in climatology, posted a bizarre rant, suggesting the nation has been held hostage by Insane DICTATOR. Don Cheadle, known for his esteemed role as a Juicy Burger s employee in the 1985 film Moving Violations, decided to bring Trump s little boy into the debate. Today, our planet suffered, declared Leo DeCaprio on Twitter. If you care about your kids maybe reconsider your #ParisAgreement decision. Barron will thank you when he sees you, whenever that is, Cheadle tweeted.Leonardo DeCaprio, who became a famous Hollywood star because of an iceberg, was devastated by the news. Today, our planet suffered, he declared on Twitter.Do you feel his pain, America? I suspect he will evacuate to some far-flung, exotic island in a private jet to mend his wounded psyche Continue this story at LifezetteREAD MORE CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Climate Change FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
House clears way for debate on Trump-backed healthcare bill
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives on Friday cleared the way for a contentious debate on legislation to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a more limited federal healthcare insurance program. By a vote of 230-194, the House approved rules for debating the Republican legislation that Democrats oppose. It was not yet clear whether House Speaker Paul Ryan has enough Republican support to pass the bill that has been endorsed by President Donald Trump.
| 1
|
Moscow in talks with U.S. to create cyber working group: RIA report
MOSCOW/LONDON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Moscow and Washington are in talks to create a joint cyber security working group, Russia’s RIA news agency reported on Thursday, citing Andrey Krutskikh, a special presidential envoy on cyber security. “The talks are underway ... different proposals are being exchanged, nobody denies the necessity of holding the talks and of having such contacts,” Krutskikh said, according to RIA. Svetlana Lukash, a Russian official who was at the recent G20 summit of global leaders in Hamburg, said earlier this month that Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump had agreed to discuss cyber security questions, either via the United Nations or as part of a working group. However, U.S. and European intelligence and security officials told Reuters on Thursday they were not participating in the talks, which they said were confined to mid-level political officials. One of the officials, who like the others spoke on condition of anonymity, said cooperation on cyber security was a “pipe dream” while Russia continues to deny that it hacked last year’s U.S. presidential election, as three U.S. intelligence agencies concluded publicly in January. On an Air Force One flight home from Europe last weekend, Thomas Bossert, Trump’s top counterterrorism adviser, told reporters it would be premature to suggest the United States would be talking to Russia about a possible cyber security “partnership.” “A partnership suggests that you’ve reached a place where you believe that you have a trusted relationship and you’ve come to some common agreement on ideals and goals and behaviors,” he said. “I don’t believe that the United States and Russia have come to that point yet in cyberspace,” Bossert said. “And until we do, we wouldn’t have the conversation about partnership. But we had to have a dialogue, and that’s where we’ll start.” Trump said earlier this month he had discussed the idea of creating such a group with Putin at the Hamburg summit. Senior U.S. Republicans greeted the idea with incredulity, saying Moscow could not be trusted, and Trump later appeared to back away, saying in a post on Twitter: “The fact that President Putin and I discussed a Cyber Security unit doesn’t mean I think it can happen. It can’t.” Widespread concern and confusion about the possible cyber working group reflects the Trump administration’s struggles to articulate a clear approach to international cyber security issues amid inconsistent statements by the president and ongoing personnel changes. Chris Painter, a widely respected bureaucrat who led the U.S State Department’s international engagement on cyber security, is leaving his post at the end of the month amid media reports that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson plans to shutter Painter’s entire office. Painter is scheduled to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee next week about cyber diplomacy. White House cyber coordinator Rob Joyce told reporters on Wednesday that no final decision had been made about Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues, but said the State Department would continue to play a prominent role in developing cyber norms and brokering international agreements. “I am confident that Secretary Tillerson is not going to impair cyber security,” Joyce said.
| 1
|
U.S. State Dept. Spox: ‘Everybody wants Assad out five years ago’
21st Century Wire says At Tuesday s U.S. State Department briefing, spokesperson Heather Nauert, once again, displayed her servitude to Washington s geopolitical agenda in Syria.Watch as Nauert, in an overly assuming and flippant style, proclaims how everybody in this room and in this building wants Assad out five years ago in her exchange with NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell. The sheer audacity begins at the 39 minute mark. This is all just more scripted servitude from U.S. State Department talking heads on the topic of Syria as Washington s war plan there continues to crumble. READ MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire SYRIA FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
(Don’t Hold The Press) Jeb Bush Endorses Ted Cruz For President
21st Century Wire says OK. As political endorsements go, this one is about as sexy as a box of Wheaties.This exciting development comes just hours after Cruz was declared the winner in Utah s GOP primary contest.Now if it was Barbara giving the honors, then we might be intrigued Of course, we should be so lucky Huff PostFormer Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is endorsing Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for president, Politico reported. Bush, who dropped out of the race last month, confirmed the endorsement on Wednesday in an email from the Cruz campaign. Ted is a consistent, principled conservative who has demonstrated the ability to appeal to voters and win primary contests, including yesterday s Utah caucus, Bush said on Facebook.The statement also went out in an email to supporters from the Cruz campaign, the New York Times said. Jeeebbbbbbbb. For the sake of our party and country, we must move to overcome the divisiveness and vulgarity Donald Trump has brought into the political arena, or we will certainly lose our chance to defeat the Democratic nominee and reverse President Obama s failed policies, Bush said Continue this story at Huff PostREAD MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 Files
| 0
|
SYRIA, NORTH KOREA: Trump’s “Axis of Evil” is Bigger and Better than the George Bush Version
Whitney Webb Mint PressBush s Axis of Evil speech in 2002 was precursor to disastrous invasion and regime change. Now once again, under Trump, that narrative has re-emerged this time linking Syria with North Korea, based on allegations by unidentified parties regarding chemical weapons shipments.On Monday, Reuters published a widely circulated story based on a confidential United Nations report on North Korean sanctions violations. According to the report, which is not available to the general public, two North Korean shipments to a Syrian government agency responsible for the country s chemical weapons program had been intercepted.The report, according to Reuters, was authored by a panel of independent UN experts and investigates alleged dealings between a North Korean company and Syria s Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC), a government agency that oversaw the nation s chemical weapons program before the internationally-recognized destruction of that program took place in 2013.Notably, the 37-page document at no point gives details on when or where the interdictions occurred or details regarding what the shipments actually contained.The report further states that its account of the incident s occurrence is dependent on the testimony of two unidentified member states, which interdicted shipments destined for Syria and had reasons to believe that the goods were part of a KOMID contract with Syria. KOMID is the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation, a Pyongyang-based company the UN had previously cited in 2009, when the UN Security Council had it blacklisted for its role in supporting North Korea s ballistic missile program as a primary arms dealer and main exporter of goods and equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons. North Korea is caught sending 'chemical weapons' to Syria amid concerns Kim Jong-Un and Assad are working together https://t.co/ectIj2JwN9 Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) August 22, 2017North Korea chemical weapons said intercepted en route to Syria https://t.co/wdjZOlgg8k via @timesofisrael #northkorea #syria Gregory Smith (@GsmittySmith) August 22, 2017With their identities concealed, there is no way of knowing if these member states are among the countries that have actively been pushing for the removal of Syria s democratically-elected president Bashar al-Assad since the Syrian conflict began in 2011. In addition, another member state a nation not involved in the seizure of the shipments had informed the panel that it had reasons to believe that the goods were part of a KOMID contract with Syria. It appears that the statement made by this member state s representative was given, by this ostensibly independent panel, the same weight normally reserved for concrete evidence.It also remains unclear how the SSRC was determined to be the recipient of the intercepted shipments, as the report simply states that the consignees were Syrian entities designated by the European Union and the United States as front companies for the SSRC. With only Reuters permitted access to this confidential report, there is no way to know who or what these entities are, as Reuters left them unnamed in its article.Furthermore, the composition of the UN panel itself is also unknown. Though Reuters stated that the panel was composed of independent experts, Reuters has also previously claimed that organizations such as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) were objective in the Syrian conflict, even though the sole person behind the group is rabidly anti-Assad, pro-Western intervention, and reporting on Syria from Britain. Shielding the names of these independent experts from the public does little to lend credibility to the findings of this UN report.The North Korea-Syria arms connection narrativeThe North Korea-Syria arms trade connection is not new. This narrative first emerged earlier this year in April, when the Syrian government stood accused of using chemical weapons against civilians in Idlib an event that was later roundly debunked by independent experts, including Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and former scientist with the U.S. Department of Defense, Theodore Postol.At the time, several U.S. publications, including USA Today and Defense One, backed up their claims of sinister cooperation between the Syrian and North Korean governments by citing Professor Bruce Bechtol of Angelo State University, Texas. Both outlets described Bechtol as a North Korea expert. But Bechtol s evidence cited in these reports such as when he asserts that I would be stunned, I would be surprised, if the nerve agent allegedly used by the Assad regime on April 4 in the Idlib province was not supplied by North Korea amounts to conjecture. Bechtol, who once worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency and has long-standing links to the Pentagon, had previously authored a 2015 research paperon the North Korea and Syrian partnership, in which he drew heavily on the CIA for his sweeping assertions regarding the two nations alleged long history of collaboration in the production and development of chemical weapons.Bechtol s conclusions are undermined by data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) a recognized authority on the global weapons trade shows that Syria has ordered weapons from North Korea only three times since 1990, twice in 1990 and once in 1996. In other words, Syria according to SIPRI has not made any purchases from North Korea in over 20 years.Given that arms deals with North Korea s government were legal until 2006 and deals with KOMID were legal until 2009, if the partnership was really so longstanding and prolific, why were there so few transactions between them in the years prior? The established facts hardly fit the picture of a supposedly booming North Korea-Syria arms trade.Creating the new Axis of Evil Ultimately, the attempts to link North Korea to Syria s defunct chemical weapons program are meant to create a new axis of evil by associating one evil dictator with another. The axis of evil narrative, first coined by George W. Bush in 2002, has been central to the U.S. demonization of rogue governments that fail to submit to the U.S.-dominated global order, of which the United Nations is part. This narrative has often been followed by the evil dictator label, as it was with Iraq and Libya two of the countries comprising the original axis of evil. Under Trump, the axis of evil is having a resurgence, a development that even mainstream media outlets like CNN have noted. With Iraq and Libya having been dealt with, Syria has joined the list and a concerted effort is now being made to link the remaining evil dictators to each other. By connecting North Korea to Syria s thoroughly demonized (though non-existent) chemical weapons program, the U.S. is building the momentum and the justification for the preventative invasions of these rogue states it has long sought to achieve all the more determinedly now that its superpower status is being threatened as never before.***SEE MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Syria FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
Amerika: ‘Tolerant’ University Educators Exile Trump Voters from American Campuses
21st Century Wire says Since the late 1960 s, it s become accepted as a fact of political life that the faculty and administrations of America s universities have a heavily ingrained liberal bias, but to see them now actively working to cleanse their campuses of any pro-Trump and conservative voices demonstrates that their progressive values have progressed far beyond what used to be considered as liberal and into the realm of political fascism and Marxist-style identity politics. The liberal reaction to the US Election result not only marks a low ebb of American culture, but it also proves beyond any doubt that the US university system is failing to teach life s basics Last week s US Presidential Election result has accentuated this phenomenon, bringing many hardcore radical campus political ideologies out of their academic shells, and into the open, in all of their ugliness. Some university heads around the country have called for safe spaces on their campuses where traumatized Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders student supporters can go to retreat from any mention of Donald Trump, and to protect them from hearing any speech in support of President Elect Trump. Quite rightly, because of frequent incidents like this, many are now viewing American academia as one giant institutionalized brainwashing mill where political correctness is not only encouraged, it s also being legislated.RELATED: DePaul University Threatens to ARREST Conservative editor Ben Shapiro if He Stepped on CampusThis is the danger of a liberal America which appears to desire not only a single party state, but also a sanitized monoculture where speech and expression are heavily regulated and also self-policed by progressive mobs. This leftist culture of extreme intolerance to any opposing views where students will demand protection from the state and administrative bodies from even hearing any opposing opinions in public is heading dangerously close to Mao s Amerika Glenn Reynolds USA TodayOne of the more amusing bits of fallout from last week s election has been the safe-space response of many colleges and universities to the election of the wrong candidate. But on closer examination, this response isn t really amusing. In fact, it s downright mean.Donald Trump s substantial victory, when most progressives expected a Hillary Clinton landslide, came as a shock to many. That shock seems to have been multiplied in academia, where few people seem to know any Trump supporters or, at least, any Trump supporters who ll admit to it.The response to the shock has been to turn campuses into kindergarten. The University of Michigan Law School announced a post-election self-care event with food and play, including coloring sheets, play dough (sic), positive card-making, Legos and bubbles with your fellow law students. (Embarrassed by the attention, UM Law scrubbed the announcement from its website, perhaps concerned that people would wonder whether its graduates would require Legos and bubbles in the event of stressful litigation.) IN NEED OF SAFE SPACES : Hillary Clinton supporters struggling to cope with the reality of democracy (Image Source: Fellowship of the Minds)Stanford emailed its students and faculty that psychological counseling was available for those experiencing uncertainty, anger, anxiety and/or fear following the election. So did the University of Michigan s Flint campus.Meanwhile, even the Ivy League wasn t immune, with the University of Pennsylvania (Trump s alma mater) creating a post-election safe space with puppies and coloring books:Student Daniel Tancredi reported that the people who attended were fearful about the results of the election. For the most part, students just hung out and ate snacks and made small talk, Tancredi told The College Fix. Of course, that was in addition to coloring and playing with the animals. Yale had a group scream. At Tufts, the university offered arts and crafts, while the University of Kansas reminded students that there were plenty of therapy dogs available. At other schools, exams were canceled and professors expressed their sympathy to traumatized students.It s easy to mock this as juvenile silliness because, well, it is juvenile silliness of the sort documented in Frank Furedi s What s Happened To The University? But that s not all it is. It s also exactly what these schools purport to abhor: an effort to marginalize and silence part of the university community.In an email to students, University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel wrote: Our responsibility is to remain committed to education, discovery and intellectual honesty and to diversity, equity and inclusion. We are at our best when we come together to engage respectfully across our ideological differences; to support all who feel marginalized, threatened or unwelcome; and to pursue knowledge and understanding. But when you treat an election in which the wrong candidate wins as a traumatic event on a par with the 9/11 attacks, calling for counseling and safe spaces, you re implicitly saying that everyone who supported that wrong candidate is, well, unsafe. Despite the talk about diversity and inclusion, this is really sending the signal that people who supported Trump and Trump is leading the state of Michigan, so there are probably quite a few on campus aren t really included in acceptable campus culture. It s not promoting diversity; it s enforcing uniformity. It s not promoting inclusion; it s practicing exclusion Continue this story at USA TodayREAD MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE NOW & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
Tillerson to visit Turkey as Raqqa operation heats up
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will meet with senior Turkish officials in Ankara next week, in talks that could be vital to an advancing U.S.-backed campaign to retake the Syrian city of Raqqa from Islamic State, U.S. officials said on Friday. Turkey has been pressing the United States to drop its military alliance with the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which it considers part of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party that has been fighting an insurgency for three decades in Turkey. But U.S. officials have long viewed Kurdish fighters as key to an approaching assault on Raqqa, Islamic State’s de facto capital. It would work alongside Arab fighters in the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Instead, Turkey wants the United States to draw from Syrian Arab rebel groups backed by Ankara for the final assault on Raqqa, a predominantly Arab city, proposals that so far have failed to convince U.S. officials who are not certain that the Turkish-backed Arab force is large and well-trained enough. “We first need to work out details with Turkey,” one senior official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The decision sets President Donald Trump’s wish for quick battlefield victories against the need to maintain the United States’ longstanding strategic alliance with Turkey, a NATO ally which provides the United States access to a base critical for the air war in Syria. The Raqqa campaign appears to be gathering steam as an overlapping U.S.-backed effort in Iraq is drawing closer to driving Islamic State from the city of Mosul. French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Friday that the battle for Raqqa would likely start “in the coming days.” The head of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia told Reuters last week that the assault would begin at the start of April, and that the YPG would be taking part. Some U.S. officials think that timeline is too optimistic, noting that a major battle underway for Tabqa dam, about 25 miles (40 km) west of Raqqa, could take weeks to complete. The Pentagon also has said the United States has not decided on the composition of an American-backed assault force in Raqqa. The United States has about 1,000 troops in Syria at the moment, and the Raqqa campaign could involve hundreds more. Senator John McCain, the Senate Armed Services Committee’s chairman, suggested to reporters earlier this week that it would be hard to convince Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan of the merits of backing Kurdish fighters, even if they are the most effective weapon against Islamic State. “The conundrum is that if you don’t use the Kurds, it will take a lot longer while (Islamic State is) sending streams of terrorists out of Raqqa,” McCain said. “But if you do, you have an enormous challenge as far as relations with Turkey is concerned,” he added. McCain said the relationship with Erdogan was particularly important and cited an April 16 referendum on constitutional changes to extend his powers. Tillerson’s meeting in Ankara also closely follows a meeting of 68 coalition partners this week in Washington, where they agreed to intensify the fight against Islamic State, including in Syria. At Wednesday’s meeting, Tillerson said the United States would create “interim zones of stability” through ceasefires to help refugees return home in the next phase of the fight against Islamic State and al Qaeda in Syria and Iraq. He did not elaborate, although one U.S. official said there was not yet agreement among all American agencies on where and how such zones would be set up. The U.S. military has long been skeptical of creating safe zones inside Syria or Iraq, partly because any safe zone guaranteed by the United States almost certainly would require some American military protection. Securing the ground alone would require thousands of troops, former U.S. officials and experts say. The top U.S. commander on the ground, Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, said earlier in March that, “We are building safe zones right now for all Iraqis and all Syrians to be safe from (Islamic State).” Increased U.S. or allied air power would be required if Trump chooses to enforce “no fly” restrictions and ground forces might also be needed to protect civilians in those areas. The State Department did not provide more details of Tillerson’s trip to Turkey, but said he will visit Brussels on March 31 to participate in a rescheduled meeting of NATO foreign ministers. The NATO meeting had been set for April 5-6, but it was rescheduled after Tillerson decided instead to attend a summit with China. That caused unease among European allies already worried about Trump’s commitment to the Western military alliance.
