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WASHINGTON — Senator Chuck Schumer of New York wasn’t planning on being leader of the Senate minority — and by extension the Democratic opposition — as the Trump era dawns in the nation’s capital. “Do I regret what happened? Yes,” said Mr. Schumer, who was hoping to be President Hillary Clinton’s right hand as Senate majority leader before both he and Mrs. Clinton came up short of their Election Day goals. “Late moments at night, do I think what could have been? Yes. ” “But I am fully occupied with the job at hand,” Mr. Schumer said in an interview in his Senate office on Friday, just a few days after being formally chosen by his colleagues to succeed his mentor, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, as leader of the Senate Democrats. That job, in Mr. Schumer’s view, is to serve as the bulwark against a unified Republican government led by his former campaign donor, Donald J. Trump to use the power of the Senate minority to try to force compromise when possible and to stand in the way of Republicans when necessary. “We are the barrier,” said Mr. Schumer, noting that the rules of the Senate — at least as they currently exist — give Democrats there much more power than their House counterparts to hold the line against Republican policies they oppose. “If he is going to agree on issues like trade and transportation infrastructure in a very real way with us, we have an obligation to pursue it,” Mr. Schumer said about Mr. Trump, who quickly reached out to Mr. Schumer by phone after his presidential victory. “But at the same time, we have an obligation to oppose him on all the places where he tramples on our values, travels with racism or just dismantles things because the right wing tells him to do so. That is where we are at. ” It is a delicate balance. And Mr. Schumer’s talk of cutting deals with Mr. Trump and Senator Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican and majority leader, has already alarmed some Democrats who want no cooperation whatsoever with Mr. Trump or the Senate Republicans who sat on President Obama’s Supreme Court nomination of Merrick B. Garland. “It would be a dereliction of our responsibility if we didn’t try,” said Mr. Schumer, who munched casually on a frozen Three Musketeers bar as he laid out his vision. “As long as we don’t sell out, we have an obligation to the millions of Americans who are struggling. ” Those Americans are at the center of Mr. Schumer’s emerging strategy. He believes that Mr. Trump won by appealing to the middle of America with what was essentially a Democratic economic message on trade and job creation. He is convinced he can leverage that with the new president. “We are saying, ‘Mr. President you have two choices: Work with us and you will have to alienate your Republican colleagues, or break your promises to America,’” he said. “I believe that America voted for Trump mainly because of Democratic issues like trade, not for Republican issues like tax cuts for the wealthy. ” Mr. Schumer says, however, that any legislation that can entice Democrats will have to be substantial and not be used to chip away at other priorities, or they will not hesitate to oppose it. For instance, he noted that he had quickly issued a statement skeptical of the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions, the Alabama Republican and occasional Senate gym workout companion, for attorney general, and would be giving all nominees thorough scrutiny. And he said some issues were simply nonstarters, such as reversing Wall Street and banking reforms enacted after the 2008 economic collapse. “When it comes to repealing any of as they say in Brooklyn, fuggedaboutit,” said the Mr. Schumer, who also said Democrats would not cooperate in any way with overturning the Affordable Care Act. Democrats did pick up two seats with wins in Illinois and New Hampshire, narrowing the Republican majority and making it that much more difficult for Mr. McConnell to round up the 60 votes needed to overcome filibusters, or perhaps even muster a simple majority. “Even though we didn’t get the majority, those two votes will be invaluable in stopping Republicans from doing bad, bad things,” Mr. Schumer said. Mr. Schumer does not believe Republicans will be eager to eliminate the ability to mount filibusters against legislation, preserving a chief minority weapon. He hopes that any Supreme Court nominee can win bipartisan support, but if Republicans threaten to eliminate the ability to filibuster picks, he has an argument ready. “I said to McConnell, you don’t come before this with clean hands because of what you did with Merrick Garland, who didn’t even get a hearing and who was clearly a mainstream candidate,” Mr. Schumer said. After an increasingly strained relationship between Mr. McConnell and Mr. Reid, Mr. Schumer believes he can negotiate with the top Republican. “McConnell wants to make things work and I want to make things work,” he said. “While we will certainly both stand for our principles and each side will respect the other, we can get a lot more done than has been done in the past. ” But it will definitely be a challenge. And it was not the one Mr. Schumer had hoped to face. | 1 |
Friday on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” host Sean Hannity used his opening monologue to react to House Speaker Paul Ryan’s decision not to proceed with a vote on the American Health Care Act, which would have been the opening salvo for Republicans trying to dismantle the 2010 Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Hannity argued Republicans must make sure this doesn’t happen in the future and point to the flaws in the legislative process where improvement must be made. However, he emphasized the outcome was not the fault of President Donald Trump. “Let me be very clear here,” Hannity said. “This is not President Trump’s failure. President Trump went above and beyond and did everything in his power to get this bill across the finish line. ” Hannity went on to take aim at the media and the Democratic opposition to the bill but reiterated that measures should be taken to ensure this doesn’t happen again. Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor | 1 |
Louisiana State Attorney General Jeff Landry spoke with Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Raheem Kassam on Wednesday regarding Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee. [“After watching the Comey testimony and Sessions’,” said Landry, “I think that both of those put together should bring everyone in the country to the conclusion that there was nothing there as far as collusion between the Russians and the Trump campaign or those involved in the Trump campaign. ” Landry added that he thought “Sessions did a wonderful job of basically putting that to rest and showing that this whole thing has been some sort of circus or witch hunt dreamed up by the Democrats. ” Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. LISTEN: | 1 |
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Negotiations are underway to extend a fragile agreement in Syria to the embattled northern city of Aleppo, which a surge of violence has nearly torn apart in recent weeks, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday. “In the last weeks, the cessation of hostilities has been put to the test, and it has frayed in certain areas, and it has fallen completely in a few areas,” Mr. Kerry said in Geneva after meeting with the United Nations special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura. Mr. Kerry said he was particularly disturbed about air raids on a hospital and three health clinics in Aleppo, for which he blamed President Bashar ’s government. “The regime has clearly indicated the willingness, over a period of time now, to attack first responders, to attack health care workers and rescue workers,” Mr. Kerry said. “And the attack on this hospital is unconscionable, under any standard anywhere. It has to stop. ” He added that “both sides — the opposition and the regime — have contributed to this chaos. ” Mr. Kerry said that he planned to talk to his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov, on Monday evening, and that Mr. de Mistura would travel to Moscow on Tuesday, all part of an effort to restore a fragile that was brokered in February, with American and Russian support, and is now at risk of collapse. Mr. Kerry urged Russia to pressure Mr. Assad to stop the attacks. “This is the moment to try to make certain that what everybody has signed up to is, in fact, being delivered, being lived up to, without hypocrisy and without variation. ” Mr. Kerry said there could be no “legitimate political talks” until both parties carried out the agreement — a full cessation of hostilities throughout the country and the nationwide delivery of humanitarian aid. “And yet one party is blatantly violating that agreement,” he said, referring to the Syrian government. Speaking at a news conference with Mr. de Mistura, Mr. Kerry said that the deal was fraying in some areas and had collapsed in others and that legitimate talks on a were impossible unless all of the involved parties were committed to it. Mr. Kerry said that Russia and the United States would add personnel in Geneva so that the agreement could be monitored — a declaration that left the unsettling impression that until now, the agreement, promoted as being of ultimate importance, had not been monitored around the clock by its sponsors. Mr. de Mistura added a note of reality, saying he appreciated that while Russia and the United States were developing an improved monitoring system, “we need the political will otherwise we would have only a mechanism. ” “Well said,” Mr. Kerry said. Asked repeatedly whether he trusted the Russian government on the efforts to restore a truce in Aleppo, Mr. Kerry declined to answer. In noting that the partial truce had fallen apart in some parts of Syria, Mr. Kerry acknowledged what has been clear for more than a week on the ground: The relative respite from violence brought by the reduction in hostilities has come to a resounding end in many areas, especially Aleppo, where more than 200 people have died in the past week, most of them civilians. About of those deaths have been on the side of town, which is being pummeled anew by airstrikes and by bombs dropped from helicopters, including on a hospital. But both sides have demonstrated a disregard for civilian life, with rebels firing mortar shells and missiles last week toward most of the neighborhoods in Aleppo, in one of their worst barrages in recent months. Yet as Mr. Kerry carries out shuttle diplomacy to try to revive the partial truce, it has been renewed in several areas, but not in Aleppo, where it is needed most. The Syrian Army said in a statement on Monday that a temporary truce in the suburbs of Damascus and in the coastal province of Latakia would be extended for an additional 48 hours. The Tass news agency in Russia quoted Lt. Gen. Sergei Kurylenko, head of the Russian coordination center in Syria, as saying only that talks about a for Aleppo were continuing. The sticking point is apparently an unwillingness by Russia to tell the Syrian government to stop its aerial bombardments on areas there. Mr. Kerry, as well as residents and opposition figures, say the government’s warplanes, in a campaign aided by Russia, are mainly hitting areas not controlled by the Nusra Front, which has a small presence in Aleppo. Instead, they are believed to be striking areas controlled by other insurgent groups, including some backed by the United States and its allies. The United States is considering whether to draw up a map of safe zones where civilians and members of moderate opposition groups could seek shelter from attacks by Mr. Assad’s military, The Associated Press reported. It was not immediately clear whether Russia would accept such a plan, or could persuade the Assad government to respect the zones. Such an agreement is also unlikely to be helpful if the sides cannot agree on what constitutes the violations the monitors are supposed to be watching for. Even if hard lines were drawn on a map, and civilians and insurgents not affiliated with the Nusra Front were encouraged to go there, the plan would face major practical problems, given the difficulty of moving safely within the city. Rebel groups may not agree to give up areas that Russia believes are held by the Nusra Front, arguing that, in fact, they are held by local opposition fighters and seeing the plan as a ploy to allow the government to take them back. | 1 |
WASHINGTON — Victory for House Republicans in federal court last week could mean significantly higher health insurance premiums for millions of people if the decision is upheld on appeal, the Obama administration said Monday. And much of the cost for those higher premiums could be passed on to the federal government and taxpayers, administration officials and health policy experts said. The ruling by Judge Rosemary M. Collyer of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia would block the administration from reimbursing insurers for discounts provided to millions of people under the Affordable Care Act. Without that money, insurers would have to increase premiums for many people purchasing insurance through the health law’s online marketplaces, the administration said. Judge Collyer said that the administration had paid billions of dollars to insurers since January 2014 even though Congress had not appropriated money for those subsidies, a violation of Article I of the Constitution, which states, “No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law. ” The disputed money compensates insurers for the discounts, which make health care more affordable to consumers by reducing deductibles and other costs. If insurers are not reimbursed for the discounts, the administration said, they will need to charge higher premiums to cover their expenses. A study by the Department of Health and Human Services estimated that premiums for midlevel “silver plans” could rise by nearly 30 percent without those reimbursements. Many consumers would be protected, since under the law, they would be entitled to larger tax credits to help pay the higher premiums, the administration said. However, taxpayers would bear some of the extra costs. The Urban Institute, a nonprofit research organization, estimated additional spending would total $3. 6 billion in 2016 and $47 billion over the next decade. The administration plans to appeal the decision in the case, House of Representatives v. Burwell. The judge held off putting her decision into effect to allow for an appeal. Clare Krusing, a spokeswoman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade group, said: “We have a long judicial process ahead of us, so there’ll be no immediate change to anyone’s current benefit. But if you eliminate the subsidies, it would certainly increase the overall cost of coverage. ” Federal officials say the Affordable Care Act gave them permanent authority to help pay deductibles, and other costs for certain people who buy insurance through the new public marketplaces. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that these payments, known as reductions, would total $130 billion over the next 10 years. But if insurers must rely on Congress to provide the money through annual appropriations, that would cause uncertainty in insurance markets, the administration said, noting that Congress was often late in passing bills to finance operations of the federal government. In court papers, the Obama administration made this forecast: “If reduction payments were dependent on annual appropriations, insurers would be forced to set their premiums for the upcoming year in the face of uncertainty about the existence and amount of payments they would receive. That uncertainty would be inefficient and destabilizing. It would also inevitably lead to increased premiums. ” Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said he felt sure that the administration would ultimately prevail in court. Republicans will “stop at nothing to try to tear this bill down,” he said, “but I continue to be confident that they’re going to continue to fail. ” Administration officials said the ruling should not affect 2017 premiums. The White House contends that the health care law, signed by President Obama in 2010, provides all the authority he needs to pay insurance companies for the discounts they give consumers. But in April 2013, Mr. Obama sought explicit authority, asking Congress to provide the money in one of the annual appropriations bills for 2014. Congress did not act on the request. “Congress authorized reduced but did not appropriate moneys for it, in the fiscal year 2014 budget or since,” Judge Collyer said. “Congress is the only source for such an appropriation, and no public money can be spent without one. ” Nearly five million people, or 56 percent of those enrolled in health plans through federal and state marketplaces, were benefiting from reductions at the end of last year, the administration said. Researchers at the Urban Institute also predicted that insurers would increase premiums for silver plans if they were no longer reimbursed for reductions. Premiums for such plans, they said, would increase about $1, 040 a year per person, or 29 percent. “If insurers have enough time to develop new rates, they could incorporate the increased costs into the premiums for silver plans,” said Linda J. Blumberg, a health economist at the Urban Institute. “But this takes time. You can’t change the rules in the middle of the year and adjust prices the next week. ” | 1 |
November 11, 2016 Obama, Trump display unity in White House meeting
President Obama and President-elect Donald Trump put on a show of unity Thursday at their first meeting at the White House.
The two men, who have been sworn enemies for years, met for more than an hour and a half in the Oval Office, even though Trump said they were only scheduled to meet for 15 minutes.
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SiriusXM host Raheem Kassam welcomed former Department of Homeland Security official Philip Haney, author of See Something, Say Nothing: A Homeland Security Officer Exposes the Government’s Submission to Jihad, back to Breitbart News Daily on Thursday morning. Naturally, the terrorist attack in London was the primary topic of conversation. [Haney recalled appearing with Kassam on Wednesday’s edition of Sean Hannity’s show, where they discussed the difference between “indicators that might help you get focused on the circumstances of an attack like yesterday” and “proven derogatory information. ” “You can develop indicators in a situation like yesterday without necessarily determining whether they’re really proven derogatory or not,” he said. He cited the terrorist attacks in San Bernardino, Fort Hood, and Chattanooga as cases where “there were indicators that were seen by different law enforcement, particularly FBI, which is domestic law enforcement, and then my own former agency, Customs and Border Protection, which was our primary job Department of Homeland Security was created to help protect our country from terrorism. ” “The way we constructed cases, which is commonly known as ‘connecting the dots,’ was to put pieces of information into the system until a point came when you could paint a picture, either of an individual or of an organization because there was a relationship between an individual who does an attack or may do an attack and an affiliated network of either other individuals or organizations,” he elaborated. Haney noted that the London attacker was evidently known to law enforcement. “I also just read that they’ve also arrested eight other people, which is perfect proof of my operating premise that these individuals virtually are never alone,” he added. “This notion that we have of individuals that are suddenly radicalized, just kind of out of the clear blue, is really not a correct premise because as we’re now discovering with the individual from the attack yesterday that there are other people involved in some way or another. It always amazes me how they’re able to find this out after an attack, but it doesn’t seem like they’re able to manage it quite as effectively before an attack occurs,” he said. Haney thought this was a consequence of the limited “arena that law enforcement is allowed to operate in and how they’re able to respond to indicators that they might find,” not a shortage of resources. “It’s been the prevailing notion that law enforcement tends to be limited in their ability to respond to the evidence that they see lately,” he noted unhappily. “We’ve been seeing these kind of vehicle attacks all the way back to Beirut, with the Marine barracks twenty, thirty years ago,” Haney pointed out. “As soon as I began to see the details of the story come out in the media, the picture came clear in my mind that this is very similar to the kind of attacks we’ve seen in Nice Beirut, as I mentioned, and in Germany’s Christmas market. ” “That’s another arena of indicators when you’re evaluating a terrorist attack. If you’re a law enforcement officer, that’s your first and primary job, to try to put the picture together as quickly as you can, for one major reason: you don’t know at the time of attack if that’s the only person involved. You do your best to put the picture together as clearly and as quickly as possible as an indicator of a possible course of action, a response to the terrorist attack,” he advised. “As an outside observer, I took the evidence that was being provided by the media — in particular, the Guardian — and evaluated the pictures that they had shown of the MPs, the medical people, working on the individual that had been shot. Just from that picture, I was able to make some determinations, kind of focus down on the type of person that he probably was. With my background, I knew immediately that it was likely he was affiliated with other individuals, either directly indirectly,” he explained. “It looked to me like he was going to crash through the gate if at all possible, and the smaller wall stopped him from going through,” Haney assessed. “You put the picture together, and then you respond in a law enforcement manner from there. That’s how I saw it as I evaluated it yesterday as the story was unfolding,” he said. Haney speculated that law enforcement withheld the identity of the attacker for as long as possible to “keep the individuals that they’re tracking” from escaping the dragnet. He thought it was reasonable for British units to “give themselves as much of a tactical advantage as they possibly can maintain, for as long as they can maintain it. ” “Likely, people will go underground because that’s what always happens. Remember the attacks in Brussels? There were individuals that were involved in the attack that were basically hiding in plain sight, right in communities. It took months, if not longer, to find some of them,” he recalled. “The other indicator, by the way, is what happened in the U. K. with the individuals arrested on the street or detained on the street, for asking other people in a protest questions about Islam. They intervened and took him off the street. That’s kind of a variation on the ‘see something, say something’ theme, that if you do see something and say something, oftentimes you end up getting in trouble for bringing it up,” Haney said. Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. LISTEN: | 1 |
SEATTLE — Laurie Speakman is passionate about moose meat. Partly it is the flavor of the meat, which to her is milder than beef, and great on the barbecue. What matters even more, she said, is moose meat for charity. When a moose weighing half a ton or more is killed on a highway on the Kenai Peninsula south of Anchorage — something that can easily happen 125 times a year in that part of the state — Ms. Speakman gets the call. As a volunteer with the Alaska Moose Federation, she goes to the scene, winches the carcass onto her truck and delivers it to hungry families or religious and civic groups on a waiting list, which then butcher and distribute the meat. “I work my life around roadkill,” said Ms. Speakman, 45, whose Facebook page declares her alter ego, Laurie the Moose Lady. “My heart and soul is into this because people are getting fed. ” So it irks her, she said, when moose go missing. Under state law, animals struck and killed on Alaska’s highways are state property and may be handled only by authorized groups like the federation. But illegal carcass harvesting is occurring with increasing frequency in Alaska, said the group’s executive director, Don Dyer, who just last week stumbled upon evidence that pointed to moose theft. “This last Sunday about 3 o’clock in the morning, we got a call, and we got out there and someone had cut an entire shoulder out of a moose,” Mr. Dyer said in a telephone interview. “Some people out there say, ‘Well, it’s just roadkill,’ and if they’re hungry, they’re entitled to it, but the fact of the matter is that when somebody steals a whole moose, it impacts a lot of people. ” The goal of distributing meat from animals killed on the road is not new in Alaska, but before the creation of the federation in 2002, that meant butchering the animal where it died. The work could take a team two or three hours, cutting up 250 to 300 pounds of meat or more, sometimes in dangerous traffic and brutal weather. Transport by the federation’s drivers — there are now six, including Ms. Speakman — cleared crash sites faster and saved time and money for state troopers. Roadkill’s power as a punch line for comedians, politicians and songwriters probably dates to the early days of the automobile. But harvesting food from the highway is increasingly earning some respect beyond Alaska. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, for example, the advocacy group better known by its acronym, PETA, has endorsed the harvest of animals killed on the road as a more ethical and humane way to get meat than through commercial agriculture practices that use feedlots and slaughterhouses. In a statement, the group said, “If the state is going to provide the needy with animal carcasses rather than doing the right thing by serving healthy food, roadkill is a superior option. ” About 20 states — including Florida, Vermont, Colorado and Illinois — allow some legal taking of wild meat killed by accident, according to the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, which changed its rules last month to allow the practice. In most of the United States, deer are by far the most likely animals to be hit by a vehicle. State Farm Insurance estimates that more than 1. 2 million deer, elk and moose — mostly deer — were struck in 2015 in the United States, with West Virginia being statistically the most dangerous place to be an ungulate crossing the road. And at least one academic who has studied the issue said he believed evolution was changing the behavior of animal populations, which have learned to adapt to the ribbons of highway and the shiny machines that roar past day and night. “There is just less space for creatures, and they have in some cases been changed,” said Roger M. Knutson, a retired professor of biology and the author of the book “Flattened Fauna: A Field Guide to Common Animals of Roads, Streets, and Highways. ” Mr. Knutson’s book, first published in the quotes, for example, a study of hedgehogs — a kind of animal famous for curling up into a ball when threatened. When the animals come to highways now, the study said, they have learned to run instead. The legal wrinkles of harvesting animals killed on the road vary. In Idaho, for example, people are required to call a wildlife worker or law enforcement official to kill an injured animal before it can be taken. In Washington, salvagers can load a dead deer or elk into their vehicle and drive away, but they must contact the Department of Fish and Wildlife within 24 hours to get a permit. Ms. Speakman said she feels loved by those she helps. Several local organizations and Alaska Native tribal groups regularly give her gas cards to help out. “I’ve had a few charities that made me breakfast. Some will give me coffee. I kind of get spoiled a little bit,” she said. But she draws the line at taking any meat for herself. “I’ve had a couple of charities offer some to me, and I will not accept it — there are needy families out there, and I don’t want to take away from them. ” She gets her moose meat by hunting. And she is thinking of eventually writing her own cookbook. “I’ve got some recipes,” she said. | 1 |
Overcoming Anxiety/ Spirit Communications Overcoming Anxiety/ Spirit Communications Date Wednesday - November 16,
First Half: Psychiatrist Dr. Peter Breggin will discuss techniques to overcome guilt, shame and anxiety and how to handle life's obstacles. He'll also address the overprescribing of psychiatric drugs in the US, and the alternatives available.
Second Half: Hans Christian King , a direct voice medium for more than sixty years, will outline how to create a clear channel for spiritual communication, which enables practitioners to discover, activate, trust, and follow the soul’s directions. He'll also share stories from the spirit world, and from those who've experienced spiritual awakenings. Website(s): | 0 |
Prison Planet.com October 27, 2016 YUGE RECORD BREAKING VOTES in TEXAS!!! & Its Not Bernie Fans or Obama Voters for Hillary Clinton!! ALLL Donald Trump Folks😃 #wednesdaywisdom pic.twitter.com/Sn79fMhwXG
— DEPLORABLE TRUMPCAT (@Darren32895836) October 26, 2016 This 28 | 0 |
Kevin Shenkman could be described as one of the most prolific and successful civil rights lawyers of his generation, after almost pushing dozens of Southern California communities to change their election systems under the California Voting Rights Act of 2001 (CVRA) over the past few years. [To many in those communities, however, Shenkman is a villain, a from Malibu who is creating racial divisions where they do not exist — and making millions in the process. He is, according to local podcaster Stephen Daniels, “the most hated man in Santa Clarita. ” And he is “hated” there — and elsewhere — because he wins. Shenkman scored his latest victory last Wednesday evening, when the Oceanside City Council voted to approve a proposal to move from an system, where every council member is elected by the voters as a whole, to a district system, where voters are only represented directly by one member, from a particular geographic area. The change was prompted by a March 22 letter from Shenkman, claiming that the city’s system prevented minority groups from winning elections, and warning of a lawsuit to follow. Residents of Oceanside were shocked, and angry, at the charge. The city has had several Latino council members, including one who has served on the council for the last 16 years. It also recently had an mayor. Shenkman claimed in his letter to the city that Oceanside’s 65. 2% white majority engaged in “bloc voting” to exclude Latinos, and cited Linda Gonzales, who lost a city council race last year. Gonzales opposed Shenkman’s effort, and told Breitbart News that she believes lost her election fairly. She added that Shenkman never asked her permission to use her name. Nevertheless, the council members capitulated to Shenkman’s threat, after the city attorney advised them last Wednesday that no city or school board had ever successfully defended an election system from a CVRA challenge in court. Score another win for Shenkman. His law firm, Shenkman Hughes, boasts on its website that he “has never lost a case, and has no intention of breaking that winning streak. ” Curiously, in his extensive bio on the website, which touts his work in “all aspects of intellectual property law, including litigation of patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret matters,” as well as other areas of civil litigation, he omits any mention of his voting rights cases (as of this writing). Shenkman’s path to law, and voting rights, are rather unconventional. Today, he lives in Malibu, one of the wealthiest communities in the state, whose population is over 90% white. But as he told the Talk of Santa Clarita podcast in January, he grew up in the Detroit area. There, he said, he was a “bad kid,” committing “the occasional little criminal misdemeanor kinda thing, maybe the occasional felony that I never got caught for. ” He had “some interaction with the justice system,” and formed a bond with his attorney, who inspired him to pursue a legal career. Shenkman graduated from Rice University with a B. S. in mechanical engineering (which he describes as “completely useless”) and went to Columbia Law School. He is married, with four daughters. He told Talk of Santa Clarita that if he were still practicing patent law, “I would have shot myself by now,” calling it “ boring. ” Shenkman’s Facebook profile photo is an image of a giant metal fist: the Joe Louis monument in Detroit, Michigan. (His cover photo is the same image: “Fuck your FB rules,” he explains in a comment to a relative.) His timeline features a photograph of Trayvon Martin, the black teenager who was killed while fighting neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in Florida in 2012, who was later acquitted. He is a Democrat, and gave $1375 to the Los Angeles County Democratic Central Committee in 2014, according to the Federal Elections Commission. He has also contributed to Democrats at the state and local levels, according to the California Secretary of State. The public record also suggests that Shenkman has had a colorful career as a plaintiff’s attorney, filing class action suits on behalf of consumers — and sometimes acting as the plaintiff himself. Currently, Shenkman and his law partner are plaintiffs in a class action suit filed last year against AutoZone, claiming that the auto parts dealer had not informed them that it was changing its rewards program so that a $20 credit on purchases over $20 would expire after one year. In 2014, he represented consumers in successful class action claims against restaurant chains that falsely advertised Kobe beef during a period when Japanese beef imports were banned. In 2011, Shenkman personally filed a consumer class action suit against Chipotle Mexican Grill, claiming that employees had misled him into believing the restaurant’s pinto beans were vegetarian, when they are actually made with bacon. In his lawsuit, he cited his vegetarianism and Jewish faith (though Jewish dietary laws, which require that food be certified kosher by a rabbi, would not have permitted him to eat at Chipotle at all). That case was dismissed in 2015, more than four years later, according to court documents. He also reportedly sued the Chinese chain Panda Express, claiming it failed to disclose that it adds chicken powder to its vegetarian entrees. That same year, he was the plaintiff — identified as an “avid runner” in media reports — in class action suits filed against coconut water companies Vita Coco and One World Enterprises, claiming they had exaggerated the hydration benefits of their products. Both cases were dismissed court documents indicate that he accepted a token settlement of $2, 000 in the Vida Coco case as part of a related nationwide class action settlement. Following those adventures in consumer litigation, Shenkman found a new issue to litigate: minority voting rights. Specifically, Shenkman turned his attention to the CVRA, a law signed in 2002 by Democratic Governor Gray Davis — who was later recalled by the California electorate — that made it easy for activists to sue towns, school boards, and other local government bodies with voting. In addition, the CVRA allows plaintiffs to “prove” that “racially polarized voting occurs” simply by showing that a member of a minority group might have won an election if not for being outvoted by members of the majority (usually white). The CVRA is a law with a contentious history. Over a decade ago, in the Sanchez v. City of Modesto case, a state court found the CVRA unconstitutional. But that ruling was overturned on appeal in 2006, and the U. S. Supreme Court declined to take up the case, keeping the law intact. Among other questionable provisions, the CVRA includes incentives for lawyers to sue by allowing successful plaintiff’s attorneys to recover their fees from the defendants, while preventing successful defendants from doing the same. For activist groups and ambitious lawyers, the CVRA is a scheme but for local governments, it is a scenario. They must pay their own legal fees, win or lose, and if they lose they must also pay the legal costs — often exorbitant — of the other side. For the first several years that the CVRA was in force, just two attorneys made “all of the roughly $4. 3 million” that resulted from settlements under the law, according to the Associated Press. Those two attorneys just happened to be the two lawyers who drafted the law, including San civil rights lawyer Robert Rubin. At some point, Shenkman apparently recognized the political and financial opportunity that the CVRA presented in Southern California. “Like everything else, it just fell on me,” he told Talk of Santa Clarita, recalling an early conversation with Antelope Valley Democratic Party activist Darren Parker. In 2012, Shenkman began suing cities and school districts throughout the region — most notably the city of Palmdale, which was likely seen as an easy target because of its population are minorities, while its city council is largely white. Palmdale fought back, and the subsequent court fight set the template for other confrontations between Shenkman and his targets. At first, the city was defiant, fighting Shenkman in court and holding elections that a judge later declared were illegal. In the end, however, after being worn down by years of litigation and appeals, Palmdale agreed to a settlement that required it to pay $4. 5 million. (Curiously, one of the plaintiffs’ other lawyers was R. Rex Parris, the mayor of the neighboring city of Lancaster, which still uses the election system.) Since the Palmdale case, Shenkman told Voice of OC last year, he has been inundated with calls from potential plaintiffs. Some of Shenkman’s potential plaintiffs are local politicians. He told Voice of OC that he also works with the Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project, a Latino organization (with a Los Angeles office) which he reportedly represented in at least one case. Shenkman uses the Palmdale case to push other cities into immediate compliance. In his letter to Oceanside, for example, he wrote: “As you may be aware, in 2012, we sued the City of Palmdale for violating the CVRA. After an trial, we prevailed. After spending millions of dollars, a remedy was ultimately imposed on the Palmdale city council, with districts that combine all incumbents into one of the four districts. ” Shenkman and his supporters argue that districts increase the chance that minority candidates will win elections, presuming people vote as racial blocs. Shenkman told Talk of Santa Clarita that the system had been created in the early 20th century to “freeze out” minorities. elections, according to Shenkman and to the few advocates who spoke in favor of districts at the Oceanside city council meeting, are also theoretically less expensive, lowering the barrier to entry for candidates. And with fewer constituents per public official, districts might allow more direct interaction between local voters and their elected representatives. (In Santa Clarita, Shenkman pushed for cumulative voting, in which voters can vote more than once for their preferred candidates, telling Talk of Santa Clarita that the system would be more likely than districts to elect Latinos to the city council.) Many residents, however, seem to prefer the system. One reason, frequently cited by the opponents of Oceanside’s proposed district system, is that every single member of a local government body under an system is accountable to each voter. Some, like Hans von Spakovsky of the Heritage Foundation, also argue that small communities share too much in common to be divided politically in ways that encourage politicians to favor their local neighborhoods over others. And many communities reject the idea that they are racist — or that they use “bloc voting” to exclude minorities, as Shenkman alleges. They also dislike the drawing of districts using racial criteria, arguing it creates new divisions in the community — a frequent refrain among the opponents in Oceanside. More than the particular form of government, what many communities resent is the way they are being compelled to accept districts — through legal threats and accusations of racism. Oceanside Councilmember Jack Feller, who voted against the new system, told the Los Angeles Times that he felt “disgusted … that this is being forced on us. ” If Palmdale was an attractive target, Oceanside was a poor one. Just over a third of its residents are Latino, and there has been at least one Hispanic representative on the city council for the last two decades. At the council meeting on Wednesday evening, many of the most vociferous opponents of the new plan were Hispanic. But the Palmdale case loomed large in the minds of the council members, who voted — narrowly — to surrender. Gonzales, the candidate whose name Shenkman used in his letter to the city, told Breitbart News that she felt he had exploited her for his own purposes. She said that she had reached Shenkman by telephone, and found him rude, until she explained who she was. At that point, she said, he expressed sympathy for her recent election loss. She told him she had lost because she was running against veteran incumbents, not because of racism. “I told [Shenkman] that I agree we need to get more Latinos involved in the government, and in our democracy, and in our Constitution,” but without special districts, Gonzales recalled. “He didn’t want to talk to me after that. ” And she added: “They’re working against the people they’re trying to help. ” That is a common sentiment in the communities Shenkman has confronted. In Palmdale, when Shenkman sued to stop city council elections in 2013, the city accused him of “attempting to stop an election where at least one minority candidate is essentially guaranteed to win a seat on the City Council,” given the field of candidates. The city attorney opined that Shenkman’s legal team was “only interested in gouging the taxpayers to line their pockets. ” Shenkman later defended his payout to the Los Angeles Times: “We did very well on the Palmdale case. But people who criticized us don’t realize the enormous risk that we took. ” (It is not clear what “risk” Shenkman was referring to, since — as noted above — the CRVA does not allow successful defendants to recover costs. He told Voice of OC: “I was not paying my mortgage in order to pay the experts. And the court reporters’ fees, and other stuff. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs. ” Other lawyers, he said, might not have been “crazy enough” to try.) Shenkman also told Talk of Santa Clarita that he “embraced” the financial rewards of his voting rights cases, admitting that he posted a photograph of the check he received from Palmdale on his Facebook page with the caption: “Picture me rollin’ bitches. ” He has, at times, described his highly lucrative voting rights campaign in more idealistic, even terms. In a speech in 2013, he said: “Other people have introduced me as just being the bad guy. They call [me] the the ambulance chaser, some other names that are probably not even as nice as that. And all for seeking to allow racial and ethnic minorities … to have a say in their city governments, their school boards. ” He later admitted, however, to “extorting” local governments, in an interview with Voice of OC: “That’s all true … taking advantage of easy targets — yeah. There are a lot of easy targets, but they should change. If they change their election system, I wouldn’t need or have the opportunity to sue them. ” Since the Palmdale case, Shenkman has overturned election systems throughout Southern California, most of which had been in place for many decades, without complaint. The Orange County Register called the changes a “historic upheaval,” citing “dozens” of local agencies that had been forced to change from to district voting. Not even liberal cities are safe. Last year Shenkman sued the City of Santa Monica, which prides itself on its “progressive” politics, and which has a Latino mayor. Shenkman’s client in Santa Monica is Maria Loya, who has run unsuccessfully for local office. She is married to Oscar de la Torre, who claims he lost a race for city council in November 2016 because of the system. (De la Torre came sixth in a race where the top four won seats Mayor Tony Vazquez won the number of votes.) He is on the board of the Pico Neighborhood Association, which is also a plaintiff in the case. (In addition to Shenkman, one of the other lawyers for the plaintiffs is none other than CVRA Robert Rubin himself another is Mayor Parris of Lancaster, once again.) Shenkman told Talk of Santa Clarita that the Democrats on the Santa Monica city council are “hypocritical. ” He added: “[T]hey’re saying the same things” as the city of Palmdale . Last year, however, Shenkman’s lawsuit nearly derailed negotiations between Santa Monica and his home town of Malibu over the creation of a separate Malibu school district, something local activists in Malibu fervently desire. Initially, Shenkman was on Malibu’s negotiating team. But when Shenkman filed his lawsuit, without warning, Santa Monica cut off talks. “[T]his legal action could jeopardize our ability to move forward in a productive manner,” the school board president said in a press release, reported at the time by the Santa Monica Daily Press. A group called Advocates for Malibu Public Schools, which had initially joined Shenkman’s lawsuit as plaintiffs, withdrew from the case, and Shenkman resigned as a member of the negotiating team, saying his involvement had become a “distraction. ” Given Shenkman’s unsparing style, perhaps Santa Monica should not have been surprised. When voters in the San Fernando Valley town of Glendale rejected a district system by a margin in a 2015 referendum, Shenkman sued the school district. When the San Bernardino County town of Upland agreed to a settlement with Shenkman, which involved hiring demographers to draw districts that favored Latinos, they still had to pay legal fees. And when the Orange County city of Fullerton created districts, Shenkman went back to court to challenge the new boundaries. Shenkman has a brash style of speaking, and is not shy to express contempt for his legal and political opponents. On Talk of Santa Clarita, Shenkman referred disparagingly to local Latino politicians with whom he disagreed — in explicitly racial terms: “I don’t think very highly of the crowd in Santa Clarita who are Latino by name only,” he said, singling out Republican Assemblyman Dante Acosta ( ) as “one that comes to mind. ” Shenkman also made an astonishing allegation about a former State Senate candidate, Democrat Johnathon Ervin: Shenkman: And the Democrats that were up [for election] were horrible candidates. Daniels: Mmm. Shenkman: I mean, Johnathon Ervin is a horrible candidate. Daniels: Why do you say that? Shenkman: He’s got so many problems, man. First of all, the guy takes bribes, OK? Daniels: Ugh. Shenkman: You know — Daniels: Hey man, you’re a lawyer. I mean, don’t you at least want to say, “allegedly”? Shenkman: No. He added, later in the interview, that he had received death threats, and threats to his family, as a result of his work on voting rights. But he was undeterred, and said he has many requests from local activists to confront their cities. In discussing the cities he has taken on, Shenkman seems to adopt an imperious tone, confident that he can shape outcomes to his will. When asked by Daniels about whether Santa Clarita could avoid a lawsuit by appointing a Latino member to the council, he said that it would depend on whom they appointed: I think it very much depends on who they appoint. And right now, as the council stands, there are four white, conservative Republicans of a similar mind. And that is not what the City of Santa Clarita is. I would love to see the city council have the kind of maturity to appoint someone who does not share all of their views … Maybe the fifth person should bring some diversity of ideas. Shenkman also vowed on Talk of Santa Clarita to depose the current Santa Clarita city council — which he claimed was elected unlawfully — eventually: “Any time a city fights us to the bitter end, that’s the approach that we take. ” Ironically, Shenkman’s own town of Malibu has an election system — the very system Shenkman is destroying elsewhere — and an apparently city council. But not enough minorities live there: only 6. 1% of the population is Hispanic, and only 1. 2% is black. Ironically, that means the CVRA might not apply to Malibu. But perhaps the greatest irony is that for all of Shenkman’s legal work over the past five years, the new district systems are little better at electing minorities to office than the old systems. Last month, the Times observed: “A voting law meant to increase minority representation has generated many more lawsuits than seats for people of color. ” It added: “Of the 22 cities that have made the move to district elections since June [2016] only seven saw an overall gain in Latino council members. ” And the reasons for poor Latino representation had nothing to do with racism, the Times reported: A number of factors likely contributed to the low numbers, including historically low turnout by Latino voters and a lack of candidates with the means to run, experts said. Also, even in cities with large Latino populations, some residents can’t vote because they are too young, are here illegally or are not citizens. The threat of legal action has forced cities to switch to council districts, but in some cases the move hasn’t resulted in more minority representation because the city already is and drawing districts where minorities predominate is difficult. Shenkman told the Times that he had filed about ten lawsuits — and that, in the newspaper’s words, he “couldn’t remember how many warning letters he has sent to local governments. ” That campaign has upended local government in Southern California, and divided communities by race in ways that may linger for generations, but it has achieved almost nothing else — except making Kevin Shenkman richer. There are only two ways to stop Shenkman. One is to meet his challenge in court. Since 2013, the legal landscape has changed: the Supreme Court tossed part of the federal Voting Rights Act in 2013, in Shelby County v. Holder. In doing so, the Court emphasized the importance of evidence in determining whether there is racial discrimination in any particular jurisdiction. The Court could, theoretically, toss out the California Voting Rights Act for vagueness, since its evidentiary standards are so low that it allows virtually any candidate to challenge an election loss as racist. Given the wide impact of the CVRA across the state over the last few years, the Court might have also a greater interest in hearing a challenge than it did a decade ago. The confirmation of Justice Neil Gorsuch might also offer hope to defendants. But realistically, few local communities have the money to gamble on a Supreme Court win. That leaves one last recourse: the state legislature. The communities of Southern California could approach their elected representatives, Democrat and Republican, and ask them to amend the CVRA to require higher standards of proof of racism, or at least to remove the monetary incentives that reward lawyers like Shenkman for their exploits. On most issues, Democrats in Sacramento might not be inclined to listen to conservative cities in the Inland Empire or San Diego County. But Shenkman is pursuing liberal Santa Monica, too. There could be bipartisan interest in protecting local government from outside lawyers who can squeeze taxpayers with arguably frivolous lawsuits. Until then, Shenkman will keep going. As he said in 2013: “The law is the law. ” Shenkman did not reply to requests for comment. Joel B. Pollak is Senior at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak. This article has been updated to include a reference to state and local campaign contributions. | 1 |
Anti-Trump Protester Holds Reprehensible Sign about Melania Anti-Trump Protester Holds Reprehensible Sign about Melania Culture By TruthFeedNews November 13, 2016
Want to see exactly how reprehensible the moral character of Anti-Trump protesters is?
Take a look at what this Hillary Supporter has on his sign.
“Rape Melania”
Police, please arrest this worthless scumbag and lock him up.
Support the Trump Presidency and help us fight Liberal Media Bias. Please LIKE and SHARE this story on Facebook or Twitter. | 0 |
The FBI’s October surprise has thrown the 2016 election into November chaos. But an examination of the trigger mechanism behind this event reveals a deeper layer of manipulation by the media and financial interests behind the election. This is the GRTV Backgrounder with your host James Corbett. This report also includes an Interview with Prof. Michel Chossudovsky.
Visit GlobalResearch.ca
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Contributed by Activist Post of www.activistpost.com . | 0 |
.@brianstelter: Good journalism led to the revelations about Flynn that resulted in his resignation https: . On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “New Day,” CNN Senior Media Correspondent and “Reliable Sources” host Brian Stelter said the controversy that led to the resignation of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was “a big moment for investigative journalism. ” Stelter said, “These journalists who did not ask about Flynn, they looked bad yesterday afternoon, they look even worse now, now that Flynn has resigned. ” He added, “And, by the way, a big moment for investigative journalism. This has been a story led by the Washington Post, the New York Times, the CNNs of the world. If it weren’t for journalists digging, digging, digging into this, we wouldn’t know about it. So, when you hear about anonymous sources, when you hear about leaks from the White House, or from the government, this is why that’s so important for us. ” ( RCP Video) Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett | 1 |
Obama Attacks FBI Chief for Investigating Hillary November 2, 2016 Daniel Greenfield
Richard Nixon called. He wants his old job back. There hasn't been a president and a party who were this blatantly corrupt ever. There's no question that Obama has made history. It's just the wrong kind of history.
Initially the White House chose not to join Hillary's war on the FBI. Then Obama threw all caution to the winds and decided to echo the spin chamber's lines about "innuendo" and "incomplete information". Never mind that it was Obama's own DOJ which was blocking FBI efforts to secure the emails and resolve the issue.
It's a sad day in America when the White House actively seeks to obstruct and intimidate an FBI investigation and when the media cheers on this brand of corrupt thuggery. | 0 |
Next Swipe left/right This letter from Manchester City Council is a strong contender for facepalm of the year Someone at Manchester City Council might need to a) Google the term “Hellenic” and b) use a spellchecker. Manchester City Council sent this piece of beauty to someone recently: pic.twitter.com/w5jwlpZHbF
— George Zacharopoulos (@GreekGeordie) November 1, 2016 | 0 |
‹ › Arnaldo Rodgers is a trained and educated Psychologist. He has worked as a community organizer and activist. “Honor Our Immigrant Veterans” Replayed By Arnaldo Rodgers on November 8, 2016 Veterans By elizawhig
“Honor Our Immigrant Veterans” from VoteVets is a video on Youtube I tripped over recently, and have watched several times. It is that good. Another Kossack may have already posted it, but I would like to get it some play. Not because I think it will change any voter’s mind, but because it deserves to be seen to remind us of who we are as Americans. We are all immigrants or the children of immigrants, and we and our relatives and grandparents have had to make tough choices that deserve to be remembered.
I had an uncle (by marriage) who was Italian. In 1940 he was still not a US citizen, although I gather he had begun the process, so he was sent to an internment camp in Wyoming (or Montana?). While he waited for his citizenship application to be completed, he and his fellow detainees played a lot of poker. His papers were finally processed, he was made a US Citizen, then was promptly drafted into the US Army as a Sargent (Supply). And of course he was sent to…Italy. His division survived Anzio, then my uncle came into his glory. His father was someone of importance further north, so he had connections. He was able to secure excellent billets (in a castle) and good food and drink for his comrades.
Read the Full Article at www.dailykos.com >>>>
Related Posts: No Related Posts The views expressed herein are the views of the author exclusively and not necessarily the views of VNN, VNN authors, affiliates, advertisers, sponsors, partners, technicians or the Veterans Today Network and its assigns. Notices Posted by Arnaldo Rodgers on November 8, 2016, With 0 Reads, Filed under Veterans . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 . You can leave a response or trackback to this entry FaceBook Comments
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WASHINGTON, D. C. — The U. S. needs to consider military action to disrupt Iran’s malign activities in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia, which have intensified since the Islamic Republic signed a nuclear deal with world powers in 2015, a top American commander warned American lawmakers. [Former President Barack Obama and other supporters of the nuclear deal argued that it would promote peace and avoid military confrontation. Gen. Joseph Votel, the head of U. S. Central Command (CENTCOM) testified Wednesday before the House Armed Services Committee about the security challenges facing his area of responsibility (AOR). The Central Region, or CENTCOM AOR, spans more than 4 million square miles that cover 20 predominantly Muslim nations that stretch from Northeast Africa across the Middle East to Central and South Asia. In his written testimony, Gen. Votel declared: Iran poses the most significant threat to the Central Region and to our national interests and the interests of our partners and allies. We have not seen any improvement in Iran’s behavior since the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) addressing Iran’s nuclear program, was finalized in July 2015. Over the past year, after the nuclear deal was signed, the U. S. military has been dealing with Iran and its proxies carrying out “a range of malign activities” in the Central Region, namely in “Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Egypt, the Sinai, and the Strait [located between Yemen and Djibouti and Eritrea] and in other parts of our area of responsibility,” declared Gen. Votel. Democrat Congresswoman Jacky Rosen from Nevada asked the top U. S. general during the hearing, “Do you believe Iran has increased destabilizing activity since the JCPOA?” “I do believe they have,” responded Gen. Votel, adding in his written remarks: Unfortunately, the [nuclear] agreement has led some to believe that we have largely addressed the Iranian problem set and that is not the case. In addition to its nuclear weapons potential, Iran presents several credible threats. They have a robust theater ballistic missile program, and we remain concerned about their cyber and maritime activities, as well as the activities of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — Qods Forces ( ) and their network of affiliates, [including their proxy Hezbollah]. Since the nuclear agreement was signed, Iran has been “clearly focused” on expanding its influence and power in the Central Region, noted Votel. “Recognizing that Iran poses the greatest threat to U. S. interests in the Central Region, we must seize opportunities to both reassure our allies and shape Iran’s behavior,” he pointed out, adding, “Through both messaging and actions, we must also be clear in our communications and ensure the credibility of U. S. intentions. ” To disrupt Iran’s growing threat, the U. S. must consider military action and other ways, proclaimed Gen. Votel. “I’ve had an opportunity to talk with some of our regional partners about it,” he said. “I think we need to look at opportunities where we can disrupt through military means or other means, their activities. ” “In addition to ready military actions, we must support the broader USG [U. S. Government] strategy with regard to Iran which should include new diplomatic initiatives that provide Iran with viable alternatives to its present course,” he conceded. The U. S. general did stress that Iran must be aware that there will be consequences if it continues its malign and provocative activities. “The point that I would emphasize to you is that while there may be other more strategic or consequential threats or regions in our world, today, the central region has come to represent the nexus for many of the security challenges our nation faces,” warned the CENTCOM commander. “Most importantly, the threats in this region continue to pose the most direct threat to the U. S. homeland and the global economy. Thus it must remain a priority and be resourced accordingly,” added Gen. Votel. The region is home to the largest concentration of U. S. and United terrorist groups — 13 in Afghanistan and seven in Pakistan, according to the U. S. military. Moreover, “the Middle East remains the global epicenter of terrorism and violent Islamist extremism,” wrote Gen. Votel. Citing the Institute for Economics and Peace’s 2016 Global Terrorism Index, he testified that “the U. S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) AOR accounted for 78% of all terrorism incidents worldwide. ” | 1 |
Friday on Fox News Channel’s, “The O’Reilly Factor,” Donald Trump’s adviser Kellyanne Conway reacted to Vice President Joe Biden telling Trump to “grow up. Time to be an adult. You’re president. ” According to Conway, it was Trump’s policies that made it possible for Trump to be president. Conway said, “It’s really disappointing to hear the vice president speak that way, not surprising. To what is he referring, the fact that his Democratic party under his watch, he’s been the number two guy in the country and in the Democratic Party, they lost over 1, 000 state legislative seats, they lost over a dozen governorships, a dozen senators, they lost 68 House seats since he got there. They lost the election in 2010, 2014, 2016. In large part because of the policies he supports like the awful unaffordable, inaccessible care act, Obamacare. ” “Like these draconian taxes and regulations on small businesses and the rest of us, like all these bad trade deals that never benefited American workers,” she continued. “And Donald Trump who came in — without Joe Biden and Barack Obama, there may have never been a president Trump and a Vice President Mike Pence. So I’d like to say to the vice president, thanks for the . We’ll ignore the insults and the slights. We very much appreciate all the failed policies that allowed us to usher in a new era of hopefulness and buoyancy, fresh blood and excitement in this administration. You’re now going to see president Donald Trump, very quickly, deliver and perform and be accountable to results like as he has always done in his wildly successful business. It’s gong to be a brand new, not just the tone but the content, in Washington. ” | 1 |
What to Do About ‘Fake News’ November 18, 2016
Exclusive: A pushback is coming to the Internet’s success in giving the world access to diverse opinions and dissenting information. Politicians, mainstream media and technology giants are taking aim at what they call “fake news,” reports Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
In the wake of Donald Trump’s victory, a hot new issue – raised by President Obama in an international setting on Thursday and touted on The New York Times’ front page on Friday – is the problem of “fake news” being disseminated on the Internet.
