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The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is developing a documentary series centered on “ extremism” and President Donald Trump. [The controversial nonprofit is teaming with Black Box Management to produce a documentary series that will explore “the normalization of American extremism in the age of Donald Trump,” according to a statement provided to the Hollywood Reporter. Black Box and producer Mike Dill told THR that his Los company plans to start shopping the project to potential cable and streaming outlets as early as June. The SPLC has come under intense scrutiny in recent years for what has been perceived as electioneering, which is illegal for the 501( c)(3) organization. “To vindicate itself as a fair and balanced agency, the IRS must strip the SPLC of its privileged status,” Dale Wilcox, the Immigration Law Reform Institute’s general counsel, told Breitbart News last month. “Their attacks on the President during his campaign were some of the most egregious I’ve ever seen,” he said, adding that “hoarding over $300 million in donor contributions, the group can afford to pay taxes anyway. ” Last year, the SPLC described the deadly assault on Orlando’s Pulse nightclub that left 49 people dead, and the Black Lives murders of police officers in Baton Rouge and Dallas, as “ terrorist plots. ” Dill is also developing a series, along with WGN America, called Fast Boys, about the War II rise of the American industry. The drama series was before WGN America’s recent announcement that the network’s potential buyout by Sinclair Broadcast Group could mean a major shift away from original series. “The ratings WGN America (delivers) doesn’t justify the type of spending they do on the original programming side,” Sinclair Broadcast Group CEO Chris Ripley told Wall Street investors Monday, Variety reports. “The channel could be run much more profitably on a fraction of what they spend on programming. ” However, a spokesperson for WGN told THR that the billion dollar deal between Sinclair and WGN America won’t affect Fast Boys. “Both Fast Boys and the SPLC project tell the stories of those who don’t accept the limitations that others try to place upon them,” Black Box Lowell Shapiro said in a statement. “The subjects see an opportunity to create change and evolve beyond the status quo. ” Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson | 1 |
ANAHEIM, Calif. — As thousands of athletes headed to the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro worry, to varying degrees, about the Zika virus, at least one American has taken a measure: freezing his sperm. John Speraw, 44, the coach of the United States men’s indoor volleyball team, said he was preserving sperm to use for a planned future pregnancy in case he is infected with the virus. “My wife and I would like to have another kid,” he said recently at U. S. A. Volleyball’s training center. “And I’m no spring chicken. I don’t want to get Zika and have to wait an additional year, or whatever it may be, for us to have kids. I’m paying attention to Zika, and I’m concerned about it. It’s not going to stop me from going down there, but I’m taking measures right now. ” The level of anxiety over Zika among athletes and coaches headed to the Olympics sweeps across the spectrum. The American cyclist Tejay van Garderen, worried about contracting Zika and passing it along to his wife and his unborn daughter, recently removed himself from consideration for an Olympic spot. In interviews with many other likely Olympians, most said they were not hugely concerned about Zika but planned to take suggested precautions against it — generally by avoiding mosquito bites. The threat has mostly altered plans of friends and family members who expected to go to Rio to cheer them. “My brother’s wife is pregnant, so if I go, he won’t be coming,” the American indoor volleyball player Murphy Troy said. “That’s unfortunate. That’s the biggest impact — other family and friends, people who may have come before may not come now. “As far as an athlete perspective, there’s not much we can do but be as prepared as we can to be — bug spray and long sleeves and stay inside. The information that I’ve gotten is that maybe it’s not as bad in Rio as the media has portrayed. We’re kind of being optimistic but also want to be as prepared as we can. ” In most known cases, Zika has caused flulike symptoms for a few days. But it has been blamed for a huge rise in Brazil of microcephaly, or babies born with abnormally small heads, and some cases of syndrome, which can cause paralysis, usually temporarily. The virus is transmitted primarily by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, but there have also been cases in which Zika was transmitted sexually. The World Health Organization said this week that athletes and spectators, except for pregnant women, should feel comfortable attending the Olympics. Rio organizers will distribute 450, 000 condoms to athletes, three times as many as were handed out at the London Games in 2012, an increase largely in response to the Zika outbreak. Generally, for those who participate in sports in which the Olympics represent the ultimate achievement, the threat of Zika — or, for that matter, Rio’s polluted water, its propensity for random violence, its collapsing economy or its politics — is not enough to keep them away. Several of those who have expressed reservations have been golfers, tennis players and basketball players. Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook and James Harden are among the N. B. A. players to have opted out of the Olympics, although none cited Zika concerns as the reason. U. S. A. Volleyball officials said that no players expected to make the Olympic rosters, men or women, had suggested they might not attend. The beach volleyball player Kerri Walsh Jennings, a gold medalist, said in an interview on Wednesday that she was not concerned, having been in Rio for a tournament in March. The threat of mosquitoes is expected to decline into August, which is the heart of the Brazilian winter. “I took my essential oils, I’m going to bring my Honest bug repellent, and I escaped all mosquito bites until the very last day,” Walsh Jennings said. “And I came home, and I didn’t get Zika. ” She said her three children would not go to Rio — not because of Zika concerns but because they were young and there was not a lot for them to do. April Ross, Walsh Jennings’s playing partner, said Zika was not a worry, but her agent, who is pregnant, is not planning to go to Rio. “You’ve got to be smart about it and take all the precautions you can, which we will,” said Ross, who is married. “And I plan on getting tested when we get back before we start trying to have a baby. If we have to wait, we’re going to wait. In my mind, there’s no point in necessarily worrying about it if there’s nothing you can really do. Take the precautions you can, and forget about it. ” That is why Speraw, the men’s indoor coach, is taking the measure of freezing his sperm. His wife, Michelle, and their daughter, Brooklyn, will not go to Rio because of concerns over Zika, he said. And an original list of about 10 family members and friends has been whittled to just his parents. Speraw is not the only one freezing sperm. The British long jumper Greg Rutherford said he was, too, and the Spanish basketball player Pau Gasol said he was considering it. Speraw said the idea had bounced around among other United States coaches and officials and even some of his players, many of them married. “I’m doing it because I’m 44,” he said. “I don’t want to wait and try to have a baby when I’m 46, you know? If we want to try next February, which was our original plan, then at least we can still do that. ” | 1 |
Muslim rebels brutally stabbed to death a Christian pastor in the Central African Republic (CAR) then proceeded to burn his church to the ground. [In what is being reported as a revenge attack for military operations against the Islamist militia, jihadists attacked Pastor Sankagui of the Church of Christ in the capital city of Bangui on Feb. 7, stabbing him to death and then torching his church as well as two other Christian churches in the area. CAR military together with UN peacekeepers recently attempted to capture local Muslim militia leader Youssouf Sy, but the operation failed and Sy and one of his men were killed in the incident. During the operation, Sy and his men opened fire on the security forces and killed two a man and a woman, at which point the military returned fire and killed Sy and another militiaman. According to World Watch Monitor, Sy’s supporters went on a “rampage” in retaliation for the operation, attacking people and destroying property. “The incident took place following a military operation. Then militiamen started shooting. They burnt down our houses,” one internally displaced person (IDP) told local media, on condition of anonymity. Sy’s allies surrounded Rev. Sankagui’s church, then killed the pastor and burned the church building. After the initial attack, the Muslim militia set fire to two other churches in the area, the Apostolic and St Mathias Church, and also destroyed a local school. Militiamen also reportedly stormed a health facility with the intention of killing off the wounded. According to Dr. Michel Yao, acting U. N. humanitarian coordinator in the country, more than two dozen wounded were brought in for treatment. “Armed elements forcefully entered into the facility with the intention to kill some of the injured,” he said. According to UN reports, the attacks brought about the combined deaths of at least five people with 26 more injured. The Central African Republic erupted in civil war in 2013 after Muslim rebels from the Seleka militia overthrew former president Francois Bozize, a Christian. Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome | 1 |
A segment of MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show displayed a chyron implying the widespread protests in Venezuela were actually against President Donald Trump. [The show, which aired on Thursday, implied that a donation to Donald Trump’s inauguration of $500, 000 from a subsidiary of a Venezuelan oil company was a cause of recent protests. A headline at the bottom of the screen during a segment explaining the donation read: “Unrest in Venezuela Over Trump Donations,” without noting the growing food and medicine shortages that have occurred there as a direct result of nearly two decades of socialist mismanagement. During the segment, Maddow claimed, “Venezuelans are enraged anew over by this brand new FEC filing from the White House [showing] … that Venezuela’s oil company somewhere found a half million dollars to donate to the very, very, very inexplicably overfunded Trump inauguration. ” Maddow was referring to a report showing that Citgo Petrol, the American affiliate of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) the oil company, donated $500, 000 to the Trump inauguration. A report from November last year found that Venezuela’s oil corporation, Petróleos de Venezuela, has $11 billion unaccounted for in the past decade. While Maddow did not directly link the protests to the donation, the only thing close to an explanation for the protests she gave was that “the sanctions that the U. S. put on Venezuela were put there in 2014, after 43 people got killed while participating in protests. ” Nowhere in the segment are socialist policies or political oppression, including the imprisonment of prisoners of conscience, mentioned, nor does she mention that the victims in the 2014 protests were largely killed by state police, national guard, or socialist gangs. There is no evidence suggesting the reason behind the civil unrest was the donation. Opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who was recently banned from holding public office for 15 years without cause, called for protests to fight the government’s military plan designed to silence opposition, promising that they “will not rest until Venezuela returns to constitutional order. ” Many Venezuelans are starving living under the socialist dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro. The average Venezuelan lost nearly 20 pounds throughout 2016 due to food shortages, according to a recent poll. Over 15 percent of Venezuelans rely on industrial waste as food to survive. Maddow failed to link any of Venezuela’s socialist policies, such as the mass nationalization of industries, to the country’s current crisis. The show later apologized for the chyron and updated it in its web version of the broadcast. “Rachel was clear in calling the protests in Venezuela ‘’ but the banner on the screen while she said it was not correct. As a TV show, we have to get them both right, and sometimes we miss,” MSNBC said in a statement. The version of the segment posted online no longer includes the chyron to reflect the fact that producers did not, in retrospect, consider it an accurate representation of the situation in Venezuela or of Maddow’s commentary. Late dictator Hugo Chávez enacted sweeping socialist reforms to cripple the nation’s economy, including the aforementioned seizures of corporations, which resulted in many international corporations fleeing the country. Following his death, Nicolás Maduro has overseen mass shortages of food, medicine, and electricity, imposing a ration system and strict price controls, which have exacerbated the problem. This week, the Venezuelan opposition held the “mother of all protests” across the country, calling for an end to Maduro’s rule and the socialist policies that have led to the country’s decline. On Thursday, General Motors announced it had ceased all its Venezuelan operations after the government seized control of its plant in the city of Valencia. On Friday, the Associated Press reported that 20 people have been killed in recent demonstrations, as protesters clashed with riot police and militias. You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart. com | 1 |
It turns out that the overwhelming majority of fans are not the only people that think NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell needs to do his job better. [On the heels of FOX’s suggestion that the NFL limit its number of broadcast windows, CBS President Les Moonves has told the commissioner that the games need to start moving a lot faster. According to Fortune, “If there are ways of doing advertising in different ways that are equally beneficial, we’re looking at that, and we’re trying to make the game as good an experience as we could make it. ” According to Pro Football Talk, “Moonves also discussed with Goodell ways that the referees could see the replays more quickly so that replay reviews would be shorter. ” This is one of those things that sounds great in theory, but could end up a nightmare in practice. Pay close attention to what Moonves has suggested here. He’s not saying that the league should run fewer commercials. That’s not a real option for a league that exists to make money, which the NFL definitely does. No, instead Moonves suggests “advertising in different ways that are equally beneficial. ” That could very well mean on uniforms. It could mean along the sidelines, similar to what hockey and soccer does. It could mean any number of really intrusive advertising methods that NFL fans have not had to put up with before. While everyone would like fewer advertising interruptions, not everyone wants to see Tom Brady with a “Papa John’s” logo on his chest. The suggestion to speed up replay reviews has merit. Officials have consistently taken longer than their allotted time on reviews for quite a while. But why not just focus on simplifying the rule book, and encouraging referees to use discretion when making calls, so that only the most obvious calls get made instead of calling everything the officials see? If the game moved faster with fewer unplanned interruptions such as penalties, then the planned interruptions, in this case the commercials, wouldn’t seem all that bad. Whatever they decide, the NFL formula of about 20 minutes of real football action spread across a time period is clearly not working. Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn | 1 |
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Watching Hillary Clinton run from a hardball question like a roach from Raid should give every American a sense of satisfaction. When a reporter asked the former secretary of state about the Project Veritas undercover videos , which featured disgraced former Democratic operatives Scott Foval and Bob Creamer bragging about provoking violence at Trump rallies and perpetrating mass voter fraud, Clinton panicked and pulled the plug on the entire press conference. “I know nothing about this,” said Clinton. “I’m not — I can’t deal with every one of [James O’Keefe’s] conspiracy theories but I hope you all have something to eat and something to drink on the way back to New York. Thank you!”
Conspiracy theories? Was she really trying to imply that videotaped confessions from two of her surrogates amount to a “conspiracy theory?” Yes, she was. It’s become something of a habit for her — every time Hillary wants to deny plain facts she calls them a “conspiracy theory” — which is quite delicious coming from Ms. “Vast Rightwing Conspiracy” herself.
To call something a “conspiracy theory” doesn’t reveal much about its validity. Of course, some conspiracy theories are legitimately kooky. Tune in to Coast to Coast AM for a while to see what I’m talking about, or listen to Jesse Ventura expound on secret US government weather control machines in Alaska. Most of these loony conspiracy theories originate on the political Left, by the way, such as the assertion that Lee Harvey Oswald was “sheep-dipped” to look like a communist so that JFK’s real capitalist/imperialist murderers could make a clean getaway.
But other conspiracy theories are at least plausible. Whenever two or more people plot in secret, that’s a conspiracy. Anyone who suspects that a conspiracy’s afoot is by definition a conspiracy theorist. If you come home from vacation to find a car parked on your lawn and the back yard strewn with red Solo cups, you might suspect that your teenaged sons conspired to throw a raging party. That’s a conspiracy theory. Watergate was a conspiracy among at least the four burglars. The ensuing coverup was a conspiracy that reached all the way up to the president. Watergate has been proven to most people’s satisfaction so we don’t think of it as a “theory” anymore, but there was a time, in the nascent stages of the investigation, when the whole picture was not yet known. In other words, it was a conspiracy theory — and yet it turned out to be true.
Hillary Clinton employs the term “conspiracy theory” because of its derisive connotation. What she means by it is that a certain accusation — in this case that her campaign has engaged in illegal election tampering — is so absurd that it would be a waste of her time to respond. It’s crazy talk . File it over there with alien abductions and Illuminati shadow governments.
Unfortunately for Hillary, the “conspiracy theory” alleged by Project Veritas happens to be very credible. Just listen to Democratic operative Scott Foval’s videotaped confession:
We’ve been busing people in to deal with you f***ing assholes [Republicans] for fifty years and we’re not going to stop now. We’re just going to find a different way to do it.
Foval’s “different way” is using rental cars rather than buses to get impostors from polling place to polling place on election day. That’s a conspiracy theory for sure but not an unreasonable one. It’s the same old shenanigans Democrats have been pulling since the heyday of Tammany Hall. Lying, cheating, and ballot box-stuffing — it’s what Democrats do. Richard Daley did it in Chicago, Lyndon Johnson did it in Texas, and Hillary Clinton’s doing it nationwide.
Hillary Clinton and her media sycophants have gotten a lot of mileage out of the “conspiracy theory” dodge this election season. When Mrs. Clinton was haunted by persistent rumors of ill health, the media countered them with accusations of conspiratorial thinking. In a column conveniently titled “Can We Just Stop Talking About Hillary Clinton’s Health Now?” the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza wrote :
Beyond the Clinton conspiracy theorists who believe she had something to do with Vince Foster’s death and that she was secretly responsible for everything from Y2K to the SpaceX explosion last week, it’s hard to plausibly insist, based on the available data, that Clinton is ill.
HuffPo contributor Melissa Jeltsen went even further, blaming both conspiratorial thinking and — you guess it! — bigotry : “Let’s get real: The wild conspiracy theories around Clinton’s health are a convenient way to mask misogyny inside ‘legitimate’ medical concerns.”
As it turns out, those “conspiracy theories” weren’t so “wild” after all. Hillary Clinton later collapsed after a 9/11 memorial service but refused to go to the hospital for fear that her critics would be proven right. Thank goodness for camera phones — if the incident hadn’t been recorded, Hillary would be claiming that it never happened while maligning anyone who said otherwise as a nutty conspiracy theorist — and the press would be helping her. After the incident, Clinton admitted (or “admitted”) that she was stricken with walking pneumonia, a conveniently transitory illness. If you suspect that she suffers from a more permanent medical condition you’re probably a “conspiracy theorist.” It’s becoming painfully obvious that Hillary Clinton’s definition of a “conspiracy theory” is anything that contradicts her lies.
The “conspiracy theorist” epithet has become the media’s lazy retort to every possible attack on their candidate — and make no mistake about it, she is their candidate. Earlier this month, CNN contributor Jackie Kucinich dismissed talk of Bill Clinton’s sexual assaults on various women as “conspiracy theory land,” which is frankly outrageous. Bill’s accusers form a line around the block, almost as long as Bill Cosby’s. We know at very least that he’s a sexual harasser and, if the most serious accusations lodged against him are true, a rapist as well. He has a track record that simply cannot be denied. Oddly enough this “conspiracy theory” would actually be a conspiracy theory if, as Kucinich implies, the accusers were lying because it would imply some shadowy group working behind the scenes to smear Bill Clinton with an endless barrage of slander. The simpler, non-conspiratorial explanation is just that Bill is a horndog off his leash.
Jackie Kucinich is in fact a bona fide member of her own little conspiracy. In April 2015, the Clinton campaign held an “off the record” cocktail party with friendly reporters hosted at the Manhattan home of prominent Clinton supporter Joel Benenson. Among those journalists (if you can call them that) was Jackie Kucinich. According to a hacked email:
Much of the group consists of influential reporters, anchors, and editors. The goals of the dinner include: (1) Giving reporters their first thoughts from team HRC in advance of the announcement (2) Setting expectations for the announcement and launch period (3) Framing the HRC message and framing the race (4) Enjoying a Frida[y] night drink before working more. [Emphasis added.]
While many reporters on the list have impotently protested that their presence at the event does not amount to media coordination with a campaign, it’s hard to make the case that Kucinich is not a Clinton lackey after she spouted Clinton campaign talking points about Bill’s predatory nature on national television. It takes a certain gall for Kucinich, one of Hillary Clinton’s known co-conspirators, to go on television and whine about “conspiracy theories.”
Nearly everyone on earth harbors “conspiracy theories” because conspiracies really do happen. Most people, however, prefer not to think of their own conspiracy theories as such because of the negative connotation associated with the term. Some conspiracy theories are downright silly but others are quite plausible. There are enough real conspiracies in the world to concentrate on the ones that are reasonably substantiated, such as Hillary Clinton’s coordination with dirty tricksters Foval and Creamer. As the conspiracy theory television program The X-Files used to say, “The Truth Is Out There.” Don’t be afraid to pursue it. | 0 |
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. The F. B. I. director, James Comey, said the bureau would not recommend criminal charges over Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email server while she was secretary of state. That lifted a legal cloud hanging over her campaign. But, in keeping with a long career of diving into thorny political conflicts, he rebuked Mrs. Clinton for being “extremely careless” and the State Department for lax security. He noted that hostile governments might have gained access to her personal account. Some of Mrs. Clinton’s aides could still be punished, potentially costing them security clearances in a Clinton administration. _____ 2. President Obama made his first campaign appearance alongside Mrs. Clinton in North Carolina, just hours after Mr. Comey spoke. “I can tell you this, Hillary Clinton has been tested,” the president said. “There has never been any man or woman more qualified for this office. ” _____ 3. Britain’s pound hit a low against the dollar as concerns over the country’s exit from the European Union mount. Theresa May, Britain’s home secretary, has emerged as the for prime minister, to replace David Cameron. One lawmaker has called her “a bloody difficult woman. ” Even the art world is trying to grapple with the seismic shift, although one writer said the news itself was “playing out as a fascinating, twisting narrative. ” _____ 4. NASA’s Juno spacecraft completed a voyage and has begun 20 months of orbits around Jupiter to collect data and images. The planet, most likely the first formed after the sun, could hold the keys to understanding the origins of the solar system. “Now the fun begins,” the lead scientist on the project said. _____ 5. PBS fended off fireworks from viewers after admitting that its broadcast of the Independence Day Show from the National Mall in Washington tried to compensate for visibility problems by intercutting footage of pyrotechnics from previous years. The channel tweeted that its choice was “the patriotic thing to do,” but a Washington Post reporter tweeted back, “the Milli Vanilli of fireworks #shame. ” _____ 6. Accumulating evidence suggests that cancer is not as random as many people believe. Our health columnist, a doctor, reviewed cancer studies and concluded that attention to diet and exercise, and avoiding smoking, can significantly lower our vulnerability. One study showed that less than 30 percent of the lifetime risk of getting cancer was because of intrinsic risk factors, or “bad luck. ” _____ 7. A French parliamentary panel found widespread intelligence failures connected to the terrorist attacks in Paris last year. Taking a page from the U. S. after the attacks, the panel urged that the nation’s intelligence agencies be merged. “Today we don’t measure up to those who are attacking us,” a lawmaker said. _____ 8. This Palestinian doctor, pictured with his family, has become a cause célèbre in Israel after helping save the lives of Jewish settlers in the West Bank. He happened upon an overturned car and helped treat the injured. A Palestinian medic had to warn him to flee to avoid being set upon by other settlers who might have mistaken him for the gunman who fired on the car. _____ 9. Venus Williams advanced at Wimbledon, reaching a Grand Slam semifinal for the first time since the 2010 United States Open. “I don’t have any regrets about anything that’s taken place in between,” she said, referring to troubles, including a diagnosis of an disease and a back injury. “It’s been a journey, but it’s made me stronger. ” Her sister, Serena, is also in the semifinals. _____ 10. Finally, one of our pieces today taps into the confusion over what we should be eating. Nutritionists and ordinary Americans tend to agree that soda and bacon aren’t so good for you, and that kale and fresh fruit are. But the experts rate sushi and tofu high, while the public elevates granola bars and orange juice. Both sides have mixed feelings about popcorn, pork chops and whole milk. So bon appétit and good luck. _____ 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. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 1 |
POLL: Which is the most corrupt federal agency? My vote is IRS. Re: POLL: Which is the most corrupt federal agency? .gov ~mistakes are proof that you are trying~~be kind to unkind people, for they are the ones that need it the most~ Re: POLL: Which is the most corrupt federal agency? Where is the "All of the above" option? Anonymous Coward ( OP ) Re: POLL: Which is the most corrupt federal agency? Where is the "All of the above" option? Quoting: DarkMezbar Re: POLL: Which is the most corrupt federal agency? DOJall else follows The Deplorable Don Solo comments are meant for entertainment purposes only and should not be construed to reflect the feelings and opinions, implied or expressed, of the author. Anonymous Coward | 0 |
TOPEKA, Kan. — Timothy Shahid and Joshua Kalina met, went drinking, became friends and then had a falling out that lead to the murder of one of the young men, all in a matter of hours. The victim’s mother, her life suddenly a disordered jumble marked by panic attacks and nightmares, decided to seek out her son’s killer to try to understand what had prompted an act of violence so baffling that even the gunman was at a loss. With the aid of a restorative justice program, which brings together victims and those who have caused them harm, the two ultimately met — each seeking a way out of grief, fear and guilt. Here’s a look at Timothy, Joshua and Joshua’s mother as she becomes involved in the program. (In this related article, read about a meeting between the parents of a college student and the man convicted in the accident that killed their son.) “I probably broke my mom’s heart when I told her that,” Timothy, now 30, said. “The road I was leading, I knew I was going to end up in one of those two places. ” At 14, Timothy and some other boys robbed a pawnshop, and he spent two years in a juvenile facility. By age 16, he was “religiously” carrying a gun that he sometimes used. He did not elaborate. “Hanging out with a group of kids gave me hope,” said Timothy, who was tormented by his adoption, and the parents he never knew. “I didn’t think my biological mother loved me. ” At the time of the shooting, Timothy was working at a telemarketing center. He spent his free hours smoking pot and drinking at least a pint of Hennessy a day. He customized the black 2005 Nissan Altima with special wheel rims, and was methodical about keeping the car looking pristine. Joshua grew up in Topeka with his mother, Judi Bergquist, and was especially close to his older brother. He liked to play practical jokes on those close to him. “He was so funny,” his mother said. He had severe attention deficit disorder and graduated from an alternative high school. Problems with social anxiety prompted him to wear a St. Louis Cardinals baseball cap pulled low over his face. Ms. Bergquist said Joshua began hanging out with what she described as a “rougher” group of friends after graduating, so she sent him to Texas to live with her parents. He returned to Topeka about two years later and found work at a service. But persistent money problems forced him to rely on his mother and grandmother. “The day he died, he called me in the late afternoon,” Ms. Bergquist said. “He was extremely upset because my mom had shut off his cellphone and he had a car payment to make. ” He’d screamed at her. A few hours later, she said Joshua drove slowly by her house but didn’t stop. It was the last time she saw him alive. Hours later, Timothy and Joshua met for the first time through a mutual friend. The two seemed to hit it off. “He didn’t come off as a person I couldn’t get along with. I was easy to get along with,” Timothy said. “I rode around with Josh in his car. ” But as the night of April 23, 2007, wore on, their easy conversation deteriorated into bickering, and the two argued loudly while drinking at a bar. “He said something about one of my friends, so I said something about one of his friends,” said Timothy, who called someone to pick him up. “We were going out the door at the same time, still arguing. I actually opened his car door and then I walk off. I just told him to get in the car. That’s when me and his friend, we’re arguing now . .. All I see was him pull out a weapon . .. I thought he had a gun. ” He fired eight times, and a friend of Timothy’s fired twice more before they fled, the police said. Joshua was left in the parking lot with four gunshot wounds in the chest, one in the left hip, two in the buttocks and three in the left hand. “My was it was better him than me,” Timothy said. “I didn’t believe in fighting. I just pulled out my gun. I actually ran up to him when I shot him. I don’t blame alcohol. I knew what I was doing. I just saw something in his hand. ” Joshua was unarmed, police said Timothy’s accomplice was never arrested. During pretrial hearings, Timothy would see Ms. Bergquist in the courtroom, and at one court appearance, he taunted her. “I actually took her son’s photo, and held it up and turned around, and that’s when I laughed at her,” he said. Ms. Bergquist, suffering from memory loss and insomnia, panicked every time she saw a tall man — the loose description of Timothy’s accomplice. “If I saw anybody with that vague description, I would just lose it,” she said. Finally, wanting to avoid a trial, Ms. Bergquist agreed to a plea deal in which Timothy would receive about 20 years. Timothy was impassive: “I didn’t care about life. ” “I knew that Timothy held the answers that I needed. I needed reassurance from Timothy that the other person was never going to bother me,” said Ms. Bergquist. “I needed to feel safe. At the same time, I needed to know if Timothy was working to change his life. I didn’t want this to happen to anyone else. ” The first step toward a meeting came after a prison official showed Timothy an article that Ms. Bergquist had written about Joshua. Ms. Bergquist also contacted Holly Chavez, the restorative justice coordinator at the Kansas Department of Corrections, and asked whether a meeting would be possible. Timothy was also growing more introspective. He was reading the Bible as well as a book that included a passage that seemed written for him: “If you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got. ” The solitude of prison forced him to try to figure out who he was. “I had a lot of time,” he said. “You got to deal with a lot of stuff on your own. It made me go back and look at the things in my life. I became Christian. I understood forgiveness — that I took a life that I can never give back. ” What follows is a discussion of the reactions of Timothy and Ms. Bergquist as they worked with Ms. Chavez toward a encounter. The excerpts, which are from separate interviews that took place after the meeting, capture the thinking of those involved. Judi Bergquist, the victim’s mother Holly Chavez, the program coordinator The pivotal moment came when Ms. Bergquist acknowledged that she knew her son was flawed. Timothy, who killed Joshua Ms. Chavez Ms. Bergquist Timothy Ms. Bergquist Timothy Ms. Bergquist Timothy Ms. Bergquist Timothy Ms. Bergquist In April 2016, the two met again — this time at a victims’ awareness event at the prison in front of inmates. “She called me her friend,” Timothy said. “A woman forgiving her son’s killer and calling him her friend. And at the end, she got up and gave me a hug. You just don’t see that too often. ” (In this related article, Zachary Harrison struggles to understand why the parents of the man he killed want to meet him.) | 1 |
FBI Found "Tens Of Thousands Of Emails" Belonging To Huma Abedin On Weiner's Laptop Zero Hedge
With furious Democrats - and the Clinton Campaign - now openly blasting the FBI's reopened investigation (as Republicans take delight for once in having a government agency reinforce their side of events), the question turns to just what emails were found on Weiner's laptop, and how damaging their contents are for the FBI to take the unprecedented step of "intervening" in a major political event just days before the national election.