| 1
|
Oliver Stone: Pokémon Go is ‘Surveillance Capitalism’ for a Robotic Society
Press Association The GuardianFilm director Oliver Stone has branded the popular gaming app Pok mon Go a new level of invasion of privacy that could lead to totalitarianism .The American reportedly voiced concerns over the game as he promoted his new movie about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden at Comic-Con International.After he was asked about security concerns associated with Pok mon Go, Stone said companies were carrying out surveillance capitalism by monitoring people s behaviour.According to Time magazine, he told the Comic-Con audience in San Diego: It s not funny. What s happening is a new level of invasion. The profits are enormous here for places like Google. They ve invested a huge amount of money in data mining what you are buying, what you like, your behaviour. It s what some people call surveillance capitalism. He added: You ll see a new form of, frankly, a robot society. It s what they call totalitarianism. Pok mon Go, which is free to download, has faced criticism over claims it could access a player s entire Google account, including email and passwords.The app s makers, Niantic, insisted the move was unintentional and reassured users it was not collecting any exceptional data Continue this story at The GuardianREAD MORE POKEMON GO NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Pokemon Go Files
| 0
|
'Clean' debt ceiling bill unlikely to pass House of Representatives : lawmaker
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives is unlikely to raise the country’s debt ceiling without conditions to rein in spending, a Republican lawmaker said on Tuesday, raising the specter of another potential clash even as Republicans control both Congress and the White House. The Trump administration has asked Congress to extend the federal borrowing capacity to meet U.S. payment obligations with a “clean” bill that does not include any other provisions. Asked if the House would act to pass such a bill when lawmakers return to Washington next month, U.S. Representative Tom Cole said “probably not clean.” “Most Republicans want to do something to lower the trajectory of the debt,” Cole, a member of the House Appropriations and Budget committees, told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program. Disagreements over the country’s borrowing capacity have prompted skirmishes for years. The latest tussle among Republicans follows a fight over healthcare legislation that left the party unable to make good on years of promises to repeal and replace Obamacare, and has also raised concern among some investors.. The Treasury is expected to fully exhaust its remaining borrowing capacity in October. More fiscally conservative House Republicans see the debt ceiling issue as tied to deficit-reduction, and want to include spending cuts or the selling off of government assets — something Cole, a more establishment Republican, backed on Tuesday. Representative Mark Walker, who chairs the conservative Republican Study Committee, said in a Washington Examiner Op-Ed article that a debt ceiling agreement should also address any future crises and recommended two conservative measures to that end. Both measures would require the government to issue new bonds to pay principal and interest on debt held by the public and by two Social Security trusts. One would also allow the president to rescind budget authority over unobligated funds and to order the sale of government assets. “Both these measures are steps in the right direction,” wrote Walker, whose group represents the House’s largest conservative caucus. Both the House and the Senate left for summer recess until early September despite requests from the White House to pass a debt limit bill before the congressional break this month. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has said debate over the issue could stretch into September, when lawmakers must also pass separate legislation to fund day-to-day government activities before the fiscal year ends later that month.
| 1
|
Palestinian Protesters Attack US Embassy in Lebanon
The US Embassy in Lebanon went on lock-down today after demonstrators gathered outside on Sunday morning, as Pro-Palestinian protesters showed their outrage over U.S. President Donald Trump s provocative decision to recognize illegally occupied Jerusalem as the Zionist entity s capital city. Evetns turned violent after protesters hurled projectiles at police, and also set fires to makeshift barricades erected on the street in front of the US Embassy secure compound, located north of Beirut, Lebanon.Protesters also reportedly burned US, Israeli flags and an effigy of US President Donald Trump.Later, angry protestors manged to pull down a portion of the front metal gates to the US Embassy.Lebanese security forces deployed tear gas and water cannons to try and repel angry mobs.Reuters reports: Late on Saturday Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo urged the United States to abandon its decision and said the move would spur violence throughout the region.Israel says that all of Jerusalem is its capital. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state.Most countries consider East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed after capturing it in a 1967 war, to be occupied territory and say the status of the city should be left to be decided at future Israeli-Palestinian talks.The government of Lebanon, which hosts about 450,000 Palestinian refugees, has condemned Trump s decision. Lebanese President Michel Aoun last week called the move a threat to regional stability.The powerful Iran-backed Lebanese Shi ite group Hezbollah on Thursday said it backed calls for a new Palestinian uprising against Israel in response to the U.S. decision.Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah also called for a protest against the decision in the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut on Monday. STAY TUNED FOR UPDATESREAD MORE PALESTINE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Palestine FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
Mattis slams 'false' reports on Trump request for nuclear arms hike
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Wednesday slammed what he said were “absolutely false” media reports asserting that President Donald Trump had called for an increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal. “This kind of erroneous reporting is irresponsible,” Mattis said in a written statement. NBC had reported that Trump sought a tenfold increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal, something Trump had already denied.
| 1
|
Syria Ceasefire Deal: A Cynical Ploy by Washington’s ‘Coalition’ to Buy Time for Terrorists
21st Century Wire says This latest diplomatic development certainly appears positive on its surface, this week s declared Syrian Ceasefire a three-way agreement between Washington, Russia and the Syrian government (and begrudgingly by the West s other regional stakeholders ) looks increasingly like it may just be the latest attempt to buy time so that Washington, Turkey and Saudi Arabia can re-arm and replenish various militant fighting groups currently laying waste to Syria.Since the entrance of the Russian Air Force into the Syrian conflict theatre last October, the Washington-led Axis has gradually lost proxy-control of a number of key terrorist strongholds in Northern Syria, namely in Aleppo, and thus are unable to dictate crucial facts on the ground required to dictate the international media and political narratives. Unable to craft and package these narratives, the West and its dubious coalition are completely unable to sell an escalation of military violence in Syria.The fact that the Washington Axis has already threatened to move to a Plan B even before the agreement has been implemented, indicates that this diplomatic effort may in fact be dead on arrival . Before the ink was even dry on the agreement, sources inside the CIA and the Pentagon went public with a preemptive statement claiming that, Russia cannot be trusted to uphold the ceasefire . The scene is now set.Watch as 21WIRE founder and editor Patrick Henningsen speaks to Sean Thomas from RT International about why the ceasefire deal may not survive the spring . Patrick Henningsen talks Syria Ceasefire with RT International (2016) from 21wire on Vimeo.READ MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Syria Files
| 0
|
Boiler Room #91 – The Swear Jar Overfloweth
Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at 6:00 PM PST | 8:00 PM CST | 9:00 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher and Spore along with Andy Nowicki host of The Nameless Podcast, Jay Dyer of Jay s Analysis and Stewart Howe for the 91st episode of BOILER ROOM. Water the plants, put the kids to bed and get your favorite snuggy out so you can drop deep into the Boiler Room with the ACR brain-trust.Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved!BOILER ROOM IS NOT A POLICTALLY CORRECT ZONE! LISTEN TO THE SHOW IN THE PLAYER BELOW ENJOY! Listen to Boiler Room EP #91 The Swear Jar Overfloweth on Spreaker.Reference Links:
| 0
|
Boiler Room EP #72 – Trailer Parks in Heaven
Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at 6 PM PST | 9 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher, & Spore along with Jay Dyer from jaysanalysis.com, Jamie Hanshaw author of Weird Stuff, Branko Mali of Kali Tribune, Randy J of 21Wire 72nd episode of BOILER ROOM. Dim the lights, dawn the headphones and indulge in some Boiler Room with the crew. .Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved!BOILER ROOM IS NOT A POLICTALLY CORRECT ZONE! LISTEN TO THE SHOW IN THE PLAYER BELOW ENJOY!Reference Links:
| 0
|
Pastors stand firm as Trump's U.S. evangelical base weakens
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As President Donald Trump bowed his head in the Oval Office earlier this month, Texas Southern Baptist Pastor Robert Jeffress and other U.S. religious leaders laid their hands on Trump’s back and prayed for Hurricane Harvey’s victims. With TV cameras and reporters watching, the scene was a powerful reminder of one of Trump’s most reliable and improbable political assets - his close ties with conservative Christians. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows, however, that Trump’s popularity among white evangelicals has weakened, suggesting his grassroots support may not be as unconditional as religious leaders’ public displays of allegiance would suggest. That may pose a problem for Trump and his allies as the 2018 midterm congressional election season nears. Trump’s strong links to conservative Christians played a key part in his stunning victory in the 2016 presidential election. Though disenchanted evangelicals were unlikely to switch their votes to Democrats, they could stay home next year when U.S. voters elect senators and representatives. “When your base is starting to even slowly move away from you, that should be a sign of concern,” said Justin Vaughn, director of the Center for Idaho History and Politics at Boise State University in Idaho, a state Trump won handily last year. In a country that is more religious than most other western democracies and where a president’s spiritual life is closely examined, the twice-divorced New York billionaire socialite, who has attended church just twice since his Jan. 20 inauguration, is an unlikely torchbearer for conservative Christians. He has labored to build and preserve this unlikely alliance, embracing social issues, such as commitment to anti-abortion and religious liberty policies, and picking staunch conservative Neil Gorsuch, for the Supreme Court. Trump also mentions God far more often in public remarks than his two predecessors, a Reuters review showed.(Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/2y3HxbV) But data from the nationwide online Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted from Jan. 22 to Aug. 25 suggest Trump has been unable to prevent his evangelical support from sliding in line with his overall ratings. The majority of those polled last month who described themselves as both “white” and a “born-again or evangelical Christian” said they approved of Trump, but considerably fewer than when he took office almost eight months ago. The White House did not respond to requests for comment on the poll. During a four-week period in August, 62 percent of white evangelicals said they approved of Trump, while 33 percent disapproved of the president and 5 percent said they had “mixed feelings.” That is a drop from the first four weeks of Trump’s presidency, from late January to mid February, when 73 percent of white evangelicals said they approved of his performance while 23 percent disapproved and 5 percent had mixed feelings. The poll was divided into eight four-week periods, with each including about 2,000 people and a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of about 2 percentage points. The declines are broadly in line with those recorded among all adult Americans. In interviews, 10 of the surveyed conservative Christians said they were not concerned about Trump’s religion. Rather, they questioned whether he was doing enough to help average Americans and the frequent chaos in the White House. “We can’t go a week without someone leaving his administration. There is no stability in our government,” said Robert Waldram, a 52-year-old Baptist churchgoer from Williamsburg, Virginia, in a telephone interview. He said he voted for Trump as a better option than Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. But Waldram said he was tired of Trump’s “childlike tantrums on Twitter.” In his first 200 days in office, Trump mentioned God about 100 times in public remarks, excluding the standard “God bless America” that presidents routinely end speeches with, something his ardent supporters welcome as readiness to eschew political correctness. By this point in their presidencies, Democrat Barack Obama had mentioned God 43 times, while Republican George W. Bush had referred to God in 60 instances. Jeffress, one of the first prominent evangelical pastors to back Trump for president, said his God talk was apolitical. “I understand that cynical people would say this is just for political expediency, but ... I believe this comes out of some deep beliefs that he has personally,” Jeffress said. Trump, who describes himself as Presbyterian, was not known to be an avid churchgoer before becoming president and critics have said his blunders on basic biblical knowledge, harsh attacks on political adversaries, and his demeaning comments about women clash with Christian principles. “He, himself, doesn’t have the most sterling track record in terms of either church attendance or professed or displayed knowledge of scripture,” Gary Scott Smith, a historian and author of “Religion in the Oval Office: The Religious Lives of American Presidents,” said of Trump. The pastors involved with Trump’s evangelical advisory board describe him, though, as very inquisitive about faith and more thoughtful on religion than he might appear in public and conservative pastors have continued to support him through various firestorms. Evangelicals have had “unprecedented” White House access in this administration, said Richard Land, a board member and president of the Southern Evangelical Seminary, a Christian college. After Trump’s response to violence between white nationalists and left-wing protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, led to two of his business advisory councils disbanding, there were questions about the evangelical board’s future. Brooklyn, New York, megachurch pastor A.R. Bernard resigned, but others remained, saying it was their job to provide advice and counsel to Trump, even when they disagree with him, and to press the president on Christian issues. Johnnie Moore, a board member and former official at Liberty University, a religious school, said: “We have a deep personal relationship with him ... He has prioritized issues that are important to us and we appreciate that.”