Major Internet companies, such as Google and Facebook, are being urged to censor such articles and to punish alleged violators. Also, teams of supposedly “responsible” news providers and technology giants are being assembled to police this alleged problem and decide what is true and what is not. President Obama in the Oval Office.
But therein lies the more serious problem: who gets to decide what is real and what is not real? And – in an age when all sides propagate propaganda – when does conformity in support of a mainstream “truth” become censorship of reasonable skepticism?
As a journalist for more than four decades, I take seriously the profession’s responsibility to verify information as much as possible before publishing it – and as editor of Consortiumnews.com, I insist that our writers (and to the extent possible, outside commenters) back up what they say.
I personally hate “conspiracy theories” in which people speculate about a topic without real evidence and often in defiance of actual evidence. I believe in traditional journalistic standards of cross-checking data and applying common sense.
So, I am surely no fan of Internet hoaxes and baseless accusations. Yet, I also recognize that mainstream U.S. news outlets have made horrendous and wholesale factual errors, too, such as reporting in 2002-03 that Iraq had reconstituted its nuclear weapons program (The New York Times) and was hiding stockpiles of WMD (many TV and print outlets, including The Washington Post).
And, mainstream outlets getting such life-and-death stories wrong was not just a one-off affair around the Iraq invasion. At least since the 1980s, The New York Times has misreported or glossed over many international issues that put the United States and its allies in a negative light.
For instance, the Times not only missed the Nicaraguan Contra cocaine scandal , but actively covered up the Reagan administration’s role in the wrongdoing through the 1980s and much of the 1990s.
The Times lagged badly, too, on investigating the secret operations that became known as the Iran-Contra Affair. The Times’ gullibility in the face of official denials was an obstacle for those of us digging into that constitutional crisis and other abuses by the Reagan administration. [For more on this topic, see Consortiumnews.com’s “ New York Times: Apologist for Power .”]
In that same era, The Washington Post performed no better. Leonard Downie, its executive editor at the time of the Contra-cocaine scandal, has continued to reject the reality of Ronald Reagan’s beloved Contras trafficking in cocaine despite the 1998 findings of CIA Inspector General Frederick Hitz that, in fact, many Contras were neck-deep in the cocaine trade and the Reagan administration covered up their criminality for geopolitical reasons.
More recently, during the mad dash to invade Iraq in 2002-03, the Post’s editorial-page editor Fred Hiatt wrote repeatedly as flat fact that Iraq was hiding WMD and mocked the few dissenting voices that challenged the “group think.”
Yet, Hiatt suffered no accountability for his falsehoods and is still the Post’s editorial-page editor, still peddling dubious examples of Washington’s conventional wisdom .
Ministry of Truth
So, who are the “responsible” journalists who should be anointed to regulate what the world’s public gets to see and hear? For that Orwellian task, a kind of Ministry of Truth has been set up by Google, called the First Draft Coalition , which touts itself as a collection of 30 major news and technology companies , including the Times and Post, tackling “fake news” and creating a platform to decide which stories are questionable and which ones aren’t. Correspondent Michael Usher of Australia’s “60 Minutes” claims to have found the billboard visible in a video of a BUK missile launcher after the shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 on July 17, 2014, but the scenes actually don’t match up at all. (Screen shot from Australia’s “60 Minutes”)
Formed in June 2015 and funded by Google News Lab, the First Draft Coalition’s founding members included Bellingcat, an online “citizen journalism” site that has gotten many of its highest profile stories wrong and is now associated with NATO’s favorite think tank, the Atlantic Council.
Despite Bellingcat’s checkered record and its conflicts of interest through the Atlantic Council, major Western news outlets, including the Times and Post, have embraced Bellingcat, apparently because its articles always seem to mesh neatly with U.S. and European propaganda on Syria and Ukraine.
Two of Bellingcat’s (or its founder Eliot Higgins’s) biggest errors were misplacing the firing location of the suspected Syrian rocket carrying sarin gas on Aug. 21, 2013, and directing an Australian news crew to the wrong site for the so-called getaway Buk video after the July 17, 2014 shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. A screen shot of the roadway where the suspected BUK missile battery supposedly passed after the shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 on July 17, 2014. (Image from Australian “60 Minutes” program)
But like many news outlets that support establishment “group thinks,” Bellingcat wins widespread praise and official endorsements, such as from the international MH-17 investigation that was largely controlled by Ukraine’s unsavory intelligence agency, the SBU and that accepted Bellingcat’s dubious MH-17 evidence blaming the Russians .
If such a Ministry of Truth had existed in the mid-1980s, it might well have denounced the investigative reporting on the Contra-cocaine scandal since that was initially deemed untrue. And if “Minitrue” were around in 2002-03, it almost surely would have decried the handful of people who were warning against the “group think” on Iraq’s WMD.
Power and Reality
While it’s undeniable that some false or dubious stories get pushed during the heat of a political campaign and in wartime – and journalists have a role in fact-checking as best they can – there is potentially a greater danger when media insiders arrogate to themselves the power to dismiss contrary evidence as unacceptable, especially given their own history of publishing stories that turned out to be dubious if not entirely false.
It’s even more dangerous when these self-appointed arbiters of truth combine forces with powerful Internet search engines and social media companies to essentially silence dissenting opinions and contrary facts by making them very difficult for the public to locate.
Arguably even worse is when politicians – whether President-elect Donald Trump or Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan or President Obama – get into the business of judging what is true and what is false.
On Thursday, an impassioned President Obama voiced his annoyance with “fake news” twice in his joint news conference in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel — “because in an age where there’s so much active misinformation and it’s packaged very well and it looks the same when you see it on a Facebook page or you turn on your television. … If everything seems to be the same and no distinctions are made, then we won’t know what to protect.”
Let that phrase sink in for a moment: “We won’t know what to protect”? Is President Obama suggesting that it is the U.S. government’s role to “protect” certain information and, by implication, leave contrary information “unprotected,” i.e. open to censorship?
On Friday, a New York Times front-page article took Facebook to task, in particular, writing: “for years, the social network did little to clamp down on the false news.”
The Times added, in a complimentary way, “Now Facebook, Google and others have begun to take steps to curb the trend, but some outside the United States say the move is too late.”
Info-War
This new alarm about “fake news” comes amid the U.S. government’s “information war” against Russia regarding the Syrian and Ukraine conflicts. Obama’s State Department insists that it is presenting the truth about these conflicts while Russia’s RT channel is a fount of disinformation. Yet, the State Department’s propaganda officials have frequently made false or unsupported claims themselves. Ukraine’s (now-former) Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk
On Wednesday, there was the unseemly scene of State Department spokesman John Kirby refusing to answer reasonable questions from a Russian journalist affiliated with RT.
The RT journalist asked Kirby to identify the hospitals and clinics in Syria that he was claiming had been hit by Russian and Syrian airstrikes. You might assume that a truth-teller would have welcomed the opportunity to provide more details that could then be checked and verified.
But instead Kirby berated the RT journalist and tried to turn the rest of the State Department press corps against her.
QUESTION: Don’t you think it is important to give a specific list of hospitals that you’re accusing Russia of hitting? Those are grave accusations.
KIRBY: I’m not making those accusations. I’m telling you we’ve seen reports from credible aid organizations that five hospitals and a clinic —
QUESTION: Which hospital —
KIRBY: At least one clinic —
QUESTION: In what cities at least?
KIRBY: You can go look at the information that many of the Syrian relief agencies are putting out there publicly. We’re getting our information from them too. These reports —
QUESTION: But you are citing those reports without giving any specifics.
KIRBY: Because we believe these agencies are credible and because we have other sources of information that back up what we’re seeing from some of these reports. And you know what? Why don’t [you] ask … Here’s a good question. Why don’t you ask your defense ministry … what they’re doing and see if you can get…”
QUESTION: If you give a specific list —
KIRBY: No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
QUESTION: If you give a specific list of hospitals —
KIRBY: No, no, no.
QUESTION: My colleagues who are listening hopefully would be able to go and ask Russian officials about a specific list of hospitals that you’re accusing Russia of …”
KIRBY: You work for Russia Today, right? Isn’t that your agency?
QUESTION: That is correct. Yes.
KIRBY: And so why shouldn’t you ask your government the same kinds of questions that you’re standing here asking me? Ask them about their military activities. Get them to tell you what they’re – or to deny what they’re doing.
QUESTION: When I ask for specifics, it seems your response is why are you here? Well, you are leveling that accusation.
KIRBY: No, ma’am.
QUESTION: And if you give specifics, my colleagues would be able to ask
Russian officials.
As Kirby continued to berate the RT journalist and stonewall her request for specifics, an American reporter intervened and objected to Kirby’s use of the phrase “‘your defense minister’ and things like that. I mean, she’s a journalist just like the rest of are, so it’s – she’s asking pointed questions, but they’re not …”
Kirby then insisted that since RT was “a state-owned” outlet that its journalists should not be put “on the same level with the rest of you who are representing independent media outlets.” (But the reality is that Voice of America, BBC and many other Western outlets are financed by governments or have ideological benefactors.)
Public Diplomacy
Kirby’s hostility toward legitimate questions being raised about U.S. or U.S.-allied assertions has become typical of Obama’s State Department, which doesn’t seem to want any challenges to its presentation of reality. A screen shot of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland speaking to U.S. and Ukrainian business leaders on Dec. 13, 2013, at an event sponsored by Chevron, with its logo to Nuland’s left.
For instance, during the early phase of the Ukraine crisis in 2014, Secretary of State John Kerry called RT a “propaganda bullhorn” and Richard Stengel, Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy, issued a “DipNote” saying RT should be ostracized as a source of disinformation.
But Stengel’s complaint revealed a stunning ignorance about the circumstances surrounding the February 2014 putsch that overthrew Ukraine’s elected President Viktor Yanukovych.
For instance, Stengel cited RT’s “ludicrous assertion” about the U.S. investing $5 billion to promote “regime change” in Ukraine. Stengel apparently wasn’t aware that Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland had cited the $5 billion figure in support of Ukraine’s “European aspirations” during a public speech to U.S. and Ukrainian business leaders on Dec. 13, 2013.
At the time, Nuland was a leading proponent of “regime change” in Ukraine, personally cheering on the Maidan demonstrators and even passing out cookies. In an intercepted, obscenity-laced phone call with U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt, Nuland said her choice to lead Ukraine was Arseniy “Yats is the guy” Yatsenyuk, who ended up as Prime Minister after the coup.
So, was Stengel a purveyor of “fake news” when he was accusing RT of disseminating fake news or was he just assembling some propaganda points for his underlings to repeat to a gullible Western news media. Or was he just ill-informed?
Both democracy and journalism can be messy businesses – and credibility is something that must be earned over time by building a reputation for reliability. There is no “gold seal” from the Establishment that makes you trustworthy.
It’s simply important to do one’s best to inform the American people and the world’s public as accurately as possible. Awarding trust is best left to individual readers who must be the ultimate judges of what’s real and what’s fake.
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com ). | 0 |
WASHINGTON — Emboldened by their electoral prospects in November, Democrats are planning to redouble their efforts to make the fate of the Supreme Court a signature election issue, with the Democratic leader in the Senate threatening to stall Republican legislative priorities if no action is taken on the confirmation of Judge Merrick B. Garland. The Senate has been stuck in a stalemate since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February left a vacancy on the bench. Republicans have refused to hold confirmation hearings on President Obama’s nominee, insisting that the next president should make the choice. But with Donald J. Trump’s poll numbers sliding, the Democratic leadership sees an opening to derail Republicans who are facing by blaming them for the delay. “We’re not going to back off,” Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic minority leader, said in an interview this week. “There will be things we are going to do to draw more attention to this. ” He predicted that the Republican presidential nominee’s prospects would decline further by next month, adding, “By then, they are going to have to look for some way to break from Donald Trump. ” Republicans find themselves in a precarious position on the issue. After insisting that voters should be allowed a voice on Judge Garland’s fate through the election of Mr. Obama’s successor, their nominee is now faltering and the Republican Senate majority is now in doubt. Adding to the pressure on Republicans to act is speculation that Hillary Clinton, if elected, could nominate someone who is more liberal than Judge Garland. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican majority leader, has been adamant that Mr. Obama not be allowed to name a Supreme Court justice in his last year in office — a position he took when a Republican appeared more likely to win the White House. Reversing himself now would invite accusations that his position was based on politics, not principles, all along. Mr. Reid would not say what kinds of procedural moves Democrats might employ to pressure Republicans when Congress reconvenes in early September, but he suggested that there were plenty of options to stop up the Senate’s business, including some that Republicans have used. “They’ve blocked all legislation, they’ve blocked nominations, they’ve filibustered all kinds of things,” Mr. Reid said. “We haven’t done that, but it doesn’t mean we can’t do it when we come back. ” But time will be limited: Lawmakers will have just over a month to address issues such as a Zika funding bill, a stopgap measure to keep the government open and an annual defense policy bill before many of them return to the campaign trail in early October. Democrats have tried to drum up outrage around the court vacancy before, only to have attention fizzle under the glare of the presidential election and debates about trade, terrorism and immigration. White House officials said the president and his advisers would continue to make a public case for Judge Garland’s confirmation. Mr. Obama wrote an in The Wall Street Journal on the subject in July, and aides said the president would push the issue even as he campaigns for Mrs. Clinton. “As soon as Republicans are ready to be done with their historic obstruction, we stand ready for a hearing and a vote,” said Brandi Hoffine, a White House spokeswoman. In addition, a coalition of liberal interest groups will continue to demand a hearing for Judge Garland from the handful of Republican senators who face tough fights this year. The hope is that the senators will feel pressure from their constituents and, in turn, urge Mr. McConnell to allow the nomination to proceed. But Mr. Obama’s Democratic allies concede that the message about Mr. Garland is being swamped by the presidential race, and that it has become only one small part of the campaign against the Republicans. Many now believe that Mr. Garland’s confirmation will not be resolved until after the election. Another obstacle is a lack of enthusiasm for Judge Garland among the Democratic Party’s progressive base. Adam Green, a of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said that he was hopeful that Republicans would continue to block Judge Garland’s confirmation before the election and in the period. With Mrs. Clinton’s improved prospects of winning, he said he hoped she would pick someone more liberal. “Garland was the most conservative pick a Democratic president could have made,” Mr. Green said. Neil Sroka, the communications director at Democracy for America, agreed, arguing that the party’s base is not excited about adding a moderate, white man to the court. “If Secretary Clinton wins the White House,” Mr. Sroka said, “she should absolutely swing for the fences. ” For her part, Mrs. Clinton has praised Judge Garland’s qualifications as a jurist and argued that Republicans should confirm him now, but she has avoided questions about whether she would renominate him if she wins. Some have speculated that she could nominate someone who is more liberal than Judge Garland, while others suggested she might stick with him to avoid a fight with Republicans. Asked this month if Judge Garland should be confirmed in the period if Mrs. Clinton wins, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, her running mate, demurred but said he would vote for him if given the chance. “This will be for the president and the to decide,” Mr. Kaine said on NBC’s “Meet the Press. ” “But look, if it comes up for a vote in the Senate, Merrick Garland gets so far over the hurdle of the fitness and character test that is supposed to be the legitimate question for nominees, of course I’d vote for him. ” Legal experts continue to consider different situations, such as a recess appointment by Mr. Obama or the possibility that he could renominate Judge Garland when the new Congress takes over in January before he departs. A vote in the period, however, appears to be the most realistic possibility. “If Hillary Clinton were to prevail, I think the odds are pretty good that Garland would be confirmed in lame duck,” said David B. Rivkin Jr. a constitutional litigator who worked in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George Bush. Mr. Rivkin said Judge Garland should be a relatively palatable pick for Republicans. Despite Mr. Trump’s recent controversies and his slip in national and state polls, the Republican leadership is still holding firm that confirmation hearings will not happen this year regardless of the outcome of the presidential election. “No, we’re not going to confirm Garland this year,” Mr. McConnell told a Kentucky television station this week. “Whoever the next president is will get to make that appointment. ” Mr. McConnell said that he would stick to that position, even if it meant Mrs. Clinton picking a more liberal judge. “I think the next president will have been chosen by the American people to make this appointment, and we have to live with whoever is ultimately chosen,” he said. But some Senate Republicans have expressed a desire for more flexibility. Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona said in June that he thought a vote should be allowed if it appears that Mr. Trump is going to lose the election. Senator Susan Collins of Maine and Senator Mark S. Kirk of Illinois have also said that hearings should move forward. Mr. Reid predicts that such sentiment will become more common if Mr. Trump proves to be a drag on other candidates on the ballot and if he continues to make missteps. He said that Mr. McConnell’s intransigence was improving the chances for Democratic candidates in Florida, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and that he expected Democrats to retake control of the Senate. “If they have this death wish, and that’s what it is,” Mr. Reid said, “they are going to end up losing really, really big. ” | 1 |
Has the United States mismanaged the ascent of China? By April 15, the Treasury Department is required to present to Congress a report on the exchange rate policies of the country’s major trading partners, intended to identify manipulators that cheapen their currency to make their exports more attractive and gain market share in the United States, a designation that could eventually lead to retaliation. It would be hard, these days, to find an economist who feels China fits the bill. Under a trade law passed in 2015, a country must meet three criteria: It would have to have a “material” trade surplus with the rest of the world, have a “significant” surplus with the United States, and intervene persistently in foreign exchange markets to push its currency in one direction. While China’s surplus with the United States is pretty big — almost $350 billion — its global surplus is modest, at 2. 4 percent of its gross domestic product last year. Most significant, it has been pushing its currency up, not down. Since the middle of 2014 it has sold over $1 trillion from its reserves to prop up the renminbi, under pressure from capital flight by Chinese companies and savers. Even President Trump — who as a candidate promised to label China a currency manipulator on Day 1 and put a 45 percent tariff on imports of Chinese goods — seems to be backing away from broad, immediate retaliation. And yet the temptation remains. “When you talk about currency manipulation, when you talk about devaluations,” the Chinese “are world champions,” Mr. Trump told The Financial Times, ahead of the state visit of the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, to the United States last week. For all Mr. Trump’s random impulsiveness and bluster — and despite his lack of a coherent strategy to engage with what is likely soon to become the world’s biggest economy — he is not entirely alone with his views. Many learned economists and policy experts ruefully acknowledge that the president’s intuition is broadly right: While labeling China a currency manipulator now would look ridiculous, the United States should have done it a long time ago. “With the benefit of hindsight, China should have been named,” said Brad Setser, an expert on international economics and finance who worked in the Obama administration and is now at the Council on Foreign Relations. There were reasonable arguments against putting China on the spot and starting a process that could eventually lead to American retaliation. Yet by not pushing back against China’s currency manipulation, and allowing China to deploy an arsenal of trade tactics of dubious legality to increase exports to the United States, successive administrations — Republican and Democratic — arguably contributed to the economic dislocations that pummeled so many American workers over more than a decade. Those dislocations helped propel Mr. Trump to power. From 2000 to 2014 China definitely suppressed the rise of the renminbi to maintain a competitive advantage for its exports, buying dollars hand over fist and adding $4 trillion to its foreign reserves over the period. Until 2005, the Chinese government kept the renminbi pegged to the dollar, following it down as the greenback slid against other major currencies starting in 2003. American multinationals were flocking into China, taking advantage of its entry into the World Trade Organization in December 2001, which guaranteed access to the American and other world markets for its exports. By 2007, China’s broad trade surplus hit 10 percent of its gross domestic product — an imbalance for an economy this large. And its surplus with the United States amounted to a full third of the American deficit with the world. Though the requirement that the Treasury identify currency manipulators “gaining unfair competitive advantage in international trade” dates back to the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988, China was never called out. There were good reasons. Or at least they seemed so at the time. For one, China hands in the administration of George W. Bush argued that putting China on the spot would make negotiations more difficult, because even Chinese leaders who understood the need to allow their currency to rise could not be seen to bow to American pressure. Labeling China a manipulator could have severely hindered progress in other areas of a complex bilateral economic relationship. And the United States had bigger fish to fry. “There were other dimensions of China’s economic policies that were seen as more important to U. S. economic and business interests,” Eswar Prasad, who headed the China desk at the International Monetary Fund and is now a professor at Cornell, told me. These included “greater market access, better intellectual property rights protection, easier access to investment opportunities, etc. ” At the end of the day, economists argued at the time, Chinese exchange rate policies didn’t cost the United States much. After all, in 2007 the United States was operating at full employment. The trade deficit was because of Americans’ dismal savings rate and supercharged consumption, not a cheap renminbi. After all, if Americans wanted to consume more than they created, they had to get it somewhere. And the United States had a stake in China’s rise. A crucial strategic goal of American foreign policy since Mao’s death had been how to peacefully incorporate China into the existing order of economies, bound by international law into the fabric of the postwar multilateral institutions. And the strategy even worked — a little bit. China did allow its currency to rise a little from 2005 to 2008. And when the financial crisis hit, it took the foot off the export pedal and deployed a giant fiscal stimulus, which bolstered internal demand. Yet though these arguments may all be true, they omitted an important consideration: The overhaul of the world economy imposed by China’s global rise also created losers. In a set of influential papers that have come to inform the thinking about the United States’ relations with China, David Autor, Daron Acemoglu and Brendan Price from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Gordon Hanson from the University of California, San Diego and David Dorn from the University of Zurich concluded that lots of American workers, in many communities, suffered a blow from which they never recovered. Rising Chinese imports from 1999 to 2011 cost up to 2. 4 million American jobs, one paper estimated. Another found that sagging wages in local labor markets exposed to Chinese competition reduced earnings by $213 per adult per year. Economic theory posited that a developed country like the United States would adjust to import competition by moving workers into more advanced industries that competed successfully in global markets. In the real world of American workers exposed to the rush of imports after China erupted onto world markets, the adjustment didn’t happen. If mediocre job prospects and low wages didn’t stop American families from consuming, it was because the American financial system was flush with Chinese cash and willing to lend, financing their homes and refinancing them to buy the furniture. But that equilibrium didn’t end well either, did it? What it left was a lot of betrayed anger floating around among many Americans on the wrong end of these dynamics. “By not following the law, the administration sent a political signal that the U. S. wouldn’t stand up to Chinese cheating,” said Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “As we can see now, that hurt in terms of maintaining political support for open trade. ” If there was a winner from this dynamic, it was Mr. Trump. Will Mr. Trump really go after China? In addition to an expected executive order to retaliate against the dumping of Chinese steel, he has promised more. He could tinker with the definitions of “material” and “significant” trade surpluses to justify a manipulation charge. And yet a charge of manipulation would add irony upon irony. “It would be incredibly ironic not to have named China a manipulator when it was manipulating, and name it when it is not,” Mr. Setser told me. And Mr. Trump would be retaliating against the economic dynamic that handed him the presidency. | 1 |
Users across Twitter noticed recently that searches for the terms “racist” and “Hitler” return the profile of President Donald Trump. [Users began posting screenshots on Twitter recently showing that when they searched for terms such as “Hitler” or “racist” one of the first results returned by Twitter’s search engine is the profile of President Donald Trump. Alongside the President’s profile is that of a user literally named “Adolf Hitler. ” @Sargon_of_Akkad @DaveTheMus @KekistanShops @polNewsNetwork1 @RepublicOfKek @Gavin_McInnes This happened when I searched ”Hitler.” pic. twitter. — Heat Speaker (@TheHeatSpeaker) March 25, 2017, Breitbart recreated the search with similar results. When searching for the term “racist,” similar results can be seen below, One user posted a screenshot that appeared to show Breitbart News official Twitter page listed under the search results for the term “fascist. ” @TheHeatSpeaker @Sargon_of_Akkad @DaveTheMus @KekistanShops @polNewsNetwork1 @RepublicOfKek @Gavin_McInnes lmao pic. twitter. — DatNoFact (@datnofact) March 25, 2017, However, when attempting to recreate this, Breitbart did not find our own Twitter profile listed but did find the accounts of President Trump, Sean Spicer and Kellyanne Conway amongst the results. Twitter has previously done little to curb direct threats of violence against the President or his family, allowing “Rape Melania” to trend on the site for hours. The website has also allowed as many as 12, 000 tweets calling for the assassination of President Trump. Twitter, which recently reported an extremely poor quarterly earnings report, has not responded to a request for comment on the results at this time. Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan_ or email him at lnolan@breitbart. com | 1 |
Главная » News » Στερλίνα και Brexit φοβίζουν τους Βρετανούς τουρίστες Στερλίνα και Brexit φοβίζουν τους Βρετανούς τουρίστες Τρίτη, 8 Νοέμβριος, 2016 - 11:15
Μοιρασμένα είναι τα μηνύματα που έρχονται από τη βρετανική τουριστική αγορά όσον αφορά τις πρώτες πωλήσεις πακέτων τη σεζόν που έρχεται, καθώς ναι μεν οι ελληνικοί προορισμοί εξακολουθούν να συγκεντρώνουν τις προτιμήσεις των Άγγλων τουριστών, όμως οι φόβοι για μείωση της καταναλωτικής τους δύναμης λόγω του Brexit επιτείνουν το αίσθημα της διστακτικότητας στην ολοκλήρωση της κράτησης. Το κλίμα στην έκθεση τουρισμού World Travel Market 2016 που ξεκίνησε χθες στο Λονδίνο- και στην ουσία αποτελεί το πρώτο κρας- τεστ για τις κρατήσεις της επόμενης χρονιάς- χαρακτηρίζεται από παράγοντες του κλάδου "συγκρατημένο”. Τα αρχικά στοιχεία δείχνουν πως υπάρχει μια μικρή αύξηση στην ζήτηση από τη βρετανική αγορά. Επιχειρηματίες του κλάδου σημειώνουν πως αν και ακόμη είναι πρώιμη η εξαγωγή περισσότερων συμπερασμάτων για το πως θα κινηθούν οι πωλήσεις πακέτων τους επόμενους μήνες και πιο συγκεκριμένα μέχρι το Φεβρουάριο, όταν πραγματοποιείται ο μεγαλύτερος όγκος των προκρατήσεων, φαίνεται πως η ισοτιμία της στερλίνας με το ευρώ θα παίξει καθοριστικό ρόλο στις τελική επιλογή των διακοπών για τους Άγγλους τουρίστες. Επιπλέον, η ασφάλεια του προορισμού δείχνει να διαδραματίζει εξίσου σημαντικό ρόλο. Σε έρευνα που δημοσιεύτηκε στο περιθώριο της τουριστικής έκθεσης προκύπτει ότι από τους Βρετανούς ταξιδιώτες που ταξίδεψαν φέτος στο εξωτερικό, το 38% δήλωσε ότι η τρομοκρατία ήταν λόγος ανησυχίας, με το 9% να παραδέχεται ότι ανησύχησε εξαιρετικά. Στην ίδια έρευνα φάνηκε ακόμη πως το 28% των τουριστών δήλωσε ότι η μεταναστευτική κρίση επηρέασε την επιλογή προορισμού διακοπών, το 23% ανησύχησε για την πολιτική αστάθεια της χώρας επιλογής. Στα θετικά νέα, όπως επιβεβαιώνουν φορείς του Τουρισμού, είναι πως συνεχίζει να είναι μουδιασμένο το ενδιαφέρον για Τουρκία, Αίγυπτο και Τυνησία... τρεις χώρες με μεγάλη μείωση σε αφίξεις και τουριστικά έσοδα (ειδικά στην Τουρκία φέτος η κάμψη αγγίζει το 40% λόγω ακυρώσεων υπό το φόβο τρομοκρατικών επιθέσεων), γεγονός που ευνοεί την Ελλάδα. Παρόλα αυτά και πάλι ο χρόνος θα δείξει πως θα εξελιχθεί η ζήτηση, αφού οι χώρες αυτές έχουν προετοιμαστεί για ισχυρή επιστροφή τη σεζόν του 2017, με ανταγωνιστικές τιμές και στοχευμένη προβολή των ξενοδοχειακών τους υποδομών. Το ζητούμενο, επαναλαμβάνουν επιχειρηματίες του χώρου, είναι να υπάρξουν συμφωνίες με μεγάλους tour operators χωρίς να επηρεαστούν οι τιμές των πακέτων, όπως έγινε τη φετινή περίοδο σε μια προσπάθεια να τονωθεί ο αριθμός των αφίξεων. Αυτό όμως είχε ως αποτέλεσμα να μειωθούν τα έσοδα (παρά το ότι οι επιπλέον επισκέπτες ξεπέρασαν το ένα εκατ., οι εισπράξεις έμειναν στο επίπεδο του 2015, δηλαδή κοντά στα 14 δισ. ευρώ από 15 δισ. που ήταν ο αρχικός στόχος).
Οι επαφές με τους tour operators στο πλαίσιο της έκθεσης που ολοκληρώνεται την Τετάρτη θα είναι πάντως σημαντικές, δεδομένου πως η Μεγάλη Βρετανία είναι η δεύτερη πιο σημαντική τουριστική αγορά (μετά τη Γερμανία) για τον ελληνικό Τουρισμό: το 2015 ήταν η χώρα με το μεγαλύτερο μερίδιο αγοράς, ενώ φέτος στο οκτάμηνο η αύξηση των αφίξεων φτάνει το 7,7% σε σχέση με πέρσι, με ήδη 1,93 εκατ. Άγγλους τουρίστες. | 0 |
BEIJING — After approving plans on Friday for informal talks in New York between a North Korean delegation and former American officials, the Trump administration reversed course hours later, withdrawing approval for the North Koreans’ visas, two people who were to take part in the planned talks said. The schedule called for the two sides to meet in early March, and arrangements were underway for the North Korean group, led by Choe who runs the American affairs bureau of the North’s Foreign Ministry, to travel to New York. The organizer of the talks, the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, led by Donald S. Zagoria, was told by the State Department on Friday morning that the visas would be granted. But the decision was reversed in the afternoon when “someone overruled State,” said one person who planned to participate in the talks. Both of the people on the participants’ list spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the matter. The reversal came as the Malaysian government announced that VX nerve agent, a chemical on a United Nations list of weapons of mass destruction, was used to kill the estranged half brother of the leader of North Korea at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Feb. 13. South Korea has accused North Korea’s leader, Kim of ordering the killing of his half brother, Kim . Just days before Mr. Kim’s death, North Korea launched a new type of missile, apparently timed to coincide with the visit of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan to the United States. News of the missile test arrived as President Trump and Mr. Abe were eating dinner at the president’s club in Palm Beach, Fla. At first, the North Korea developments did not appear to deter the State Department’s plan to move ahead with the talks. The use of the VX nerve agent was already known when Mr. Zagoria got the green light about the visas on Friday morning. The missile test was on Feb. 11. The State Department also knew about tough comments Mr. Trump made about the North Korean leader during an interview with Reuters on Thursday. “It’s very late,” Mr. Trump said when asked whether he would meet with Mr. Kim. “We’re very angry at what he’s done, and frankly this should have been taken care of during the Obama administration. ” The decision to reverse the initial approval for the visas came hours later on Friday afternoon, one of the people who planned to take part in the talks said. But it was clear, that person said, that a senior official in the State Department, the White House or elsewhere in the government had second thoughts about issuing visas to representatives of North Korea in light of recent events. “I suspect it was a combination of the VX attack and the president’s personal pique that caused the reversal,” the person said. “Someone obviously looked at the fact that the United States was going to issue visas to representatives of a country that had just violated international law, carried out a murder and intentionally violated the sovereignty of another country, and decided, ‘Maybe this isn’t such a good idea. ’” While the talks were unofficial, they were seen as a test of the willingness of the Trump administration to begin serious negotiations at a later date, or to send a special American envoy to North Korea. Several prominent nuclear weapons experts have urged Mr. Trump to send an envoy, arguing that President Barack Obama’s refusal to engage with the North allowed it to make significant advances in its nuclear weapons program. “Every six to seven weeks North Korea may be able to add another nuclear weapon to its arsenal,” Siegfried S. Hecker, emeritus director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and a senior fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, said in a recent article. The leader of the North Korean delegation, Ms. Choe, planned to travel to New York in her “nongovernmental” role as president of North Korea’s Institute for American Studies. The American participants were mostly former officials who had dealt with North Korea over many years. Some of them have participated in similar gatherings with North Koreans organized outside the United States. But more weight was given to the New York gathering because it was taking place at the start of the new administration. During his election campaign, Mr. Trump said he was open to meeting with the North Korean leader over a hamburger. The Americans in the group represented a wide range of views on North Korea. Winston Lord, a former ambassador to China who was on the list of participants, recently wrote in a dissent to a report for the Asia Society that the United States should immediately step up sanctions on North Korea. Others in the American delegation were Robert L. Gallucci, a negotiator on North Korea during the Clinton presidency Victor Cha, a senior adviser on North Korea to George W. Bush and Evans J. R. Revere, a former principal deputy assistant secretary of state specializing in North Korea. Mr. Gallucci and Mr. Cha wrote a report for the George W. Bush Institute last year that emphasized the human rights abuses in North Korea. As well as holding discussions about the North’s rapidly expanding nuclear program, the American delegation was planning to talk with the North Koreans about two Americans now detained in North Korea. | 1 |
The Folketing, Denmark’s unicameral parliament, has passed a resolution stating that Danes should not become minorities in Danish communities, as figures show the migrant and population are now a majority in Brøndby Strand and Odense. [“Parliament notes with concern that today there are areas in Denmark where the number of immigrants from countries and their descendants is over 50 percent,” the resolution states. “It is parliament’s opinion that Danes should not be a minority in residential areas in Denmark. ” Denmark, like many other European countries, saw a surge in sexual assaults and harassment by migrants after they began to arrive in large numbers. Rafi Ibrahim, a Syrian who has been settled in Denmark for many years, told reporters that the new arrivals find it difficult to control themselves around Western women. “If they see a girl, they go nuts. They simply can’t handle it,” he said. “In Syria and many other countries, it is not normal for a strange woman to smile at you. Those girls who are harassed aren’t necessarily or drunk. Sometimes it is enough just to be a girl. ” Danish immigration minister Inger Støjberg confessed in late 2016 that “integration in Denmark has failed” following a damning report on criminality and unemployment in increasingly ghettoes. “In my opinion it is because we have been too scared to set out clear demands to the people coming to Denmark,” she said. “We have not dared to say that we expect and demand that they provide for themselves and their families, and that we expect them to adjust to Danish values. ” Indigenous Britons were officially recorded as a minority in the nation’s capital for the first time in 2011, with just 44. 9 per cent of Londoners identifying as “White British” in the 2011 census. White Britons are also under 50 per cent of the population in Leicester, Luton, and Slough, with Manchester University researchers predicting that Birmingham, the UK’s second city, will soon follow suit. | 1 |
Israeli official secretly visits Dubai: Report ‹ › GPD is our General Posting Department whereby we share posts from other sources along with general information with our readers. It is managed by our Editorial Board I thought I was just scared of Trump – but it’s his America I fear By GPD on November 4, 2016 Misogyny, racism and bigotry won’t go away if Donald Trump loses next week’s election; it was already here before he drew it out into the mainstream ‘Even if Trump loses, this isn’t simply a bad dream that we’ll awaken from on 9 November.’ Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP by Jessica Valenti
W ith the presidential election less than a week away, my once-composed optimism has given way to panic. Sheer, stomach-churning panic. You see, up until now I had done a somewhat decent job of not allowing myself to imagine the unimaginable: Donald Trump winning. But as election day looms closer, and the racism and sexism that infects Trump’s campaign is ratcheted up, it’s hard not to be terrified.
In the past week, a Ku Klux Klan newspaper endorsed Trump and white supremacists announced their plan for widespread voter intimidation. Trump rally-goers shouted antisemitic invective at reporters, and a historically black church in Mississippi was burned and “vote Trump” scrawled across the side. Another woman came forward to accuse Trump of sexual assault , and a Texas official called Hillary Clinton a “cunt”.
This isn’t a political divide between left and right, Democrats and Republicans; it’s an immeasurable moral chasm. And so I understand why it’s been easier for many horrified by Trump to simply pretend there’s no way that he could actually win the presidency.
Read more at Guardian UK Related Posts: | 0 |
CAIRO — Libyan militias backed by American air power said Wednesday that they had seized the Islamic State’s last stronghold in the country, in the seaside city of Surt. If confirmed, the capture would be a severe blow to the militant organization’s expansion into North Africa, and extend the string of territorial retreats it has suffered this year in Syria and Iraq. Militia announcements quoted by Libyan news agencies and television outlets said the militia fighters were still hunting remnants of the Islamic State forces hiding in residential neighborhoods in Surt. But the militias claimed to have taken the heavily fortified Ouagadougou Center, which the Islamic State had used as its headquarters. In a statement broadcast on Misurata TV, a station based in the nearby city of Misurata, Mohamed a spokesman for the attacking militia force, said that the Ouagadougou Center and a nearby hospital had been captured. TV, a Libyan broadcaster, posted on its Twitter account photos of what appeared to be triumphal fighters outside the center posing with their flag. The center was heavily fortified, with underground bunkers and fortifications dating from the era of Col. Muammar the longtime leader of Libya overthrown nearly five years ago. The Islamic State’s loss of Surt would signify the culmination of a offensive by militias from Misurata, under the auspices of the Government of National Accord, the authority backed by the United Nations. It comes against the backdrop of other military setbacks for the Islamic State, which once held wide areas of Syria and Iraq but has been forced to relinquish territory in recent months. Iraqi forces retook control of the city of Falluja from the Islamic State in June. The Syrian Army, backed by Russia, expelled the Islamic State from the ancient city of Palmyra in March. Syrian insurgents and Kurdish militias, including some factions, have been squeezing Islamic State positions in northeast Syria near Raqqa, the organization’s headquarters. Over the last 10 days, the militias fighting the Islamic State in Libya have been supported by heavy American airstrikes, using drones based in Jordan. The United States Africa Command has reported 28 airstrikes from the beginning of that campaign, Aug. 1, to Monday. The Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, had held Surt for the past year. Its occupation of the city represented the organization’s most brazen expansion from its power bases in Iraq and Syria. While the American military did not specify exactly where its airstrikes had been aimed, it is believed that they were concentrated in and around Surt. The militias’ offensive against the Islamic State had reduced the area they controlled from 150 miles of coastline to the area immediately around the city. The birthplace of Colonel Qaddafi, Surt is also where the Libyan dictator was killed by antigovernment militia fighters in 2011. Officials at the Pentagon said they could not confirm that the Islamic State’s headquarters in Surt had fallen, but one senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity under military rules, said he had no reports suggesting the militia claims were untrue. Libya’s hodgepodge of militias, answering to three different factions claiming to control the country, have often been prone to exaggerated claims. factions also reported that a Libyan Air Force warplane had been shot down by Islamic State fighters in Surt on Wednesday. The territory seized by the Islamic State in Libya had been considered the most important of the group’s overseas wilayats, or provinces. As early as October 2014, extremists in the Libyan city of Darnah pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, and a month later, the Islamic State leader, Abu Bakr named Libya as one of the group’s official provinces. That province was eventually centered in Surt, which became the axis of the Islamic State’s power in Libya. The organization sought to give its Libya province the trappings of a state, modeled after the one it was trying to run in Iraq and Syria. Early on, senior Islamic State members arrived by boat to help administer the territory, creating a degree of connective tissue that has mostly been lacking in other areas the group has seized. The Islamic State set up offices mirroring those in Syria, including a media office, which put out content tailored to a Libyan audience, according to Aymenn Jawad a research fellow at the Middle East Forum. The production techniques used in execution videos produced in Libya were so similar to ones emerging from Syria that some experts theorized that the Islamic State must have dispatched a cameraman from Syria to Libya to achieve that congruence. The latest developments in Surt came as the Government of National Accord has been struggling with other resilient threats to Libya’s frail stability. Fears have risen that militias in eastern Libya that have refused to recognize the government could attack the Zueitina oil export terminal, where Libya petroleum officials hope to resume disrupted shipments. The governments of France, Britain, Spain, Germany and the United States on Wednesday issued a statement expressing “concern at reports of increasing tension” near Zueitina and supporting the government’s efforts to “resolve the disruptions to Libya’s energy exports. ” | 1 |
Home This Month Popular The Path Men Took To Trump The Path Men Took To Trump
Daryush "Roosh" Valizadeh created ROK in October 2012. You can visit his blog at RooshV.com or follow him on Twitter and Facebook RSS November 20, 2016 Politics
Every man who supports Donald Trump came to it from a different path. Some of you support him because of economic impoverishment or because you have seen your neighborhoods degrade from illegal immigrants . Or maybe you support him because you were attacked for being politically incorrect. For me and many other men, we came to support Trump because we shared truths about sex and the true nature of women . The fight began in 2012 with the Southern Poverty Law Center
In March 2012, after years of teaching men how to improve their sex lives through books and web sites , I was put on a list by the Jewish-operated Southern Poverty Law Center for being a misogynist . I was shaken up by this because I knew that my desire to enjoy sex with beautiful women and share the truths I’ve learned from it put me on a path of no return. Either I close down shop immediately or accept that the mob would one day come pounding on my door.
I decided to keep going. I responded to the SPLC designation with an article titled My Existence Is Becoming Illegal , where I described how heterosexual sex was now a defiant political act if the male received any benefit from it.
It is clear that gender hate is now a one-way street. Men can hate women but not the other way around. Men can rape, women can’t. Men can be abusive, both physically and emotionally, but women can’t. Men can be misogynist, but women can’t be misandrist, a word that is unknown to most of the American population. Men can be described as lazy slobs who play video games all day, but women are perfect as-is in a country where there are organizations trying to convince you that being fat is both healthy and beautiful. Male teachers get sent to pound-me-in-the-ass prison if they have sex with a student, but female teachers only get a slap on the wrist. If you’re a man, you’re likely a perpetrator of hate, violence, and abuse to innocent American women, even if you don’t yet realize your thought crime, but never the other way around.
Fast forward two years to October 2014. Witch hunts by leftists were in force. Rage mobs were crawling through social networking looking for racists, homophobes, and sexists with the aim of getting them fired. I studied the people who were participating in these witch hunts and wrote one of the most important articles I’ve ever published: What Is A Social Justice Warrior (SJW) ?
The article was widely shared, influencing how people viewed the useful idiot layer of individuals who were guided and controlled by establishment forces consisting of academia, the corporate news media, Hollywood, Fortune 500 companies, Silicon Valley, and the billionaire owners of our politicians. Scratch a feminist SJW and you’ll find the reptilian skin of a billionaire who created the narrative she believes.
I was pessimistic when I wrote the SJW article, thinking we’d need a full generation (25+ years) to even begin defeating such a powerful anti-American entity . I focused on teaching men self-defense and avoidance instead of ways to defeat them. Little did I know that I was defining them at their absolute peak, and barely two years later a candidate who stood for the diametric opposite of social justice would win the presidency. The social justice warriors haven’t gone away, and they are rushing to fulfill the will of George Soros by refusing to accept the results of a fair election, but the power they have to force people to bend to their demands has been reduced, along with the power of the institutions that support them.
Though SJWism peaked in 2014, I had to face the full brunt of their attacks in the summer of 2015 during the Canadian stops of my lecture tour and again in February 2016 during the international meetups . I survived those attacks, and the fact that I’m still here right now and able to exercise my free speech on all my platforms—while you’re still here participating—shows clearly how little power they really had to stop us. They bruised me during the meetup outrage, but I healed quickly enough to weaponize my sites to spread my support of an even bigger enemy of theirs, Donald Trump. Donald Trump ground zero
I’m a pessimist by nature, so I didn’t have much hope that the establishment would allow Trump to win in the primaries, even though I was confident his ideas resonated with most Americans. But then I noticed that he simply couldn’t be knocked out, no matter what his enemies did. I saw him humiliate Jeb Bush , out-compete a resurgent Ted Cruz, and smack down any attempt by the media to force him to display weakness. By the time I attended the Republican National Convention in Cleveland , I started to believe.
The ground zero for Donald Trump within the manosphere was The Donald Trump thread on the forum, created in June 2015 by veteran member and ROK contributor Samseau . This is where the battle unfolded for thosuands of men. Over 2,000 pages long, the thread has been viewed nearly 6 million times. Ideas within it have filtered out into mainstream discourse, as described here , to men with bullhorns larger than I have.
After significant battles in a real war, medals are awarded but soldiers don’t nitpick on who was the “best” soldier. They all worked as a team to ensure victory, from the General (Donald Trump), the Colonels (his advisers), the Captains (major media influencers like Alex Jones, Matt Drudge, Paul Joseph Watson, and Mike Cernovich), the Sergeants (men like myself), the Specialists (men like Samseau), and on down to the Private, a regular commenter who contributes the occasional meme or argument in his spare time.
The ego cares about how impactful one is, how influential its ideas are, but the team player only cares about victory for the whole. Whether I am a Private or a Sergeant, I fought side by side with men in that thread and on this web site to what amounts to a modern fourth-generational informational war that will be studied by historians in the future. Who would have guessed that public internet sites operating on free open-source software would have such a positive effect on not just the result of the election, but on the lives of so many men who participated in it. Approaching the date of the election
Two months before the election, I did a Youtube video urging men to vote for Trump , and it resulted in nearly 150 unsubscribes within a day, surprising even me since I thought my audience was mostly men who would automatically support a Trump presidency. The video echoed a lot of sentiments I shared in the article If Donald Trump Doesn’t Win, We’re Screwed , where I tried to convey the danger of a Hillary presidency.
Obama was the “race” president, and look how badly he has damaged race relations in only eight years. Hillary will be the “gender” president. The future we have in store should be absolutely clear to you if she happens to defeat Trump.
Not only will she move to establish a techno-matriarchy where men are second-class citizens to any female, but she will ensure that no movement or organization will be able to challenge her or her establishment cronies ever again. This isn’t a trivial matter of getting banned from a web site like Twitter or Youtube—many of you will be forced to escape the country for no other reason than you happening to be a man who found himself on the wrong side of the establishment.
For the next month, I stared at the calendar, waiting for the election to happen, doing what I could to push back against the narrative on Twitter . Then in early October, an old tape was released of Trump saying he grabs girls by the pussy because they “let” him. My sister called me, confused, and asked if he really was a bad man. I told her that the media is distorting his comments just like they distorted mine a few months earlier when their proclaimed me as a “ pro-rape advocate .” I told her not to believe the media and to judge Trump by his actions and his policies, not a gotcha moment that was being spun out of control to help Hillary’s failing campaign.
I spoke to her with confidence, but inside I was concerned: in a politically correct world, would this be the blow to sink Trump’s candidacy? Is the majority of Americans actually ready to defeat political correctness? Thankfully, Trump responded strongly, ignoring calls by the traitors in the Republican party to step down.
The first poll to come in after pussygate suggested that Trump’s support didn’t decline. The fake controversy didn’t work. I held my breath for the next few days to see if another tape would come out, maybe of him saying the n-word, but none did, and I knew the establishment had no more bullets. This was the moment where I finally believed. I felt a rush of energy on that day as my subconscious accepted that Trump was going to win. I did a Periscope that night as if I was amped up on methamphetamine, but I took no drug.
From that point on it was just a matter of hanging on, until finally on November 8 when he was elected President. I was in disbelief after he won because it was only four years prior when I was attacked by the same forces that were aligned against Trump. I didn’t have to wait long until my personal enemies were dealt a monstrous defeat by another man whom I consider on the same team as us. If I made any miscalculation, it was that it would take a generation or longer for us to begin pushing back against establishment forces. I underestimated our own power, and those of our allies in the alternative internet space. Human control is a foolhardy endeavor
The most important lesson I learned from Trump’s victory is how pointless it is to control human beings, both their behaviors and their minds. Every single major institution in the United States, represented by billions of dollars of economic activity and influence, could not stop a populist candidate, in spite of trying everything short of assassination.
George Soros and his billions weren’t effective. Obama and his allies weren’t effective. The mainstream media and their dozens of outlets weren’t effective. CEOs of the biggest companies in the United States weren’t effective. Hollywood and it’s superstars weren’t effective. Academia and it’s thousands of professors weren’t effective. Social media and its censorship efforts weren’t effective. The FBI allowing Hillary to skate from real crimes wasn’t effective. Even Donald Trump’s own party wasn’t effective in stopping him. It’s absolutely incredible that all these forces couldn’t stop one man and his believers. What a disgrace to the fields of scientific management and modern propaganda for them all to fail so miserably!
Think right now of how much effort the anti-Trump forces put into stopping him from winning. Think of how much money they spent to guarantee their desired outcome. And now think how it was all for nothing . They accomplished the very opposite of what they moved mountains to accomplish, after decades of cementing their control within the country by sucking the truth and life blood from the American public.
Whatever term you use to describe the force that governs our existence—nature, God, Tao, or so on—it is clear that humans cannot control it all, and that the pendulum will swing when it wants to swing, that the wheel of history will turn when it wants to turn, and your billions of dollars and your propaganda and your institutions can do nothing to stop it. Imagine how impotent George Soros and his friends must feel after their limitless money and influence was all for nothing.
Now they have to perfect their control methods even more, open their pocket books further, and try to force their will upon a population as if pushing food into the mouth of someone who is already full. Their desire to control you is nothing but their own psychological failings of trying to alleviate their crippling fears, of trying to prove to themselves and to the world that they are a somebody, that they are powerful, that the world must be shaped into their image, that they are gods among men, but it should be clear to you by now that they are not gods but sociopaths who gamed an economic system to amass huge amounts of capital and money. Much of that will be flushed down the drain as they continue to fight and grasp their way to unequivocal defeat, or attempting to control those who do not want to be controlled.