We first laid what was the most likely explanation yesterday , when we showed several examples of Huma Abedin emails being sent from her work email account to her personal account at , courtesy of a Judicial Watch FOIA release. Of the more than 160 emails in the latest Judicial Watch release, some 110 emails – two-thirds of the total – were forwarded by Abedin to two personal addresses she controlled. The Washington Times reported in August 2015 that the State Department had admitted to a federal judge that Abedin and Mills used personal email accounts to conduct government business in addition to Clinton’s private clintonemail.com to transact State Department business.
One email from May 15, 2009, was sent by Abedin from her State Department email to her personal email. Abedin was archiving in her personal email account an email Hillary Clinton sent her from Clinton’s private email server at . Abedin was asked to print out attachments to an email Mills sent via a private address the previous day to Clinton involving “timetables and deliverables” for her review via Alec Ross, a technology policy expert who then held the title of senior adviser for innovation to Secretary Clinton.
However, while forwarding Hillary's emails to her personal email server for "convenience" is one thing, what is more troubling is the amount of redaction involved in these emails which migrated to the open email account, which as we now know ended up in Anthony Weiner's computer: in the above example, the two pages of timetables and deliverables attached to the email were 100 percent redacted, with “PAGE DENIED” stamped across the first redacted page.
An argument can be made that the extensive redaction confirms confidential material was part of the transmission.
This is a nuanced point being pushed by Hillary Clinton supporters such as Newsweek's Kurt Eichenwald, who in an article yesterday tried to make a case citing "sources" (even though the FBI said that nobody has seen the content of the Weiner/Abedin emails), that " no emails being examined by FBI were to or from Clinton ." No emails being examined by FBI were to or from Clinton. All of this has to do with procedures followed by an aide. https://t.co/mcsBi7j7XU
— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) October 29, 2016
It remains to be seen just what is in the emails, although whether Hillary sent emails with confidential content herself, or directed, or simply allowed her closest aide, Huma Abedin to forward such emails to her outside unsecured email address (where they subsequently ended up on Anthony Weiner's notebook), is what this latest case will be all about and how it will be defended and prosecuted in the media, by the water coolers and perhaps, in court.
However, we do know one thing: according to the NYT , the number of Huma emails that made their way to Weiner's PC was staggering:
The F.B.I. is investigating illicit text messages that Mr. Weiner, a former Democratic congressman from New York, sent to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina. The bureau told Congress on Friday that it had uncovered new emails related to the Clinton case — one federal official said they numbered in the tens of thousand
Which brings up two more critical questions: i) when she was questioned by the FBI over the summer, did Huma reveal and admit the existence of these "thousands" of emails located on a personal, home computer, and ii) will the FBI be able to comb through everything in the next 10 days ahead of the election? If the answer to the second question is no, will the US presidential election really take place with one candidate currently under FBI investigation, one which could potentially lead to impeachment proceedings within weeks or days of her being elected president?
Still, the biggest irony in this latest debacle is that it was largely predicted by Donald Trump himself back in August of 2015. It came out that Huma Abedin knows all about Hillary’s private illegal emails. Huma’s PR husband, Anthony Weiner, will tell the world.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 3, 2015 Share This Article... | 0 |
BERKELEY, Calif. — A vain politician runs for the presidency, short on specifics but long on bluster, inveighing against a religious minority and promising to make America prosperous again. Sound familiar? It did to the leaders of Berkeley Repertory Theater, who, casting about for a show to coincide with the fall presidential campaign, hit upon an idea: They would write a new adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’s 1935 novel imagining the election of an American demagogue: “It Can’t Happen Here. ” The play, which began previews on Friday, is among scores of efforts by theaters across the United States to provoke discussion and reflection about this year’s unusual election, and the unease that it has exposed. Some, like Berkeley Rep, explicitly aim to prompt discussion about Donald J. Trump, whose candidacy has alarmed many in the theater world others have opted to stage works in which characters grapple with issues debated during the campaign, like immigration or economic inequality. “Art shouldn’t fall into any kind of simplistic, didactic haranguing, and topicality is a dangerous thing, because you always get outstripped by reality,” said Tony Taccone, the longtime artistic director of Berkeley Rep, and a with Bennett S. Cohen, of the new adaptation. However, he said, “With the election looming, it felt incumbent on us to respond if we could. ” On a recent afternoon, the cast and crew of “It Can’t Happen Here” gathered at Berkeley Rep’s administrative campus in a warehouse once occupied by the North Face, to run through the play one last time before moving into a downtown Berkeley theater. The designers had embraced the feel of a campaign: The set featured flags and drums and images of national parks, and the sound design included a Sousa march. Fourteen actors played nearly 50 roles, and practiced egging on the audience to cheer and jeer with the onstage pageantry. The theater printed lapel stickers bearing the play’s name for patrons, meant to echo the ubiquitous “I Voted” stickers leaders considered, but decided against, holding a series of related discussion programs, thinking that the culture is already saturated with election talk. The play is scheduled to close Nov. 6, two days before the election. Around the country, theaters are acknowledging the election in various ways. On Broadway, “Kinky Boots” has created a video and website to promote voter registration, while “Hamilton” cast members are planning to register voters outside their theater on Wednesday and Saturday Off Broadway, “Avenue Q” has added Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump puppets to its company. Some theaters are staging Mike Daisey’s comedic monologue “The Trump Card,” while many others have brought back plays about political figures, from Frank Rizzo in Philadelphia to Lyndon Baines Johnson in Cleveland and Costa Mesa, Calif. In Washington, five prominent theaters are holding a series of free Monday night readings of politically themed plays, including “Ivanka: A Medea for Right Now,” a fictional work about Mr. Trump’s daughter by the playwright Joshua Harmon. Berkeley Rep hit upon “It Can’t Happen Here” about eight months ago, when an unexpected hole opened in its fall season. Lisa Peterson, who had signed on to direct a show for Berkeley Rep, Googled the phrase “it can’t happen here” and stumbled across the Sinclair Lewis novel, which she was not familiar with Mr. Taccone had read the book in high school and thought it would work. The novel is about a Vermont newspaper editor, Doremus Jessup, who opposes a demagogic presidential candidate, Berzelius Windrip it is a satirical and melodramatic cautionary tale, in which Mr. Windrip wins the election, imposes martial law and seizes control of newspapers his regime arrests and even kills his critics. Lewis, who had already won the Nobel Prize for literature, wrote the novel against an ominous backdrop: Hitler and Mussolini were in power in Germany and Italy, and Huey Long, a senator and former governor who wielded unusual power in Louisiana, was preparing to run for the American presidency. There are some striking similarities between the campaign pitches by the fictional Mr. Windrip and the real Mr. Trump — both men were even nominated for the presidency in Cleveland. But there are significant differences: Windrip, among other things, is a Democrat (in the novel, the Republican nominee winds up fleeing to Canada to plot a rebellion) and prone to warnings against Jews Mr. Trump, of course, is a Republican who has focused his concern on Muslims. In their new adaptation, Mr. Taccone and Mr. Cohen have sharpened the echoes. They wrote the campaign remarks by Windrip after watching stump speeches by Mr. Trump they have one of their characters comment on the role of the news media (“The more offensive his remarks, the more papers get sold”) and, in a dig at Hillary Clinton’s reference to some Trump supporters as belonging to a “basket of deplorables,” a character explaining Windrip’s popularity says, “It’s not because they’re all stupid and prejudiced and deplorable. ” The novel was first adapted into a play and presented around the country in the late 1930s by the Federal Theater Project — Lewis himself appeared in one production, in Cohasset, Mass. as the journalist Jessup. But Berkeley Rep deemed that adaptation unrevivable (“it’s ghastly,” said Susan Medak, its managing director) so Mr. Taccone and Mr. Cohen, with the blessing of the Lewis estate, set about writing a new one in unusually short time. “What we saw as the risk was that Trump would not make it through the primaries, and the piece would feel irrelevant,” Ms. Medak said. “But even if the elections ended up not being about Trump — and obviously we hoped they wouldn’t be — there was something about this that felt as though it was speaking to what the American public was concerned about, regardless of who the candidate was. ” Noting that the 1930s adaptation by Lewis and J. C. Moffitt was presented by multiple theaters around the country, Berkeley Rep this month invited theaters, universities and libraries across the country to hold readings of the play 30 organizations signed up in the first week. “It’s an outrageous story,” said Tom Nelis, the actor (last seen on Broadway in “The Visit”) portraying the journalist Jessup in Berkeley. “But you can’t watch it and not think it’s plausible. ” Had enough of CNN? Ready for politics with a dose of stage drama? Berkeley Rep’s new adaptation of “It Can’t Happen Here” is just one example of how theaters around the country have prepared programming to reflect the American presidential campaign. Some are mounting familiar works, from “Coriolanus” to “All the Way,” thinking that their themes will resonate especially strongly this fall others are focusing on new shows. Here are some examples: 45 PLAYS FOR 45 PRESIDENTS At the Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell, Mass. An evening of plays, one for every president, followed by an audience vote on whether it would like to see another two minutes about Donald J. Trump or about Hillary Clinton. Through Sunday. IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE A new adaptation, by Tony Taccone and Bennett S. Cohen, of the 1935 novel by Sinclair Lewis, at Berkeley Repertory Theater. Through Nov. 6. LET TRUMP BE TRUMP A comedy by John Krizel at the Davenport Theater in Manhattan. Oct. 11 to 13. THEATRICAL SELECTIONS Five play readings, at Arena Stage, the Kennedy Center, Shakespeare Theater Company, Signature Theater and Studio Theater in Washington. Oct. 3 through Nov. 7. THE TRUMP CARD A monologue written by Mike Daisey is being performed at theaters around the country. Among them are the Broad Stage in Santa Monica, Calif. (on Thursday) and the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego (through Sunday). VICUÑA A new satirical play by Jon Robin Baitz at Center Theater Group in Los Angeles about a tailor whose clients include a real estate tycoon and star of reality television who becomes a nominee for president. Oct. 23 through Nov. 20. SCENES FROM COURT LIFE, OR THE WHIPPING BOY AND HIS PRINCE, A new play by Sarah Ruhl explores parallels between the Stuarts of Britain and the Bush family. Yale Repertory Theater, Friday through Oct. 22. THE TRIAL OF AN AMERICAN PRESIDENT A jury made up of audience members “tries” George W. Bush at the Lion Theater in Manhattan. Through Oct. 15. WINTER WHEAT This play at the Barter Theater in Abingdon, Va. explores the passage of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. Oct. 6 through Nov. 12. DOOMOCRACY A Creative Time installation by Pedro Reyes at the Brooklyn Army Terminal pegged to Halloween and the presidential election. Oct. 7 through Nov. 6. THE REAL AMERICANS A solo show at the Marsh in San Francisco in which Dan Hoyle recounts his interviews with residents of America. ThroughOct. 15. VOTE OR DIE LAUGHING An evening of “postmodern political vaudeville” from Culture Clash at the Valley Performing Arts Center in Northridge, Calif. explores the intersection of Election Day and the Day of the Dead. Nov. 1. Presented on election night at the Baltimore Museum of Art by Center Stage. Playwrights will take prompts from attendees and generate short plays about the election. Nov. 8. AN ELECTION NIGHT HOOTENANNY at Joe’s Pub in Manhattan will feature Michael Friedman performing songs based on voter interviews. Nov. 8. | 1 |
Princeton University suspended the season of its men’s swimming and diving team after the discovery of material on its electronic mailing list that was “vulgar and offensive as well as misogynistic and racist,” the university said Thursday. A final decision whether to cancel the season will be made in the next few days, John D. Cramer, a university spokesman, said in an interview. The suspension came after an anonymous complaint made this week alerted officials to “several materials” that were offensive, including in electronic correspondence, the university said in a statement. Mr. Cramer would not discuss specifics of the other materials, including their content or when they were created, but confirmed that the comments were made about members of the women’s swimming and diving team. The suspension was the third of an Ivy League team since the start of November. Last month, Columbia and Harvard each suspended the season of a team after allegations of lewd behavior surfaced. Harvard canceled the rest of the season for its men’s soccer team after officials uncovered what they described as a widespread practice of players rating the school’s female players in sexually explicit terms. The Columbia wrestling team’s season was suspended while officials said they were investigating text messages sent by players that included the frequent use of racist, misogynistic and homophobic terms. At Princeton, the swimming and diving team, which has 38 members, was scheduled to compete on Jan. 7 against Navy and on Feb. 5 against Harvard and Yale. The Ivy League Championships will be Feb. . “The behavior that we have learned about is simply unacceptable,” Mollie Marcoux Samaan, Princeton’s director of athletics, said in a statement. “It is antithetical to the values of our athletic program and of the university and will not be tolerated. ” The team was notified about the suspension on Thursday afternoon, Mr. Cramer said. “I am deeply disappointed by the behavior of the men’s swim team,” Christopher L. Eisgruber, the university’s president, said in a statement. “I have asked the athletic department to redouble its efforts to ensure that our teams conduct themselves with the character and ethics that we expect from students representing Princeton University in athletic competition. ” | 1 |
Shocking video out of Chicago shows a mob of young black men viciously beating an older white man because he voted for Donald Trump, dragging him through the streets as he hangs out of the back of his car.
The clip shows the thugs repeatedly screaming, “you voted Donald Trump” as they assault the victim from every angle while others steal his belongings.
“You voted Trump,” the mob screams, “You gonna pay for that sh*t.”
Another woman shouts “beat his ass,” while another man is heard laughing before remarking, “Don’t vote Trump.”
A second video of the incident which is dubbed with the “F**k Donald Trump” song, a phrase now being chanted by “protesters” across the country, shows one of the attackers driving away in the man’s vehicle while his hand is still stuck in the window as the car drags him down the street.
“The scene is frankly reminiscent of a lynching,” remarks Chris Menahan .
It is not even clear if the victim was a Trump supporter. Presumably, the mob used that as an excuse to beat and rob him.
YouTube quickly deleted the video, but it has been mirrored on numerous different websites.
If the roles had been reversed, and Trump supporters had been caught on tape viciously beating a black Hillary voter, this would be a national news story right now.
This is simply unacceptable
As it is, you won’t see this on CNN any time soon. Perhaps blacks should also be deported to Africa… they never seem to be satisfied, no one ever seems to make them happy. They even rioted and protested during Obama, with one of their own as president. Black Lives Matter was formed during Obama.
Besides maybe us whites are bad with them and misbehave with them, sometimes willingly and purposefully while other times by mistake. So it would be best if we separate so that we don’t have these ancient conflicts anymore. This man who was beaten so badly never did anything wrong to these people, neither willingly nor unwillingly but these conflicts still happen because we are not compatible with each other.
After all first Republican president Abraham Lincoln believed in separation , he freed them from slavery but he also said:
I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races – that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything.
Now we do disagree with Lincoln’s idea of superior-inferior relationship. It would however be best to separate though. It just doesn’t work. Despite having almost 2 centuries now since the Emancipation Proclamation, conflicts still run rampant and no real friendship has ever been established. They should be resettled perhaps to Liberia, a plan supported by Abraham Lincoln and be helped financially with billions or even trillions of dollars until they can start their own economy and industry. They do deserve that. Anyone intermarried with them should be free to either stay in the US and divorce or simply go along with their families.
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Posted on November 3, 2016 by Dr. Eowyn | 5 Comments
Leftists have a fondness for feces.
In 1996, Chris Ofili used elephant dung in his painting “The Holy Virgin Mary”. (See “ NYT refuses Muhammad cartoon but publishes offensive painting of Virgin Mary in elephant dung “)
The celebrated Spanish artist, Pablo Picasso, was sneakier in his use of feces.
Richard Johnson reports for Page Six , Oct. 30, 2016, that a new book by Thomas Girst and Magnus Resch, 100 Secrets of the Art World , reveals that Picasso painted with feces.
Divulging “a family secret,” Diana Widmaier Picasso told the book’s authors that her grandfather, Pablo Picasso, had used the feces of his then-3-year-old daughter Maya (Diana’s mother) to paint an apple in a 1938 still life.
Diana said, “According to him, excrement from an infant breast-fed by its mother had a unique texture and ocher color. The revulsion that this material might provoke is instead transformed into amazement as we grasp the full imagination of the artist.” Blah, blah, blah.
Pablo Picasso was a communist and an atheist.
From Wikipedia :
In 1944 Picasso joined the French Communist Party, attended an international peace conference in Poland, and in 1950 received the Stalin Peace Prize from the Soviet government. But party criticism of a portrait of Stalin as insufficiently realistic cooled Picasso’s interest in Soviet politics, though he remained a loyal member of the Communist Party until his death. In a 1945 interview with Jerome Seckler, Picasso stated: “I am a Communist and my painting is Communist painting….”
In 1940, the French government refused Picasso’s application for French citizenship on the grounds of his “extremist ideas evolving towards communism”. This information was not revealed until 2003.
See also: | 0 |
The F. B. I. interviewed Hillary Clinton on Saturday morning for its investigation into whether she or her aides broke the law by corresponding through a private email server set up for her use as secretary of state, a controversy that has dogged her presidential campaign and provided fodder for her political rivals. The voluntary interview, which took place over three and a half hours at the F. B. I. headquarters in Washington, largely focused on the Justice Department’s central question: Did the actions of Mrs. Clinton or her staff rise to the level of criminal mishandling of classified information? It could take weeks or longer to reach a decision, but news that Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee, had been questioned in the J. Edgar Hoover Building three weeks before her party’s convention quickly reverberated. The Republican National Committee called the step “unprecedented,” while Mrs. Clinton’s expected opponent in the race for the White House, Donald J. Trump, wasted little time before weighing in. “It is impossible for the FBI not to recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter on Saturday. “What she did was wrong!” The interview had been weeks in the making as law enforcement officials and Mrs. Clinton’s team coordinated schedules. Democrats also hoped that holding the interview on a holiday weekend might ease the anticipated storm. In a telephone interview with Chuck Todd on MSNBC after her meeting, Mrs. Clinton said, “I’ve been eager to do it, and I was pleased to have the opportunity to assist the department in bringing its review to a conclusion. ” Accompanying Mrs. Clinton into the meeting were her lawyer David E. Kendall Cheryl D. Mills and Heather Samuelson, longtime aides who are also lawyers and two lawyers from Mr. Kendall’s firm, Williams Connolly, Katherine Turner and Amy Saharia. Eight officials from the F. B. I. and the Department of Justice conducted the interview, according to a person who was familiar with the substance of the session but declined to be named because the meeting was private. This person characterized the meeting as “civil” and “businesslike. ” Neither the campaign nor the F. B. I. would elaborate. Although the interview on Saturday was an important step toward closure on the email issue, technical analysis of the material remains to be done and could stretch on for an indeterminate period. The F. B. I. regularly interviews key figures before concluding an investigation, and such meetings are not an indication that it thinks the person broke the law. While defense lawyers often advise clients against such interviews, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign has been eager for her to cooperate, lest she give her opponents additional ammunition. On Saturday, in a statement after the meeting, the Republican National Committee said that Mrs. Clinton “has just taken the unprecedented step of becoming the first major party presidential candidate to be interviewed by the F. B. I. as part of a criminal investigation surrounding her reckless conduct. ” Mrs. Clinton has struggled to get beyond the issue, which came to light last year during a congressional investigation into the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. More than 30, 000 emails have since been made public. After spending much of last summer arguing she did not need to apologize for keeping a private server in her home in Chappaqua, N. Y. because the practice was allowed, Mrs. Clinton now frequently apologizes for the practice, saying it had been a mistake. The campaign has prioritized assisting the F. B. I. but it declined to cooperate with a State Department inspector general’s audit of Mrs. Clinton’s email practices. Those findings, delivered to members of Congress in May, undermined some of Mrs. Clinton’s initial statements defending her use of the server. The report said there was “no evidence” that she had requested or received approval for the server, despite having “an obligation to discuss using her personal email account to conduct official business. ” Federal law deems it a crime to “knowingly” mishandle classified information outside secure government channels or to permit the practice through “gross negligence. ” None of the emails on Mrs. Clinton’s private server were marked classified at the time they were sent or received, but the Central Intelligence Agency later determined that some contained material that would be considered “top secret. ” Asked Saturday on MSNBC if she had broken the law, Mrs. Clinton repeated her defense: “I never received nor sent any material that was marked classified. ” There has been no indication that sensitive information was compromised by Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private server. But it has fed a perception that she was trying to hide information, chipping away at data gauging her trustworthiness. A Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday found that voters deemed Mr. Trump more honest and trustworthy than Mrs. Clinton, 45 percent to 37 percent. “I have said that I’m going to continue to put forth my record, what I have stood for, do everything I can to earn the trust of the voters of our country,” she told MSNBC when asked about being seen as less trustworthy than Mr. Trump. “I know that’s something that I’m going to keep working on, and I think that’s, you know, a clear priority for me. ” Mrs. Clinton had no public events scheduled on Saturday, but after her F. B. I. interview she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, went to New York and saw the Broadway show “Hamilton. ” Mrs. Clinton’s meeting with the F. B. I. came amid controversy over a brief, unplanned meeting between Mr. Clinton and Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch while both were at the Phoenix airport at the same time last week. To avoid any appearance of political meddling, Ms. Lynch said on Friday that she would accept the recommendations of career prosecutors and the F. B. I. director on whether to bring charges in the matter. She said she had made that decision several months ago, before the criticism surrounding her meeting with Mr. Clinton. She described the meeting with Mr. Clinton as a casual conversation that did not touch on the investigation. But it added to Clinton campaign staff members’ headaches over the email inquiry, which they had hoped to put behind them before the Democratic convention this month. “I certainly wouldn’t do it again,” Ms. Lynch said of the meeting with the . | 1 |
Shouts of ‘Not my president!’ in California, following Trump victory 11/09/2016
PBS
Moments after Donald Trump’s stunning victory over Hillary Clinton for the White House, protests erupted in California and other states, including people crying “Not my president!”
The Los Angeles Times and other media outlets reported anti-Trump protesters amassing around the campuses of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and UC San Diego, among others.
In Oakland, the overnight protests led to a partial closure of the Bay Area Rapid Transit, or BART, the Times reported.
Photos and videos on social media captured the protesters marching and yelling “Who’s got the power? We got the power,” “Not my president!” and other anti-Trump chants filled with expletives .
UCSB student newspaper the Daily Nexus reported that hundreds of students left their dorms to protest. In the video captured by the paper below, one student is seen carrying a Mexican flag.
Likewise, hundreds of students at UC San Diego and UCLA demonstrated on campus early Wednesday morning. There also were reports of protests at UC Santa Cruz and UC Irvine. Officials said there were as many as 3,000 students that marched through the UCLA campus, ABC reported .
Elsewhere in the country, protests were reported in Portland, Oregon and Washington, D.C.
In Oakland, authorities said dozens of protesters gathered downtown, while hundreds blocked a local highway.