| 1
|
Message to President Trump from Syria’s Assad: ‘You Also Need Our Help to Defeat Terrorism’
21st Century Wire says The following interview is the first western media appearance by Syrian President Bashar al Assad since Donald Trump took office in the US. In an exclusive interview with Yahoo News at the president s office in Damascus, Assad said President Trump s freeze on refugees into his country part of an executive order that has drawn widespread protests and is being challenged in federal court is an American issue on which he would not take sides. But asked if some of those who fled are aligned with terrorists, Assad quickly replied, Definitely. What is clear from this interview is that the President Assad has a much deeper and more realistic understanding of the real threat of terrorism, and the causes of terrorism far and away beyond the shallow, childish rhetoric we hear on a daily basis from those US officials still openly supporting radical Islamist terrorists in Syria like US Senators like John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Bob Corker and other who are still clinging to the fictional narrative of the moderate rebel in Syria. It is also clear that Assad has a much more intelligent handle on the concept of safe zones than the Trump Administration so far, as well as a better understanding of the totality of refugee issue, who Assad said is partly fuelled by the crippling sanctions imposed by the US. Watch:
| 0
|
Special prosecutor creation seen easing U.S. Congress partisanship: Senator Cornyn
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Justice Department’s decision to name a special prosecutor to investigate Russia’s involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections could ease red-hot partisan tensions in Congress, Senator John Cornyn, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, said on Wednesday. Cornyn, speaking to reporters immediately after ex-FBI Director Robert Mueller was named as the special prosecutor, also said the announcement could make it easier for the Senate to confirm President Donald Trump’s replacement of fired FBI Director James Comey and said former Senator Joe Lieberman would get widespread support among the 100 senators for confirmation, if he were to be nominated. (This version of the story corrects second paragraph to make clear that Lieberman has not been nominated)
| 1
|
The moment Ben Affleck realized that ‘Batman V Superman’ was a $400 million flop
21st Century Wire says Does Hollywood do anything other than comic book remakes any more? The latest over-budget chimera, Batman V Superman, cost around $410 million to make. You d think they could squeeze a decent film out of that. You d think. He hasn t felt this low since Gigli , said the Huff Post. Movie star Ben Affleck may have just beaten Chris Christie for this year s most vacant stare. Watch: READ MORE HOLLYWOOD NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Hollywood Files
| 0
|
ENGDAHL: ‘Trump is a Puppet of the Deep State’
Little did we know at the time of this recording just how accurate our guest s comments would become.In last week s Episode #179 of the SUNDAY WIRE, host Patrick Henningsen speaks to author and global affairs analyst, F. William Engdahl, to discuss his recent article about the new US-Israeli oil wars in the Golan Heights in Syria and how this is connected to the West s hidden agenda to create Safe Zones in Syria.In prophetic fashion, Engdahl then goes on to describe Donald Trump as a tool of establishment, placed into the US presidency by America s Deep State in order to fast-track a destructive geopolitical agenda.NOTE: This interview was recorded 5 days before the US missile strikes on Syria SUPPORT OUR WORK SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TVREAD MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Syria Files
| 0
|
The Existential Question Of Whom To Trust
21st Century Wire says Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980 s and has been a featured guest on Patrick Henningsen LIVE at 1100KFNX. In this report, Robert asks due to mainstream media experts who ve fallen to careerism , whom can we trust to deliver us the information to describe the world and its conflicts. (Image Former Secretary of State, Colin Powell addressing the United Nations on Feb. 5. 2003)Robert Parry Consortium NewsThe looming threat of World War III, a potential extermination event for the human species, is made more likely because the world s public can t count on supposedly objective experts to ascertain and evaluate facts. Instead, careerism is the order of the day among journalists, intelligence analysts and international monitors meaning that almost no one who might normally be relied on to tell the truth can be trustedThe dangerous reality is that this careerism, which often is expressed by a smug certainty about whatever the prevailing groupthink is, pervades not just the political world, where lies seem to be the common currency, but also the worlds of journalism, intelligence and international oversight, including United Nations agencies that are often granted greater credibility because they are perceived as less beholden to specific governments but in reality have become deeply corrupted, too.In other words, many professionals who are counted on for digging out the facts and speaking truth to power have sold themselves to those same powerful interests in order to keep high-paying jobs and to not get tossed out onto the street. Many of these self-aggrandizing professionals caught up in the many accouterments of success don t even seem to recognize how far they ve drifted from principled professionalism.A good example was Saturday night s spectacle of national journalists preening in their tuxedos and gowns at the White House Correspondents Dinner, sporting First Amendment pins as if they were some brave victims of persecution. They seemed oblivious to how removed they are from Middle America and how unlikely any of them would risk their careers by challenging one of the Establishment s favored groupthinks. Instead, these national journalists take easy shots at President Trump s buffoonish behavior and his serial falsehoods and count themselves as endangered heroes for the effort.FOILS FOR TRUMPIronically, though, these pompous journalists gave Trump what was arguably his best moment in his first 100 days by serving as foils for the President as he traveled to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Saturday and basked in the adulation of blue-collar Americans who view the mainstream media as just one more appendage of a corrupt ruling elite.Breaking with tradition by snubbing the annual press gala, Trump delighted the Harrisburg crowd by saying: A large group of Hollywood celebrities and Washington media are consoling each other in a hotel ballroom and adding: I could not possibly be more thrilled than to be more than 100 miles away from [the] Washington swamp with much, much better people. The crowd booed references to the elites and cheered Trump s choice to be with the common folk.Trump s rejection of the dinner and his frequent criticism of the mainstream media brought a defensive response from Jeff Mason, president of the White House Correspondents Association, who complained: We are not fake news. We are not failing news organizations. And we are not the enemy of the American people. That brought the black-tie-and-gown gathering to its feet in a standing ovation.Perhaps the assembled media elite had forgotten that it was the mainstream U.S. media particularly The Washington Post and The New York Times that popularized the phrase fake news and directed it blunderbuss-style not only at the few Web sites that intentionally invent stories to increase their clicks but at independent-minded journalism outlets that have dared question the elite s groupthinks on issues of war, peace and globalization.THE BLACK LISTProfessional journalistic skepticism toward official claims by the U.S. government what you should expect from reporters became conflated with fake news. The Post even gave front-page attention to an anonymous group called PropOrNot that published a black list of 200 Internet sites, including Consortiumnews.com and other independent-minded journalism sites, to be shunned.But the mainstream media stars didn t like it when Trump began throwing the fake news slur back at them. Thus, the First Amendment lapel pins and the standing ovation for Jeff Mason s repudiation of the fake news label.Yet, as the glitzy White House Correspondents Dinner demonstrated, mainstream journalists get the goodies of prestige and money while the real truth-tellers are almost always outspent, outgunned and cast out of the mainstream. Indeed, this dwindling band of honest people who are both knowledgeable and in position to expose unpleasant truths is often under mainstream attack, sometimes for unrelated personal failings and other times just for rubbing the powers-that-be the wrong way.Perhaps, the clearest case study of this up-is-down rewards-and-punishments reality was the Iraq War s WMD rationale. Nearly across the board, the American political/media system from U.S. intelligence analysts to the deliberative body of the U.S. Senate to the major U.S. news organizations failed to ascertain the truth and indeed actively helped disseminate the falsehoods about Iraq hiding WMDs and even suggested nuclear weapons development. (Arguably, the most trusted U.S. government official at the time, Secretary of State Colin Powell, played a key role in selling the false allegations as truth. )Not only did the supposed American gold standard for assessing information the U.S. political, media and intelligence structure fail miserably in the face of fraudulent claims often from self-interested Iraqi opposition figures and their neoconservative American backers, but there was minimal accountability afterwards for the professionals who failed to protect the public from lies and deceptions.PROFITING FROM FAILUREIndeed, many of the main culprits remain respected members of the journalistic establishment. For instance, The New York Times Pentagon correspondent Michael R. Gordon, who was the lead writer on the infamous aluminum tubes for nuclear centrifuges story which got the ball rolling for the Bush administration s rollout of its invade-Iraq advertising campaign in September 2002, still covers national security for the Times and still serves as a conveyor belt for U.S. government propaganda.The Washington Post s editorial page editor Fred Hiatt, who repeatedly informed the Post s readers that Iraq s secret possession of WMD was a flat-fact, is still the Post s editorial page editor, one of the most influential positions in American journalism.Hiatt s editorial page led a years-long assault on the character of former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson for the offense of debunking one of President George W. Bush s claims about Iraq seeking yellowcake uranium from Niger. Wilson had alerted the CIA to the bogus claim before the invasion of Iraq and went public with the news afterwards, but the Post treated Wilson as the real culprit, dismissing him as a blowhard and trivializing the Bush administration s destruction of his wife s CIA career by outing her (Valerie Plame) in order to discredit Wilson s Niger investigation.At the end of the Post s savaging of Wilson s reputation and in the wake of the newspaper s accessory role in destroying Plame s career, Wilson and Plame decamped from Washington to New Mexico. Meanwhile, Hiatt never suffered a whit and remains a respected Washington media figure to this day.CAREERIST LESSONThe lesson that any careerist would draw from the Iraq case is that there is almost no downside risk in running with the pack on a national security issue. Even if you re horrifically wrong even if you contribute to the deaths of some 4,500 U.S. soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis your paycheck is almost surely safe.The same holds true if you work for an international agency that is responsible for monitoring issues like chemical weapons. Again, the Iraq example offers a good case study. In April 2002, as President Bush was clearing away the few obstacles to his Iraq invasion plans, Jose Mauricio Bustani, the head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons [OPCW], sought to persuade Iraq to join the Chemical Weapons Convention so inspectors could verify Iraq s claims that it had destroyed its stockpiles.The Bush administration called that idea an ill-considered initiative after all, it could have stripped away the preferred propaganda rationale for the invasion if the OPCW verified that Iraq had destroyed its chemical weapons. So, Bush s Undersecretary of State for Arms Control John Bolton, a neocon advocate for the invasion of Iraq, pushed to have Bustani deposed. The Bush administration threatened to withhold dues to the OPCW if Bustani, a Brazilian diplomat, remained.It now appears obvious that Bush and Bolton viewed Bustani s real offense as interfering with their invasion scheme, but Bustani was ultimately taken down over accusations of mismanagement, although he was only a year into a new five-year term after having been reelected unanimously. The OPCW member states chose to sacrifice Bustani to save the organization from the loss of U.S. funds, but in so doing they compromised its integrity, making it just another agency that would bend to big-power pressure. By dismissing me, Bustani said, an international precedent will have been established whereby any duly elected head of any international organization would at any point during his or her tenure remain vulnerable to the whims of one or a few major contributors. He added that if the United States succeeded in removing him, genuine multilateralism would succumb to unilateralism in a multilateral disguise Continue this report at Consortium News READ MORE US NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire US FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
Factbox: Trump on Twitter (Sept 22) - North Korea, Ads on Facebook, Luther Strange
The following statements were posted to the verified Twitter accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS. The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy. @realDonaldTrump : - Rand Paul, or whoever votes against Hcare Bill, will forever (future political campaigns) be known as “the Republican who saved ObamaCare.” [0619 EDT] - Kim Jong Un of North Korea, who is obviously a madman who doesn’t mind starving or killing his people, will be tested like never before! [0628 EDT] - The Russia hoax continues, now it’s ads on Facebook. What about the totally biased and dishonest Media coverage in favor of Crooked Hillary? [0644 EDT] - The greatest influence over our election was the Fake News Media “screaming” for Crooked Hillary Clinton. Next, she was a bad candidate! [0726 EDT] - Will be in Alabama tonight. Luther Strange has gained mightily since my endorsement, but will be very close. He loves Alabama, and so do I! [0739 EDT] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR)
| 1
|
UN Physically Removes Independent Media From NYC HQ For Exposing Institutional Corruption
21st Century Wire says For years, the United Nations seems to have been embroiled in an endless string of scandals and cover-ups, and yet rarely, if ever, has anyone ever actually been held to account. This has led a number of pundits to accuse the institution of being above the law and riddled with institutional corruption.This latest story only reaffirms these accusations Independent journalist Matthew Russell Lee (photo, left) founded Bronx-based Inner City Press in 2005 and received official press accreditation to cover the United Nations in New York City. He was the first-ever independent, non-affiliated blogger to be given access to the UN s inner sanctum. Since then Inner City Press has broken stories on a number of controversial stories: peacekeeper rapes in Africa, UN cholera in Haiti, war crimes in Sri Lanka and Burundi, the Sudans, SEMG and Yemen (see a leaked letter here), as well as corruption within UN Headquarters (cocaine shipments through its mail room and the current bribery scandals).Apparently, it was all too much for diplomatic luminaries at the UN. Last month, Lee was forcibly ejected from the UN headquarters.The DC-based Government Accountability Project, which defends UN and other whistleblowers, believes that the ouster of Inner City Press from the UN s press office is retaliatory in response to independent, critical journalism. UN Restricts of Free PressOn the afternoon of February 19th, Inner City Press questioned UN inaction in South Sudan and Burundi and financial irregularities, and was handed a letter from Ban Ki-moon s Under Secretary General for Public Information Cristina Gallach ordering Inner City Press to surrender its Resident Correspondent accreditation of eight years and be removed from the UN by 5 pm. In a letter that gave Inner City Press only two hours notice, Gallach told Inner City Press to surrender the key to its long-time shared office. Read the UN letter here. Later, while Inner City Press was writing up a UN Security Council meeting on Syria that went into the evening, a total of eight UN Security guards under Deputy Chief Michael McNulty tore off Inner City Press UN ID badge and grabbed Inner City Press laptop and camera, before throwing them on the sidewalk on First Avenue as well as physically throwing journalist Matthew Lee on the street in freezing weather, without a coat. Audio here; video as UN Security turns off Inner City Press Periscope livestream here: Ban Ki-moon, whose victory tour of blood-soaked northern Sri Lanka Inner City Press covered and was never forgiven for by Ban s UN, was the target of a demonstration in Jaffa for the ouster of Inner City Press. Tamils in Jaffna protest the cancellation of the resident correspondent s press accreditation of Inner City Press from the UN Building in New York City: Supporters of Inner City Press launched a petition to restore Lee and Inner City Press to its former office space.READ MORE UN NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire UN Files
| 0
|
POLITICAL AGITATOR: Globalist George Soros Linked to Over 50 ‘Partners’ of the Women’s March on Washington
21st Century Wire says More than 50 NGO partners of the Women s March on Washington were found to be tied to social movement financier George Soros. While the DC gathering was billed as a grassroots movement for women s rights in America, it was anything but as a string of multi-million dollar Democratic Party-affiliated NGO s organized what was clearly an anti-Donald Trump event following the US presidential inauguration this past week. DIVIDE BY DESIGN (Photo illustration 21WIRE s Shawn Helton)As we ve stated before here at 21WIRE, this kind of political protest is designed to first cause public disruption, while also fomenting a form of socially-engineered cultural, gender and class warfare.In the case of the Women s March on Washington, a militant style of identity politics was on a full frontal display. Enter stage left the celebrities This was never more apparent than the hate filled diatribe of Hollywood actress Ashley Judd, whose angry rhetoric was eclipsed only by famed singer Madonna, who during her obscenity laced speech admitted to harboring violent thoughts directed at the White House. Consequently, the Material Girl is now reportedly under Secret Service investigation for her bomb related threat this past Saturday.Watch how both Judd and Madonna are driven by rage during their politically divisive speeches at the Women s March on Washington https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-5ZkrQHyNcDuring an interview with ABC NEWS, Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway didn t see the point, of the Women s March. Additionally, Conway underscored that 29-30 million women across America voted for Trump and their voices were heard in the 2016 election https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVEiGcT9wD4QUESTION: Was the heavily organized Women s March on Washington just another example of a radical globalist and cultural Marxist progressive agenda at play?Historically speaking, many social movements have worked to erode the legitimacy of a democratically elected government through a series of artificial color upheavals (color revolutions), and where possible weakening a country s national sovereignty through forced dependency on multilateral globalist institutions like the UN or IMF, while presenting shock and awe imagery in order to manipulate the public s political perspective.This is how the US and its CIA conduct their destablization color revolution campaigns overseas, and now astute observers will recognize these exact same methods being deployed here inside the US.Overseas, Washington tends to use the same cast of NGO fronts to build-up pro-US political opposition groups, as well as plan and generate civil unrest. They include the Albert Einstein Institute (AEI), National Endowment for Democracy (NED), International Republican Institute (IRI), National Democratic Institute (NDI), Freedom House and later the International Center for Non-Violent Conflict (ICNC), and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the financial and contractor arm of the Department of State.Inside the US, deep state actors in Washington generally work through Democratic Party affiliated organizations like MoveOn.org, as well as through labor union organizations like AFL-CIO, and UNITE HERE. These, along with many other similar organizations have been involved in organizing this latest protest movement in America.While it still remains to be seen if Trump s stated political vision for America can unite an embattled nation, one thing is clear many NGO groups operating inside the US will continue their organized opposition to the newly elected president over the course of his time in the White House. BITTER PILL Madonna s waning singing career gives way to cultural upheaval and demagoguery. (Image Source: Extra.ie)Other partners for the march included the American Atheists and UniteWomen.org, who ran a public relations campaign which featured videos with the hashtags #ImWithHer, #DemsInPhily and #ThanksObama. Once again, all road lead back to billionaire Hillary Clinton financier, George Soros and his Open Society NGO empire.Writer Asra Nomani expands on the Soros web here: By my draft research, which I m opening up for crowd-sourcing on GoogleDocs, Soros has funded, or has close relationships with, at least 56 of the march s partners, including key partners Planned Parenthood, which opposes Trump s anti-abortion policy, and the National Resource Defense Council, which opposes Trump s environmental policies. The other Soros ties with Women s March organizations include the partisan MoveOn.org (which was fiercely pro-Clinton), the National Action Network (which has a former executive director lauded by Obama senior advisor Valerie Jarrett as a leader of tomorrow as a march co-chair and another official as the head of logistics ). Other Soros grantees who are partners in the march are the American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Constitutional Rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. March organizers and the organizations identified here haven t yet returned queries for comment. NOTE: See her full story below.The Free Thought Project illustrates the contrived socially engineered nature behind the Women s March on Washington in lengthy passage below:Washington, D.C. An investigation by a New York Times affiliate has revealed that billionaire globalist financier George Soros, who recently called Donald Trump a would-be dictator during an interview at Davos, and whose Open Society Foundation works to finance and forward progressive causes across the world, and is intimately connected to numerous color revolutions, the Arab Spring, and various other political uprisings across the globe, has been revealed to be connected to more than 50 of the groups that organized the nationwide Women s Marches that saw millions of Americans take to the streets across the country.The march s official website says, We stand together, recognizing that defending the most marginalized among us is defending all of us. Many people turned out to be a manifestation of that ideal, but it s important to understand the reality of what is happening on a strategic political level as an inorganic politically contrived and funded event. This, in no way, takes away from the validity of standing up for women s issues but is important to note that women are being used as pawns in a larger ideological political game that has international overtones of power politics.These marches were largely billed as spontaneous and grassroots actions, by publications like The Guardian and Vox. However, the reality exposed by an investigation by self-described liberal feminist Asra Q. Nomani, writing for New York Times affiliate Women in the World, revealed that after studying the funding, politics and talking points of the some 403 groups that are partners of the march, contrary to the non-partisan rhetoric used in these marches, they were not really women s march but were rather for women who are anti-Trump. Nomani reveals that the Women s Marches were actually organized as political tools to be used to strategically forward a progressive political agenda against President Donald Trump exposing the protests to largely be an organized, top-down driven political operation and not an organic movement of concerned Americans taking to the streets as reported by the mainstream media. More from the NY Times affiliate Women in the World below SOROS MARCH? The Women s March in Washington DC revealed some deep NGO pockets lurking behind the scenes. (Image Source: thefederalist.com). Asra Q. Nomani NY Times Women in the WorldIn the pre-dawn darkness of today s presidential inauguration day, I faced a choice, as a lifelong liberal feminist who voted for Donald Trump for president: lace up my pink Nike sneakers to step forward and take the DC Metro into the nation s capital for the inauguration of America s new president, or wait and go tomorrow to the after-party, dubbed the Women s March on Washington ? The Guardian has touted the Women s March on Washington as a spontaneous action for women s rights. Another liberal media outlet, Vox, talks about the huge, spontaneous groundswell behind the march. On its website, organizers of the march are promoting their work as a grassroots effort with independent organizers. Even my local yoga studio, Beloved Yoga, is renting a bus and offering seats for $35. The march s manifesto says magnificently, The Rise of the Woman = The Rise of the Nation. It s an idea that I, a liberal feminist, would embrace. But I know and most of America knows that the organizers of the march haven t put into their manifesto: the march really isn t a women s march. It s a march for women who are anti-Trump. As someone who voted for Trump, I don t feel welcome, nor do many other women who reject the liberal identity-politics that is the core underpinnings of the march, so far, making white women feel unwelcome, nixing women who oppose abortion and hijacking the agenda. To understand the march better, I stayed up through the nights this week, studying the funding, politics and talking points of the some 403 groups that are partners of the march. Is this a non-partisan Women s March ?Continue the NY Times article here READ MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
Obama says Trump immigration move 'cruel,' not 'required legally'
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former President Barack Obama said on Tuesday the Trump administration’s decision to rescind a program Obama instituted to protect from deportation illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States as children was “cruel,” “self-defeating” and “wrong.” “Let’s be clear: the action taken today isn’t required legally,” Obama said in a post on Facebook. “It’s a political decision, and a moral question.” “Whatever concerns or complaints Americans may have about immigration in general, we shouldn’t threaten the future of this group of young people who are here through no fault of their own, who pose no threat, who are not taking away anything from the rest of us,” he wrote.
| 1
|
What Will Happen to Your Guns Under President Trump?