You can control human beings, but only temporarily and only some of them. At the end of the day, humans want to do what they want to do, and if you don’t possess what they wish to buy, they will go to someone who does, no matter how much money you spend on your mechanisms of control. The more you control what does not want to be controlled, the more tension is created and then released in the great unraveling, of which we are currently living through. In previous eras, that tension resulted in victorious parades on the streets, but in our modern era, it is in the form of online celebrations with the use of tweets and memes.
If you want to be a true leader of society, create an environment where humans can associate with whom they want, can freely engage in commerce, can create families, can live in safety, can search for the truth without interference, and can work and play and live according to their nature. Put stone walls blocking their righteous will and watch them be torn down. It may take a decade, it may take 100 years, but it will happen, and the contraptions you used to control them will reveal not your strength but your own pathetic weakness. Conclusion
We are tired of being controlled. Leave us alone. We are tired of institutions that are obsessed with controlling us, of forcing us to believe in falsehoods, of programming us to hate our country, of pitting woman against man and black against white. Leave us alone! Let men be men, and from that a new American renaissance will come forth. Men who are strong and good must be allowed to live their lives, and if you prevent us from doing so, we won’t allow you to live yours. We will humiliate your useful idiots, we will destroy your institutions, we will lash out with more than just memes.
I’m afraid that those who stand against us are gearing up for even greater authoritarian control over us, but at least now we have our man in the White House who can join us in a fight that we have already been battling for many years. I can’t wait to see where this fight takes us next. Nov 20, 2016 Roosh Valizadeh | 0 |
By Robert Fisk on November 6, 2016 Robert Fisk — The Independent Nov 4, 2016 Syrian soldiers stand before their tanks at Quneitra, a few hundred metres from the front line with Nusrah Islamists and only five miles from Israeli troops on the Golan Heights. Click to enlarge
From Colonel Saleh’s forward position on his front line north of Quneitra, he has a unique and exclusive view of the Syrian war. To his west and south is a vast area of his country which is occupied by Jabhat al-Nusra Islamist fighters – their earthen ramparts and supply roads are scarcely half a mile away. Then, another couple of miles away, Israeli soldiers are inside their concrete positions on the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, above the old and Nusra-held Syrian city of Quneitra.
“You see that mosque over there, just to the right of the water tower?” the colonel asks. “Well, Nusra is there. And you see the triangular hill beyond? The Israelis are there.” It’s what you call a politically intriguing battlefield – yes, shells do come whizzing in towards the Syrians from Nusra and also from the Israelis. The Syrians concentrate their fire on Nusra but Nusra’s casualties are often taken through the Israeli lines for hospital treatment in Haifa.
So whose side is Israel on? Baath City is a concrete conurbation created back in pre-civil war days to defy the vandalisation of the old Quenitra. It was occupied by the Israeli army during the 1973 Middle East war and then – before they abandoned it under the Kissinger agreement – totally destroyed with explosives by Israeli troops. Nusra now occupy these 43-year old ruins. As for Baath City, its university, banks, fire station, schools, police force and hospitals are defiantly maintained by the Syrians under the eyes of their two enemies: the Nusra Islamists and the Israelis. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits a military field hospital in the Golan Heights medical facility where wounded “Syrian rebels” are being treated. Click to enlarge
According to the Syrian army in Baath City – their forward lines and tanks are positioned in unfinished apartment blocks on the edge of the town – their intelligence department’s Hebrew speakers constantly monitor conversations between the Israelis and between Israeli and Nusra fighters. They know – and the Israelis have made no secret of the fact – that wounded Nusrah fighters are taken to Haifa for hospital treatment. On one occasion, a Nusrah man travelling in an Israeli ambulance on the Golan was dragged from the vehicle and lynched by a crowd of enraged Druze men who are largely loyal to the Syrian government and regard Nusrah as their mortal enemies. Reports of the man’s murder highlighted the highly ambiguous relationship between Israel and the Islamists, whose name-changing cannot conceal their al-Qaeda roots.
Druze towns inside Syria and close to Baath City have taken the side of the regime – this does not apply to other Druze areas – but it makes the geography of the front line here all the more surreal. One Syrian lieutenant described to me how he directed his artillery fire onto an Israeli jeep in the Nusra-occupied town of Al-Hamidiya inside Syria and destroyed it. The jeep might have been a gift or borrowed from Israel – whether there were any Israeli personnel inside it if it was hit is another matter. The Syrians, however, also say that Israeli bulldozers were used to build a new supply route for Nusrah between Quneitra and Golan – again, inside Syria’s frontiers.
All of which raises a compelling question. The Nusra-controlled territory between the Syrians and the Israeli lines on Golan – and other Islamist groups and a few remnants of the old “Free Syrian Army” allied to them in this location – stretches all the way south to the edge of the Syrian city of Deraa and right down to the Jordanian frontier. And beyond that frontier is the so-called “Military Operations Centre” – the “MOC” of which both the Islamists and the Syrian army refer – where Western intelligence officers maintain a liaison and weapons supply depot for the anti-government Syrian forces.
So what is the relationship between the MOC and its Western backers – who maintain contact with Nusra – and the Israelis who treat Nusra’s wounded in their hospitals? The Jordanian border and the Israeli lines on Golan are at their most only about 70 miles apart and opposition fighters hold all the land in between.
Littered around the front lines outside Baath City are the wreckage of past battles and the abandoned UN posts from which Filipino UN soldiers were kidnapped en masse more than a year ago; the Syrian army now occupies several of these positions, the UN logo still painted on the walls although several of the “igloo”-type UN accommodation huts have migrated to Syrian compounds in the rear lines. The UN force on Golan now operates only inside Israeli-occupied territory.
Only a few hundred yards away from Nusra-held territory, we found Abu Hashem, a farmer who fled from his village, now held by the Islamists, living today in family property close to one of the old UN posts. He fed us tea and coffee and walnuts from his orchard. His wife and six children now exist in this unfinished, cold house along with a small library of books – the speeches of Imam Ali (the “Najul Blagha”) and a collection of medical books of Aleppo herbal cures for headaches and kidney infection, published in Beirut. He says the people in his Nusra-occupied village are divided. Some are sympathetic towards the Islamists – they are not fighters – while others are sometimes permitted by Nusrah to cross the front lines for treatment in Syrian government hospitals. They are Bedouins and farmers, the unsettled and the landowners, always prey to the wolves of civil war insurgents.
Colonel Saleh, who is 50 years old, has been guarding his echoing and weed-strewn apartment blocks on the edge of Baath City for three years, noting wearily that the Israelis attack his army but never attack Nusra who – being al-Qaeda – might logically have earned Israel’s enmity. But no. “I know every stone here,” the colonel says. “I can see if a rock or a vehicle has moved across the fields in front of us – and I can immediately see if one vehicle has become two vehicles. We know when they are going to attack – they always precede their offensives with a big artillery and mortar barrage.”
Sometimes the voices of Nusra men shout insults at the Syrians on their own radio sets, calling them “kafirs” – ‘“infidels” or “unbelievers”. “If I am in a good mood, I invite them for coffee,” Colonel Saleh says. “If I’m in a bad mood, I am silent. Their accents are very similar to the Jordanians. They come from the south of Deraa, along the Jordanian border.”
As we spoke, further down the line, the Syrians and Nusra were fighting with tanks, artillery and mortars. The Syrians claimed that their enemies arrived in several directions in a convoy of at least 13 vehicles. They spoke, too, of a Nusra female officer called Souad al-Qatahani (nicknamed “Al-Nood”), the 30-year-old sister of a Nusrah general called Qais al-Omani who commanded 1,200 fighters. She was, they pointed out rather remarkably, a former first lieutenant in their own Syrian government army.
And one further feature that the Syrians have noted about their enemies outside Baath City. Whenever Nusra fire a missile, they have to take a photograph of the rocket leaving its launcher – presumably to prove to their suppliers that they have not sold the weapon to someone else. Trust, as usual in the Syrian war, is in short supply. | 0 |
She skipped almost every class her sophomore year and still maintained perfect attendance. The trick was to drop in for the start of third period, wait for attendance to be recorded for the day and then leave with a bathroom pass. By the time her mother found out about the scheme, Skylynn Vazquez was failing every subject. Most days, Saquan Bright did not bother to show up at Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn. He chose to roam the streets with his friends. But then Ms. Vazquez and Mr. Bright found a school designed for students like them: Brooklyn High School for Leadership and Community Service in Clinton Hill, which is operated by Brooklyn Community Services, one of eight organizations supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. Leadership, one of 57 transfer schools in New York City — established to help students struggling in traditional schools — has 202 students ages 16 to 21. By the time students reach Leadership, they have either dropped out of their regular schools or neared that point because of low grades or poor attendance. Many come from unstable homes, living with single parents in shelters and temporary housing, and have spent time in the criminal justice system. And 82 percent of the students qualify for free lunch because of their family’s income. The flexible school schedule — which allows for free periods — enables students to concentrate on courses required to graduate. And the school provides an optional paid internship program, which is appealing to students, some of whom help support their families or who are legally emancipated and support themselves. Before Leadership, Mr. Bright could not keep up with the demands at Boys and Girls High School. He struggled to pay attention in class, and could not finish tests in time. Still, he was not tested for a learning disability until he was enrolled at Leadership. Now he receives services at Leadership and extended time for tests, and his grades have improved. At her previous school, in Bushwick, Ms. Vazquez purposefully broke the rules. She wore hats at school every day, even though they were forbidden, and each one was taken away. “There was a point where I didn’t have any of my hats,” she said. “All 30 of my hats were locked in the dean’s office. ” She enrolled at that school midway through her freshman year, after moving from Florida. She recalled skipping classes and darting off to play basketball and video games with a handful of friends, most of whom have since dropped out, she said. “We were a bad influence on each other,” she said. “If one of us wasn’t in the mood to go to class, we’d all leave. We pushed each other to do the wrong thing. ” In March 2014, Ms. Vazquez’s mother — enraged by the discovery of what her daughter had been doing — spoke with administrators at the school, who suggested that her daughter enroll at Leadership. Ms. Vasquez, nervous about again switching schools, did not want to go, but when she arrived, she immediately found a support system there. Classes were small, with 20 to 25 students, allowing a nurturing, learning environment. Students are on a basis with all the teachers, including the principal. “Respect can be calling someone by their last name, but sometimes when you call someone by their first name, you feel like maybe you’re on a different level,” Stacey Fischler, the school’s program director, said. Students have access to advocate counselors, who are similar to social workers and help them with issues beyond academics, sometimes referring them to mental health services or youth shelters. Each counselor, assigned to 40 to 50 students, is tasked — to the point of pestering — with making sure they all go to school. “My priority is to make sure you get your education,” said Heather Hansen, a counselor. “Whether that is going to your house and knocking down your door or calling you like a lunatic all day or bothering your parents. That’s my goal. ” Ms. Vazquez smiled as she scrolled through those daily morning texts. At 6:25 a. m. on Nov. 2: “Rise Shine Scholars. The grind continues. ” Two days later, at 6:44 a. m.: “Rise Shine #TGIF. ” “I don’t think they sleep,” Ms. Vazquez said, laughing. “It’s a very supportive school. ” More than 14, 000 students attended transfer schools in New York City as of the school year, the latest for which the Department of Education provided data. graduation rates for the schools are much lower than the overall rate for New York City public schools, which increased in recent years to 70. 5 percent in 2015. Although the class of 2015 at Leadership had a 5. 6 percent graduation rate, that rate improves over additional years — typical of many transfer schools. About a quarter of students graduate within six years, according to Department of Education data. Despite lower rates, the schools are serving students who may have otherwise dropped out, never receiving a diploma. “You’re working with a population that can be changed, that does need help and doesn’t get targeted often,” Ms. Hansen said. “You’re working with a population that is getting a second chance. And it’s nice to be able to give that. At the end of the day, it can be frustrating and taxing, but you get to see them walk across the stage, and that’s the main goal. ” For Mr. Bright, graduation day seemed unlikely two years ago. In spring 2014, he fell behind again, started ditching classes and almost dropped out. That August, when he was standing on a street corner in a car passed by. Shots rang out, hitting him in the abdomen. Members of his family and of the Leadership staff surrounded his hospital bed. “There’s a lot of love there,” he said. He returned to school with renewed commitment. The Leadership family also kept Ms. Vazquez in school. “I have good friends and a good support system when I get to school every morning,” she said. “I didn’t think I’d get this far. But now I see a difference in myself, in how I react and how I say and do things. I’ve become a totally different person, and a lot of it comes from this school. ” Both Mr. Bright and Ms. Vazquez are looking forward to graduation. Mr. Bright, who will turn 22 this month, is allowed to finish this school year before he ages out of the public school system. He needs to pass one more Regents exam, for algebra, his most dreaded subject. So Brooklyn Community Services has allocated $500 in Neediest Cases funds to provide him with tutoring. More than of Leadership students, including Mr. Bright and Ms. Vazquez, participate in an program. They have paid internships at places including Burlington Coat Factory, child care centers and the Brooklyn Veterinary Group. Last semester, Ms. Vazquez, 20, received an internship at 3 Black Cats Café and Cakery in Brooklyn, where she worked in the kitchen. It was the first job, Ms. Vazquez said, that she took pride in. “To bake something from scratch and perfect it,” she said. “Knowing that it represents your work, that is new for me. ” The internship ended in November, but she hopes to work at another restaurant. Her love for cooking started in her grandmother’s kitchen. They followed traditional Puerto Rican recipes, including pasteles, a dish of plantains, meat and olives. Now she cooks to remember her grandmother, who died last spring. After graduation in March, she hopes to continue her passion and has applied to culinary schools in upstate New York. When she talked to her grandmother about graduation, her grandmother would say, “Vamos a ver” — she would believe it when she saw it. “And now she’ll see,” Ms. Vazquez said with a smile. | 1 |
Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ( ) said he is worried President Donald Trump is “using populist rhetoric to cover up a hard right agenda. ” Schumer said, “Let me just say about his address, it was populist, but I’m worried he’s using populist rhetoric to cover up a hard right agenda. If you look at his cabinet appointments, so many of them are not populist but hard right. You know. Dr. Price, he wants to end Medicare as we know it. Mulvaney wants to cut even research into health care, DeVos wats to cut public education, Puzder goes against labor. So his cabinet is very troubling and that’s what I discussed. He said, ‘can you move my cabinet a long.’ I said, ‘look, with people who seem to be pretty mainstream, Mattis and Kelly we approved them quickly but so many of your cabinet appointees, Mr. president, are quite different than what you campaigned on and even what your speech was about.’ So I am really troubled at this populist rhetoric is covering up a hard right agenda which is way, way out of touch with what the American people want and even what Trump campaigned on. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 1 |
Año 63: Cupido logra que le validen la aptitud “arquero” en Linkedin EFEMÉRIDES DE LA SEMANA | 0 |
Turner Classic Movies will present a marathon of films starring the late Hollywood icon Debbie Reynolds following her death this week at the age of 84. [Beginning January 27 at 6 a. m. the network will air 12 of Reynolds’s most memorable films, including Singin’ in the Rain, The Tender Trap and The Unsinkable Molly Brown. The screen legend passed away Wednesday after suffering a suspected stroke. Reynolds’s daughter, Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher, had died one day earlier after having suffered a heart attack on an airplane. Below, find the schedule for TCM’s Debbie Reynolds marathon. All times Eastern. 6:00 a. m. It Started With A Kiss (1959) — After a whirlwind courtship, an Army officer and his wacky wife try to make their marriage work. 7:45 a. m. Bundle Of Joy (1956) — A shop girl is mistaken for the mother of a foundling. 12:30 p. m. The Tender Trap (1955) — A swinging bachelor finds love when he meets a girl immune to his line. 2:30 p. m Hit The Deck (1955) — Sailors on leave in San Francisco get mixed up in love and show business. 4:30 p. m. I Love Melvin (1953) — A photographer’s assistant promises to turn a chorus girl into a cover girl. 6:00 p. m. Singin’ In The Rain (1952) — A swashbuckler finds love while trying to adjust to the coming of sound. 8:00 p. m. The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964) — A musical biography of the backwoods girl who struck it rich in Colorado and survived the Titanic. 10:30 p. m. The Mating Game (1959) — A tax agent falls for a farm girl whose father he’s investigating. 12:30 a. m. The Catered Affair (1956) — A mother fights to give her daughter a big wedding whether the girl wants it or not. 2:15 a. m. The Singing Nun (1965) — A fanciful biography of the Belgian nun who briefly made the hit parade. 4:00 a. m. How Sweet It Is! (1968) — A married couple’s working vacation in Paris turns into a battle to stay faithful. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum | 1 |
J.K. Rowling is best known for her magical world of Harry Potter, filled with ghostly Dementors, tricky house-elves, butter beer, and spells that enchant or dispel an opponent. Her spellbound books do not stop there. Rowling has written other books, which are geared toward adults, such as her crime novel, “The Cuckoo Calling,” currently being filmed for BBC adaptation. Rowling also wrote “The Casual Vacancy,” a drama novel that has already made its debut on the BBC network.
J.K. Rowling’s Bookcase of Magic Rowling went on to expand her extraordinary world of magic with “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” which is her next installment into a magical place young adults, children, and adults alike want to be in. The book was originally meant to be a textbook in the wizarding world of Hogwarts and centers around Newt Scamander.
In the year 1926, he has completed a global excursion to find and document all of the world’s magical creatures. Unfortunately, after Scamander decides to make a brief stop in New York, he misplaces his magical case of fantastic beasts. (Yes, the world of magic has come to America.) He also meets a No-Maj named Jacob Kowalski, who discovers the world of magic after meeting Scamander and causes a bit of mischief.
The immersive world of magic continues in Rowling’s “Quidditch Through the Ages.” Even though the book is not as magical as previous ones, it is still essential to the wizarding world. It is about Quidditch and was written by Kennilworthy Whisp, a renowned player of the sport. This book was read by Potter in the movie, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” Severus Snape caught him reading it outside the school, and makes a bogus rule that library books are no longer allowed outside the school, before he takes from Potter.
A Collection of Wizarding Tales for Children Who can forget Rowling’s collection of the popular wizarding fairy tales for children called, “The Tales of Beedle the Bard?” This book is featured in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” Hermione Granger is bequeathed the book by Albus Dumbledore. It is a series of five stories:
“The Warlock’s Hairy Heart,” is a story about a young warlock who has been jilted by love and vows to never fall in love again. In order to do this, he uses The Dark Arts, which saddens his family. Consequently, servants start to whisper about him not having a wife. He decides he will find the most beautiful and talented woman to gain the envy of everyone. Soon, he meets a girl and invites her to dinner. She is fascinated and repulsed by him. She wants to know if he has a heart. The warlock shows her the crystal casket that holds his beating hairy heart. She then asks him to put the heart back in his chest, and he does so. However, his heart had been out of his body too long and developed savage tastes. It causes him to forcefully take her human heart. Unfortunately, he cannot magically remove the hairy heart from his chest, so he cuts it out with a knife. Thus, he and his love die, as he stands with both hearts in his hands. “The Wizard and the Hopping Pot,” is about an old man that is generous. He uses his pot to brew magical potions and antidotes for people in need. After his death, he leaves his son the pot. Unfortunately, he does not have his fathers virtues. Bitter from only receiving a pot, his son closes the door in the faces of those who need help. However, he feels awful for turning away those in need. Eventually, he starts to help the townspeople. “The Fountain of Fair Fortune,” is about a fountain, which a person can bathe in once a year. Doing so, helps that person gain answers to their problems. This is where three witches meet. Asha, who suffers from an incurable decease; Altheda, who is poor and powerless because she was robbed; and Amata is beside herself after her lover leaves her. On their journey to the fountain, they are joined by a knight named Sir Luckless, and they continue the journey together. Along the way, they face three challenges. The first is a giant worm who demands proof of pain. The second, a steep slope where they must bring the fruit of their labors. The third involves crossing a river, which requires them to pay with the treasures of their pasts. Amata passes all three challenges by using magic to withdrawl memories of her lover and dropping them into the water. Asha collapses at the fountain. Altheda saves her by brewing an invigorating potion, which also cures Asha of her disease. Altheda realizes she can use her skills to make money. Amata learns that removing the memory of her lover has removed her regrets. Thier need for the fountain was no more. Sir Luckless bathes in the water. After doing so, he falls at Amata’s feet and asks her to marry him. The moral of the story is the fountain never actually had magical powers. To solve one’s troubles in life, one must do so for themselves. “Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump,” is about a king who wants to keep all the magic for himself. In order to do so, he has to capture all the sorcerers in the kingdom. Then, he has to learn magic. He creates an army of witch hunters. Then calls for an instructor of magic. Unbeknownst to him, the instructor is a charlatan. The instructor is called to perform, with the king, in front of people. He is told if he cannot so this, he will be beheaded. The charlatan blackmails Babbitty, who is magical, into helping him. The charlatan is asked, by a brigade captain, to bring his dog back to life. Babbitty, however, is unable to fulfill the request and is exposed by the charlatan. “The Tale of the Three Brothers,” is about brothers traveling together. Upon their journey, they reach a treacherous river. To cross it, they make a magical bridge. Halfway across they meet Death, who is angry from the loss of the three potential victims. Death tricks them into believing he is impressed with them and grants them three wishes. The oldest brother asks for an unbeatable dueling wand, known as the Elder Wand. The middle brother requests the ability to resurrect the dead and is given the Resurrection Stone. The youngest does not trust Death, so he asks Death to stop following him. With reluctance, Death hands him his Cloak of Invisibility. The brothers leave, in different directions. The oldest brags about the powerful wand he possesses and is murdered in his sleep. The middle brother brings back his lover, who died before they could marry. Regretably, she is not herself and is full of sadness. Inevitably, the brother kills himself to be with his beloved. The youngest brother can not be found by Death, due to the cloak he hides under. After many years of evading Death, he decides to take the cloak off and give it to his son. Pleased with all he has achieved, he willfully greets Death, and they leave together as equals. The Magical and Interactive World of Pottermore Rowling launched Pottermore, in April of 2012. In the immersive world, players can enter Hogwarts as though they are students, acceptance letter and all. Just like the books and movies, players are sorted into a house, before they can go any further. A series of questions are asked by the Sorting Hat. Then, players are placed into, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, or Raven Claw. Once a house has been selected, the player must go virtual shopping to obtain the items on the list, in the acceptance letter. First years must bring:
A Uniform:
Three sets of plain black robes.
One pointed black hat, for day wear.
One pair of protective gloves.
One black winter cloak.
All clothing must adorn name tags. Books:
“The Standard Book of Spells,” grade 1, by Miranda Goshawk.
“A History of Magic,” by Bathilda Bagshot.
“Magical Theory,” by Adalbert Waffling.
“A beginner’s Guide toTransfigurationn,” by Emeric Switch.
“One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi,” by Phyllida Spore.
“Magical Drafts and Potions,” by Aresnius Jigger.
“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” by Newt Scamander.
“The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection,” by Quentin Trimble. Other equipment:
1 Wand
a pewter, size 2, Cauldron
a set of glass or crystal vials
1 telescope
1 set of brass scales
Students can also bring an owl, cat or toad. After obtaining what is needed for classes, players were able to attend a potions class, duel with other students in the great hall, and interact in the common rooms. The journey also gives players exclusive information, not previously revealed by Rowling, that includes over 18,000 words of additional content.
However, as of 2015, players on the website were shut out, so it could be overhauled. Unfortunately, most of the fun features were removed. Now, the site is for informational purposes and interaction with class peers. However, visitors are still sorted into houses and matched with a wand.
The Magical Giving Side of J.K. Rowling Rowling dropped off the Forbes billionaire list in 2012, for two reasons; she donated an estimated $160 million to charity and Britain’s high tax rates. Moreover, Rowling’s reputation for bestowing her wealth is insurmountable and causes fans to wonder why she has given so much of her earnings to those in need. Her answer was simple and heartfelt:
I think you have a moral responsibility when you’ve been given far more than you need, to do wise things with it and give intelligently.
Rowling donated to the Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Children’s High-Level Group, now known as Lumos, after the spell of light from her Harry Potter series. She has also helped finance the building of a regenerative neurology clinic, in Scotland. These are a few charities Rowling has helped financially.
Through her books, Rowling brought magical beings and creatures to the imaginations of children and adults, which in turn, allowed her to bring help to those in need through the proceeds. She is the light of inspiration to all of those around her.
By Tracy Blake
Sources:
Pottermore: Pottermore
Mirror: Filming begins on J.K. Rowling’s crime novel The Cuckoo Calling for BBC adaptation
IMDb: J.K. Rowling
Fandom: Supply List
Snopes.com: A popular Internet meme says ‘Harry Potter’ author J.K. Rowling dropped off the Forbes billionaires list because she gave so much money to charity.
Featured and Jeff Krause’ Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
First Inline Image Courtesy of groundpig.geo’s Flickr Page – Creative Common License
Second Inline Image Courtesy of pammielou’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Third Inline Image Courtesy of until_fullmoon’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License Fantastic Beasts , Harry Potter , rowling , spot | 0 |
The Conservative Party manifesto, ‘Forward, Together’ unveiled Thursday represents a clear pitch to the of British politics, with its emphasis on a strong government shepherding the country forward. [Peppered with sentences such as: “We know that our responsibility to one another is greater than the rights we hold as individuals,” (page 9) the manifesto is sure to raise eyebrows amongst ardent Thatcherites. But as well as being a clear and decisive departure from Lady Thatcher’s legacy, the manifesto is also a barometer of how the Tories intend to manage Brexit. Here, we run through the pledges most likely to worry Brexiteers. 1. That ECHR pledge, As home secretary, Theresa May made much of her opposition to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) having seen how it hampered her ability to extradite extremists. In April 2016, just months before the Brexit referendum, she even went so far as to say: “The ECHR can bind the hands of parliament, adds nothing to our prosperity, makes us less secure by preventing the deportation of dangerous foreign nationals — and does nothing to change the attitudes of governments like Russia’s when it comes to human rights. “So regardless of the EU referendum, my view is this: if we want to reform human rights laws in this country, it isn’t the EU we should leave but the ECHR and the jurisdiction of its court. ” That position has been entirely reversed in the manifesto, which promises not to bring the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights into UK law, but adds: “We will not repeal or replace the Human Rights Act while the process of Brexit is underway. ” And, of course, it adds: “We will remain signatories to the European Convention on Human Rights for the duration of the next parliament. ” (Page 37) 2. Immigration, The manifesto states the current annual net migration rate of 273, 000 “is still too high” and pledges to reduce immigration both from without the EU and within — “while still allowing us to attract the skilled workers our economy needs”. (page 55). In February, Brexit minister David Davis admitted, however, there was little Government appetite to reduce immigration. “In the hospitality sector, hotels and restaurants, in the social care sector, working in agriculture, it will take time [to set limits] — it will be years and years before we get British citizens to do those jobs,” he said. 3. Picking winners, One of the major objections to the EU’s interference in the commerce is its tendency to pick winners, propping up fashionable yet unsustainable industries such as green energy. If British voters thought that would come to an end outside the EU, they will be sorely disappointed. “Our modern industrial strategy [ … ] is not about picking winners, propping up failing industries, or bringing back old companies from the dead. It is about identifying the industries that are of strategic value to our economy and supporting and promoting them through policies on trade, tax, infrastructure, skills, training, and research and development,” the manifesto states. (page 19) In other words, it’s not about picking winners, it’s about … picking winners. “So we have launched a new £23 billion National Productivity Investment Fund. The government will target this spending at areas that are critical for productivity. ” (page 20) 4. Government funded research and development. One of the key cries from Remainers during the referendum was “what will we do without EU spending on research and development?” Well don’t worry — the Conservatives plan to step in and fill the breach. “We will spend more on research and development, to turn brilliant discoveries into practical products and transform the world’s industries — such as the batteries that will power a new generation of clean, efficient, electric vehicles. ” (page 19) “Our ambition is for Britain to lead the world in electric vehicle technology and use. We want almost every car and van to be by 2050 — and will invest £600 million by 2020 to help achieve it. We will invest in more buses, as well as supporting displays for bus passengers and community minibuses for rural areas poorly served by public transport. ” (page 24) 5. Speaking of electric vehicles, a central plank of EU ideology is environmentalism, particularly the sort that likes to tackle climate change through high taxes. Good news for Remainers — the Conservatives are fully signed up on that front too: “The United Kingdom will lead the world in environmental protection. As Conservatives, we are committed to leaving the environment in better condition than we inherited it. That is why we will continue to take a lead in global action against climate change, as the government demonstrated by ratifying the Paris Agreement. We were the first country to introduce a Climate Change Act, which Conservatives helped to frame, and we are halfway towards meeting our 2050 goal of reducing emissions by eighty per cent from 1990 levels. “We will champion greater conservation within international bodies, protecting rare species, the polar regions and international waters. We will work with our Overseas Territory governments to create a Blue Belt of marine protection in their precious waters, establishing the largest marine sanctuaries anywhere in the world. ” (page 40) 6. Progressive politics in the workplace … In 2015, the Conservative Government under David Cameron fought off a Commission proposal to force FTSE companies to make 40 per cent of their boards female. But the Conservatives propose to carry forward the EU tradition of meddling in the workplace, adopting EU workers’ rights legislation wholesale, and setting quotas on pay. “We believe people should be rewarded for their talents and efforts but the public is rightly affronted by the remuneration of some corporate leaders. “The next Conservative government will legislate to make executive pay packages subject to strict annual votes by shareholders and listed companies will have to publish the ratio of executive pay to broader UK workforce pay. Companies will have to explain their pay policies, particularly complex incentive schemes, better. ” (page 18) 7. … and beyond. “We will push forward with our plan for tackling hate crime committed on the basis of religion, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity. ” (page 40) | 1 |
LONDON — The transportation minister of Belgium resigned on Friday, after the publication of leaked reports from the European Commission warning of security deficiencies at Brussels Airport, the site of two deadly terrorist bombings on March 22. The minister, Jacqueline Galant, is the Belgian official to lose her job as a result of the attacks. The country’s interior and justice ministers offered their resignations shortly after the assaults, acknowledging lapses in intelligence sharing and law enforcement, but Prime Minister Charles Michel asked them to stay. On Friday, Mr. Michel said that King Philippe had accepted Ms. Galant’s resignation. He said she had “undertaken several bold reforms,” and thanked her for her service. Ms. Galant came under heavy criticism this week, with opposition lawmakers demanding that she go. The tipping point may have come Thursday, when Laurent Ledoux, president of the Federal Public Service for Mobility and Transport, resigned, saying he could no longer work for her. On Thursday night, Mr. Ledoux, a civil servant, supplied documents to the state broadcaster, RTBF, which appeared to show that Ms. Galant had been notified of security problems at Brussels Airport, which was targeted along with the Maelbeek subway station, in assaults that left 32 people dead, along with three attackers. He openly accused Mr. Michel and Ms. Galant of misleading the public by not acknowledging that they knew about the reports. The documents Mr. Ledoux disclosed showed that in February, he asked for more employees and resources to tighten checks at Belgian airports. He requested a share of the 400 million euros, or about $450 million, that the Belgian government pledged after the terrorist attacks in and around Paris on Nov. 13, which killed 130 people. Mr. Ledoux said Ms. Galant “systematically” disregarded his request. He also criticized the Belgocontrol, the air traffic control agency, whose staff members went on strike shortly after the airport reopened to protest plans to raise the age at which employees may retire with pensions. Ms. Galant, in tendering her resignation, described Mr. Ledoux as being disgruntled and having a political agenda. “For three years, he has waged a media campaign to cast discredit on my entire administration,” she said. “He is profiting by taking advantage of the worrying times to make accusations and confuse the facts. ” The dispute holds partisan dimensions. On Wednesday, two opposition parties released an internal European Union report from last April citing security deficiencies at the airport. That report, however, focused on security screening. The recent attacks took place in the departure hall, which was not covered in the report. Ms. Galant denied neglecting airport security. “In fact, if there was ever an area to which I always paid attention, it was this one,” she said Friday. Also on Friday, the British authorities announced the arrests of five people from Birmingham, England, on charges. Four of them — three men, ages 26, 40 and 59, and a woman, 29 — were arrested Thursday night in Birmingham, and a man was arrested early Friday at Gatwick Airport, south of London, said the West Midlands Police. The police agency’s counterterrorism unit — working with MI5, Britain’s domestic intelligence agency, and Belgian and French authorities — acted “to address any associated threat to the U. K. following the attacks in Europe,” the West Midlands Police said. | 1 |
«La colección más completa de objetos de la actriz»
★★★
El Patronato de Preservación de la Imagen de Lydia Bosch ha abierto este museo en la misma casa que Lydia compartió con su primer novio, Chema, de 1983 a 1984. La exposición cuenta con el traje que Bosch llevaba cuando era azafata del “Un, dos, tres…” (así como un pañuelo con lágrimas de su primera bronca de Chicho Ibáñez Serrador), comida que robó de la cocina de “Médico de familia” y todo el papeleo de su divorcio de Miki Molina. Mi hija me comentó que el lavabo de chicas también era una metáfora de la carrera de Lydia, ya que fue incapaz de encontrar ningún tipo de papel.
FRANCISCO MÉNDEZ «Barcelona no es sólo playa»
★★★★
Algo alejado del centro (una agradable caminata de 126 horas, o 124 a paso ligero), Madrid es un barrio que bien merece una visita aparte. Con la masificación turística, muchos ciudadanos han optado por mudarse a las afueras. Me sorprendió que no llegara el metro, quizá por ello Madrid sigue siendo uno de esos barrios por descubrir. Sus callejones estrechos, como La Castellana; sus jardincillos como El Retiro, o su propio Chinatown: Lavapiés. No olvide probar las joyas culinarias catalanas como el calçot circular (conocido como porras), el pantumaca (bocadillo de calamares) o los panellets (cemento armado con piñones por encima).
JOAQUINA VISCOCHÉ | 0 |
Yevgeny Yevtushenko, an internationally acclaimed poet with the charisma of an actor and the instincts of a politician whose defiant verse inspired a generation of young Russians in their fight against Stalinism during the Cold War, died on Saturday in Tulsa, Okla. where he had been teaching for many years. He was 83. His death, in a hospital, was confirmed by a close friend, Mikhail Morgulis, with the TASS news agency. It said he had been admitted late Friday in “serious condition,” but the cause of death was not specified. His wife, Maria Novikova, and their two sons, Dmitry and Yevgeny, were reportedly with him when he died. Mr. Yevtushenko’s poems of protest, often declaimed with sweeping gestures to thousands of excited admirers in public squares, sports stadiums and lecture halls, captured the tangled emotions of Russia’s young — hope, fear, anger and euphoric anticipation — as the country struggled to free itself from repression during the tense, confused years after Joseph Stalin’s death in 1953. In 1961 alone Mr. Yevtushenko gave 250 poetry readings. He became, as one writer described him, “a graying lion of Russian letters” in his later years, teaching and lecturing at American universities, including the University of Tulsa, and basking in the admiration of succeeding generations before and after the collapse of the Soviet Union. But it was as a tall, athletic young Siberian with a spirit both hauntingly poetic and fiercely political that he established his name in literature. He was the best known of a small group of rebel poets and writers who brought hope to a young generation with poetry that took on totalitarian leaders, ideological zealots and timid bureaucrats. Among the others were Andrei Voznesensky, Robert Rozhdestvensky and Bella Akhmadulina, Mr. Yevtushenko’s first wife. Mr. Yevtushenko did so working mostly within the system, however, taking care not to join the ranks of outright literary dissidents. By stopping short of the line between defiance and resistance, he enjoyed a measure of official approval that more daring dissidents came to resent. While they were subjected to exile or labor camps, Mr. Yevtushenko was given state awards, his books were regularly published, and he was allowed to travel abroad, becoming an international literary superstar. Some critics had doubts about his sincerity as a foe of tyranny. Some called him a sellout. A few enemies even suggested that he was merely posing as a protester to serve the security police or the Communist authorities. The exiled poet Joseph Brodsky once said of Mr. Yevtushenko, “He throws stones only in directions that are officially sanctioned and approved. ” Mr. Yevtushenko’s defenders bristled at such attacks, pointing out how much he did to oppose the Stalin legacy, his animus fueled by the knowledge that both of his grandfathers had perished in Stalin’s purges of the 1930s. He was expelled from his university in 1956 for joining the defense of a banned novel, Vladimir Dudintsev’s “Not by Bread Alone. ” He refused to join in the official campaign against Boris Pasternak, the author of “Doctor Zhivago” and the recipient of the 1958 Nobel Prize in Literature. Mr. Yevtushenko denounced the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 interceded with the K. G. B. chief, Yuri V. Andropov, on behalf of another Nobel laureate, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and opposed the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Mr. Yevtushenko wrote thousands of poems, including some shallow ones that he dashed off, he admitted, just to mark an occasion. Some critics questioned the literary quality of his work. Some writers resented his flamboyance, sartorial and otherwise, and his success. But his foes as well as his friends agreed that a select few of his poems have entered the annals of Russian literature as masterpieces of insight and conscience. Written and read to crowds at critical moments, Yevtushenko poems like “Stalin’s Heirs” caught the spirit of a nation at a crossroads. In Russia, writers could be more influential at times than politicians. But they could also be severely rebuffed if they offended, as Pasternak did with his novel “Doctor Zhivago,” and as Solzhenitsyn did with “The Gulag Archipelago” and other works. lingered in the Kremlin after Stalin’s death. In one instance, nervous officials thwarted efforts to raise a monument at Babi Yar, a ravine near Kiev, Ukraine, where thousands of Jews were and buried in a mass grave in 1941 by the invading Germans. The reason the Kremlin said it resisted a memorial was that the Germans had shot other people there, too, not only Jews. Mr. Yevtushenko tackled the issue in 1961 in blunt verse that stunned many Russians and earned him acclaim around the world. The poem “Babi Yar,” composed after a haunting visit to the ravine, included these lines: There are no monuments over Babi Yar. But the sheer cliff is like a rough tombstone. It horrifies me. Today, I am as oldAs the Jewish people. It seems to me now, That I, too, am a Jew. Alluding to the pogroms that erupted at intervals over the centuries, Mr. Yevtushenko went on: It seems to me, I am a boy in Byelostok. Blood is flowing, Spreading across the floors. The leaders of the tavern mob are ragingAnd they stink of vodka and onions. Kicked aside by a boot, I lie helpless. In vain I plead with the brutesAs voices roar:“Kill the Jews! Save Russia!” In a country ruled by Marxist myth, ostensibly free of bigotry, “Babi Yar” touched nerves in the leadership, and it was amended to meet official objections. Even so, it moved audiences. Whenever Mr. Yevtushenko recited the poem at public rallies, it was met with stunned silence and then thunderous ovations. He wrote once that he had received 20, 000 letters hailing “Babi Yar. ” Dmitri Shostakovich composed his Thirteenth Symphony on lines from that and other Yevtushenko poems. But Mr. Yevtushenko was not allowed to give a public reading of the poem in Ukraine until the 1980s. “Stalin’s Heirs,” published in 1962, also stirred Russians, appearing at a time when they feared that repression might return to the country. It was published only after Nikita S. Khrushchev, the party leader who was then involved in a power struggle with conservatives, intervened as he pushed his cultural “thaw. ” Stalin had been condemned anew the year before as having been a mad tyrant. The poem appeared in Pravda, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, and caused a sensation. “Stalin’s Heirs” opens with a description of Stalin’s body being borne in his coffin out of the Red Square mausoleum to a grave near the Kremlin wall. Sullenly clenchingHis embalmed fists, He peered through a crack, Just pretending to be dead. He wanted to remember all thoseWho carried him out. Mr. Yevtushenko went on: I turn to our government with a plea:To double, And triple the guard at the grave siteSo Stalin does not rise again, And with Stalin, the past. And later, the main point of the poem: We removedHimFrom the mausoleum. But how do we remove StalinFrom Stalin’s heirs? By the time democratic changes brought down Soviet Communist rule early in the 1990s, Mr. Yevtushenko had risen in the reform system to become a member of Parliament and secretary of the official Union of Soviet Writers. Along the way he received high honors, was published in the best periodicals and was sent abroad as an envoy of good will. He also endured abuse, jealousy, frustration and censorship. He once joked that Moscow censors were his best readers, the most expert at catching his meanings and nuances. Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Gangnus was born on July 18, 1933, in Zima Junction, a remote lumber station on the Railway in the Irkutsk region of Siberia, near Lake Baikal. His father, Aleksandr Rudolfovich Gangnus, was a geologist, as was his mother, Zinaida Ermolaevna Evtushenko, who became a singer. His parents divorced, and the boy took his mother’s surname. Yevgeny spent his early childhood with his mother in Moscow. When German troops approached the city in late 1941, the family was evacuated to Zima and stayed there until 1944. Yevgeny’s father would sometimes take the boy on geology expeditions to wild regions of Kazakhstan and the Altai Mountains and, along the way, recite poetry to him. Yevgeny learned to love nature and literature. He was also drawn to sports. At 16 he was selected to join a professional soccer team. But sudden literary success compelled him to abandon that ambition. Soon his poems began appearing in newspapers, popular magazines and literary monthlies. The authorities praised his early poems, which he later called “hack work,” and he was admitted to the elite Gorky Literary Institute and to the Soviet Writers’ Union. But after Stalin’s death — Mr. Yevtushenko was almost crushed to death in a funeral stampede in Moscow — his work began to run counter to Soviet Realism, the officially sanctioned artistic style it reflected instead new thinking about individual responsibility and the state. Themes of state repression and fear had recurred in his poetry over the years, but he also began introducing personal matters into it, as he did in his long poem “Zima Junction,” about a return to his hometown in 1953. Published in 1956, it was followed by more volumes of poetry that refused to conform to the approved modes of expression. After he praised “Not by Bread Alone,” Dudintsev’s caustic 1956 novel about Soviet life, Mr. Yevtushenko was expelled from the Literary Institute. But as the 1950s grew to a close, he had published seven volumes of poetry and was allowed to read his work abroad. In the next few years he became familiar to literary circles in Eastern and Western Europe, the United States, Cuba, East Africa and Australia. Indeed, a virtual cult began to develop around him after Time magazine put his portrait, as an “angry young man,” on its cover in April 1962 and printed a laudatory article about him as a leading spirit in a changing, liberalizing Russia. For his part, Mr. Yevtushenko stressed that American writers had been important in his literary development. Later that year, he exchanged words with Khrushchev at a Moscow exhibit of contemporary art. Khrushchev, who had simple tastes and was facing serious political challenges, flew into a rage against abstractionism and made threats of coercion. A crackdown on modern art, literature and music was felt soon after the confrontation. Mr. Yevtushenko kept a loyal following, writing about nearly everything of importance at home and abroad. He paid tribute to Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. after they were assassinated. He honored Allison Krause, one of the students shot to death at Kent State University during a Vietnam War protest. He chided John Steinbeck for not protesting the war in Vietnam. In the poem “Russian Tanks in Prague,” he criticized the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. (It was circulated only hand to hand, going unpublished until 1990.) In the Mr. Yevtushenko championed the glasnost campaign of “openness” waged by the Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev. In a speech to the Writers’ Union, Mr. Yevtushenko assailed privilege, censorship and the distortion of history. He was a member of the first freely elected Supreme Soviet, the country’s standing Parliament. He went on to publicly defy the conservative plotters of an attempt to seize power in 1991. The coup attempt, which temporarily deposed Mr. Gorbachev, sent a shock wave across Russia and around the world. Mr. Yevtushenko was later given a medal as a “Defender of Free Russia. ” The upheaval became the backdrop for “Don’t Die Before You’re Dead,” one of two novels he wrote. Mr. Yevtushenko did not write only about political and social issues. He composed verses on love, nature, art, travel and the various pains and joys of life. In 1956, for example, while married to Bella Akhmadulina, he wrote “My Beloved Will Come”: My beloved will comeAnd wrap me in her arms. She will notice the changesAnd understand my fears. Through the black downpour, from night’s gloom, Forgetting in haste to shut the taxi door, She will run up the decrepit stairwayFlushed with joy and longing. She will enter soaking wetWithout knocking. She will take my head in her hands, And her blue fur coat will slipHappily from the chair onto the floor. Mr. Yevtushenko had four marriages. He married Galina Semenova after he and Ms. Akhmadulina divorced. (Ms. Akhmadulina died in 2010.) His third wife, Jan Butler, was an English translator of his poetry. His widow, Ms. Novikova, whom he married in 1986, has taught Russian at a preparatory school near the University of Tulsa. Besides Alexander and Dmitry, he had three other sons, Yevgeny, Pyotr and Anton. A complete list of survivors was not immediately available. Mr. Yevtushenko kept homes in Russia and in the United States and, besides the University of Tulsa, taught at the the City University of New York and New York University (where one student remembered him dressed in silver suits “stalking back and forth across the front of the lecture hall” as he read his poems in “booming Russian”). He traveled widely, reading his poetry, lecturing, teaching and giving speeches to overflow crowds at universities. Through it all, Mr. Yevtushenko regarded himself as a patriot. In “Don’t Die Before You’re Dead,” he summed up his ambivalent feelings of triumph, nostalgia and remorse as a survivor of the defunct Soviet system. In a poem on the final page, “Goodbye, Our Red Flag,” he wrote: I didn’t take the czars’ Winter Palace. I didn’t storm Hitler’s Reichstag. I am not what you call a “Commie. ”But I caress the Red Flagand cry. Poetry made him famous, but Mr. Yevtushenko preferred in his later years to describe himself as a “poet, writer and filmmaker. ” Besides the two novels, he published dozens of volumes of poetry, which have been translated into dozens of languages. He acted or appeared as himself in several films, directed two others, wrote essays and compiled three volumes of his photographs. He preferred Oklahoma to New York. “In some provincial cities you can find the real soul of a country,” he told The New York Times in 2003. “I like the craziness of New York, but New York is really not America. It’s all humanity in one drop. Tulsa is very American. ” He called Tulsa “the bellybutton of world culture. ” There he enjoyed watching younger generations coming into their own. “Someone is near,” he said to one class in dramatic tones. “I feel it. Someone always has to be the leader of a generation. Someone has to be born. Why not one of you?” He had shown the same fervor a decade earlier, in July 1993, when the Concert Hall of the Rossiya Hotel in Moscow was the setting for a celebration of his 60th birthday and, by extension, a testimonial to the defiant poets and writers of the 1960s who had broken through the iron grip of Stalinism. “Today you, one of the initiators of the Sixties movement, turn 60,” President Boris N. Yeltsin wrote in a congratulatory letter to Mr. Yevtushenko. “Your innate, multifaceted talent arose brightly in the years of the ‘thaw.’ The civic consciousness of young poets then played a huge role in the spiritual liberation and awakening of the people of Russia. ” A woman agreed, telling a reporter: “He was a symbol for us then. Later he was attacked for not being exiled or sent to the camps, for making a career of protest. But not many of us had the courage to stand up to the regime, and he did. You can’t blame him that he survived. ” Mr. Yevtushenko, still the in a brown silk suit, closed the evening by reading a poem called “Sixties Generation”: “We were a fad for some, some we offended with our fame. But we set you free, you envious insulters. Let them hiss, that we are without talent, Sold out and hypocrites, It makes no difference. We are legendary, Spat upon, but immortal!” | 1 |
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The ACLU has got a few words for America’s newest elected “leader,” and the letter they just published through the NY Times, is probably the most amazing jab in the history of politics. It doesn’t hurt that the jab came from the American Civil Liberties Union, because the power behind the letter is what makes it so ominous to the president-elect.
The letter begins with a request for Trump to “change course” on many of the claims he has made in his extremely short political career.
“Dear President-Elect Trump,
For nearly 100 years, the ACLU has stood as this nation’s premier defender of freedom and justice for all.
As you assume the nation’s highest office, we must ask you now as president-elect to reconsider and change course on certain campaign promises you have made.
Specifically, you promised to: amass deportation force to remove 11 million undocumented immigrants ban the entry of Muslims and institute aggressive surveillance programs targeting them restrict a woman’s right to abortion services reauthorize waterboarding and other forms of torture change our nation’s libel laws and restrict freedom of expression”
As if this statement alone wasn’t enough of a threat, the ACLU continues:
“These proposals are not simply un-American and wrong-headed. They are unlawful and unconstitutional, and would violate the First, Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution, as well as other statutes and international treaties.”
“Many of our country’s most cherished rights are the result of ACLU litigation and advocacy. They include the Scopes trial (the right to teach evolution in public science classrooms) and the following Supreme Court cases: Korematsu (challenging Japanese American internment); Miranda (the right to remain silent); Griswold (the right to contraception); Loving (the right of interracial couples to marry); Gideon (the right to a court-appointed attorney if you can’t afford one); Windsor (striking down the federal Defense of Marriage Act); and Obergefell (the right of same-sex couples to marry) and others. We have worked with and battled American presidents of both parties to ensure that our country makes good on it’s founding premise as the land of the free.”
In the end of the open letter, the ACLU promises to make Trump’s life a nightmare if he continues to pave his road to concentration camp hell. They say Trump will have the full firepower of the ACLU to deal with if he doesn’t wise up.
They letter concludes:
“If you do not reverse course and endeavor to make these campaign promises a reality, you will have to contend with the full firepower of the ACLU at your every step. Our staff of litigators and activists in every state, thousands of volunteers, and millions of supporters stand ready to fight against any encroachment on our cherished freedoms and rights.”