The San Francisco Chronicle also reported that a 20-year-old protester was severely injured after being hit by a car on Highway 20. Protesters had blocked the highway and lit several fires, officer John O’Reilly told BuzzFeed News . | 0 |
Joining us live during tonight’s debate was Walter F. Mondale, the 42nd vice president of the United States: Mr. Mondale chatted with us via emails sent from his home in Minneapolis, sharing his thoughts. (Check out how we covered the debate in real time: analysis, highlights and fact checks.) Mr. Mondale, a Democrat, is credited with reshaping the vice presidency under President Jimmy Carter: Where past running mates were routinely relegated to obscurity, Mr. Mondale became an influential partner in government. A supporter of Hillary Clinton, Mr. Mondale agreed to size up Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia and Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana and weigh in on the role of the vice presidency. (We also invited former Vice President Dick Cheney to join us, but a spokesman said he was unavailable.) ____ ALEXANDER BURNS, 9:05 P. M. Eastern: Mr. Mondale began by laying out the major questions of the night, as he sees them. WALTER MONDALE, 9:05: I hope you will open up the issue of what kind of vice presidency they are planning. Do they have an understanding about what they will do? What authority will he have? Do they have a clear understanding with their principal, or is it up in the air? I’m doubtful that Pence has an understanding. This is very important. VPs can get lost. ____ BURNS, 9:06: What do you see as the major goals of a candidate in this setting? MONDALE, 9:06: One of the first and central issues is what will the VP do when he disagrees with the pres. candidate. Big, silent question. ____ BURNS, 9:10: Is there a “right” answer to that question? Did you have an explicit understanding with Carter? MONDALE, 9:10: No, only degrees of discomfort. I told Carter that I would not disclose deep differences unless I told Carter. Did he believe me? ____ BURNS, 9:26: These were supposed to be the candidates! Are you surprised to see them going at each other so aggressively like this? MONDALE, 9:26: Yes, I hope this can let up a little bit. ____ BURNS, 9:36: Are you hearing anything significant from these two about how they would approach the vice presidency? Is there anything we can take away from their attitudes in the debate so far? MONDALE, 9:36: I’d try to break in on what their plans are for their vice presidency and whether they have an understanding with their principal. ____ BURNS, 9:38: To follow up: It seems like Mike Pence isn’t showing any daylight with Donald Trump. Does that tell you anything about his approach to the role? He didn’t even give ground on taxes. MONDALE, 9:38: It says he is locked in with Trump. This would be a good night to spell out differences. He’s not doing it. ____ MONDALE, 9:49: Pence is filibustering, paying no attention to fairness in time allocation. I wish Kaine would hit Pence far harder for his behavior. ____ BURNS, 9:59: I remember in your debate with Bob Dole, he was seen as too mean because of his comment about “Democrat wars. ” Does it ever amaze you that the tone of politics has gotten to this point? MONDALE, 9:59: Yes it does. ____ BURNS, 10:07: It kind of feels like we’re watching a debate between two pundits. What do you think voters need to know about a vice president, on a personal level, before that person comes into office? MONDALE, 10:07: What is the understanding, if any, about how the VP would serve the president? Do they have an agreement? Can the public be told? MONDALE, 10:07: I agree. We are not having the discussion that voters deserve. ____ BURNS, 10:15: It seems like we are getting a little more substance on foreign policy. Do you see Kaine as someone who can really advise Clinton in that area? He’s mostly talking about her record so far, not his own credentials. MONDALE, 10:15: I think the answer is yes. Kaine will be a big source of wisdom on policy and security issues. He’s on the Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees. ____ BURNS, 10:16: Seems like we just saw the first real difference between Trump and Pence. Pence called Putin a “small and bullying leader” — Trump has said the exact opposite. Can the president and vice president take two dramatically different views of a country like Russia? MONDALE, 10:16: I don’t get it. It must be explained and I don’t think he can. Pence is off on his own. ____ BURNS, 10:23: So how tired do you get up on that stage, this far into a debate? Is it exhausting, or do you just feel the adrenaline the whole time? MONDALE, 10:23: Adrenaline sustained me. I paid a price later. ____ BURNS, 10:25: What do you think of the way these two are talking about nuclear weapons? This was a major issue in your presidential campaign. It’s such an important subject, but we don’t talk about it nearly as much anymore. MONDALE, 10:25: Kaine won that debate. Pence had nothing to say about this issue. ____ BURNS, 10:45: You mentioned on the phone earlier that the question of faith in politics is important to you. Is this, at least, a place where we saw these two candidates as people? Did anything they said really stand out to you? MONDALE, 10:45: Yes. I thought that discussion was more positive. ____ BURNS, 10:48: That was a rough debate. Thank you so much for speaking with us. One last question: Did we learn anything we really needed to know? MONDALE, 10:48: Not much. MONDALE, 10:48: I’m astonished that not one question was asked about how they saw the elements of the vice presidency. | 1 |
by Yves Smith
By Wolf Richter, a San Francisco based executive, entrepreneur, start up specialist, and author, with extensive international work experience. Originally published at Wolf Street
Five years ago, when Google announced that it would build a super-high-speed fiber-optic network in Kansas City, and then roll it out in other cities, it started an effort to own and control the data pipelines going into homes and businesses.
Given how frustrated consumers are with their ISPs, it seems people couldn’t wait for Google Fiber, now operated by Alphabet’s Access. Google then spent a fortune building out the network in select cities around the country. This could have been huge . At a huge cost.
“Amazing bet,” is what Craig Barratt, senior VP at Alphabet and CEO of Access, called Google Fiber in a blogpost yesterday. In the same breath, he also announced that they would “pause” the build-out of Google Fiber in cities where it had been planned, that there would be layoffs and reassignments, though he didn’t say how many, and that he’d “step aside” as CEO of Access.
His replacement has not been announced.
He’s the third CEO of an Alphabet division to part ways since June. He prefaced this whole debacle this way:
And thanks to the hard work of everyone on the Access team, our business is solid: our subscriber base and revenue are growing quickly, and we expect that growth to continue. I am extremely proud of what we’ve built together in five short years.
Google Fiber is one of two big entities in “Other Bets” of the Alphabet empire, whose CEO Larry Page and new-ish CFO Ruth Porat are trying to crack down on ballooning costs.
The other big entity in “Other Bets” is Nest Labs, which makes internet-connected thermostats and the like. In a brilliant move, Google had acquired it in 2014 for a breath-taking $3.2 billion. But by now, this move has become very unbrilliant.
In June, Tony Fadell, Nest co-founder and CEO, quit after internal disputes over this focus on spending. Some key Nest employees moved to Google’s new hardware division. And the entity is in turmoil.
In August, Bill Maris, CEO of Google’s venture capital arm, GV, also left.
Earlier this year, Alphabet got second thoughts about its ambitious robotics efforts and put Boston Dynamics up for sale. It had acquired the experimental robot maker in 2013 for $500 million. But tensions soon arose, and co-founder Andy Rubin bailed out in 2014. No deal yet.
Then there was, infamously, Google Glass….
So Google Fiber is in good company. It will cease efforts to install a fiber network in 10 cities where it had been planned but not fully committed, according to Ars Technica . In addition, San Francisco was supposed to get Google fiber for sure, but that has now been cancelled too.
The 11 cities where Google Fiber has been nixed: Chicago, Dallas, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, and Tampa.
In “this handful of cities” and also “in certain related areas of our supporting operations, we’ll be reducing our employee base,” Barratt wrote. Hence the layoffs.
Google Fiber has already been rolled out in Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Kansas City (Missouri and Kansas), Nashville, Provo (Utah), Salt Lake City, and The Triangle (North Carolina). And it’s still publicly committed to building the network – subject to change, I suppose – in Huntsville (Alabama), Irvine (California), San Antonio, and Louisville.
In June, Google Fiber announced that it would acquire Webpass, a 13-year-old company that provides high-speed wireless internet in Boston, Chicago, Miami, San Diego, Oakland, and San Francisco. A wireless network is a lot cheaper to install in urban areas with multi-family housing than fiber-to-the-home.
About 9% of the employees at Access will lose their jobs, though some people could be reassigned to entities of Alphabet, according to Ars Technica:
The source did not say exactly how many employees that percentage represents. Access includes more than just Google Fiber, so the percentage of Google Fiber employees being laid off or reassigned is probably a little higher.
Alphabet headcounts are hard to come by, but this Bloomberg report says Access has about 1,500 employees. The Information report indicates that Google Fiber had about 1,000 employees before the layoffs. If both of those numbers are accurate, then the percentage of Google Fiber employees being laid off or reassigned to other parts of Alphabet might be around 13.5 percent.
Google Fiber apparently has not hit its subscriber goals, and fiber construction is a costly endeavor. While the company isn’t giving up on fiber entirely, it may be able to deploy Internet service at a lower cost using wireless technology.
“It’s billions of dollars a year just to maintain this stuff, and Google doesn’t want to spend that kind of money on just being another player in that market,” Jan Dawson, an analyst with Jackdaw Research, told Bloomberg .
“I think the new CFO put an end to the experiment that wasn’t really going anywhere,” Chetan Sharma, an independent wireless industry analyst, told Bloomberg .
So serving up digital ads is still Alphabet’s main business, and flourishing. Controlling the high-speed pipeline to get these ads into homes and businesses, and grabbing whatever data can be grabbed by ISPs via deep-packet inspection and other methods still seems to be part of the plan, but now through cheaper and less glamorous wireless services and no longer through the holy grail of data pipelines, optical fiber. And so goes another huge dream to diversity away from advertising.
Even the absolute master of marketing, Apple, is running into trouble with its latest product. Read… Smartwatch is Dead, Market Implodes, Apple Watch Shipments Collapse 0 0 0 0 0 0 | 0 |
Emily Bazelon writes in the New York Times on the shared vision of White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and Attorney General Jeff Sessions in the proper role of the Justice Department. [From the New York Times: One night in September 2014, when he was chief executive of Breitbart News, Stephen Bannon hosted cocktails and dinner at the Washington townhouse where he lived, a mansion near the Supreme Court that he liked to call the Breitbart Embassy. Beneath elaborate chandeliers and flanked by gold drapes and stately oil paintings, Jeff Sessions, then a senator from Alabama, sat next to the guest of honor: Nigel Farage, the insurgent British politician, who first met Sessions two years earlier when Bannon introduced them. Farage was building support for his party by complaining in the British press about “uncontrolled mass immigration. ” Sessions, like other attendees, was celebrating the recent collapse in Congress of bipartisan immigration reform, which would have provided a path to citizenship for some undocumented people. At the dinner, Sessions told a writer for Vice, Reid Cherlin, that Bannon’s site was instrumental in defeating the measure. Sessions read Breitbart almost every day, he explained, because it was “putting out information. ” Bannon’s role in blocking the reform had gone beyond sympathetic coverage on his site. Over the previous year, he, Sessions and one of Sessions’s top aides, Stephen Miller, spent “an enormous amount of time” meeting in person, “developing plans and messaging and strategy,” as Miller later explained to Rosie Gray in The Atlantic. Breitbart writers also reportedly met with Sessions’s staff for a weekly happy hour at the Union Pub. For most Republicans in Washington, immigration was an issue they wished would go away, a persistent source of conflict between the party’s elites, who saw it as a straightforward economic good, and its voting base, who mistrusted the effects of immigration on employment. But for Bannon, Sessions and Miller, immigration was a galvanizing issue, lying at the center of their apparent vision for reshaping the United States by tethering it to its European and Christian origins. (None of them would comment for this article.) That September evening, as they celebrated the collapse of the reform effort — and the rise of Farage, whose own party in Britain represented the new brand of nativism — it felt like the beginning of something new. “I was privileged enough to be at it,” Miller said about the gathering last June, while a guest on Breitbart’s SiriusXM radio show. “It’s going to sound like a motivational speech, but it’s true. To all the voters out there: The only limits to what we can achieve is what we believe we can achieve. ” The answer to what they could achieve, of course, is now obvious: everything. Bannon and Miller are ensconced in the West Wing, as arguably the two most influential policy advisers to Donald J. Trump. And Jeff Sessions is now the attorney general of the United States. The genesis of their working relationship is crucial to understanding the domestic goals of the Trump presidency and how the law may be used to attain them over the next four years. Bannon and Sessions have effectively presented the country’s changing demographics — the rising number of minority and residents — as America’s chief internal threat. Sessions has long been an outlier in his party on this subject in 2013, when his Republican colleagues were talking primarily about curbing illegal immigration, he offered a proposal to curb legal immigration. (It failed in committee, 17 to one.) Read the rest here. | 1 |
Arnold Schwarzenegger won’t be back on NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice. [The actor and former governor of California said Friday he would not return next season to helm the reality television show made popular by his predecessor and now president Donald Trump. “I loved every second of working with NBC and Mark Burnett. Everyone — from the celebrities to the crew to the marketing department — was a straight 10, and I would absolutely work with all of them again on a show that doesn’t have this baggage,” Schwarzenegger told Empire magazine in an interview. “Even if asked [to do it again] I would decline,” he added. “With Trump being involved in the show people have a bad taste and don’t want to participate as a spectator or as a sponsor or in any other way support the show. It’s a very divisive period now and I think this show got caught up in all that division. ” Schwarzenegger took the helm of the reality show in January after NBC severed its business ties with Trump due to his presidential campaign. The rebooted show debuted to poor ratings and lackluster reviews, and the show struggled with ratings through the entirety of its run. On Thursday, the Wrap reported that at least five of the show’s twelve corporate sponsors had decided to withdraw from participating in the show next season. The sponsors were reportedly targeted by a campaign called #GrabYourWallet, which boycotts brands and individuals associated with President Trump. Though Trump no longer hosted the show, he retained an executive producer credit and his name appeared in the titles. “When people found out that Trump was still involved as executive producer and was still receiving money from the show, then half the people [started] boycotting it,” Schwarzenegger told Empire. NBC has not yet announced whether it will bring back Celebrity Apprentice for next season. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum | 1 |
Welcome to Watching, The New York Times’s guide. We comb through releases big and small, famous and esoteric, to email readers twice a week with our timely recommendations. Our most recent suggestions also appear below. To receive our guide straight to your inbox, sign up here. I love a cop show. I love a doctor show. But the quickest way to entice me is for a show to have a unique setting or premise. That’s partially why “UnReal,” set within a reality show, and “Mr. Robot,” set among hacker activists, excite me so much, or shows like “Six Feet Under” and “Party Down” stay with me — they created and define my image of a funeral home and of a catering company. (Er … respectively.) This week, I’m spotlighting three shows that are, in significant ways, not like every other show. “Greenleaf” does something we relatively rarely on TV: It depicts religiosity. (The show’s creator Craig Wright has a background in theology.) The stars and creators of “Blackstone” are indigenous people — rarer still. And the chilly drama “Thirteen” is oriented around grief rather than horror. Hooray for anyone forging new paths. That’s also why I find myself wishing for stranger shows, and imaging oddball settings. I want a soap set in the world of figure skating! Or an anthology like “In Treatment,” but where everyone has the same piano teacher, instead of the same therapist. Or a “Parks and Recreation,” but serious. A girl can dream. Lots to watch this week, and I hope you’ll share your secret dream setting for a TV show with me and Team Watching: watching@nytimes. com. “Greenleaf,” Tuesday, 10 p. m. with two more episodes Wednesday from 9 p. m. to 11 p. m. OWN Watch if you like “everybody has a secret” ensemble shows, stories about modern American Christianity and unusual workplace settings. “Greenleaf” is set within a black megachurch in Memphis and focuses on the Greenleaf family who runs the church and the prodigal daughter who has just returned to the fold after the mysterious death of her sister. There’s some contrived dialogue, and not all of the performances are at the same level. But the show is worth sticking with, particularly if you like twisty family stories that involve decades of resentment. The standout of the series is Keith David, who plays the family patriarch and bishop of the church. The scenes in which he preaches work better than most actual religious services I have attended. The members of his family and congregation say goodbye to one another by saying “God is good” and responding “all the time. ” I wish “Greenleaf” was good all the time, and it’s not quite, but it’s good some of the time, and features neither cops nor vampires, so I’m in for now. “Thirteen,” Thursday, 10 p. m. BBC America Watch if you like spooky foreign and care more about the journey than the destination. Ivy Moxam (Jodie Comer of “My Mad Fat Diary”) was kidnapped as a teenager 13 years ago. Now she’s back. But what happened to her while she was gone? This is less focused on being a whodunit and more concerned with Ivy’s emotional state and the unbearable weight her loved ones have carried around. It’s reminiscent of the French series “Les Revenants” (which has a supernatural element, unlike “Thirteen”) and is much more on the uncanny side of scary than the horror side. “Blackstone,” Hulu Watch if you like bleak, unglamorous and distinctive ensemble shows. “Blackstone” is one of the flagship shows of Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, where it made its debut in 2011. It’s set on a (fictional) Blackstone First Nation reserve, within an indigenous community challenged by corruption and desperation. The depths of that corruption start coming to light when Leona (Carmen Moore) wins the election to become the new chief, though her victory celebration is overshadowed by a teenager’s rape and suicide. In its earliest episodes, the series’ dialogue is and the camera distractingly jumpy. But stick with it: The story is powerful enough to outweigh early shortcomings, and around Episode 5, the show blossoms into itself, and it’s well worth the wait. The first three seasons, with 23 total episodes, are currently on Hulu. (Seasons 4 and 5 have already aired in Canada.) • Monday: “The Fosters,” Season 4 premiere, 8 p. m. Freeform. Last season was not my favorite, but this show is so good that even its crummy episodes are better than other show’s good ones. • Tuesday: “The Greeks,” series premiere, 9 p. m. PBS. This is a documentary series about ancient Greece, beginning with how cave people eventually formed societies. Thorough! • Wednesday: “Big Brother,” Season 18 premiere, 8 p. m. CBS. I hate “Big Brother,” but in my experience many otherwise people secretly love it. I know you’re out there, Watchers. No judgment. • Thursday: “Queen of the South,” series premiere, 10 p. m. USA. Based on Arturo ’s book “La Reina Del Sur” (already adapted as a popular Mexican show) “Queen” follows a Mexican drug queenpin who winds up fleeing to the United States. Some of it feels like other, tenser dramas, but the pilot has promise. • Friday: “Comedy Bang! Bang! ,” 11:30 p. m. IFC. Nathan Fielder, of “Nathan For You,” is the guest, so it’ll be a real bonanza of comedy oddness. Game of Thrones: This season’s penultimate episode — like those of many previous seasons — was . The “Battle of the Bastards,” between the forces of Jon Snow and Ramsay Bolton, was a spectacle. As Jeremy Egner writes, “Whether you actually slept well Sunday night probably depends on your tolerance for blood, guts, dead giants and other hallmarks of grim medieval battle, as presented in the tense, grimy and at times oddly beautiful clash. ” More Game of Thrones: At Hitfix, Alan Sepinwall wonders why he was “so unmoved” by it all. “No show in TV history has ever done spectacle on this level, as consistently well as ‘Game of Thrones’ has,” he writes. “But the show at its best finds a way for the characterization to be as powerful as the visuals, and ‘Battle of the Bastards’ ultimately didn’t manage to surround all those stunning battle images with enough emotional meat to make it all worth it. ” Or try this Joanna Robinson piece at Vanity Fair about Sansa’s decisions in the episode. Outlander: “Game of Thrones” wasn’t the only show to allow its characters a measure of vengeance. “Mary and Claire get revenge,” Angelica Jade Bastién writes of Saturday’s episode of “Outlander,” “but the show doesn’t fully wrestle with what this means for either of them going forward. ” Veep: Eight episodes of Catherine standing in the corner with a video camera finally pays off. As Noel Murray writes, “Kissing Your Sister” is “an offbeat episode that both summarizes and comments on everything that’s happened so far in Season 5. It’s a conceptual tour de force — and, more important, it’s very, very funny. ” Silicon Valley: “This seems like an odd question to ponder nearly three full seasons into ‘Silicon Valley,’” Scott Tobias writes. “But it’s worth asking: What exactly is Pied Piper anyway?” | 1 |
November 3, 2016 at 10:20 pm
well clinton is a fool if she does not seek to restore relations with russia ASAP…they seem to be forgetting about ''the dead man's switch" it's an actual system implimented by russia as a warning to it's enemies of nuclear retaliation….why the fuck is america's citizens letting their leaders destroy peaceful relations with russia.. even if russia would lose a war against usa the problem is the aftermath….we're talking millions dead if not billions and nuclear fallout on a global scale | 0 |
Lt. Gen. (Ret.) William G. “Jerry” Boykin, Family Research Council’s executive vice president, strongly denounced President Barack Obama’s plan to free Chelsea Manning in a Wednesday interview on Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM radio with hosts Alex Marlow and Raheem Kassam. [As Breitbart reported Tuesday: President Barack Obama announced his plan to free Chelsea Manning (who changed his name from Bradley) after leaking classified military documents to WikiLeaks and being sentenced to 35 years in prison for his crimes. Once in prison, Manning went on a hunger strike to demand sex change surgery in prison, which was granted by officials at the cost of American taxpayers. Boykin said, “I think what Manning did and was caught at … was every bit as egregious and damaging as what [Edward] Snowden did. ” In arguing against Obama’s plan to set Manning free, Boykin added, “Both of these guys are enemies of the state, plain and simple. ” Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. | 1 |
An armed Dakota Access security contractor confronted indigenous water protectors fighting the construction of an oil pipeline in North Dakota. He had an assault rifle, which he pointed at the water protectors, and he wore a bandana over his face. He was arrested by the Bureau of Indian Affairs police and later released without charge.
In video aired by “Democracy Now!”, as host Amy Goodman described, the man carrying the rifle, who has been identified as Kyle Thompson, points a rifle “at the protectors as he attempts to flee into the water.”
“A Standing Rock Sioux tribal member says he saw the man driving down Highway 1806 toward the main resistance camp with an AR-15 rifle on the passenger side of his truck,” Goodman reported. “Protectors chased down his truck and then pursued him on foot in efforts to disarm him.”
“Protectors said inside the man’s truck they found a DAPL security ID card and insurance papers listing his vehicle as insured by DAPL. That’s the Dakota Access pipeline,” according to Goodman.
Dallas Goldtooth, an organizer with the Indigenous Environmental Network, witnessed the encounter between the armed contractor and water protectors. He said on “Democracy Now!”:
It was a very terrifying moment for a lot of us watching, I mean, to see this man pulling an assault rifle at our water protectors. And I think that—many blessings and gratitude to some of the military veterans within our security, from within our Oceti Sakowin camp, who stepped up to negotiate and to de-escalate this man, to really talk to him to make sure that he did not hurt anybody, until the Bureau of Indian Affairs police officers could show up.
Thompson appeared on the scene about the same time that hundreds of police with militarized equipment surrounded a newly formed camp called the 1851 Treaty Camp, which was setup by water protectors to reclaim “unceded Dakota territory affirmed as part of the Standing Rock Reservation in the Ft. Laramie Treaty of 1851.”
Sacred Stone Camp, which has led indigenous resistance to the Dakota Access pipeline, reported that police cleared blockades, attacked water protectors with pepper spray and concussion grenades, and used shotguns to fire rubber bullets. A sound cannon was also deployed against water protectors as well, as the police brutally tore down the encampment.
Dakota Access denies Thompson was working for the company, however, Thompson posted on Facebook and claimed he was “doing his job to photograph burning company equipment when he was confronted by demonstrators,” according to APTN National News .
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe apparently claims Thompson fired off shots while Thompson vehemently denies that any shots were ever fired. He maintains FBI agents, who took him into custody, could back up his story.
However, Thompson’s story becomes incredibly suspicious, as he insists the water protectors “had knives and were dead set on using those knives.” He says a water protector fired a flare.
The video of Thompson’s confrontation in the water definitely does not show any knife-wielding water protectors trying to attack him.
What is troubling is the fact that he was not dressed in a manner that would clearly indicate he was a security contractor for DAPL. He looked like an infiltrator. One wonders what would have happened if he made it to the 1851 Treaty Camp and engaged in disruptive behavior that the police could then use to justify the brute force used against water protectors.
It is unknown what company Thompson worked for, but he was previously deployed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Separately, another suspicious act against the indigenous water protectors occurred overnight on October 29, when a fire spread near the Oceti Sakowin camp.
“There was some mysterious incident of a vehicle that came out of nowhere, that was almost acting as a distraction, was spinning doughnuts in the middle of the road, and then it sped off to the south,” Goldtooth shared on “Democracy Now!”. “And immediately after that, flames were seen on top of the hill to the west. There’s documented footage [of] what appears to be a drip line, which is from what I understand, is a technique used in firefighting. I mean, it was very, very clear that that brush fire that happened was an act of arson by unknown individuals.”
“Given the recent events with the Dakota Access worker, given the escalation of law enforcement, that, you know, a lot of fingers are pointing towards Dakota Access as being a culprit behind this late fire. And thank god that the wind was pushing away from the camp. The fire spread pretty large.”
The post Armed Dakota Access Contractor Accused Of Trying To Infiltrate Water Protectors appeared first on Shadowproof .
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STAFF NEWS & ANALYSIS If Trump Wants to Fix the ‘Disaster’ of the Pentagon, He Should Clean Up Its Nuclear Lies
Trump Versus the Pentagon … On the campaign trail, Trump called the military a “disaster” … He pledged to vastly increase the sizes of the Army and Marines and to buy scores of new ships and planes. Does that make sense? – Bloomberg
We’ll answer Bloomberg’s question: No it doesn’t make sense. America doesn’t need a bigger military anymore than it needs a bigger prison system.
The American military is many ways a fraud. The idea is that if it were smaller, America itself would somehow be overrun by “enemies.” Do you believe it?
America’s military services, like its intelligence agencies, are actually in the service of London’s banking elite.
The US military is used to reshape the world in order to make it more congenial to one-world government from what we can tell. America’s military power has little if anything to do with actually defending the country.
The Pentagon is rife with corruption. It has recently mislaid something like $8 trillion and has also, obviously, participated in a 9/11 coverup. This is the facility that Trump wants to lavish more trillions on.
More:
Instead of adding regular troops and ships, the military should get granular, focusing on special forces, unmanned technology like drones, cyberdefense, and a naval strategy of “distributed lethality” that emphasizes firepower and self-defense across the current fleet.
The generals will gladly take the additional money he’s promising, but will follow their own priorities.
This is absolutely correct. The Pentagon’s generals will do as they please. They listen to London long before they listen to the White House.
The Pentagon wants trillions for a nuclear upgrade. This is a bad joke. We’ve written numerous articles on how the Pentagon’s nuclear program was fraudulent from the very beginning. You can see some of them here, here and here .
The Pentagon basically only allowed one journalist to cover the creation and completion of the original nuclear program, and that person – a New York Times reporter – was also on the Pentagon payroll.
Whatever was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the way of a “nuclear” bomb was also accompanied very obviously by fire-bombing. The damage to Hiroshima and Nagasaki looks no different than the damage to Tokyo, which was lavishly firebombed.