21st Century Wire says Legacy note to Obama s ghost writer: Barack Hussein Obama will go down in the record books as the greatest gun salesmen of all time. Both Obama and his Attorney General Eric Holder embarked on one of the most aggressive, multi-pronged gun restriction political campaigns in US history. Hence, under President Obama, gun sales sky rocketed driving up demand along with record levels on purchasing prices.That s right Obama did more for the gun industry than Charlton Heston ever could.In the aftermath that bull market however, guns, both news and used, have since adopted some of the attributes of a commodity.As the market settles under a new Administration, expect a little more predicability Josh Levine AZ CentralNow that we re more than a month into the Trump era, I m eager to see how the new administration, controversial legislation, and even heated Twitter exchanges about gun control affects firearm sales in the secondary market.Logic would tell me that sales will slow down. After all, gun sales soared during President Obama s eight years in office. A recent USA Today article I read stated that since Nov. 4, 2008, both Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. and Sturm, Ruger & Co. stock rose more than 1,000 percent. A similar trend was seen during the Clinton Administration as well.On the contrary, a recent Time article stated that gun ownership in the U.S. is the lowest it has been since 1978. Don t believe it? Apparently, the gun sales rose during the past eight years among gun owners buying more guns.Effects on AuctionsSo, how does this all shake out for the auction industry?You have to remember that the secondary market is different than retail. I think bidders will continue to seek out sporting, collectible, recreational and defensive guns at auctions because they know they can find quality firearms at a good value.There s also the matter of trust. Auction houses are FFL holders, and they must adhere to all state and federal laws.So far, it has been business as usual at our auction house, and prices for collectible guns continue to be strong.A 6 inch Colt Python.As an example, recently we sold a Colt Python that realized $3,000 with buyer s premium. They just continue to command top dollar.I m also seeing more Western guns selling at auction. Recently, we sold a Colt Single Action Army that realized $3,120 with buyer s premium. It had condition issues, but still performed well.These examples are Colt. However, other brands are fairing just as well. Browning, Remington, local favorite Ruger and Beretta have all been performing admirably.Even though gun owners and buyers may relax a lot under President Trump s tenure, I m not anticipating a sudden drop of interest in the guns we sell at auction. The Baby Boomers and older are downsizing and selling off their collections. And, no amount of tweets or controversial public policies will change that fact.The buyers may have been motivated by fear when it appeared that Hillary Clinton might win, but now I think they re motivated by pure collecting passion.Tips before purchaseIf you re in the market to purchase antique firearms, check used gun prices in the Blue Book of Gun Values as well as sites like LiveAuctioneers and Gunbrokers.com before placing a bid.Check the gun s condition in person or ask for the auction house to provide photos and a condition report if you are purchasing it online.Also, make sure you will clear a background check as most major auction houses will require a Federal background or NICS check, as it s known.If you re selling, don t despair. I don t think this new Trump era will make prices in the secondary market plummet. They may not be huge or the best, but I think they ll continue to be decent.Josh Levine owns J. Levine Auction & Appraisal in Scottsdale. Contact: josh@jlevines.com or @jlevines1 on Twitter.READ MORE 2nd AMENDMENT NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2nd Amendment Files
| 0
|
BOILER ROOM – EP #43 – Cloppers, OR Osmosis, MK Ultra & Voltron
Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at 6 PM PST | 9 PM EST every Wednesday. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher, & Spore along with Jay Dyer and Jamie Hanshaw joining from the studio of Jays Analysis, Daniel Spaulding from Soul of the East, 21Wire contributor Randy J and Boiler Room Presidential Candidate select: Stewart Howe. In this broadcast listeners will be hearing us go around the BOILER ROOM on a veritable feast of topics including mind control aspects, revelation of the method and social engineering encapsulated in topics like Cloppers or Clopsexuals, MK Ultra: it s history and role in popular film and television, some breaking news on the Oregon standoff at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge and Daniel Spaulding joins late in the show for some clowning of the reality TV style that is presented via the mainstream media as US presidential election process. If you want to participate, bring something interesting to throw into the boiler Join us in the ALTERNATE CURRENT RADIO chat room.BOILER ROOM IS NOT A POLICTALLY CORRECT ZONE! ACR player below Show goes live at 6 PM PST Reference Links:
| 0
|
Democrats take aim at big companies in economic blueprint
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democrats unveiled an economic platform on Monday that included plans to address unfair market competition, rising pharmaceuticals costs and stagnant wages. Democrats proposed new standards that companies must meet to complete large mergers and enhanced post-merger reviews, singling out the airline, telecommunications, beer, food and eyeglass industries as areas of concern in the proposal dubbed “A Better Deal” for working Americans. Last year, Republicans proposed legislative goals with a similar title: “A Better Way.” The Democrats’ platform is a move to regroup ahead of the 2018 midterm congressional elections, after Hillary Clinton’s loss to Republican President Donald Trump in 2016. Republicans control both the House and the Senate. Senator Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the U.S. Senate, accused Trump of running a populist election campaign and then abandoning working people for special interests once in the White House. “We can’t delude anyone that this Congress will begin passing our priorities tomorrow but we have to start presenting our vision for the country’s future,” Schumer said at a kickoff event in the town of Berryville, Virginia. Accompanying Schumer was House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen and Amy Klobuchar, and Representatives Hakeem Jeffries and David Cicilline, among others. Democrats want to create an independent government agency that would crack down on drug companies that raise prices excessively. They also want to allow Medicare, the government health insurance program for the elderly, to negotiate prices with manufacturers. Additionally, drug companies would need to justify big price hikes to the government. Policy proposals provided to reporters singled out a few companies by name, including Turing Pharmaceuticals and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. One document criticized United Continental Holdings Inc for the “brutal assault” of a United passenger who was already seated on an overbooked flight and refused to give up his seat for a crew member. Separately, if AT&T Inc’s purchase of Time Warner Inc succeeds, it would allow the “resulting behemoths” to “unfairly discriminate” against smaller distributors, one document stated. When Anheuser Busch InBev, the world’s largest beer maker, purchased SABMiller, the second-largest beer company, it put smaller brewers at a disadvantage, the documents said. Mergers between Dow Chemical Co and DuPont, Monsanto Co with Bayer AG and Syngenta AG with ChemChina “threaten the safety of food and agriculture in America,” one document said. Democrats will also propose doubling federal support for apprenticeship programs, a tax credit for employers that hire and train workers that make a liveable wage, and encouraging partnerships between companies and public high schools and community colleges.
| 1
|
Autos need devices to curb child heatstroke deaths: U.S. lawmakers
(Reuters) - Automakers could help prevent accidental deaths of small children left in hot cars by installing devices to remind drivers to check their back seats for passengers before getting out, three U.S. lawmakers sponsoring a safety measure said on Wednesday. The bipartisan group of lawmakers joined safety experts and parents with testimonials of personal tragedies to publicly press for a law they said would have averted many of the 800 deaths of children left in overheated cars since 1990. “It should be bipartisan, non-partisan, it should be America’s legislation,” Rep. Peter King, a New York Republican told a Washington press conference. The bill, known as the Helping Overcome Trauma for Children Alone in Rear Seats, or HOT CARS, Act, would instruct the U.S. Transportation Department to issue a rule requiring new cars to have systems that alert drivers check their back seats after they turn off their engines. Representative Tim Ryan, an Ohio Democrat and a chief sponsor of the bill, lauded General Motors Co for already installing rear-seat reminders in its 2018 model Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC vehicles. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers said it would review the legislation and “provide guidance,” but added that under the bill it would take about 20 years before all cars were equipped with the new technology. “Greater public awareness saves lives today,” alliance spokesman Scott Hall said in a statement. Stories of children, as well as pets, who die while left unattended in hot cars tend to horrify Americans each summer. Miles Harrison of suburban Washington recounted the highly publicized death of his adopted young son, when he forgot to drop him at daycare and left him in his car at work on a hot July day nine years ago. He was tried and found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter. “It really did not matter to me whether I was found guilty or innocent,” he said. “I still have not forgiven myself and don’t know if I have the capacity to do so.” The Russian government later used the tragedy as partial justification for banning U.S. citizens from adopting Russian orphans, naming the law after the child.
| 1
|
Kentucky lawmaker a 'probable suicide' amid sexual misconduct accusations
(Reuters) - Kentucky state Representative Dan Johnson, who was facing sexual assault accusations, died in a probable suicide on Wednesday, Bullitt County Coroner Dave Billings said. Johnson, 57, also the leader of the Louisville-area Heart of Fire Church, held a news conference on Tuesday at which he denied accusations contained in a report by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting. The report, published earlier in the week, included accusations from a woman that Johnson molested her in 2013 when she was a teenager. Johnson, whose press conference was widely reported by local media, also defied calls by some legislators to step down. On Wednesday evening, Johnson was found dead in a probable suicide from a single gunshot wound near Louisville, the coroner said, adding that an autopsy would be performed on Thursday. Billings said law enforcement officials had been searching for Johnson after someone read a post on his Facebook page, became concerned and contacted police. The post has since been taken down, but the Courier-Journal reported that it appeared to be a farewell and read in part, “the accusations from NPR are false, GOD and only GOD knows the truth. Nothing is the way they make it out to be.” The death comes amid a national reckoning over sexual harassment and abuse that has included allegations of misconduct in a number of state legislatures, including in Kentucky. Kentucky Republican Jeff Hoover recently resigned his post as Speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives under a cloud of sexual harassment allegations. “Saddened to hear of tonight’s death of KY Representative Dan Johnson,” Kentucky Republican Gov. Matt Bevin wrote on Twitter. “My heart breaks for his family tonight...these are heavy days in Frankfort and in America...may God indeed shed His grace on us all...we sure need it.” Michael Skoler, President of Louisville Public Media, which operates the investigative reporting center, said in a statement on social media that the organization reached out to Johnson numerous times during its seven-month investigation but that he declined to discuss the group’s findings. Johnson was elected in 2016 despite becoming known for a 2016 Facebook post comparing President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama to monkeys, WDRB-TV has reported.
| 1
|
'Dreamer' immigration bill not on U.S. Senate agenda this month
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate will not consider an immigration bill as part of year-end legislation but will turn to a measure protecting immigrant youths known as “Dreamers” in January, No. 2 Senate Republican John Cornyn said on Monday. Cornyn also said that if Congress cannot meet an early March deadline for passing legislation providing the protections against deportation for undocumented immigrants who were brought illegally into the United States as children, President Donald Trump could consider extending the deadline. In interviews over the past several days, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers and aides said that talks on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) have been quietly making progress. “The president has given us enough time to deal with this before March and so I think that’s plenty of time and I expect us to meet it,” Cornyn told reporters. “If we can’t, then the president could extend the deadline if he chose to do so. But this is something we’re going to turn to, I’m sure, in January.” Tensions between Republicans and Democrats over the issue of legislative protections for Dreamers increased this fall after Trump took a hard line on the conditions for a deal. An intense lobbying campaign has been underway to urge lawmakers to find a permanent legislative fix after the Republican president ended the DACA program in September. He gave Congress until early March to come up with a legislative replacement. On Capitol Hill, advocates have handed out buttons to lawmakers and aides with the number “122,” referring to the estimated number of Dreamers each day who already are losing the temporary legal status they had under DACA. Immigration advocates have erected a huge monitor on the National Mall. Situated at the base of the U.S. Capitol for lawmakers and tourists alike to see, it broadcasts videos of Dreamers pleading for help. Meanwhile, seven DACA beneficiaries from Mexico, Argentina and Colombia were in the fourth day of a hunger strike to draw attention to the issue. Republican Representative John Carter, a veteran of past immigration debates, said he worried Democrats want to go way beyond the scope of DACA and the approximately 800,000 Dreamers who at one time or another were covered by Democratic former President Barack Obama’s executive order. “They’re talking Dream Act,” Carter said referring to the legislation offered by Democratic Senator Dick Durbin and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. “And that number is about 2 million people. That’s too much.” Past legislative attempts to allow Dreamers to get work permits and drivers licenses, open bank accounts and “come out of the shadows” have stalled as conservative Republicans and lobbying groups objected to giving “amnesty” to anyone who entered the United States illegally - even those who had no choice in the matter and have grown up here. Democratic Representative Michelle Lujan Grisham, who chairs the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said Republican demands for additional resources for immigration enforcement throughout the United States and not just at the border are a major problem. Her concern is that the Trump administration might use the money to hire more federal agents to nab undocumented relatives of Dreamers. “If you’re going to come in and go to hospitals and go to courtrooms and go to schools” in search of family members, “I’m not going to do that,” she said in an interview.
| 1
|
Dyer: ‘LA Times ‘Fake News’ Article is an Attack on Independent Media’
Jay Dyer 21st Century WireAccording to a recent feature article published by the LA Times, and which has since gone viral, this website, 21st Century Wire, has been placed at the top of a list of fake news sites compiled by Dr Melissa Zimdars, an associate professor at Merrimack College in Massachusetts. Aside from being a highly political attempt to discredit a number of online news source which Dr Zimdars and the Democratic Party establishment probably labels as Alt Right, this coordinated effort also points directly to a much deeper agenda, as part of a larger as psychological operation to create an algorithm for filtering (censoring) news items on major internet platforms and social networks.I take that to heart, since I write for 21WIRE. It s no coincidence that this LA Times hit piece comes in the same week that Democratic Party pundits and leaders are blaming Hillary Clinton s loss to Donald Trump on fake news posted on Facebook which they claim wrongly influenced voters. Also just by coincidence this week, Facebook, Google and other DNC affiliated Silicon Valley media partners have announced they are planning to draw-up lists of numerous alternative media websites including right wing websites as well as known satire sites, and ours as fake. Google and Facebook will then be able to flag and restrict banned websites from being able to earn revenue through their advertising networks. Of course, the real reason for this is explained in my video (watch below) outlining the absurdity of the most astounding liars on the planet the Mainstream Media accusing websites like ours as pushing out fake news. Ultimately, this is an attack on all independent media.It seems that Dr Zimdar s master list was made to place 21WIRE at the top and yet, it s perhaps the best site on the list and is the only one that has been to Syria, reported on the ground in Aleppo, and even met with Syria president Assad all things that most corporate mainstream media outlets have not managed to do. 21WIRE also blasted faux NGO the White Helmets away as a western-funded propaganda front. 21WIRE is subject to regular DDoS attacks and regularly does real journalism. It is also edited by accredited journalists and is frequently featured on radio and television. That is why it has been targeted in this hit piece because it is independent and not attached to any political party.Watch my video analysis here: ***Jay Dyer is the author of the new book, Esoteric Hollywood: Sex, Cults and Symbols in Film from Trine Day Publishers. Focusing on film, philosophy, geopolitics and all things esoteric, JaysAnalysis and his podcast, Esoteric Hollywood, investigates the deeper meanings between the headlines, exploring the hidden aspects of our sinister synthetic mass media matrix.READ MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE NOW & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
House Republican unveils tax bill to aid hurricane victims
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top Republican tax law writer in the U.S. House of Representatives unveiled new tax legislation on Friday that he said would help people cope with hurricane devastation in Texas, Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and other areas. “My bill specifically helps hurricane victims keep more of their paycheck, deduct more of the cost of their...property damage and have more affordable and immediate access to money they have saved for their retirement,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady said in a statement accompanying the measure. “The legislation will also encourage even more Americans to donate generously to help those in need,” he added.