“One thing is certain: We will be vigilant every day of your tenure as president. And when you ultimately vacate the Oval Office, we will do likewise with your successor.” Today we published a full-page open letter in the New York Times to President-elect Trump pic.twitter.com/FOpRqn9oNY
— ACLU National (@ACLU) November 11, 2016 Share this Article! | 0 |
CHICAGO — David Ross, the grandfatherly catcher, admits to never having paid much attention in history class. Kris Bryant, the precocious young slugger, isn’t much for math, struggling to count back the years since the Chicago Cubs last won a World Series. For a franchise so saddled by its own history — of bad baseball, bad breaks and billy goat curses — the latest iteration of the Cubs has carried on in a blissful cocoon of ignorance. “History doesn’t really weigh on this club,” Theo Epstein, the Cubs’ president for baseball operations, said before Game 6 on Saturday. “We’re just trying to win tonight’s game. These guys, a lot of them are in their early 20s, and they’re not burdened by that stuff. The organization isn’t. It’s just about trying to win and keeping it simple. ” In the end, doing simple better, to use one of Manager Joe Maddon’s pet phrases, carried the Cubs all the way to the World Series for the first time since 1945. The Cubs got there with a victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers and their fearsome ace, Clayton Kershaw. The Cubs jumped on him early, added home runs from Willson Contreras and Anthony Rizzo, and protected the lead with artful pitching from Kyle Hendricks, who allowed just two hits over seven and a third innings. The Cubs’ opponent in the World Series will be another team with a history of hard luck: the Cleveland Indians, who have not won a championship since 1948. Their futility, of course, pales next to that of the Cubs, who have not won a World Series since 1908. But when the Series begins in Cleveland on Tuesday night, someone’s long wait will be near an end. “Magic number’s four — four games,” Rizzo said. “Cleveland, that city is deserving of the World Series, too. This is going to be a clash of two cities with a long drought and this is really good for baseball. It’s going to be amazing. ” When a double play ended it — Russell to Baez to Rizzo echoing Tinkers to Evers to Chance — the Cubs poured out of the dugout and mobbed each other on the infield as Wrigley Field shook to its foundation. For close to an hour, most of the capacity crowd stayed in place, soaking in the scene and singing along with the team’s victory anthems — “Go Cubs Go” and “Sweet Home Chicago” — as the players celebrated on the field. “There’s a lot of pent up angst and emotion in this city and really all over this nation, Cubs fans that have been loyal over the years,” left fielder Ben Zobrist said. “We know that, but the bottom line is you have to execute at the right time and stay here in 2016. These guys have done it all year long with all the expectations on our backs. ” The Cubs rolled to the best record in the major leagues, winning 103 games and clinching a division title with more than two weeks to play, but they have had to prove their mettle in the playoffs. In their division series, they rallied from three runs down in the ninth inning to finish off San Francisco, which had won a record 10 consecutive elimination games. And in the National League Championship Series, after being shut out in games, the Cubs bounced back from a deficit. The pivot point for the turnaround was a fittingly simple play: Zobrist’s bunt, which was their first hit of Game 4. It started a rally in the fourth inning, and the Cubs scored 23 runs in winning the final three games. “That’s the butterfly effect right there,” Maddon said. “It was a bunt this year. ” Although the Cubs were home on Saturday, with a loud, insistent Wrigley Field crowd urging them on, they knew it would not be easy to beat Kershaw, who had shut them out in Game 2 at Wrigley Field, allowing just two hits in seven innings. They would also have to beat back history. The last time the Cubs had been in this position — playing a Game 6 at home in 2003, needing one victory to capture the National League pennant — they had unraveled, blowing a lead to the Florida Marlins after a fan named Steve Bartman interfered with a foul ball. On Saturday night, the seat down the line that had been occupied by Bartman — Section 104, Row 8, Seat 113 — was empty until just before game time. “I sat in it,” said Nancy Mazzone, whose seat was one row in front. “I felt vibes. It’s all good. ” When a fan arrived to sit in the Bartman seat, he identified himself as Bryan. He said he was 38 and worked for a company, and he was wearing a No. 14 cap in deference to Ernie Banks, one of the great Cubs players who never made it to the World Series. Bryan was asked by one of a reporters present if he knew the history of the seat he was now occupying. “I kind of do now,” he said. “We’re going to stay out of the way. ” The mix of anxiety and anticipation was hard to ignore as the crowd filtered into the old ballpark. The Cubs had been on the brink before, not just in 2003, but in 1984 when they needed one win over the San Diego Padres to reach the World Series, but lost three in a row. “I don’t want to have to say next year — not again,” said Kristine Fuller, 70, a retired nurse whose children chipped in to buy her a ticket to Saturday’s game. As it turned out, it was not the Cubs who were overcome by jitters, but the Dodgers. Left fielder Andrew Toles dropped a fly ball that led to a run in the first, and Josh Reddick was picked off first base in the second. The Hendricks, who graduated from Dartmouth with an economics degree, has made a career out of a pinpoint but pedestrian fastball and operating in the shadows — all the way back to high school when it was his teammate, Tyler Matzek, who was chosen 11th overall in the draft. Hendricks had not lasted more than five and a third innings in four previous playoff starts, but he was masterly Saturday night. He allowed a single to Toles on the first pitch of the game, but on the second pitch, Hendricks, who induced more soft contact than any pitcher in baseball this season, got Corey Seager to ground into a double play. “Kyle pitched a perfect game,” Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts said. Hendricks did not allow another hit until Reddick singled with one out in the eighth. Maddon then strolled out to the mound to a chorus of boos and replaced Hendricks with closer Aroldis Chapman. The first batter Chapman faced — Howie Kendrick — hit a line drive that second baseman Javier Baez alertly fielded on a instead of catching it on the fly, which allowed him to turn an easy double play and end the inning. “The outside forces felt different,” Hendricks said. “You felt the buzz around the stadium, definitely the energy. It was loud in there. At the end of the day, all I was trying to do was simplify and make good pitches. I was able to stay in that zone, kind of stay in my bubble. ” The Cubs showed no deference toward Kershaw, a Cy Young Award winner. Dexter Fowler lofted a fly ball down the right side that bounced just inside the line and into the stands for a double to start off the bottom of the first. Bryant followed with a single to right, scoring Fowler with the only run the Cubs would need. After Toles dropped Rizzo’s fly ball, Zobrist hit a sacrifice fly to score Bryant, and the Cubs had what seemed like a gift: an early advantage that would limit any anxiety from the crowd. In the second, Fowler, a . 409 career hitter against Kershaw — the highest mark of any active player — hit a single. That scored Addison Russell, who had rattled a double off the wall, and gave the Cubs a lead. Contreras hit a solo home run in the fourth, ripping a line drive down the line that he celebrated with a bat flip, although the ball barely cleared the wall. When Rizzo homered to in the fifth, Kershaw sank to his knees and exclaimed, “No!” That made the score . All that was left was for Hendricks to continue carving up the Dodgers and for Chapman to finish them off. The fans passed the time with a rousing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” and rose to their feet for the entire top of the ninth, bellowing, “Let’s go, Cubbies. ” By then, there was little anxiety — only anticipation, with some fans wiping away tears and others crossing their fingers until, finally, Yasiel Puig hit a slow bouncing ball with one out. When Rizzo took the throw from Baez, who had been fed by Russell, the celebration that was generations in the making commenced. It seemed to be worth the wait. | 1 |
Queen Elizabeth II made her first public appearance in almost a month on Sunday, allaying concerns about her health after she missed Christmas and New Year’s Day church services because of what Buckingham Palace described as a persistent cold. The queen, who will turn 91 in April, attended services at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham, England, with Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, and his wife, as well as several members of the Duchess of Cambridge’s family, including her sister, Pippa, and brother, James. Before Sunday, the queen, whose appearances are usually a staple of the holiday season, had not been seen in public since Dec. 9. Her absence on Christmas Day was the first time in 30 years that she had not attended the holiday service. on social media celebrated the queen’s reappearance. “The Queen has been seen in public,” one Twitter user said. “Huge relief. I can sleep easy in my bed now. ” The queen’s came several weeks after a widespread Twitter hoax started by a fake BBC account that convinced many of her fans that she had died. Despite feeling under the weather, the queen managed to record her traditional Christmas broadcast. “The message of Christmas reminds us that inspiration is a gift to be given as well as received, and that love begins small but always grows,” she said then. “I wish you all a very happy Christmas. ” | 1 |
California’s agency voted on Friday to push ahead with stricter emissions standards for cars and trucks, setting up a potential legal battle with the Trump administration over the state’s plan to reduce gases. The vote, by the California Air Resources Board, is the boldest indication yet of California’s plan to stand up to President Trump’s agenda. Leading politicians in the state, from the governor down to many mayors, have promised to lead the resistance to Mr. Trump’s policies. Mr. Trump, backing industry over environmental concerns, said easing emissions rules would help stimulate auto manufacturing. He vowed last week to loosen the regulations. Automakers are aggressively pursuing those changes after years of supporting stricter standards. But California can write its own standards because of a longstanding waiver granted under the Clean Air Act, giving the state — the country’s biggest auto market — major sway over the auto industry. Twelve other states, including New York and Pennsylvania, as well as Washington, D. C. follow California’s standards, a coalition that covers more than 130 million residents and more than a third of the vehicle market in the United States. “All of the evidence — call it science, call it economics — shows that if anything, these standards should be even more aggressive,” said the board member Daniel Sperling, a transportation expert at the University of California, Davis. The board’s chairwoman, Mary D. Nichols, an assistant administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency under President Bill Clinton, was even more pointed, admonishing automakers for milking Mr. Trump for favors. “What were you thinking when you threw yourselves upon the mercy of the Trump administration to try to solve your problems?” she asked. “Let’s take action today, and let’s move on. ” Long a forerunner in environmental regulation, California worked with the Obama administration on joint standards that became a crucial part of the country’s effort to combat climate change. Officials said the regulations would reduce the country’s oil consumption by 12 billion barrels and eliminate six billion metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution over the lifetime of the cars affected. That amounts to more than a year’s worth of America’s carbon emissions. Adopted in 2012, the standards would require automakers to nearly double the average fuel economy of new cars and trucks by 2025, to 54. 5 miles per gallon, forcing automakers to speed development of highly vehicles, including hybrid and electric cars. Mr. Trump intends to lower that target. Friday’s unanimous vote by the board, which affirmed the higher standards through 2025, amounted to a public rejection of Mr. Trump’s plans. Now, the question is how — or whether — the Trump administration will handle California’s dissent. The administration could choose to revoke California’s waiver, at which point experts expect the state would sue. California sued the George W. Bush administration after it challenged California’s waiver in 2007. Mr. Obama reversed the federal challenge. The White House and the E. P. A. which have not yet determined their plans for the California waiver, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Several states that follow California’s rules raced to its defense. “We’ve come a long way together,” said Steven Flint, director of the air resources division of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation. “We’re with you, and we believe in what you’re doing. ” Environmentalists and public health experts have criticized the automakers’ resistance to emissions rules under the Trump administration as an . All major automakers previously voiced support for the more stringent standards. After the election of Mr. Trump, a group representing the nation’s biggest makers of cars and light trucks urged a reassessment of the emissions rules, which the group said posed a “substantial challenge” for the auto industry. Automakers now complain about the steep technical challenge that the stringent standards pose. They have estimated that only about 3. 5 percent of new vehicles are able to reach it, and that their industry would have to spend a “staggering” $200 billion by 2025 to comply. A separate study by the International Council on Clean Transportation, a think tank supporting emissions controls, has estimated that the cost of meeting those standards could be overstated by as much as 40 percent. And auto industry experts have warned that a slowdown in America’s shift toward efficient cars could leave its auto market a global laggard. John Bozzella, chief executive of Global Automakers, an industry trade group, said before the California vote that companies agreed on the need to continue to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve fuel economy. But he urged California to fall into line with federal rules. “There is a more effective way forward than regulatory systems that are different,” Mr. Bozzella said. He also suggested that demand for clean cars remained relatively tiny. What was required, he said, were standards that “balance innovation, compliance and consumer needs and wants. ” Automakers have also been critical of a California’s vehicle program, which requires automakers to sell a certain percentage of electric cars and trucks in California and nine other states. The board voted on Friday to continue that program. Politicians in California, one of the country’s most Democratic states, have embraced acting as a bulwark against Mr. Trump’s policies, promising to defend the state’s laws on immigration, health care and the environment. Many cities in California have broad “sanctuary” policies aimed at protecting the rights of undocumented immigrants. State law also provides some protections for immigrants from being turned over to federal authorities for deportation. In addition, Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, declared that California would continue to work toward its legally required target of reducing carbon emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. And the state has retained Eric H. Holder Jr. the former United States attorney general, to advise on potential legal fights with the White House. Even at the federal level, the president’s announcement alone will not be enough to immediately roll back emissions standards, a process expected to take more than a year of legal and regulatory reviews by the E. P. A. and the Transportation Department. The Trump administration would then need to propose its own replacement standards. Still, the Trump administration’s move to ease emissions rules is the first part of an expected assault on Mr. Obama’s environmental legacy. In the coming weeks, Mr. Trump is also expected to announce that he will direct the E. P. A. to dismantle regulations on pollution from power plants. The E. P. A. administrator, Scott Pruitt, has said he does not think carbon dioxide is a primary cause of global warming, a statement at odds with the scientific consensus on climate change. Bonnie of the American Lung Association of California, one of many health and environmental groups that spoke at the board meeting, said moving away from strict emissions standards would hurt public health and the health of the planet. She urged the state to stay its course. “The public is bearing a huge cost — billions of dollars in health expenses and damage from climate,” Ms. said. “I urge California to keep us on track. ” | 1 |
Carl Icahn was late, but he still had something to say. Wedging himself around a table crowded with Republican donors at a Hamptons beach house, he jumped in as Senator Mitch McConnell described how important it was to hold on to the Senate this fall. It was important to help Republicans hold the Senate, Mr. Icahn told the room. But they were kidding themselves if they thought they could leave Donald J. Trump twisting in the wind. “We have to get behind Trump,” Mr. Icahn said, according to two people who attended the event, held shortly after the Republican convention in Cleveland. “We all have to come together. ” In hotel suites and skyboxes, from K Street to the Texas suburbs, in conversations that are both urgent and strained, allies of Mr. Trump are imploring senior Republicans and senior party donors to come to Mr. Trump’s aid, despite a damaging series of controversies that have left some in the party ready to abandon him. The goal is to persuade thousands of the party’s most reliable patrons to overcome their lingering objections to the candidate most of them never wanted, and to help defeat a Democrat most of them want even less. In the coming weeks, Mr. Trump and campaign officials will attend a string of organized with the Republican National Committee, hitting the summer haunts of the — from East Hampton to the California wine country — in a effort to tap into the party’s vast financial reserves. On Monday in Detroit, Mr. Trump is scheduled to unveil a set of detailed economic policy prescriptions, a speech his supporters hope will help Mr. Trump reset his campaign and remind wavering Republican donors of the stark contrast that he offers to Hillary Clinton on issues like taxes and regulation. “It’s somewhat of a natural evolution with the donor base,” said Gaylord T. Hughey Jr. an energy lawyer who formerly backed Jeb Bush and is now helping lead Mr. Trump’s in Texas. “I think the traditional donor base was somewhat shocked by Trump’s nomination. They’re learning more about him, but they’re also focused on what the alternative is, and what the implications of the alternative are. ” It is a dizzying turnaround for everyone involved, several donors said in interviews. Aides and for Mr. Trump, a billionaire who has spent months proclaiming his independence from the party’s traditional financial interests, now concede that they need mainline Republican donors to swing behind Mr. Trump so that he will have enough financial firepower to compete with Mrs. Clinton in the air and on the ground. While Mr. Trump’s campaign has rapidly ramped up bringing in $64 million jointly with the Republican committee through digital and direct mail appeals in July, he is lagging behind Mrs. Clinton on larger checks, particularly the and donations that wealthy donors make to party organizations. And just as he asks for help, the party’s establishment donors are reeling from Mr. Trump’s decision to pick fights with the family of a deceased Iraq war veteran and the popular Republican House speaker, Paul D. Ryan. Even so, many are grappling with the fact that he remains their only chance at keeping a Democrat out of the White House. But donors supportive of Mr. Trump said in interviews that they were encouraging their peers to consider the downside of a Clinton administration: a liberal Supreme Court and economic policies pushed to the left by Senator Bernie Sanders and the Democrats’ newly empowered progressive wing. “As he unfolds more details of his various policies, I believe the level of comfort will grow,” Wilbur L. Ross Jr. a New York investor and donor who held a for Mr. Trump in July, said in an email. “More and more people are realizing that they shouldn’t be distracted by the sideshows that result from clever Democratic baiting of Trump,” he added. Some Trump backers argue that despite his criticisms of Washington, Mr. Trump is likely to lean heavily on conservative think tanks and trade associations to stock his administration. Others are urging their fellow donors to face the hard truth that Mr. Trump thumped the donor class’s preferred candidates and earned the favor of Republican voters. Now, they say, it is time for the donors to respect the voters’ wishes. “In addition to fear of policies under a President Hillary Clinton, there’s a certain earned respect for Trump among these people,” said Kellyanne Conway, an adviser to Mr. Trump who is close to some of the party’s biggest donors. “The difference with some of these other successful people is respect for people who elevated him to the nomination. ” There are plenty of vocal and visible holdouts. Paul E. Singer, the prominent New York investor who raised more than $3 million for Mitt Romney during the 2012 campaign, has conveyed to Republican officials that he would not donate a dollar more to the Republican National Committee as long as Mr. Trump was the party’s nominee. Other prominent donors spoke out last week after Mr. Trump’s belittling of the parents of Capt. Humayun Khan, who died in a car bombing in Iraq in 2004 while serving in the Army. Seth Klarman, a Boston financier who has given more than $4 million to Republican candidates and groups over the years, has decided to back Mrs. Clinton. So has Meg Whitman, the executive who was a leading for Mr. Romney’s campaign, and who said last week that Mr. Trump was a “dishonest demagogue. ” On Wednesday, Mr. Klarman said that Mr. Trump’s “words and actions over the last several days are so shockingly unacceptable in our diverse and democratic society that it is simply unthinkable that Donald Trump could become our president. ” Mr. Trump has also been abandoned by Charles G. and David H. Koch, the billionaire brothers who oversee a network of conservative political and philanthropic groups. Many of their allied donors traveled to a luxury resort in Colorado Springs last weekend for the summer edition of the network’s biannual “seminars. ” Mr. Ryan, who clashed with Mr. Trump last week before finally getting his endorsement Friday for was invited to speak at the event. Mr. Trump was not — though some Trump supporters pressed his case at private meetings and cocktail hours. Doug Deason, a Dallas investor whose family is active in the Koch’s political network, urged Charles Koch to reconsider, Mr. Deason recalled in an interview. Mr. Koch declined. “I brought up the fact that it would be nice for him to at least say that he would vote for him,” said Mr. Deason, whose conversation with Mr. Koch was first reported by The Hill. Mr. Koch has said that Mr. Trump’s policies do not align with his own, or those of the groups that he and his brother oversee, and that they cannot support him simply because he is the Republican nominee, according to James Davis, a spokesman for Freedom Partners, a nonprofit group that runs the seminars. Mr. Deason said that other donors he spoke to were supporting Mr. Trump financially on their own. So is William I. Koch, the estranged brother of Charles and David, who hosted Mr. Trump at his home in Cape Cod, in Massachusetts, on Saturday. And Mr. Trump is also having luck outside the ranks of megadonors, among the thousands of business owners and volunteer who form the base of in presidential campaigns. “It’s no different from raising money with either Mitt or John McCain,” said Brian D. Ballard, a Florida lobbyist who previously backed Mr. Bush and Senator Marco Rubio, but is now raising money for Mr. Trump. Two recent events, in Tampa, Fla. and Miami, raised more than $2 million for Mr. Trump and his party. “It’s about: What is government going to look like?” said Mr. Ballard. “A Clinton government? To most of the people I deal with, it’s horrifying. ” | 1 |
A Penn State Trustee has dropped his bid and resigned his position after disparaging the Sandusky victims by calling them the “ victims” of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. [Trustee Al Lord bowed out of his bid after being quoted in an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education. In the piece, Lord exclaimed that he is, “Running out of sympathy for 35 yr old, victims with net worth. Do not understand why they were so prominent in trial. As you learned, Graham Spanier never knew Sandusky abused anyone. ” Lord, the former CEO of student loan company Sallie Mae, was commenting on Graham Spanier’s conviction on child endangerment charges. The former Penn State President was convicted on March 24 for his handling of a 2001 complaint against Sandusky, the school’s defensive coordinator, PennLive. com reports. Sandusky was convicted on 45 counts of sexual abuse charges and is now serving a prison sentence. Despite the conviction and vindication of the many victims of abuse, Lord proclaimed himself “tired” of hearing about the victims. “I am tired of victims getting in the way of clearer thinking and a reasoned approach to who knew what and who did what,” Lord said in the interview with the Chronicle. Lord tried to walk back the comments by issuing a statement apologizing for “any pain the comment may have caused actual victims. ” But, during a recent forum sponsored by Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship, Lord finally decided that his effectiveness to the school had essentially been destroyed by his comments, and he decided to drop his bid for . Lord also resigned from his position and will not serve out the final months of his current term. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com. | 1 |
Wednesday on MSNBC’s ”For the Record,” while discussing the statement from former FBI Director James Comey ahead of his congressional testimony scheduled for Thursday, House Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan ( ) said it was “obviously” not appropriate for President Donald Trump to ask for loyalty from an FBI director. When asked if he believes it is appropriate for the president to ask for loyalty from the FBI director, Ryan said “Yeah, No. Obviously, I don’t think that is. I think Director Comey will probably get a lot of questions about that tomorrow. ” He added, “Yes, FBI directors are supposed to be independent. That’s something that’s very, very critical. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 1 |
11/08/2016 | 0 |
The Saudi press is still furious over the U.S. Senate’s unanimous vote approving a bill that allows the families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia. This time, the London-based Al-Hayat daily has claimed that the U.S. planned the attacks on the World Trade Center in order to create a global war on terror.
Via AlternativeNews
The article, written by Saudi legal expert Katib al-Shammari and translatedby MEMRI, claims that American threats to expose documents that prove Saudi involvement in the attacks are part of a long-standing U.S. policy that he calls “victory by means of archives.”
Scroll Down For Video Below! Al-Shammari claims that the U.S. chooses to keep some cards close to its chest in order to use them at a later date.
One example is choosing not to invade Iraq in the 1990s and keeping its leader, Saddam Hussein, alive to use as “a bargaining chip” against other Gulf States. Only once Shi’ism threatened to sweep the region did America act to get rid of Hussein “since they no longer saw him as an ace up their sleeve.”
He claims that the 9/11 attacks were another such card, enabling the U.S. to blame whoever suited its needs at a particular time; first it blamed Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, then Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq, and now Saudi Arabia.
September 11 is one of winning cards in the American archives, because all the wise people in the world who are experts on American policy and who analyze the images and the videos [of 9/11] agree unanimously that what happened in the [Twin] Towers was a purely American action, planned and carried out within the U.S. Proof of this is the sequence of continuous explosions that dramatically ripped through both buildings. … Expert structural engineers demolished them with explosives, while the planes crashing [into them] only gave the green light for the detonation – they were not the reason for the collapse. But the U.S. still spreads blame in all directions.
The intention of the attacks, writes al-Shammari in his conspiracy article, was to create “an obscure enemy – terrorism – which became what American presidents blamed for all their mistakes” and that would provide justification for any “dirty operation” in other countries.
The terror label was applied to Muslims even though it was Muslims who helped America defeat the Soviets and bring an end to the Cold War, he writes. The problem, asserts al-Shammari, is that the U.S. must always find a new impetus to have an adversary, for “the nature of the U.S. is that it cannot exist without an enemy.”
Al-Shammari’s article comes amid a torrent of vociferous articles in the Saudi press that range from accusing the U.S. of being “schizophrenic” and in cahoots with Iran to publishing warnings that if passed, the “Satanic” bill would “open the gates of hell.”
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■ Donald J. Trump soaked in the cheers at the opening concert as the inaugural festivities began. ■ But in downtown Washington, D. C. revelers had to share the streets with adamant protesters. ■ Never fear, though. Mr. Trump says his high I. Q. cabinet will unify the nation. The opening concert of the long inaugural was the stuff of legend — acts came, followed by protests, followed by withdrawals. Names were floated, like Elton John and Charlotte Church, only to have the artists publicly rebuke the invitation. But when it all finally came together, a beaming Mr. Trump stood at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial on Thursday night, basking in the applause from thousands of concertgoers and vowing to “unify our country. ” “But we’re going to make America great for all of our people,” the told the crowd. “That includes the inner cities, that includes everybody. ” Just hours before he was to be sworn in, Mr. Trump still recalled grievances from the campaign. “The polls started going up, up, up, but they didn’t want to give us credit,” he said. But he also turned his attention to the future, promising to work hard and saying he was looking forward to Friday. A tableau of Trumps — including the incoming first lady, Melania Trump, Mr. Trump’s grown children and their spouses, and his grandchildren — then stood triumphantly at the top of the steps, framed by marble and under the gaze of the nation’s 16th president. Fireworks concluded the “Make America Great Again” concert, which featured Toby Keith and 3 Doors Down. The next president of the United States has a way with words, so let’s just let him talk. At Washington’s Union Station on Thursday night, he greeted honored guests. To Jared Kushner, his and adviser, he said, “If you can’t produce peace in the Middle East, nobody can. ” To his White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, he commented, “Nobody knew how to pronounce his name. It’s a crazy name. ” The added, “Reince was taking tremendous abuse because he went through hell. ” Then it was on to his campaign, in 2020: “The next time, four years from now, the next time we’re going to win the way, we’re going to win because we did so well, because it was so overwhelming, the thing that we did, because it was so beautiful. ” On that last point, it was not clear how he was implying he won in 2016: Russian interference? Losing the popular tally by nearly three million votes? As for Inauguration Day, Mr. Trump saw a silver lining in the forecast rain. “If it really pours tomorrow, that’s O. K.,” he said, “because people will realize it’s my real hair. ” The inaugural kickoff celebration on the National Mall had been a subdued affair without protests, but at least one of the inaugural balls organized by Mr. Trump’s supporters has drawn protesters. The DeploraBall, a cocktail party organized by supporters of Mr. Trump and held at the National Press Club, drew several hundred protesters crowded into a city block, chanting and waving signs denouncing the incoming Trump administration. Sarko Sarkodie, a Washington resident, was part of the crowd. “I’m just part of the resistance efforts that have been happening this week,” Ms. Sarkodie said. “And they’ll be happening over the next four years. ” Trump supporters seemed to be staying away from the event, but several people watched the scene from inside a nearby bar, where a man wearing a Trump flag and Trump sweatpants could be seen embracing friends. ”That’s a brave dude, right there,” a bystander said of the man. Several people wandered through the area in gowns, seemingly dismayed when they turned the corner to encounter the protests. But perennial presidential candidate and kid favorite Vermin Supreme made it to the show. At the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, a throng of people in ball gowns, dashikis, tuxedos and silk headscarves flocked to the Peace Ball: Voices of Hope and Resistance. “I guess I was just looking for something to put my energy into and to give Obama a really good ” said Pavy Bacon, a Maryland resident, about why she bought a ticket to the ball. “If you really appreciate what Obama has done, you can’t help but be fearful of the next administration. ” The event, which was in the works before Election Day, was not envisioned as an affair. Anas “Andy” Shallal, an artist and activist who owns the popular D. C. bookstore cafe chain Busboys and Poets, dreamed up the party as the ultimate celebration of the progress made under President Obama. But as inauguration day drew closer, Peace Ball became a place for liberals to converge and comfort themselves. John Osborne, a lawyer from Washington, D. C. perused the exhibits with his wife and said he came because — on the eve of the inauguration — he wanted to surround himself with people from all races, religions and backgrounds. “I wanted to be in a place that reflects the America that I see and live everyday,” he said. “I’m hopeful that our country will remain that way. ” Expected guests included the actor Danny Glover, the artist Solange Knowles, Grammy winning jazz musician Esperanza Spalding, the author Alice Walker and CNN pundit Van Jones. Before the official festivities began, Mr. Trump appeared at a luncheon with supporters at the Trump International Hotel, where he praised the collective I. Q. of his cabinet members. “We have by far the highest I. Q. of any cabinet ever assembled,” Mr. Trump said in the remarks, which reporters heard only the first several minutes of before being escorted out. Of course, he put himself into the high I. Q. category when he boasted, “This is a gorgeous room. A total genius must have built this place. ” (As an aside, it is impossible to do the math, but President Obama’s starters did include a Nobel laureate in physics at the Energy Department, a former president of Harvard heading the National Economic Council and the president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank as Treasury secretary.) Mr. Trump also singled out specific supporters, including Woody Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets football team, and his pick for Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin. Mr. Mnuchin, Mr. Trump noted, wasn’t at the lunch because he was being “grilled” at his Senate confirmation hearing several blocks away. Mr. Trump also faulted senators for not being “nice” to Representative Tom Price of Georgia, his pick to be the health and human services secretary. And speaking of Mr. Johnson, the Jets owner is expected to get one of the plum jobs in diplomacy, the United States ambassador to Britain, or as the Brits call it, ambassador of the United States to the Court of St. James’s. Mr. Johnson is only the fourth ambassador to be announced by Mr. Trump, after Nikki Haley as ambassador to the United Nations David Friedman, his longtime attorney, as ambassador to Israel and Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad as ambassador to China. Given that both Mr. Trump and his British counterpart, Prime Minister Theresa May, are relatively new in their roles, Mr. Johnson’s ability to get Mr. Trump on the phone quickly could be helpful. At this year, the Jets weren’t the best. The and vice laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery. Then it was on to the Lincoln Memorial for the concert that opens the Inaugural festivities. Eric Huppert, the leader of Defenders of Liberty Motorcycle Club and local organizer of Bikers for Trump, stood beside a row of hulking Harley Davidsons and said he was not looking for violence. Sure, Chris Cox, the founder of Bikers for Trump, had pledged that his members would act as a “wall of meat” to block protesters, but Mr. Huppert downplayed all that. “I don’t anticipate any skirmishes — at least I hope not,” he said. But if the safety of Mr. Trump’s supporters — or even the himself — is jeopardized, he added, “I think these folks will be willing to jump in if necessary. ” A security force beholden to no one with no rules of engagement and no real marching orders is, well, not a great idea. But Bikers for Trump stand by their man. David Nichols traveled from Texarkana, Tex. with seven others to attend the Bikers for Trump rally on Inauguration Day. The group drove for 22 hours straight, towing eight bikes on a trailer. “He’ll be a fine president — he just has to calm down his words,” Mr. Nichols said. “Just don’t bash people’s name too much. ” A day before Mr. Trump is to be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, he took to Twitter to assert that he is not responsible for the nation’s divisions. His champion? The Rev. Franklin Graham. To some, Mr. Graham’s good wishes may not hold much weight. Last month on Facebook, he decried House Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s failure to join him and the in ending all Muslim immigration “until we can properly vet them or until the war with Islam is over. ” He castigated Representative William Lacy Clay, Democrat of Missouri, for defending a high school student’s artwork depicting a confrontation between citizens and police, depicted as pigs. And last year, Mr. Graham said of gays, “you cannot stay gay and continue to call yourself a Christian. ” | 1 |
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Until this election, nobody knew that North Carolina was a state firmly committed to Jim Crow -style racism, but today it’s been literally difficult to even pass several hours without yet another illegal scam to suppress minority votes being revealed .
A federal judge slammed North Carolina elections officials in court today in a case filed by the NAACP , where the US Attorney General weighed in to let the bench know that if proven, the allegations would show three major violations of the National Voter Registration Act.
During oral arguments, the judge explicitly called North Carolina’s voter challenge law a Jim Crow law, like the ones which began apeparing in the 1890s and codified American apartheid in the South, leading to the civil rights laws of the 1960s. CBS reports :
U.S. District Judge Loretta Biggs said multiple times the challenge process sounds “insane.” The NAACP says counties are violating federal law by removing voters less than 90 days before the election. “This sounds like something that was put together in 1901,” she told lawyers for the state.
The judge also said she was “horrified” by the number of removals in Cumberland County, which accounted for the majority of the statewide total. “It almost looks like a cattle call, the way people are being purged,” she told county attorney Rick Moorefield.
Clearly, election boards and politicians in North Carolina are only restrained by the spectre of federal enforcement via the pre-clearance mechanism of the Voting Rights Act. Unfortunately, since the moment that the Supreme Court decided to override the will of Congress and gut the Voting Rights Act in 2013, the impact of that willful act of judicial activism by conservative jurists has echoed in places where racism didn’t arrive with Trump, but festered secretly for decades, waiting for the opportunity to strike.
The North Carolina officials who conducted the purge said they were following a bizarre state law, which the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has already indicated that it believes violates the National Voter Registration Act. Here’s how Republicans in North Carolina purged 6,700 voters from three counties, who are mostly Democrats:
Under state law, any voter can challenge another county resident’s registration, resulting in a hearing where the challenger presents evidence, according to a state legal filing. If local officials find probable cause, the challenged voter is given notice of a subsequent hearing. A voter who doesn’t rebut the evidence can be removed.
The NAACP lawsuit cites Cumberland, Moore and Beaufort counties, where activists have challenged thousands of voters. The challengers include volunteers with the Voter Integrity Project, which says it wants to guard against voter fraud. In most cases cited by the lawsuit, mail to a voter is returned as undeliverable, which county boards can accept as evidence the voter doesn’t live there.
The DOJ filed Statement of Interest on the side of the NAACP, saying that if their allegations are proven true in court, there would be three separate provisions of the National Voter Registration Act. Apparently, the judge’s reaction means that they made the case:
Three limitations on the removal of voters are pertinent here: (1) a jurisdiction may not remove voters based on a purported change of address outside of the jurisdiction using only mail returned as undeliverable and without following specific required procedures; (2) a jurisdiction may not remove voters based on a change of address within the same jurisdiction; and (3) a jurisdiction may not carry out a program of systematic removals within 90 days of a Federal election.
U.S. District Judge Biggs is expected to rule in the case early tomorrow, but it sounds like her opinion has already been made up after today’s hearing.
North Carolina voters are facing unprecedented political roadblocks this year and it’s all due to their state Republican party’s all out war against letting people vote. It looks like the NC GOP is getting nervous that nobody will vote for bigotry laws that have damaged their state’s economy, so they’ve got to do everything they can to rig the election by preventing people from voting. | 0 |
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter “If it does indeed turn out that there is relevant physical evidence, if this evidence is carefully collected and analyzed, and if this analysis leads to the identification of several facts concerning the UFO phenomenon, then will be the time for scientists to step back and ask, what are these facts trying to tell us? If those facts are strong enough to lead to a firm conclusion, then will be the time to confront the more bizarre questions. If, for instance, it turns out that all physical evidence is consistent with a mundane interpretation of the causes of UFO reports, there will be little reason to continue to speculate about the role of extraterrestrial beings. If, on the other hand, the analysis of physical evidence turns up very strong evidence that objects related with UFO reports were manufactured outside the solar system, then one must obviously consider very seriously that the phenomenon involves not only extraterrestrial vehicles but probably also extraterrestrial beings.” ( source ) The quote above comes from Peter Andrew Sturrock , a British Scientist, and an Emeritus Professor of Applied Physics at Stanford University. Sturrock and a number of other notable scientists around the world came together during the 1990’s in order to examine the physical evidence that is commonly associated with the UFO phenomenon. One example used by Sturrock in his analysis, was a photo taken by two Royal Canadian Air Force pilots on August 27th, 1956, in McCleod, Alberta, Canada. ( “Physical Evidence Related To UFO Reports”– The Sturrock Panel Report – Electromagnetic Effects ) ( source ) ( source ) The pilots were flying in a formation of four F86 Sabre jet aircraft. One of the pilots described the phenomenon as a “bright light which was sharply defined as disk-shaped,” that looked like “a shiny silver dollar sitting horizontal.” Another pilot managed to photograph the object, as you can see above. The sighting lasted for a couple of minutes, and this specific case was analyzed by Dr. Bruce Maccabee, who estimated (from available data) that the luminosity of the object (the power output within the spectral range of the film) to be many megawatts. The Sturrock Panel also found it to be the case that a strong magnetic field surrounding the phenomenon or object was a common occurrence. Maccabee published his analysis in the Journal of Scientific Exploration (“Optical Power Output of an Unidentified High Altitude Light Source,” published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, vol. 13, #2, 1999). He also published one in 1994 titled “Strong Magnetic Field Detected Following a Sighting of an Unidentified Flying Object,” in the same journal (8, #3, 347) Dr. Jacques Vallee, notable for co-developing the first computerized mapping of Mars for NASA, and for his work at SRI International on the network information center for ARPANET , a precursor to the modern Internet, also published a paper in the Journal of Scientific Exploration titled “Estimates of Optical Power Output in Six Cases Of Unexplained Ariel Objects With Defined Luminosity Characteristics.” ( source )( source ) This particular case is also referenced in this paper. One thing is for certain, it’s one of multiple strange phenomena that has and continues to interest a large portion of the scientific community. Here is a video of former Canadian Defence Minister Paul Hellyer speaking about the fields around these objects, and what some of them were doing to military planes. Let’s just be clear, these objects are commonly seen, tracked on air radar, and tracked on ground radar simultaneously. This is something that has happened hundreds, if not thousands of times. This is information that’s been made public over the past few years. For example, a declassified Defence Intelligence Agency document shows one (out of thousands) great example. It details how two F-4 interceptor pilots reported seeing an object visually, it was also tracked on their airborne radar. Both planes experienced critical instrumentation and electronics going offline at a distance of twenty-five miles from the object. Here is an excerpt from the report: “As the F-4 approached a range of 25 nautical miles it lost all instrumentation and communications. When the F-4 turned away from the object and apparently was no longer a threat to it, the aircraft regained all instrumentation and communications. Another brightly lighted object came out of the original object. The second object headed straight toward the F4. ” (source) The report also described how a smaller object detached from the bigger object, turned inside the arc of the F-4 itself, and then rejoined the original object. This incident lasted for several hours. I decided to use this example because it has a number of declassified supporting national security documents, which goes to show how seriously this event was taken. “Behind the scenes, high ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense.” Former head of the CIA, Roscoe Hillenkoetter, 1960 (source, NY Times) It’s only now that more people are starting to become aware of this information. Here is a quote from Senator Barry Goldwater before the de-classification of all of these files: “This thing has gotten so highly-classified… it is just impossible to get anything on it. I have no idea who controls the flow of need-to-know because, frankly, I was told in such an emphatic way that it was none of my business that I’ve never tried to make it to be my business since. I have been interested in this subject for a long time and I do know that whatever the Air Force has on the subject is going to remain highly classified.” – Senator Barry Goldwater , Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee (source) Below is a great clip from author and researcher Richard Dolan , taken from The Citizens Hearing On Disclosure summing it all up in one short speech.
The Sacred Science follows eight people from around the world, with varying physical and psychological illnesses, as they embark on a one-month healing journey into the heart of the Amazon jungle.
You can watch this documentary film FREE for 10 days by clicking here.
"If “Survivor” was actually real and had stakes worth caring about, it would be what happens here, and “The Sacred Science” hopefully is merely one in a long line of exciting endeavors from this group." - Billy Okeefe, McClatchy Tribune | 0 |
Fashion designer Stefano Gabbana took to social media Tuesday to thank First Lady Melania Trump for wearing one of his Dolce Gabbana jackets in her official White House portrait — and later pointedly told his critics to “go to hell. ”[In a post to his Instagram account, the Italian designer proudly displayed the First Lady’s official portrait — released by the White House on Monday — which featured Trump wearing a DG blazer. “BEAUTIFUL,” Gabbana captioned the photograph, adding the hashtag “#DGWoman. ” #DGWoman BEAUTIFUL ❤❤❤❤❤ #melaniatrump Thank you 🇺🇸❤❤❤ #madeinitaly🇹 A post shared by stefanogabbana (@stefanogabbana) on Apr 4, 2017 at 2:40am PDT, It wasn’t long before the designer’s critics blasted him for taking pride in seeing his work being worn by the First Lady. “So you have lost a follower, and worst, an admirer,” one Instagram user, @_boyafraid_, wrote to the designer. “[I] dont care!! Really,” he replied. Gabbana also apparently wrote to one commenter to say, “vai a cagare,” or “go to hell” in Italian. This is not the first time the designer has taken on social media users over his show of support for the First Lady. In January, he excitedly shared a photograph of Melania Trump at the president’s New Year’s Eve party in Florida, during which she also wore a Dolce black cocktail dress, from the company’s “Cruise” collection. “How many stupid and ignorant people r on Instagram!” Gabbana wrote in response to his critics, before telling everyone who didn’t like his posts to unfollow him. Gabbana is one of several designers — along with Tommy Hilfiger and Diane von Furstenburg — who have said they would have no problem dressing the First Lady, after a number of other marquee names in the fashion world, including Tom Ford and Marc Jacobs, have said they would not design clothing for her. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum | 1 |
OCTOBER 27, 2016
by Pamela Williams
There is breaking news that a no-fly zone has been declared over the Dakota Access Pipeline area at Standing Rock, North Dakota. Protestors and Native American activists have set up a new camp called “Front-Line Camp” where they are making their last stand against the party Energy Transfer Partners, who are working on the Pipeline. The Sioux Tribe has declared eminent domain over the water rights and sacred land rights in the same area as the Pipeline is being built. They are asking for prayers as they make a great stand against the destruction of their sacred land.
Pipeline opponents attempting to protect their water supply from the Dakota Access oil pipeline (DAPL), as well as prevent the continued destruction of burial grounds and cultural sites, are anticipating a confrontation with police today. This news come after “water protectors” refused law enforcement requests to vacate reoccupied land in the pipeline’s path, owned by Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners.
http://thesccop.com/breaking-no-fly-zone-declared-as-militarized-police-prep-for-assault-on-front-line-camp-at-standing-rock/
While Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chairman Harold Frazier sat down with President Barack Obama at a private roundtable in Los Angeles on Tuesday, October 25, Morton County, N.D. Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier was calling in police reinforcements from six states to enforce Energy Transfer Partners’ demands that “trespassers” be removed from the path of the pipeline.
Authorities implied they may forcibly remove the water protectors from the new camp, which is on land recently purchased by Dakota Access LLC, the subsidiary that is building the pipeline.
“We have the resources. We could go down there at any time,” Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney said, according to the Associated Press . “We’re trying not to.”
“We are here to enforce the law as needed,” Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said. “It’s private property.” Share: Rate: | 0 |
in: Big Pharma , FDA , GMOs , Government , Government Corruption , Medical & Health , Special Interests There was a time when “FDA Approved” was a vote of credibility. We could purchase a product and feel safe because the government watchdogs had checked it out thoroughly before allowing it to be sold. Now, “FDA Approved” means “The company that produced this product has enough money and clout to allow it to be sold.” Many people rely on the FDA as a source of knowledge and safety. Their recommendations mean something to folks who feel as though someone is watching out for them and that in America if something was bad, the government wouldn’t allow it to be sold. They believe that the drugs are tested and approved for our benefit and that the manufacturers of Big Pharma are at the mercy of the fierce protectors who are advocating for the people. Unfortunately, it couldn’t be further from the truth. This is all part of the giant marketing deception perpetrated on a trusting public. Some people are so snowed by what the FDA does that they want it to be even more powerful . There is actually an “alliance for a stronger FDA” whose mission reads like a diary entry from a hostage with Stockholm Syndrome. With responsibility for products that comprise more than 20% of all national consumer spending, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) oversees aspects of several industries that are key to our nation’s growth and prosperity. A science-based, predictable, and efficient FDA helps these industries — including the food, drug, medical device, and cosmetics industries — to innovate and to create high-paying jobs here in America while improving our balance of trade. The Alliance for a Stronger FDA works to ensure annual appropriations that will adequately fund the FDA’s essential missions, and we believe that the American people expect this too. There is no backstop, no other agency, that performs this critical work. The federal g overnment gives the FDA about $8 per year for each American (an “appropriation” of $2.561 billion for FY 2014). Nowhere else in the federal budget does so little money need to go so far. The FDA has just 10,000 employees to monitor food safety, review the safety and efficacy of medical products, assure the safe use of those medical products, and protect the American people, their pets, and their farm animals from poorly made, counterfeit, and illegal food, drugs, and cosmetics. Recent research on a variety of topics has led me to note some astonishing facts about the GMO Food and Drug Pushers Administration. Like a bad penny, it seems whatever topic I’m looking into, the FDA keeps turning up. The FDA has a central role in the increasing tyranny in the United States and we, as taxpayers, are funding them to do this. Be warned, you aren’t going to like what you read below, but unless you are mired in intractable cognitive dissonance, you’re going to see a pattern of abuse and deception. The FDA’s Perpetual Conflicts of Interest First of all, it would be nice to believe that the group who decides whether foods and medicines are safe for our consumption is unbiased and benevolent. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Let’s take a look at the leadership – the head of the snake – and the ties of those leaders to Big Agri and Big Pharma. Some previous tsars/commissioners are: 2016: Dr. Robert Califf Califf is a cardiologist who was a tenured professor at Duke University School of Medicine. He’s long been criticized for having deep financial ties to Big Pharma. He worked closely with drug companies and convinced them to do large, expensive clinical trials that were very profitable for Duke. Califf was a paid consultant for Merck Sharp & Dohme, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, and Eli Lilly per ProPublica from 2009 to 2013. In the disclosure information for an article published in the journal Circulation in 2013, Califf shared that he was a consultant for Gilead – the drug company that recently came under scrutiny for outrageously priced hepatitis C drugs. The price for a 12-week course of treatment with one of the drugs was initially set at $84,000 . 2010: Michael Taylor Taylor’s most recent resume entry: VP and attorney for Satan Monsanto. One of Taylor’s “accomplishments” for Monsanto was writing the rules that allowed recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone into the American food and milk supply, and forcing dairies who labelled their milk as rBGH-free to also state that there was “no difference between their hormone free milk and the chemically enhanced milk.” 2009: Margaret Hamburg Hamburg served on the board of directors of Henry Schien, Inc. previous to her appointment to the throne of the FDA. Henry Schien, Inc. produces amalgam dental products – products that contain toxic mercury. Hamburg spearheaded the legislation that allowed mercury to be allowed in dental products (without a required warning for the consumers) during her time at the FDA. Hamburg was recently named as one of the defendants in an $800 million RICO lawsuit . The suit accuses Hamburg of playing a role in a conspiracy to approve Levaquin, an antibiotic drug known to cause severe (and even deadly) side effects, in order to financially benefit her husband’s hedge fund which held very large financial positions in Johnson & Johnson, makers of the drug. 2006: Andrew von Eschenbach A Bush family friend, von Eshchenbach has a background as a drug peddler for Big Pharma and as the head of the National Cancer Society. Some highlights of his reign over the FDA were the speedy approval of Avandia, a medication for diabetes that had the unfortunate side effect of a 43% increase in heart attacks among those taking it; and accusations of corruption and intimidation by the FDA’s own scientists. **** But if that cast of characters isn’t enough to shed doubt on the veracity of any claim made by this organization, take a look at the following facts and tell me that they’re looking out for people instead of corporate interests. The FDA seems to be busily striving to regulate the family farm right out of business. The FDA has gone “SWAT Team” on producers of raw milk and cheese, performing armed raids on small farms , seizing and destroying inventory and handcuffing farmers to haul them off to jail. The FDA keeps adding “food safety” requirements to small organic farms while doing nothing about the factory farms’ abundant use of pesticides and toxins. The FDA pushed the Food Safety Modernization Act which could eventually shut down farmer’s markets across the country – or at least make the food more difficult and expensive for farmers to produce. According to the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC), “The regulations could erect new barriers to these important markets for small and mid-scale farmers unable to bear the expense of compliance.” Find the regulations here. With all of these new (time-consuming and pricey) legislations that farmers must adhere to , the price of local organic produce is skyrocketing, making the product unaffordable for most Americans. This, in turn, reduces competition for the huge factory farms and their GMO-tainted, chemical-sprayed products, allowing a huge profit at the end of the day for Big Agri. The FDA crackdown on health food stores and promoters of natural remedies is reminiscent of cops raiding a meth lab full of junkies. Since 1987, facilities such as the Life Extension Foundation, vitamin manufacturers, health food stores, natural pet food stores and naturopathic medical clinics have been raided by agents waving assault rifles. Owners and employees have been arrested and convicted of crimes. Countless merchandise and literature has been confiscated. What was the crime committed by these natural healing companies? They don’t tithe to the Church of Big Pharma. The FDA is busily “harmonizing” the United States policies with Codex Alimentarius . Codex is the United Nations’ sinister plot to be in control of the food consumption of the world, as per Agenda 21 . Codex promotes chemical agriculture, heavily medicated livestock and genetically modified produce. It’s all done under a do-gooder disguise – the CA Commission states its goals as “protecting the health of consumers, ensuring fair trade practices and promoting coordination of food standards.” Codex actually outlaws the sale of vitamins of beneficial dosages, as well as natural remedies. According to Mike Adams , the founder of Natural News, “the FDA will “harmonize” the U.S. food and dietary supplement industries with global Codex requirements which make illegal virtually all healthy doses of vitamins and minerals. Under full Codex “harmonization,” America will be left with a dead food supply and the health food stores will be virtually stripped bare of dietary supplements. Selling vitamin D at a reasonable dose such as 4,000 IU per capsule will be criminalized and products will be seized and destroyed by FDA agents who recruit local law enforcement to bring in the firepower. | 0 |
Break the Silence or Support Self-Determination? In Syria, the Answer Should be Obvious Submitted by Danny Haiphong on Tue, 11/01/2016 - 19:14 Tweet Widget by Danny Haiphong
Syria is “the target of one of the greatest misinformation campaigns in recent history.” The author regrets that left analyst Eric Draitser has contributed to the confusion. Draitser criticizes leftists who firmly support the Syrian government. Danny Haiphong counters that “the left must act with uncompromising dedication to the principle of self-determination in every case where US and Western imperialism wages wars of neo-colonial plunder.” Break the Silence or Support Self-Determination? In Syria, the Answer Should be Obvious by Danny Haiphong
“To claim that the left in the US should fight for ‘peace’ and at the same time oppose the Syrian government is an intentional attempt to remain neutral in a time of war.”