We’ve even identified the 66 bombers that likely bombed Hiroshima on August 6 th (666). The fleet was initially sent to a city near Hiroshima that had already been bombed several times. No, there’s no way those bombers bombed the same city yet again. Those bombers fire-bombed Hiroshima.
Or course the tale of the bombings was not told at the time. Instead, the US military shut down all access in and out of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for a full month. And then both Japan and the US made it a capital offense to talk about the bombings, to say or write anything at all, unless it was approved.
If Trump really wants to create a better and more efficient military, he can start by getting to the bottom of the fakery of the Pentagons’ nuclear program. Parts of the program may indeed be real, but a lot of the narrative surrounding Hiroshima and Nagasaki is false.
Also false are the videos and pictures of nuclear explosions provided to the public by the Pentagon throughout the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s.
The Pentagon has actually admitted that every single one of these presentations was “touched up” by its Hollywood special effects department. And were massive amounts of TNT present at many of these “tests?” Could the Pentagon have been faking some of these explosions?
Who vouches for the Pentagon’s nuclear program? The same elements of the military-industrial complex that has lied and faked portions of the nuclear program in the past? Who is present at the “tests” that the Pentagon performs? Just military types? Who vouches for the truth of what the Pentagon builds and tries out?
The Pentagon reports regularly to Congress and the media about its “progress.” But does anyone check what the Pentagon is asserting? Does anyone actually investigate? The Pentagon can’t tell you what it did with $8 trillion but for some reason the words of its generals and others involved in the military-industrial complex are taken at face value.
Conclusion: If Trump really wants to make America’s military more efficient, he could aim a reportorial truth squad to sort through at least a half century of lies and misinformation. That would be a start. | 0 |
Former Breitbart Senior Editor Milo Yiannopoulos declared that he would “make sure” UC Berkeley would “become the free speech capital of the United States once again” in response to the cancellation of Ann Coulter’s event on campus. [“Awful to see my friend Ann Coulter forced to cancel her speech,” wrote Milo on his official Facebook page. “I don’t understand why Young America’s Foundation would capitulate so close to victory. Ann can hardly be expected to show up without insurance, security or a venue, so I completely understand why she had to cancel. She is Ann Coulter, after all. ” “My proposed Free Speech Week will proceed as planned later this year,” he continued, before adding, “I WILL BRING AN ARMY IF I HAVE TO. ” “We will ensure that Ann and others can speak and we will publicly, ritually humiliate UC Berkeley for its failure to meet its legal obligations until conservative speakers no longer fear violent mobs just for exercising their First Amendment rights,” Milo concluded. “Berkeley is going to become the free speech capital of the United States once again. I will make sure of it. ” Like Coulter, Milo’s event at UC Berkeley earlier this year was derailed after a mob of violent activists set fires, smashed windows, and assaulted attendees who were supposed to see him speak. Young America’s Foundation pulled out of the Ann Coulter event on Tuesday, blaming the college’s hostile environment towards conservatives. However, YAF and the UC Berkeley College Republicans are still in the process of suing the college, claiming that administrators put several limiting restrictions on the event in an effort to get it cancelled. The groups and their attorney Harmeet Dhillon referenced previous events featuring conservative speakers at the college which also faced similar scrutiny and restrictions, including Milo’s as well as conservative commentator David Horowitz. During a press conference about the lawsuit on Monday, Dhillon branded UC Berkeley’s policies on “acceptable speech” as “infinitely malleable” before criticizing the Mayor of Berkeley, Jesse Arreguin, for appearing to sympathize with, be friendly to, and act softly on the rioters who shut down Yiannopoulos’ event earlier this year. “If the Mayor of Berkeley cannot maintain control of his city, the Governor should call the National Guard, because that’s a serious public health issue,” Dhillon proclaimed. Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook. | 1 |
Paul Joseph Watson Bureaucrat who said “stupidity” of Americans helped get law passed doubles down
Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber – the bureaucrat who once bragged that the “stupidity” of the American people was crucial for passing the health care law in the first place – told CNN that the “fix” for Obamacare was to impose a “larger mandate penalty”. CNN’s CAROL COSTELLO: “So let’s talk about how exactly you can fix Obamacare. I just need you to be specific because I think people really want answers. So Hillary Clinton says she can fix Obamacare. So what would one fix that would drive premiums down?” JONATHAN GRUBER: “Look, once again, there’s no sense it has to be fixed. The law is working as designed. However, it could work better. And I think, probably the most important things experts would agree on is we need a larger mandate penalty“… Gruber’s arrogance is incredible. Even after the Obama administration acknowledged that premiums are set to skyrocket next year, Gruber thinks that the answer is to financially punish Americans to an even greater degree. Gruber is essentially admitting that Obamacare is designed to make Americans destitute. “ObamaCare was never designed *not* to overwhelm you with the shifting of massive costs. ObamaCare was designed to crush you in costs,” points out the Conservative Treehouse blog . His comments shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given what Gruber thinks of the American people. A series of videos that emerged in 2014 featured Gruber admitting that Obamacare was deceptively crafted in order to fool “stupid” Americans into not realizing that it would mean massive price hikes and that the law’s “lack of transparency (was) a huge political advantage” in selling it. | 0 |
MarcFaberBlog.com November 1, 2016
It’s nonsense to claim that inflation is only going up 1 percent per year in the United States. The cost of living of a typical family is going up much more than that—insurance, transportation, schooling are all going up.
For example, health care premiums for insurance policies [are rising], so the typical household is being squeezed. The central banks don’t care about that; they don’t look at it..
I suppose the system will collapse before we become like Venezuela. In the West, if they start to print money, the end game will be brief. Within five years, I expect the system to implode.
You better ask the bureaucrats what their plans are. They had zero rates since December 2008; soon eight years [passed], and that hasn’t boosted economic activity for the average household, not in Japan nor the United States nor the EU. Now they talk about fiscal spending.
You better ask the bureaucrats what their plans are. They had zero rates since December 2008; soon eight years [passed], and that hasn’t boosted economic activity for the average household, not in Japan nor the United States nor the EU. Now they talk about fiscal spending.
Then they will find some academics who will blame wealth inequality on the evil capitalists who made so much money out of asset bubbles.
They will blame the economic woes on these people. To some extent this is true. But the rich people did not create the inflated asset values; it was the central banks, by slashing interest rates to zero and negative interest rates in many countries.
First, you create mispricings through artificially low rates and negative interest rates and you boost the income and wealth of the super-rich. It’s at best the 0.1 percent that really benefit from asset inflation, at the cost of all the people that have no assets and so you have this rising wealth inequality. So we have to tax the rich people and tax them more.
Taking money from the rich is appealing if you go to voters, and you say to them, “Look, the reason the economy is doing so badly, it’s because of the rich people, the billionaires. We have to take 20 percent away from them and give it to you.” You can be sure that everybody will vote for that because the wealthy are a minority. This is what happens after monetary policies completely fail.
Some well-connected people will hide their wealth but a lot of people won’t. Even if they take 50 percent from the richest, it’s not going to help. The next step will be to take money from less wealthy people; the interventionists will go all the way.
- Source, The Epoch Times | 0 |
Print Fairfax County, Virginia, voter Jena Jones told WND and Radio America she found this Democrat insert included with her absentee ballot, among others
Democratic Party officials in Fairfax County, Virginia, are categorically denying that pro-Democrat campaign materials were included in the same envelope as a voter’s absentee ballot, arguing that pamphlets were sent in a separate mailing to absentee voters from the Fairfax County Democratic Committee, or FCDC.
Earlier this week, Jena and David Jones shared their story of finding more than they expected in the envelope that contained her ballot. (See images of the materials Jena and David say they found at the end of this article. Also included are two images from Democrats showing what they say is confusion on the part of the voters.)
“I found a letter from the governor of Virginia asking me to please vote Democrat and ‘help keep Virginia blue’ this year,” Jena explained. “Then I got a letter from the Fairfax County Democratic Committee, giving me a step-by-step, yes-and-no what I should vote for as far as the meal tax and all those other things on the ballot.”
In recent days, at least two more people contend they received the same materials in the envelope with their absentee ballots.
After the report was first published, and shared on Facebook by David Jones, Fairfax County Democratic Committee Executive Director Frank Anderson replied to David’s post to dispute their account of what the ballot envelope contained.
“These materials were NOT sent in the same envelope as the ballot. The ballot is mailed separately by the Office of Elections. Political parties are free to mail items to voters who request absentee ballots. The two envelopes arrived at the same time,” commented Anderson.
That triggered a quick back-and-forth between David Jones and Anderson.
“I hate to tell you but you’re wrong. All items came in one envelope,” Jones said.
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“Impossible. That letter came out of my office. We never have access to other people’s ballots,” replied Anderson.
“Then it seems those that sent the ballots have access to YOUR letters,” said Jones. “Who should I believe? You or my lying eyes?”
Anderson then stated that political parties are informed when anyone requests an absentee ballot, and mailings are sent to those voters to promote Democratic Party candidates and positions on ballot initiatives.
“I am literally sitting down the hall from the place where those envelopes are stuffed. We are a political office and have no business handling anyone’s ballots. You can believe what you want to believe,” concluded Anderson.
The Virginia Department of Elections did not respond to repeated attempts for a response. But after seeing reports from WND and Radio America, Anderson protested the premise of the story.
“Please stop spreading these absurd allegations that are just hearsay from a misinformed voter who cannot verify his claim,” stated Anderson in an email in which he also explained why he believed the Jones account could not be accurate.
He shared a photo sent by State Sen. Scott Surovell, showing his absentee ballot envelope next to a separate envelope containing Democratic Party advocacy.
In a formal interview, FCDC Communications Adviser Bruce Neilson told WND and Radio America the Jones version of what the ballot envelope contained cannot be true.
“It’s not possible,” said Neilson, who then explained how absentee voters are approached by the local Democrats.
“Voting is a sacred privilege and a right of every citizen,” he said. “The activity of voting is also a public record. The Fairfax County Democratic Committee receives a notice of everyone who has requested an absentee ballot. We get that information as public information on the day the ballot is mailed.
“The same day the ballot is mailed, our volunteers prepare materials to advise voters what the Fairfax (County) Democratic Committee knows to be Democratic positions on the ballot,” said Neilson, noting the materials include fliers on candidates and ballot proposals like the meals tax.
Listen to the WND/Radio America interview with Bruce Neilson:
However, he insists those materials are never sent with the ballot itself.
“That material is mailed in a separate envelope, labeled with our initials – FCDC – and our return address in Fairfax, Virginia, and would be received either the same day, perhaps the day before or the day after she received her official absentee ballot from the government,” Neilson said.
“It’s a separate mailing. It’s a separate stamp. It’s a separate envelope. It’s very easy to confuse where they came from if you have all those materials on the table at the same time while you’re filling in your votes,” he said.
Jones is standing by her story 100 percent, as is her husband. David says it’s a very clear memory.
“Jena opened the envelope that contained her ballot, the green sample ballot, the two-sided letter from the governor and card with kids on it saying ‘go vote’ or something of that nature. There was also the return envelope, which I signed,” David said.
The coverage of Jena’s story has also elicited similar stories from two other Fairfax County voters. Both of them commented on Reddit.
“I can confirm this. I live in Herndon, VA (Fairfax County) and also received these materials in my absentee ballot. I thought it was fishy at the time but didn’t look into it,” stated a comment by a reader using the handle thisisaterriblename.
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Another, under the Reddit handle Nightingale-Nights, said the same thing happened to them and posted similar photos to the ones David and Jena shared last week.
Neilson said there is no way the county government, which sends out the ballots, could be including partisan materials in the envelope containing the ballot.
“They don’t have our materials,” he said. “Our materials are printed for us, by our printer, and we have complete control over our materials in our office, and they come from our office in our mailing. They don’t go anywhere else.
“It’s not possible that the county government is distributing partisan Democratic materials. It’s never happened before. I’m not aware of it happening now. And I don’t think that it would happen anywhere in the future,” Neilson said.
There are only a few known complaints of stuffed ballot envelopes in Fairfax County, leading David Jones to believe an individual in the government is responsible. He accepts the explanation that the Fairfax County Democratic Committee is not responsible for what he and Jena discovered with her ballot.
“I understand Frank’s comments about his office has nothing to do with the ballots. I believe that,” Jones said. “I think what we are seeing here is a person that actually stuffs and mails the ballots is taking it upon themselves to add in extra material. I don’t see how Frank’s office could be held accountable for what’s in the ballot envelope. But it does seem odd that others are now reporting similar issues.”
Neilson said there is zero chance of that scenario being true.
“I just can’t imagine that happening because of the internal controls that we have on the literature that we mail,” Neilson said.
He also said the internal controls at the county government are air tight.
“I am an election official. On Election Day, I serve in a non-partisan capacity for our county election office,” Nielson said. “I can assure you, you have Democrats and Republicans working in the office. You have plenty of oversight of the voting process, and there’s no way that a partisan political piece was mailed with her ballot. There is no way that happened.”
The following are three images of the Democratic Party materials Jena and David Jones say they found stuffed inside the absentee ballot:
The following are two images from Democrats who say the voters must be confused: | 0 |
ONTARIO, Ore. — When Representative Greg Walden of Oregon visits his expansive district, which swallows of a very blue West Coast state, his constituents grouse amiably to their longtime Republican congressman about environmental regulations and federal lands policy. And then the conversation shifts to the Affordable Care Act and what its repeal would mean for the struggling rural workers who have long voted for Mr. Walden, and for children like Rocco Stone. Because of the health law, Rocco has been able to live at home, attend school and have a nearly normal life despite having autism and a rare genetic disorder. “Our life was completely changed when Oregon and the federal government partnered to provide home and community services through Medicaid,” Rocco’s mother, Dana M. Stone, told the congressman this past week. “We are deeply, deeply concerned about talk at the federal level about a complete repeal of the Affordable Care Act. ” Mr. Walden, the new chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is not just another backbench Republican dealing with suddenly energized supporters of the health law at town meetings. The lanky congressman will have a large role in drafting promised legislation to replace former President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement and a huge say in decisions about the future of Medicaid, which the health law greatly expanded. As a former chairman of the committee responsible for electing Republicans to the House, Mr. Walden knows the politics of health care as well as anyone. But in his new role, he must reconcile the political goals of his party, which is committed to repealing the 2010 health law, and the interests of his state, where officials say the law has been a big success. In 2010, nearly one in five Oregonians lacked health coverage. Today, state officials say, 95 percent of Oregonians have coverage. Since Oregon expanded eligibility for Medicaid under the health law in 2014, enrollment has increased more than 65 percent. Nearly of the state’s four million residents are now on Medicaid. In Mr. Walden’s district, the percentages are even higher. In some of his rural counties, more than of the people are on Medicaid. President Trump easily carried those counties. Mr. Walden won a 10th term in the fall with 72 percent of the vote and was victorious in every one of the 20 counties in his district, which is about the size of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut combined. But that does not guarantee that voters here endorse all the policies of his party. Hospitals are among the leading supporters and beneficiaries of Affordable Care Act. Mr. Walden was a trustee of a hospital in his hometown, Hood River. “We are very worried about what ‘repeal and replace’ might look like,” said David Underriner, who supervises the hospital, Providence Hood River Memorial, as Oregon’s regional chief executive for Providence Health and Services, the large Roman Catholic system that owns it. Mr. Walden grew up on a cherry orchard, worked at radio stations owned by his family, and followed his father into the State Legislature. The political shifts that have turned all three Pacific Coast states reliably Democratic have begun to creep into a few of the conservative inland parts of Oregon. Hood River County, long known for fruit farming, windsurfing and the spectacular scenery of the Columbia River Gorge, has lately become a center for the production of surveillance drones, leading to an influx of software engineers, technology entrepreneurs and other young professionals. Mr. Walden’s margin of victory in November in the county where he lives was just five votes — out of more than 10, 590 cast. “It’s just a little ” Mr. Walden allowed. “It didn’t used to be that way. ” Unlike many Republicans in Congress, Mr. Walden has worked productively with Democrats. “I’m a problem solver,” he said in an interview after a town meeting here near the Idaho border. “I’m not an ideologue. I want to fix things. ” And in Oregon, some Democrats and supporters are glad Mr. Walden is in his position. “I’ve known Greg a long time,” said Andrew S. Davidson, the president and chief executive of the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems. “He is not interested in upending the progress we have made in this state. ” Representative Kurt Schrader, a Democrat whose district includes the southern suburbs of Portland and the capital, Salem, predicted Mr. Walden “will be mindful of the implications of any legislation for our state, which is leading the nation in the transformation of health care. ” Unlike Mr. Walden, Oregon has embraced the Affordable Care Act. State officials say many of the changes proposed by congressional Republicans, including a rollback of federal funds for the expansion of Medicaid, would reverse much of the progress they have made. Oregon has a history of health care innovation that predates the Affordable Care Act. In the early 1990s, it ranked medical procedures according to their costs and benefits, and Medicaid uses this list to decide which services to cover. Under a federal waiver granted in 2012, Oregon treats Medicaid beneficiaries through 16 “coordinated care organizations,” which are governed by local citizen councils. The organizations have slowed the growth of health spending and improved the health of Medicaid beneficiaries, according to performance data collected by the state. Even as he writes legislation to unwind the Affordable Care Act, Mr. Walden takes pride in Oregon’s success under the law. “Our state of Oregon has had quite a bit of innovation over the years,” Mr. Walden said. “We’ve got the coordinated care organizations in place that have actually brought better health care outcomes at lower cost. There are great ideas out there among the states, but right now, they have to come back and beg permission from a federal bureaucrat to be able to do much of anything innovative. ” When Mr. Walden first ran for Congress in 1998, conservatives called him too liberal. Since then, he has taken more conservative positions, and the party has moved to the right. “Times change,” he said. “You get a terrorist attack. You have different administrations come and go. Culture changes. My bedrock principles have stayed the same. I favor more local and less Washington . ” Mr. Walden never wavered in his opposition to the Affordable Care Act. On the day the House passed the bill in March 2010, he and other Republicans stood on the Capitol balcony, before a throng of protesters, and held up signs with handwritten letters that spelled out their message: “Kill the Bill. ” A month later, on the House floor, Mr. Walden announced the goal that he hopes soon to achieve, using words that became the mantra for Republicans: “We need to repeal and replace this law. ” Over the last four years, Mr. Walden has been a genial attack dog for Republicans. As chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, he averted a political blood bath for his party and secured the election of Republicans in many districts that voted for Hillary Clinton in the presidential election. Many of those House campaigns revolved around attacks on the health law that he is now charged with replacing. Oregon tried to run its own health insurance exchange, but had a disastrous experience and decided, after a year, to use the federal website, HealthCare. gov. The state has a competitive insurance market, but consumers have still seen substantial increases in prices, with the average premium for a popular benchmark plan on the exchange rising 27 percent this year and more than 20 percent last year, according to the federal government. (Subsidies cushion the impact for most consumers.) “Medicaid did better than expected, and subsidized commercial insurance did worse,” said Dennis E. Burke, the president of the Good Shepherd Health Care System in Hermiston, Ore. “We have seen steep increases in premiums for commercial insurers, and as a result healthy people have dropped out. ” People newly covered under the health law “proudly present an insurance card,” Mr. Burke said, but in many cases their plans have high deductibles, and the hospital has difficulty collecting the patient’s share of the bill. But Mr. Burke is not so quick as his congressman, Mr. Walden, to seek repeal. “I think it could be fixed,” Mr. Burke said. “We need more of a retooling. ” | 1 |
The judge was intrigued. Before her in a hearing room on Staten Island sat Cristy Matteo, the owner of a pet pig named Wilbur. She was accused of illegally harboring a wild animal. The judge said that she knew of only one other pig that had been through the system, Ms. Matteo recalled. The judge named the pig. Ms. Matteo immediately named the pig’s owner. “The judge was smiling at me,” Ms. Matteo said. The judge asked if there was an underground pig network in New York. “I said, ‘More than you can imagine. ’” An untold number of pet pigs are scattered throughout the city, despite a ban. They can be found in all five boroughs, the veterinarians who treat them say. “There are so, so many of us,” said a neighbor of Ms. Matteo’s who has two pigs and gave her name only as Leslie W. Ms. Matteo said she knew of dozens. Wilbur, however, a placid with a fondness for orange peppers and daylong naps, is about to leave their ranks. Though the judge dismissed the violation last May, accepting Ms. Matteo’s explanation that Wilbur was an emotional support animal for her and her father, the city’s health department got the dismissal overturned. Ms. Matteo, 46, must get rid of Wilbur by the end of the month. She has lined up a sanctuary in North Carolina for him, but she is not ready to give him up. “I’m just praying that something gives between now and Jan. 31,” she said on Monday as Wilbur grunted quietly beside her in her living room on Staten Island’s South Shore. The city’s porcine ranks include a store’s wandering mascot and a spotted pig who frequents Tompkins Square Park in the East Village. Some pigs live as discreetly as it is possible to do in a dense city. Others lead lives like Queelin, a Manhattan resident who is walked in a park near her apartment each day. She has a Facebook account, was the model for a children’s book called “The New Yorker Porker” and draws attention wherever she goes. “You basically cannot walk her if you’re in a bad mood or if you’re in a hurry,” said her owner, who gave her name only as Ann, citing the hostile legal climate. Ms. Matteo, who works for a tugboat company, got a piglet on a whim. “I just woke up one morning and said, ‘I’m buying one,’” she said. That was five years — and 165 pounds — ago. Wilbur became close friends with Ms. Matteo’s exuberant golden retriever mix, Milo. Wilbur was soon using a doggy door to go out into the yard to relieve himself, root around for leaves and occasionally roll in the mud. The neighbors’ grandchildren fed him carrots, Ms. Matteo said. Then last winter, someone complained to 311. (Ms. Matteo thinks she knows who but declined to offer details.) On March 1 — National Pig Day — a health inspector knocked on the door, and Ms. Matteo’s ailing father, a cancer patient, let him in. A summons followed. The inspector had observed “one large pig lying on its bed in the living room area of the property. ” Ms. Matteo was charged with violating a provision of the city health code prohibiting “all ungulates,” including but not limited to “deer, antelope, sheep, pigs, including pot bellied pigs, goats, cattle, giraffe and hippopotamus. ” In New York’s founding days, pigs roamed the streets, devouring trash and functioning as a municipal sanitation force. During the early 19th century, the city began passing laws against harboring pigs. Although they eventually disappeared from the streets, they still made cameos. When the Hotel Thorndyke in Midtown caught fire in 1920, The New York Times reported, “Miss Helen Lee Worthing, who is in the Greenwich Village Follies, returned to her room to rescue a pet baby pig used in that production and which she had left sleeping in its basket. ” Pigs made a comeback with the potbellied pig craze in the 1980s and ’90s and have maintained a steady presence ever since. In 2013, as a woman in Queens fought to keep her pig, Petey, State Senator Tony Avella introduced a bill in the Legislature to legalize pet pigs under 200 pounds statewide. “Over the years, pygmy pigs have gained popularity and recognition as great pets due to the combination of their unique traits such as cleanliness, diminutive size, friendly disposition and intelligence,” the bill says. It has yet to pass. The health department opposes it, for several reasons. “Pigs raised as house pets can become aggressive to humans,” the agency said in a recent statement. Also, it noted, there is no federally approved rabies vaccine for pigs. In 2014, the most recent year for which federal statistics are available, there were no cases of rabies in pigs reported in the United States, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There were, however, 272 rabid cats, 59 rabid dogs and one rabid llama. Pig owners scoff at the notion that their pets pose a threat. “It’s ridiculous how many people are abusing their animals, how many dogs are mauling people, and they’re worrying about a pig that’s not even bothering anybody,” said Nadine Darsanlal, a disabled veteran who lives in Queens and owns a working therapy pig, also named Wilbur. (The classic children’s book “Charlotte’s Web” ensures that many pet pigs continue to be named Wilbur.) She keeps him at a friend’s house outside the city, where pigs are legal. At Queelin’s apartment in Manhattan on Tuesday morning, the lawbreaker snoozed on her bed in the corner. Her owner’s older daughter, a college student who asked to be identified only as Margret, eventually persuaded Queelin to get up. In return for treats, Queelin (an Anglicization of her real name, Caoilfhionn, which means “fair and slender” in Irish) sat like a dog and kissed Margret on the lips. Margret lay down on the couch, and Queelin climbed up and plopped on top of her. “She knows how to trap you because she puts her big head on you,” Margret said as she stroked Queelin’s bristles. “Then she’s so happy. ” Queelin gave a soft snort of agreement. | 1 |
USA: The questions the people should be asking 06.11.2016 Given the dimension of the United States of America, given its economic power and given the fact that it is one of those nations that cannot help sticking its nose into other people's business, meddling and intruding where it was not invited, the forcoming election is of global importance and requires responsible voting. Here are some questions the people should be asking. Question 1: Has Hillary Clinton amassed a substantial or any part of her reported great wealth (some say hundreds of millions of dollars) while in public office? If so, how is that compatible with public service? Question 2: Is there a rumor that Hillary Clinton has used the Clinton Foundation to amass a fortune and if there is, to what extent is it truthful? The Clinton Foundation and foreign policy Question 3: There is an allegation that Hillary Clinton has used the Clinton Foundation to receive millions in payments from foreign states for access to contracts in return. This being the case, how ethical is it for a public figure to use a private foundation to conduct government policy, and obtain a fortune to boot? Is this what the USA's foreign policy ethics is about? Then why vote for her? Print version Font Size Question 4: Hillary Clinton laughed and sneered when she heard that Muammar al-Qathafi, the Leader of the Libyan Jamahariya, had been cruelly murdered by terrorists. Is it correct for the leader of a country's diplomacy to giggle and guffaw at the news of a terrorist murder? Backing terrorists Question 5: Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State at the time when the Libyan government was toppled in an illegal act by NATO forces using terrorists on their own lists of proscribed groups. Is this in line with the established law of the United States of America? If not, then what does the law of the United States of America have to say about the chief of the country's diplomacy using terrorists to conduct foreign policy? Question 6: Hillary Clinton was responsible for sending Libya, the country with the highest Human Development Index in the African Continent, back to the dark ages, crawling with terrorists and infested by Islamic State. If she was capable of that as Secretary of State, then what would she do as President and how competent is she for that role? Question 7: Hillary Clinton, as mastermind of the Libyan debacle, is ultimately responsible for the acts of the terrorists she unleashed in that country. Has she, have the citizens of the United States of America, any idea of what these terrorists did? Reader discretion advised, for those easily offended please scroll down to question 8. These terrorists sliced the breasts off women in the streets, these terrorists forced five-year-old girls to watch their parents being tortured and raped and murdered with their throats cut, and as their parents' throats were still spurting blood and gasping for breath, these five-year-old girls were themselves raped before and after being beheaded. Boys as young as six have been impaled on railings (metal rails thrust through their anus until they come out of the child's throat). You cannot unleash this sort of filth, then laugh and giggle and turn your back and walk away. Or can you if you are the US Secretary of State, and get voted in as President despite it all? Question 8: How long has Hillary Clinton been in or around Government? How long has Hillary Clinton been in or around the White House? What has she actually achieved? Can she rightfully claim she is the Queen of Change? Or the Queen of barefaced liars who feathered her nest at the expense of the hard-working people of the United States of America? Question 9: Is there a rumor that a lady was paid 500,000 dollars to come on stage and lie about Donald Trump having abused her? Was it not more than a rumor? Wasn't it proven that she was paid to come into the campaign and lie? When they go low, you go high. I am not going to mention any names, but wasn't there more than a rumor about a certain family of Hillbillies in the White House, lies and er...? Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey | 0 |
Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” discussing President Donald Trump‘s tweet labeling the press an “enemy” of the American people, Washington Post veteran Bob Woodward said, “I don’t think he really believes that the press is the enemy of the people. ” Woodward said, “We don’t want in the media to set ourselves up as the opposition. I know Trump a little bit. I don’t think he really believes that the press is the enemy of the people, frankly. And we have to do our reporting in a very aggressive, careful way ten months ago with Bob Costa, we interviewed Trump and it was tough and he came out and he said, well, it was fair and accurate. So I think you can be tough and fair and accurate. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 1 |
After a career of working, scrimping and saving, many retirees are well prepared financially to stop earning a living. But how do you find meaning, identity and purpose in the remaining years of your life? John and Kathryn Gee, both 57, recently engaged in this existential query. They have worked hard at jobs, invested diligently and are planning to retire soon. Having relocated to San Antonio from Phoenix in 2010, they have already reached a sweet spot where they have a bountiful nest egg. Yet they worry that something is missing. “We thought we’d be retired and would be fat, dumb and happy at 55,” Mr. Gee said. “We only talked about money. Then we started asking some simple questions. ” Embracing the guiding principles of life planning laid out by a financial planner, George Kinder, the Gees asked themselves what they would do if money wasn’t an issue and they only had one day to a few years left to live. The answers, which they are still contemplating, gave them a renewed focus on what was most important to them. “What is it that can make me a better person?” Ms. Gee asked herself after a of their core values. “How can we give back? Family became more important. ” Mr. Kinder, who has been espousing and refining programs with his clients and in seminars for several decades, calls for a process that involves self, family and community. “Who do I want to be?” is a question that Mr. Kinder says his clients should ask. “What have I missed? Who did I not get to be? What an incredible opportunity to have all of these things in front of you. ” As with financial preparation, life planning evolves in stages. Mr. Kinder says he walks clients through exploration of positive outcomes and goal setting “within a human setting of comfort and support. ” If the process unfolds in a positive way, Mr. Kinder says, the ideal state is one of the Hawaiian word “aloha. ” The term does not simply mean hello or goodbye, he says, but in the truest sense stands for “the process of passing a blessing from one person to another. ” Mitch Anthony, author of “The New Retirementality” (Wiley, 2008) says your should start with the question, “What am I wired for?” which involves taking an “inventory of who you are. ” Mr. Anthony’s principles are geared around one’s aptitudes and having active pursuits that involve the mind, body and spirit. Translating that into concrete actions can be challenging. Retired professionals may be able to continue to do what they were doing, but now as or consultants. Others may be able to apply their analytic, management or organizational skills in settings. Still others may want to strike out in entirely new directions. “It’s never an easy answer,” Mr. Anthony says of in retirement. “You need to take stock of things that resound with you — that stir you up. ” Through Mr. Anthony’s process of discovering engagement, it is possible to isolate the activities that you are already doing — or could be doing — that make you feel most alive, creative, happy and connected to others. Finding a balance between the myriad components of our lives certainly takes some adjustment. Mary Zimmerman, a financial and life planner in the Phoenix area who has worked with the Gees, said one of the most important goals she discussed with them was to “find your humanity and sanity. ” “There’s often so much anxiety in retirement,” Ms. Zimmerman says. “How do we allow ourselves to be at ease? How can we be comfortable?” These questions lead into an exploration of what makes us tick and how we can find our best selves. By no means is this a seamless transition for most. The rough patches may come early and often. It’s hard to break the routine and inertia of a career. You may have to become a “lite” version of your self to bridge the gap. Like many, Ms. Gee says that her and identification were intimately linked to her work, a common problem with retirees seeking a new role. Some professionals find it unnervingly difficult not to be a banker, doctor, lawyer or engineer anymore. “The myth of retirement is that you have to leave that all behind,” Mr. Anthony said. You don’t. Once you shatter the conventions of a retirement, Mr. Anthony says, it’s like “breaking through the gravity barrier. You’re on the path to contentment. ” Admittedly, seeking what Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor who was a renowned neurologist and psychiatrist, called the “will to meaning” is one of the most challenging parts not just of retirement planning but of living your life to the fullest. You don’t have to do it alone, though. You can find a coach, mentor or life planner. Consider a certified life coach, who, like a planner, works to help you walk through a life plan Mr. Kinder’s organization, Kinder Institute, also has a search engine to find life planners throughout the world. Rates for this service vary from as little as $200 to as much as $10, 000 a month for executive coaches. Some retirees may have a clear idea of how they want to define their lives while others may take months to discern a path. Certified financial planners may also provide this assistance in the course of comprehensive hourly or financial planning. The universe of financial planners who have had specific life planning or life coaching training, though, is small. To date, about 2, 000 planners have taken the Kinder Institute’s training and 350 have qualified for the registered life planner designation. That’s out of an industry of more than 74, 000 professionals holding the certified financial planning certificate. Even if you find the process emotionally nettlesome — most do — you can figure out life goals on your own and create your route for finding purpose and meaning. One way to start is by asking if there’s a need for your service within your family or community. You may spend time with relatives who need you in a caregiving or educational role. Another approach is to some community activities that you feel most comfortable with and that provide social engagement as well. Others seek out social, environmental or political causes or a nonprofit activity that revolves around doing good, not just doing well. Sometimes the quest for inner meaning may be right in front of you. For Mr. Gee, it was family that called to him. He wanted to help a niece and spend time with his mother, who is 86, infirm and living alone in his native England. She could not relocate to the United States. Let’s be honest: Those pursuing the process tend to be financially secure already. You can’t be nimble with life decisions if you are constantly worried that market volatility will blister your investments. That’s why it’s important to thoroughly vet your portfolio, estate plan and cash needs. A certain level of comfort is almost a keystone for most people before embarking on an existential exploration. Once you cross that barrier, though, almost anything is possible. “It’s not about being busy,” Mr. Anthony said. “It’s about being engaged. ” | 1 |
November 7, 2016 - Fort Russ News - RusVesna - translated by J. Arnoldski -
Militants in Syria have filmed their “meeting” with Russian air forces in Aleppo.