| 1
|
NEW EMAILS: Clinton Foundation VIP donors buy access – while Hillary was Secretary of State
21st Century Wire says In the old days, this scandal would be filed under gross conflict of interest or government corruption . In the America in 2016, it s simply filed under news. Far from being a great charity organization, the Clinton Foundation appears to be merely a vehicle for those who want access to a US-based syndicate of international oligarchs, elite financial institutions, foreign governments, and even dictator-friendly Lebanese-Nigerian billionaires.As 21WIRE reported last week, this international syndicate stretches right through the heartland of Islamist radicalization and state-sponsored terrorism to the feudal monarchs in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and others.To be sure, this is only the tip of a much larger political iceberg RTNewly released emails reveal more ties between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department during Hillary Clinton s tenure as secretary of state, showing that major donors received special perks including lunch with the Chinese president.The State Department emails were released as part of a public records lawsuit by conservative group Citizens United. The documents were then shared exclusively with ABC News. After more than two years of Freedom of Information Act requests and lengthy litigation, the truth is finally coming out, David Bossie, president of Citizens United, said in a statement. Hillary Clinton s senior staff at the State Department routinely worked with the Clinton Foundation to reward big donors with special access and favors for four years. The emails seem to suggest that some of the Clinton Foundation s biggest donors were given special treatment, including seats at a meal attended by Chinese President Hu Jintao.One particular email chain dated December 2010 includes correspondence between Clinton s closest aide, Huma Abedin, and then-top Clinton Foundation official Doug Band.The email gives names of those expected to attend a State Department lunch with the Chinese president scheduled for January 2011 and some of the foundation s biggest donors were on the guest list.The list included three executives from organizations that have donated millions to the Clinton Foundation Bob McCann, then-president of wealth management at UBS; Dr. Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation; and Hikmet Ersek, the CEO of Western Union.According to the Clinton Foundation s website, UBS has contributed between $500,000 and $1 million to the organization. The Rockefeller Foundation has donated between $10 million and $25 million, and Western Union and its foundation has given between $1 million and $5 million.Nearly two weeks after the initial email, Band sent a follow-up requesting that Rodin be seated at Vice President Joe Biden s table. I ll ask, Abedin wrote in response.In a separate email, Abedin forwarded Band an attachment titled Updated China RSVP Guest List 1-5-11. The attachment itself was not included in the documents seen by ABC Read more at RTREAD MORE CLINTON NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Clinton Files
| 0
|
Pelosi says she trusts Trump's sincerity on protecting Dreamers
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said she trusted President Donald Trump’s sincerity in working to protect so-called Dreamers brought to this country illegally and that the effort to shield this group from immigration would not include cuts to legal immigration. “When we’re talking about this legislation to protect the Dreamers, yes I do trust that the president is sincere in understanding that the public supports that overwhelmingly, the public supports not sending these young people back,” Pelosi told reporters.
| 1
|
Republican wins Montana special election despite assault charge
BOZEMAN, Mont. (Reuters) - Republican Greg Gianforte defeated a political novice to win Montana’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday, barely 24 hours after he was charged with assaulting a reporter who asked him about the Republican healthcare bill. A race that was expected to be a test of President Donald Trump’s political influence ahead of next year’s U.S. congressional elections was jolted by the charge against Gianforte, a wealthy technology executive who had urged voters to send him to Congress to help Trump. Speaking to cheering supporters in Bozeman after his win, Gianforte apologized for the incident and said he was not proud of his actions. “I should not have responded the way I did, and for that I’m sorry,” Gianforte said. “I should not have treated that reporter that way.” Gianforte beat Democrat Rob Quist, a banjo player and first-time candidate who had focused his campaign on criticism of the Republican effort to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s healthcare law. CNN projected Gianforte would win. With 96 percent of the vote counted, he led Quist by 51 percent to 43 percent. Gianforte prevailed despite being charged on Wednesday night with misdemeanor assault on Ben Jacobs, a political correspondent for the U.S. edition of the Guardian newspaper, who said the candidate “body-slammed” him during a campaign event in Bozeman. Gianforte’s victory is a boost for Republicans, who are worried Trump’s political stumbles and the unpopularity of the healthcare bill passed by the House will hurt their chances of holding on to a 24-seat House majority in next year’s elections. But the relatively close margin of the race in Republican-leaning Montana was encouraging to Democrats, who are already focused on next month’s hotly contested special House election in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. Gianforte had been favored to win in Montana, where Republicans have held the lone House seat for two decades and where Trump won by more than 20 percentage points in the 2016 presidential election. The race had grown closer in the last week, however, as Quist focused on criticism of the House healthcare bill. Quist, wearing his signature cowboy hat, told supporters in Missoula, Montana, that the grassroots energy of his campaign would continue. “I know that Montanans will hold Mr Gianforte accountable,” Quist said. It was unclear if Gianforte’s assault had an impact on the vote. More than a third of the state’s registered voters had already submitted ballots before it happened, state election officials said, and some Gianforte supporters shrugged off the charges or said they did not believe published accounts. “I feel like, it’s all just propaganda, you know what I mean, it’s hard for me to believe anything the media tells me,” said Nathaniel Trumper, who cast a vote for Gianforte at a polling station in Helena. The assault occurred as Jacobs tried to ask Gianforte about healthcare, according to an audio tape. Fox News Channel reporter Alicia Acuna, who was preparing to interview Gianforte, said the candidate “grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him to the ground.” Afterward, three state newspapers rescinded their endorsements of Gianforte. Some Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, suggested he apologize. Gianforte specifically addressed his apology to Jacobs. “Last night I made a mistake,” he said, adding: “I’m sorry, Mr Ben Jacobs.” Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel called Gianforte’s apology “a good first step toward redemption” and said she hoped he “continues to work toward righting his wrong.” Gianforte will take the House seat vacated when Trump named Ryan Zinke as secretary of the interior. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence recorded robocalls to voters on Gianforte’s behalf, and Republican groups poured millions into ads criticizing Quist for property tax liens and unpaid debts, which Quist said stemmed from a botched gallbladder surgery. Quist, who raised more than $6 million for his upstart bid, said the experience gave him insight into the economic struggles some people face. He campaigned last weekend with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who won the state’s 2016 Democratic presidential primary against Hillary Clinton. Gianforte could face additional, more serious charges once prosecutors review the evidence, Gallatin County Attorney Marty Lambert told Reuters. Gianforte has two weeks to enter a plea to the misdemeanor citation issued by the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office, according to Lambert, who said he would likely review the case before then to decide whether it should be treated as a felony offense, which would supersede the current charge. “There’s always the possibility that when we get the case and the details, that we might look differently at the charging decision,” Lambert said.
| 1
|
Ammon and Ryan Bundy Found ‘Not Guilty’ in Oregon Federal Case, Gov. Kate Brown Upset by Jury Decision
21st Century Wire Yesterday, Judge Anna Brown handed out not guilty verdicts to both Ammon and Ryan Bundy, leaders of the 41 day occupation of Malheur National Wildlife refuge near Burns, Oregon earlier this year. The Bundys along with five other defendants, were acquitted of all major charges relating to the Oregon protest event, including conspiring to impede refuge employees and possession of firearms at a federal facility. Ammon Bundy led the protest in Oregon in January 2016.Ammon and Ryan Bundy are still being held in custody however, awaiting a second trial will they will face federal charges in the state of Nevada over the high-profile Bundy Ranch Standoff with the employees of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) near Bunkerville in April 2014.The Burns standoff came to an abrupt end after one protest spokesman and Arizona resident, Robert LaVoy Finicum (photo, left), died after police fired on protester vehicles, before a special federal tactical team tracked, shot and killed the rancher at a pre-planned ambush along a remote rural road outside of Burns.Not surprisingly, the surprise acquittal has sent Democratic Party-linked media outlets into a tail spin. The New York Times still labelled the the Bundy brothers as Armed antigovernment protesters indicating a hyperbolic editorial bias against the defendants which was visible through the trajectory of this story.Similarly, both Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and Harney County Sheriff David Ward are on record saying that were not happy with Friday s verdict, not surprisingly, as both these officials played a crucial role in the state s escalation of violence which colminated in Finicum s death. Brown even issued a public statement saying she was disappointed the jury s decision.Despite a campaign of highly coordinated trial by media propaganda, led by the Oregonian Newspaper and other federal-leaning media outlets like the Washington Post, and ultra-liberal websites like Salon.com the jury was still able to judge the facts, and eventually ruled on the side of the protesters. I knew that what my husband was doing was right, but I was nervous because the judge was controlling the narrative, said Angela Bundy, 39, wife of Ryan to a Times reporter.According to one juror, the verdict was a statement regarding the various failures of the prosecution to prove that there was a conspiracy indicating that the federal government s botched affair might have been down to over-zealous political atmosphere in Washington that led to proscecutors going for a completely over-the-top set of charges in order to make a political statment instead of just sticking to the facts and Constiutional law.Police Tase Bundy Lawyer in CourtroomRight after the verdict was rendered, a bizarre courtroom scene erupted which ended in one of the Bundy s defense lawyers was tased and taken into custody after he asked the court to produce paperwork showing the order to rearrest his client. Attorney Marcus Mumford was visibly shaken after the incident.Watch the video testimony of Mumford here: READ MORE OREGON STANDOFF NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Oregon Files
| 0
|
(VIDEO) For the Love of Winston Smith, “Let The Truth Be Told”
Undoubtedly, we are living in an age of universal deceit, where government and corporations are colluding to bury the truth, and promote only state-sanctioned narratives. The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. His heart sank as he thought of the enormous power arrayed against him, the ease with which any Party intellectual would overthrow him in debate, the subtle arguments which he would not be able to understand, much less answer. And yet he was in the right! They were wrong and he was right. George Orwell describing the plight of Winston Smith in the literary classic, 1984.YouTube artist Rebekah Johnson says, Propaganda puppets are lying to the public and suppressing the truth to further their agenda. Listen to her song and watch her video here:. READ MORE PROPAGANDA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Propaganda FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
Trump seeks legislative wins to cast off shadow of Russia probes
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump pressed Republican congressional leaders on Tuesday to complete their overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system as lawmakers said they were making progress on a contentious effort that threatens to overwhelm their legislative agenda. In a White House meeting, Trump welcomed indications by senior Republicans that the Senate might vote on a healthcare bill in July, before it breaks for the summer, after the House of Representatives passed its own version in May. “Now the Senate I’m sure will follow suit and get a bill across the finish line this summer that will be great healthcare and I’m looking forward to seeing it,” Trump said. The gathering included Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and his No. 2, Senator John Cornyn, along with House Speaker Paul Ryan and his deputies, Representatives Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise. Buffeted by criticism on many fronts, Trump wants faster action from his fellow Republicans who control Congress, pressing lawmakers to finish the job of dismantling the Obamacare healthcare law and move on quickly to another of his priorities: tax cuts. McConnell said Senate Republicans are “getting close” to a healthcare plan after he presented an outline at a lunchtime meeting but he declined to say when he might bring it up for a vote. Other senior Republicans say they hope to vote by early July. “The leader would like to do this soon,” Senator Orrin Hatch told reporters. The Senate requires a 60-vote supermajority to advance most legislation but Republican Mike Enzi, head of the Senate Budget Committee, said the health bill that passed the House qualifies for an expedited process that would require only 51 votes. Still, Republicans have little margin for error because they only control 52 seats in the 100-seat chamber and remain divided over key questions such as how quickly to scale back the Medicaid health plan for the poor. “You have to get 50 people - that means they have to get me and a lot of people who are concerned about Medicaid,” said Senator Shelly Moore Capito of West Virginia, a state that depends heavily on the program. Medicaid was expanded under Obamacare but the House bill would phase that expansion out in 2020. The Senate bill might keep the expansion in place beyond that date, said Republican Senator John Barrasso. Whatever the White House’s efforts to push ahead with policy plans, there will be a spotlight on testimony by James Comey, the FBI director fired by Trump last month, to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday. Senators will question Comey on whether Trump tried to get him to back off an FBI investigation into ties between the president’s 2016 campaign and Russia, an attempt that critics have said could constitute obstruction of justice. Trump denies any collusion with Russia and has called the investigation a “witch hunt.” The Justice Department has appointed a special counsel to oversee its probe into the Russia issue and several congressional panels also are investigating the matter. Elected on pledges to overhaul the healthcare system and slash taxes, Trump has yet to achieve a major legislative win, and time is running out before lawmakers leave Washington for the August break. There has been little progress on healthcare since the House passed its bill. McConnell told Reuters late last month he did not yet know how to amass the votes needed to pass a bill on healthcare. He appeared to make some progress on Tuesday. Some Republican lawmakers praised an outline that McConnell presented at a lunchtime meeting, although they cautioned that much work remained to be done. Senator Bill Cassidy said the plan offered more protections than the House bill for people who already have pre-existing illnesses when they apply for insurance coverage - a major point of contention. “I think personally they are moving in the right direction,” he said. The House healthcare bill could result in 23 million people losing insurance, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The bill also would reduce federal deficits by $119 billion between 2017 and 2026, according to the analysis. Congress might then turn its focus to overhauling the tax code in September. While the administration would prefer that such changes not add to the national debt, Marc Short, Trump’s top aide on Capitol Hill, told reporters on Monday that the top priority would be cutting taxes. The Trump administration has outlined a broad plan that would cut tax rates for businesses and streamline the tax system for individuals. The proposal has been short on details, including how much the tax cuts would cost and what loopholes would be closed. Others are eager to move past healthcare as well. “We need to bring this to an end and move to taxes,” said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.