Imperialism's war on Syria may be the most important question on the order of the day for those fighting for a world free of exploitation and oppression. Syria is currently the battleground of imperialism's last gasp of life. In nearly six years, Syria has been turned into a site of intense struggle between the forces of resistance and imperialism's forces of reaction. It has also been the target of one of the greatest misinformation campaigns in recent history. The imperialist countries and their media lackeys have sewed deep confusion about the true character of the war being waged on Syria. Nowhere is this confusion greater than in the United States, and it appears someone I deeply respect has been overtaken by it.
In a recent issue of CounterPunch, Eric Draitser dives head deep into the confusion . He criticizes what he deems as two critical problems with the left's stance. Draitser first criticizes the pro-imperialist left for their decision to align themselves with the foreign-sponsored terror groups in Syria, which have been labeled "revolutionaries" or "rebels" by the imperialist countries. He then goes on to criticize leftists who have positioned themselves firmly in support of the Syrian government.
It is his criticism of the "pro-Assad left" that needs further examination. Draitser reveals his deep confusion when he asks:
"Will you continue to delude yourselves by refusing to accept the plainly obvious truth that no state or group has the best interests of Syrians at heart?"
Draitser's question assumes that the Syrian and Russian governments are equally to blame for the chaos in Syria. Their bombs are assumed to be prolonging the war and committing atrocities against the Syrian people at the same rate of the imperialists. If this is not the case, he doesn't state otherwise in the piece. In fact, Draitser sets out to prove true what has already been proven false by a wide range of independent and corporate media sources.
“The imperialist countries and their media lackeys have sewed deep confusion about the true character of the war being waged on Syria.”
First, Draitser claims that the war on Syria began as a genuine protest against "neo-liberal" reforms instituted by the Syrian government. This narrative is popular among the liberal-left media as well as the white left generally. However, those who make this claim rarely specify what neo-liberal reforms were made or how the confrontation all of a sudden became violent. Stephen Gowans reviews numerous reports from the corporate media that describe the uprising in March of 2011 as immediately violent, ill-supported, and ultimately insignificant in the midst of reforms from the Syrian government that were broadly supported by the Syrian people. At the same time as the violent uprisings, thousands of Syrians were protesting in the streets in support of President Assad.
Furthermore, reports from the city of Daraa during the 2011 uprisings confirmed the presence of armed "rebels" who had freshly arrived from their US-NATO backed destruction of Libya . These "rebels" have since infested the country through various channels of the Syrian border. Each group possesses a fundamentalist Wahhabi ideology and receives varying degrees of assistance from the Gulf monarchies, Israel, Turkey, NATO, and of course, the US. This is confirmed in Draitser's article. Yet he still reinforces the claim that a popular uprising started the war even though Assad possessed broad support in 2011 .
The truth is that the war on Syria has little to do with neo-liberalism or popular discontent. It has been acknowledged by UN sources that despite reforms, the Syrian economy remains highly regulated and socialist in character . Syria's own form of socialism has brought many benefits to the Syrian people. Healthcare and education are rights guaranteed to all citizens . Syria also possesses a secular government where Muslims, Christians, and all religious and ethnic groups lived peacefully prior to the war. Syria is thus a poor example of neo-liberalism. What economic struggles that do exist in Syria have largely stemmed from the harsh sanctions imposed by the US in 2004.
“The war on Syria has little to do with neo-liberalism or popular discontent.”
Furthermore, Draitser cites numerous sources that support regime change to smear the Syrian government and, by extension, the Syrian people. One of the sources receives much of its information from the White Helmets. The White Helmets have long been exposed as an NGO that works directly in service of imperialism's regime change operation in Syria. The organization receives approximately 33 million in funds directly from the US and UK governments. Eva Bartlett recently visited Aleppo and witnessed many White Helmet workers sporting arms and fighting among the terror groups .
Draister also cites a source from the New York Post . The Post article relies heavily on documents collected by the dubious Center for International Justice and Accountability. This purported "international law" NGO is run by a consortium of corporate lawyers, former or current Amnesty International staffers, and various other servants of empire. The organization specializes in "transitional justice." In other words, the Center for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA) provides a legal framework for regime change on behalf of its imperial funders. Draitser claims no group involved in the war has the interests of the Syrian people at heart yet cites directly from an organization dedicated to the promotion of war in Syria.
The NGOs and their partners in the corporate media have worked together to distort the reality on the ground. Aleppo is case and point. A ceasefire was brokered by all parties in late October that was supposed to allow Syrians to escape safely from East to West Aleppo. However, the humanitarian corridors were repeatedly shelled by the Nusra Front , the US-backed Al Qaeda affiliate . The media decided to ignore this and report instead that the ceasefire’s failure was due to the withholding of aid by Russia and Syria . This is but one example of many where the Syrian government has been blamed for the rebel-sponsored terror inflicted on Syrian people.
“His analysis uses an abstract, moral argument to violate Syria's self-determination.”
After five years of war on Syria, it is a wonder how anyone could believe a word that comes from the mouths of the imperialist countries. They lied about the origins of the conflict. They have continuously blamed the Syrian government for events that have all been traced back to the armed proxies they support. This includes the Houla Massacre , the sarin gas attack in Ghouta, and the so-called starvation of Madaya . Aleppo is no different. The Syrian city has been under constant siege from NATO-backed terrorists. The terrorists are holding nearly 250,000 Syrians hostage in the Eastern side of war-torn Aleppo. This has been verified by journalists on the ground such as Vanessa Beeley .
These facts seem not to matter in Draitser's newfound assessment of Syria. His analysis uses an abstract, moral argument to violate Syria's self-determination. Calling those who unequivocally support the Syrian government "fetishists" assumes that the US left should take a position different from that of the Syrian people. Actual Syrians supported Bashar Al-Assad, and thus the Syrian Army, with 88.7 percent of the vote in the 2014 elections. To claim that the left in the US should fight for "peace" and at the same time oppose the Syrian government is an intentional attempt to remain neutral in a time of war. As Howard Zinn brilliantly stated, one cannot be neutral on a moving train.
And the imperialist war against Syria is moving dangerously toward a World War III scenario. Hillary Clinton will be elected the next President of the United States and has repeatedly expressed that she will pursue a no-fly zone once in office. A no-fly zone would place Russian and Syrian military assets at risk of US-sponsored bombs and thus the world at risk of a global military confrontation not seen since World War II. How convenient it is then that Draitser should rebuke his former anti-imperialist stance in place of a stealth form of regime change. The world is on fire, yet Draitser has interpreted the situation as a chance to distort an already highly misunderstood situation .
“Draister's conclusions ultimately reinforce the Western assumption that the left must come to the rescue and save the Syrian people from their plight.”
Positions such as Draitser’s are ultimately shaped by the material conditions of an imperialist empire in crisis and decline. White supremacy has been a principle condition of US imperialism since its inception. The war machine and white supremacy are deeply connected. The peoples and nations on imperialism's hit-list are routinely depicted in a manner that justifies the need for US and Western military medicine. This notion has trickled down to the day-to-day actions of ordinary people, including what currently passes as the "anti-war" movement in the US today.
Draister's conclusions ultimately reinforce the Western assumption that the left must come to the rescue and save the Syrian people from their plight. Indeed, the Syrian people need allies and the left must be organizing toward an end to the war. But an end to the war cannot be achieved unless the left supports the will of the Syrian people. At the moment, this means the US left must align itself with the Syrian government and its allies. The left must act with uncompromising dedication to the principle of self-determination in every case where US and Western imperialism wages wars of neo-colonial plunder. Syria should be no exception.
Of course, this critique should not be seen as a personal attack on Draitser himself. His body of work reflects a deep commitment to the struggle against war and Empire. He has often taken positions on international questions that are deeply unpopular with the US imperialist order. However, when mistakes are made, the left has a responsibility to correct them. There is too much at stake. Failure to step up in defense of Syria means another regime, change scenario similar to what happened in Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Libya. Draitser's piece is a study into the path that all genuine anti-imperialists should avoid.
But what is the correct path forward? Imperialism is the unquestionable cause of the war in Syria, so imperialism must be the primary target of an anti-imperialist movement. The US and its allies are risking world war over Syria’s destruction. On the other side, the Syrian and Russian governments (along with Iran and China) are doing as much as they can to find a peaceful solution to the conflict that also respects Syria’s national sovereignty. It is without question that this is the side where the left ought to be in the continued struggle to end the war once and for all. Danny Haiphong is an Asian activist and political analyst in the Boston area. He can be reached at [email protected] | 0 |
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon next month will announce the repeal of a policy banning transgender people from serving openly in the military, Defense Department officials said on Friday, moving to end what has widely been seen as one of the last barriers to service. Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter has called the regulation outdated and harmful to the military. A year ago, he directed officials from all the military branches to determine what changes would be needed to lift the ban, in a tacit recognition that thousands of transgender people were already in uniform. Under the Pentagon’s plan, first reported by USA Today, each branch will put in place policies covering recruiting, housing and uniforms for transgender troops. Military officials have been “making great progress, holding multiple meetings and working hard to come up with a policy that balances the needs of soldiers with mission readiness,” said Eric Pahon, a Defense Department spokesman. “They’re trying to come up with something that fits the needs of all of the different services. ” Ashley the president of the American Military Partner Association, a support network for partners and spouses of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender troops and veterans, said in a statement that “our transgender service members and their families are breathing a huge sigh of relief. ” Estimates of the number of transgender people in the 1. 2 military range from 2, 000 to more than 15, 000. As with the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that applied to gay men, lesbians and bisexuals until it was lifted in 2011, current rules have done little to keep transgender people out of the military. Instead, they have forced many to lie about their status and keep it a secret. Since taking the defense secretary post in February 2015, Mr. Carter has set about dismantling discriminatory rules in the services, including opening all combat positions to women. This week, Eric K. Fanning formally took over as Army secretary, becoming the first openly gay leader of a military service branch. A study commissioned by Mr. Carter and completed in March found that letting transgender members openly serve would cost little and would have no significant effect on unit readiness. The study, by the RAND Corporation, estimated that 2, 450 members of the military were transgender, and that every year about 65 service members would seek to make a gender transition. The study said that if the Pentagon did not cover medical procedures like hormone therapy and surgery, service members would most likely not seek medical care and have higher rates of substance abuse and suicide. The procedures would cost the Pentagon $2. 9 million to $4. 2 million a year, the report said. Each year, the military spends $6 billion of its $610 billion budget on medical costs for service members. | 1 |
PRINCEVILLE, N. C. — Betty Cobb’s house is a shell nearly two months after floodwaters went halfway up the walls of her home. Volunteers have ripped out moldy wallboard. Two small chandeliers hung over the bones of the living and dining rooms, the furniture and the carpeting long gone. On the kitchen counter lay a patchwork of family photographs, their vibrant colors washed away, and a book — “Hurricane Floyd and the Flood of the Century” — saved from the water. Hurricane Floyd, which roared through here in 1999, was supposed to be just that: a event that caused flooding the likes of which this town’s residents would never see again. But that perception was shattered in early October when Hurricane Matthew barreled inland and sent water pouring around a levee built along the Tar River and into the town, inundating hundreds of homes, including Ms. Cobb’s. Seventeen years ago, Ms. Cobb decided to rebuild, here in a town that has a special place in American history. Princeville, population 2, 100, is believed to be the oldest town chartered by freed slaves, who founded a community that has survived numerous floods and the Jim Crow era. It remains 96 percent black. Ms. Cobb, 69, is now considering a question looming over many homeowners: After two devastating floods, does she want the option to sell her home to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, something that the town’s leaders voted down in 1999, fearing it would lead to the end of their community? “This is home, this is what I know,” said Ms. Cobb, who was leaning toward staying but worried about taking out a loan to rebuild. “I really don’t know. ” A number of residents have expressed an interest in selling to FEMA, which would prevent anyone from building again on their land and lead to a reduction in the town’s tax base. The town’s four commissioners will vote at some point on whether to make that available to residents (the mayor votes in case of a tie). They can also consider elevation of homes and reconstruction of damaged ones. Residents on the nation’s coasts and along inland waterways have assessed storm damage and wondered if they should relocate — a painful and fairly uncommon form of hazard mitigation known as retreat. Here, the consideration has a wrenching historical dimension. This is where a freed slave, Turner Prince, established Freedom Hill in 1865, which became Princeville 20 years later, a town where extended families have proudly lived for generations. And many of them are determined to rebuild. This stretch along the Tar River is no stranger to flooding, and some say that it is probably the reason that were able to settle the land in the first place. White landowners in the 19th century did not want it. “Their existence in this space was not a matter of chance or choice, but instead the discarded and unwanted space was what former slaveholders allowed them to occupy,” Richard M. Mizelle, Jr. an associate professor of history at the University of Houston, wrote earlier this year, tying Princeville’s location to environmental racism — the relegation of black people to land and hazardous areas that expose them to greater levels of pollution. But many people are proud of what they have built here, and how it has endured. “The freed slaves made it what it is,” said Mayor Bobbie Jones, 55, who wants the levee improved and opposes the buyouts and hopes residents who want to leave will first seek private buyers, perhaps like himself. “If we decide to allow individuals to participate in the buyout, it will have a devastating effect,” Mr. Jones said, standing in front of more than 100 residents at a recent meeting. Other towns like Eatonville, Fla. which was incorporated in 1887, still exist today. Many others have faded, like Nicodemus, Kan. which has about 25 residents, or Blackdom, N. M. which was abandoned after a drought. “I’m fighting so hard to make sure that Princeville is not one of the casualties,” Mr. Jones said. “It would be a devastating tragedy, not only for me, but for the world. ” Still, residents like Angela 46, want at least the option to move beyond this land. “That history will never be lost,” said Ms. whose small white house filled with floodwater after Matthew. The town’s founders, she said, would have settled safer land if they had the chance. “I really believe that they would want better for us,” Ms. said. In 1967, the Army Corps of Engineers completed a levee that held off floods until Hurricane Floyd’s sent water over its top, forcing harrowing rooftop rescues — including Mr. Jones’s — and damaging or ruining nearly every home here. The town leadership rejected taking buyouts at that time and instead chose to rebuild the town and fix the levee. Last year, the Corps of Engineers completed another proposal to extend the levee, which officials with the corps say would have at least reduced the latest destruction, but it has not been funded. The flood inundated community pillars like the school and the fire station — which is currently operating out of a tent — and left residents displaced and streets still piled with debris. “So many people have lost so much, and we’ll have to start all over again,” Linda Worsley, 66, a retired telephone company analyst, said as she picked up the mail at her uninhabitable home even as it was being demolished. Ms. Worsley is determined to rebuild on land that has been in her family since her grandfather, a sharecropper, and his brother bought it in the 1920s. Ms. Worsley, who as a commissioner voted against buyouts in 1999, said residents should have the option this time, although she hopes few people will take them. “I have always been proud to say that I was from Princeville,” Ms. Worsley said, adding, “To just lose all of that, it would be like Princeville is another lost colony. ” It was her job to organize the town’s Christmas parade, which was scheduled for last Saturday but had to be canceled. Instead, Ms. Worsley and her neighbors gathered at the Quality Inn in Tarboro, which is across the Tar River from Princeville, for a lunch of pulled pork, chicken and green beans. So many displaced residents are staying at the hotel while they await FEMA trailers that it has become a stop for the school bus, its lobby a town square for Princeville residents. Mary Alston, a volunteer from Cary, N. C. put the question to Ms. Worsley and two of her friends, “Are y’all going to stay or … ” “I’m going to stay,” Annette Waller, 60, said. “Oh yes,” Brenda Hunter said, “I’m going to stay in Princeville,” and talk at the table turned to demolition, duct work and how long it would take to return home. Others in the hotel have decided to leave. David Birth, 70, a retired machine operator, whose home on Main Street was destroyed, said he had already bought land in Tarboro and would live there, in a trailer. “When the first flood came, it took the first house,’’ he said. “The second flood took this one. I’m not going to let my grandchildren be in the same situation. ” For now, many families are waiting: waiting to see how far flood insurance goes, what FEMA will offer, and what the town decides. Back at Ms. Cobb’s house, as volunteers carted away wheelbarrows filled with wallboard, Ms. Cobb’s daughter, Regina, 48, looked across the street where trees hide the Tar River. If it were up to her, she said, she would leave, although she said she would support her mother’s decision. “We were supposed to be on a flood plain, and we only made it through 17 years,” Regina Cobb said. “That river isn’t going anywhere. ” | 1 |
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Before you applaud me for my integrity or condemn me for selling out, allow me to explain my decision to vote for Donald Trump on Nov. 8.
First, I’m writing this because I have been asked incessantly for months how I would be voting, not because I think I’m someone special or that what I do should influence you.
Second, I’m not endorsing Donald Trump. In my mind, there’s a world of difference between endorsing a candidate and voting for a candidate.
Third, I respect those in the #NeverTrump camp and share many of their concerns, including the possibility of his further vulgarizing and degrading the nation, the possibility of him deepening our ethnic and racial divides, and the possibility of him alienating our allies and unnecessarily provoking our enemies, just to name a few. Among the #NeverTrump voices I respect are columnists like David French and Ben Shapiro, bloggers like Matt Walsh and evangelical leaders like Russell Moore and Beth Moore.
Fourth, I take strong exception to evangelicals who have fawned over Trump as if he were some kind of savior figure, supporting him as if he were St. Donald. I also take issue with evangelical leaders who want us to minimize some of Trump’s failings, constantly saying, “Let him who is without sin cast the first one” (see John 8:7). This is not a question of condemning the man but rather a question of making a moral assessment as to his readiness to serve our nation.
Fifth, my decision to vote for Trump, barring something earth-shattering between now and Nov. 8, is consistent with my position, which has been: 1) During the GOP primaries, I issued strong warnings against voting for Trump while we had other excellent choices. I did this in writing , on video and on the radio, but always stating that if Trump won the nomination, I would re-evaluate my position. 2) Once Trump became the Republican candidate, I wrote that I was rooting for him to take steps in the right direction and thereby win my vote. 3) I have stated repeatedly that under no circumstances would I vote for Hillary. (For two strong warnings about Hillary, see here and here .)
So, what has convinced me that I should now vote for Donald Trump?
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First, I believe that he actually is serious about appointing pro-life, pro-Constitution Supreme Court justices. When he said during the last debate that if you’re pro-life, you want to see Roe v. Wade overturned, and when he reiterated at his Gettysburg speech that he will be drawing from his list of 20 potential appointees, he helped me feel more confident that he would not suddenly flip-flop if elected.
Second, one reason I endorsed Sen. Ted Cruz was because he took on the political establishment, both Democratic and Republican, to the point of calling it the Washington cartel. Trump is an absolute wrecking ball to the negative parts of the political system (although, unfortunately, he’s been a wrecking ball to some of the good parts of the system), so my vote for him is also a protest vote.
Third, I am voting for the Republican platform, not the Republican Party, which means I’m in agreement with the platform while at the same time having very little confidence in the party as a whole.
Fourth, while I have always felt that the line, “We’re electing a president, not a pastor,” was overstated and superficial, if we rephrased it to say, “We’re electing a general to train hand-to-hand combat warriors, not a pastor,” it might have more relevance. In other words, we are not looking for Trump to be a moral reformer (even if hedoes appoint righteous judges), and, at this point, he certainly is anything but a moral example (although we pray he will be truly converted and become one). Rather, out of our choices for president, which are stark, we are voting for the one most likely to defeat Hillary and make some good decisions for the nation, not be the savior. And with things so messed up in America, the hand-to-hand combat analogy is closer to home.
Fifth, within the first few minutes of the last debate, the massive differences between Hillary and Trump were there for the world to see, she a pro-abortion radical and an extreme supporter of the LGBT agenda and he unashamedly speaking out against late-term abortions and wanting to appoint justices who would defend our essential liberties. Since I have the opportunity to vote, I feel that I should vote for Trump.
Sixth, Trump continues to be drawn to conservative Christians, and not just ones who tickle his ears. One of my dear friends has spent hours with Trump and members of his family, and he has told me that in 55 years of ministry, no one has received him as openly and graciously as has Trump. Yet my friend continues to speak the truth to him in the clearest possible terms. While I am not one of those claiming that Trump is a born-again Christian (I see absolutely no evidence of this), the fact that he continues to listen to godly men and open the door to their counsel indicates that something positive could possibly be going on. It also indicates that these godly leaders might be a positive influence on him if he were elected president.
Seventh, although I’m quite aware that a president could do great harm or good to the nation, I’m far more concerned with what we as God’s people do with our own lives and witnesses, and for me, the state of the church of America is much more important than the state of the White House. In that context, I echo the words (and warning) of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.”
So, in sum: 1) My hope is in God, not Donald Trump, and I do recognize that either Hillary or Trump has the potential to do great harm to America; 2) My urgent call is for us as followers of Jesus to get our own act together so we can be the salt and light of the nation; 3) I will continue to urge all believers not to vote for Hillary Clinton, whose policies will certainly do us great harm; and 4) Ultimately, the most effective way to defeat Hillary is to vote for Trump, while also praying that God will use him for good , not for evil.
In the end, if Trump gets elected and fails miserably, I will be grieved but not devastated. If he does well, I will rejoice.
Either way, though, my vote is just that: a vote. My greater role is to live a life pleasing to God with the hope of advancing a gospel-based moral and cultural revolution. Receive Michael Brown's commentaries in your email BONUS: By signing up for Michael Brown's alerts, you will also be signed up for news and special offers from WND via email. Name * | 0 |
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Donald J. Trump belatedly endorsed the of Speaker Paul D. Ryan and Senators John McCain and Kelly Ayotte on Friday, moving to heal a deepening rift within the Republican Party touched off by Mr. Trump’s feud with the parents of a slain American soldier. “I support and endorse our speaker of the House, Paul Ryan,” Mr. Trump said at a rally here after announcing his backing of the senators. “He’s a good man. We may disagree on a couple of things, but mostly we agree. ” Mr. Trump ignited a controversy within his party on Tuesday when he said he was not “quite there yet” in supporting Mr. Ryan, echoing a similar line of doubt that Mr. Ryan, the nation’s most powerful elected Republican, had cast before eventually endorsing Mr. Trump for president. The endorsement on Friday, in Mr. Ryan’s home state, Wisconsin, had the rollout of a carefully crafted campaign event. A email was sent to supporters immediately after Mr. Trump’s announcement. Moments later, subscribers to Trump campaign texts received an alert that said, “Party unity will help Make America Great Again. ” He read the endorsement from a script. But before he got to those words, he spent several minutes in the mode he is known for. He predicted that the Green Bay Packers would have a strong season, excoriated Hillary Clinton and argued that the news media had misconstrued his suggestion at a previous event that a crying baby be escorted out. “The baby that had a voice that was superior to Pavarotti,” he said, adding, “I want to sponsor that baby. ” Mr. Trump turned the speech into a trifecta. He threw his support to Ms. Ayotte, who is facing a tight race in New Hampshire to retain her Senate seat. Mr. Ryan and Mr. McCain, an Arizona senator, are also up for beginning with primaries next week. “I need a Republican Senate and a House to accomplish all of the change we have to make,” Mr. Trump said. He added, “I understand and embrace the wisdom of Ronald Reagan’s big tent within the party. ” “Big, big tent,” he said. “Remember?” He paused to ask the Democrats in the crowd to raise their hands. Hardly anyone made a sound. Mr. Trump, looking unimpressed, offered that he did not need Democrats anyway. With the speech, Mr. Trump sought to move past a tumultuous week that began with his disparaging members of a Gold Star military family who had spoken out against him at the Democratic National Convention. Mr. Trump’s remarks drew rebukes from many Republicans, including Mr. Ryan, Mr. McCain and Ms. Ayotte, and set the course for the next few days. He caused a tempest with his remarks regarding Mr. Ryan and another with repeated proclamations about viewing a “secret tape” that showed Iran receiving pallets of cash from the United States. Perhaps signaling that he was in a forgiving and unifying mood, Mr. Trump on Friday morning issued a rare admission of an error, explaining on Twitter that the footage he had thought was a secret tape was instead a widely shown clip of American prisoners arriving in Geneva after being released by Iran. His squabbling with Mr. Ryan and the senators threatened to further splinter Mr. Trump’s relationship with the party and infuriated many officials, including Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee. Mr. Trump’s running mate, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, publicly, but peacefully, disagreed with him and backed Mr. Ryan. Mr. Priebus had made clear he hoped that Mr. Trump would get behind Mr. Ryan and the senators but told the nominee that he had to make the decision on his own. The endorsement of Mr. Ryan is unlikely to assuage some Republicans who are concerned by the combative Trump campaign and have grown frustrated that the controversies have made it more difficult to focus on Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic nominee. On Friday, Gov. John Kasich of Ohio told CNN that he was considering voting Democratic for the first time. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Mr. Kasich said in response to a question on the possibility that he would not vote for a Republican for president. He added: “I wish that I could be fully enthusiastic. I can’t be. So I don’t know what’s going to happen at the end. ” In Wisconsin, a battleground state where Mr. Trump lost a primary decisively to Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and endured unrelenting criticism from local conservative radio hosts, the speaker of the State House of Representatives greeted Mr. Trump with an open letter to fellow Republicans, saying, “We are Ryan Republicans here in Wisconsin, not Trump Republicans. ” “As Donald Trump has said stupid things and been rude to so many people over the past year, I usually chalked it up to inexperience and the spotlight of an incredibly hostile press,” the speaker, Robin Vos, wrote. “But since the convention, his lack of judgment has got to concern even the most ardent Trump supporters. ” And less than an hour before Mr. Trump took the stage, Mr. Ryan gave an interview to WISN, a Milwaukee radio station, offering more criticism of the presidential nominee. “I hope he doesn’t keep doing things like this and distort conservative principles that we have to defend,” Mr. Ryan told the station. He said he had not “changed anything” with regard to his support of Mr. Trump, but added: “I wish he would be a little more disciplined. What I say to him privately and what I’ve said publicly is Hillary Clinton is the one to focus on, not another Republican, not a private citizen criticizing you. ” Mr. Trump made his endorsement after striking notes of unity on Friday afternoon at a rally in Des Moines. He praised Mr. Priebus, saying he was doing a “fantastic job,” and complimented Mr. Pence, who was on the campaign trail with him for the first time since they had taken divergent positions on Mr. Ryan’s primary campaign. “If you don’t like me, that’s O. K.,” Mr. Trump told the Iowa crowd. “Vote for Pence because it’s the same thing. ” Mr. Trump also focused his message in Des Moines on Mrs. Clinton, peppering his remarks with extended riffs and insult lines against her and President Obama. “She is pretty close to unhinged,” Mr. Trump said, criticizing Mrs. Clinton’s immigration and foreign policy positions, in particular with regard to Iran. He also floated a conspiracy theory that the National Security Agency had the 33, 000 deleted emails from Mrs. Clinton’s account (there is no record, report or indication that this is true). “Does N. S. A. have them? I don’t know,” Mr. Trump said. “Some people have been saying that, that the N. S. A. has them. ” The Clinton campaign has been quick to seize on Mr. Trump’s recent controversies. At a rally Friday afternoon in Milwaukee, the Democratic nominee, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, took aim at Mr. Trump for withholding endorsements of Mr. Ryan and Mr. McCain. “While we’ve been talking about jobs, Donald Trump has been going after a family of a war hero, or Donald Trump has been going after fellow Republicans and talking about why he won’t endorse them in their primaries,” Mr. Kaine said. “We’re talking about jobs, and Donald Trump is basically shadowboxing with every enemy he can think of instead of talking about what Americans want to talk about. ” | 1 |
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History should tell us that writing scolding, even scornful letters, to electorates as part of a conversation for persuasion do not work. They are even less effective when coming from outside that electorate, however well-intentioned. Non-voters should be careful to judge and lecture.
Consider the attempt on the part of The Guardian to mount its electoral high horse prior to the 2004 Presidential elections in the United States. The prospect of another four years of George W. Bush was hard to stomach for the editors, hence their disruptive project. Operation Clark County was advertised as an effort to write “to undecided voters in the crucial state of Ohio.” The experiment had more than a degree of condescension, slanted, as it were, to the superior across the pond wisdom.
Instead of providing a platform of sobriety, it simply supplied patriotic fuel to US voters to confirm their positions. No one was going to be telling them what to do. Their president was a fool, but was their fool. As one letter went, “We Ohioans are an ornery sort and don’t take meddling well, even if it comes from people we admire and with their sincere goodwill. We are a fairly closed community overall.” Even the New York Times came forth with an unmistakably frank headline: “British Two Cents Draws, in Sum, a Two-Word Reply: Butt Out.”
Nobel Prize winner and former president of Timor-Leste, José Ramos-Horta, should be more attuned with that recent history. But instead, he has decided to wade into the US elections with another letter of scorn, another experiment in persuasion. To add weight and magnification to the appeal, he is seeking the signatures of fellow Nobel Prize laureates. The direction of this letter promises to be simple: whatever you do, people of the US, don’t vote for Donald Trump next month.
During a brief visit to the northern Australian town of Darwin, Ramos-Horta explained how he and his friends, “Nobel Peace Prize laureates, are extremely concerned with the tone of a presidential candidate Donald Trump in making disparaging remarks about migrants, about Muslims, and refugees.”
Ramos-Horta insisted that the rise of such a figure was “extremely worrying for all of us and it does not serve US interests.” Along with his fellow laureates, he was hoping to pen a letter that would “alert American public opinion that the world … cannot afford extremism coming from the White House itself.”
Ramos-Horta provides us a fairly typical, if rusted view, of world power. Empires need the wise and clever to lead them, being repositories of responsibility. Lunacy has no place. “The US is an indisputable global power and global powers have to be led with prudence, with enormous wisdom.”
What of the brakes of moderation and restraint offered by a critical, at times unreasonable Congress, including other measures so carefully thought through by the Republic’s Founding Fathers? We have seen such brakes bringing the Republic to a screeching halt on occasions, notably during the Obama years. These are polarised times in US politics, and not even the supply of finance to public servants is sacred.
This is of little interest to Ramos-Horta, who is convinced that a Trump presidency would have Congress in his deceptively deep pocket to wage war with impunity and engage in a pattern of global mischief making.
“Whatever the US president and US congress may decide on some measure of issues internationally can enhance peace, but can provoke instability and world disorder.” Not that the record book on peace, stemming from US foreign policy in recent years, has been particularly enhancing.
Having dumped generously on Trump, Ramos-Horta admits a swooning admiration for Hillary Clinton, his preferred White House occupant. If there is a candidate bound to embark on more aggressive stances, be it towards Iran or Russia, few could come close. Her recipe is for greater, not lesser belligerence. Free world boisterousness indeed.
Taking leave of his senses, Ramos-Horta suggested that she was “outstanding” and “sensitive to the rest of the world”. With baffling adolescent gullibility, the Nobel Prize laureate saw a Clinton “extremely sensitive to education for poor people, for children”.
A sense of balance might have been appropriate at that point: questionable donations from despotic regimes to the same, supposedly helpful foundation open to helping the indigent and illiterate; or security breaches; or compromised arrangements with Wall Street. The world of power is dark, and maze ridden, and at the end of it usually lurks a Clinton apology.
A Clinton presidency would hardly be that prudent, nor particularly wise, but that is the Ramos-Horta verdict, his own variant of an external endorsement that is bound to fall on deaf ears in the United States. Any ears who receive the message will be dismissive. From a man whose country suffered an occupation that will, in time, find its way into the books of notable genocides, endorsing such a Clinton can hardly be prudent. But then again, power of the massive sort rarely is. | 0 |
MARSEILLE, France — They sang. They danced, they chanted, they even — for some reason — did the Icelandic Thunderclap routine a few times. But mostly the French fans at the Stade Velodrome on Thursday just sang as one, long and loud and proud. Sometimes it was the national anthem. Sometimes it was the chorus to “Seven Nation Army” by the White Stripes. Sometimes it was just “Allez!” (roughly, Let’s Go!) over and over. In truth, it did not matter what they were singing. On this night, in this moment, the fans wanted simply to join in. To make a difference. To matter. And they did. Beneath a relentless, rambunctious cacophony, France defeated Germany, in a semifinal of the European Championships. The French, who won the last two major tournaments they have hosted, will go for a third against Portugal on Sunday at the Stade de France outside Paris. Germany, the defending World Cup champion, will go home. The Germans will rue injuries that cost them two starters (plus a suspension that ruled out one more) as well as an avalanche of missed opportunities and — in their minds, at least — a controversial referee’s decision that stunned them just before halftime. The French, of course, will say otherwise. To them, they had just 35 percent possession but defended ferociously they deserved the penalty kick awarded to them late in the first half, which they converted and they capitalized when the German defense scrambled itself in front of goal. Antoine Griezmann scored both goals for France. When he poked the second across the line after a flailing clearance by Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, a frisson of unadulterated euphoria pulsed through the stands. This was, by far, the most difficult test the French had faced in this tournament, and they flourished. “We are like kids playing out here,” Griezmann said. “We know we have a whole nation behind us. ” The last time these teams met was Nov. 13 at the Stade de France, a match that will always be remembered for what happened outside — the terrorist attacks in St. and Paris — as opposed to anything that took place on the field. That night, Griezmann played while his sister, Maud, was inside the Bataclan concert hall where terrorists attacked with guns and grenades. It was only later, well after the match, that he learned she was one of the fortunate who escaped. The specter of those attacks has lingered over this event from the beginning, as security around the country was increased exponentially. François Hollande, the French president, even visited the French team before its first match to talk about the situation. Griezmann, recalling that meeting on Thursday, said the players understood that it was their job, their responsibility, to entertain their supporters, to give them verve and energy and excitement — to help the country move forward. The team began with a dramatic victory over Romania in the tournament’s opening game. Then it won its preliminary round group. In the knockout rounds, it stormed back against Ireland in the round of 16, blitzed Iceland in the quarterfinal and here, on this steamy, sticky night, pushed over the world champions. “There is happiness all over France tonight,” Manager Didier Deschamps said. It was not always pretty. Germany, which beat France in the quarterfinals two years ago on its way to the World Cup title in Brazil, weathered a French surge after the opening whistle and dominated for nearly 40 minutes of the first half. Mesut Özil was slick in the midfield, as usual. Thomas Müller was threatening in front of goal. Jérôme Boateng, the sturdy defender, helped hem the French into their own half. Yet there was no finish. France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris was ready when called on — he made a fine stop to deny Emre Can after about 15 minutes — but the Germans also lacked polish when it mattered most. The final cross was just a bit too high, the outstretched leg a bit too short. A score at halftime seemed reasonable and both sides appeared happy to accept it. Only then France earned a corner kick a few minutes before the interval and, as the ball swung in, Germany’s captain, Bastian Schweinsteiger, challenged for it with his arms raised. When it deflected off Patrice Evra’s head and caromed directly into Schweinsteiger’s right arm, the referee, Nicola Rizzoli, pointed to the penalty spot. Was it a good call? Current guidance on handling directs officials to penalize players if, among other things, they “make themselves bigger,” and Schweinsteiger seemed to do that. The Germans, nonetheless, were incensed the French, naturally, were ecstatic. Griezmann stepped up. A little more than a month ago he missed a crucial penalty kick as his club team, Atlético Madrid, was beaten in a shootout in the Champions League final by Real Madrid. This time, however, there was no hiccup. His shot was pure. “Everybody was shocked,” Germany Manager Joachim Löw said. “I had to calm the players down in the dressing room at halftime. ” He added: “And then, after, it was difficult. ” The second half brought more chances, but more frustration for Germany. Toni Kroos had his run cut off. Julian Draxler curled a shot just wide. Joshua Kimmich saw his powerful drive ricochet off the post. Meanwhile, Greizmann slipped in front of the German goal just as Paul Pogba went into a dazzling dance on the left side of the penalty area. Shucking off a defender, Pogba floated a cross that Neuer could only bat to the ground. Griezmann, who stands just 5 feet 9 inches, pounced, poked and — after the ball rippled the net — preened in front of the delirious fans. “He’s our little man who gives us something more,” forward Olivier Giroud said. Löw said that the Germans were unlucky, that France was not the better team. Deschamps did not necessarily disagree, saying that the Germans made France suffer. Still, he said, it made no difference. At this level, all that matters is the result. And so, after the final whistle, the French players went to each end of the stadium, joined hands in a line and, as a unit, offered gratitude to their supporters. The world champions had been eliminated. The final was in sight. The dream was ever closer. On this night, the combination had been unbeatable: the French players gave their hearts. The French fans, their throats. | 1 |
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On Friday’s Breitbart News Daily, SiriusXM host Joel Pollak asked Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross about the possibility of a free trade deal with Europe in the wake of America’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accords. [Ross recommended such a trade deal for several reasons. “First of all, Europe has much higher trade barriers than we have,” Ross said. “For example, in automotive, their tariff on American cars going into Europe is ten percent. Our tariff on European cars coming into America is percent. That’s a percent disadvantage that our exporting companies are at, relative to the European ones. ” “Problems like that, we would like to address because those are part of the reason why we have a trade deficit with Europe,” he said. “The other part of the reason is currency,” Ross continued. “The euro has been very, very weak relative to the dollar. That, therefore, makes their competitive position much better than it would have been if the euro had stayed stable. ” “There are quite a lot of issues that we have with Europe, and we would like to try to negotiate them,” said Ross. “If we cannot make a sensible deal, we obviously won’t go forward with it. ” Ross looked beyond European complaints about the United States’s pulling out of the Paris accords to see tough negotiations would be required to convince Europe to lower its tariffs. “The reality is, we do have a big trade deficit with Europe. The other reality is, a lot of that comes from automotive, and no small portion of that is this difference in tariff rates,” he contended. Ross explained that coal was another U. S. industry disadvantaged by the Paris accords in favor of foreign competitors. “Both India and China, who are the two huge users of coal for electric utilities, both of them were permitted to use more plants in the years going forward,” he said. “In the case of China, on a total basis, they were able to increase their emissions for 13 years, and a lot of that would be coming from coal. ” “It’s ludicrous that U. S. coal would be shut down because we were agreeing to these very strict things, whereas even more pollutive coal in countries like China would be allowed to flourish. That doesn’t strike me as very balanced,” said Ross. Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. | 1 |
Syria This file photo shows smoke rising from western Aleppo after militant shelling.
At least 15 civilians are killed and some 100 others injured as foreign-backed militants shell western Aleppo after launching a massive offensive to break the Syrian government's siege over the city.
A UK-based monitoring group sympathetic to the militants said hundreds of shells and rockets had fallen on various western neighborhoods of the city on Friday.
Militant groups involved in the attack include Turkey-backed FSA and Jaish al-Fatah, an alliance of terrorist factions actively supported by Saudi Arabia and Turkey, they told news agencies.
A senior militant said it was going to be "a big battle" with all the groups there participating.
The attack appeared to have been mostly launched by militants from outside the city against government forces that hold its western districts, Reuters news agency reported.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Right said militants had set off several car bombs on the western edge of Aleppo after launching grad rockets at the city's Nairab airbase.
Heavy militant bombardment, with more than 150 rockets and shells, struck districts on the southwest of the city, it said.
The Syrian military said a militant attack in that area had been thwarted and the army had destroyed four car bombs.
The massive assault by foreign-backed militants comes in the wake of a unilateral "humanitarian pause" declared by Syria and Russia in the city.
On Thursday, the Russian Defense Ministry said aircraft had not carried out any sorties over Aleppo for the past nine days. There were no immediate indication on Friday whether the airstrikes had resumed.
Militants used a US-Russian ceasefire to break the siege in early August, opening up a new route into the city from the south, but government forces quickly closed it.
The new civilian deaths came after at least six children were killed and over a dozen people injured after Takfiri terrorists launched rocket attacks on a school as well as a house in Aleppo. | 0 |
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Greg Hunter – There are numerous reports on the alternative media of documents being given to WikiLeaks to counter the corruption and lawlessness of the Obamas and Clintons. AG Loretta Lynch has been reportedly blocking an FBI investigation into the Clinton Foundation that many say is a “global charity fraud” and a “huge criminal conspiracy.”
The leaked emails and documents show corruption between the Justice Department and Hillary Clinton. These documents and emails also show a grand cover-up of the true treason that has taken place in the highest offices of the U.S. government.
The mainstream media (MSM) have been committing fraud on shareholders and the public by holding themselves out as “news organizations” when, in fact, they are functioning as propaganda for the Clinton campaign. It’s no surprise that the nation’s biggest newspaper, USA Today (GCI), has had its share price cut in half in the last a year. Reuters is laying off 2,000 people, and quarterly profits at the New York Times have fallen by 95%. The public is not buying the lies and propaganda the MSM is selling for the Democrats and the Clinton Campaign.
Internet researcher Clif High says both the MSM and the Democrat Party are dying. He says by 2020, the Democrat party will not exist, and the MSM will be well on its way to its death.
Join Greg Hunter as he talks about these stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up. SF Source USA Watchdog Nov. 2016 Share this: | 0 |
It began with blips on a radar screen, 12 miles off the Libyan coast. As the rescuers approached, they found overloaded wooden vessels and rafts that evoked scenes of the slave trade. Hundreds of African migrants were crammed into boats headed for Italy. More than two dozen people were dead in one boat alone, asphyxiated from the crush aboard. In other boats, bodies were splayed on the floorboards, forcing survivors to clamber over the corpses of their fellow voyagers. Aris Messinis, an Agence photographer aboard the rescue boat Astral, said it was like nothing he had ever seen. The passengers — from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Nigeria and other countries — were found by the Astral on Tuesday, part of a wave of more than 11, 000 rescued in the Mediterranean by aid groups and the Italian Coast Guard this week. Migrants aboard a large wooden boat, which may have held 1, 000 people — roughly five times its capacity — waited frantically for help. Some jumped into the water. Even with life jackets tossed to them, migrants struggled to reach the Astral and other rescue vessels, which later transferred them to Italian Coast Guard ships bound for Italy. Pandemonium punctuated the rescue operation, despite efforts by the Astral crew to calm the migrants. “These people were in panic,” Mr. Messinis said. Migrants aboard the wooden vessel included infants, like the one below. In one of the boats, holding roughly 150 people, Mr. Messinis said that rescuers found 29 bodies — 10 men and 19 women. “They told us these people were dead from the night,” he said. At one point, passengers held a child aloft to signal rescuers of their desperation. Migrants crammed below deck were packed so tightly they struggled to get out. “Many of them haven’t seen the sea in their whole lives,” said Laura Lanuza, a spokeswoman for Proactiva Open Arms, a Spanish aid group that operates the Astral. Despite a drop in sea crossings to Europe by migrants this year, more than 3, 000 have died in perilous crossings from Libya, where political chaos has made it the main departure point for smuggling operators who care little about whether their clients survive. Rescue officials attributed the spike in sea crossings in recent days to a stretch of good weather after days of storms and sea turbulence. The wooden vessel’s cargo hold contained of the roughly 1, 000 people found aboard, Ms. Lanuza said, calling the conditions “just like a slavery boat — the same. ” After the living were rescued, Astral crew members put the dead in body bags and stored them in life rafts. Migration officials and rescue groups in Europe say the migrant route from North Africa remains the deadliest. Joel Millman, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, said at least 38 migrant bodies were recovered in Mediterranean rescues Monday and Tuesday, including those found by the Astral. Mr. Messinis, 39, who has covered the conflicts in Libya and Syria, has been photographing the European migration crisis since it began three years ago. He has often put aside his camera to help rescuers. What he witnessed on the Mediterranean, he said, was different. The analogy to slave ships that once plied the Atlantic, he said, was “exactly right — except that it’s not hundreds of years ago. ” ”I’ve seen a lot of death, but not this thing,” he said. “This is shocking and this is what makes you feel you are not living in a civilized world. ” | 1 |
Jury Rejects Federal Case Against Malheur Wildlife Refuge Defandants
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/verdict-near-in-malheur-wildlife-refuge-standoff-trial/
From this account in the Voice of Idaho, it seems the Feds took out their loss on the defendants’ attorney:
“Ammon Bundy’s attorney Marcus Mumford sought the release of Ammon Bundy based upon the verdict of not guilty. The Federal Marshals refused to release him. Mumford insisted that they show the paperwork that allowed them to keep Ammon in custody. They wouldn’t show the paperwork. When Mumford refused to accept that as an answer, about eight federal marshals attacked Attorney Mumford IN THE COURT ROOM! They tasered him and arrested him!!”
During the trial the attorney was told by the judge that he could not mention the defendants’ spokesperson who was shot down by police for no reason. http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/northwest/judge-threatens-to-fine-ammon-bundys-lawyer-in-malheur-refuge-case/
The high-handedness of the Feds apparently was more than the jury could accept.