In the footage released, the bandits are heating themselves by a small fire before one of them says that a Russian fighter is approaching. The militant says “Allahu akbar, the Russians are here!” The rest of the group begin to look up in the sky as the roar of Russian military aircraft is suddenly heard above them.
The terrorists then run in terror and disperse in different directions, falling onto the ground and dropping their dishes.
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Only Making Matters Worse in Syria October 28, 2016
Exclusive: Washington’s foreign policy establishment is determined to escalate U.S. military attacks in Syria even though that won’t resolve the conflict and will only get more people killed, a dilemma addressed by Daniel Lazare.
By Daniel Lazare
Middle East policy has reached an inflexion point, a moment when Official Washington seems to be caught in the middle between escalation and retreat.
On one hand, the rhetoric has not been more militant since Hillary Clinton’s famous “we came, we saw, he died” moment in October 2011. With Barack Obama halfway out the door and Clinton all but crowned, Washington’s laptop bombardiers are rejoicing that the half-measures are over and judgment day nearly at hand. Samantha Power, Permanent Representative of the United States to the UN, addresses the Security Council meeting on Syria, Sept. 25, 2016. Power has been an advocate for escalating U.S. military involvement in Syria. (UN Photo)
Thus, The New York Times assures us that that the Middle East is “desperate for American leadership” while the Washington Post reports that “the Republicans and Democrats who make up the foreign policy elite are laying the ground work for a more assertive American foreign policy.”
Leading think tanks are publishing “a flurry of reports” urging stepped-up intervention, including U.S.-backed “safe zones to protect moderate rebels from Syrian and Russian forces” and even “limited” cruise-missile strikes. But while differing on the details, all agree something must be done. The time to act is now.
As Vox puts it: “The hot new policy idea in Washington is the hottest old idea: direct US military intervention in Syria’s civil war.”
But reading between the lines, a very different picture emerges, a realization that the U.S. has painted itself into a corner and that there is little it can do after all. Thus, the Times observes that while the Middle East is clamoring for U.S. leadership, it is not clamoring for Bush-style intervention but for some mythical “middle ground” in between him and Obama.
While reporting that pro-escalation sentiment is unanimous in Washington’s vast foreign-policy establishment – sometimes known as “ the blob ” – the Washington Post notes that “even pinprick cruise-missile strikes designed to hobble the Syrian air force or punish [President Bashar al-]Assad would risk a direct confrontation with Russian forces” and wonders whether a war-weary public will support any intervention at all.
“My concern is that we may be talking to each other and agreeing with each other,” it quotes one expert as saying, “but that these discussions are isolated from where the public may be right now.”
Official Washington in a Bubble
Thus, even the Establishment worries that it lives in a bubble. Washington wants war, it needs war, and yet it admits in practically the same breath that it can’t have it. So what will it do? A heart-rending propaganda image designed to justify a major U.S. military operation inside Syria against the Syrian military.
Then there are the mild liberals over at Vox, the hip and successful Washington website founded by journalistic wunderkind Ezra Klein. Voxers pride themselves on being sharp and practical yet in the end they are sealed off as well. The poster boy for this tendency is Zack Beauchamp, a young writer who stars in a recent Vox video entitled, “ The crisis in Aleppo, explained in 4 minutes .”
As Beauchamp lectures away amid fancy graphics and cool background music, the video faithfully toes the Washington line, both the stirring gung-ho part and the downbeat refrain that inevitably follows. Thus, he describes the Syrian civil war as a “story of flip-flops,” with Assad seemingly on the ropes until Iran and Russia put him back on his feet, at which point the Saudis and Qataris put the rebels back on their feet so the game can continue.
But the real turning point, he says, occurred in September 2015 when Russia stepped in with airstrikes that allowed the government to besiege the Salafists in eastern Aleppo.
“A siege,” Beauchamp then explains, “involves trapping a group of people, civilians and fighters both, inside a certain territory and denying them supplies until they can no longer fight. Assad’s strategy has a vicious logic to it. When you deprive people of food and you bomb them over and over again, they’re likely to give in just to make the fighting stop.”
The upshot, he says, is “a humanitarian crisis … roughly 250,000 people trapped in the city … running dangerously low on supplies, access to clean water and medicine.” So what should the U.S. do in response? The video’s tone at this point turns pessimistic and then pitch black:
“The United States has the military power to break the siege of Aleppo,” Beauchamp says, “but doing so would be extremely dangerous. For one thing, it would need to coordinate with rebels on the ground, some of whom are extremists. For another, it means that the US would be operating in hostile air space with Russian planes.If the US were to engage with Russian planes, that could theoretically mean direct fire between two nuclear-armed superpowers, a risk that very few people in the United States are willing to take. And three, even if the US did temporarily break the siege, it would have to maintain a commitment to insure that things didn’t get worse. That could mean an open-ended war. And there’s no guarantee that this would make anything better, but, rather, it might just get more people killed over the long run.”
So U.S. options are zero: “Every diplomatic solution tried so far has failed, and failed miserably, and there’s simply no economic tool that can be used to end the fighting or ease the suffering of the people inside besieged territories. There’s no good answer. There’s nothing that anyone has that could simply solve the crisis. It’s a disaster and a disaster without any end in sight.”
Falsehoods and Obfuscations
Beauchamp’s explanation – which is really not an explanation at all, merely an assertion – is studded with falsehoods and obfuscations. By describing Assad’s strategy as uniquely “vicious,” he ignores obvious parallels between the Russian air campaign in Aleppo and U.S. air assaults on Fallujah , Tikrit , and Ramadi , all in central Iraq and all largely destroyed in the course of “liberating” them from ISIS. U.S.-backed Syrian “moderate” rebels smile as they prepare to behead a 12-year-old boy (left), whose severed head is held aloft triumphantly in a later part of the video. [Screenshot from the YouTube video] By referring to the events in Syria as a civil war, he fails to acknowledge the degree to which it is actually a foreign invasion by the U.S., Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and other Persian Gulf states. By repeatedly referring to the Salafists as “rebels” – which suggests that they are Syrians rising up from within – he ignores the fact that large numbers – 36,500, according to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper – are foreign-born.
While asserting that 250,000 people are trapped inside east Aleppo, he ignores reports that the real figure is far lower. The Guardian ’s Martin Chulov, for example, estimated in March 2015 that only 40,000 people remained in rebel-held areas while Vice News reported last July that “most of Aleppo’s residents have fled the city. There are just a handful of civilians and rebel fighters holding on in the shattered ruins.”
Beauchamp also implies that it is the government that has “trapped” people in east Aleppo when reports in the London Independent and elsewhere indicate that Salafists are firing on anyone trying to take the government up on its offer of safe passage. While acknowledging that “some” fighters are “extremists,” he ignores the fact that the U.S. military has admitted that Al Nusra, the local branch of Al Qaeda, is firmly in charge.
When Salafists launched a short-lived offensive in east Aleppo last summer, for instance, The New York Times reported that they named it in honor of Ibrahim al-Yousef, a Muslim Brotherhood member who led a horrendous massacre of Alawite military cadets in 1979. It was indicative of how anti-Alawite sectarianism of the most bloodthirsty sort is the common denominator underlying all anti-government factions.
One could go on, but the point is clear. The foreign-policy establishment has not only cut itself off from the public but, with the help of sympathetic media outlets like Vox, has cut itself off from its own intellectual history. Incapable of examining the U.S. role in the Syrian debacle in an honest and straightforward way, it can only blunder about in the dark, staggering backward or forward as circumstances dictate. Now seems to be the moment when it is poised between the two.
So how will the United States respond now that Washington is preparing for a transition between Obama-style abstention and Hillary-style neo-conservatism? Here’s is one reporter’s modest attempt at reading the tea leaves:
Washington will continue to fume as the catastrophe deepens in both Syria and Iraq. As the drive to push ISIS (also known as ISIL, Islamic State, and Daesh) out of Mosul in northern Iraq degenerates into ethno-sectarian warfare among Turks, Sunni Arabs, Shi‘ites, and Kurds, the drive to take back Raqqa, ISIS’s capital in north-central Syria will similarly falter as fighting breaks out between pro-Turkish forces and Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG.
The fall of east Aleppo, which now seems to be a foregone conclusion, will drive the foreign-policy establishment to a fury. Obama may be able to hold the hawks off. But by the time he leaves office, “the blob” will be in an uproar and demanding that something be done. Map of Syria.
With that, Zack Beauchamp will star in another Vox video entitled, “U.S. military intervention in Syria, explained in 4 minutes.” In it, he’ll tell how Russian atrocities in Aleppo, plus backhanded Syrian government support for ISIS, leave the U.S. no choice but to launch a swarm of cruise missiles at Syrian military facilities.
When Russian soldiers are killed, he’ll try to shift blame to Vladimir Putin for stirring up trouble in the eastern Ukraine or the Baltics. He’ll note that dissent is limited to a few cranky websites and far-left groups, all of which can be safely ignored since they’re not part of the mainstream. Russia will then counter-attack, leading to … no one knows.
While anything can go wrong with this scenario, one thing is clear. The mood in Official Washington is the opposite of 2003 when all the “experts” agreed that an invasion of Iraq would be a walk in the park. Now they’re filled with trepidation. But they’re still trying to talk themselves into an escalation and may succeed. If the election goes as expected, the Clinton II presidency will be an interesting one.
Daniel Lazare is the author of several books including The Frozen Republic: How the Constitution Is Paralyzing Democracy (Harcourt Brace). | 0 |
Three U.S. government officials deemed to be highly reliable reported witnessing two UFOs hovering near a train line. The report of the sightings was filed 61 years ago, but their supporters allegedly covered up the said report.
Alien researchers obtained formerly confidential files that detail senior Senator Richard B. Russell and two aides’ account about seeing two flying saucers taking off.
During a fact-finding mission to Russia, Sen. Russell was on a Soviet-era train. He was a chairman of the Armed Services Committee and considered as one of the most influential U.S. senators. He died after serving for 38 years in 1971.
According to the documents obtained by the Fund for UFO Research (FUFOR), Sen. Russell was in the Transcaucasus region with his two aides at around 7 p.m. on October 4, 1955, when the incident took place.
He reportedly spotted two disc-shaped UFOs when he looked out of the window. These UFOs were taking off from a place close to the railway tracks, according to the documents.
The documents further reveal that the senator called over aide Lt. Col. Hathaway and interpreter Ruben Efron to look out of the window as well. Both of them also saw the two craft taking off.
The senator and the aides reported the sighting to U.S. Embassy in Prague, in Czechoslovakia, and U.S. Air Force, but the account was apparently kept strictly confidential.
The documents disclose that air attaché at the embassy, Lt. Col. Thomas Ryan, filed a top secret Air Force intelligence report on the senator and aides’ sighting on October 14, 1955, after meeting the trio.
The filed top secret report states that Lt. Col. Hathaway told Lt. Col. Ryan that the trio saw a disc ascending almost vertically at a relatively slow speed. The outer space of the UFO revolved slowly to the right, to an altitude of approximately 6,000 feet. Its speed increased sharply as it flew north. The second unidentified flying disc was seen about a minute later performing similar actions. About 1 to 2 miles south of the rail line was the take- off area.
CIA agents also interviewed the trio and a fourth unidentified witness.
The documents reveal that Mr. Efron described the visibility as excellent and the UFOs glide without any noise heard and exhaust glow or trail seen.
The fourth unidentified individual stated that one UFO had a white light on top and a slight dome.
All witnesses claimed that the disc had a pinkish-white glow and ascended in a vertical manner with the glow moving slowly in a clockwise direction around the perimeter, providing a pinwheel appearance.
On October 18, 1955, U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles was briefed, and the FBI penned a memo on November 4, stating that Lt. Col. Hathaway’s testimony would support the existence of a flying saucer.
The men remain their silence publicly, but details were leaked to a Los Angeles Examiner reporter who approached Senator Russell.
The senator’s response to journalist Tom Towers was that he already discussed the matter with the affected government agencies and they thought it wasn’t wise to publicize the issue at that time. The senator refused to divulge further details to the reporter.
The Air Force, FBI, and the CIA documents remained confidential for 30 years before being declassified in 1985, but their details emerged only after FUFOR obtained the documents under a Freedom of Information Act request.
FUFOR chairman, Dr. Bruce Maccabee, said these long-secret documents show for the first time that a powerful U.S. senator saw and reported a UFO. He believes that the witnesses were prevented from talking about the incident. The chairman added that these documents reveal the CIA took the UFO report seriously.
Source: Latest UFO Sightings
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As mysteriously as an slur appeared on a house in Stamford, Conn. in January, it was covered over this week, officials said. What the house’s residents did after the slur first appeared caused as much of a stir as the graffiti itself. The residents, Heather Lindsay, who is white, and Lexene Charles, who is black, defied a directive by the city to cover it up because they wanted to make a point publicly about intolerance. The slur was discovered on the Saturday before Martin Luther King’s Birthday. After it had been up for three weeks, the city issued a citation for blight and warned the couple that they faced a fine of $100 a day. The police chief visited the home and offered to clean the slur, which was sprawled across a garage door. The mayor said he would help. The couple refused their offers and ignored the citation. Sometime late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning, someone covered the graffiti with black paint, Libby Carlson, a spokeswoman for Mayor David R. Martin, said in an interview on Thursday night. The covered graffiti was discovered on Wednesday morning and reported to the city. The police canvassed neighbors, who said they had not seen who painted over the slur, Ms. Carlson said. The investigation about who painted the slur in January remains open, she said. Neither Mr. Charles nor Ms. Lindsay could be reached to comment on Thursday evening. Ms. Carlson said the city would not fine them for failing to address the graffiti. Stamford, a diverse coastal city about 30 miles northeast of New York City, and the couple have tussled over blight before. After a citation in 2012 for debris at the property, the city sued Ms. Lindsay for disregarding the notice. The fees, which continued to accumulate, exceeded $130, 000. Ms. Carlson said the mayor, the city’s lawyer and the couple were to meet on Friday in an effort to resolve that case. The city was trying to acquire the property in a foreclosure lawsuit set to go to trial next week. The couple had said the graffiti was the latest in a string of racially motivated insults directed at them, especially Mr. Charles, a Haitian immigrant. Ms. Lindsay said that since they moved into the house in 1999, several people yelled racial obscenities at him and told them that they hurt property values. Jack Bryant, the president of the Stamford N. A. A. C. P. said in an interview on Thursday night that he had met with city officials about not fining the couple. He noted that “no one has been brought to justice” for the slur, which he considered to be an isolated incident. “I don’t want people to look at Stamford as a racist town,’’ he said, “because it isn’t. ” | 1 |
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Amid live Cuban music, fresh guava pastries and a water cannon salute, the first scheduled passenger jet service in history between Cuba and the United States began on Wednesday with a 9:45 flight from here to Santa Clara, east of Havana. The flight on JetBlue, the first regularly scheduled flight from the United States to Cuba in more than 50 years, was another important step toward normalized relations between two former Cold War foes, which promises to sharply reduce airfares and ease travel between the nations. It had been so long since an airline in the United States flew a regularly scheduled flight to the island that the last time it happened, the passengers flew on a propeller plane. Erik Díaz Oliva, 41, choked back tears as he described the significance of flying on the first scheduled flight to his home country after eight years away. “I got here at 5 a. m. and was the first to check in everyone started to cheer!” Mr. Díaz said. “To the people who say these flights don’t help: Yes, it does help. It opens Cuba to the world. ” The scheduled air service was the latest in a string of important changes between the nations since President Obama decided in 2014 to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba. Embassies were opened, direct mail service was restored and Carnival Cruise Line ships have sailed to Cuba. Other moves, like ferry service and the building in Cuba of an American company’s tractor assembly plant, were authorized by the Obama administration, but were stalled by the Cuban government. “Today opens the door to further exchange between the American people and the Cuban people,” Anthony Foxx, the United States transportation secretary, said in an interview. “We think that’s ultimately good for the expansion of freedom and democracy. ” Mr. Foxx was among the inaugural flight’s 150 passengers, which included more than two dozen journalists and assorted dignitaries. “This is a novelty for me, to be able to fly direct without having to travel to a third country,” said Orestes García Vásquez, 68, who was traveling from Villa Clara to South Florida. “This allows me to save time and money. ” Cuba and the United States agreed to allow up to 90 daily flights between the two nations, the Department of Transportation said. Six airlines have been approved for flights to nine Cuban cities other than Havana, but not all of them have announced their schedules. Mr. Foxx said far more airlines had expressed interest in flying to Havana, the capital, than could be accommodated. “I haven’t seen anything like it,” he said. On Wednesday, the Department of Transportation announced that Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines and United Airlines would operate the coveted Havana flights. The airlines will fly from Atlanta Charlotte, N. C. Fort Lauderdale Houston Los Angeles Miami Newark New York Orlando, Fla. and Tampa, Fla. Calling it “good pressure,” Mr. Foxx acknowledged that Cuba would have to improve its airport infrastructure to be able to handle the increased flow of airlines. The country is notorious for poor airport facilities, and passengers often endure hourslong waits because baggage carousels or staircases needed to disembark are tied up. José Ramón Cabañas Rodríguez, Cuba’s ambassador to the United States, said the country’s 10 international airports were safe and secure and had fielded nearly 5, 000 charter flights from the United States last year. He added that the flight on Wednesday was yet another first for the two countries announced in the past few months. “We hope that in the near future, all remaining obstacles that limit further exchange between the two countries will be removed,” he said, referring to the American trade embargo, which remains in place. For passengers, the difference will be immense. Until now, people flying to Cuba had to book charter flights, which meant passengers had to arrive at the airport four hours before takeoff and were charged steep fees for luggage. Prices were high, lines were long and flights were often hours late. The document review process was and passengers stood in separate lines to check in, check bags, have bags weighed and pay for the checked luggage. “The last time I went to Cuba, I paid $300 or $400 just for the luggage — absurd!” said Yosleidys Rodríguez, 39, who left Cuba less than two years ago for South Florida. “This is the best thing that could have happened. ” Now customers who qualify under the 12 authorized categories approved for travel can book flights directly on an airline’s website, and many have paid fares as low as $99 each way. JetBlue expects to have up to seven daily flights to Cuba, although most of them will go to cities other than Havana, like Holguín and Camagüey. They are set to begin in the fall. Silver Airways, a commuter airline, on Thursday will begin offering three weekly flights to Santa Clara, and later this year will start flights to Cienfuegos, Santiago de Cuba, Cayo Coco, Varadero, Cayo Largo and Manzanillo. American Airlines begins service on Sept. 7 to Cienfuegos and Holguín, and will expand to three more Cuban cities later in the year. Although the number of Americans flying to Cuba has been steadily increasing, experts say it is unlikely that the market will be able to bear such an abundance of seats. “There’s going to be a lot of seats on the market,” said Michael Zuccato of Cuba Travel Services, a charter company whose business is in peril now that consumers can book directly with airlines. “I do not believe the flights are going to be full. ” Marty St. George, the executive vice president of JetBlue, said the airline expected brisk business, particularly among Cubans visiting their families. “We do think it’s an important part of history,” Mr. St. George said. “From a challenge perspective, we know the drill. Cuba has some unique elements because of 50 years of history between the U. S. and Cuba, but we’re ready to go. ” | 1 |
Kenyan refugee kills co-worker, self 3 others shot by 'hard worker' fired from job Published: 13 mins ago
ROANOKE, Va. (AP) — A refugee from Kenya killed one former co-worker, wounded three others and then killed himself Tuesday in a workplace shooting that authorities are still trying to unravel in Virginia, police said.