| 1
|
Boiler Room EP #81 – Halloween Fireside Book of Suspense Vol. 1
Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at 6:00 PM PST | 8:00 PM CST | 9:00 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher and Spore along with Randy J and Stewart Howe from 21Wire, Andy Nowicki from Alt Right Blogspot, Jay Dyer of Jays Analysis and Jamie Hanshaw (host of Happy Hearts) for the 81st episode of BOILER ROOM. Dim the lights, dawn the headphones and indulge in a Halloween Special broadcast of Boiler Room with the crew. This week we re boiling up some media maniac conversation with blend of topics that ONLY the Boiler Room can pull off.Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved!BOILER ROOM IS NOT A POLICTALLY CORRECT ZONE! LISTEN TO THE SHOW IN THE PLAYER BELOW ENJOY!Listen to Boiler Room #81 Halloween Fireside Book of Suspense Vol. 1 on Spreaker.Reference Links:
| 0
|
Iran ‘Will Respond’ if US Moves to Designate Revolutionary Guard as ‘Terrorist Group’
Fresh off its humiliating six-year-long debacle in Syria, and with very few viable wars within its grasp, the Pentagon, along with the Israeli Lobby-led US Congress and Senate are now trying to tighten the noose on Iran.For the last 3 weeks, hawkish Republican Senators have been pressuring President Donald Trump to decertify the Iran nuclear deal in October, and to reimpose harsh sanctions despite the fact that Iran is in full compliance with the international P5+1 brokered nuclear containment agreement.According to the terms of the deal as recognized by Congress, the President must re-certify the deal every 90 days.LITTLE MARCO: It s clear that Marco Rubio is firmly in the pocket of the Israeli Lobby.Chief among the Israeli-led Senators is Florida Senator Marco Rubio. During the Presidential campaign, Rubio was humiliated by Trump who dubbed him Little Marco. Soon after, the slighted Senator was forced to drop out of the race due to a lack of support for his campaign.SEE ALSO: Retired US General Picks Apart Sen. Cotton s Scarlet Letter to IranOn its face, Trump and the Israel First hawks policy to crush the JCPOA Nuclear Agreement makes little sense. Business Insider explains:John Glaser and Emma Ashford respond to Trump s latest attack on the nuclear deal: Iran is clearly abiding by the deal s requirements, as President Trump himself has twice formally acknowledged. But the President appears determined to ignore U.S. allies, his own intelligence community and the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has affirmed eight separate times in detailed reports that Iran is in compliance with the deal.As is usually the case, the US hawks (also supported by Iran s economic and geopolitical regional rival Saudi Arabia) are hoping to trigger retaliatory rhetoric from the Iranian hawks and use those words to justify a call for escalation of tension, and a full range of new sanctions against Iran:This desire to withdraw from the JCPOA is difficult to explain. Whatever Trump s reasoning, this much is clear: All of America s options outside the JCPOA carry unacceptably high risks and threaten to exacerbate the very behavior Iran hawks hope to forestall.Desperate to fabricate their case against Iran, the US (instructed by the Israeli Lobby) are now trying to brand Iran s military as an international terrorist organisation.RT International reports Iran has vowed a firm and crushing reaction should Washington decide to include the elite wing of its army, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), on its list of terrorist organizations, according to the country s foreign ministry.The comments came from Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi on Monday as cited by Tasnim news agency. We are hopeful that the United States does not make this strategic mistake, Qasemi stated during a news conference. If they do, Iran s reaction would be firm, decisive and crushing, he said, adding that the US would have to accept the consequences.Earlier it was reported that Washington is preparing tougher sanctions on Tehran, including the possible designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group.US President Donald Trump has taken a tough stance on the Islamic Republic, criticizing it for supporting terrorism and vowing to put an end to Iran s continued aggression and nuclear ambitions. On Sunday, IRGC chief Mohammad Ali Jafari warned that if the reports are confirmed, the military wing will treat US troops, especially in the Middle East, as they would Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists. If the news is correct about the stupidity of the American government in considering the Revolutionary Guards a terrorist group, then the Revolutionary Guards will consider the American Army to be like Islamic State all around the world, particularly in the Middle East, Jafari stated.Washington s reported threats have prompted France to speak against actions that could exacerbate the current crises in the face of regional instability. With this in mind, regional states have a specific role to play and must show restraint and a sense of responsibility, French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Agnes Romatet-Espagne stressed, when asked whether Paris would endorse such a step.The landmark Iranian nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was signed by the P5+1 group (China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK, and the US) and the European Union in 2015. According to the deal, Iran is to limit its nuclear program for 15 years in exchange for easing the pre-existing sanctions.READ MORE: World will change : Trump likely to pull out of Iran nuclear deal next week German FMDuring his election campaign Trump repeatedly vowed to scrap the agreement, and during his presidency he has continued to accuse Iran of violating the spirit of the deal. This week the US leader is expected to re-certify the agreement, but there are concerns that he may decide to stick to his campaign promises.Other parties to the agreement, including Germany and the EU, have voiced concerns over the possible scuppering of the deal.READ MORE IRAN NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Iran FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
Dispute erupts over House panel subpoenas for CIA, FBI
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A political feud erupted on Wednesday over the U.S. House Intelligence Committee’s probe of suspected Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, with charges that the panel’s Republican chairman subpoenaed the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency without telling Democratic members. Committee aides complained that the chairman, Representative Devin Nunes, who publicly recused himself from leading the Russia probe in April following a secret visit he paid to White House officials, failed to consult Democrats on the subpoenas. The subpoenas asked the agencies to provide details of any requests made by two top Obama administration aides and the former CIA director to “unmask” names of Trump campaign advisers inadvertently picked up in top-secret foreign communications intercepts, congressional sources said. The former officials named in the subpoenas were Obama national security adviser Susan Rice, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power and former CIA Director John Brennan. “Subpoenas related to the ‘unmasking’ issue would have been sent by Chairman Nunes acting separately from the committee’s Russia investigation. This action would have been taken without the minority’s (Democrats’) agreement,” said a senior committee aide, speaking on condition of anonymity. Another congressional source, who also requested anonymity, said Democrats were “informed and consulted” before the subpoenas were issued. The CIA declined to comment on the subpoenas and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and NSA did not immediate respond to requests for comment. U.S. privacy laws and intelligence regulations require that Americans’ names picked up in foreign communications intercepts be concealed unless senior officials request them to be disclosed for intelligence or law enforcement purposes. Any such requests undergo rigorous legal reviews. Several U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that all such requests by Obama administration officials were properly scrutinized and appropriate. SUBPOENAS FOR TRUMP LAWYER, EX-AIDE The spy agency subpoenas were not mentioned in a bipartisan announcement on Wednesday that the panel approved subpoenas for President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, in connection with the Russia probe. The committee also approved subpoenas to the two men’s firms, Flynn Intel Llc, and Michael D. Cohen and Associates PC, the committee statement said. “As part of our ongoing investigation into Russian active measures during the 2016 campaign, today we approved subpoenas for several individuals for testimony, personal documents and business records,” Republican Representative Mike Conaway and Democratic Representative Adam Schiff, who are leading the committee probe, said in a joint statement. Conaway assumed Republican leadership of the probe after Nunes recused himself. Nunes retained his power to issue subpoenas. U.S. intelligence agencies reported in January that Russian President Vladimir Putin oversaw a campaign of computer hacking, fake news and propaganda intended to swing the election to Republican Trump over his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. Putin has denied conducting such a campaign. Trump denies any collusion between Russia and his campaign and has questioned the veracity of the U.S. intelligence finding. Trump fired Flynn in February for failing to disclose the content of his talks with Sergei Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, and misleading Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations. The retired Army general is the subject of congressional, Justice Department and Defense Department investigations into his apparent failure to disclose payments he received from Russian and Turkish entities. Cohen is one of several Trump associates under scrutiny in an FBI examination of possible contacts between Trump’s campaign and Russia, according to the New York Times. It reported that Cohen was involved in a back-channel plan, which never came to fruition, that would have involved a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, and the lifting of U.S. sanctions against Moscow. CNN reported on Wednesday night that congressional investigators were looking into whether Attorney General Jeff Sessions had an undisclosed private meeting with Kislyak during the campaign, citing Republican and Democratic sources in Congress and intelligence officials briefed on the probe. The focus of the probe is on whether such a meeting took place on April 27, 2016, at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, where Trump delivered his first major foreign policy address, CNN reported. During his confirmation hearing in January, Sessions testified that he “did not have any communications with the Russians” during the campaign and said in a written statement given to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he was not in contact with anyone linked to the Russian government during the campaign. It was reported in March that he met with Kislyak twice during the campaign, once at the Republican National Convention in July and once in his Senate office in September. Sessions later admitted having the meetings but said they were part of his Senate duties and were unrelated to the campaign. He later recused himself from the Russia probe.
| 1
|
U.S. directly communicating with North Korea, seeks dialogue
BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States said on Saturday it was directly communicating with North Korea on its nuclear and missile programs but Pyongyang had shown no interest in dialogue. The disclosure by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson during a trip to China represented the first time he has spoken to such an extent about U.S. outreach to North Korea over its pursuit of a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile. “We are probing so stay tuned,” Tillerson told a group of reporters in Beijing. “We ask: ‘Would you like to talk?’ We have lines of communications to Pyongyang. We’re not in a dark situation, a blackout.” He said that communication was happening directly and cited two or three U.S. channels open to Pyongyang. “We can talk to them. We do talk to them,” he said, without elaborating about which Americans were involved in those contacts or how frequent or substantive they were. The goal of any initial dialogue would be simple: finding out directly from North Korea what it wants to discuss. “We haven’t even gotten that far yet,” he said. Trying to tamp down expectations, the State Department said later there were no signs Pyongyang was interested in talks. “North Korean officials have shown no indication that they are interested in or are ready for talks regarding denuclearization,” department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement. Tillerson previously had offered little detail about U.S. outreach. On Sept. 20, he acknowledged only “very, very limited” contact with Pyongyang’s U.N. envoy. When asked about Tillerson’s assertion and what communication there might be between Pyongyang and Washington, a spokesman for the North Korean mission to the United Nations said he “can’t go further into detail.” Tillerson’s remarks followed a day of meetings in Beijing, which has been alarmed by recent exchanges of war-like threats and personal insults between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump. “I think the whole situation’s a bit overheated right now,” Tillerson said. “I think everyone would like for it to calm down. “Obviously it would help if North Korea would stop firing off missiles. That’d calm things down a lot.” South Korean officials have voiced concerns that North Korea could conduct more provocative acts near the anniversary of the founding of its communist party on Oct. 10, or possibly when China holds its Communist Party Congress on Oct. 18. North Korea is fast advancing toward its goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. It conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sept. 3 and has threatened to test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific. U.S. officials including Tillerson say Beijing, after long accounting for some 90 percent of North Korea’s foreign trade, appears increasingly willing to cut ties to its neighbor’s economy by adopting U.N. sanctions. Tillerson said China’s more assertive posture was due to its realization that North Korea’s nuclear and missile capabilities had advanced too far. “I think they also have a sense that we’re beginning to run out of time and that we really have to change the dynamic,” Tillerson said. The goal of the sanctions would be getting North Korea’s Kim to view nuclear weapons as a liability, not a strength. Still, the U.S. intelligence community does not believe Kim is likely to give up his weapons program willingly, regardless of sanctions. “(Tillerson’s) working against the unified view of our intelligence agencies, which say there’s no amount of pressure that can be put on them to stop,” Senator Bob Corker told a hearing at the chamber on Thursday. Kim sees nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles as “his ticket to survival,” Corker said. Tillerson agreed that Kim’s nuclear and missile programs were aimed at ensuring his own security, and renewed assurances that the United States did not seek to topple Kim’s government. “Look, our objective is denuclearization (of North Korea),” he said. “Our objective is not to get rid of you. Our objective is not to collapse your regime.” It is unclear how and when any actual negotiations with Pyongyang might be possible. White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster said on Monday there were no set preconditions for talks. He added, however, that Pyongyang’s capabilities were too far advanced to simply freeze its program in return for concessions. He also dismissed the idea of negotiating with Pyongyang even as it continued to develop its nuclear weapons program. Tillerson in March suggested the United States would only engage North Korea in negotiations once it gave up nuclear weapons. But he acknowledged on Saturday that denuclearization would be an “incremental process.” “You’d be foolish to think you’re going to sit down and say: OK, done. Nuclear weapons, gone. This is going to be a process of engagement with North Korea,” he said. Trump, who is due to visit China in November, has called for it to do more regarding North Korea and has promised to take steps to rebalance a trade relationship that his administration says puts U.S. businesses at a disadvantage. Chinese President Xi Jinping did not mention North Korea in his opening remarks while meeting Tillerson on Saturday. He instead offered warm words about Trump, saying he expected the U.S. president’s visit to be “wonderful.” “The two of us have also maintained a good working relationship and personal friendship,” Xi said in comments in front of reporters.
| 1
|
Congress approves Trump's aid and debt deal with Democrats
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump signed a bill on Friday extending the government debt limit for three months and providing about $15 billion in hurricane-related aid, bringing his surprising deal with Democratic congressional leaders this week to completion. The bill, approved in a 316-90 vote by the U.S. House of Representatives, had drawn criticism from some conservative members of Congress. But the Senate passed it on Thursday and the Republican president signed it soon after arriving at Camp David, Maryland, for the weekend. Despite controversy, lawmakers had rushed to approve the legislation, which provides $15.25 billion for emergency disaster aid, before government aid ran out at week’s end as Americans deal with two deadly hurricanes including Irma, a potentially catastrophic storm poised to strike Florida on Sunday. Hurricane Harvey, which came ashore on Aug. 25 as the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in more than 50 years, killed about 60 people, displaced more than 1 million, and the state governor has said it caused up to $180 billion in damage. The bill raised questions about the relationship between Trump, a political outsider who took office in January, and Republican Party regulars. He has frequently criticized Senate leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, and his deal on Wednesday with Democratic congressional leaders Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi was an especially troublesome shock for conservative members. Conservatives’ souring relations with the administration are likely to remain a factor as Congress and the White House now face a Dec. 8 deadline on the debt limit and government spending. Asked about Trump working so closely with Democrats on the legislation, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said: “I think that the president’s focus was doing what was best for the American people. I think the last thing we want to do is play partisan politics when we have people in places like Texas and Louisiana that need financial support through the federal government.” A White House statement issued after Trump signed the bill said: “The President appreciates Congress putting aside partisan politics and acting quickly to ensure that first responders, local officials, and Federal emergency management personnel have the resources they need.” Before the vote, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House budget director Mick Mulvaney had pleaded the White House’s case to Republican lawmakers at a Friday morning meeting. It was not well received by some. “There’s a lot of disappointment in the decision the president made and the way our leadership was treated,” said House Republican Representative Hal Rogers, describing a sense of “animosity” at the meeting. “That’s a sore spot. It’s not a happy camp.” “There was some hissing and I don’t know if there was some booing, but there were some groans,” Republican Representative Mark Walker said. Mulvaney told the representatives now was not the time to discuss Washington fiscal problems because of the hurricanes. Conservatives reminded him that during his days as one of the most conservative members of Congress, he had been a strong advocate for threatening government shutdowns in order to win concessions on spending. “It got a little warm for him a few times,” Walker said. More moderate Republicans welcomed the bipartisan approach. “If we can reach across the aisle, we can get things done and not be held hostage by 30 or 40 people,” said Representative Peter King. “You can’t just have one party govern.” The bill’s $15.25 billion in emergency funding includes $7.4 billion for the Disaster Relief Fund at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, $450 million for the Small Business Administration’s disaster loan program and $7.4 billion for the Community Development Block Grant program at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Some conservative groups had objected to coupling a debt-limit increase with the emergency funds, but McConnell moved ahead at Trump’s urging. Walker said Mnuchin gave conservatives little hope that the Trump administration would fight to include the spending restrictions they want to see in the next debt ceiling increase in December. In Wednesday’s meeting with congressional leaders, Trump had sought to work out a deal to attach to the disaster funding two short-term, three-month measures to fund the federal government at current levels and extended its borrowing limit, known as the debt ceiling. Current government funding was set to expire at the end of the month, with a possible government shutdown looming, and the U.S. Treasury had asked Congress to raise the debt limit immediately. Some House Republicans balked at attaching the two crucial fiscal measures to the bill and called it a win for Democrats. Republicans had wanted to raise the debt ceiling for a longer period that would have extended past the 2018 midterm elections. Republican Senator Ben Sasse said on Thursday the deal makes Schumer “the most powerful man in America for the month of December.” The three-month term of the debt limit and spending deal could give Democrats a better chance of winning higher government spending levels in December. Republicans fear that having to deal with spending and debt again so soon will distract them from other issues, such as tax reform.
| 1
|
In Georgia, costliest U.S. House race hits ugly note as election looms
ATLANTA (Reuters) - The costliest U.S. congressional race in history will be decided on Tuesday in suburban Atlanta, where America’s divisive political climate has been on display in an election seen by some analysts as a political test for President Donald Trump. Days after a lone gunman opened fire on U.S. lawmakers at a baseball team practice in Virginia, a conservative group was running a TV ad in Atlanta that, with no evidence, appears to link the Democratic candidate, Jon Ossoff, to the shooting spree. Ossoff called the ad “shameful” in a statement. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper reported that Ossoff’s Republican opponent, Karen Handel, also condemned the ad. It was an ugly, last-minute twist in the Ossoff-Handel contest for the U.S. House of Representatives seat vacated by Tom Price, who resigned after becoming Trump’s secretary of the Health and Human Services Department. Total spending in the Georgia race for all candidates has topped $56 million, including tens of millions by outside groups, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign finance watchdog in Washington, D.C., easily topping the previous record of $29.5 million set in a 2012 Florida race. Out of the total, $51.9 million has been spent on Handel and Ossoff, the Center for Responsive Politics said. Envelopes containing a white powder turned up last week in the home mailboxes of Handel and a few neighbors, prompting a probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Washington Post reported that the powder was only baking soda and both candidates now are traveling with bodyguards. The district spans affluent and increasingly diverse suburbs north of Atlanta. It has elected Republicans for decades, but Trump carried it by only 1 percentage point in 2016. Ossoff, 30, initially drew national attention with the slogan “Make Trump Furious,” inspiring volunteers from as far away as Oregon to knock on doors and make phone calls for him. Handel, a 55-year-old former Georgia secretary of state, has painted Ossoff as an inexperienced tool of national liberal interests who does not live in the district he hopes to represent. Like Ossoff, Handel rarely mentions Trump. Whatever the outcome, the race will not significantly alter the balance of power in Washington, where Republicans control the House by a wide margin. But victory could provide a blueprint for Democrats on how to win outside of their urban, coastal strongholds. Democrats fell short in special House elections earlier this year in Kansas and Montana, in districts that Trump won by double-digits. Also on Tuesday is a race in South Carolina, which Republicans are expected to win handily, for a replacement for Republican Mick Mulvaney, now Trump’s budget director.