The post Jury Rejects Federal Case Against Malheur Wildlife Refuge Defandants appeared first on PaulCraigRoberts.org . | 0 |
The Monday morning scene at Juanita Stanley’s apiary in Summerville, S. C. was ghastly and stunningly quiet: Everywhere one looked were clumps of honeybees, dead after a dousing on Sunday with the potent pesticide with which the local authorities had intended to kill mosquitoes. “There was no need for a bee suit Monday morning to go down there, because there was no activity. It was silent,” Ms. Stanley said on Thursday. “Honestly, I just fell to the ground. I was crying, and I couldn’t quit crying, and I was throwing up. ” For Ms. Stanley and her business, the death toll easily exceeds two million bees, and Dorchester County officials are still tabulating how many more might have been killed when a day of aerial spraying, scheduled to combat mosquitoes that could be carrying viruses like Zika, went awry. The apparently inadvertent extermination, the county administrator said, happened after a county employee failed to notify Ms. Stanley’s business, which the administrator said should have been alerted about the spraying strategy. Some hobbyists were also caught by surprise. “We’ve learned that the beekeeping community in Dorchester County, and in that area in particular, is larger than we were aware of,” Jason L. Ward, the county administrator, said in an interview. “Our idea is to balance working with them with the issue of public safety. ” Concerned about the spread of the Zika virus across the South, local officials on Sunday targeted a mile area of the county, which is near Charleston, with naled. The pesticide, which has been in use in the United States for more than 50 years, is a common tool for mosquito control, but federal officials have said the chemical can be harmful to honeybees while also posing brief risks to aquatic invertebrates and terrestrial wildlife. Officials in Dorchester County, where four cases of Zika have been reported, sometimes spray for mosquitoes from the roads, but Mr. Ward said he believed that Sunday’s aerial effort was the first of its kind for the county. He acknowledged that a county worker had not followed the local government’s standard procedure of notifying registered beekeepers about the deployment of pesticides. “He made a mistake in terms of going down his list, and failed to call,” said Mr. Ward, who said the county, through its insurance policy, would try to reimburse Ms. Stanley’s business. He said insurance adjusters would need to determine the value of the lost honeybees, but Ms. Stanley suggested that figure would be “a vast amount. ” “This is much more than just how much those little dead bees are worth,” Ms. Stanley said. “My entire business is dead, and it’s not like I can just go out shopping and buy some more bees and get right back on track. ” The county had tried to publicize its plans through social media and the local press, Mr. Ward noted, but Ms. Stanley said that officials had long notified her about scheduled sprayings delivered by truck. This time, she knew nothing about what had happened until a firefighter, who is also a beekeeper, showed up at her door on Monday. “This is going to sound harsh, but I think for me, this one word is very fitting, and it’s ignorance,” she said. “We, as humans, are not doing the research and finding out the facts before we make decisions. ” The employee in question, who did not respond to a message on Thursday, has apologized, Ms. Stanley said. “I’m devastated, I’m heartbroken, I’m distraught,” Ms. Stanley added. “I have a lot of emotions and thoughts right now, and none of them are very positive. ” The county has not scheduled any additional aerial sprayings of naled, but some experts have questioned the county’s initial strategy, which included spraying during the day, when honeybees are more active. Dr. Dennis vanEngelsdorp, a bee researcher at the University of Maryland, said the deaths of the bees in South Carolina were unnecessary, and that there were ways to guard against mosquitoes without simultaneously killing valuable pollinators. “I think this shows how easy it is to forget best practices when faced with emerging issues — and killing bees is probably not the biggest impact,” he said. “If you’re killing honeybees, you’re killing a lot of other pollinators, too, and those populations could take a long time to recover. ” | 1 |
Scholar Phyllis Chesler was disinvited from a speaking event on honor killings at the University of Arkansas due to articles she has published on Breitbart News. [Chesler was slated to appear as a part of a conference at the University of Arkansas Law School’s King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies on honor killings, but was ultimately disinvited after concerns arose over Chesler’s alleged “Islamophobia. ” Three professors that work at the King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies wrote a letter denouncing Chesler. In the letter, which was addressed to King Fahd Center Director Thomas Paradise, Professors Joel Gordon, Ted Swedenburg, and Mohja Kahf called Chesler a “bigot” and a “prominent Islamophobe” for her commentary on Islam. They expressed concerns that Chesler had her writings published by Breitbart News. Dear Tom: It has come to our attention that MEST is Phyllis Chesler to lecture via Skype at the University of Arkansas Law School’s symposium about honor killings on 14 April 2017. Chesler’s writings frequently feature on the Breitbart forum as well as many other platforms. They continued, claiming that Chesler’s perspective on Islam would violate the school’s mission to educate students on the Middle East. “Our work is to educate students on the Middle East, not to promote bigotry,” they wrote. “While we welcome respectful debate and diverse opinions, we believe that bigotry should not be promoted on this campus. ” Chesler was ultimately disinvited in response to the criticisms. You can read the letter in its entirety below: Dear Tom: It has come to our attention that MEST is Phyllis Chesler to lecture via Skype at the University of Arkansas Law School’s symposium about honor killings on 14 April 2017. Chesler’s writings frequently feature on the Breitbart forum as well as many other platforms. One disturbing example is the pamphlet, The Violent Oppression of Women in Islam, that Chesler in 2007 with Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch, who is is considered by the Southern Poverty Law Center to be “one of America’s most prolific and vociferous propagandists. ” The pamphlet was published by David Horowitz’ Freedom Center, which frequently targets students and scholars for speaking out about justice for Palestinians. The pamphlet is a catalogue of horrors inflicted on women that are said to be the outcome of Islam’s essential nature. “Islamic gender apartheid,” Chesler and Spencer write, “is not caused by western imperialism, colonialism, or racism. It is indigenous to Islam both theologically and historically. ” Retaliation is obligatory against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right, [except when] a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring’s offspring” (section o1. ). Chesler has also said, “It’s easy to say, yes, the Muslims are against everyone who is not a Muslim. [ … ] The West, and that means Jews and Israelis, would like to lead sweet and peaceful lives. We’re up against an enemy now that is dying to kill us, that lives to kill, and that at best merely wishes to impose on the rest of us its laws and strictures. ” (Fern Sidman, “Israel Today Always: Breaking Ranks — An Interview With Phyllis Chesler,” The Jewish Press, August 15, 2007) Our work is to educate students on the Middle East, not to promote bigotry. The Executive Travel Order of February 2017 (which we all know is a xenophobic, Islamophobic, travesty of justice) specifically mentions as a means of differentiating Muslims and in so doing, it capitalizes on fear of Muslims, Honor killings are part of rape culture. Any manifestation of rape culture in any society, including the U. S. is reprehensible. Condemning rape culture and honor killings must not be tainted with bigotry and Islamophobia. While we welcome respectful debate and diverse opinions, we believe that bigotry should not be promoted on this campus. Our program in particular has the responsibility not to be the sponsor of an event featuring a prominent Islamophobe. Sponsoring an event with Chesler on the program sends the opposite message to our students. Sponsoring such a speaker also contributes to an unsafe environment for students on our campus already at risk for violence. We have asked that MEST provide, via Skype, a qualified speaker to follow Chesler’s remarks. This was deemed not feasible. We ask that MEST publicly withdraw its sponsorship from this symposium. We ask that MEST provide copies of the Islamophobia Is Racism syllabus, created by a collective of academics inspired by the Ferguson syllabus, for distribution at the symposium. We ask that MEST release a statement condemning Islamophobia and bigotry, and affirming its commitment to gender justice and diversity, and that this statement be read at the symposium. Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about economics and higher education for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart. com | 1 |
BREAKING : Sources Inside the FBI Say Hillary Will Be INDICTED in Early 2017 BREAKING : Sources Inside the FBI Say Hillary Will Be INDICTED in Early 2017 Breaking News By Amy Moreno October 29, 2016 On Friday the FBI announced they were reopening the email investigation into Hillary’s mishandling of classified information. In a statement, the FBI said that they discovered “new emails” pertinent to the earlier investigation on “several devices.” Reports indicate that one phone device belongs to Anthony Weiner and the other phone device belongs to his estranged wife Huma Abedin. Sources inside the FBI say there are “SMOKING GUN” BOMBSHELLS on the devices and Hillary will be indicted in January or February of 2017. This woman should not be allowed to run for president. She should be forced to STEP DOWN. Watch the video: Breaking News : HILLARY To Be Indited After The Election In January Or February ! This Is Bigger Than Watergate ! pic.twitter.com/XuunYGcLR1
— Richard Weaving (@RichardWeaving) October 29, 2016 This is a movement – we are the political OUTSIDERS fighting against the FAILED GLOBAL ESTABLISHMENT! Join the resistance and help us fight to put America First! Amy Moreno is a Published Author , Pug Lover & Game of Thrones Nerd. You can follow her on Twitter here and Facebook here . Support the Trump Movement and help us fight Liberal Media Bias. Please LIKE and SHARE this story on Facebook or Twitter. | 0 |
LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Talks among the United States, Russia and critical Middle East states aimed at brokering a new pause in Syria’s war broke up after a few hours on Saturday without signs of progress, or a break in the Syrian government’s ferocious assault on parts of the city of Aleppo. Secretary of State John Kerry began the talks in the Swiss lakeside city of Lausanne, meeting one on one with his Russian counterpart, Sergey V. Lavrov. Their encounter, described as “businesslike” by a State Department spokesman, John Kirby, came 12 days after Washington suspended bilateral contacts with Moscow and called for a war crimes investigation into Russian actions in Syria. Mr. Kerry and Mr. Lavrov then headed into talks with the foreign ministers from regional powers involved in the conflict, including Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, along with the United Nations mediator, Staffan de Mistura. The diplomats left about four hours later with terse comments that gave away nothing of substance. Before the talks began, both sides played down prospects of a breakthrough. Mr. Kerry, who was expected to leave Sunday for talks in London with the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany, told reporters that discussions with Russia and the Middle Eastern states would resume on Monday. Mr. Lavrov went into the talks saying he would focus on fulfilling an earlier agreement that called for separating rebels in Syria from jihadist groups like the Nusra Front, which is linked to Al Qaeda and now calls itself the Levant Conquest Front. He emerged from the meetings saying only that the parties had discussed “some ideas” and had agreed to meet in coming days, “expecting certain agreements which would help promote” a settlement, the news agency reported. That brought no prospect of early relief for the beleaguered quarter of a million residents of eastern Aleppo, who are facing what international aid agencies have called the heaviest bombardment since the collapse of a truce three weeks ago. Syrian and Russian aircraft bombed four hospitals in Aleppo on Friday, causing severe damage to a major trauma facility, Doctors Without Borders reported, calling it the worst damage inflicted on already battered health facilities since the end of September. An ambulance driver was killed and two doctors were wounded on Friday, Doctors Without Borders said. At least 62 people were killed, and more than 465 people were wounded in the bombing and shelling over the previous three days, the group said. United Nations agencies say several hundred residents of eastern Aleppo desperately need medical evacuation, and the agencies have prepared hospitals in Syria and Turkey to receive them. However, efforts to get the wounded and sick out, or to provide the city with food and medical supplies, have been blocked by the fighting. “The indiscriminate bombing campaign has taken a clear turn for the worse,” Carlos Francisco, the head of the Syria mission for Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement on Saturday. “By damaging the few remaining places where lives can be saved, it is clear that Syria and Russia are squeezing the life out of eastern Aleppo. ” | 1 |
Robben Island in South Africa is getting to be notorious again — and this time it’s not for racial oppression. The prison on the island is now a tourist attraction, where visitors from around the world pause with reverence outside the cell where Nelson Mandela was kept. The ferry ride back to the mainland merely deepens the sense of isolation that the inmates must have felt. But the waters surrounding Robben Island, just off the coast near Cape Town, also happen to be among the richest in the world for delicious shellfish — especially abalone, which is highly prized in Asia. That has made the island a hot spot for shellfish poaching. At night, when the island is closed to tourists, poachers in inflatable boats known as rubber ducks often make their way toward its rocky coastline and dive illegally in the shallows in search of the mollusks. One night in May, the authorities were tipped off to a poaching excursion and went on watch. Around 4 a. m. a boat was spotted pulling into a harbor with its lights turned off — a dead giveaway. Officials from a special police task force and the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries stood ready. But the poachers saw the law enforcement boats and sped off, eventually abandoning their vessel and vanishing on shore. The authorities seized 2, 858 pieces of abalone worth $68, 400. Abalone can be found along much of South Africa’s coast, but their numbers have been declining rapidly because of overfishing and poaching. Commercial catches are now severely restricted, and recreational fishing for abalone has been banned for more than a decade. But demand from Asia remains strong. Abalone grow slowly, taking seven years to reach sexual maturity and one or two more to reach the minimum size to be taken legally. That way, they ought to get at least a little time to reproduce and replace themselves. (Left alone, abalone can live 30 years or more.) But the poachers pay little heed to sustainability. The fisheries department says that of the abalone it confiscates from poachers are younger and smaller than the legal minimum, and that the waters around Robben Island have been particularly hard hit. | 1 |
Here’s something Oscar voters and regular folks probably don’t think they’ll want or need this year: a movie all but guaranteed to make them cry. Yet it’s coming, anyway: “Patriots Day,” a film about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, directed by Peter Berg and starring Mark Wahlberg, a Beantown son, as a police officer. The film nabbed the slot at the American Film Institute festival in November, landed on the National Board of Review’s Top 10 list, and opens on Dec. 21, prime time for awards. For a picture that some feel is arriving too soon, or that risks being exploitative or worse, “Patriots Day” stands, on the one hand, to be unintentionally well timed. At a recent screening in Manhattan, as audience members gasped their way through tears, it became clear that the film got at something more elemental than tragedy: It captured the purity of the altruistic outpouring that came in the bombings’ wake. Sniffling away, the Bagger couldn’t help wondering, might this be a film that makes both blue hearts and red hearts crack open, and proves a unifier of sorts? Then again, we are living in times when the very definition of “patriot” is deeply contested and fraught, when the word alone often causes liberal neck hair to stand on end. “Patriots Day” is Mr. Berg and Mr. Wahlberg’s third film together, after this year’s “Deepwater Horizon,” about the deadly 2010 oil explosion and spill, and the 2013 “Lone Survivor,” about a disastrous war mission. All three neatly fit the definition of what Rolling Stone describes as the “ blockbuster”: movies whose heroes wear blue collars rather than cowboy hats or capes. “These are films that seek to whitewash America,” Corey Atad wrote in Esquire, “boosting the virtue of pure patriotism, fashioning an uncomplicated reality for an audience tired of feeling like their country is being lost to liberal pussyfooting and terrorist threats. ” Also in that category is Clint Eastwood’s hit “American Sniper,” which became such a partisan flash point two years ago — lefties deemed it propaganda righties saw it as a patriotic masterpiece — that some liberals who consider themselves open and tolerant refused to see it outright. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Berg and Mr. Wahlberg say that “Patriots Day” holds resonance, no matter what the viewers’ political bent, be they, in the director’s words, “the most liberal in the world” or “neoconservatives that I know, good friends that are on the far other side. ” “We get asked this a lot, about our politics, and we’re just not going to get into it,” Mr. Berg said, sitting with Mr. Wahlberg this week to chat with the Bagger in a suite at the Carlyle Hotel. “Mark and I both wanted to make a film about love. A film about: ‘You know what? If you think you’re going to beat us through violence, you’re wrong. Because love will rise, love will defeat evil. ’” “I have friends on both sides who believe that love does win,” Mr. Berg continued. “And they’re very kind, loving people. So we feel there’s a little something for everyone in this. ” Mr. Berg and Mr. Wahlberg arrived separately, each wearing the resigned, blank look that movie people tend to get after doing three straight days of press. They had been through this gantlet just three months ago, with “Deepwater Horizon. ” Meanwhile, for some Bostonians, the marathon atrocity is still too fresh. It was only last year that the surviving Boston bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was tried and convicted. And this year, the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, denied the filmmakers’ request to film on campus, as did the suburb of Watertown, where the police and the Tsarnaev brothers engaged in a firefight. (That filming was moved to nearby Malden and a former naval air base.) Given all that, didn’t it seem that “Patriots” was made and released in haste? Nay, Mr. Berg said. “Mark’s fond of saying it probably wasn’t soon enough, in many ways,” the director said. “We felt the real theme of this film wasn’t going to be about a manhunt of justice being served up, although those were elements of this story. At the end of the day, the story was about how a community responded to kind of what unfortunately is becoming the new reality of our lives. ” But there was competition. Mr. Wahlberg brought the idea of the film to Mr. Berg near the end of the production of “Deepwater Horizon” last year. Films about the marathon bombings were in the works: one from CBS Films another based on the book “Boston Strong” and a third, “Stronger,” starring Jake Gyllenhaal, which is to open next year. Mr. Wahlberg ultimately teamed up with CBS Films, and they bought the rights to “Boston Strong,” folding some of its elements into “Patriots Day. ” “I was really on the fence — do we make this?” Mr. Wahlberg recalled. “Then I quickly realized that there’s three movies, and they’re aggressively trying to get these movies made. ” He added later that he decided: “They’re going to do it anyway. I better do it so I can make sure we do it the right way. ” The youngest of nine, Mr. Wahlberg grew up in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, where he had a violent, and youth. He has maintained deep connections there, and the city and nearby region have been the site of a number of his films: “The Departed,” “The Fighter” and, of course, “Ted” and “Ted 2. ” To prepare for “Patriots Day,” Mr. Wahlberg, who knew people directly affected by the bombings, he and Mr. Berg sat down to hear residents’ concerns — about how loved ones would be portrayed, about the effect on grieving children, about being retraumatized. As the father of the youngest victim, Martin Richard, requested, no one from that family was portrayed in the film, though there are scenes showing the blanketed body of a child. After poring over hours of grisly footage, Mr. Berg, who cites the work of Studs Terkel, fabled chronicler of the American Everyman, as a major influence, said he struggled mightily to make sense of the atrocity, and to understand how affected families found the energy to go on. He found his answer at this year’s marathon, where he and Mr. Wahlberg watched Patrick Downes become the first Boston bombing amputee to complete the race. He fell into the arms of his wife, who lost both legs in the bombings — footage of their embrace is in the film. At that moment, Mr. Wahlberg said, an woman from the Boston Athletic Association approached them both and said: “You see that? That’s what this movie better be about. About love. You make sure you get that right. ” That has become Mr. Berg and Mr. Wahlberg’s main talking point, how the city came together afterward, how, moments after the bombing, paramedics, the police, firefighters, high school girls who had been handing out Gatorade all rushed toward victims to help. “You think about, did anyone stop and ask someone before they helped them what political party they were associated with?” Mr. Berg said. “What their sexual orientation was, you know, where they stood on gun control? Nobody cared. That was really an example of the angels within us, the very best versions of ourselves. ” Ergo the sobbing Mr. Berg was surprised to hear in early screenings of the film. “Crying can be a good thing,” he said, “a catharsis and a release. ” The Bagger can attest to that. And liberals, if you’re still hesitant, keep in mind that the film is set in deep blue Boston, where four out of five presidential votes went to the Democrats. They’re your people, too. | 1 |
During Friday’s Weekly Address, President Trump said of the revised American Health Care Act, “your premiums will come down, and your deductibles will come down. ” Transcript as Follows: “My fellow Americans, Since Day One, my administration has been hard at work, tearing down the barriers to job creation and economic growth. We have removed one regulation after another — they’re not pretty and they’re going. And believe me, we are just getting started on regulations. They’re gone. On Thursday, the House voted to repeal one of the worst laws of all. It’s called ObamaCare, perhaps you’ve heard of it. Everywhere we look, ObamaCare is collapsing. The House Bill is a plan that will save Americans from this disaster, and replace it with more choices, and more freedom for American families. Most importantly, it will be great healthcare, and your premiums will come down, and your deductibles will come down. So you’ll have better healthcare at a lower cost. And now, I’m calling on the Senate to take action. Repealing and replacing ObamaCare will be a big, big win for the American People. Last week, my economic team outlined another step in our economic renewal: a massive tax cut to bring jobs and prosperity back to the USA. We pay the highest taxes anywhere in the world. No country is higher, and we’re bringing them down — and I mean way down. I am proposing — actually the single largest tax cut — in American history. Our tax relief will be focused on the Middle Class, including relief for low and parents raising children. As we provide tax relief to working families, we must also stop crippling American Industry. Right now, America’s businesses are taxed at the single highest rate in the developed world. This is a economic wound that sends jobs to other countries. And believe me, before I got here, they were fleeing fast, but we’ve stopped it. We want to turn our country into a jobs machine — a jobs magnet, something that really works again. We want America to be the best place in the world to hire, grow, invest, and start a beautiful business. And that is why under our plan, we are cutting the business tax rate all the way down to 15 percent, bringing thousands of new companies and millions of new jobs to our shores. Today’s high taxes on American Business are a gift to the foreign countries taking our jobs, factories, and wealth — and we’re not going to allow it any longer. Along with our historic tax cut we are proposing dramatic tax simplification. American taxpayers spend billions of hours each year complying with our archaic tax laws, reducing economic productivity and job creation. The complexity of the tax code also disadvantages small businesses and companies who can’t afford to hire an army of lawyers, and that’s what it is, it’s an army of lawyers, and lobbyists, or accountants. Other people can do it, you can’t, and it’s not fair to ask you to even think about it. That is why we are cleaning up the code, streamlining deductions, and eliminating many special interest tax breaks that largely benefit only the wealthy. Just weeks ago, millions of Americans filed their taxes on Tax Day — they were reminded again how much they give to Washington. We believe every day Americans know better how to spend their own money than the federal bureaucracy, and we want to help them keep as much of that money as we can. Tax reform, along with regulatory relief and fair trade deals — and we’re going to make them fair — but even really good again for our country, and for our workers. All of this will usher in a new era of prosperity in America — and bring wealth, hope, and opportunity to those communities that need it the most. Together, we are going to fight for every last American job. And we are going to fight for great, great trade deals that are so good for our workers, and so good for our families. Thank you, God Bless You, and God Bless America. ” Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett | 1 |
Topics: arrest , Donald J. Trump , James Comey Tuesday, 15 November 2016
Austin, TX - A local babysitter of Mexican descent was arrested yesterday for failing to pay taxes on income earned while babysitting. The babysitter, a 15-year old juvenile, will be arraigned in Federal court on Tuesday.
The girl, whose name is being withheld due to her age, reportedly earned $1,800 from babysitting over the course of the prior tax year, and is a full time high school student with strong grades.
FBI officials tracked check deposits made at a community bank. Parents all reported that the checks were for babysitting services.
The income should have been reported by April 15, subject to an extension. The babysitter is also being charged with Social Security fraud and Medicare fraud.
Local FBI officials, led by Director James Comey, applauded the new initiative modeled after the policies of Donald Trump, stating, "Here we are, making America great again! Feeling so proud! This is exactly what we planned for!"
One FBI insider stated anonymously, "The juvenile was brought into the country as an infant illegally and based on her tax evasion, she is a criminal, so we need to get her back over that wall, or fence, or whatever it will be, just get her back to Mexico, let's just say."
Trump denies that his policies imply such extreme actions and denied any accountability, tweeting, "Comey is going rogue again."
Many young parents are disappointed with the news. The juvenile was known as one of the neighborhood's most popular babysitters.
"Such a shock," stated one local mother who would not give her name, "Where am I supposed to get my babysitting services now?"
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There’s something about the cooler fall weather that makes my family want to huddle up indoors and eat sweets. Humans are likely programmed to do just this, but let’s not let a change of seasons derail our healthy eating. Here are 5 modified classic fall recipes that will still make your house smell amazing and satisfy your sweet tooth—all without packing on the pounds.
5 Favorite Fall Recipes – the Healthy Way! 1. Pumpkin Pie Pumpkin pie defines the Thanksgiving holiday in my household—we eat it as a dessert, but we also eat the leftovers for breakfast. This version adds in rolled oats for fiber and has healthy ground flax, but the full-fat coconut milk means a rich, creamy pie that satisfies.
Ingredients:
1 can (15oz) pumpkin puree 1 (13.5oz) can full-fat coconut milk 1/4 cup gluten-free rolled oats 2 tbsp ground flax 1/4 cup coconut sugar 2 tbsp molasses 2 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice 1/2 tsp salt 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix the above ingredients together, then pour into a prepared pie crust in a 10-inch round pan. Bake for 30 minutes (it might still appear undercooked—don’t worry!). Let your pie cool, then refrigerate for at least 5 hours. 2. Apple Cider Ingredients:
6 cups of organic apple juice 1/4 cups of real maple syrup (you can use even less – let’s face it, apple juice is sweet on its own) 2 cinnamon sticks 6 whole cloves 6 whole allspice berries (optional)* 1 orange peel, cut into strips (optional)* 1 lemon peel, cut into strips (optional)* *Remember, the richness of flavor makes up for a lack of sugar—I’d rather have a spicier cider than one that is too syrupy sweet…
Instructions:
Pour the apple juice and maple syrup into a large stainless steel saucepan. Place the cinnamon sticks, cloves, allspice berries, orange peel and lemon peel in the center of a washed square of cheesecloth; fold up the sides of the cheesecloth to enclose the bundle, then tie it up with a length of kitchen string. Drop the spice bundle into the cider mixture. I’m not that concerned if it all sits in the broth loose – just be careful not to pour it into your mugs when you serve it. Place the saucepan over moderate heat for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the cider is very hot but not boiling. You can leave it on the lowest simmer during a party. Remove the cider from the heat. Discard the spice bundle. Ladle the cider into big cups or mugs, adding a fresh cinnamon stick to each serving if desired. 3. Slow Cooker Baked Apples I love using my slow cooker, especially during autumn. It’s so nice to throw some ingredients in during the morning and then to come home to a house that smells amazing. This simple dessert makes use of the natural sweetness of apples and leaves out much of the sugar.
Ingredients:
5 cups sliced peeled Granny Smith apples (4 medium) 5 cups sliced peeled Braeburn apples (4 medium) ¼ cup margarine (optional) 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice ¼ cup packed brown sugar (you can even use less or leave it out entirely—experiment to see what works the best for you) 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon ¼ cup apple cider Instructions:
Simply mix all ingredients and cook on low for 3-4 hours. If you’re going to be out all day make sure to set the timer on your slow cooker so the apples don’t get mushy. 4. Spiced Pear Cake This spiced pear cake is a crowd pleaser and a great way to use up your canned pears. We’re leaving off the icing in order to make this a healthier choice, but see this recipe for a richer, more decadent version.
Ingredients
For cake:
1 quart-size jar of canned spiced pears , drained (about 3 cups) 3 large eggs 1 1/2 cups of maple syrup 1 1⁄4 cups coconut oil 3 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 cup walnuts or pecans, coarsely chopped 2 teaspoons vanilla extract Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°. In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs, 2 cups sugar, and oil until blended. Combine flour, salt, and baking soda, and add to egg mixture, stir slowly until blended. Fold in pears, chopped nuts, and vanilla extract. Pour batter into a greased and floured 10-inch Bundt pan. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. 5. Pumpkin Spice Waffles Adding a little pumpkin spice is a surefire way to savor the fall weather (just ask Starbucks!). Working pumpkin into this traditional waffle recipe (and then tweaking to make it healthier) is a great way to make your breakfasts festive for the fall.
Ingredients
3/4 cup maple syrup 3 tablespoons cornstarch 1-1/4 cup gluten-free all-purpose flour 1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 2 teaspoon cinnamon 2 teaspoon ginger 1/4 teaspoon cloves 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 2 large eggs 1 cup 2% milk 1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and warm Instructions:
Lightly oil and preheat waffle iron. In a large bowl, combine brown sugar and cornstarch in a large bowl. Whisk together to break apart the cornstarch and blend. Add the remaining dry ingredients, and whisk to blend. Separate eggs: yolks go in a medium sized bowl and whites get set aside in a smaller bowl. In a medium bowl, add pumpkin, milk and egg yolks. Whisk to blend. In a small bowl, whip egg whites with a hand mixer on high until stiff peaks form. Set aside. Pour melted butter into pumpkin mixture. As you pour, whisk to combine. Add the pumpkin mixture to the dry ingredients, and mix together until just combined. Slide the whipped egg whites out of the bowl and onto the mixture you just prepared. Gently fold them in until completely mixed. Once the waffle iron is heated, pour batter and press down until ready – about 3 minutes. Pamela Bofferding is a native Texan who now lives with her husband and sons in New York City. She enjoys hiking, traveling, and playing with her dogs.
This information has been made available by Ready Nutrition
Originally published November 9th, 2016 Pumpkin Spice Waffles Spiced Pear Cake Warm Drinks for the Chilly Season 8 Delicious Things to Make With Pumpkin Guilt-Free Chocolate Fudge Brownies {gluten free and paleo} | 0 |
Mystery death of Putin’s ex-adviser in DC was accident, say US authorities Intel news
The mysterious death in Washington, DC, of a former senior adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had fallen out with the Russian president, was the result of an accident, US authorities have concluded after a year-long investigation. The body of Mikhail Yuriyevich Lesin, a well-known Russian media mogul, was found in the luxury Dupont Circle Hotel on November 5, 2015. According to reports, his body bore considerable injuries on his torso and limbs. Some unconfirmed updates suggested that Lesin had died from several “blunt force injuries to the head”. But United States authorities refused to speculate on the cause of Lesin’s death and opened an official investigation into the matter.
Lesin became famous in Russia soon after the collapse of the communist system, when he founded Video International, an advertising and public-relations agency that was hired by Russian President Boris Yeltsin in 1995 to run his reelection campaign. Yeltsin’s electoral success was partly attributed to the well-tailored media message projected by Lesin’s company. The media magnate was rewarded by Yeltsin, who offered him influential government posts, including that of director of Russia’s state-owned news agency Novosti. Meanwhile, Lesin became a media personality and frequently gave interviews espousing a free-enterprise model for the Russian media industry. But soon after Vladimir Putin’s ascendance to the presidency, Lesin saw the writing on the wall and began advocating for increased government regulation of media and telecommunications conglomerates. In 1999, Putin made him Minister of Press, Broadcasting and Mass Communications, a post he held for nearly six years, until 2004. In 2006, Lesin was awarded the Order for Merit to the Fatherland, one of the most prestigious civilian decorations in Russia.
But in late 2009, Putin abruptly fired Lesin from his post in the Kremlin’s Media Advisory Commission, allegedly because the media mogul had developed close contacts with Russian organized crime. Lesin’s ties with Putin’s inner circle were further strained in 2014, when he resigned from his position as head of Gazprom Media, after he clashed with pro-Putin executives on the board. Last November, when Lesin’s body was found in his hotel room by a member of the staff, some suggested that he may have been killed by the Kremlin. But On Friday, the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, DC, in cooperation with the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, said that Lesin’s death had been the result of injuries “induced by falls”, which came after “days of excessive consumption of alcohol”. The two agencies said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which had assisted in the investigation into Lesin’s death, concurred with the results. Consequently, the investigation is now closed, they said. The Kremlin, the Russian embassy in Washington, and the FBI, have not commented on the case. Share This Article... | 0 |
Walter E. Block https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/doesnt-snl-ridicule-barack-obama/
I was listening the NPR (National Pinko Radio – I’m a masochist; I just want to be acquainted with the “thinking” of our friends on the left) this morning, and they were discussion the SNL (Saturday Night Liberal) television show. It turns out that this broadcast reaches a pinnacle of listeners every four years, during the political campaigns. Recently, I learned, they have been bashing Donald Trump very heavily, and Hilary Clinton very lightly, if at all. Chevy Chase did a series of numbers on Gerald Ford in similar manner. Ronald Reagan was also nastily targeted. The issue came up, why didn’t SNL also use Barack Obama as the butt of their jokes? The explanation from the “experts” brought in to this NPR show was that he was too “cool” to spoof, he had no characteristics that humorists could poke fun at, he was too wonderful to parody, etc. I wonder, can anyone think of any other reasons Obama was never dragged through the mud like other politicians? I can’t think of any. This sounds like God’s truth to me. But, enquiring minds want to know. 2:12 pm on October 28, 2016 | 0 |
by Lambert Strether
By Lambert Strether of Corrente .
Tomorrow, election day will be only one week away. In this post I want to talk about two distinct subjects. First, I want to talk about the sort of calculation that a Martian might make when confronted by the choice we will face in the voting booth. Then, I’d like to paint a brief picture of what election day would look like, in a world where I didn’t want to claw out my eyeballs.
A Martian Looks at Election Outcomes in 2016
I say “Martian,” because a Martian is so detached that the 30,000-foot view looks like a close-up, and I think in this election detachment is a virtue (see above at “claw out my eyeballs”).
So a Martian would feel that despite the all the sound and fury, the numbers have not been that crazy (assuming one trusts them). Among registered voters: Emphasizing how remarkably stable the '16 race has been — going back to Sept. 2015 https://t.co/odFykkIm8m pic.twitter.com/2CKuS9Qi9G
— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) October 31, 2016
RealClearPolitics has a similar chart averaging all the polls with a vertical scale that makes the swings a lot bigger. To me, the pattern of the race is that Clinton starts out with, and retains, a natural institutional advantage of around four points. Again from the head-to-head RCP chart, Trump has closed and then pulled even six times: September 2015, December 2015, February 2016, May 2016, July 2016, and September 2016. And each time either Clinton’s institutional advantages have re-asserted themselves, or Trump has shot himself in the foot (take your pick). Trump is closing now. Can he pull ahead and close the deal? Unknown. Based on past performance, no. Then again, as I remarked before the latest email eruption, “a week is a long time in politics,” Wikileaks has yet to drop its final shoe, and each campaign probably has a garbage truck full of oppo fired up and ready to go.
Paradoxically, Martians are not warlike, since the thin air, small population, and harsh conditions on Mars make war a species-threatening event. For the same reason, Martians prize the deep memories of elders while treating every child as precious. And Martians resist “Marsization,” because the one time there actually was a single, Mars-wide, cosmopolitan class of elite overlords they tried to invade the Earth, and who knows where that would have led! So if you were a Martian, and you believed that Clinton’s election would lead to a new war , and you believe that endorsing Bowles-Simpson and “hemispheric trade” in a speech at Goldman Sachs mean a Grand Bargain and TPP passage respectively, then you might look askance at a likely Clinton victory. What do do? If you had a Martian friend who followed American elections obsessively — this is similar to Southeast Asian countries where people obsessively follow English Premier League football — this is what your friend might tell you:
The last thing you want is for Clinton to be able to enact her (real, private) agenda. Sure, she might make some small good changes, but if you throw war, a Grand Bargain, and the surrender of national sovereignty with another so-called trade deal on one side of the scale, it’s hard to see what outweighs them on the other, at least in terms of concrete material benefits.[1] So, working on the assumption that Clinton will win, what you need is:
A Republican House . Here, the checks and balances built into the American system favor gridlock, and gridlock is your friend, since little legislation will get passed. Whether the House Republicans impeach Clinton if the Senate is in Democrat hands is an open question, but with Clinton having privatized the email server for her public office and the shenanigans at the Clinton Foundation , the Clinton administration will provide a target-rich environment. I woudn’t put it past them to try to take Clinton’s security clearance away!
A Democrat Senate . The emergence of left(ish) party barons with independent power bases is the untold story of election 2016. Warren is at least sound on banksters and financial power, and Sanders, while not a Bolshevik, is well to the left of the Democrat mainstream. That’s a Good Thing. Both are prolific fundraisers who don’t need the DNC. If the Republicans hold the Senate, the tendency will be for Democrats to stick together. If the Democrats do, then Baron Warren and Baron Sanders (and allies like Sherrod Brown ) will feel more free to drag the party left.
A close race . If Clinton wins, she’ll claim a mandate if the margin is a tenth of a percent. But in the same way that anybody can print money, but the trick is getting other people to accept it, others will be less likely to accept her claim the closer the result is. (I think the result would have to be better than the four points Obama beat Romney by — 51.1% to 47.2% — and as of today, Clinton’s margin is 2.8% in RCP’s four-way average .) Of course, Bush claimed a mandate in 2004, too — true story: I managed to Google-bomb “Bush mandate” to Mandate magazine, back in the day when Google-bombing wasn’t hard — and proceeded to try to gut Social Security, whereupon the Democrats promptly gutted him and went on to win the 2006 mid-terms. But why make it easy?
So, that’s the Martian perspective on the race. Surprisingly or not, the personal characteristics of puny Earthling candidates are not a factor! Nor are cultural or class markers!
Elections on Mars
Here is how Election Day works on Mars. Again because of planetary and cultural characteristics, Martians reserve tricky and complex electronic devices for important things, like distributed Martian parallel chess, or space operas. They are also convivial, and they hate to be manipulated by large and opaque forces (that time the Jovians invaded). Obviously, I can’t provide links for most of this — the Uniform Resource Locator is a global standard, not an interplanetary one — but in short form:
1. On Mars, Election Day is a national holiday. That’s because Martians, unlike American Earthlings, think that everybody should have an equal opportunity to vote. Voting is equally easy for almost every Martian, whether they work or not.
2. The Martians use hand-marked paper ballots, hand-counted in public. This is remarkably similar to international standards on Earth (which the United States does not use):
Last March, the country’s highest court found that secret, computerized vote counting was unconstitutional. Unfortunately, the country was Germany, and the Constitution violated by e-voting systems was the one that the U.S. wrote and insisted Germans ratify as part of their terms of surrender following WWII.
Paul Lehto, a U.S. election attorney and Constitutional rights expert, summarized the German court’s unambiguous, landmark finding : “No ‘specialized technical knowledge’ can be required of citizens to vote or to monitor vote counts.” There is a “constitutional requirement of a publicly observed count.” “[T]he government substitution of its own check or what we’d probably call an ‘audit’ is no substitute at all for public observation.” “A paper trail simply does not suffice to meet the above standards. “As a result of these principles,…’all independent observers’ conclude that ‘electronic voting machines are totally banned in Germany’ because no conceivable computerized voting system can cast and count votes that meet the twin requirements of…being both ‘observable’ and also not requiring specialized technical knowledge.
Hand-counting paper ballots is no good at all, argue critics, unless you really want to know who the actual winner of the election was…
After the verdict in the case — filed by a computer expert and his political scientist son — Lehto wondered how it could be that open, observable democracy is seemingly an inviolable right for “conquered Nazis,” but not, apparently, for citizens of the United States…
3. The Martians throw a big party at the precinct after the paper ballots have all been hand-counted. That’s partly because Martians are convivial, but also because the Martians think that democracy is important and ought to be celebrated. (Again, because the Martian population is small, they wish to begin the conciliation process between winner and loser immediately, lest fratricidal violence result, and there’s no better way to do that than over food.)
4. The Martians regulate all forms of political advertising for size (small) and frequency (not often), whether for candidates or policies. That’s because the Martians wish to minimize manipulatio by encouraging face-to-face forms of persuasion and deliberation in public venues wherever possible.
5. The Martians ban published polling data thirty days before the election. That’s because Martians believe that they each should vote for their own reasons, and that elections (unlike markets) are not (manipulative) beauty contests.
Conclusions
Crazy Martians! What are they thinking?
NOTES
[1] Sadly, the time for an all-out assault on Republican “obstructionism” was 2009, when all the stars had aligned: The Republicans had no credibility, and the Democrats had the House, the Senate, the most powerful orator of our time (so it was said), in the White House, and a mandate for “hope and change.” Of course, Obama (assuming good faith) squandered this opportunity, starting with his inaugural speech, if not before.