Getachew Fekede, 53, had entered the U.S. through a refugee immigration program and worked for the railcar manufacturer FreightCar America before being fired in March when he stopped showing up for work, Roanoke Police Chief Tim Jones told reporters.
A neighbor told the Associated Press that Fekede quit his job over being harassed by a co-worker. Clarence Jones said Fedeke would send money to his mother back in Kenya and had grown concerned about his finances. | 0 |
The Sunni Islamic State ( ) has boasted that key U. S. Middle East ally Saudi Arabia is the top provider of terrorists for the jihadist group in Iraq, reports Fox News, citing Iraqi military sources. [Sunni Saudi Arabia shares an estimated border with Iraq. Nevertheless, Fox News reports that the Saudi jihadists crossed into Iraq over the border the country shares with both Turkey and Syria. The news outlet learned from unnamed Iraqi intelligence sources that jihadist from the Saudi kingdom comprise nearly (up to 30 percent) of all ISIS terrorists in Iraq, adding that “Saudis comprise the largest single contingent of ISIS fighters, with Russian Chechens making up the contingent. ” Speaking to the news outlet on condition of anonymity, a Iraqi intelligence officer said, “The Saudi presence in ISIS is very large. What we have left are mainly Iraqis and Saudis. ” “The Saudis make up a large number of suicide bombers, as they already have the ground work of radicalization installed in their minds from radical sheikhs in Saudi [Arabia]. And we’ve caught important ISIS commanders,” he added. Fox News points out that it has seen various photographs and documents showing identification and credit cards of Saudi terrorists. The report comes nearly a month after an article by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) revealed that President Donald Trump’s administration is considering forming a military alliance with major Middle East allies, including the Sunni Saudi kingdom, to combat Shiite Iran. President Trump’s coalition would bring together Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Israel, Egypt, and Jordan. The Sharia kingdom Saudi Arabia is regarded as a hotbed and top global exporter of radical Islamic thought, namely the Sunni extremist ideology of Wahhabism, adhered to by ISIS and various other jihadists groups. Saudi Arabia imposes extremely strict Islamic laws on its citizens. “Wahhabism was born in Saudi Arabia. Saudi is leading those extremist organizations like ISIS,” an anonymous Iraqi official told Fox News. “They have officials and fighters among their ranks. Saudi is nothing without U. S. protection it is only a bite for Iran to eat. ” Sunni Saudi Arabia considers Shiite Iran its regional rival. Iran exerts tremendous influence over the government of Iraq where militias backed by the Islamic Republic are fighting ISIS. Saudi Arabia is part of the U. S. coalition against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The Sunni kingdom, which has cracked down on the jihadist group within its borders, has also suffered attacks carried out by ISIS. | 1 |
A prankster in Stockton, California is not laughing after an attempt to scare people in a creepy clown costume ended with a man pulling out his pistol and striking him on the side of his head.
Sadiq Mohammad, 20, decided that clowning around in Stockton attempting to scare unsuspecting people was a good idea. He is a professional prankster who runs an entertainment website called Hoodclips, which gets almost 7 million views daily.
“The numbers don’t lie, people love comedy. That’s why I have a lot of followers,” Mohammad said.
Mohammad decided to hide behind some bushes and jump out to scare a man who was walking by, he began to cry out, “It’s a prank,” but the man said the prank was not funny, and he approached him with his pistol drawn.
He was struck down to the ground, and he and his cameraman immediately ran away. Delivered by The Daily Sheeple
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Contributed by Ryan Banister of The Daily Sheeple . | 0 |
Chinese may become Russia’s second largest ethnic population by 2050 26 October 2016 TASS The number of unemployed people in China is more than the entire Russian population. Facebook russia , china , migration
Experts predict a possible growth in the migration flow from China into Russia, by 2050 the Chinese may become the second largest population group in Russia, Scientific Director of the Center for Migration Research of the Institute of National Economic Prediction of Russia’s Academy of Science Zhanna Zayonchkovskaya said.
"The number of unemployed people in China is more than the entire Russian population," she noted at an international conference at the North Caucasus Federal University in the Russian city of Stavropol, dubbed as "Migration processes.""If we maintain solid relations with China then I think by 2050 the Chinese may become the second largest population group in Russia and surpass the Central Asian populace as far as migration goes," the expert said.
Zayonchkovskaya said the reason for this process was that after 2030 the migrant inflow from Central Asian countries would decline as a large part of young people had already left these countries to work or study in the neighboring states.
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are the main countries whose citizens come to Russia, Ukrainians migrate in large numbers, too. "If we think of other countries from where migrant labor can be obtained, I can think of none other than China," Zayonchkovskaya noted, emphasizing that "Russia will need foreign workers to ensure its economic development."
According to the expert, the changes in the pension legislation would not balance the situation given the decrease in the working-age population. "Raising the retirement age will neither level out the demographic waves, nor will it solve the labor shortage problem, as it only solves the problem of the Pension Fund, though the demographic situation still remains problematic," Zayonchkovskaya added noting that according to the Federal Migration Service, the international migration flow into Russia in 2015 had amounted in 9.8 mln people.
First published by TASS . | 0 |
Sunday in East Room of the White House at the senior staff ceremony, President Donald Trump’s chief strategist and senior counselor Steve Bannon was sworn in by Vice President Mike Pence. Follow Breitbart. tv on Twitter @BreitbartVideo | 1 |
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea launched an ballistic missile, but the test failed as the projectile exploded shortly after liftoff, the South Korean military said on Sunday. The North’s missile, also known as the Musudan, took off at 12:33 p. m. on Saturday near an airfield in the northwestern city of Kusong, the South said in a statement. The test was the first involving the since North Korea successfully launched the same missile in June. North Korea has had a spotty record with test flights. The June launch was the first successful test after five failures. The projectile flew about 250 miles over the sea between North Korea and Japan, reaching an altitude of 878 miles. That test alarmed the United States and its allies in the region. Their defense officials said the missile’s launch at a sharp angle prevented it from falling too close to Japan but still demonstrated its potential to reach an estimated range of more than 2, 000 miles. The is the North’s only tested missile with a range long enough to reach American military bases in Guam in the Pacific, and in South Korea and Japan. After the June test, the North Korean leader, Kim boasted that his country had the capability to strike those bases. But the failure on Saturday indicated that North Korea has yet to perfect its system. The is a missile, so it can be moved around the country and hidden in tunnels, making it more difficult to target in a strike. North Korea has vowed to build a ballistic missile capable of striking the continental United States with a nuclear warhead. The North has never conducted a test flight for such a missile. It conducted its fifth underground nuclear test on Sept. 9. | 1 |
Tech giant Apple has not paid the $13. 9 billion owed to Ireland, according to the European Union. [Speaking to CNBC, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said, “Well the recovery is not done yet but we have been working with the Irish authorizes and we can see that they are moving forward to do the recovery of the unpaid taxes. ” Vestager explained some of the issues faced when trying to recoup the taxes, saying, “It’s a tricky thing to do because it’s a large sum so of course you have to figure out how to do that. It’s not as an escrow account in some of the other cases where it might be 25 or 30 million euros … and therefore I do respect that it’s a complicated matter and it may take a little more time. ” The EU Competition Commission ruled last year that Apple must pay $13. 9 billion owed to Ireland as it was found that the tech giant was paying as little as 0. 005 percent tax in Ireland in 2014. Apple had until January 3rd to pay the tax bill into an escrow account, a deadline which has since been missed. A spokesperson from Ireland’s Ministry of Finance told CNBC, “We are continuing to make progress of the recovery from Apple with the full cooperation of the company and the EU Commission. The Commission are satisfied with the progress we are making. We have committed to complying with the decision and we fully intend doing that. ” Both Apple and Ireland are planning on fighting the EU decision in court. When asked for comment by CNBC, Ireland’s Finance Minister Michael Noonan said, “The appeal is in now and it’ll go to a European ordinary court first and then whoever loses will probably appeal it to the European Court of Justice. So you’re looking at a time frame, time frame. (A) slow bicycle race between the Apple case and Brexit seems to be emerging now. Let’s see which will reach the destination first. ” Noonan previously stated his disapproval of the EU’s ruling, telling CNBC in August, “We stand by the legitimacy of what was done in the past … we think the Commission is getting involved in what is the competence of sovereign governments in Europe. ” “This is an approach through the back door to try and influence tax policy through competition law,” he said. Speaking to the Irish Independent last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the ruling was “total political crap” which has “no basis in law or in fact. ” 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 |
Posted on October 28, 2016 by Michael Snyder
If you look at the numbers, there is no way that Hillary Clinton could possibly win the election without the support of a substantial percentage of evangelical Christian voters. In fact, if evangelical Christians stuck together they could pretty much elect whoever they want as president. According to the Pew Research Center, 35 percent of all adults in the United States identify themselves as “evangelical” or “born again”, and it has been estimated that there are 94 million evangelical Christian adults in this country. If evangelical Christians acted as a single voting block they could determine the outcome of every single presidential election. Unfortunately, that simply is not going to happen.
A survey that was recently conducted by LifeWay Research found that only 45 percent of Christian evangelicals plan to vote for Donald Trump and 31 percent of Christian evangelicals plan to vote for Hillary Clinton.
That same survey discovered that moral issues are becoming increasingly unimportant to evangelical voters… Overall, the economy is the top concern for Americans regardless of religious affiliation (30%). National security (17%) and personal character (17%) also are significant issues. Supreme Court nominees (10%), immigration (5%), religious freedom (2%), and abortion (1%) are less important . “For churchgoers and those with evangelical beliefs, their pocketbook and personal safety are paramount,” said McConnell. “Moral issues aren’t a priority for many of them.”
I don’t know how in the world abortion could come in at only 1 percent. Even if you add “ Supreme Court nominees ” and abortion together, you still only get a total of 11 percent.
This just shows that evangelicals in America have their priorities way out of order.
And unfortunately for Donald Trump, he is getting a lot less support from evangelicals than other recent presidential candidates received. According to the New York Times , previous candidates have generally received about 80 percent support from white evangelical voters, but Donald Trump is only getting about 65 to 70 percent support, and his numbers among non-white evangelicals are absolutely dismal.
If you are an evangelical Christian and you have reservations about Donald Trump, I can respect that. But there will be other names on the ballot and you do not have to vote for Hillary Clinton. As I have said before, a vote for Hillary Clinton is an act of unmitigated wickedness.
Hillary Clinton has made support for abortion one of the central pillars of her long political career. In fact, I don’t know if there is any politician in America that is more associated with abortion than Hillary Clinton. Since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, more than 58 million babies have been murdered in the United States, and Hillary Clinton’s hands are drenched with their blood.
If you vote for Hillary Clinton, your hands will be drenched with their blood too.
Needless to say, I am absolutely horrified that so many prominent evangelical leaders have come out in support of Hillary Clinton during this election season. For example, a group that represents over 6,000 Latino evangelical churches has just announced that they are endorsing Hillary Clinton …
An organization representing more than 6,000 Latino evangelical churches in the U.S. is endorsing Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump.
In a statement Thursday, the group OPEN USA says Clinton has proven her willingness to engage in difficult conversations, listen to contrasting opinions and engage faith leaders.
Meanwhile, 75 evangelical leaders recently signed a petition on Change.org that strongly denounces Donald Trump…
We, undersigned evangelicals, simply will not tolerate the racial, religious, and gender bigotry that Donald Trump has consistently and deliberately fueled, no matter how else we choose to vote or not to vote.
One of the truly alarming trends that we have been seeing this election season is the number of prominent women in the evangelical movement that are openly rejecting Donald Trump and embracing Hillary Clinton. The following is a short excerpt from a recent Washington Post article that examined this phenomenon…
When Jen Hatmaker speaks to stadiums full of Christian women, she regales them with stories about her five children and her garden back in Austin, Tex. — and stays away from politics. But recently she took to Facebook and Instagram to blast Donald J. Trump as a “national disgrace,” and remind her legions of followers that there are other names on the ballot in November.
And Christianity Today recently published an editorial from one of the top female evangelical leaders in the entire country in which she publicly endorsed Hillary Clinton. According to Christianity Today, Deborah Fikes is “the former Permanent Representative to the United Nations for World Evangelical Alliance, which represents a constituency of 650 million with alliance offices in 129 countries.” Fikes says that she stepped down from some of her leadership positions so that she could openly advocate for Clinton … My recent resignations from evangelical leadership positions to endorse Hillary Clinton speaks volumes of how important I believe it is that she is elected in November. The toxic tone and atmosphere that surrounds Mr. Trump and is fueled among his supporters has done irreparable damage to not only our country and the future of the GOP but also to the public witness of evangelicals in America who are seen as some of his biggest supporters. There is no question in my mind or spirit that with the overwhelming challenges the next American president will face, Hillary Clinton is the most qualified person who has ever run for the Oval Office . On the issues of our national security, economic stability, seeing that healthcare reform continues to move forward, and tackling domestic challenges of poverty, inequality, and racism, we need her to be the person occupying this office.
A lot of these women seem to think that abortion shouldn’t be a major issue in this election, but that is like saying that the Holocaust shouldn’t have been a major issue in Nazi Germany.
Look, you don’t have to vote for Donald Trump or anyone else to be a good Christian.
But if you cast a vote for Hillary Clinton, you are casting a vote for the most evil, wicked and corrupt politician that this nation has possibly ever seen, and you are publicly endorsing the sinful positions that she is proud to stand for.
I know that I have been writing about the election a lot lately , but I feel that it is very important that I do so. Most of the media coverage has focused on Donald Trump , but I feel that this election is far more about Hillary Clinton. The things that her and her husband have done have been well documented, and if the American people willingly choose her they will know exactly what they are doing.
Unfortunately, not even Christians are standing united against the Clintons. The political divide in the evangelical Christian world has grown so deep that it has even reached Liberty University. The following comes from the Atlantic …
That’s why it was such a big deal when, two weeks ago, a group of Liberty students put out a letter explaining why they’re standing against the Republican presidential nominee. Jerry Falwell Jr., who has run the school since his father died in 2007, announced his support for Donald Trump back in January, and he has since spoken on the candidate’s behalf in interviews and at events. “We are Liberty students who are disappointed with President Falwell’s endorsement and are tired of being associated with one of the worst presidential candidates in American history,” the students wrote. “Donald Trump does not represent our values and we want nothing to do with him.”
Thousands of people signed onto the letter, including, the students said, roughly 2,000 students or alumni with liberty.edu email addresses.Dustin Wahl and Alex Forbes, two of the letter’s authors, were featured on MSNBC and CNN. They said they received supportive emails and tweets from Russell Moore, the head of the political arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, and Erick Erickson, the conservative radio-show host.
And the support for Clinton is particularly strong among young adult evangelicals. When I read the following paragraph on the website of the New York Times , I was absolutely astounded…
Kate Shellnutt, 30, the online editor of Christianity Today and editor of the CT Women section, said she had observed that “the millennial generation has a lot less patience for Trump.” Of the 33 influential millennial evangelicals she profiled for a cover story two years ago, she says she can now find only one, Lila Rose, who is pro-Trump, and even she has been publicly critical of him . Several have been using the hashtag #NeverTrump, Ms. Shellnutt said.
The frightening thing is that this election might be the last chance for evangelical Christians to shape the political direction of this nation, because the truth is that demographics are rapidly shifting, and this includes the demographics of the evangelical community …
As Robert Jones has expertly documented in his recent book The End of White Christian America , the number of older, conservative, white male evangelicals is shrinking each year. Meanwhile, the number of younger evangelicals of all ethnic backgrounds — whose moral and political views extend far beyond positions on gay marriage and abortion — is on the rise.
If you follow my work regularly, then you already know that I have very little hope for the future of America.
But if Hillary Clinton is elected, there will be exactly zero hope.
If evangelical Christians stood united, they could stop her, but at this point it appears that is not going to happen.
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2016 presidential campaign by Ann Garrison
The just-concluded election revealed as much about the corporate media, which has broken every rule of journalism to support Hillary Clinton, and the fraudulence of much of the American Left, which turns out to have no real problem with war or capitalism, than it did about the candidates, themselves. Edward Herman is an exception, a genuine man of the Left. He says “a vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote for war with Syria and Russia.” Clinton Is the Most Dangerous Person Alive – An Interview with Edward S. Herman by Ann Garrison
“ The election of Hillary Clinton might threaten a democratic order as much as a Trump victory.”
Ann Garrison: Earlier this year, you told me that you differ with Noam Chomsky, your co-author of Manufacturing Consent and other books, in that you plan to vote for the Green Party's presidential and vice presidential candidates Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka in the swing state of Pennsylvania. Are you still planning to do so?
Edward S. Herman: Yes.
AG: Can you explain why?
ESH: Because the two duopoly candidates are dangerous to societal and international welfare and even survival. Hillary Clinton is a neo-liberal and pre-eminent war-monger. I think she is the most dangerous person living in the world today, given her highly likely election victory and her likely performance as president. She represents the corporate elite and military-industrial complex more clearly than Trump and she is a follow-on to Bush and Obama. She will pursue similar policies except for her somewhat more aggressive bent.
Trump is a self-promoting windbag, racist and dangerous, unpredictable phony. We have a ghastly choice in these two. Jill Stein offers a protest opportunity, more so than not voting. On the line that either voting for Stein or not voting would constitute a vote for Trump, one might argue that a vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote for war with Syria and Russia and a vote for Netanyahu (and hence for escalated violence in Palestine).
AG: Hillary Clinton and John Podesta's e-mail has revealed that Hillary Clinton is well aware that the Saudi and Qatari rulers - not rogue elements - fund ISIS, and the same Saudi and Qatari rulers fund the Clinton Foundation. Throughout the last George Bush's presidency, there were innumerable headlines that "Saudi oil sheikhs met with George Bush on his Crawford, Texas ranch." What are your thoughts on that?
ESH: Saudi Arabia is a US ally and an instrument of the warfare state. Hillary Clinton has treated its leaders warmly and she will continue to do so as president. The Clinton Foundation's receipt of money from Saudi and Qatari leaders is a first class conflict of interest and outrage, but the media have focused on the many less important abuses of Trump, helping cover over the outrages of their preferred candidate, Hillary Clinton, and her husband, Bill Clinton.
AG: What do you think of Clinton's statement that she would make removing Bashar Al-Assad her top priority? And Trump's statement that he would not, because that would recklessly risk confrontation with Russia?
ESH: Hillary Clinton has essentially promised to escalate war in Syria and is therefore promising to go to war with Russia as well. Diana Johnstone has made the case that Hillary Clinton plans to try to bring about "regime change" in Russia (cite). This is of course incredibly dangerous and would have aroused a really democratic media, but the existing media are part of the war system, hence Hillary Clinton's commitment to wars is essentially suppressed. Trump has made a number of statements along the lines of reducing US interventions and commitments abroad and trying to deal with Russia in a less confrontational manner, but he has sometimes contradicted himself by urging expanded arms, use of nuclear weapons, etc. But Hillary Clinton has said nothing that would offset her war-mongering. This difference from Trump may help explain the intensity of media hostility to Trump.
AG: Jill Stein has said that "wars for oil are blowing back at us wth a vengeance" and that she would cut the military budget by half, close most of the foreign bases, and redirect resources into a Green New Deal that would fully employ Americans building sustainable energy and agricultural infrastructure. I can't imagine you disagree, but do you think it's important for the Greens to articulate such a vision at the national and international level, instead of focusing solely on local races that they might win?
ESH: The Greens don't have the resources to compete in many local elections. So she is wise to focus on the big national and international issues. Furthermore, the real gap in the political system is the lack of opposition to national neoliberal and militaristic policies. It is said that she can't make a bigger mark given the hegemony of the duopoly, but even Ralph Nader couldn't get 5 percent of the vote. The system still works well, for the 1%.
AG : Michael Moore has made a movie called "Trumpland" and warned that Trump's election would be the end of the United States , assuming that would be a bad thing. David Swanson, author of "War Is a Lie," has imagined the same but argued, in " Secession, Trump, and the Avoidability of Civil War ," that the break-up of the United States is not the worst possibility on the horizon. Do you have any thoughts on this?
ESH: Michael Moore is completely oblivious to the fact that the enlarging war that is likely to follow Hillary Clinton's election threatens not only a nuclear exchange but also attacks on civil liberties and the march toward fascism. In its own way, the election of Hillary Clinton might threaten a democratic order as much as a Trump victory. The anti-Trump hysteria has tended to block out consideration of the Hillary Clinton menace.
AG: Is there anything else you'd like to say about why you're voting for Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka?
ESH: I've always believed in the moral rule laid down in the categorical imperative: "Do that which you would wish generalized." Ann Garrison an independent journalist based in Oakland, USA. | 0 |
Home / Be The Change / Government Corruption / Project Veritas Releases Fourth Video Exposing Illegal Contributions and High Level Political Corruption Project Veritas Releases Fourth Video Exposing Illegal Contributions and High Level Political Corruption Jack Burns October 27, 2016 1 Comment
As The Free Thought Project has reported, Project Veritas ’ undercover sting operation, of the Clinton Campaign and the Democratic National Committee’s alleged subversive tactics using Democracy Partners and Americans United for Change, has now been exposed for the whole world to see. This week, PV released the fourth video in their series, and once again, Democracy Partners’ founder, Robert Creamer, is at the center of the controversy (It must be noted DP makes no mention on its website of Creamer as its founder and currently has him listed as a consultant ).
Creamer, who visited the White House 342 times (47 of those with Barack H. Obama), was caught on PV’s fourth video, and in emails, arranging an illegal $20,000 foreign contribution to Americans United for Change (AUFC), the same group which proudly stated was creating chaos at Trump events.
Activists at PV arranged the donation with the knowledge it was illegal, to see if AUFC would take the bait. They did. And in return, they agreed to unwittingly take on another PV activist as an AUFC staffer. In other words, PV paid AUFC $20K, and was allowed to place the pseudo-donor’s “niece” inside the organization, a move PV felt was worthwhile to be able to expose the organization’s dirty deeds. It worked.
PV’s first video revealed AUFC’s Scott Foval coordinated and arranged for paid instigators to go out and “start shit” with Trump protesters, all of which was caught on tape for the mainstream media to use in its echo chamber to paint Trump and his supporters as racists, xenophobes and bigots.
PV’s second video showed how AUFC’s organization and its affiliates commit intentional mass voter fraud. The second video is an instructional video of sorts on, “how to successfully commit voter fraud on a massive scale,” according to PV president James O’Keefe.
In the third PV video, Creamer can be seen stating Hillary Clinton herself wanted “ducks on the ground” in some bizarre idea to stage anti-Trump demonstrations by activists dressed as Donald Duck. The DNC’s Donna Brazelle was also implicated in collaboration with the scheme.
But it’s the fourth video today that’s getting all of the attention now, as it purports to show AUFC knowingly received a $20,000 illegal wire transfer out of Belize. Creamer, who we know has a close relationship with the White House via visitor logs, also brags about his friendship with Barack Obama, and intimates he can arrange meetings with the president and the former secretary of state, for a price.
“I’ve known the president since he was a community organizer in Chicago,” Creamer proudly stated adding, “Every morning, I am on a call at 10:30 that goes over the message being driven by the campaign (Clinton) headquarters.” With Creamer having spent nearly a year inside the White House, and his relationship with the president, it may be easy for some to conclude the Obama administration was also involved in Creamer’s schemes.
PV invented the donor and shell company based in Belize, Charles C. Roth III of Repulse Bay Company, who the organization claimed to Democracy Partners was a rich donor who wanted to make a difference and stop Trump from becoming the next POTUS. Creamer then tapped the president of AUFC, Brad Woodhouse, to iron out the details of the illegal contribution. The wire transfer was arranged and transmitted. Creamer confirmed as much.
On a recorded phone call Creamer can be heard saying the funds “absolutely came through.” In exchange for the donation, the outspoken friend of the Obamas granted an internship to Roth’s niece, an undercover PV journalist, to work inside Democracy Partners.
In another recorded video session, Creamer can be seen and overheard describing what he and his partners at AUFC do. Creamer stated he gets his marching orders at his 10:30 conference call to troll the Trump/Pence campaign creating incidents for the “earned media” to cover which echo the message the Clinton campaign wanted to project. That “earned media”, as we’ve come to realize through the latest email dump by Wikileaks, is the mainstream media which is apparently in the tank for Clinton.
Creamer also discussed allegations of sexual misconduct by Trump accusers and intimated those allegations came first through his organization’s connections, which is a contention Trump made at the third and final debate with Clinton. Creamer also hinted around at the possibility of arranging a meeting between Roth and Obama. “I do a lot of work with the White House on their issues,” he stated plainly adding, “helping to run issue campaigns (immigration, ACA, gun violence).”
While the PV sting was focused on the presidential election of 2016, and the White House, the DNC, and the Clinton Campaign’s involvement in painting Donald Trump as a racist, xenophobe, and bigot, Creamer’s comment on his involvement in working with the White House on issues of gun violence, leaves more questions than answers.
As an aside, here you have a well-connected political hit man like Creamer, working with AUFC to create violence, chaos and anarchy at Trump rallies, discussing his role in promoting gun violence issues for the White House. Taken together, considering Creamers comments and actions, all may lend credibility to conspiracy theorists’ claims the Obama administration has been actively promoting false flag school shootings, on-air shootings of reporters, and mall shootings, all in an attempt to sway the American public against the people’s right to keep and bear arms (2 nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution). Creamer admitted as much saying he was, “trying to make America more like Britain when it comes to gun violence issues.”