| 1
|
Boiler Room EP #67 – The Choice of a Screwed Generation
Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at 6 PM PST | 9 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher, & Spore along with Andy Nowicki of Alt Right Blogspot, Jay Dyer from jaysanalysis.com and ACR s big wave surfer, Stewart Howe. Tonight the Boiler Gang is talking about the Liberal Left feeling BURNT by the way Bernie flopped over to endorse Hillary after having his nomination stolen by hook and crook as revealed by the wikileaks hacks. We unfortunately, once again, as though forced by a week of news happenings, dive deep into project Mockingbird/Gladio style stage managed terror events. We discuss a growing swath of bought and paid for FAKE news, the repealing of the Smith Mundt Act effectively legalizing LYING to the public at the behest of the crime syndicates that own and run the mainstream media. A candid chat about the ugly effects of the divide and rule tyranny imposed upon us by the propagandists and social engineers with lines drawn in the sand based on identity politics is rounded out by a scathing review of Michelle Obamas comments at the DNC by E.T. Williams. We d be remiss if we didn t cover some highlights and lowlights from the RNC/DNC, as well, on this very special 67th edition of Boiler Room.Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved!BOILER ROOM IS NOT A POLICTALLY CORRECT ZONE! LISTEN TO THE SHOW IN THE PLAYER BELOW ENJOY!Reference Links:
| 0
|
EP #13: Patrick Henningsen LIVE – ‘Fake News, Fake Crisis’ with guest Mark Anderson
In response to the establishment media s contrived fake news crisis designed to marginalise independent and alternative media sources of news and analysis, 21WIRE is running its own #FakeNewsWeek awareness campaign, where each day our editorial team at 21st Century Wire will feature media critiques and analysis of mainstream corporate media coverage of current events exposing the government and the mainstream media as the real purveyors of fake news throughout modern history Join Patrick every Wednesday at Independent Talk 1100 KFNX and Alternate Current Radio for the very best in news, views and analysis on all top stories domestically and abroad THIS WEEK: Episode 12 This week we tackle the issue of fake news through a historical lens and from behind the media curtain In our main feature segment, host Patrick Henningsen is joined by special guest, investigative journalist, Mark Anderson from American Free Press and The Truth Hound, to talk about his experience covering the Bilderberg Group, as well as the faux crisis known as fake news where it came from and what it means in the context of today s political circus. Listen Listen to EP 13: Patrick Henningsen LIVE with Mark Anderson on Spreaker.This program broadcasts LIVE every Wednesday night from 8pm to 9pm MST, right after the Savage Nation, on Independent Talk 1100 KFNX over the terrestrial AM band across the greater Phoenix and central Arizona region, and live over global satellite and online via www.1100kfnx.com.LISTEN TO MORE INTERVIEWS AT PATRICK HENNINGSEN LIVE SHOW ARCHIVESPatrick Henningsen is editor of 21st Century Wire and also the host of the THE SUNDAY WIRE which broadcasts LIVE on Alternate Current Radio Sundays from 5pm-8pm GMT, 12pm-3pm EST, 9am-12pm PST. He is also the host of Patrick Henningsen LIVE on Independent Talk 1100 KFNX on terrestrial AM radio out of Phoenix, Arizona. READ MORE ABOUT MSM FAKE NEWS AT: FAKE NEWS WEEKSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE NOW & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
Factbox: Trump on Twitter (July 12) - Hillary Clinton, Trump Jr., Bastille Day
The following statements were posted to the verified Twitter accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS. The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy. @realDonaldTrump : - My son Donald did a good job last night. He was open, transparent and innocent. This is the greatest Witch Hunt in political history. Sad! [0619 EDT] - Remember, when you hear the words “sources say” from the Fake Media, often times those sources are made up and do not exist. [0632 EDT] - ISIS is on the run & will soon be wiped out of Syria & Iraq, illegal border crossings are way down (75%) & MS 13 gangs are being removed. [0805 EDT] - @WashTimes states “Democrats have willfully used Moscow disinformation to influence the presidential election against Donald Trump.” [0812 EDT] - Why aren’t the same standards placed on the Democrats. Look what Hillary Clinton may have gotten away with. Disgraceful! [0927 EDT] - The W.H. is functioning perfectly, focused on HealthCare, Tax Cuts/Reform & many other things. I have very little time for watching T.V. [0939 EDT] - "After 14 years, U.S. beef hits Chinese market. Trade deal an exciting opportunity for agriculture." bit.ly/2uiXGI2 [1620 EDT] - Getting rdy to leave for France @ the invitation of President Macron to celebrate & honor Bastille Day and 100yrs since U.S. entry into WWI. [1835 EDT] - Stock market hits another high with spirit and enthusiasm so positive. Jobs outlook looking very good! #MAGA [1906 EDT] - JOBS, JOBS, JOBS! #MAGA bit.ly/2ugaYbl [1912 EDT] - Big WIN today for building the wall. It will secure the border & save lives. Now the full House & Senate must act 45.wh.gov/5L8g1q [1924 EDT] - The 3 bills passed today by the House are important steps forward to end the horrific crime of human trafficking: 45.wh.gov/GKbrVi [1733 EDT] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR)
| 1
|
Bill could make Congress members liable for harassment payouts
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lawmakers of both parties are working on legislation that would make members of Congress liable for settlements of sexual harassment claims against them, as new data shows public funds have been used to settle nearly a dozen cases of misconduct over the last decade. From 2008 through 2012, the employment office for Congress paid more than $166,000 in public money to settle eight claims against lawmakers alleging sexual harassment or discrimination, according to data it provided on Tuesday to Representative Gregg Harper, the Republican chairman of the House Administration Committee who is drafting a bill to overhaul how Congress handles sexual harassment. The Office of Compliance previously said it has resolved three other cases since 2013. Provisions in settlement agreements and other legal limits block the office from disclosing details of the payouts it has made on behalf of lawmakers, including identities of those involved, an issue that has come to light as allegations of misconduct swirl around Capitol Hill. A growing wave of women reporting abuse or misconduct has brought down powerful men recently, from movie producer Harvey Weinstein to popular television personality Matt Lauer, as well as one of the longest-serving Democrats in Congress, former Representative John Conyers. Harper said on Tuesday he hopes to file a bipartisan bill by Wednesday evening overhauling how Congress handles sexual harassment that would include making lawmakers personally liable for settlements. “They should have to reimburse” the government for payouts, he told reporters. “There’s no doubt that members have made it clear that taxpayer dollars should not be used for the purposes of settling a sexual harassment claim.” Harper expects swift action, with the House voting on the bill next month. Democratic Representative Jackie Speier, who has proposed similar legislation and has been working with Harper and other Republicans, said she was “thrilled” about the bill. Bipartisan legislation on sexual harassment was introduced in the Senate last week. In a letter to Harper the compliance office’s executive director said it had paid $354,465.85 to settle 16 total claims of employment discrimination, retaliation and harassment from fiscal 2008 through fiscal 2012. According to the letter, eight claims included sexual harassment or discrimination, and often involved other violations such as breaking federal wage rules. Two claims were simply categorized as “retaliation” while the rest were focused on racial, age or disability discrimination. The largest amount paid over those years was $85,000, labeled as “sexual harassment and harassment because of retaliation.” The office does not have investigatory authority and cannot probe allegations, said Executive Director Susan Tsui Grundmann in the letter. Settlements typically have nondisclosure provisions, she said, adding the office has not found an admission of liability in any of the settlement documents.
| 1
|
White House targets leakers, may restructure communications: Scaramucci
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s new communications director Anthony Scaramucci said on Tuesday he would probably restructure the communications operation at the White House and would fire staff if leaks did not cease. “If the leaks continue, then I’ve got to let everybody go,” he told reporters on Air Force One after Trump’s trip to Ohio. Scaramucci said there were no immediate plans to fire anyone else following the resignation of senior assistant press secretary Michael Short earlier on Tuesday. He said he would take some time to look at the communications operation at the White House. “We will probably restructure,” he said. Both he and Trump were adamant that leaks needed to be stopped, Scaramucci said. “We’ve got a plan,” he said, without offering details.
| 1
|
Mueller Team Uniform? ‘Democratic Donkey Jerseys’ and ‘I’m With Hillary T-Shirts’ says Congressman
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appeared before the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, amid new questions about Anti-Trump text messages sent by FBI employees assigned to special counsel Robert Mueller s Russia investigation. Rosenstein testified that Mueller is running his office appropriately and without bias.In a colorful exchange between Congressman Steve Chabot (R-OH) and Rosenstein, Chabot asked the Deputy AG: How with a straight face, can you say that this group of Democrat partisans are unbiased, and will give President Trump a fair shake? After a brief stammer, Rosenstein replied that political affiliation and the issue of bias are different things, and that we should trust the experience Mueller and the Justice Department have in managing investigation teams, adding: We recognize that we have employees with political opinions, and it s our responsibility to make sure those opinions do not influence their actions. To which Chabot argued how can anyone possibly reach that conclusion: I was at first encouraged. It seemed like a serious matter and deserved a serious investigation. And I assumed, as many of us did, that Mr. Mueller would pull together an unbiased team. But, rather than wearing stripes as umpires and referees might wear, I would submit that the Mueller team overwhelmingly, uh, oughta be attired with Democratic donkeys on their jerseys or I m with Hillary t-shirts, certainly not with Let s Make America Great Again and I think that s a shame. Because I think the American people deserve a lot better than the very biased team they re getting under Robert Mueller. And I think it s really sad. Things get awkwardly amusing at the 50 minute mark WATCH: READ MORE RUSSIAGATE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire RussiaGate FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE NOW & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
Assange: ‘Crazed Clinton Campaign Tried to Hack WikiLeaks’
SEE ALSO: ON THE QT: US Election: Behind the Curtain (PART 1)21st Century Wire says The Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign have chained themselves to the wild conspiracy theory that Russia is behind the embarrassing Wikileaks email dump and the Kremlin is trying to interfere with the US election process even though their is zero evidence to prove that ridiculous claim.Wikileaks has exposed what is arguably the biggest trove of political corruption in US history but the majority pro-Hillary media are simply ignoring these leaks in order to get behind the media s pre-chosen candidate.So why is the Clinton political machine still panicking? Are we due for another October surprise ?RT Everyday that you publish is a day that you have the initiative in the conflict, Assange said via telephone at a conference in Argentina on Wednesday. The whistleblowing website has been releasing emails from Clinton s campaign chair, John Podesta, on a daily basis since early October.Assange claimed the release whipped up a crazed hornet s nest atmosphere in the Hillary Clinton campaign leading them to attack WikiLeaks. They attacked our servers and attempted hacking attacks and there is an amazing ongoing campaign where state documents were put in the UN and British courts to accuse me of being both a Russian spy and a pedophile, he added.READ MORE: Suspicious US company tried to frame Assange as pedophile and Russian spyEcuador s decision to shut down his internet was described by Assange as a strategic position so that its policy of non-intervention can t be misinterpreted by actors in the US and even domestically in Ecuador. ( ) He did, however, reject the idea that WikiLeaks is interfering with the US election, claiming, this is not the interference of electoral process, this is the definition of electoral process for media organizations and, in fact, everyone to publish the truth and their opinion about what is occurring. It cannot be a free and informed election unless people are free to inform. He also attacked US TV networks, many of whom he accused of being controlled by Clinton supporters. ( ) The Podesta emails will make no difference to the election result, according to Assange. I don t think there s any chance of Donald Trump winning the election, even with the amazing material we are publishing, because most of the media organizations are strongly aligned with Hillary Clinton, he said Continue this story at RTREAD MORE WIKILEAKS NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Wikileaks Files
| 0
|
CNN Fake News vs Real News: First Images of Abandoned Terrorist Facilities in East Aleppo, Not From CNN
This week, the momentum in Syria shifted dramatically as the Syrian Army liberated the Old City in eastern Aleppo, so far retaking 80% of rebel -held areas in the city. As a result, operatives in Washington and their allies are now taking desperate measures in order to try and preserve the viability of remaining terrorist forces on the ground in the hopes of extending Syria s five year bloody conflict and overthrowing the legal government in Damascus. 21WIRE will post more ALEPPO UPDATES as new information comes in The Western mainstream media continue to give a twisted picture of reality in Aleppo.During CNN s coverage of newly liberated areas of East Aleppo on Wednesday afternoon, CNN anchor Kate Bolduan (who cried profusely over staged Dusty Boy Omran image) spoke to her correspondent Fred Pleitgen by telephone (offering no real images, so it s impossible to verify if Pleitgen was actually in East Aleppo as CNN claimed, more than likely he was not), and Bolduan refers to Pleitgen as the first western journalist inside East Aleppo, which is in itself a lie, as RT s Lizzie Phelan (who is British and therefore western) was already reporting from the East-West green line in Aleppo since late Monday.CNN was characterizing the liberation of East Aleppo as a humanitarian disaster as theatrical Bolduan then gushes at the end of the segment to Pleitgen, another polemic along the lines of, Thank you Fred, it s so great we have brave journalists like you to show the world what s really going on All that after CNN has, for the last 4 years straight, been spinning and completely misrepresenting events on the ground, and presenting reports by Clarissa Ward which appear to glorify terroist suicide bombers and various rebel terrorists (Al Nusra, Arar al-Sham, Nour al-din al-Zenki et all) occupying east Aleppo, effectively giving additional PR support to al Nusra-led efforts. Ward is flanked by another US asset promoting jihadist extremism, Bilal Abdul Karim, together producing what are clearly staged reports, alongside CNN s endless airing of unvetted, staged White Helmets imagery and passing it off to the viewing public as authentic video and photos supplied by nameless Syrian activists . Throughout the west s proxy war against Syria, CNN has only reported the rebel/terrorist perspective, shamelessly portraying militant terrorists as moderate rebels and freedom fighters, while systematically demonizing any Syrian or Russian who is defending the nation state of Syria. Unlike CNN s intentionally skewed US State Dept-slanted propaganda (eg. fake news), the following reports by RT s Phelan, and R&U Vids, is real. The following footage is stunning, and very revealing . Battles continue between pro-government forces and rebels in Aleppo s Old City, with Damascus slowly winning back territory. RT s Lizzie Phelan and her crew were the first journalists to visit the neighborhoods just captured by the government. Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKmVqKVIB4M . The following is more footage of the Syrian Army advancing through the streets of East Aleppo. You can see multiple flags and insignias of listed terrorist fighting groups, once more proving that extremist terrorists forces not moderate rebels , had full operational control over East Aleppo. Watch this stunning footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eoHDkcmu-4 .. READ MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Syria FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER@21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
Hillary’s Secret Weapon: Evan McMullin is CIA-Goldman Sachs candidate, backed by Mitt Romney’s Wall Street Machine
J.R. Smith 21st Century WireMuch has been made by Democrat Hillary Clinton and the White House s accusation that Russia is trying to influence US elections, although neither has presented any real evidence to back up this extraordinary claim. On the other hand, there is plenty of evidence documenting the CIA interfering and altering numerous foreign elections throughout history. This raises an interesting question: would the CIA ever try to interfere in an US election? Evan McMullin is a 40-year-old self-described conservative Mormon and former CIA operative. I enjoyed being a grey man, said McMullin of his 11 years in the CIA.On the wall in his Salt Lake City campaign offices is a poster which reads 007 for President. That s a bit worrying, if indeed McMullin fancies himself as a James Bond character, but in a way it really sums up what his presidential run is all about working in the grey areas, in back room meetings with GOP establishment luminaries, colored by private and public deception. It s what the CIA has specialized in for decades; manipulating and perverting hundreds of overseas elections all in the interest of transnational corporate elites (like Mitt Romney), and now it seems they have an inside man nested in another key position Oddly, the media often introduces him as a conservative columnist seemingly in an effort to distract from his total insider pedigree. McMullin is no newcomer or fresh face he is a career operative, inserted into special niches, including his most recent stint as Congressional director of GOP policy. Now he s come out of the shadows to play a key role in the US election on behalf of some very powerful interests.According to Real Clear Politics, McMullin describes his work as a clandestine operative for the CIA in both Iraq and Afghanistan, in all the war zones post-9/11 until 2010 and most of the other hostile environments . He admits his job was to penetrate insurgent and terrorist groups as well as foreign governments , recruiting agents to pass information to take these people off the battlefield either capture or kill them. Interesting skill set, penetrating governments. We can safely assume that also entails subverting elections overseas, or maybe using Saudi Arabian cash to buy weapons for Jihadi terrorist rebels in Syria.Not surprisingly, McMullin trumpets a loud anti-Putin and anti-Assad rhetoric which is almost perfectly in synchronization with that of Hillary Clinton s. Like Clinton, McMullin relies on a campaign of fear set against Russia and Syria in an attempt to try to bracket Trump togther with other overseas leaders currently under a demonization order by the Washington DC establishment. Donald Trump is an authoritarian just like Vladimir Putin, just like Bashar Al-Assad, just like the Communist regime in China. I have worked against and around authoritarians overseas and I know them when I see them. Donald Trump is one of them. He would bring the same kind of economic stagnation, internal turmoil and discord to our country that other dictators bring to their own. I m sure the Kremlin considers Donald Trump by far its most successful intelligence operation ever. It s very clear that Vladimir Putin and his regime have some control over Donald Trump. Trump s support for Putin is the only thing he has been consistent on. The following is straight off of McMullin s campaign website, under the heading of, America s Role in the World : Evan will impose tougher sanctions on Russia and increase America s military