APPENDIX
And then there’s Evan McMullin, doing well in Utah . I haven’t seen any actual evidence that he’s Mitt Romney’s straw in case of some kinda electoral college debacle…. 0 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 |
In his influential memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy” (2016) J. D. Vance explains why some Americans turned against Michelle Obama. The first lady, he writes, “tells us that we shouldn’t be feeding our children certain foods, and we hate her for it — not because we think she’s wrong, but because we know she’s right. ” It is possible to dislike the philosopher Peter Singer — born in Australia, he teaches at Princeton University — along similar lines. He is right about so many things, and appears to live so much more virtuously than most of us do, that listening him can make you want to tip a turtle on its back or consume all the endangered seafood that’s left because, as a blowhard I know put it, “If we don’t eat it now, there are a billion people right behind us who will. ” Mr. Singer is best known for his book “Animal Liberation” (1975) a founding text of the contemporary movement. More recently he has been interested in effective altruism, which asks: How can we use what we have to help others the most? He takes aim at sins of omission. In his book “The Life You Can Save” (2009) and elsewhere, he has argued that if relatively affluent Westerners do not regularly donate at least a sliver of our incomes to aid agencies, to prevent the unnecessary deaths of millions of people worldwide, we are in the moral wrong. We are complicit in something close to murder. In his new book, “Ethics in the Real World: 82 Brief Essays on Things That Matter,” Mr. Singer picks up the topics of animal rights and poverty amelioration and runs quite far with them. But he’s written better and more fully about these issues elsewhere they are not the primary reason to come to this book. “Ethics in the Real World” comprises short pieces, most of them previously published. This book is interesting because it offers a chance to witness this influential thinker grapple with more offbeat questions. Among the essay titles here: “Should Adult Sibling Incest Be a Crime?” “Is It O. K. to Cheat at Football?” “Tiger Mothers or Elephant Mothers?” “Rights for Robots?” and “Kidneys for Sale?” This book is the equivalent of a moral news conference, or a particularly good Terry Gross interview. Its informal quality is tonic. I’m reminded of a comment by the critic Wilfrid Sheed, who said he would trade half of Lord Byron’s “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” for an interview with him, and “all of ‘Adam Bede’ for the same with George Eliot. ” The first thing that needs to be said about “Ethics in the Real World” is that the writing is mostly dishwater gray. Mr. Singer seems to regard wit as immoral adornment. He picks up his topics as if they were heavy rocks, hauls them a few feet, and drops them, sometimes on our toes. His abstemious style made me long for a despairing wisecrack. What carries you is the quality of his thought. He is persuasive on so many topics that he makes you wish we could turn the world off, then on again, in an attempt to reset it. He is an ardent critic of religion. About the notion, strong in my own childhood, that we were born with original sin because Eve flouted God’s decree against eating from the tree of knowledge, he writes: “This is a triply repellent idea, for it implies, firstly, that knowledge is a bad thing, secondly, that disobeying god’s will is the greatest sin of all, and thirdly, that children inherit the sins of their ancestors, and may be justly punished for them. ” He speaks loudly on behalf of tolerance. He believes we should allow for three categories on passports and other documents: “male, female, and indeterminate. ” He further argues that the world would be a better place if humans were not so often asked to proclaim their sex on forms. He leans in favor of permitting adult incest because for him, an essential question is always this one: “When someone proposes making something a criminal offense, we should always ask: who is harmed?” In one of my favorite passages, he zeros in on those who pay many millions of dollars for paintings while people are starving. The art critic in him emerges. Writing about the sale of paintings by artists like Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko and Andy Warhol for obscene sums at Christie’s, he declares: “Why would anyone want to pay tens of millions of dollars for works like these? They are not beautiful, nor do they display great artistic skill. They are not even unusual within the artist’s oeuvres. Do an image search for ‘Barnett Newman’ and you will see many paintings with vertical color bars, usually divided by a thin line. Once Newman had an idea, it seems, he liked to work out all the variations. ” His bottom line: “In a more ethical world, to spend tens of millions of dollars on works of art would be not . ” There is an essay about how to keep a New Year’s resolution. In another he denounces the trend, seen in some Manhattan restaurants and bars, toward decorating with kitsch, including images of Stalin. At least he writes, “To the best of my knowledge, there is no restaurant in New York nor is there a Gestapo or SS bar. ” Late in this book, Mr. Singer reports that one of his daughters once asked him, during a car ride, “Would you rather that we were clever or that we were happy?” Mr. Singer finds moral behavior to be its own kind of cleverness, and certainly . | 1 |
Donald J. Trump has had a rough week, overseeing a of his campaign staff and reporting a dismal total. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee tried to refocus his campaign on Wednesday with a speech attacking his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. But he took liberties with the truth, delivering a series of inaccurate and misleading statements. Some of the highlights, and our fact checks: • Mr. Trump began his speech by lamenting America’s crumbling infrastructure and weak economy. Taking a jab at his opponent, he said: “I know these problems can all be fixed, but not by Hillary Clinton. Only by me. ” • Mr. Trump called Mrs. Clinton a “ liar,” singling out her statements about her email server and her “phony landing in Bosnia,” a reference to comments Mrs. Clinton made in her 2008 campaign about a 1996 trip to Bosnia as first lady. “We had to land a certain way and move quickly because of the threat of sniper fire,” she said. Fact Check: Footage later emerged of Mrs. Clinton, accompanied by her daughter, Chelsea, walking calmly on the tarmac in a serene scene. She later said she “misspoke. ” • Mr. Trump assailed Mrs. Clinton’s record as secretary of state, warning that she does not have the temperament or the judgment to be president. He also accused her of running the State Department like a “hedge fund” and suggesting that she had something to hide in the “secret speeches” she made to Wall Street banks. • Mr. Trump defended his business record, recalling that he began his career in Brooklyn with a small loan and built a business worth more than $10 billion. “I have always had a talent for building businesses and, importantly, creating jobs,” he said. “That is a talent our country desperately needs. ” Fact Check: This substantially understates the financial assistance that Mr. Trump received from his father, Fred, a major real estate developer in New York City. The “loan” was for $1 million, a handsome sum that is by no means “small. ” But the elder Mr. Trump did not stop there: He handed his son control of a large company with significant property holdings across the city, whose substantial value is difficult to quantify or overstate. Without this leg up, it’s unclear whether Mr. Trump could have built the business empire that he has. • Mr. Trump said that Mrs. Clinton “has spent her entire life making money for special interests — and I will tell you, she has made plenty of money for them, and she has been taking plenty of money out for herself. ” Fact Check: This assertion is mostly false. Early in her career, Mrs. Clinton worked for the Children’s Defense Fund and as a lawyer for the House impeachment inquiry against President Richard Nixon, and later worked at the private Rose Law Firm in Arkansas, focusing on intellectual property and other cases. Much of her career has been devoted to government service, as first lady, United States senator and secretary of state. But Mrs. Clinton did receive millions of dollars in paid speeches to banks and others and has served on the boards of corporations like Walmart. Mr. Trump argues that she also made money for big donors through her activities at the State Department and her family foundation, but he has not offered clear, convincing proof. • Turning to trade, Mr. Trump said that Mrs. Clinton supported the North American Free Trade Agreement and cited China’s entrance into the World Trade Organization as evidence that his opponent will support deals that harm American workers. He also said that her record as secretary of state should be scorned because America’s trade deficit with China soared under her tenure. Fact Check: As first lady, Mrs. Clinton privately expressed skepticism about Nafta, the trade pact that President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1993, though she made statements supportive of it. The trade pact has been widely blamed for the loss of American manufacturing jobs. Mrs. Clinton has called for parts of Nafta to be renegotiated and has said that the Partnership, President Obama’s pact that she supported while serving as secretary of state, doesn’t meet her “high bar” on protecting American workers and the environment. • Mr. Trump directly blamed Mrs. Clinton for the death of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens in Benghazi, Libya, calling her a liar who ignored his requests for help. “Her decisions spread death, destruction and terrorism everywhere she touched,” Mr. Trump said, calling the rise of the Islamic State and chaos in the Middle East the fault of the former secretary of state. • Mr. Trump changed his tone on Muslims, whom he has previously accused of being generally complicit in the violence carried out Islamic terrorists. “ISIS also threatens peaceful Muslims across the Middle East, and peaceful Muslims across the world, who have been terribly victimized by horrible brutality — and who only want to raise their kids in peace and safety,” he said. • Mr. Trump suggested that Mrs. Clinton was responsible for making Iran the “dominant power in the Middle East and on the road to nuclear weapons. ” Fact Check: Iran is certainly a dominant power in the Middle East, but so is Saudi Arabia, and so is Israel. But Tehran is farther from nuclear weapons than it was a year ago, when Mr. Trump began his campaign. It has given up 98 percent of its nuclear fuel in the past year, and partly dismantled many of its nuclear facilities, under an accord that had its roots in Mrs. Clinton’s time as secretary of state. • Peter Schweizer, the author of “Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich,” which Mr. Trump repeatedly referred to, is a conservative author who is a senior at Breitbart News and is affiliated with the conservative Hoover Institution. • Mr. Trump laid out six bullet points from the book to argue that Mrs. Clinton is the “most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency. ” He accused her of taking millions of dollars from foreign regimes that support Shariah law and abuse women. • Mr. Trump tied the recent Orlando shootings to his immigration plans, saying, “I only want to admit people who share our values and love our people. Hillary Clinton wants to bring in people who believe women should be enslaved and gays put to death. ” Fact Check: Mr. Trump has proposed temporarily barring all noncitizen Muslims from entering the United States he has never made distinctions about Muslims who “share our values,” and it would be impossible to verify that immigrants “love our people. ” His assertion about Mrs. Clinton is based on her support for current United States policy that allows immigration from some countries where women lack equal rights and homosexuality may be punishable by death. • Mr. Trump said that, if elected president, in his first 100 days he would “appoint judges who will uphold the Constitution of the United States” and added, “Hillary Clinton’s radical judges will virtually abolish the Second Amendment — can’t let that happen. ” Fact Check: Mr. Trump has released the names of several conservative jurists whom he would appoint to the open seat on the Supreme Court if he wins in November and Mr. Obama’s current nominee is not confirmed. Mrs. Clinton has not said whom she would appoint, but the notion that she would nominate judges who would somehow overrule the Second Amendment is a Republican talking point that is not based on statements or past actions by Mrs. Clinton. She does favor new gun control rules, but she has said she would seek them through legislation or executive action. • Mr. Trump lamented that the country has been thinking small and relying too much on other countries: “We lost our sense of purpose, and daring,” he said. “But that’s not who we are. ” If that line sounds familiar, it’s because it is one of Mr. Obama’s favorite lines, usually used to describe a generous, internationalist America. • At one point, Mr. Trump said that the United States is “the highest taxed nation in the world. ” Fact Check: This is inaccurate, according to several organizations that have examined the claim. A thorough check by PolitiFact found about 30 countries that have higher tax rate structures than the United States, including Denmark, Luxembourg and Belgium. That has not stopped Mr. Trump from making this claim repeatedly. • Mr. Trump stated that Mrs. Clinton accepted a gift of jewelry from the leaders of Brunei valued at $58, 000. Fact Check: This is a misleading claim that omits key information. Mrs. Clinton, as secretary of state, may have received this gift but she did not keep it. As required by State Department rules, Mrs. Clinton transferred the jewelry to the United States government. • Mr. Trump concluded on a positive “morning in America” note, promising that he would put Americans back to work, restoring hope for struggling families and ushering in a new era of wealth. “Americans are going to start believing in the future of our country,” he said. | 1 |
The return of Phil Collins has been extraordinarily slow. That’s on purpose. After decades as the drummer and Gabriel lead singer for Genesis, as well as a commercially dominant solo run as the poster boy for pillowy ’80s pop excess, Mr. Collins retired as a rock elder in 2011. As with most musician goodbyes, the dormant period didn’t last. (Presciently, Mr. Collins had called his tour in support of the 2002 album “Testify,” his most recent release of original material, the “First Farewell Tour. ”) Since announcing his resurgence last year, Mr. Collins, 65, has performed at a handful of charity events, in addition to starting the process of reissuing eight of his solo albums. On Aug. 29, he will be the musical guest at the opening ceremony for the United States Open tennis tournament in Flushing, Queens — the biggest stage he’s graced in some time Leslie Odom Jr. the “Hamilton” alum, is scheduled to join Mr. Collins in a duet. The gig serves as a of sorts for a busy fall: In October, a collection, “The Singles” (including seven American No. 1s) is due out alongside Mr. Collins’s memoir, “Not Dead Yet. ” “It’s like a cartoon character that’s being pulled along with his feet dug in,” Mr. Collins said of his comeback, though he’s often doing both the dragging and the digging in. Over the phone from his home in Miami, he discussed his hesitancy, fueled by both health issues and fatherhood, and how making himself scarce has improved his legacy. These are edited excerpts from the conversation. How is treating you? Well, you know, whatever I am doing, I’m doing slowly. I’m just being a little tentative. It’s very dangerous, as my oldest daughter, Joely, told me, to stop doing what you’ve done all your life. I joined Genesis when I was 19. I was drumming from the age of 5. You’re taking away something that makes you tick. When she said that a few years ago, when I first retired, that stayed with me. Then you get out there [to perform] and people like what you do, and you think, “I can do more of this. ” What’s your daily routine like now? I do very little. To be honest, even this week, I’ve still been working on this memoir. Otherwise, it’s just really family stuff. When I first moved [to Miami] I couldn’t wait to be back with my kids. I was taking them to school, getting up at 6:30, picking them up later. The day revolved around that. But I had back surgery last year, which was necessary because my back was [expletive] after all the years playing drums. The surgery left me with a numb right foot — they call it drop foot. You have no motor down there. The nerves regenerate over a period of a year and a half or two years. It’s been nine months. I can’t go out and play football with my youngest, and I can’t drive. So that’s kind of limiting. How often are you playing music? Very little, actually. [My son] Nick, who’s 15 now, I listen to him play, I watch his band. I’ve got a grand piano here, and sometimes Nick will say, “How do you play this, Dad?” But without going into the war wounds, my left hand had some neural thing happen to it, which stopped me from playing the drums. That kind of has restricted [piano] as well. I’ve got a little studio here, and at some point, I will turn it on and start fooling around. That day is getting closer. I think about it a lot — I’ve got a lot of lyrical ideas — but I keep putting it off. What do you make of the critical of your work in the last few years? I think it’s fantastic. I think, with some critics, I became synonymous with an era of music that they didn’t like, and they were suspicious of all success, which is understandable. You end up painted into a corner that it’s impossible to get out of. I don’t lie awake and think about this, but I withdrew in 2005, and I think I was quite honest about why: I wanted to write myself out of the script. When the reissued albums came out — which I was reluctant to do at first, until I found some way I could be proud of it — I thought, “This is exactly what I’d hoped for. ” Of course, records sell differently now than when I was making them, so it wasn’t a question of cashing in. It was giving people a chance to this person that had become a whipping boy for the ’80s. I was so pleased that people were able to say, “I at this, and it’s better than I thought. ” Is there a part of you that wants to get involved with this new generation, à la Paul McCartney with Kanye West, or Nile Rodgers with Daft Punk? It’s not that I haven’t had the offers. It’s just I’m trying my best not to get busy. Doing the book was an . I have not really realized just how incessantly I was out there. From tour to tour to tour, one record, one collaboration after the other. It was an incredibly dense 25 years. What gets you out of the house for something like the United States Open? Is it the paycheck? I don’t even know if I’m getting paid for it. I don’t, seriously. If I am, I don’t know what it is. I think my manager put it to me that he’d been asked, assuming I’d say no, and I said, “Actually, why not?” It’s not a big ask. It’s just a couple of songs at the opening of something that I would probably be watching anyway. You’ve said your memoir will be embarrassingly honest. What were some of the harder things to include? With three marriages, you know, and what happened … I stress it’s not a book. I’m not blaming anybody. I was just working so much, and stuff got in the way. There’s a chapter in it about the drinking, which escalated when my third marriage broke up, and I retired. I was left with this huge void. I didn’t want to work because I wanted to be with the kids, but the kids weren’t there anymore, because they moved to Miami, and I was still in Switzerland. You start drinking, and then you start drinking too much. Then it physically hurts you. I came very close to dying at that point. I’m being honest about that. The book is honest, it’s . I’m not shirking my responsibilities. I apologize when I need to. | 1 |
JERUSALEM — Israeli scientists began their pioneering research to isolate the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana with a stash seized by the Tel Aviv police. That effort, in the 1960s, helped propel Israel to the vanguard of research into the plant’s medicinal properties and lay the foundations for a medical marijuana industry. Now the nation’s burgeoning pot business, backed by an unlikely coalition of farmers, lawyers, scientists, entrepreneurs and the country’s health minister, is going mainstream — and eyeing markets abroad. Marijuana, or cannabis, is still classified as a dangerous drug in Israel and remains illegal for recreational purposes. But the government is also at the forefront of efforts to develop and expand the medical marijuana industry and make Israel a major center for it. Recent government efforts to regulate medical marijuana will make it more accessible and available by prescription at pharmacies. The government has also appointed a committee to examine the possibility of Israel becoming one of the few countries to allow exports, although the destination for products remains unclear. The Volcani Center, the Ministry of Agriculture’s research organization, is building a national institute for medical marijuana research. The chief scientist’s office of the Ministry of Economy has infused millions of shekels into innovative marijuana companies, much as government investment helped fuel the Israeli tech boom in the 1990s. The government is also setting standards for the cultivation, storage and use of medical marijuana. “It is almost unprecedented,” said Tamir Gedo, the chief executive of Breath of Life Pharma, an Israeli company permitted to grow medical cannabis and make and distribute products. “It seems the government is working faster than the private industry. ” The reforms spearheaded by the Health Ministry, which is led by Yaakov Litzman of the United Torah Judaism Party, open up licensing for an unlimited number of growers, up from eight farms. The list of doctors trained and authorized to prescribe marijuana is to be expanded and research encouraged. The reforms, which were approved by the government in the summer, were formulated in cooperation with the Ministries of Agriculture, Justice, Internal Security and Finance. “I cannot say that I am in favor of cannabis,” Mr. Litzman said at a business conference last month, reflecting concerns that medical marijuana could trickle into the recreational market. But Mr. Litzman said he would even support the idea of export so long as revenues went to the Health Ministry, adding, “There is a lot of pressure on me. ” Some of Israel’s more traditional medical institutions and associations are still averse to joining the party, a wariness that marijuana advocates put down to a lack of knowledge. The police worry about leakage into the recreational black market, and some Israelis are concerned that export, if allowed, would stigmatize the country as one that dealt primarily in arms and drugs. About 25, 000 Israelis, in a population of 8. 5 million, hold permits to use medical marijuana to ease symptoms of cancer, epilepsy and other diseases, but that number is expected to grow rapidly. So far, medical marijuana has been distributed by the growers through special dispensaries or by home delivery. The Health Ministry’s written protocols on the matter, known as the Green Book, have generated international interest. “We wrote this because we couldn’t find it in other countries,” said Dr. Michael Dor, a family physician and senior adviser to the Health Ministry’s medical cannabis unit. “Now everybody is asking about it. ” The ministry has approved dozens of clinical trials, Dr. Dor said, adding, “If we don’t do it right here, the specialists will go abroad with their knowledge, and we have wonderful knowledge here. ” Raphael Mechoulam, now a professor of medicinal chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and his colleague Yechiel Gaoni first isolated the main compounds, including the psychoactive ingredient — tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC — with the marijuana supplied by the Tel Aviv police. When administrators at the Weizmann Institute of Science, where Professor Mechoulam was conducting his research, first called the police with the request, he recalled in an interview, “they asked if I was trustworthy. ” Professor Mechoulam, 86, has continued his research in his current post, focusing on the compounds in the brain that make the active components of marijuana work. He is also a consultant for the Ministry of Health and collaborates with research groups around the world. “Medicinal cannabis has to follow medical lines of thought and development and modern medical routes” in order to produce proper drugs, he said. Pointing to an international paucity of clinical trials, he said, “Israel has more than the United States at the moment, which is ridiculous. ” In the United States, medical marijuana programs exist in many states but remain illegal under federal law. Professor Mechoulam is also a member of the advisory board of Breath of Life, whose products, according to Mr. Gedo, the chief executive, are made according to pharmaceutical protocols. “We are working as a pharmaceutical company, not a cannabis company,” Mr. Gedo said. Breath of Life is participating in a dozen clinical trials, including one based on cannabinoids, the chemical compounds in marijuana, for autism in children with the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. According to Mr. Gedo, several American companies are conducting trials in Israel based on Breath of Life’s active pharmaceutical ingredients. Teva Israel, a subsidiary of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. recently announced a distribution and cooperation agreement with Syqe Medical, a Tel Aviv company that developed an inhaler for administering marijuana in precise doses. The dose can be tailored to each patient like a standard medical treatment, which experts say should reduce or eliminate the objections of reluctant physicians. Two international medical marijuana conferences have taken place in Israel this year. At the Cann10 conference in Tel Aviv in September, speakers discussed science, medicine, technology and commerce. Purveyors, some in white lab coats, displayed their wares. A grower called PharmoCann displayed rows of sealed plastic vials containing strains of flowers undergoing testing with names like Blue, Train Wreck and Voodoo Child. Israelis have been producing products with varying degrees of THC for years. Another company at the Cann10 conference, Cannabliss, makes medical marijuana oil and other nonsmoking products, works with a professor of immunotherapy and bone marrow at the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem and supplies the hospital’s medical marijuana dispensary. “We hope the market will open up in the world as soon as possible,” Moshe Ihea, Cannabliss’s founder and chief executive, said. “First we have to open up the people. ” He added that he had discovered the medicinal benefits after he suffered a leg injury during an army exercise. Saul Kaye, a pharmacist and the chief executive of iCan: a venture fund and technology incubator for driving the global medical marijuana industry, said this “could be another incredible economy for Israel. ” He added, “There’s a national consciousness for cannabis that you cannot ignore. ” | 1 |
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. Reaction to President Trump’s address tended to focus on its sober style. His seriousness of purpose and calls for unity reassured — and surprised — many listeners. “I think it sounded great, like a utopia,” one voter said, adding, “I don’t think it’s that simple. ” Indeed, Mr. Trump, who met with congressional Republican leaders on Wednesday, faces not only a committed Democratic opposition but a divided Republican Party. Today’s episode of The Daily podcast examines the president’s speech to Congress, his call for unity and his promise to protect America. Listen from a computer, on an iOS device or on an Android device. _____ 2. Emboldened by encouraging signals from the Trump administration, populist leaders across Central and Eastern Europe are cracking on nongovernmental organizations once protected by Washington. Groups that promote open government, aid refugees and often serve as checks on authoritarian governments are being targeted. Organizations funded by George Soros, the liberal American billionaire, are facing particular ire, accused of working to flood Europe with Muslim refugees and transform “Christian” nations into multicultural stews of globalism. _____ 3. Developments in Syria this week: Russia mistakenly bombed Syrian fighters being trained by the U. S. another unintended clash among the myriad forces operating on the battlefield. And U. N. investigators released a report detailing war crimes, calling the Syrian government’s bombing of a humanitarian convoy in September, which killed 14 aid workers, “one of the most egregious. ” Next door in Iraq, the battle for Mosul continues. Our reporter met a family fleeing the portion of the city. _____ 4. Tornadoes lashed the Midwest, killing at least three people and leaving a trail of splintered homes, razed businesses and power outages. The severe weather isn’t over yet. Forecasters said the and Deep South were also at risk. _____ 5. Snap Inc. is losing money, but its valuation was set at $24 billion on the eve of its arrival on the New York Stock Exchange, one of the biggest market debuts in years. Shares of the Snapchat parent company were priced at $17, higher than expected in an indication of strong demand. _____ 6. Scientists may have found the oldest signs of life on Earth. Or not. Some researchers say ancient rocks in a remote geological outpost in Canada yielded bacteria fossils that could be up to 4. 2 billion years old, relatively soon after the planet’s birth. Others are dubious — and vocal. Such battles, an optimist observed, are “how science progresses. ” _____ 7. In a sign that the era of the starchitect may be over, a modest team of three architects won their profession’s highest honor: the Pritzker Prize. Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem and Ramon Vilalta set up shop in their hometown in Spain 30 years ago and are not outside the country. Their major works include the Soulages Museum, in Rodez, France, and the Sant Antoni — Joan Oliver Library in Barcelona. The award cited “their intensely collaborative way of working together, where the creative process, commitment to vision and all responsibilities are shared equally. ” _____ 8. Los Angeles votes for mayor next Tuesday. The incumbent, Eric Garcetti, a Democrat, faces some criticism for being “bureaucratic bland” but seems assured of beating 10 challengers for a second term — and possibly a bigger role in an embattled national party. We caught up with him at an outdoor cafe downtown, where he sipped green tea, fielded requests for money from a homeless man, and said: “I think people mistake bloody noses for big accomplishments. Maybe because I don’t draw blood, but we actually work well with people, that that is seen as cautious. ” _____ 9. Our tech writer says the sexism scandal at Uber feels like a watershed moment for Silicon Valley. “This could be the start of a deep, and thorough effort to remake a culture that has long sidelined women — not just at Uber but across the tech business, too,” he writes. _____ 10. Spring is almost here. Here’s a guide to the season’s most promising live events, from Bette Midler’s star turn in “Hello, Dolly!” to Chris Rock’s first standup tour in nearly a decade to The Weeknd’s new North American jaunt. And don’t forget “Groundhog Day,” a new musical based on the hit film, coming to Broadway this spring after a London run. Above, Punxsutawney Phil, aka Raymond J. Lee, in transit. _____ 11. Finally, we’ve been surfing the web for you. And we found lots of great stories that have nothing to do with politics. For instance, Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s fitness routine, ’s special scent, the world’s worst skier and a trip to infinity. Have a great night. _____ Photographs may appear out of order for some readers. Viewing this version of the briefing should help. Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p. m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a. m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here’s last night’s briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 1 |
SEOUL, South Korea — The defector from North Korea in years said on Wednesday that the days of the country’s leadership were “numbered,” and that its attempts to control outside information were not working because of corruption and discontent. “I am sure that more defections of my colleagues will take place, since North Korea is already on a slippery slope,” the defector, Thae said during a news conference in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. “The traditional structures of the North Korean system are crumbling. ” Mr. Thae had been the North’s No. 2 diplomat in London until he fled to the South last summer with his family. South Korea has hailed his defection as a sign of growing disillusionment among North Korean elites with the country’s leader, Kim . Since December, Mr. Thae has given a series of interviews to share his dire view of today’s North Korea. Mr. Thae’s diagnosis of Mr. Kim’s rule is hardly new. Defectors from the North, as well as some conservative analysts and policy makers in the South, widely share that view. Still, it signaled a drastic change of roles for Mr. Thae. Before his defection, he was a career diplomat, fluent in English, who had served in Britain, Denmark and Sweden, often delivering passionate speeches glorifying the Kim family that has ruled North Korea for seven decades. In the South, Mr. Thae, now affiliated with the Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank arm of the National Intelligence Service, has vowed to spend the rest of his life trying to bring down the North Korean government. Mr. Thae said he had high expectations when Mr. Kim took power after the death of his father, Kim in 2011. Schooled for several years in Switzerland, Mr. Kim was expected to help modernize his impoverished country. Instead, he resorted to a “reign of terror” by executing scores of officials, including his uncle Jang whom he thought posed a challenge to his power, Mr. Thae said. The former diplomat said he had come up with a detailed plan for his defection, first ensuring that his two sons joined him and his wife in London. (North Korean diplomats are required to leave a child in the North, a measure intended to prevent their defection.) He declined to reveal details of his defection plan and the circumstances. While in London, his sons began asking questions, like why the North Korean government executed people in public without a proper trial, Mr. Thae said. Their English friends taunted them with questions, like why Mr. Kim had smoked a cigarette inside a nursery. The day Mr. Thae broached his plan for defection with his sons, he told them that he wanted to break the “chain of slavery” for them, he recalled. They wanted to know if they would have free access to the internet, books and movies in the South, he said. The best way to force change in the isolated North, he continued, is to disseminate outside information there to help ordinary citizens eventually rebel. South Korean TV dramas and movies smuggled from China are already popular in the North, he said. Another sign of Mr. Kim’s weakening control, Mr. Thae said, is evident at the unofficial markets in North Korea where women trade goods, mostly smuggled from China. The vendors used to be called “grasshoppers” because they would pack and flee whenever they saw the police approaching. Now, they are called “ticks” because they refuse to budge, demanding a right to make a living, Mr. Thae said. Such resistance, even if small in scale, is unprecedented, he added. The spread of outside news and market activities could eventually doom Mr. Kim because his government “can be held in place and maintained only by idolizing Kim like a god,” Mr. Thae said. “If he tries to introduce a economy to North Korean society, then there will be no place for Kim in North Korea, and he knows that. ” But the leader’s efforts to clamp down on information and products from outside North Korea have been unsuccessful because the police accept bribes in exchange for freeing smugglers and people caught watching banned movies and dramas. “Kim ’s days are numbered,” Mr. Thae said on Wednesday. After months of debriefing by the authorities in South Korea, Mr. Thae used meetings with the country’s politicians and the news media to suggest that North Korea was determined to be recognized as a nuclear power, just as India and Pakistan are. Last year, the North conducted two nuclear tests and launched more than 20 ballistic missiles, and it has openly vowed to develop the ability to hit the United States with a nuclear warhead. “It won’t happen,” Donald J. Trump, then said at the time. During the election campaign, Mr. Trump had said he was willing to sit down with Mr. Kim and perhaps have a hamburger with him. On Wednesday, Mr. Thae warned against compromising with the North, arguing that sanctions were effective. In recent interviews with local news outlets, he said that North Korea had lost annual income worth tens of millions dollars, after Britain froze accounts last year held by its insurance company as part of sanctions recommended by the United Nations. Until then, the company had claimed large insurance payments through fabricated documents, he said. Mr. Kim wanted to negotiate a compromise, under which the United States and South Korea would cancel their annual joint military exercises and lift sanctions on the North in return for a moratorium on North Korean missile and nuclear tests, Mr. Thae said. But such a deal would validate Mr. Kim’s argument that he had been forced to develop nuclear weapons as a reaction to American hostility, he said. “That is really a trap Kim wants,” Mr. Thae said. | 1 |
WASHINGTON — Edgar M. Welch, a father of two from Salisbury, N. C. recently read online that Comet Ping Pong, a pizza restaurant in northwest Washington, was harboring young children as sex slaves as part of a ring led by Hillary Clinton. The articles making those allegations were widespread across the web, appearing on sites including Facebook and Twitter. Apparently concerned, Mr. Welch drove about six hours on Sunday from his home to Comet Ping Pong to see the situation for himself, according to court documents. Not long after arriving at the pizzeria, the police said, he fired from an rifle. The police arrested him. They found a rifle and a handgun in the restaurant. No one was hurt. In an arraignment on Monday, a heavily tattooed Mr. Welch, wearing a white jumpsuit and shackles, was ordered held. According to the criminal complaint, he told the authorities that he was armed to help rescue children but that he surrendered peacefully after finding no evidence that “children were being harbored in the restaurant. ” He was charged with four counts, including felony assault with a deadly weapon and carrying a gun without a license outside a home or business. Unbeknown to Mr. Welch, what he had been reading online were fake news articles about Comet Ping Pong, which have swollen in number over time. The false articles against the pizzeria began appearing on social networks and websites in late October, not long before the presidential election, with the restaurant identified as being the headquarters for a ring. The articles were soon exposed as false by publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post and the website Snopes. But the debunking did not squash the conspiracy theories about Comet Ping Pong — instead, it led to the opposite. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have been flooded with more attacks against the pizzeria as believers in the conspiracy became more zealous. Within hours of the publication of one of the debunking articles, a post on Twitter by Representative Steven Smith of the 15th District of Georgia — not a real lawmaker and not a real district — warned that what was fake was the information being peddled by the mainstream media. It was retweeted dozens of times. On YouTube, a takedown of the Times article was viewed nearly 250, 000 times and passed around on Twitter and Facebook. A surge of new fake articles amplified the original pieces, now linking the ring — known as Pizzagate — to a global pedophilia ring reaching Britain. “We should all condemn the efforts of certain people to spread malicious and utterly false accusations about Comet Ping Pong,” James Alefantis, the owner of Comet Ping Pong, said in a statement on Sunday. Mr. Alefantis, who has repeatedly refuted the fake news articles, has closed the pizzeria for a few days. He has prominent Democratic friends and previously communicated with Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman, which he has said may have made him a target. The shooting underscores the stubborn lasting power of fake news and how hard it is to stamp out. Debunking false news articles can sometimes stoke the outrage of the believers, leading fake news purveyors to feed that appetite with more misinformation. Efforts by social media companies to control the spread of these stories are limited, and shutting one online discussion thread down simply pushes the fake news creators to move to another space online. “The reason why it’s so hard to stop fake news is that the facts don’t change people’s minds,” said Leslie Harris, a former president of the Center for Democracy Technology, a nonprofit that promotes free speech and open internet policies. When users are caught abusing the terms of one media platform, they simply go to another, she said. The viral nature of the misinformation was illustrated again late Sunday, not long after the police arrested Mr. Welch and called Pizzagate a “fictitious online conspiracy theory” in their report. Some individuals on Twitter said Mr. Welch was an actor used by the mainstream media to divert attention from the alleged crimes at Comet Ping Pong. Followers of a shuttered Reddit thread on Pizzagate dissected the episode on a new online network called Voat. The storm of fake news has swept up not only Comet Ping Pong, but its neighboring businesses. Conspiracy theorists have linked symbols that some local businesses on the same street as Comet Ping Pong used in their logos to symbols of pedophilia code. At Terasol, a French restaurant across the street from Comet Ping Pong, the owner, Sabrina Ousmaal, said she received daily phone threats and her business’s Facebook page had been filled with false accusations, including, “You guys mind explaining the pedophilia symbol removed from your website then?” She added that the symbol was not on her restaurant but on the store of a nearby shop and was a swirl within a triangle. Ms. Ousmaal said she and her husband had called the police and the F. B. I. but had received little guidance. “I am appalled and horrified,” Ms. Ousmaal said of the shooting on Sunday. “Nothing has been done. This is not free speech. This is a hate crime. ” Tech companies and government leaders have been struggling to solve the problem of fake news, with Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, earlier promising to work on technology tools to slow the gusher of false digital information. In a news briefing on Monday, Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said free speech rights pose a challenge for media platforms to prevent misinformation from leading to episodes like the gunman at Comet Ping Pong. “Many of the entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley didn’t develop this technology to make it easier for hate to be propagated online their idea was to build a community where people could more effectively communicate and engage in commerce,” Mr. Earnest said. “If you do administer a platform that is used extensively to propagate hate and to inspire acts of violence, well, I think most people are going to be less likely to use the platform. ” For purveyors of fake news who have continued pushing the Pizzagate theory even after the facts have been debunked, whether Comet Ping Pong is even engaged in a pedophilia ring is beyond the point. Jeffrey Marty, a lawyer from Florida, said in a phone interview that he was the man posing as Representative Steven Smith from Georgia’s fictional 15th District. He said that he was frustrated with the way the mainstream media covered the election and that he believes that most of his 24, 000 followers know that his account is a parody. Mr. Marty, who has tweeted links to fake news stories and repeatedly said the mainstream media needs to investigate Pizzagate, declined to say whether he actually believed the Comet Ping Pong allegations. “I just think you need to investigate. There are clues everywhere,” he said. “But I don’t agree with what happened at the restaurant. ” Mr. Welch has long supported family values, his friends said Monday. He briefly volunteered at the Locke Township Fire Department in Salisbury, according to the chief, Rusty Alexander. Friends described Mr. Welch as a doting father who loved the outdoors. While he had been arrested while driving impaired in 2013 and was sentenced to probation, the shooting on Sunday was out of character, his friends said. “That’s not at all the person I know,” Louis Bodak, whose son Matthew is a good friend of Mr. Welch’s, said about the shooting. Mr. Welch is scheduled to appear in court again on Thursday. | 1 |
A traditionally reliable indicator, lurking in a recent opinion poll, suggests Britain will vote on Thursday to remain in the European Union. The main question that polling firms typically ask respondents in any contest is how they intend to vote. In the case of the referendum on “Brexit,” as a possible British exit from the E. U. is known, the polls straightforwardly ask people if they want to remain in the union or leave. After a string of polls showing a sizable lead for “leave,” polls released in the last few days effectively show a tie, or a small lead for remaining. This shift away from “leave” prompted a rally in global markets on Monday. But one of those polls, conducted by Survation, also asked voters which side they expected to win. Asking people to predict a result of an election has, over time, provided more accurate forecasts than asking people their voting intentions, according to a study by Justin Wolfers, a University of Michigan economist and an Upshot contributor, and David Rothschild, of the Microsoft Research and Statistics Center. When Survation asked, “Regardless of how you plan to vote, what do you think the result will be?” just shy of 40 percent of people said the “remain” camp would win. Only 26 percent said that “leave” would prevail. The remaining 34 percent said they did not know what the result would be. Mr. Rothschild said the “don’t know” figure is high for this sort of question. But he noted that undecided voters tend to support the status quo, in part because they are more and may be less informed. Also notable: Supporters of the leave camp don’t seem to have a high level of confidence that their side will prevail. Some 35 percent of “leave” supporters said they thought “remain” would win. By contrast, only 14 percent of “remain” supporters predicted that “leave” would win. Of course, this is not a guaranteed indicator the Brexit referendum may be a vote that reveals its limitations. All things considered, though, “remain” seems to be in a strong position in these last days before the vote. The surge in the polls for “leave” appears to have been stalled, or even reversed. The betting markets suggest a roughly 75 percent chance of a victory for “remain. ” | 1 |
RIO DE JANEIRO — Behind the scenes of the Olympic matchups and rivalries that draw large crowds here, there is stealth competition taking place in the hallways and hotels of this beach town worth tens of billions of dollars. It is a bidding war that could rival the most ferocious auction on Wall Street. Armies of delegates from four cities — led by a series of moguls, bankers, businessmen and government officials — have been quietly battling one another here to court the leadership of the International Olympic Committee in hopes of being awarded the 2024 Summer Games. The delegates, representing Los Angeles, Paris, Rome and Budapest, have been scoping out the venues, receiving briefings on the massive security operation and taking meetings with just about anyone who can conceivably influence the outcome. But these cities are all seeking to win a contest that for nearly the last three decades has been seemingly cursed. With few exceptions, the Games have cost the host cities billions. Rio is expected to spend at least $12 billion on the Games and to lose at least $4. 6 billion, according to a study by Oxford. The last profitable Olympic Games, at least on paper, took place in 1984 in Los Angeles, and that might have been a historical anomaly. The 1976 Games in Montreal lost over $1 billion. “Hosting the Games has become an increasingly expensive gambit indeed, as the rules for bidding currently stand, the entire structure of the Olympic Games shouts ‘potential host beware,’” according to Robert A. Baade and Victor A. Matheson, sports economists who wrote a paper on the expense of hosting the Olympics. What is it about the Olympics that causes some cities that are typically unwilling to spend a cent on infrastructure or planning to overspend so wildly? And is there a meaningful way to change the business model to rein in costs so that the Games can be both popular and profitable? Those are the questions that the International Olympic Committee and the four cities competing to host the 2024 Games are trying to answer. The Los Angeles delegation of some 25 people here is led by Casey Wasserman, the agency executive and grandson of the Hollywood mogul Lew Wasserman, as well as Gene Sykes, a longtime partner at Goldman Sachs, who has been behind some of the largest mergers and acquisitions of the last three decades. The Angelenos are making low cost (about $4. 6 billion) and sustainability the cornerstones of their bid by proposing to use existing facilities like the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, currently home to the Rams football team. According to their marketing material, “L. A. 2024 is about what we have, not what we’re going to build. ” Similarly, the Paris coalition’s bid for the Games is based, in large part, on the infrastructure that the city already has the Parisians estimate their cost would be about $7 billion, which is considered by Olympics standards. But a bid by Rome, which hopes to follow a similar model, may already be in jeopardy: The city’s new mayor, Virginia Raggi, has very publicly objected, saying that Rome’s municipal deficit is too vast to consider hosting the Olympics. “Historical data from the Olympics, discounting eventual episodes of corruption, shows us that the costs are not sustainable,” she said in June. “Other cities have already withdrawn their bids for these reasons. And I don’t think they were thinking about corruption or Mafia infiltrations. ” She was probably referring to Boston, which last year ended its effort to host the 2024 Games over anxieties about the cost. On the flip side, the mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, who is here, made news when he hinted that the possibility of a Donald J. Trump presidency could make his city’s bid less attractive. “An America that turns inward, like any country that turns inward, isn’t good for world peace, isn’t good for progress, isn’t good for all of us,” he said, in the context of the factors that the International Olympic Committee might weigh. But he also said he didn’t think the outcome of the American presidential election would affect the outcome of the committee’s decision. Whatever analyses have been done of the potential benefits and costs, they haven’t dampened the zeal of the delegates in Rio: The competition to become the host city for 2024 has become so fierce that the committee issued a reprimand. “Three 2024 Candidate Cities have contacted media and invited them to their hospitality houses here in Rio,” the committee said in a statement. “They have all been reminded that this was not permitted and have subsequently stopped their activities. ” Given the continuing concerns about costs and the burden that often falls to taxpayers, a larger question has emerged about whether the modern Olympics should continue to crisscross the globe as the lottery ticket it has become. Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, has endorsed the view that the Olympics should be permanently located in Greece, its birthplace. Others have suggested that the Olympics rotate among four of five permanent locations. Then there are more complicated ideas, including having a “distributed” Olympics that would take place at the same time in multiple cities, using existing stadiums and avoiding overwhelming any individual city. But here’s a thought: How about simultaneously granting a city the Olympics twice, once now and again 12 years later? That would allow the host city to enjoy the economic benefits of the Games twice, effectively bringing in double the revenue and amortizing the infrastructure costs over two events. More important, it would force the cities to think long and hard about creating an infrastructure plan for the long term — one that works not just for the Olympics but also for residents, who will have to live with what is left behind. And it would allow emerging cities to bid competitively on the Games against more established cities that might already have infrastructure in place. (One downside of the committee’s current focus on lower costs is that potential new entrants could be eliminated from bidding to host the Games because the cost would invariably be so much higher.) An alternative suggestion is that the committee grant a city the Olympics for two consecutive Games, but where’s the fun in that? One of the great joys of the Olympics is the opportunity to be introduced — or reintroduced — to a city. Building in a gap would allow the spotlight to rotate among major global destinations, introducing them to younger spectators and making the cities feel fresh again to older ones. Such a plan would also create an even greater incentive for bidders to commit to investing in the Olympics, and would weed out cities and countries that are unwilling to do so. In fairness, hosting the Olympic Games can clearly put a city on the map it is the ultimate marketing tool. Locals can often benefit, too, from infrastructure improvements and increased tourism. But it will always be hard to make the math work for fiscal disciplinarians. There’s got to be a better way. | 1 |
Фото: AP
Как говорится в сообщении, размещенном на сайте российского внешнеполитического ведомства, в Москве ждут международной реакции на случившееся.
По комплексу посольства России в Сирии террористами было выпущено два снаряда. Одна из мин разорвалась недалеко от главного входа в офисное здание посольства, вторая сдетонировала за внешней оградой дипмиссии. "По счастливой случайности обошлось без жертв. Российскому загранучреждению нанесен материальный ущерб, в том числе повреждены четыре автомобиля", - отмечается на сайте МИД России.
В Москве решительно осудили «очередную террористическую атаку против российского дипломатического представительства», говорится в сообщении. Ведомство также отмечает, что реакция международного сообщества станет лакмусовой бумажкой и покажет, кто из партнеров выгораживает террористов, потакая им и наводя на «удобные» цели.
Напомним, российское посольство в Дамаске не в первый раз становится объектом атаки террористов . 3 октября по зданию дипмиссии было выпущено три снаряда, один из которых разорвался недалеко от жилого комплекса дипломатов. Обстрел велся из пригорода сирийской столицы Джобар, который контролируют боевики из группировок "Джабхат Фатх аш-Шам" и "Файлак ар-Рахман", запрещенных в России.
Следующий аналогичный инцидент произошел 13 октября . "Одна из мин взорвалась в непосредственной близости от поста внешней охраны дипмиссии, еще одна - недалеко от входа в консульский отдел, два минометных снаряда сдетонировали в сотне метров от ограждения посольства", - сообщал МИД России.
Рассуждая о волне истерии по поводу участия России в сирийской войне, о двойных стандартах, когда нашу страну обвиняют в том, что считается совершенно нормальным для вояк из стран НАТО, мало отмечать, что "плакальщики" не жалели боеприпасов в Ливии, в Ираке, в Афганистане и продолжают делать это каждый день. Мы должны попытаться понять, в чем причина этой истерической волны. Башар Асад с самого начала ставил целью участия в войне для Сирийской арабской армии и ее союзников из народного ополчения и из других государств, включая российские воздушно-космические силы, достижение мира. Целью боевых действий было создание военных и политических условий для национального примирения, начала политического процесса, национального диалога, создание, вероятно, новой конституции, нового избирательного законодательства, выборы, продолжение тех реформ, которые он начал. Его противники определяли свою цель совершенно иначе : свержение Башара Асада любой ценой. Занятно, что они (если исключать совсем крайние формы вроде запрещенной в России ИГИЛ), как правило, выступали против политических и экономических реформ. Они хотели, чтобы все в стране было, как раньше, только с ними самими на руководящих должностях.
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One afternoon last summer at BEAM 6, an experimental program in downtown Manhattan for youths with a high aptitude for math, a swarm of and jockeyed for a better view of a poster labeled “Week One Challenge Problem. ” Is there a number where the first digit is equal to how many 0’s are in the number, the second digit is equal to how many 1’s are in the number, the third digit is equal to how many 2’s are in the number, all the way up to the last digit, which is equal to how many 9’s are in the number? Within the scrum was a trio of : “Can we work on this during Open Math Time?” one asked. The second, wearing glasses and dogged by the fear that he did not belong — “I’m really not that good at math,” he had told me earlier — lingered at the snack cart. “Leave some for the rest of us, J. J. ,’’ demanded the third, gently elbowing him aside. To Mira Bernstein, a BEAM instructor and a leading figure in the extracurricular math ecosystem that incubates many of the nation’s scientists and engineers, the scene was unremarkable, except for one striking feature: None of the children were wealthy, and few were white or Asian. The 76 students, drawn from New York City public schools with populations, were embarking on a curriculum that they would have to continue on their own during the school year to be eligible to apply for a second, even more intense math summer program, BEAM 7. That application is due at the end of this month, and with it comes a verdict of sorts on their membership in a subculture where it can be astonishingly difficult to find others who look like them. “This is probably more black and Hispanic kids than I’ve seen in my whole career,” said Dr. Bernstein, who received a Ph. D. in algebraic geometry from Harvard in the 1990s. “That’s why I’m here. ” The extreme racial homogeneity in the rarefied realm of young math wizards has drawn little attention in a nation where racial equality in the basic institutions of civic life — schools, housing, health care, policing — remains elusive. But it has become an increasing source of consternation for some mathematicians, educators and business leaders, who see it directly linked to the striking underrepresentation of blacks and Latinos in jobs in finance, science and technology. As those occupations increasingly propel our society, they fear that enrichment programs for mathematically gifted children, while rooted in meritocratic ideals, have become a particularly potent means of reinforcing privilege. Even as movie audiences celebrate “Hidden Figures,” the story of black women who overcame legally sanctioned discrimination to perform critical calculations in the race to put a man on the moon, educators say that new, subtler obstacles to math education have arisen. These have had an outsize influence on racial prejudice, they contend, because math prowess factors so heavily in the popular conception of intelligence — a concern that recently provoked the creation of “Mathematically Gifted and Black” and “Latin@s and Hispanics in Mathematical Sciences,” websites featuring math professionals from underrepresented backgrounds. “Fundamentally, this is a question about power in society,” said Daniel Zaharopol, BEAM’s director. “Not just financial power, but who is respected, whose views are listened to, who is assumed to be what kind of person. ” BEAM is short for Bridge to Enter Advanced Mathematics, and this, the program’s first year of BEAM 6, for students who had just completed the sixth grade, is what many within elite math circles see as the most promising effort yet to diversify their ranks. The four weeks, spent in a school near City Hall, would be intense: four hours of math a day taught by 10 experienced math teachers, several of them Ph. D.’s. There would be no prepping for standardized tests or effort to cover school material at a faster pace. Instead, as in the elite summer programs that Mr. Zaharopol had himself attended, BEAM focused on the kind of creative that mathematicians say lie at the heart of the discipline. And because one summer would not be anywhere near enough to equip the BEAM with the same kind of math preparation as their more affluent peers, the real goal of the founders — a mix of millionaires and professional mathematicians — was to hook them enough to want to keep at it. A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who suspended his graduate studies in algebraic topology to launch BEAM, Mr. Zaharopol had some idea of what his students were up against. By age 12, many attendees of the highly selective programs on which BEAM was modeled had already won regional math contests and completed online math courses in subjects like number theory. Some had been introduced to advanced math in school honors programs or by math teams. Many were the children of scientists and engineers, or of parents who turned to math as another way to give their children a competitive edge in the battle for admission to elite colleges. “When I was 6, my dad taught me to use the abacus and do mental math,” one student at a selective program called MathPath wrote on the application form. By contrast, BEAM students come from environments where “math is not in the air,” Dr. Bernstein said. The parents of the boy at the snack cart, Jonathan Jackson, do not have degrees in math or science. His school, Kipp STAR, is a charter school in Harlem, but does not have a math team. And like many of the other students at BEAM, Jonathan, who is seemed to have already internalized the racial stereotypes about math that, studies have shown, shape among young Americans of all backgrounds. “They did a study that shows white kids have more chances,” he said once, remembering a fragment of something he had been told. Then he shrugged, “I don’t know if it’s really true. ” Tracing Jonathan’s path through the program and into the school year provides a glimpse of both how easy it might be to nurture a love of math, and how daunting. It is also a testament to the persuasive power of friendship, unfolding over several months in the context of prime numbers and polyhedron sculptures. Jonathan, who chose J. J. as his summer nickname, had done everything in his power to avoid attending BEAM, which is financed by individual donors and foundations, and is free to participants. Then 11, he was chosen by his school to take the program’s admissions test, and hid the acceptance letter upon receiving it last spring at school. When his mother, Kiana Ashburn, 32, found the letter buried at the bottom of his backpack, she waved off his pleas to go to the karate camp she had signed him up for. “You need to get a good education so you can get a good job and have a good future,” she told him that afternoon in their sparely furnished rowhouse in the Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx. She was all the more certain on the Friday before the program started, when the world awakened to a Facebook Live video of an unarmed black cafeteria worker in Minnesota, Philando Castile, bleeding to death in his car after being shot by a police officer. She often made Jonathan repeat what he was to do if he were ever stopped: “Just do what he says, and like, don’t try to resist,” he recited. She thought of math as a field that “usually Asians dominate,’’ she said. It would not protect him from police violence, she knew, or the other things she feared. Her brother had spent time in prison. “But it could act as a buffer,” she remembers thinking. Ms. Ashburn, a postal clerk who graduated last year with a business degree from Monroe College in the Bronx, left before dawn for work on the first day of camp. Jonathan’s sister, Jasmine, a year older than him, was headed to summer school after dropping off their younger brothers at karate camp. Jonathan walked himself around the corner at 7 a. m. to meet his subway group in what would become a daily routine. Omar Pineda Jr. was the counselor assigned to escort them, but it was Emyr Willis, 11, who broke the ice. “Hello,” he greeted them with the formality they would come to see as his trademark. “I am the both the emissary and ambassador from my school. ” Thays Garcia, also 11, was the group’s third member. “I love math,” she said, her face lighting up when asked why she had agreed to spend her summer doing math problems. Her stepfather, Kevin Rincon, who dropped her off each morning, said he had taught himself algebra while serving a prison sentence for a drug felony. Now an account manager at Mr. Rincon had several years earlier set Thays up with Khan Academy, a widely used service with free online math lessons. As she breezed ahead several grade levels, her friends gave her a nickname that she proudly took on: “Calculator. ” But Khan, Mr. Rincon also knew, was designed to foster basic math literacy, not “the theoretic understanding of exactly what is going on,” as he put it in his email to BEAM. “I want new possibilities and worlds opened for her to see. ” Jonathan did not know it, but he had placed comfortably in the top half of the students admitted to BEAM, who in turn had been drawn from the top quarter of the 400 nominated by schools or parents to take the admissions test. He had spotted patterns and tried solutions that others had not. He had also placed above grade level on New York’s statewide math test, a distinction shared by only 21 percent of the city’s sixth graders, and just 7 percent of sixth graders who are black. He and Thays and Emyr were exactly the kinds of promising students for which BEAM had been created. But it had not been easy to get it going. Some potential supporters objected to devoting resources to minority students rather than the much larger group performing below grade level. Others voiced perceptions that reflect common stereotypes — including the idea that Asians are naturally better at math than anyone else. Sociologists say that misconception exists in part because a high proportion of Asian immigrants to the United States already possess a degree. They are, in turn, better equipped to steer children toward advanced math programs, as are scientists and engineers, who are disproportionately white. In interviews, directors of established elite math programs expressed dismay at the way their own enrollments reflect those patterns. Most are nonprofits with limited money, organized by trained mathematicians for the benefit of students whose passion for math often leaves them at the bottom of social hierarchies at school. Some offer scholarships, but most said it was often difficult to find qualified students from underrepresented groups. “We don’t see many applications from blacks and Latinos,” said Glenn Stevens, the director of Program in Mathematics for Young Scientists, a summer math camp for high school students based at Boston University. “I wish I could tell you it was improving,” said Elaine Hansen, the director of the Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins University. “I don’t see that it is. ” about 15 percent of the population under 45, obtained about 2 percent of the Ph. D.’s in the fields of math, engineering and physical sciences awarded in 2015, compared to 18. 7 percent in social work and 7. 