Turning again to PV fourth video, upon realizing PV was soon to go public with its expose’, AUFC returned the 20k foreign company shell company donation on September 9 th . O’Keefe, as an epilogue to the video, openly wondered why AUFC held onto the funds for a month before returning what they undoubtedly knew to be an illegal contribution. Share | 0 |
With its dagger teeth and formidable frame, the Tyrannosaurus rex was one of the most frightening beasts to ever terrorize the land. Yet despite all its fame, the dinosaur’s looks remain a bit of a mystery. Now, after studying a fossil of a newly discovered T. rex relative, paleontologists think they have revealed some important features of the predator’s fearsome face. “We have unmasked tyrannosaurs,” said Thomas Carr, a paleontologist from Carthage College in Wisconsin, and lead author of a study published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports. He and his team found that the dinosaur family had no lips and had faces covered with small patches of armored skin and large, flat scales more similar to crocodiles than to lizards. Behind their eyes on each side of the head there was a large horn that may have been covered in keratin, the material that makes a person’s fingernails and a bird’s beak. The team also discovered that tyrannosaur snouts and jaws were most likely laced with nerves that made their skin supersensitive, comparable to a human’s fingertips. The extra sensitivity may have aided the tyrannosaurs in hunting and could have helped shape the family into efficient killing machines. “It paints a really terrifying picture of not only this new species, but also of other tyrannosaurs, like T. rex, that would have had these same features,” said Stephen Brusatte, a paleontologist from the University of Edinburgh who reviewed the paper. “ predators bigger than a school bus, their faces covered in mangy scales, using not only their nose to smell you out, but their snouts to literally sense you out in a way that we can’t even comprehend since we don’t have that same type of sensory system. ” Dr. Carr and his colleagues made their conclusions based on a tyrannosaur specimen that was found 25 years ago, but only just now got a name. It is a new species known as Daspletosaurus horneri, or “Horner’s Frightful Lizard,” named after Jack Horner, a renowned paleontologist. The beast roamed Montana 75. 2 to 74. 4 million years ago and feasted upon crested duckbill dinosaurs. The specimen they studied had specific textures covering its skull. They formed a sort of Venetian mask that revealed the patterns covering just about every part of the face but the eyes and the nose. From the imprints on the skull, they were able to reconstruct the types of soft tissue covering the face. Presently, paleontologists do not have good samples of fossilized facial skin in carnivorous dinosaurs, most likely because the face is one of the first parts of a dinosaur to get scavenged or eroded once it died, according to Thomas Richard Holtz, a paleontologist from the University of Maryland who was not involved in the study. He said that he agreed with the new study’s findings in that the bone texture on the fossil’s jaws did seem inflated and rough, indicating that the tyrant dinosaur had a face more like that of crocodiles than of lizards. The team also concluded that the snout and jaws were particularly sensitive based on tiny holes they found speckled throughout them. The holes, known as foramina, have also been found in crocodiles and are thought to have housed hundreds of trigeminal nerves. In day animals, the special nerves are thought to enable birds to navigate long distances, allow pit vipers to detect infrared radiation from warm bodies and let alligators lurking in murky waters sense slight vibrations to catch prey. By comparing the nerve holes in the tyrannosaurs with that of crocodiles, the team speculates that the tyrannosaurs would have used their heightened senses to detect the temperatures of their nests, tend to their eggs and may have used their sensitive snouts to nuzzle their mates. “No one would have predicted that a land animal like a tyrannosaur would turn their entire face into a finely tuned sensory organ,” Lawrence M. Witmer, paleontologist from the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine at Ohio University who was not involved in the study, said in an email. “Maybe if you’re a bigheaded beast with tiny hands and a small brain, you have to do something special!” | 1 |
Before the United States permitted a terrifying way of interrogating prisoners, government lawyers and intelligence officials assured themselves of one crucial outcome. They knew that the methods inflicted on terrorism suspects would be painful, shocking and far beyond what the country had ever accepted. But none of it, they concluded, would cause long lasting psychological harm. Fifteen years later, it is clear they were wrong. Today in Slovakia, Hussein describes permanent headaches and disturbed sleep, plagued by memories of dogs inside a blackened jail. In Kazakhstan, Lutfi bin Ali is haunted by nightmares of suffocating at the bottom of a well. In Libya, the radio from a passing car spurs rage in Majid Mokhtar Sasy reminding him of the C. I. A. prison where earsplitting music was just one assault to his senses. And then there is the despair of men who say they are no longer themselves. “I am living this kind of depression,” said Younous Chekkouri, a Moroccan, who fears going outside because he sees faces in crowds as Guantánamo Bay guards. “I’m not normal anymore. ” After enduring agonizing treatment in secret C. I. A. prisons around the world or coercive practices at the military detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, dozens of detainees developed persistent mental health problems, according to previously undisclosed medical records, government documents and interviews with former prisoners and military and civilian doctors. Some emerged with the same symptoms as American prisoners of war who were brutalized decades earlier by some of the world’s cruelest regimes. Those subjected to the tactics included victims of mistaken identity or flimsy evidence that the United States later disavowed. Others were foot soldiers for the Taliban or Al Qaeda who were later deemed to pose little threat. Some were hardened terrorists, including those accused of plotting the Sept. 11 attacks or the 2000 bombing of the American destroyer Cole. In several cases, their mental status has complicated the nation’s long effort to bring them to justice. Americans have long debated the legacy of . 11 interrogation methods, asking whether they amounted to torture or succeeded in extracting intelligence. But even as President Obama continues transferring people from Guantánamo and Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, promises to bring back techniques, now banned, such as waterboarding, the human toll has gone largely uncalculated. At least half of the 39 people who went through the C. I. A. ’s “enhanced interrogation” program, which included depriving them of sleep, dousing them with ice water, slamming them into walls and locking them in boxes, have since shown psychiatric problems, The New York Times found. Some have been diagnosed with stress disorder, paranoia, depression or psychosis. Hundreds more detainees moved through C. I. A. “black sites” or Guantánamo, where the military inflicted sensory deprivation, isolation, menacing with dogs and other tactics on men who now show serious damage. Nearly all have been released. “There is no question that these tactics were entirely inconsistent with our values as Americans, and their consequences present lasting challenges for us as a country and for the individuals involved,” said Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser. The United States government has never studied the psychological effects of the extraordinary interrogation practices it embraced. A Defense Department spokeswoman, asked about mental harm, responded that prisoners were treated humanely and had access to excellent care. A C. I. A. spokesman declined to comment. This article is based on a broad sampling of cases and an examination of hundreds of documents, including court records, military commission transcripts and medical assessments. The Times interviewed more than 100 people, including former detainees in a dozen countries. A full accounting is all but impossible because many former prisoners never had access to outside doctors or lawyers, and any records about their interrogation treatment and health status remain classified. Researchers caution that it can be difficult to determine cause and effect with mental illness. Some prisoners of the C. I. A. and the military had underlying psychological problems that may have made them more susceptible to difficulties others appeared to have been remarkably resilient. Incarceration, particularly the indefinite detention without charges that the United States devised, is inherently stressful. Still, outside medical consultants and former government officials said they saw a pattern connecting the harsh practices to psychiatric issues. Those treating prisoners at Guantánamo for mental health issues typically did not ask their patients what had happened during their questioning. Some physicians, though, saw evidence of mental harm almost immediately. “My staff was dealing with the consequences of the interrogations without knowing what was going on,” said Albert J. Shimkus, a retired Navy captain who served as the commanding officer of the Guantánamo hospital in the prison’s early years. Back then, still reeling from the Sept. 11 attacks, the government was desperate to stave off more. But Captain Shimkus now regrets not making more inquiries. “There was a conflict,” he said, “between our medical duty to our patients and our duty to the mission, as soldiers. ” After prisoners were released from American custody, some found neither help nor relief. Mohammed Abdullah Saleh a businessman in Tanzania, and others were snatched, interrogated and imprisoned, then sent home without explanation. They returned to their families deeply scarred from interrogations, isolation and the shame of sexual taunts, forced nudity, aggressive body cavity searches and being kept in diapers. Mr. Asad, who died in May, was held for more than a year in several secret C. I. A. prisons. “Sometimes, between husband and wife, he would admit to how awful he felt,” his widow, Zahra Mohamed, wrote in a statement prepared for the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. “He was humiliated, and that feeling never went away. ” In a cold room once used for interrogations at Guantánamo, Stephen N. Xenakis, a former military psychiatrist, faced a onetime Qaeda child soldier, Omar Khadr. It was December 2008, and this evaluation had been two years in the making. The doctor, a retired brigadier general who had overseen several military hospitals, had not sought the assignment. The son of an Air Force combat veteran, he debated even accepting it. “I’m still a soldier,” General Xenakis recalls thinking. Was this good for the country? When he finally agreed, he told Mr. Khadr’s lawyers that they were paying for an independent medical opinion, not a hired gun. Mr. Khadr, a Canadian citizen, had been wounded and captured in a firefight at age 15 at a suspected terrorist compound in Afghanistan, where he said he had been sent to translate for foreign fighters by his father, a Qaeda member. Years later, he would plead guilty to war crimes, including throwing a grenade that killed an Army medic. At the time, though, he was the youngest prisoner at Guantánamo. He told his lawyers that the American soldiers had kept him from sleeping, spit in his face and threatened him with rape. In one meeting with the psychiatrist, Mr. Khadr, then 22, began to sweat and fan himself, despite the chill. He tugged his shirt off, and General Xenakis realized that he was witnessing an anxiety attack. When it happened again, Mr. Khadr explained that he had once urinated during an interrogation and soldiers had dragged him through the mess. “This is the room where they used me as a human mop,” he said. General Xenakis had seen such anxiety before, decades earlier, as a young psychiatrist at Letterman Army Medical Center in California. It was often the first stop for American prisoners of war after they left Vietnam. The doctor recalled the men, who had endured horrific abuses, suffering panic attacks, headaches and psychotic episodes. That session with Mr. Khadr was the beginning of General Xenakis’s immersion into the treatment of detainees. He has reviewed medical and interrogation records of about 50 current and former prisoners and examined about 15 of the detainees, more than any other outside psychiatrist, colleagues say. General Xenakis found that Mr. Khadr had stress disorder, a conclusion the military contested. Many of General Xenakis’s diagnoses in other cases remain classified or sealed by court order, but he said he consistently found links between harsh American interrogation methods and psychiatric disorders. Back home in Virginia, General Xenakis delved into research on the effects of abusive practices. He found decades of papers on the issue — science that had not been considered when the government began crafting new interrogation policies after Sept. 11. At the end of the Vietnam War, military doctors noticed that former prisoners of war developed psychiatric disorders far more often than other soldiers, an observation also made of former P. O. W.s from World War II and the Korean War. The data could not be explained by imprisonment alone, researchers found. Former soldiers who suffered torture or mistreatment were more likely than others to develop problems. By the the Veterans Administration had linked such treatment to memory loss, an exaggerated startle reflex, horrific nightmares, headaches and an inability to concentrate. Studies noted similar symptoms among torture survivors in South Africa, Turkey and Chile. Such research helped lay the groundwork for how American doctors now treat combat veterans. “In hindsight, that should have come to the fore” in the . 11 interrogation debate, said John Rizzo, the C. I. A. ’s top lawyer at the time. “I don’t think the effects were ever explored in any real depth. ” Instead, the government relied on data from a training program to resist enemy interrogators, called SERE, for Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape. The military concluded there was little evidence that disrupted sleep, nudity and extreme temperatures harmed military trainees in controlled scenarios. Two veteran SERE psychologists, James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, worked with the C. I. A. and the Pentagon to help develop interrogation tactics. They based their strategies in part on the theory of “learned helplessness,” a phrase coined by the American psychologist Martin E. P. Seligman in the late 1960s. He gave electric shocks to dogs and discovered that they stopped resisting once they learned they could not stop the shocks. If the United States could make men helpless, the thinking went, they would give up their secrets. In the end, Justice Department lawyers concluded that the methods did not constitute torture, which is illegal under American and international law. In a series of memos, they wrote that no evidence existed that “significant psychological harm of significant duration, e. g. lasting for months or even years” would result. With fear of another terrorist attack, there was little incentive or time to find contrary evidence, Mr. Rizzo said. “The government wanted a solution,” he recalled. “It wanted a path to get these guys to talk. ” The question of what ultimately happened to Dr. Seligman’s dogs never arose in the legal debate. They were strays, and once the studies were over, they were euthanized. Mohamed Ben Soud cannot say for certain when the Americans began using ice water to torment him. The C. I. A. prison in Afghanistan, known as the Salt Pit, was perpetually dark, so the days passed imperceptibly. The United States called the treatment “water dousing,” but the term belies the grisly details. Mr. Ben Soud, in court documents and interviews, described being forced onto a plastic tarp while naked, his hands shackled above his head. Sometimes he was hooded. One C. I. A. official poured buckets of ice water on him as others lifted the tarp’s corners, sending water splashing over him and causing a choking or drowning sensation. He said he endured the treatment multiple times. Mr. Ben Soud was among the early captives in the C. I. A. ’s network of prisons in Afghanistan, Thailand, Poland, Romania and Lithuania. Again and again, he said, he told the American interrogators that he was not their enemy. A Libyan, he said he had fled to Pakistan in 1991 and joined an armed Islamist movement aimed at toppling Col. Muammar ’s dictatorship. Pakistani and United States officials stormed his home and arrested him in 2003. Under interrogation, he said, he denied knowing or fighting with Osama bin Laden or two senior Qaeda operatives. In 2004, the C. I. A. turned Mr. Ben Soud over to Libya, which imprisoned him until the United States helped topple the Qaddafi government seven years later. In interviews, he and other Libyans said they were treated better by Colonel Qaddafi’s jailers than by the C. I. A. Today, Mr. Ben Soud, 47, is a free man, but said he is in constant fear of tomorrow. He is racked with and struggles to make simple decisions. His moods swing dramatically. “‘Dad, why did you suddenly get angry?’ ‘Why did you suddenly snap? ’” Mr. Ben Soud said his children ask. “‘Did we do anything that made you angry? ’” Explaining would mean saying that the Americans kept him shackled in painful contortions, or that they locked him in boxes — one the size of a coffin, the other even smaller, he said in a phone interview from his home in Misurata, Libya. They slammed him against the wall and chained him from the ceiling as the prison echoed with the sounds of rock music. “How can you explain such things to children?” he asked. Mr. Ben Soud, along with a second former C. I. A. prisoner and the estate of a third, is suing Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Jessen in federal court, accusing them of violating his rights by torturing him. In court documents, Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Jessen argue, among other things, that they played no role in the interrogations. Mr. Ben Soud was one of the men identified in a 2014 Senate Intelligence Committee report as having been subjected to the C. I. A. ’s “enhanced interrogation techniques. ” Condemning the methods as brutal and ineffective in extracting intelligence, the report noted that interrogators also used unapproved tactics such as mock executions, threats to harm prisoners’ children or rape their family members, and “rectal feeding,” which involved inserting liquid food supplements or purées into the rectum. Senate investigators did not set out to study the psychological consequences of the harsh treatment, but their unclassified summary revealed several cases of men suffering hallucinations, depression, paranoia and other symptoms. The full classified report offers many more examples, said Daniel Jones, a former F. B. I. analyst who led the Senate investigation. “The records we reviewed clearly indicate a connection between their treatment in C. I. A. custody and their mental state,” Mr. Jones said in an interview. At least 119 men moved through the C. I. A. jails, where the interrogations were designed to disrupt the senses and increase helplessness — factors that researchers decades earlier had said could make people more susceptible to psychological harm. Forced nudity, sensory deprivation and endless light or dark were considered routine. Many of those men were later released without charges, unsure of why they were held. About one in four prisoners should never have been captured, or turned out to have been misidentified by the C. I. A. Senate investigators concluded. Khaled a German citizen, is the best known case. Macedonian authorities arrested him while he was on vacation in December 2003 and turned him over to the C. I. A. Mr. Masri said officials beat him, stripped him, forced a suppository into him and flew him to a black site in Afghanistan. He was held for months, he said, in a concrete cell with no bed, and endured more beatings and interrogations. Years later, Mr. Masri’s nightmares are accompanied by a paralyzing tightness in his chest, he said. “I have been suffering from amnesia, inability to memorize, depression, helplessness, apathy, loss of interest in the future, slow thinking, and anxiety,” Mr. Masri wrote in an email. Ms. Mohamed, the widow of Mr. Asad, the Tanzanian businessman, said he returned home paranoid and anxious. “He used to forget things that he never would have forgotten before,” she wrote recently. “For example, he would talk with someone on the phone and later forget to whom he had been talking. ” Mr. Asad believed the C. I. A. seized him because he once rented space in a building he owned to Al Haramain Foundation, a Saudi charity later linked to financing terrorism. Interrogators questioned him repeatedly about the charity, he said in legal papers, then released him with no explanation. “Mohammed’s personality changed after his detention,” his wife wrote. “Something tiny would happen and he would blow up — he would be so angry — I had never ever seen him like this before. At these times, he would come close to crying, and he would withdraw to be alone. ” Today at Guantánamo Bay, the Caribbean landscape is reclaiming the relics of the American detention system. Weeds overtake fences in abandoned areas of the prison complex. Guard towers sit empty. It is eerily quiet. President Obama banned coercive questioning on his second day in office and his administration has whittled the prison population to 61, down from nearly 700 at its peak. Interrogations ended long ago. Except for the detainees, kept in a building hidden in the hills, most of the remaining prisoners share a concrete jail called Camp 6. Asked about their psychological Rear Adm. Peter J. Clarke, the commander at Guantánamo, said in an interview: “What I observe are detainees who are well adjusted, and I see no indications of ill effects of anything that may have happened in the past. ” In the early years of Guantánamo, interrogators used variations on some of the C. I. A. ’s tactics. The result was a combination of psychological and physical pressure that the International Committee of the Red Cross found was “tantamount to torture. ” Capt. Richard Quattrone of the Navy, who left his post as the prison’s chief medical officer in September, said his staff mostly dealt with detainees’ anxiety over whether they would be released. “I’ve talked to some of my predecessors,” he said in an interview, “and from what they say, it’s vastly different today. ” About 20 detainees are cleared for release. Another 10 are being prosecuted or have already been convicted in military commissions. The fate of the remaining men, including some of the prisoners, is unclear. For now they are considered too dangerous to release, but have not been charged. For some men who have been released, Guantánamo is not easily left behind. Mr. Chekkouri, a Moroccan living in Afghanistan in 2001, was held for years as a suspected member of a group linked to Al Qaeda. He said he was beaten repeatedly at a United States military jail in Kandahar and forced to watch soldiers do the same to his younger brother. Mr. Chekkouri is a Sufi, a member of a mystical Islamic sect that has been oppressed by Al Qaeda and others. At Guantánamo, he was kept in isolation. When he asserted his innocence, he said, interrogators threatened to turn him over to the Moroccan authorities, who have a history of torture. The Americans warned that his family in Morocco could be jailed and abused, he said, and showed him execution photos. Interrogators repeatedly made him believe his transfer was imminent, he said. “It’s time to say goodbye,” interrogation files cited in court documents say. “Morocco wants you back. ” After he was released last year, the United States gave him a letter saying it no longer stood by information that he was a member of a group in Morocco. Despite diplomatic assurances that he would face no charges, Morocco jailed him for several months late last year and he continues to fight allegations that he thought were behind him. Now, he is under a psychiatrist’s care and takes antidepressants and drugs. He complains of flashbacks, persistent nightmares and panic attacks. He also suffers an embarrassing inability to urinate until it becomes painful. It started, he said, when he was left chained for hours during interrogations and soiled himself. His doctors say there is nothing they can treat. “They tell me everything is normal,” he said. “Your brain is playing games. It is something mental. You’re still living in Gitmo. It’s fear. ” Mr. Chekkouri saw psychiatrists at Guantánamo, but he said he did not trust them. He and others believed the doctors shared information about medical problems with interrogators. In one case, a psychiatrist prescribed the antipsychotic medication olanzapine to a prisoner. He then suggested that interrogators exploit a side effect, food cravings, according to another military doctor who later reviewed the records. Normally, such information would be confidential, but Guantánamo’s dual missions of caring for prisoners and extracting information created conflicts. Over time, the military created two mental health teams. One, led by psychiatrists, was there to heal. The other, called the Behavioral Science Consultation Team, was led by psychologists with a very different mission. On Sept. 3, 2003, after a teenager named Mohammed Jawad was seen talking to a poster on the wall, an interrogator called for a consultation with a BSCT (pronounced “Biscuit”) psychologist. Mohammed’s age at the time is in dispute. The military says it captured him at 17 his lawyer says he was more likely 14 or younger. However old, he was pleading for his mother. When the psychologist arrived, the goal was not to ease the young man’s distress, but to exploit it. “The detainee comes across as a very immature, dependent individual, claiming to miss his mother and his young siblings, but his demeanor looks like it is a resistance technique,” the psychologist wrote, according to notes seen by The Times. “He tries to look as if he is so sad that he is depressed. During today’s interrogation, he appeared to be rather frightened, and it looks as if he could easily break. ” The psychologist, who was not identified in the notes, recommended that Mr. Jawad be kept away from anyone who spoke his language. “Make him as uncomfortable as possible,” the psychologist advised. “Work him as hard as possible. ” The guards placed him in isolation for 30 days. They then subjected him to the “frequent flier program,” a method of sleep deprivation. Guards yanked Mr. Jawad from cell to cell 112 times, waking him an average of every three hours, day and night, for two weeks straight, according to court records. After being held for years, Mr. Jawad was charged in 2007 with throwing a grenade that wounded American soldiers. But the evidence collapsed. The military prosecutor, Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, withdrew from the case and declared that there was no evidence to justify charges. “There is, however, reliable evidence that he was badly mistreated by U. S. authorities, both in Afghanistan and at Guantánamo, and he has suffered, and continues to suffer, great psychological harm,” he wrote in a letter to the court. Katherine Porterfield, a New York University psychologist, found Mr. Jawad to have PTSD after examining him in 2009. Seven years after his capture, she said, he suffered from flashbacks and anxiety attacks. A panel of military doctors disagreed. Medical records from Guantánamo include repeated notes such as “no psych issues at this time,” or the prisoner “denied any psych problem. ” The military dropped all charges against Mr. Jawad, who is now living in Pakistan. He declined to discuss his mental health. But in a series of text messages, he wrote: “They tortured us in jails, gave us severe physical and mental pain, bombarded our villages, cities, mosques, schools. ” He added, “Of course we have” flashbacks, panic attacks and nightmares. It has been difficult to determine the scale of mental health problems at Guantánamo, much less how many cases are linked to the treatment the prisoners endured. Most medical records remain classified. Anecdotal accounts, though, have emerged over the years. Andy Davidson, a retired Navy captain who served as the chief psychologist treating prisoners at Guantánamo from July to October 2003, said most appeared to be in good health, but he still saw “an awful lot” of mental health issues there. “There were definitely guys who had PTSD symptoms,” he said in an interview. “There were definitely guys who had poor sleeping, nightmares. There were guys who were definitely shell shocked with a stare. There were guys who were depressed, avoidant. ” One of the few official glimpses into the population came in a 2006 medical journal article. Two military psychologists and a psychiatrist at Guantánamo wrote that about 11 percent of detainees were then receiving mental health services, a rate lower than that in civilian jails or among former American prisoners of war. The authors acknowledged, however, that Guantánamo doctors faced significant challenges in diagnosing mental illness, most notably the difficulty in building trust. Many prisoners, including some with serious mental health conditions, refused evaluation and treatment, the study noted, which would have lowered the count. Five years later, General Xenakis and Vincent Iacopino, the medical director for Physicians for Human Rights, published research about nine prisoners who exhibited psychological symptoms after undergoing interrogation tactics — a hose forced into a mouth, a head held in a toilet, death threats — by American jailers. The two based their study on the medical records and interrogation files of the prisoners, all of whom had arrived at Guantánamo in its first year, had never been in C. I. A. custody, and were never charged with any crimes. In none of those cases, the study said, did Guantánamo doctors document any inquiries into whether the symptoms were tied to interrogation tactics. Today in Tangier, Morocco, Ahmed Errachidi runs two restaurants, has a wife and five children and has been free for nearly a decade. The United States military once asserted that he trained at a Qaeda camp in early 2001, but the human rights group Reprieve later produced pay stubs showing that he had been working at the time as a cook in London. Mr. Errachidi had a history of bipolar disorder before arriving at Guantánamo, and after being held in isolation there, he said, he suffered a psychotic breakdown. He told interrogators that he had been Bin Laden’s superior officer and warned that a giant snowball would overtake the world. Guantánamo still lurks around corners. Recently, at a market in Tangier, the clink of a chain caused a paralyzing flashback to the prison, where Mr. Errachidi was forced into painful stress positions, deprived of sleep and isolated. On chilly nights, when the blanket slips off, he is once again lying naked in a frigid cell, waiting for his next interrogation. “All I can think of is when are they going to take me back,” Mr. Errachidi said in an interview. He compared his treatment by the Americans to being mugged by a trusted friend. “It is very, very scary when you are tortured by someone who doesn’t believe in torture,” he said. “You lose faith in everything. ” Guantánamo, particularly during its early years, operated on a system of rewards and punishments to exploit prisoners’ vulnerabilities. That manipulation, taken to extremes, could have dangerous effects, as in the peculiar case of Tarek El Sawah. An Egyptian who said he was a Taliban soldier, Mr. Sawah was captured while fleeing bombing in Afghanistan in 2001 and turned over to the United States. He arrived at Guantánamo in May 2002. Though his brother, Jamal, said he had no history of mental problems, Mr. Sawah began shrieking at night, terrified by hallucinations. When he began defecating and urinating on himself, soldiers would hose him down in front of other detainees, a nearby prisoner stated in court documents. Mr. Sawah said he was given antipsychotic drugs, sometimes forcibly. After his breakdown, interrogators found Mr. Sawah eager to talk. “‘Bring me good things to eat,’” he told them. They delivered McDonald’s hamburgers or Subway sandwiches, multiple servings at a time. Mr. Sawah became a prized informant, though the value of what he offered is disputed, and he says he fabricated stories, including that he was a Qaeda member. He ballooned from about 215 pounds to well over 400 pounds, records show. When the interrogations ended and he was placed in a special hut for cooperators, the food kept coming. His jailers had to install a door for him. Mr. Sawah called it a competition between the interrogators, who used food as an incentive, and the doctors, who told him to lose weight. He developed coronary artery disease, diabetes, breathing disorders and other health problems, court records show. In 2013, General Xenakis