presence in the Baltics in order to deter and reverse Putin s aggression, rather than pretending that he is a partner for peace in Syria. Evan will stand up for the rights of American and allied ships to sail freely in international waters, rather than letting China dominate the Western Pacific. This statement could ve just as well have written by the CIA s office of forward information planning, or from the office of Hillary 2016, take your pick.The next line in his r sum should also throw up a big red flag: he s also a former operative at Goldman Sachs investment bank. So, CIA and Goldman Sachs. Aside from bank-rolling Bill and Hillary Clinton s political machine for the better part of the last 15 years, Goldman also backed Mitt Romney s failed 2012 presidential run.The connections here between all of these establishment players is undeniable with McMullin sitting comfortably in his CIA grey area.Stealing Utah for Hillary If we can send a strong message here from Utah, it will change the discussion in Washington and across this country, said McMullin.This is the problem with the contrived McMullin campaign: it will not impact the national political discussion.Since he announced his candidacy three months ago on August 8, 2016, his campaign has only really existed inside Utah, but conveniently amplified by an US corporate mainstream media and the very same media outlets that have been demonstrably pro-Clinton, anti-Sanders and anti-Trump since the very beginning of the presidential race.Evan McMullin s primary directive seems to be to steal Utah s 6 electoral votes away from Republican candidate Donald Trump who is currently enjoying a comfortable lead over Hillary Clinton in Utah. Recent polls show Trump and McMullin running neck and neck in Utah, at 30% and 29% respectively. In an already tight national race between Trump and Clinton, those 6 electoral votes could easily decide the national election in favor of Hillary Clinton.Aside from Utah, McMullin is also hoping to steal away Republic votes in key states with substantial Mormon populations like Arizona, Idaho, and Wyoming. McMullin is hoping to exploit Mormon voter blocks over the issue of Donald Trump s bolshy demeanor and alleged past sex scandals a negative which will resonate with conservative Mormon voters in places like Utah.Based on the incredible amount of national media access he s being given across all of the top establishment broadcast TV networks, it s pretty clear that the McMullin campaign is being engineered at the highest levels. For a candidate who appeared from nowhere in the last two months, he s enjoyed carte blanche airtime, including softball interviews on Meet the Press with Chuck Todd, The Week with George Stephanopoulos, as well as primetime slots on pro-Clinton media outlets CNN, CBS, NBC, and of course, on Democratic Party channel MSNBC.Here s his debutant spot on Morning Joe, where McMullin waxes on about how, George Bush kept this country safe after 9/11 , and other familiar platitudes: When McMullin speaks, you can almost hear the voice of Mitt Romney and the old GOP establishment. If the Republican Party can t make the changes, as wasn t able to do after 2012, the conservative movement will need a new political vehicle, said McMullin to Stephanopoulos.From these sort of statements, we can see that the object of McMullin s campaign is the same as Romney s to keep the Republican candidate from winning on November 8th.Establishment scion Mitt Romney (photo, left) and his Wall Street partners are desperate, and deathly frightened that if Donald Trump wins, he will build a new GOP power base one which is not based on a tight elite Wall Street investment bank circle that uses men like Romney as their intermediary to control govemnent affairs and fix markets but rather, real people power based on grassroots, working class and middle class voters.The other subtle piece of the McMullin deception is how he constantly spins in the mainstream media about how a Clinton victory is already a fait accompli. In other words: Trump has already lost, so cast your vote for me as a protest vote against the winner, Hillary Clinton. By applying that subtle spin, McMullin hopes to avoid being fingered as Mitt Romney s #NeverTrump tool.Getting on enough ballots in enough states requires money, and a political machine. Enter the Team Romney McMullin s ability to get on the ballot in 11 states, and also write-in access in 32 others, was financed and run by a 501c3 Not for Profit organization which, like McMullin, suddenly popped up this year. It s called, Better For America, said to be founded by GOP operatives John Kingston and Joel Searby.When asked whether or not he s backed by Mitt Romney, McMullin always says no , but the facts say otherwise. Here we can see clearly that McMullin is a creation of Mitt Romney s so-called #NeverTrump Movement. McMullin s primary backer in this project appears to be Kingston, who just happens to be a former GOP delegate from Massachusetts and donor to former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, as well as executive producer for the 2014 documentary, Mitt.In addition, McMullin s running mate is former Mitt Romney campaign staffer, Mindy Finn. Aside from working in the Bush Administration, Finn also worked for Twitter and Google, specifically building their tech networks with the Washington Beltway. Another total insider.McMullin has also been working with former Mitt Romney campaign strategist Stuart Stevens.Behind the patriotic rhetoric in Better For America s marketing spin is well-financed, laser focused operation to steal Utah from the Republican party. In public, the organization claims that: We deserve better than two candidates that are deeply unfavorable among a majority of the people they claim to represent. Together, we can give a voice to the millions of Americans who cannot in good conscience vote for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. If a third party candidate emerges, they need to know the support they have on the ground among the nearly two-thirds of Americans said they are willing to support an independent candidate. Better For America s claim is disingenuous at best, if not outright deceptive, not least because there were already third, and fourth party candidates Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party) and Jill Stein (Green Party), both of whom have been organizing in all 50 states. This casual ignorance of the other alternative candidates indicates an attempt to totally manipulate the electoral conversation.Very underhanded yes, but this is something a CIA operative would be doing overseas thrawrting elections and destablizing fledgling democracies in target nations. Romney and Goldman Sachs End GameBeyond engineering a narrow victory for Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney and the #NeverTrump conclave s last option is to steal the election after Nov 8th. It goes like this .Their final play would be if neither Trump nor Clinton receive the 270 electoral college votes required for an outright victory which would then send the election to the House of Representatives. This hasn t happened since 1825. At this point a Republican House of Representatives (many of whom are #NeverTrump supporters) would choose any of the top three candidates who had won a state. If McMullin wins Utah, then he would theoretically be in with a chance. But not as good a chance as Hillary Clinton would.Regardless, either scenario (although the Clinton scenario is more real) is predicated on Evan McMullin s role as a spoiler. McMullin admits this openly: It depends on the race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump being very, very close and it is not close now. For Clinton friends and campaign backers like Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and fellow Wall Street elites, a Donald Trump victory could mean an interruption in profits slowing down the financial organized crime and fiat paper fraud which has enriched them and the Clintons (and soon the Obamas too) ever since Bill Clinton gave Goldman and Co. the ultimate blank check when the outgoing US President repealed the Glass Steagall Act in 1999. With that one stroke of the pen, the Clintons set the stage for the 2008 Financial Collapse and bailout recipient Blankfein and the Goldman syndicate (and Romney too) made vast fortunes off other people s misery. Notice that Goldman and Wall Street have been stuffing money into the Clinton s pockets ever since with speaking fees, jobs, investments, and also bank-rolling Chelsea Clinton s husband Mark Mezvinsky s hedge fund.Blankfein and his ilk brought the US economy to its knees, and were paid handsomely for their effort.It s an incestuous ring of financial skull-duggery and you will not hear the righteous, self-styled liberty advocate Evan McMullin so much as mention any of this, let alone bad mouth his former employer and criminal financial institution and yet, this is the real story that everyone should really be talking about this election the seedy relationship between the likes of Goldman Sachs and the establishment s favored political candidates.READ MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
Boiler Room #64 – GLADIO! Come Out and Play!
Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at 11 AM PST | 2 PM EST this Saturday July 9th. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher, & Spore along with Randy J and Patrick Henningsen of 21Wire and Branko Mali from Kali Tribune. Tonight the Boiler Gang discusses the Clinton FBI results, CA legislature s war against the people on behalf of a tyrannical government gone mad and whatever else floats into our air space during the show!BOILER ROOM IS NOT A POLICTALLY CORRECT ZONE! LISTEN TO THE SHOW IN THE PLAYER BELOW ENJOY! Reference Links:
| 0
|
Hillary Clinton: ‘Israel First’ (and no peace for Middle East)
Robert Fantina CounterpunchAlthough the United States is still ten months from its next exercise in electoral futility, most polls do not indicate what former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is most anxious to see: a runaway victory for her candidacy. It is a good sign that, despite the fact that she has no real contrasting opponent on the Democratic side, the coronation she expected isn t going to happen.One might say that this writer focuses too much on Mrs. Clinton s adoration of Israel. But by looking at her comments about that apartheid nation, one gets a clear view of some broader, very troubling perspectives that Mrs. Clinton seems to hold.On January 6, an opinion piece appeared in The Jewish Journal, written by Mrs. Clinton. It is a fawning, maudlin essay, typical of the writing of anyone seeking national political office in the U.S. who knows they must pay homage to their Israeli lord and master. A few points from this essay tell much about Mrs. Clinton. I m especially concerned about the new wave of violence inside Israel itself brutal stabbings, shootings, and vehicle attacks that seek to sow fear among the innocent. The number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank alone by settler and IOF (Israel Occupation Force) terrorists is at a ten-year high. Why is Mrs. Clinton not especially concerned about the continuing wave of violence against Palestinians, in an area that even the U.S. says Israel occupies illegally? Do not these vicious attacks seek to sow fear among the innocent ? Only a two-state solution negotiated between the parties can provide Palestinians independence, sovereignty, and dignity, and provide Israelis the secure and recognized borders of a democratic Jewish state. Why, oh why, does Mrs. Clinton continue to make this ridiculous statement? The borders of the Jewish state are recognized by most of the world, including the United Nations, and consist of those determined prior to 1967. There is nothing to negotiate. Does Mrs. Clinton disdain international law? It appears that she feels Israel, like the U.S. in its international dealings, is, indeed, above the law. BIBI FIRST: Hillary Clinton will never tell Israel no .And this writer must point out, once again, that negotiations, which have proceeded on and off for twenty years or so, can only be effective when each side wants something the other has, that it can only obtain by surrendering something it has. Israel wants all of Palestine, and takes it, piece by piece, with complete impunity. Why should Palestine agree to pointless negotiations?Mrs. Clinton refers to the secure and recognized borders of a Jewish state, but does not seem to consider the secure and recognized borders of a Palestinian state. We must continue to fight against global efforts to delegitimize Israel. The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, known as BDS, is the latest front in this battle. BDS demonizes Israeli scientists and intellectuals even young students and compares Israel to South African apartheid. That s wrong and this campaign should end. The most significant efforts to delegitimize Israel are made by Israel itself. Its racist society, wherein Israeli Jews have more rights than anyone else in Israel; its apartheid system of segregation; its complete disdain for the human rights of the Palestinians; the racist, murderous statements made by government officials all further delegitimize the country, and demonize it, and rightly so. Israel is often compared to South African apartheid, and the comparison is valid.And it is not just in the context of Palestine and Israel that Mrs. Clinton demonstrates either gross ignorance, or gross dishonesty. Her essay also contained these pearls of wisdom: We must work with our friends and partners to deny ISIS territory in the Middle East, dismantle the global infrastructure of terror, and toughen our defenses at home. We can t just contain ISIS we must defeat ISIS. Is that really the U.S. s goal? Garikai Chengu, a researcher at Harvard University, suggested in September of 2014 that ISIS is made-in-the-USA, an instrument of terror designed to divide and conquer the oil-rich Middle East and to counter Iran s growing influence in the region. In a June, 2015 column in The Guardian, Associate Editor Seumas Milne said this: [T]he U.S. and its allies weren t only supporting and arming an opposition they knew to be dominated by extreme sectarian groups; they were prepared to countenance the creation of some sort of Islamic state despite the grave danger to Iraq s unity as a Sunni buffer to weaken Syria. Continue this article at Counterpunch READ MORE 2016 ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 Files
| 0
|
Trump to nominate Raytheon lobbyist for Army secretary
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump intends to nominate a Raytheon Co (RTN.N) lobbyist, Mark Esper, for the position of secretary of the Army, the White House said on Wednesday. The position has been challenging for Trump to fill. Two previous nominees withdrew their names from consideration. Before Esper joined U.S. missile maker Raytheon in 2010 as vice president government relations he held posts at industry advocacy groups like the Aerospace Industries Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Esper graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, retired from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel and is a veteran of the Gulf War, according to a Raytheon memo announcing his hiring.
| 1
|
REVEALED: How Democratic Party pays Agit-Prop ‘Protesters’ to incite violence at Trump events
By Anthony Brian Logan . James O Keefe of Project Veritas has released undercover, button-camera video that outlines the process of bird-dogging and how it is being used to rig the 2016 Presidential election of the United States in favor of Hillary Clinton and the Democrat Party. The central focus of the video, which is a collection of various undercover videos with commentary, is the process of bird-dogging which refers to essentially hiring people to behave as the equivalent to crisis actors. Except for the fact that there is no actual crisis, and these people are used to simply incite violence, among other things, to goad the media into giving Donald Trump s campaign negative coverage.Various people appear in the video, complete with both audio and video, saying how they skirt the laws of our nation to engage in corruption. Hillary Clinton s campaign is not allowed to directly collude with the phony actors on the ground, so they use degrees of separation by hiring consultants. These consultants then go on to sub contract work on the ground such as the actors who engage in fake riots and protests. Everyone is aware of each other, and in some cases, answer to those all the way at the top, either in the Clinton campaign or the DNC itself Watch this brilliant video investigation here:. READ MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 Files
| 0
|
BILDERBERG: More Secret Meetings with Trump Advisors, US Senators
Mark Anderson The Truth HoundThe danger-ridden, tyrannical goal of creating an all-consuming corporate-ruled world superstate dubbed One World Ltd. -incrementally advanced since Bilderberg first met in Holland in 1954 under the auspices of Jesuit-trained European consolidator Joseph Retinger and his agent, Prince Bernhard of The Netherlands explains why Bilderberg goes to such lengths to keep the details of its inner-workings so secret, while functioning as an off-the-grid world networking and planning forum for private governance benefitting the banking and general corporate classes. A core tactic is to parallel but eventually supersede the nation state itself, thereby canceling effective, genuine nationhood altogether.Bilderberg s gatherings, for the record, consist of about 140 mainly North American and European corporate moguls (including select big media), government ministers, treasury officials, parliament members, high-technology leaders, certain royalty (including Bernhard s daughter, Netherlands Queen Beatrix) and central bankers who annually skulk into the world s top hotels, in order to cross-pollinate to pursue One World Ltd. and related financial and political dealings.McMASTER, TWO U.S. SENATORS ATTENDINGIt s highly notable that President Donald Trump s National Security Advisor, H.R. McMaster, is listed as an attendee for this year s Bilderberg meeting June 1-4 in Chantilly, Va., at Westfields Marriot. Other U.S. officials attending who are currently serving in public office are Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). While Graham jetted to last year s Bilderberg meeting in Dresden, Germany, Cotton evidently is attending his first-ever Bilderberg meeting.SEE ALSO: BILDERBERG: What s The Big Deal?The 65th Bilderberg gathering this year has 131 participants from 21 countries having confirmed their attendance. The entire attendee and official topic lists (but not necessarily complete) can be found at this link [note on this list the large amount of serving Trump Administration officials, and this year s Bilderberg features more active duty US officials than any other previous meeting].McMaster, Graham and Cotton all share a neo-conservative ideology of aggressively patrolling the world, in conjunction with the UK and the EU, to push Western democracy and monopoly capitalism, while fostering hostility toward Iran, Russia and Syria, for the benefit of Zionism, among other things. This fits the Bilderberg credo of using one might say leasing U.S. military power and other influence to control the natural resources and economic machinery of as many nations as possible, while co-opting or overthrowing those nations that stand firm with their own sovereignty.The Virginia gathering marks Bilderberg s first North American meeting in five years. Last year in Germany, according to the group s officially shallow press release, they discussed (in their own words): Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, Chemical Weapons Threats, Current Economic Issues, European Strategy, Globalisation, Greece, Iran, Middle East, NATO, Russia, Terrorism, United Kingdom, USA and U.S. Elections.The group s press releases, a marvel of revealing simplicity, typically present bluntly-worded topics, such as Russia, Iran United Kingdom, European Strategy and so on. Such topics are clearly indicative of Bilderberg s objectives and concerns for maintaining Western hegemony over Russia and its allies, Iran and Syria, which could include war or the risk of war with Iran and does include targeting Syria under the guise of fighting ISIS Continue this story at The Truth HoundNOTE: The May 24 North American premiere of Bilderberg, the Movie, produced by researcher and author Daniel Estulin and covered exclusively by The TRUTH HOUND among national mainstream and alternative news outlets, stressed one point that cannot be overstressed: The Bilderberg Group above all is in pursuit of One World Ltd. On that note, the movie s promotional flyer asked: What do people who have $1,000,000,000,000,000 talk about in private? While the Estulin movie itself, of course, could not be filmed, videographer Ron Avery shot footage of Estulin s question-and-answer session immediately afterwards. WATCH: READ MORE BILDERBERG NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Bilderberg FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
| 0
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.