3 percent of doctoral degrees in all fields, according to the National Science Foundation. (A total of 20 black graduate students received Ph. D’s in math and statistics, out of 1, 802). Hispanics were only marginally better represented. That means whites and are the recipients of the tens of billions of dollars in public funding devoted to research in those fields. It also affects employment: Both Google and Facebook reported last year that Hispanic and black employees together account for only 4 percent of their technical work force. There are other reasons for career disparities beyond who goes to math camp, of course, like the expense of postsecondary education and an effectively segregated public school system that provides education to many minority students. But the math divide is growing as more white and Asian parents enroll their children, even when they don’t show a knack for numbers, in online math classes and the weekly math circles that have sprouted on university campuses. And the lack of experiences for black and Latino students, mathematicians and educators say, makes it harder for even high achievers in good schools to compete for spots at the colleges that serve as a springboard for plum jobs in science and technology. “How do you even know a whole bunch of students are supersizing their education and you’re just doing your homework and getting A’s in your A. P. calculus classes?” said Quinton McArthur, M. I. T. ’s associate dean of admissions. “It’s exacerbated the gap and no one even realizes. ” BEAM was founded in 2011 with help from Sandor Lehoczky, a senior trader at Jane Street and a onetime math team champion, who is known for subjecting job applicants to math puzzles. The math whizzes he hires, he said, have been “swimming in a culture of math’’ from an early age. But BEAM’s selective camp for students from backgrounds who had just completed seventh grade has had mixed results. “Although our students make tremendous progress,” Mr. Zaharopol wrote in a 2015 grant proposal, “it is clear that many of them, even our highest achievers, are still well below their potential. ” BEAM 6, designed for students who have just completed sixth grade, he said, reflected what they had learned: “We need to start earlier and we need to keep them for longer,’’ he said. At BEAM, Jonathan turned the lights off when he walked in and out of classrooms. He sped from one end of the room to another on his rolling chair, popping in on fellow students who were supposed to be working. He seemed more focused on complaining about the lunch food than zeroing in on logic. “Mathematicians love the struggle,” one of the teachers repeated as a kind of mantra when students complained. “When you feel uncomfortable, you’re learning. ” But whether students like Jonathan were having trouble with the math, were unprepared or were simply not trying was a subject of debate. In their weekly faculty meetings, the teachers often marveled at their students’ progress. “I can’t get them to stop doing math,” said Giselle George, who teaches at a public middle school on the Lower East Side. But teaching advanced concepts to students who had not all had the chance to learn certain basic math skills, like the laws of exponents, proved more difficult than some had anticipated. “I find they’re not very good at when they’re lost or bored,” said another teacher, Marcelle Good. “I guess they’re used to being lost or bored. ” During the program’s second week, Jonathan was a focus for both their hopes and their frustrations. “How do you get kids who haven’t had the exposure the tools to even realize that math is something they like?” Dr. Bernstein lamented. “He’s engageable,” said Michael Pershan, who teaches math at St. Ann’s, a private school in Brooklyn Heights. “I vote for upping the mathiness. ” “I’m open to suggestions for how to reach him,” said another. “He’s a pretty big distraction in my class. ” Beyond their views, though, there were signs that Jonathan was finding other ways to connect to math. A few days after the challenge problem was posted in the hallway, he was lingering by the snack cart again when Thays arrived. “Hey, Thays,” he said, brightening slightly at the sight of his commuting partner. He had infuriated her that morning by snapping a picture of her nostrils with his phone, but had quickly redeemed himself by directing her to the sole empty seat on the crowded train. “You going to try it?” she asked, nodding toward the problem. They both knew she had already solved it. (See how she did it in this quiz it’s question No. 5.) He shrugged, looking sideways at her. “Maybe,” he said. By the second week of camp, Jonathan, Emyr and Thays knew the passcodes to one another’s phones so they could trade games. Thays and Jonathan had a running Subway Surfers phone game competition Emyr sought to inspire the others with his passion for Pokemon Go. But they didn’t share everything. Thays did not divulge, for instance, that her biological father, whom she rarely saw, had canceled plans for a trip she was looking forward to later in the summer. His friends did not know that Jonathan’s father was a subway train conductor whom he had last seen about a year ago, in a chance encounter at the 125th street subway station near his school. Emyr did not talk about the bullies who had tormented him in elementary school. But one day on the subway that week, they talked about Black Lives Matter, a subject that held an emotional resonance, at least for Thays and Jonathan. When it came up, it seemed at first that Emyr had not been able to hear the thread of Thays and Jonathan’s conversation over the subway din. Thays, whose parents and stepfather are Dominican, had been to a protest some months earlier with her stepfather. She had written a poem about it. Jonathan had a vivid memory of the video his mother had shown him earlier that month: “There was a kid in the back of the car,” he said, referring to the death of Philando Castile. Trying to translate, I asked Emyr if he had heard of Black Lives Matter. Emyr’s father is Jamaican, his mother Puerto Rican. “No,” Emyr said. “But it’s true. ” Jonathan, looking up from his phone, took the opportunity to fill him in. “How can you not know what Black Lives Matter is?” he demanded. “It’s about how black people are getting killed by cops and it needs to stop. ” Seeking to lighten the trip home that afternoon, Mr. Pineda asked what they recalled of their day. Thays volunteered the simple riddle Dr. Bernstein had asked in her “Codes Codes Codes” class: “I’m thinking of a number from zero to 15. You have to guess my number by asking me four yes or no questions. ” Then Thays added the problem’s final complication: “How many questions does it take if I’m allowed to lie once?” As they deduced the strategy, they were working up to a harder problem, related to Hamming codes, the codes that underlie digital storage and communications. “There’s also something called binary,” Thays informed Jonathan and Emyr. The girls she had become friends with in that class had agreed that they were all going to BEAM 7, she volunteered. “What about you guys?” “Of course I’m going to BEAM 7,” Emyr said. “J. J. ?” she prodded. But he was peering into his phone. That Jonathan was one of just a few boys at BEAM (some of the other black students were the children of African or Caribbean immigrants) could have been a fluke. Or it could have been a reflection of the unique forms of discrimination faced by young males, even in elementary school. BEAM relies on the schools with whom it partners to select which students to take its admissions test, and teachers, studies have shown, pass over qualified black students for gifted programs at higher rates than for whites and Hispanics. Black boys, said Danny Martin, an education professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, are most subject to the classroom dynamic he calls “Learning Mathematics While Black. ’’ Along with incarceration rates that are higher for young black men than for any other group, that dynamic may contribute to why black women receive a higher share of bachelor’s degrees in math, chemistry and physics, fields in which men of other ethnicities outnumber women. Whatever the reason, many of the counselors working alongside the teachers at BEAM were paying special attention to Jonathan. One of them was Christian Henderson, an accounting major at Siena College, in Loudonville, N. Y. “It’s important to educate a kid like J. J. right now,” he said, “so they know in their head they’re on the same level as any white or Asian or Hispanic kid, before they get a little older and they see other people may not think, you know, that’s true. ” Jonathan’s subway counselor, Mr. Pineda, 22, who is part Honduran and part Dominican, told Jonathan how a professor at Amherst College had mentioned that summer math camp had paved the way for many of his wealthy white classmates, whereas he felt lost during his sophomore year in discrete mathematics. A student at a Harlem high school where the majority of his fellow students were deemed unprepared for college, Mr. Pineda had taken A. P. calculus and secured admission to Amherst with the help of an organization called QuestBridge aimed at matching underrepresented minority students with colleges. By most measures, he knew, he was a success story. He had just graduated with a degree in math and Japanese studies. But it still bothered him that his classmates, the “summer math nerds,” as he and a friend had taken to calling them, had zoomed ahead. “You should look at this, J. J. ,” Mr. Pineda said on the Thursday afternoon of BEAM’s second week, leafing through his homework folder to a triangular numbers problem. “I think you’d like it. ” The following morning, Thays collapsed in pain at the Columbus Circle subway station as they were waiting for the A train. Emyr paced. Jonathan patted her arm. Mr. Pineda debated what to do. Her stomach hurt, she said. He tried to reach her parents, then called 911. Another counselor met the boys to take them to camp while Mr. Pineda accompanied Thays to the emergency room. When she didn’t come back the next day, or the next, Jonathan railed at Thays’s invisible presence as he, Mr. Pineda and Emyr made the morning commute. “Thays! I know you’re just at home watching TV!” He also found himself thinking about math on the subway, visualizing a problem with triangular numbers and sifting through their patterns. BEAM teachers had explained it as a combination of math and pocket change: A triangular number is the number of pennies required if you’re trying to make a triangle. For instance, if you want your triangle to have 2 pennies to a side, you’ll need 3 pennies total if you want it to have 3 pennies to a side, you need 6 pennies for a triangle of 4 pennies to a side, you need 10. So 3, 6, 10 (and so on) are called the triangular numbers, and Jonathan was in search of the 299th triangular number. With the help of Marquia Williams, a BEAM counselor who was majoring in math at the State University of New York at Oswego, he figured it out, rewarding her with a stifled grin. After nearly a week away, Thays returned — her collapse had been caused by an ulcer that required minor surgery — to find Jonathan actually sitting still. He even raised his hand once in a while to offer insights in the class they shared. At home on one of the final days, Jonathan’s sister, Jasmine, sat on the steps of their house. She had been attending summer school to catch up in several classes. “How’s that camp going?” she asked. “Are you still behind in your math?” He was silent for a moment. “You know, I’m not at that camp because I’m bad at math,” he said finally. “I’m there because I’m good at math. ” On the last day of program, the BEAM students gathered in a room to receive a graduation certificate. As their names were called, the counselors cheered. An especially loud one erupted for Jonathan. Mr. Zaharopol made a final plug for the online class he hoped they would take, which started a few weeks after the beginning of school. Each student received a sheet of paper with information about how to log on. BEAM would cover the cost. They would also receive problem sets in the mail, he told them, and he hoped they would send them back. The application for BEAM 7 would come at the end of the year. Emyr was among many who sobbed as the assembly broke up. A few parents had taken up the invitation to attend, including Thays’s stepfather, but he was under strict instructions to drive home on his own. “She wants to go home with her regular group,” he said, shrugging. On the subway, Thays fished in her bag, pulling out a white envelope that she gave to Omar then another that she gave to Emyr, marked with a drawing of his favorite Pokemon character. “You made a slight mistake with the Pikachu,” he noted. “Their eyes are supposed to be black on white. ” “Where’s my present?” Jonathan demanded, as she chatted with Omar. “Come on, Thays. ” Thays let a few more stops go by before relenting. Jonathan tore open the envelope. “Oh special, special JJ,” she had written. “You are so annoying and rude. You always would get me mad and never stopped bothering me. But you always made the train ride fun. You were such a good BEAM friend and I hope to see you in BEAM 7. ” Jonathan paused for a moment before looking up. “Now if you gave me a Nerf gun, it would be better for everyone,” he said, and put his arm around her. The three exchanged phone numbers. A few weeks later, poring over the surveys the students filled out on the last day, Mr. Zaharopol and his staff could take some measure of satisfaction. “I want to get a Ph. D. in math,” one student had written. Neither of his parents had graduated from college. Jonathan, in his review, recommended to future students that they pack their own lunches. He also wrote: “I learned math they don’t teach me at school. ” The teachers, though, wondered how much they’d really been able to achieve. “They’re extremely passionate, and quick to pick up things,” Mr. Zaharopol said in late October, when the BEAM staff gathered for an assessment. “But how many will stick with it? And are we reaching them soon enough?” As police shootings of black men continued and Donald J. Trump moved into the White House, Jonathan’s mother had started to question her belief in the power of math to provide her son with a buffer. “It’s just shocking that his views are the views of a lot of Americans,” she said of the new president. She had allowed Jonathan to take karate after school, and by the start of winter he had obtained his advanced white belt. Jonathan had not heard from Thays, and he was flagging in the online class for which he had dutifully signed up. Sometimes his internet service, always erratic, would disconnect during the lessons. “I might not be able to do it for a few weeks,” he told me. “I have homework. ” But Emyr noted that all three of their names were on the short list of students who had sent back at least two correct answers to one of the problem sets that BEAM sent home. And one evening, on the top bunk of the bed he shares with his brothers, Jonathan decided to try Thays again. “Hey,” he typed into his phone. “Who is this?” came the reply. “Jonathan from BEAM,” he replied. “J. J. ??!!” Her phone had been broken, she explained. She hadn’t received his texts. They traded messages, until Jonathan’s mother reminded him that his phone privileges had been suspended. “I am grounded for a week, so this is the last time we will be talking for now,” he typed quickly. When the BEAM 7 applications arrived earlier this month, Thays and Emyr set to work. No math problems this time, just questions, 11 of them. What did she want to achieve in the eighth grade? “I want to get into Bronx Science!” Thays wrote, a reference to one of the city’s most selective public high schools. “I mean who doesn’t?” Why did he want to go to BEAM 7? “To see my BEAM peers,” wrote Emyr, in addition to “challenging my brain. ” Jonathan let his application sit on the kitchen table for a week. He let a long snow day with no school pass without looking at it. If he didn’t want to go, his mother had told him, she wouldn’t force him. He could do karate instead. Last Sunday, he began filling in the blanks. What kind of math did he find interesting? However unwittingly, his answer reflected BEAM’s key lesson: “I find proportion problems interesting because I’ll always be confused,” he wrote, “but I figure out the answer anyways. ” On Monday, at work, his mother put it in the mail. | 1 |
Joy points upward, according to Marie Kondo, whose name is now a verb and whose nickname is being trademarked and whose life has become a philosophy. In April at the Japan Society in New York, she mounted a stage in an ivory dress and silver heels, made namaste hands at the audience and took her place beneath the display of a Power Point presentation. Now that she has sold nearly six million copies of “The Magic of Tidying Up” and has been on the New York Times list for 86 weeks and counting, she was taking the next logical step: a formal training program for her KonMari method, certifying her acolytes to bring the joy and weightlessness and trajectory of a life to others. The humble hashtag that attended this event was #organizetheworld. Upon entering the Japan Society, the 93 Konverts in attendance (and me) were given lanyards that contained our information: our names, where we live and an option of either the proud “Tidying Completed!” or the shameful “Tidying Not Yet Completed!” In order to be considered tidy, you must have completed the method outlined in Kondo’s book. It includes something called a “ tidying marathon,” which means piling five categories of material possessions — clothing, books, papers, miscellaneous items and sentimental items, including photos, in that order — one at a time, surveying how much of each you have, seeing that it’s way too much and then holding each item to see if it sparks joy in your body. The ones that spark joy get to stay. The ones that don’t get a heartfelt and generous goodbye, via actual verbal communication, and are then sent on their way to their next life. This is the crux of the KonMari — that nickname — and it is detailed in “The Magic” and her more recent book, “Spark Joy,” which, as far as I can tell, is a more specific “The Magic of Tidying Up” but with folding diagrams. She is often mistaken for someone who thinks you shouldn’t own anything, but that’s wrong. Rather, she thinks you can own as much or as little as you like, as long as every possession brings you true joy. Her book was published in the United States in 2014, quietly and to zero fanfare and acclaim. Kondo’s inability to speak English made promotional radio and appearances hard sells. But one day, a New York Times Home section reporter happened upon the book and wrote an article discussing her own attempt at her closets the book caught fire. Soon it was the subject of every kind of press: the adoring profile, the women’s magazine listicle, the feminist takedown, the personal essay, the of harrumph (“The Real Reasons Marie Kondo’s Magic Doesn’t Work for Parents”) the folding demonstration, the joke on “The Mindy Project,” a parody book called “The Magic of Not Giving a [expletive],” and another one called “The Joy of Leaving Your [expletive] All Over the Place. ” By the time her book arrived, America had entered a time of peak stuff, when we had accumulated a mountain of disposable goods — from Costco toilet paper to Isaac Mizrahi swimwear by Target — but hadn’t (and still haven’t) learned how to dispose of them. We were caught between an older generation that bought a princess phone in 1970 for $25 that was still working and a generation that bought $600 iPhones, knowing they would have to replace them within two years. We had the princess phone and the iPhone, and we couldn’t dispose of either. We were burdened by our stuff we were drowning in it. People had an unnaturally strong reaction to the arrival of this woman and her promises of magic. There were people who had been doing home organizing for years by then, and they sniffed at her severe methods. (One professional American organizer sent me a picture of a copy of Kondo’s book, annotated with green sticky notes marking where she approved of the advice and pink ones where she disapproved. The green numbered 16 the pink numbered more than 50). But then there were the women who knew that Kondo was speaking directly to them. They called themselves Konverts, and they say their lives have truly changed as a result of using her decluttering methods: They could see their way out of the stuff by aiming upward. At the Japan Society event, we were split into workshop groups, where we explained to one another what had brought us here and what we had got out of “The Magic of Tidying Up. ” Most of the women at the event could not claim “tidying completed!” status only 27 in the room did, or less than a third. One woman in my group who had finished her tidying, Susan, expressed genuine consternation that a bunch of women who wanted to become KonMari tidying consultants hadn’t even “completed tidying!” How were they going to tidy someone else’s home when they couldn’t even get their own in order? How could they possibly know how profoundly life could improve if they hadn’t yet completed their tidying? A woman named Diana, who wore earrings, said that before she tidied, her life was out of control. Her job had been recently eliminated when she found the book. “It’s a powerful message for women that you should be surrounded by things that make you happy,” she said, and her and everyone else’s faces engaged in incredulous agreement, nodding emphatically up and down, skull to spine and chin to chest. “I found the opposite of happiness is not sadness,” Diana told us. “It’s chaos. ” Another woman said she KonMaried a bad boyfriend. Having tidied everything in her home and finding she still distinctly lacked happiness, she held her boyfriend in her hands, realized he no longer sparked joy and got rid of him. During her lecture, Marie demonstrated how the body feels when it finds tidying joy. Her right arm pointed upward, her left leg bent in a display of glee or flying or something aerial and upright, her body arranged I’ and a tiny hand gesture accompanied by a noise that sounded like “kyong. ” Joy isn’t just happy joy is efficient and adorable. A lack of joy, on the other hand, she represented with a different pose, planting both feet and slumping her frame downward with a sudden visible depletion of energy. When Kondo enacted the lack of joy, she appeared grayer and instantly older. There isn’t a specific enough name for the absence of joy it is every emotion that isn’t pure happiness, and maybe it doesn’t deserve a name, so quickly must it be expunged from your life. It does, however, have a sound effect: “zmmp. ” Joy is the only goal, Kondo said, and the room nodded, yes, yes, in emphatic agreement, heads bobbing and mouths agape in wonder that something so simple needed to be taught to them. “My dream is to organize the world,” Kondo said as she wrapped up her talk. The crowd cheered, and Kondo raised her arms into the air like Rocky. She did not set out to become a superpower in the already booming world of professional organization. It just sort of happened to her, a natural outgrowth of a lifelong obsession with carefully curating her belongings. When she was a little girl, she read all of her mother’s homemaking magazines, and as early as elementary school began researching various tidying methods, so disquieted was her brain by her family’s possessions. Kondo recalls that the national library of Japan held a large collection of tidying, decluttering and organizing books, but it didn’t admit anyone under 18. Kondo spent her 18th birthday there. When she was 19, her friends began offering her money for her tidying services. At the time, she was enrolled at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University, studying sociology, with a concentration on gender. She happened upon a book called “Women With Attention Deficit Disorder,” by Sari Solden, and in it there was a discussion over women who are too distracted to clean their homes. Kondo was disturbed that there was little consideration that a man might pick up the slack in this regard, that a woman with A. D. D. was somehow broken because she couldn’t tidy. But, she conceded, buried in this outrageous notion was a core truth: that women have a closer connection to their surroundings than men do. She realized that the work she was doing as a tidying consultant was far more psychological than it was practical. Tidying wasn’t just a function of your physical space it was a function of your soul. After college she found work at a staffing agency but continued to take tidying jobs in the early mornings and late evenings, initially charging $100 per block. Eventually she quit her job, and soon, even working at tidying full time, the wait list for her services reached six months. When she enters a new home, Kondo says, she sits down in the middle of the floor to greet the space. She says that to fold a shirt the way everyone folds a shirt (a floppy rectangle) instead of the way she thinks you should (a tight mass of dignified fabric so tensile that it could stand upright) is to deprive that shirt of the dignity it requires to continue its work, i. e. hanging off your shoulders until bedtime. She would like your socks to rest. She would like your coins to be treated with respect. She thinks your tights are choking when you tie them off in the middle. She would like you to thank your clothes for how hard they work and ensure that they get adequate relaxation between wearings. Before you throw them out — and hoo boy will you be throwing them out — she wants you to thank them for their service. She wants you to thank that blue dress you never wore, tell it how grateful you are that it taught you how blue wasn’t really your color and that you can’t really pull off an empire waist. She wants you to override the instinct to keep a certain thing because an HGTV show or a magazine or a Pinterest page said it would brighten up your room or make your life better. She wants you to possess your possessions on your own terms, not theirs. (This very simple notion has proved to be incredibly controversial, but more on that later.) She is tiny — just . When I interviewed her, not only did her feet not touch the ground when we were sitting, but her knees didn’t even bend over the side of the couch. When she speaks, she remains and smiling she moves her hands around, framing the air in front of her, as if she were the director on “Electric Company” or Tom Cruise in “Minority Report. ” The only visible possessions in her hotel room for a trip from Tokyo were her husband’s laptop and a small silver suitcase the size of a typical man’s briefcase. She has long bangs that obscure her eyebrows, and that fact — along with the fact that her mouth never changes from a faint smile — contributes to a sense that she is participating in more of a pageant than an interview, which possibly is what it does feel like when American interviewers whose gargantuan feet do touch the ground come to your hotel room and start jawing at you through an interpreter. Her ankles are skinny but her wrists are muscular. When she shows pictures of herself in places she has tidied, before she starts, she looks like a lost sparrow in a tornado. On the other side, in the “after” picture, it is hard to believe that such a creature could effect such change. Her success has taken her by surprise. She never thought someone could become so famous for tidying that it would be hard to walk down the street in Tokyo. “I feel I am busy all the time and I work all the time,” she said, and she did not seem so happy about this, though her faint smile never wavered. She sticks with speaking and press appearances and relegates her business to her handlers — the team of men who pop out of nowhere to surround any woman with a good idea. She feels as if she never has any free time. I spent a few days with her in April, accompanied by her entire operation (eight people total). I attended her “Rachael Ray” appearance, where she was pitted against the show’s organizer, Peter Walsh, in what must have been the modern talk show’s least fair fight ever. Kondo was asked about her philosophies, and she relayed her answers through her interpreter, but when Walsh countered by explaining why an organizing solution Kondo offered was nice but didn’t quite work in the United States, his response was never translated back to Kondo, so how was she supposed to refute it? She stood to the side, smiling and nodding as he proceeded. Had she been told what Walsh was saying, she would say to him what she said to me, that yes, America is a little different from Japan, but ultimately it’s all the same. We’re all the same in that we’re enticed into the false illusion of happiness through material purchase. Kondo does not feel threatened by different philosophies of organization. “I think his method is pretty great too,” she told me later. She leaves room for something that people don’t often give her credit for: that the KonMari method might not be your speed. “I think it’s good to have different types of organizing methods,” she continued, “because my method might not spark joy with some people, but his method might. ” In Japan, there are at least 30 organizing associations, whereas in the United States we have just one major group, the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO). Kondo herself has never heard of NAPO, though she did tell me that she knows that the profession exists in the United States. “I haven’t had a chance to talk to anyone in particular, but what I’ve heard is that thanks to my book and organizing method, now the organizing industry in general kind of bloomed and got a spotlight on it,” she said, though I cannot imagine who told her this. “They kind of thanked me for how my book or method changed the course of the organizing industry in America. ” The women (and maybe three or four men) of NAPO would beg to differ. More than 600 of them descended on Atlanta for NAPO’s annual meeting in May. They refer to this gathering only as Conference, no article, the way that insiders call the C. I. A just C. I. A. I went along, too, in order to better understand the state of stuff in America, and to study Kondo’s competition. When you receive your Conference lanyard, you can add sticky ribbons to it that say anything from your level of participation in NAPO (chapter president, former board member, golden circle, NAPO Cares, etc.) to where you’re from (a choice of the 41 states represented) to what your state of mind is (Diva, Lazy, High Maintenance, Happy to Be Here, Really? Caution: Might Burst Into Show Tunes! ). Once you are completely categorized, you can enjoy Conference. At Conference, I met women who organize basements. I met women who organize digital clutter. I met women who organize photos. I met women who categorized themselves as “solopreneurs,” which, what’s that now? I met a woman who organizes thoughts, and please don’t move onto the next sentence until you’ve truly absorbed that: I met a woman who charges $100 per hour for the organization of thoughts. I heard the word “detritus” pronounced three different ways. I met a woman in camouflage (though the invitation begged us to confine ourselves to our native ) who carried a clipboard and called herself Major Mom, and instead of an organizer she calls herself a liberator, like in Falluja. I went to a seminar on closets and pantries that I hoped would be, I don’t know, more spiritual than it was, or at the very least address the problem of the cans of beans I keep buying and not using — why do I keep buying them? Why am I not using them? Beans are a superfood, after all, and cheap, too. I like beans. But the woman droned on and on and on about shelving units and the pesky corner cabinets, how they misuse valuable space, but luckily there is a drawer or something that could help you fill that space, too, because negative space inside a cabinet is a crime no organizer worth her drawer dividers should find herself guilty of. Conference was different from the KonMari events that I attended. Whereas Kondo does not believe that you need to buy anything in order to organize and that storage systems provide only the illusion of tidiness, the women of Conference traded recon on timesaving apps, label makers, the best kind of Sharpie, the best tool they own (“supersticky notes,” “drawer dividers”) and the best practices regarding clients who wouldn’t offer their organization goals in a timely manner. I heard about the crises in the industry: that clients who printed out Pinterest pages and said, “I want that,” had unrealistic expectations that the baby boomers are downsizing for the first time that there is a rising generation that isn’t interested in inheriting their parents’ old junk. While NAPO members don’t share any standardized method for organizing — the group offers certification classes, but each woman I spoke with has her own approach — they are fairly unified in their disdain for this Japanese interloper. They have waged a war through their fuming blog posts and their generally disgusted conversations, saying that she is a product only of good marketing, that she’s not doing anything different from what they’ve been doing since she was in diapers. They don’t like that there’s a prescribed order for tidying they think you have to yield to what your client wants done and has time for. They don’t like the tidying marathon, which on average is completed in six months sometimes organizing is a many years effort or an ongoing one. They don’t like that she hasn’t really addressed what to do with all your kids’ stuff and how to handle them. They don’t like that you have to get rid of all of your papers, which is actually a misnomer: Kondo just says you should limit them because they’re incapable of sparking joy, and you should confine them to three folders: needs immediate attention, must be kept for now, must be kept forever. At the show, I stood in front of the booth of a man advertising his cleaning service, which can tidy up crime scenes as well as hoarders’ homes, and I asked some women eating spring rolls what they had against Kondo. The nice ones, struggling for something that wasn’t overtly bitchy to say, said they appreciated that the popularity of her book has brought attention to their industry, which still lobbies to be recognized by the government as an official occupation. (Until that happens, the NAPO women will have to continue calling themselves “interior designers” or “personal assistants” they would prefer “productivity consultants. ”) But they also feel as if they’ve been doing this for years, that “she just has one hell of a marketing machine, but she’s doing nothing that’s so different from us,” at least three of them said to me. Yet each organizer I spoke with said that she had the same fundamental plan that Kondo did, that the client should purge (they cry “purge” for what Kondo gently calls “discarding”) what is no longer needed or wanted somehow the extra step of thanking the object or folding it a little differently enrages them. This rage hides behind the notion that things are different here in America, that our lives are more complicated and our stuff is more burdensome and our decisions are harder to make. “It’s a book if you’re a Japanese girl and you live at home and you still have a bunch of your Hello Kitty toys and stuff,” another NAPO member told me, which, while not the only thing a professional organizer told me that was tinged with an aggressive xenophobia and racism, it is the only one that can run in a New York Times article. They even hate Kondo’s verbiage. The word she uses, “tidying,” is annoying and arcane to them. “Tidying is what you do before your comes over,” said one woman, while her two friends nodded. In addition, what Kondo offers is limited. Ellen Faye, the president of NAPO, told me the night before: “You know, I have a client who got me the book, who said, ‘Here, Ellen, read the book.’ I did page through it. I think her first book is kind of like the grapefruit diet that there’s nothing wrong with just eating grapefruit. It’s not going to get it all done. I mean grapefruit’s great for losing weight, and what she says is great for bringing order to your life, but it’s not the whole picture. It’s just a narrow slice. ” Ultimately, the women of NAPO said that Kondo’s methods were too draconian and that the clients they knew couldn’t live in Kondo’s world. They had jobs and children, and they needed baby steps and and maintenance plans. They needed someone to do for them what they couldn’t naturally do for themselves. At the lounge, which included space for mindful coloring, I suggested to the organizers present that maybe the most potent difference between Kondo and the NAPO women is that the NAPO women seek to make a client’s life good by organizing their stuff Kondo, on the other hand, leads with her spiritual mission, to change their lives through magic. With her rigid tidying marathon directive (no baby steps, no “slow and steady wins the race”) she is a little like the grapefruit diet: simple and extreme and incredibly hard, the way Americans like our renewal plans. A woman who was coloring heard my theory and rolled her eyes. Her name was Heather Ahern, an organizer in Massachusetts for nearly 13 years, and she deals mostly with a clientele who were surviving something hard: divorce, death, loss — when, for example, their loved ones have no idea how to access any of their online accounts and delete them. “Do you know how many dead people are on LinkedIn?” she asked me. (The correct answer to this is not: I don’t know, all of them?) “For some of my clients, just making it better is O. K.,” she said. “They don’t want a perfect house. There is no perfect house. ” But Kondo would agree with that. “I guess it’s the process,” Ahern said of what bothers her most about Kondo. Ahern’s philosophy is about process as much as about results. “I see that my clients are just too fragile to do that,” she said. We got up to go back to our rooms to briefly abandon our casual for formal in preparation for the Black and White Ball, where the NAPO women would cut loose as much as their personalities would allow them by doing karaoke to Eminem and dancing to “Baby Got Back. ” Jenny Ning was about being one of Kondo’s only employees who had not yet finished tidying(! ). What could Kondo possibly think of an employee representing KonMari Inc. to her American base not having her own house in order? We’d been through a lot together, Ning and I. Kondo needed an interpreter to speak with me, so I spent a lot of my reporting time outside our interviews with Ning. We attended the events and meetings, clueless in our and I watched as she negotiated decisions about the certification program, which will cost around $1, 500 for a session, and a newsletter they were toying with. Last year, when Kondo visited San Francisco, she came to Ning’s studio apartment, and Ning said she felt very ashamed when Kondo opened her closet. Kondo would visit San Francisco again to introduce the consultancy and maybe even before, and Ning told me she wanted to tidy and to show Kondo the progress. I asked if I could come along and maybe help Ning complete her tidying. When Ning was little, she loved to collect things: stamps, stickers, pencils. She was never overwhelmed by her stuff. She thinks of her childhood bedroom as “very happy. ” But as she grew into adulthood, she kept buying clothing: far too much of it. She went to work in finance, but she found the work empty and meaningless. She would come home and find herself overwhelmed by her stuff. So she began searching for “minimalism” on the internet almost constantly, happening on Pinterest pages of beautiful, empty bathrooms and kitchens, and she began to imagine that it was her stuff that was weighing her down. She read philosophy blogs about materialism and the accumulation of objects. “They just all talked about feeling lighter,” she said, with one leg folded under her and another on the floor as she sat on her bed, which no longer sparks joy and which she would sell in the coming weeks. Ning wanted that lightness. And here, at this moment in the story, Ning began to cry. “I never knew how to get here from there,” she said. Ning looked around her apartment, which is spare. She loves it here now, but that seemed impossible just a couple of years ago. She found Kondo’s book, and she felt better immediately, just having read it. She began tidying, and immediately she lost three pounds. She had been trying to lose weight forever, and then suddenly, without effort, three pounds, just gone. One day, she was texting a friend, saying that she thought she could live her ideal life if only she could work as Kondo’s assistant. It happened that Kondo was in San Francisco and, even better, she was speaking across the street from Ning’s finance job. After the talk, Ning tried to speak with Kondo, but she walked away with only a KonMari business card from one of Kondo’s associates. She didn’t hear anything initially when she wrote to the address. Undeterred, she quit her job and arranged a trip to Japan. There, she finally talked to associates of Kondo’s who told her of their plans to expand into the United States. Could Ning help? Could she! Ning worked free for KonMari Inc. for five months, before landing a salaried position. She donated the suits that she wore to her finance job and hung up all of her yoga clothing in her closet, even though, technically, KonMari does not endorse hanging leisure wear, but that is all she wears now, and all I’ve seen her wear, from the yoga class we did together to the professional events we attended. Ning has thrown away her collections. She has gone to her family’s home in San Diego and thrown away whatever was left there too. She wiped her tears and leaned in and told me, like a secret, that she has kept one collection: the stickers. She asked me if I wanted to see her album. She pulled it out from under her bed, pages and pages of Snoopy stickers and stickers of frogs and cupcakes and bunnies in raincoats playing in puddles and Easter baskets. She smiled down at them and touched a few while I thumbed through the pages. She asked if I wanted to watch her KonMari her pantry, and I said yes, of course I did. I sat next to her shelf full of books with names like “Secrets of ” and “Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life” and “How to Be Idle” and “The Art of Serenity. ” We threw away expired gum and some Chinese healing herbs whose purpose Ning could no longer remember. A week later I was on another assignment, still using the same notebook from the Kondo story. As I flipped through it, passing through the pages of my notes from my time with Ning, I noticed that a tiny blue butterfly sticker had escaped her collection and landed on a page. When I saw the sticker, I froze and put my finger on it. I had had a sticker album, too. It had stickers that smelled like candy canes and purple. It had bubbly heart stickers and star stickers and Mork Mindy stickers and Peanuts stickers, too. I went abroad for a year to Israel after high school. While I was there, the boiler in my house in Brooklyn exploded and a soot fire destroyed all our possessions. “Everyone is O. K. but there was a fire,” my father said when I called. What happened after I got off the phone still confounds me: I returned to my dorm room, and when my roommate asked me how things were at home, I told her they were fine, and we went to sleep. In the middle of the night, I woke my roommate up, telling her that my house burned down. She told me it was a dream, and I kept telling her I had just forgotten to tell her. She didn’t believe me for days. I never saw my sticker album again. I never saw anything again. After the place was cleared out, my mother was able to save a few photo albums, because they were closed when the soot invaded the basement and covered and ruined all the surfaces. When I look at the pictures, I don’t ever notice how young or cute my sisters and I were. I look in the background for the items that lie in the incidental path of my mother’s Canon. I try to remember what they smelled like or why we owned them or where we put them. I try to think of what my life would have been like if I’d returned home to what I left behind, the way my friends were able to return to their homes to what they’d left behind and keep returning, after they finished college and after they got married and after they had kids. I try to think of who I’d be if I weren’t in the habit of looking at my home before I left it each day and mentally preparing myself for the possibility that nothing I owned would be there when I got home that night. I try to know what feelings my lost objects, which I forget more and more as the years pass, would evoke if I could hold them in my hands, KonMari style, like a new kitten. Some would bring joy and some would not, but I’m not someone who thinks that joy is the only valid emotion. I try to remember what I no longer can because, in terms of my possessions, it is as if I was born on my 19th birthday. The reason I bring this up is to tell you that you could not have any stuff at all, much less too much stuff, and still be totally messed up about it. The reason I tell you this is so that you know that that tiny butterfly sticker has been the same burden to me as any hoarder’s yield. Nostalgia is a beast, and that is either a good reason to KonMari your life, or a terrible one, depending on how you want to live. The last time I saw Marie Kondo, we were in a hotel room in Midtown, a different one, and still the only visible objects in it were that metal suitcase and her husband’s laptop. But one item had been removed from the suitcase: a spray bottle that she keeps around. She sprays it into the air and the scent signals to her that she is finished working for the day, that her obligations, which seem endless lately, are done. I told her that, to my observation, a company trying to grow the way hers was trying to grow seemed at odds with the personality of someone who required such extreme measures for peace in the first place. “I do feel overwhelmed,” she told me, and she gave me one note of a quiet laugh. People demand a lot of her, not really understanding that you don’t go into a business like tidying if you’re able to handle a normal influx of activity and material. The world really likes her for her quirks. They make for good headlines and they certainly sell books, but nobody seems to be able to truly accept and accommodate them. I think the NAPO women have Kondo wrong. She is not one of them, intent on competing for their market share. She is not part of a breed of “solopreneurs” bent on dominating the world, despite her hashtag. She has more in common with her clients. But when it comes to stuff, we are all the same. Once we’ve divided all the drawers and eliminated that which does not bring us joy and categorized ourselves within an inch of our lives, we’ll find that the person lying beneath all the stuff was still just plain old us. We are all a mess, even when we’re done tidying. At least Kondo knows it. “I was always more comfortable talking to objects than people,” she told me. At that moment, I could tell that if she had her way, I would leave the hotel room and she would spray her spray and be left alone, so she could ask the empty room if she could clean it. | 1 |
By Rixon Stewart on September 12, 2006
Is television an entertainment media or instrument of control, a ‘control mechanism’? In ‘Eisenhower’s Death Camps': A U.S. Prison Guard’s Story By wmw_admin on May 4, 2007
In Andernach about 50,000 prisoners of all ages were held in an open field surrounded by barbed wire. The men I guarded had no shelter and no blankets; many had no coats. They slept in the mud, wet and cold, with inadequate slit trenches for excrement. Holocaust, Hate Speech & Were the Germans so Stupid? – Updated By wmw_admin on March 23, 2011
The brilliant examination of the ‘Holocaust’ by Anthony Lawson has since been censored on the basis of a false Copyright infrigment. But as Lawson explains, this just another attempt to stiffle freedom of expression Did New York Orchestrate The Asian Tsunami? By wmw_admin on October 17, 2008
With Afghanistan and Iraq already lost, the Wall Street bankers were all desperately looking for other ways to control our world, when suddenly and very conveniently, the Sumatran Trench exploded. Trick or Treat? Joe Vialls investigates The Anglo-Saxon Mission Part II By wmw_admin on March 1, 2010
Former City of London insider reveals that the depopulation program would begin with a planned war between Israel and Iran. More importantly, he goes onto to describe how we can derail their plans for global dominance Letter from James Abourezk, former US Senator from South Dakota to Jeff Blankfort on the Israel Lobby By wmw_admin on December 8, 2006
More than being an insider’s confirmation of the power of the pro-Israel lobby over Congress, the former US Senator’s letter also calls into question Noam Chomsky’s increasingly suspect looking motives The Oklahoma City Bombing: 30 Unanswered Questions By wmw_admin on July 11, 2003
Timothy McVeigh may have been tried and executed, but there are still too many unanswered questions about the Oklahoma City Bombing | 0 |
But I think it should be mathematically fluid we dont want to put constraints on it.
Besides heaven forbid you get into accounting shame.... | 0 |
November 18: Daily Contrarian Reads By David Stockman. My daily contrarian reads for Friday, November 18th, 2016. | 0 |
An African American man in Tennessee was arrested for allegedly posing as a local white business owner and writing hoax letters pretending the businessman was a racist who was planning attacks on local black leaders. [Police in Knoxville, Tennessee, arrested Justin Lamar Coleman after they say he launched a campaign to discredit businessman Jeff McCown, the white owner of McCown Body Shop in Knoxville, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel. Coleman came to the attention of police after it was reported by recipients that he sent letters to several African American leaders in the area, including Daryl Arnold, the pastor of Overcoming Believers Church in East Knoxville. Police said the letters contained racial epithets and threats of bodily harm toward the African American leaders and were signed as if the body shop owner had written them. One of the letters sent to Pastor Arnold’s daughter that was revealed by prosecutors read, “Tell your daddy Daryl to come to my paint and body shop call (sic) Jeff McCown. I wrote this letter (racial slur) … I hate (expletive, racial slur). I’m coming to your house to rape you. I’m going to get a chainsaw and cut your legs off and then cut your head off, black nasty (slur). ” The letter went on to threaten to castrate Pastor Arnold. The hoax letter concluded saying, “I am a very racist white man and with Mr. Trump in the White House being the Prisdent (sic) white people going to take over the world. ” It was signed as if the body shop owner had written it. Prosecutors also said there were other such letters allegedly sent by Coleman. Indeed, one was even sent to business owner McCown warning him that someone was going to kill him and burn his house down. Prosecutors say their investigation found that the letter writing campaign began over a confrontation Coleman had with McCown when Coleman drove over the grass in front of the body shop owner’s business back in 2010. A verbal altercation resulted after Coleman destroyed the landscaping with his truck. Coleman tried to charge the businessman with assault and for throwing rocks at his truck during the incident. Police investigated the 2010 accusations, but no proof was found to substantiate Coleman’s claims, and no charges were filed. In 2015 Coleman launched several social media attacks on McCown’s business, but the body shop owner ignored them. When Coleman realized the social media attack had no impact, he began to send the hoax letters to African American leaders, posing as a racist McCown. After pleading guilty, Coleman was placed under house arrest pending a hearing date. Assistant U. S. Attorney Jennifer Kolman opposed the lenient treatment, saying that the suspect posed a danger to the community. U. S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Guyton also ordered Coleman to receive mental health treatment after testimony revealed Coleman had past mental issues. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com. | 1 |
In the latest twist in one of the most intriguing literary mysteries in recent history, an Italian investigative journalist says financial and real estate records indicate that the Italian translator Anita Raja — daughter of a Polish Jewish mother and Neapolitan father — is behind the author Elena Ferrante. In a report released Sunday in The New York Review of Books and in Italian, French and German publications, Claudio Gatti, an investigative journalist for Il Sole 24 Ore, an Italian business daily, reported that records show a dramatic uptick in payments from Ms. Ferrante’s publishing house in Rome, Edizioni to Ms. Raja since 2014, when Ms. Ferrante’s novels took off around the world. In recent years, Ms. Raja’s name and that of her husband, the novelist Domenico Starnone, have been most often mentioned as possibly being responsible for Ms. Ferrante’s books because of stylistic echoes in Ms. Ferrante’s work, in Mr. Starnone’s novels and in Ms. Raja’s translations of German novels whose female narrators recall those in Ms. Ferrante’s books. Ms. Ferrante has become an international phenomenon with her four novels set in Naples:“My Brilliant Friend” (2012) “The Story of a New Name” (2013) “Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay” (2014) and “The Story of the Lost Child” (2015). The books trace the lives of two women from their childhoods in poverty in Naples into the middle class against the backdrop of Italian postwar history, exploring the complexities of female friendship. Mr. Gatti writes that financial records he received from an anonymous source show that payments to Ms. Raja from the publishing house increased by almost 50 percent in 2014, and in 2015 by more than 150 percent, “reaching an amount that was about seven times what she received in 2010. ” He said the payments coincided with a period in which Ms. Ferrante was likely to have received large royalty checks and that none of the publisher’s other employees or consultants saw such dramatic increases. Reached by phone, Sandra Ozzola Ferri, one of the owners and founders of Edizioni said she had no comment on Mr. Gatti’s conclusions. “If someone wants to be left alone, leave her alone,” Ms. Ferri said. “She’s not a member of the Camorra, or Berlusconi. She’s a writer and isn’t doing anyone any harm. ” Ms. Raja could not immediately be reached for comment. Mr. Gatti reported that she had not returned messages he left for her. Both Ms. Raja and Mr. Starnone have previously denied they wrote the books. Asked why he would want to delve into the identity of Ms. Ferrante, whose readers value her anonymity, Mr. Gatti said, “I understand that a good chunk of readers might be upset. ” He said he was doing his job as an Italian investigative journalist based in New York. “The biggest mystery outside Italy about Italy is who is Elena Ferrante,” Mr. Gatti said. “I’m supposed to provide answers, that’s what I do for a living. ” Beyond the financial records, Mr. Gatti cited literary clues linking Ms. Raja to Ms. Ferrante’s books, including that Nino, the love interest in the Naples novels, is Mr. Starnone’s family nickname. But his primary evidence was financial. “Raja’s work as a translator — a notoriously poorly paid occupation — can hardly account for her anomalously large income,” Mr. Gatti wrote. Ms. Raja retired last year from her day job as the head of a public library in Rome. Mr. Gatti also said that real estate records showed that in June 2016, Mr. Starnone had purchased an apartment in Rome at an estimated value of $1. 5 million to $2 million. Ms. Ferrante’s Neopolitan Novels have found a passionate readership, especially among women — Hillary Clinton recently said she was reading them — and some look to them as feminist touchstones. They have been released in 40 countries, with 2. 6 million copies in print in editions. The books’ literary power is derived in part from the author’s anonymity. And Ms. Ferrante’s fans have said they couldn’t possibly believe her work was written by a man, as some literary critics have speculated. As their success grew, so did curiosity about Ms. Ferrante’s identity, which gave rise to amateur literary sleuthing at a level not seen since the unmasking of Joe Klein as the author of “Primary Colors,” a roman à clef about Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign. Ms. Ferrante, explained her choice of anonymity in a 2014 interview with The New York Times, conducted via email. “What counts most for me is to preserve a creative space that seems full of possibilities, including technical ones,” she wrote. “The structural absence of the author affects the writing in a way that I’d like to continue to explore. ” Ms. Raja, who was born in Naples in 1953, has worked as a consultant to Edizioni which has published her Italian translations of writing by the German feminist writer Christa Wolf, whose books feature complex women as narrators. Mr. Starnone’s novels often play with the notion of literary doubles and, like Ms. Ferrante’s work, feature who draw on their Neapolitan roots as material even as they write to escape those roots. This year, an Italian academic speculated that Marcella Marmo, a Neapolitan historian, might be behind the books. (Ms. Marmo denied she was.) Devoted readers have lined up for copies of Ms. Ferrante’s novels signed by Ann Goldstein, the translator, as if she were a kind of sibyl in contact with the divine. A professor at the University of Padua in Italy recently called on academics to use quantitative analysis to compare Ms. Ferrante’s prose to Mr. Starnone’s. In a deeply reported sidebar, Mr. Gatti discovered that Ms. Raja’s mother had come to Italy from Germany with her parents in 1937 to escape the Nazis. Her extended family perished in the Holocaust. But how Ms. Ferrante’s novels came into being remains a mystery that financial records alone cannot solve definitively. Was Ms. Raja the sole author of Ms. Ferrante’s books? Are they the product of collaboration, including with Mr. Starnone, as literary critics have speculated in the past, even as Ms. Ferrante’s fans have bristled? Mr. Starnone’s name first came up in 2005, when an Italian literary critic, Luigi Galella, spotted similarities between Ms. Ferrante’s first novel, “Troubling Love,” published in Italy in 1992, and Mr. Starnone’s 2000 novel “Via Gemito. ” Both are set in Naples, narrated by the children of violent painter fathers who beat their seamstress wives, and some descriptions are strikingly similar. Only one of Mr. Starnone’s novels has been translated into English: “First Execution,” published in 2009 by Europa Editions. His latest novel, “Lacci,” or “laces,” published in 2014, tells a story of the dissolution — and reconstitution — of a marriage, but from multiple perspectives over decades, a technique favored by Ms. Wolf. Its plot echoes that of Ms. Ferrante’s 2002 novel, “The Days of Abandonment,” told from the perspective of a woman who falls apart then pulls herself together after her husband leaves her with two young children. But since last year, literary critics have begun making a strong case for Ms. Raja, because of her years translating the work of Ms. Wolf and other feminist authors writing in German. Ms. Ferrante’s Naples novels are preoccupied with questions of authorial power, as well as with the emotional and personal risks writers face when mining their own families for material. A theme in Ms. Wolf’s work is a fear that writing about someone is a way of killing that person, as Ms. Raja herself explained in an interview in Italy’s daily La Repubblica last year. Ms. Wolf died in 2011. The first Naples novel appeared in 2012. In an essay last year, Rebecca Falkoff, a professor of Italian at New York University, traced the similarities between Ms. Ferrante’s novels and Ms. Wolf’s. “The more I read about Raja,” Ms. Falkoff wrote, “the more convinced I became that she is indeed Ferrante. ” | 1 |
(Before It's News)
I'm about to be seriously un-PC.
Hillary Clinton appeared yesterday on El Gordo y la Flaca, a Univision TV show. I would never ask my loyal readers to watch these videos in their entirety. However, it is clear Hillary does not have custody of her eye movements. In the first video you can stop at 7s, 15s, and 31s to witness her whacked out eyes.
At the 1:35 mark of the second video, Hillary is introduced by a “little person” who conveniently helps her down the stairs on to the set. Hop up to 4:12, 6:01, 6:10, and 6:21 to see her eyes scramble. It is particularly noticeable at 6:10.
Does the following make me a racist?
If you'd like to know what Hillary is talking about in the second video you'll have to be able to speak Spanish since the translator speaks over Hillary. What happened to immigrants having to speak English to become a citizen? If the people watching this need to have it translated in order to know what Hillary is saying, then why are they allowed to vote? | 0 |
by BAR
Tens of thousands have demonstrated against the election of Donald Trump. Some are activists, continuing the struggle. Others are Democrats that are just “mad.” “The Black movement against police terror didn’t need a Donald Trump waiting in the vestibule of the White House to get “mad.” For those who fear Trump’s “fascism,” the threat level “depends on how he uses the arsenal of repressive tools bequeathed to him by the Obama administration.” None of Them Have Ever Been My President by BAR
“You can’t scare people with a specter if they have already been in combat with the real thing.”
As a revolutionary Black nationalist whose socialism predates my facial hairs, I have no problem saying Donald Trump is not my president. Neither is the current occupant of the White House, nor were any of the Democrats, Republicans and Whigs that preceded him.
On a chilly November day in 2009 a newly-created coalition, of which I was a co-founder, marched on the White House to denounce and renounce Barack Obama as a tool of white supremacy and the imperial war machine. “Obama, Obama, you can’t hide – We charge you with genocide,” we shouted, indicting the First Black President for the crimes he was busily committing in service to his masters on Wall Street. The Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations had been formed less than two months before, largely to demonstrate that not all Black people were bamboozled by the slick corporate politician from Chicago, elected one year earlier in the nation’s first billion dollar presidential campaign. As the Coalition’s founding press release stated :
“Black and Brown people continue to suffer the brunt of un/under-employment and predatory loan scandal crises. Military spending under Obama has increased as have the warfare this nation continues to export to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Venezuela and Colombia. Mass incarceration, police brutality and political imprisonment remain rampant...”
The Black is Back Coalition warned of the “traps set by Obama’s so-called ‘post-racial’ politics that perpetuates the same oppressive militarist agenda well known during the Bush regime.”
To paraphrase Fidel Castro, history has vindicated us.
“Obama joined George Bush and Bill Clinton in perpetuating the 20 year-long slaughter in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has claimed more than six million lives.”
Obama mobilized NATO air forces and jihadist proxies to destroy Libya, which had previously enjoyed the highest living standard in Africa. He redeployed these same al Qaida terrorists to Syria, killing 400,000 people, displacing half the surviving population and bringing the U.S. to the very brink of nuclear war with Russia. This so-called “Son of Africa” has effectively occupied most of the continent through a U.S. Military Command (AFRICOM) that was less than a year old when Obama was sworn into office. The African Union provides diplomatic cover for the CIA-run “peace keeping” mission in Somalia, while U.S. conventional forces have infiltrated the militaries of all but two African nations. The holdouts, Eritrea and Zimbabwe, are under constant threat of regime change. Obama joined George Bush and Bill Clinton in perpetuating the 20 year-long slaughter in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has claimed more than six million lives, the worst genocide since World War Two (“Obama, Obama, you can’t hide, We charge you with genocide!”)
With the eager assistance of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Obama baldly abetted a Nazi-spearheaded coup against the elected government in Ukraine -- and then blamed Moscow when Russian-speaking Ukrainians resisted, provoking a “New Cold War” that could turn hot in an instant. At the same time, Obama “pivoted” to militarily confront China, whose economy is already, by some measures, larger than the U.S. The jihadist war in Syria should also be seen as a theater of imperialism’s last ditch offensive to encircle “Eurasia” in hopes of preserving U.S.-based multinational corporate domination of a “rigged” system of dollar-based world trade.
Just as the Black is Back Coalition warned, Barack Obama was the Black face of imperialism -- a change of color without a difference. He tried to hand off the controls to Hillary Clinton, who got six million votes less than he did, and lost.
Back in 2007, when Obama and Clinton were pretending to be ideological opponents -- as cookie-cutter corporate Democrats often do -- we at Black Agenda Report wrote that “ There’s not a dime’s worth of difference ” between the two. Every decent, peace-loving person on Earth should be glad to be rid of both of them. Humanity would probably not survive another year of either one.
“Barack Obama was the Black face of imperialism -- a change of color without a difference.”
Donald Trump is also a danger to humanity, like every other U.S. chief executive since Truman nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If words mean anything, Trump starts off posing less of a doomsday international menace, since he claims to want to establish talking, rather than shouting, threatening, nuke-rattling relations with Russia and China, while Clinton’s version of “reset” was an armed confrontation with Russia over the skies of Syria. Of course, all that could quickly change. Trump may be a “party of one” among Republicans in Congress and even in his own cabinet.
For those who fear Trump’s “fascism,” the threat level depends on how he uses the arsenal of repressive tools bequeathed to him by the Obama administration. These legal, infrastructural and technological instruments of the national security state are fascist in their intent; they were made for the purpose of tracking, disorganizing, neutralizing and locking up dissidents, and disinforming the public at large. Thus, President Obama and his predecessors were fascist- minded , whether you call their administrations operatively fascist or not. The Obama administration would not have pushed a bill through Congress allowing the U.S. military to detain American citizens without trial or charge if he had not anticipating using it. He would not have feverishly upgraded an omnipresent national and global surveillance apparatus if he did not anticipate putting it to the task of martial rule. Fascist-minded is all that can be said of Trump, at this point, as well.
Black Lives Matter activists have been under FBI surveillance since day one. Ever since Ferguson, the federal government has taken the lead in over-charging “rioters” in rebellious cities. New York City cops have used social media surveillance as the basis for conspiracy charges against groups of more than 100 young Black people in separate sweeps in Manhattan and The Bronx. The “fascism” that correctly described Jim Crow rule in the pre-Civil Rights South lives on at the core of the mass Black incarceration regime put in place with the crushing of the Black Liberation Movement, two generations ago. The current movement against police terror, which ultimately demands Black community control of the police, put activists in direct confrontation with the coercive arm of the State. There is no retreat from this response to the demands of Black people “on the street,” who bear the daily brunt of repression and are also among the most effective organizers.
“Obama would not have feverishly upgraded an omnipresent national and global surveillance apparatus if he did not anticipate putting it to the task of martial rule.”
The Black movement against police terror didn’t need a Donald Trump waiting in the vestibule of the White House to get “mad.” The movement has already crossed the Rubicon of confrontation with the State. The moment occurred in the second term of the First Black President, when a new generation learned that liberation cannot be vicariously experienced. The 21 st century Black movement emerged with the knowledge that Black corporate Democrats are not their allies, nor are Black police chiefs, or Black preachers whose real loyalties are to the Democratic Party and its Wall Street patrons.
If the Black movement were afraid of the likes of Donald Trump, it never would have gone up against the militarized police that occupy Black communities. You can’t scare people with a specter if they have already been in combat with the real thing.
To the extent that electoral activity is useful to the movement, it should be employed with special vigilance close at hand, against misleaders like the 32 members of the Congressional Black Caucus who failed to support the Grayson Amendment that would have halted Pentagon transfers of weapons and equipment to local police departments. These “ Treasonous 32 ”, comprising 80 percent of full-voting Black Democrats in the House, cast their shameful votes in June, 2014, just two months before Michael Brown was shot down in Ferguson, Missouri. (Rep. William “Lacy” Clay, representing Michael Brown’s district, was among the 32.) If the movement is to have any special targets for electoral vengeance, it is these homegrown enemies, who turn Black people’s votes against themselves.
Trump or no Trump, the Black movement must continue to press and refine its demands -- or Power will concede nothing. On November 6, after their annual march on the White House, the organizations of the Black is Back Coalition ratified a 19-point document that puts self-determination at the heart of the broadest range of issues confronting Black America: “Every central demand, every strategy of struggle, must be formulated with the goal of self-determination in mind. Otherwise, the movement will allow itself to be drowned in reformist schemes and projects that bind Black people even more tightly to structures of outside control.” The points range from “Black Community Control of Police,” to “Halting Gentrification,” to “Nationalization of the Banks.”
The points were compiled during Barack Obama’s time in the White House, and they will remain relevant under a President Donald Trump.
We’ve been mad. Let’s get organized, and get free. | 0 |
Merkel’s Germany Descends Into Lawlessness As Muslim Migrants Rule The Streets With Impunity Germany has been hit by a spate of horrendous violent crime by Muslim migrants including rapes, sexual and physical assaults, stabbings, home invasions, robberies, burglaries and drug trafficking. During the first six months of 2016, Muslim migrants committed 142,500 crimes, according to the German Federal Criminal Police Office. Germany has been hit by a spate of horrendous violent crime including rapes, sexual and physical assaults, stabbings, home invasions, robberies, burglaries and drug trafficking. Adding to the country’s woes is the fact that thousands of people have gone missing after travelling to the country on invitation from the country’s leader. Germany took in more than 1.1 million Muslim migrants in the past year and parts of the country are crippled with a lack of infrastructure. Now the true reality is hitting home ahead of next year’s elections as the far right surges in the polls threatening to topple the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader Mrs Merkel. According to a report by the international policy council the Gatestone Institute , local police in many parts of the country admit that they are stretched to the limit. The report states: “The rape of a ten-year-old girl in Leipzig, the largest city in Saxony, has drawn renewed attention to the spiraling levels of violent crime perpetrated by migrants in cities and towns across Germany. “During the first six months of 2016, migrants committed 142,500 crimes, according to the Federal Criminal Police Office. This is equivalent to 780 crimes committed by migrants every day, an increase of nearly 40 per cent over 2015. The data includes only those crimes in which a suspect has been caught. “Thousands of Muslim migrants who entered the country as ‘asylum seekers’ or ‘refugees’ have gone missing. They are, presumably, economic migrants who entered Germany on false pretenses. “Many are thought to be engaging in robbery and criminal violence.” According to Freddi Lohse of the German Police Union in Hamburg, many migrant offenders view the leniency of the German justice system as a green light to continue delinquent behavior, says the report. He said: “They are used to tougher consequences in their home countries. “They have no respect for us.” Meanwhile a female police officer has admitted that officers are under attack and that the courts are a “joke.” In a new book, Tania Kambouri, a German police officer, said: “For weeks, months and years I have noticed that Muslims, mostly young men, do not have even a minimum level of respect for the police. “When we are out patrolling the streets, we are verbally abused by young Muslims. source SHARE | 0 |
Hipster dog only likes 80s dog food that you can’t get any more 07-11-16 A DOG hipster will only eat an obscure type of vintage dog food that he enjoys in a semi-ironic way. Labrador Wayne Hayes refuses to eat normal dog biscuits, preferring a discontinued American 80s brand of dog food called Chunkiez that his owners have to buy off the internet at vast expense. Hayes said: “I’m all about Chunkiez Beefy Mix because the box they come in has such a cool design aesthetic. It just speaks to my vibe. “I realise it’s £17 a box because they stopped making it in 1984 and there’s only one warehouse in Canada that has stock, but like everything in my life it’s paid for by my parents.” Hayes, who also claims to like postmen and fireworks, reckons he is friends with all the working class bull terriers at his local park even though they growl at him whenever he approaches.
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