examined him and, in a plea for better medical treatment, told a judge that “Mr. El Sawah’s mental state has worsened and he appears apathetic with diminished will to live. ” The military responded that he was offered excellent medical care but refused it. Today in Bosnia, Mr. Sawah, 58, complains of frequent headaches and begs a doctor for antidepressants. His mood fluctuates wildly. Though he has lost weight, his eating remains compulsive. Over dinner with a reporter after a daily Ramadan fast, he ate a steak, French fries, a plate of dates and figs, a bowl of chicken soup, spinach pie, slices of bread, the uneaten portion of another steak, another bowl of soup, two lemonades, a Coke and nearly an entire cheese plate, six or seven slices at a time. “He’s unbalanced,” said his brother, who lives in New York. “He needs care. Mental care. Physical care. ” Mr. Sawah does not blame American soldiers for his treatment. “They were afraid of me, afraid for their life,” he said. “Guantánamo on both sides was just very scared people who want to live. ” In a courtroom at Guantánamo Bay in January 2009, five men sat accused of plotting the Sept. 11 attacks. They were avowed enemies of the United States, who had admitted to grievous bloodshed. They had also been subjected to the most horrific of the government’s interrogation tactics. During a courtroom break, one of the men, Ammar asked to speak with a doctor. Xavier Amador, a New York psychologist who was consulting for another defendant, met with him. As they talked, Mr. Baluchi’s eyes darted around the room, according to a summary of Dr. Amador’s notes obtained by The Times. Mr. Baluchi said he struggled to focus, described “terrifying anxiety” and reported difficulty sleeping. Dr. Amador noted that Mr. Baluchi seemed to meet the criteria for PTSD, anxiety disorder and major depression. “No one can live like this,” Mr. Baluchi told him. Mr. Baluchi, 39, was captured by Pakistani officers in April 2003. Though he was described as willing to talk, the C. I. A. moved him to a secret prison and immediately applied interrogation methods reserved for recalcitrant prisoners. In court documents and Mr. Baluchi’s handwritten letters, he described being naked and dehydrated, chained to the ceiling so only his toes touched the floor. He endured dousing and said he was beaten until he saw flashes of light and lost consciousness. He recalls punches from his guards whenever he drifted asleep. Today, his lawyer said, Mr. Baluchi associates sleep with imminent pain. “Not only did they not let me sleep,” Mr. Baluchi wrote in a letter provided by the lawyer, “they trained me to keep myself awake. ” Guantánamo physicians have prescribed Mr. Baluchi antidepressants, drugs and sleeping pills, according to his lawyer, James G. Connell III, who sends him deodorants and colognes to keep flashbacks at bay. “The whole time he was in C. I. A. custody, you’re sitting there, smelling your own stink,” Mr. Connell said. “Now, whenever he catches a whiff of his own body odor, it sets him off. ” General Xenakis, who is consulting on the case, found that Mr. Baluchi had PTSD and that he showed possible signs of a brain injury that may be linked to his beatings. He said Mr. Baluchi needed a brain scan, which the military opposes. The test would likely prompt more hearings, which could further complicate a trial. “Having caused these problems in the first place, now the United States has to deal with them at the military commissions,” Mr. Connell said. “And that takes time. ” The compromised mental status of several other prisoners, like Mr. Baluchi, has affected the military proceedings against them. Ramzi bin who admits helping plan the Sept. 11 attacks, has said he believes the military is tormenting him with vibrations, smells and sounds at Guantánamo. Military doctors there have found him to be delusional, and records indicate that his symptoms began in C. I. A. custody, after brutal tactics and years of solitary confinement. But Mr. bin refused to meet with doctors to assess his competency and insists he is sane, so the case continues. Lawyers have similarly raised questions about Abd ’s psychological state. Accused in the U. S. S. Cole bombing, he was subjected to waterboarding, mock execution, rectal feeding and other techniques — some approved, some not — at C. I. A. sites. Even after internal warnings that Mr. Nashiri was about to go “over the edge psychologically,” the C. I. A. pressed forward. Over the years, government doctors have diagnosed Mr. Nashiri with anxiety, major depression and PTSD. His lawyers do not dispute his competency to stand trial, though no such trial is imminent. His torture and mental decline, though, could make it harder for prosecutors to win a death sentence. When the Walter Reed doctors evaluated Mr. Nashiri, “they concluded that he suffers from chronic, complex, untreated PTSD,” his lawyer told a military judge in 2014. “And they attributed it to his time in C. I. A. custody. ” In Libya today, a former C. I. A. prisoner named Salih Hadeeyah struggles to focus, and his memory fails him. He finds himself confusing the names of his children. Sometimes, he withdraws from his family to be alone. A survivor of the C. I. A. interrogation in the Salt Pit, Mr. Daeiki says he was kept naked, humiliated and chained to the wall as loud music blared. Sleep is difficult now, but when it comes, his interrogators haunt him there. “Something is strangling me or I’m falling from high,” he said in an interview. “Or sometimes I see ghosts following me, chasing me. ” Last year, a video surfaced showing Colonel Qaddafi’s son, Saadi, being blindfolded and forced to listen to what sounded like the screams of other prisoners inside Al Hadba, a prison holding members of the former regime — Libya’s own detainees. Someone beat the soles of his feet with a stick. As the scene unfolded, Mr. Daeiki appeared on the screen. The beating was a mistake, he later acknowledged, but he did nothing to stop it. The goal was to collect intelligence to prevent bloodshed, he said. He was an interrogator now. | 1 |
Border Patrol agents in southern Arizona arrested three armed human smugglers in three separate incidents. [Tucson Sector Border Patrol agents received a report of suspicious activity from a citizen on Sunday afternoon after he witnessed someone picking up a person walking out of the desert. The pickup occurred on a remote farm road near Bisbee, Arizona. The agents who are assigned to the Brian Terry Border Patrol Station located the vehicle and initiated a roadside stop to conduct an immigration investigation, according to information obtained by Breitbart Texas from U. S. Customs and Border Protection officials. After questioning the U. S. citizen driver and the passenger, agents determined the passenger to be illegally present in the country. Agents reported the driver of the vehicle was carrying a 9 mm pistol. Agents arrested the driver on suspicion of human smuggling charges and confiscated the handgun and the car. The passenger, a Mexican national, will be processed for an immigration hearing to determine if he will be removed. The following day, agents working near Gila Bend witnessed the driver of a Honda Pilot SUV pick up five people along the side of the roadway. Agents stopped the vehicle and learned the five people were illegal immigrants from Mexico. A search of the vehicle revealed the driver had stashed a . 45 caliber pistol in the vehicle’s front console, officials stated. Agents arrested the driver and confiscated the SUV and the handgun. The driver, also a U. S. citizen, will likely face human smuggling charges. Agents transported the five illegal immigrants to the Border Patrol station for processing. On Tuesday, Border Patrol agents found another human smuggler, also carrying a 9 mm pistol. The agents working near Three Points, Arizona, received a tip that a driver of a Lincoln Navigator picked up a person on the roadway. Agents found the vehicle and stopped it for an immigration inspection. The agents questioned two men, both U. S. citizens, in the front seat of the SUV. They claimed to be traveling alone. Agents observed a man crouching down between the rear seats. Agents questioned that person and determined him to be a Mexican national, illegally present in the U. S. The agents arrested the two men and the Mexican national. A search of the vehicle revealed a 9 mm pistol in the rear storage area of the SUV. Agents seized the gun and the Lincoln Navigator. CBP officials stated the illegal immigrants will all be process for immigration hearings to determine if they will be deported. The four U. S. citizens arrested are expected to face federal charges of human smuggling. Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook. | 1 |
PALM BEACH, Fla. — The news broke just as the fireworks began crackling over the grand estate’s manicured lawn, a festive backdrop for the guests sipping champagne around an ornamental pool: The White House had moved to appeal a court ruling that blocked President Trump’s sweeping immigration order. At airports around the world, the legal tug of war played out in starkly human terms, with travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries having to decide whether to board flights to the United States, unsure of whether they would be turned back once they landed. Yet here, in the cosseted confines of those concerns seemed a million miles away. The guests had gathered for the 60th annual Red Cross ball, a staple of the Palm Beach social calendar, which this year carried the theme “From Vienna to Versailles. ” In keeping with the Hapsburg and Bourbon motif, the male staff members wore powdered wigs and breeches the women were costumed in flouncy gowns and beehive wigs in the style of Marie Antoinette, the queen guillotined in the French Revolution. The disconnect between high society and huddled masses would have been complete if not for the fact that ’s proprietor — the guest of honor that evening, though he had to stand in line with his wife to get into his own ballroom — was the very person who had signed the immigration order and had gone to court to preserve it: Mr. Trump. “We’ll win,” the president said to a reporter on duty, who asked him whether he was confident of the government’s legal appeal. “For the safety of the country, we’ll win. ” When another reporter asked whether he would abide by the federal court’s ruling, Mr. Trump smiled thinly but did not answer, shifting from foot to foot, as the first lady, Melania Trump, resplendent in a pink evening gown and diamond and emerald earrings, stared serenely ahead. This is in the first month of the Trump presidency, still making the transition from a club for the tanned and surgically enhanced snowbirds of Florida’s Gold Coast to the “winter White House” that the cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post always dreamed it would be after she built the castle in the 1920s. Like his residence, Mr. Trump is also still in transition, caught between the demands of being president (a 5 p. m. phone call with President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine) and the reassuring rituals of his old life (a round of golf at his club in nearby West Palm Beach). On his first weekend here since being inaugurated, the Red Cross ball fell into the category. He had hosted the benefit several times over the past 20 years, said Dick Robinson, a friend and Palm Beach philanthropist, who stopped by to chat with the White House press corps, which now shows up alongside reporters from the local papers to chronicle events like this. The sight of Mr. Trump lining up with his guests was remarkable, given that presidents normally enter a room only after everyone else is seated, and then often to the strains of “Hail to the Chief. ” With his tuxedo jacket unbuttoned, clutching his wife’s hand, he looked more like the who spent years greeting the guests at his club. And yet there were myriad other signs of how Mr. Trump’s life has changed, from the security checkpoint set up in an adjacent parking lot and the police boat that bobs in the Intracoastal Waterway to the Secret Service agents who peered into the crowd as he and Mrs. Trump shimmied to a band playing Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock ’n’ Roll. ” Mr. Trump’s weekend also had that vibe that most presidential getaways have. In addition to the call with Mr. Poroshenko, he spoke to Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni of Italy, Prime Minister Bill English of New Zealand and the secretary general of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg — a conversation that could not have been relaxing, given Mr. Trump’s earlier assertions that the alliance is a Cold War relic. In its summary of the Ukraine call, the White House described the exchange with Mr. Poroshenko as “very good” and quoted Mr. Trump as saying, “We will work with Ukraine, Russia and other parties to help them restore peace along the border” — a statement that did not take account of the fact that Russia unlawfully annexed Crimea. Mr. Trump brought along his chief of staff, Reince Priebus, and his chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, which suggested that he was briefed regularly on the legal battle over his immigration order. Mr. Priebus and Mr. Bannon both stayed at which has guest rooms. Even when Mr. Trump was off the clock, he appeared preoccupied by the world outside. On Saturday morning, he began a Twitter tirade against the Seattle judge who had blocked the immigration order. Though he went quiet during the four and a half hours he was at the Trump International Golf Club — the White House declined to confirm that he actually played golf or say who his partners were — the Twitter posts resumed when he got back to the house. Even as his guests were mingling during cocktails, Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter, “The judge opens up our country to potential terrorists and others that do not have our best interest at heart. Bad people are very happy!” When Mr. Trump bought at a price in 1985, he was viewed by many in this uppity enclave as a parvenu who would cheapen the legacy of the estate. Those days are gone — especially now that he has the power to make his friends ambassadors to European capitals. But Mr. Trump still draws his share of catcalls — some subtle, others not. Across the street from his golf club, the Palm Beach County Library had a sign in the front door advertising an evening with Amy Sherman, a reporter from The Miami Herald and PolitiFact Florida, to discuss how to expose disingenuous political figures. “Pants on Fire: How to Politicians,” it said. On Saturday, about 3, 000 demonstrators marched along Flagler Drive, carrying signs and chanting, “ Donald Trump has got to go. ” About 300 managed to walk across the bridge to Palm Beach, according to The Palm Beach Post, where they got within 25 yards of before encountering an armored security vehicle. At 8 p. m. when the fireworks exploded above the estate, they cast a glow on the crowd, witnesses said, giving them a better view of the show than the one enjoyed by the guests inside Mr. Trump’s winter White House. | 1 |
Authorities dismissed a misdemeanor gun charge against Trump Deputy Assistant Sebastian Gorka Friday after a lengthy process revealed Gorka and his family had received a flurry of death threats related to their counterterrorism work. [Law enforcement authorities concluded the possession of the gun was an accident. On January 31, 2015, a TSA agent detected a handgun in Gorka’s bag at Reagan Washington National Airport. The Wall Street Journal reported Gorka was then “charged in Arlington County, Va. with carrying a weapon in an airport terminal, a misdemeanor,” and police set a hearing. He made a court appearance in August 2016 and was ordered to forfeit his weapon, pay court costs, and “be of general good behavior for six months. ” In disclosing past events for his position as deputy assistant, Gorka recounted the incident and explained the pressure he and his wife, the Council on Global Security president, Katharine Gorka, were under when he “grabbed the wrong bag” and brought the gun to the airport. Gorka explained in a statement that the threats his family received in the days leading up to the incident: After the Paris terror attacks, my wife Katie Gorka, who works in the counterterrorism field, gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal on the international refugee crisis. After the video aired online, my family started to receive death threats on our home phone and my mobile, at all hours. After I managed to record one of these threats, I reported them to the local police (Fairfax, VA). Also, I was advised by my friends at the FBI to take the threats seriously, and the Bureau initiated an investigation through their Washington Field Office for Counterterrorism. Eventually the investigation revealed the radical group Anonymous was behind the . At the same time my wife was encouraged by local police to apply for a Concealed Handgun Carry Permit, and I started to attend the range more regularly as well (I was already a permit holder). Gorka also explained how he accidentally ended up at the airport with a handgun: On January 31, 2015 I was traveling by Defense Department official request to U. S. Special Operations Command to give a briefing on ISIS. On the way to Reagan National I grabbed the wrong bag, one I had just used at the range, which contained an unloaded handgun. I was not aware I had done this but of course it was picked up on the machine by TSA. The officer who caught it recognized me from TV, I showed them my Defense Department ID, and I was issued a fine but allowed to board my flight. At the same time, since Reagan falls under Arlington County, I was required to appear in County Court also at a later date. On August 8th 2016 the court fined me $150 and the gun was confiscated. The judge decided that if I were not involved in any other incident over the next six months, the charge would be dropped. When the WSJ reported the charges against Gorka, it pointed out that the misdemeanor charge would not “disqualify” Gorka from securing security clearance as long as he revealed it to investigators. Gorka was forthcoming about the incident: “Steve Bannon was aware of this from the beginning” and Gorka “informed General Flynn” prior to joining the “NSC Transition Team. ” Moreover, he reported details of the incident on his security form. Law enforcement authorities dropped the charges against Gorka on February 3, 2017. AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart. com. | 1 |
TEL AVIV — U. S. intelligence officials warned their Israeli counterparts not to trust Donald Trump with intelligence secrets, citing alleged fears that Russia held blackmail information over Trump, according to a report today in Israel’s respected Yediot Ahronot daily newspaper. [The alleged blackmail information that U. S. officials reportedly warned Israel about seems to be in part referencing details contained in a debunked document of mysterious origin purporting to be an intelligence report alleging that Russia collected compromising videos and information on Trump. In the report, investigative journalist Ronen Bergman writes of a meeting that took place “recently between Israeli and American intelligence officials (the date of the meeting is not mentioned to protect the sources of the report). ” Continued Bergman: During the meeting, according to the Israelis who participated in it, their American colleagues voiced despair over Trump’s election, as he often lashes out at the American intelligence community. The American officials also told the Israelis that the National Security Agency (NSA) had “highly credible information” that Russia’s intelligence agencies, the FSB and GRU, were responsible for hacking the Democratic Party (DNC) servers during the elections and leaking sensitive information to WikiLeaks, which hurt Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The American officials further added that they believed Russian President Vladimir Putin had “leverages of pressure” over Trump — but did not elaborate. They were apparently referring to what was published Wednesday about embarrassing information collected by the Russian intelligence in a bid to blackmail the . The Americans implied that their Israeli colleagues should “be careful” as of January 20, Trump’s inauguration date, when transferring intelligence information to the White House and to the National Security Council (NSC) which is subject to the president. According to the Israelis who were present in the meeting, the Americans recommended that until it is made clear that Trump is not inappropriately connected to Russia and is not being extorted — Israel should avoid revealing sensitive sources to administration officials for fear the information would reach the Iranians. BuzzFeed on Tuesday published the document claiming Russia had collected blackmail information on Trump, including videos of the in compromising positions. “The allegations are unverified, and the report contains errors,” a BuzzFeed cautioned. Contacted by Breitbart Jerusalem, Bergman said that according to his sources, the meeting between U. S. and Israeli officials took place before the publication of the dossier on Tuesday and that the dossier wasn’t specifically mentioned to the Israelis, only the charge that Russian President Vladimir Putin has some sort of unspecified “leverage” over Trump. Bergman said that after the dossier was published, he contacted his sources again and they told him that they themselves were speculating that the “leverage” claim could have in part referred to the dossier. Bergman is the author of a forthcoming book on the history of the Mossad set to be published later this year by Random House. US intel sources warn Israel against sharing secrets with Trump #WhiteHouse staff. Fear leak to #Russia#Iran https: . #Mossad pic. twitter. — Ronen Bergman (@ronenbergman) January 12, 2017, BuzzFeed’s publication of the document prompted a flurry of news media reports drawing attention to the salacious and unproven details. CNN fanned the flames by reporting that “classified documents” presented to President Obama and Trump included “allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information” on Trump, the news network claimed, citing “multiple US officials with direct knowledge of the briefings. ” The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday reported the author of the dossier was Christopher Steele, who serves as a director at the Orbis Business Intelligence Ltd. which has refused to comment on the reports of the document’s origin. In October, Mother Jones reported on the contents of the dossier, writing the information was produced by a former Western intelligence officer who was assigned to the task for the purpose of an “opposition research project originally financed by a Republican client critical of the celebrity mogul. ” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper released a statement yesterday that he had called Trump that day to tell him that the intelligence community “has not made any judgment that the information in this document is reliable. ” Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio. ” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook. | 1 |
When Walt Disney’s “Bambi” opened in 1942, critics praised its spare, haunting visual style, vastly different from anything Disney had done before. But what they did not know was that the film’s striking appearance had been created by a Chinese immigrant artist, who took as his inspiration the landscape paintings of the Song dynasty. The extent of his contribution to “Bambi,” which remains a mark for film animation, would not be widely known for decades. Like the film’s title character, the artist, Tyrus Wong, weathered irrevocable separation from his mother — and, in the hope of making a life in America, incarceration, isolation and rigorous interrogation — all when he was still a child. In the years that followed, he endured poverty, discrimination and chronic lack of recognition, not only for his work at Disney but also for his fine art, before finding acclaim in his 90s. Mr. Wong died on Friday at 106. A Hollywood studio artist, painter, printmaker, calligrapher, illustrator and, in later years, maker of fantastical kites, he was one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century. But because of the marginalization to which were long subject, he passed much of his career unknown to the general public. Artistic recognition, when Mr. Wong did find it, was all the more noteworthy for the fact that among Chinese immigrant men of his generation, professional prospects were largely limited to menial jobs like houseboy and laundryman. Trained as a painter, Mr. Wong was a leading figure in the Modernist movement that flourished in California between the first and second World Wars. In 1932 and again in 1934, his work was included in group shows at the Art Institute of Chicago that also featured Picasso, Matisse and Paul Klee. As a staff artist for Hollywood studios from the 1930s to the 1960s, he drew storyboards and made vibrant paintings, as detailed as any architectural illustrations, that helped the director envision each scene before it was shot. Over the years his work informed the look of animated pictures for Disney and films for Warner Brothers and other studios, among them “The Sands of Iwo Jima” (1949) “Rebel Without a Cause” (1955) and “The Wild Bunch” (1969). But of the dozens of films on which he worked, it was for “Bambi” that Mr. Wong was — belatedly — most renowned. “He was truly involved with every phase of production,” John Canemaker, an animator and a historian of animation at New York University, said in an interview for this obituary in March. “He created an art direction that had really never been seen before in animation. ” In 2013 and 2014, Mr. Wong was the subject of “Water to Paper, Paint to Sky,” a major retrospective at the Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. From the museum’s windows, which overlook San Francisco Bay, he could contemplate Angel Island, where more than nine decades earlier, as a lone he had sought to gain admission to a country that adamantly did not want him. Wong Gen Yeo (the name is sometimes Romanized Wong Gaing Yoo) was born on Oct. 25, 1910, in a farming village in Guangdong Province. As a young child, he already exhibited a love of drawing and was encouraged by his father. In 1920, seeking better economic prospects, Gen Yeo and his father embarked for the United States, leaving his mother and sister behind. Gen Yeo would never see his mother again. They were obliged to travel under false identities — a state of affairs known among Chinese immigrants as being a “paper son” — in the hope of circumventing the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Signed into law by President Chester A. Arthur, the act, which drastically curtailed the number of Chinese people allowed to enter the country, was among the earliest United States laws to impose severe restrictions on immigration. But in 1906, an unforeseen loophole opened in the form of the San Francisco earthquake and fire. Because a huge number of municipal documents, including birth and immigration records, were destroyed, many newly arrived Chinese capitalized on the loss, maintaining that they had been born in San Francisco before the fire. As United States citizens, they were entitled to bring over their relatives — or, in the case of Gen Yeo and his father, “paper sons” posing as relatives. Attuned to the deception, United States immigration officials put Chinese arrivals through a formidable inquisition to ensure they were who they claimed to be. The questions came like gunfire: In which direction does your village face? How many windows are in your house? Where in the house is the rice bin? How wide is your well? How deep? Are there trees in your village? Are there lakes? What shops can you name? The sponsoring relative was interrogated separately, and the answers had to match. For the new arrival, a major mistake, or a series of smaller ones, could mean deportation. To stand a chance of passing, aspirants memorized rigorous dossiers known as coaching papers. The ensuing interrogation was hard enough for adults. Gen Yeo would undergo it alone. On Dec. 30, 1920, after a month at sea, the Wongs landed at Angel Island Immigration Station. The elder Mr. Wong was traveling as a merchant named Look Get his son as Look Tai Yow. “Angel Island is considered to be the Ellis Island of the West Coast,” Lisa See, the author of “On Gold Mountain” (1995) a nonfiction chronicle of her family, said in an interview in 2016. However, she continued: “The goal was really very different than Ellis Island, which was supposed to be so welcoming. Angel Island opened very specifically to keep the Chinese out. ” Because Mr. Wong’s father had previously lived in the United States as Look Get, he was able to clear Immigration quickly. But as a new arrival, Gen Yeo was detained on the island for nearly a month, the only child among the immigrants being held there. “I was scared half to death I just cried,” Mr. Wong recalled in “Tyrus,” an documentary directed by Pamela Tom, which premiered in 2015. “Every day is just miserable — miserable. I hated that place. ” On Jan. 27, 1921, in the presence of an interpreter and a stenographer, young Gen Yeo, posing as Look Tai Yow, was interrogated by three inspectors. His father had already been questioned. Gen Yeo was well prepared and answered without error. In Sacramento, where he joined his father, a schoolteacher Americanized “Tai Yow” to “Tyrus,” and he was known as Tyrus Wong ever after. Soon afterward, father and son were separated once more, when the elder Mr. Wong moved to Los Angeles to seek work. For reasons that have been lost to time, he could not take his son. Tyrus lived on his own in a Sacramento boardinghouse while attending elementary school. Two years later — possibly more — Tyrus traveled to Los Angeles to join his father, who had found work in a gambling den. They lived in a boardinghouse sandwiched between a butcher shop and a brothel. After school, Tyrus worked as a houseboy for two Pasadena families, earning 50 cents a day. His first art teacher was his father, who trained him nightly in calligraphy by having him dip a brush in water and trace ghostly characters on newspaper: They could not afford ink or drawing paper. When Tyrus was in junior high, a teacher, noting his drawing talent, arranged a summer scholarship to the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles. By his own account an indifferent student in public school, Tyrus found his calling at the institute, now the Otis College of Art and Design. When his scholarship ended he declined to return to junior high. His father scraped together the $90 tuition — a small fortune — to let him stay on as Otis’s youngest student. He studied there for at least five years, simultaneously working as the school janitor, before graduating in the 1930s. Not long afterward his father died, leaving young Mr. Wong entirely on his own. From 1936 to 1938, Mr. Wong was an artist for the Works Progress Administration, creating paintings for libraries and other public spaces. With friends, including the artist Benji Okubo, he founded the Oriental Artists’ Group of Los Angeles, which organized exhibitions of members’ work — an level of exposure for Asian artists at the time. Mr. Wong, newly married and needing steady work, joined Disney in 1938 as an “” creating the thousands of intermediate drawings that bring animated sequences to life. Asians were then a novelty at Hollywood studios, and Mr. Wong was made keenly aware of the fact, first at Disney and later at Warner Brothers. One flung a racial epithet at him. Another assumed on sight that he worked in the company cafeteria. Then there was the affront of the ’s job itself: Painstaking, repetitive and for Mr. Wong quickly it is the work of animation — “a terrible use of his talents as a landscape artist and a painter,” Mr. Canemaker said. A reprieve came in the late 1930s, when Mr. Wong learned that Disney was adapting “Bambi, a Life in the Woods,” the 1923 novel by the Austrian writer Felix Salten about a fawn whose mother is killed by a hunter. In trying to animate the book, Disney had reached an impasse. The studio had enjoyed great success in 1937 with its animated film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” a baroque production in which every detail of the backgrounds — every petal on every flower, every leaf on every tree — was meticulously represented. In an attempt to use a similar style for “Bambi,” it found that the ornate backgrounds camouflaged the deer and other forest creatures on which the narrative centered. Mr. Wong spied his chance. “I said, ‘Gee, this is all outdoor scenery,’” he recalled in a video interview years afterward, adding: “I said, ‘Gee, I’m a landscape painter! ’” Invoking the exquisite landscape paintings of the Song dynasty (A. D. 960 — 1279) he rendered in watercolors and pastels a series of nature scenes that were moody, lyrical and atmospheric — at once lush and spare — with backgrounds subtly suggested by a stroke or two of the brush. “Walt Disney went crazy over them,” said Mr. Canemaker, who wrote about Mr. Wong in his book “Before the Animation Begins: The Art and Lives of Disney Inspirational Sketch Artists” (1996). “He said, ‘I love this indefinite quality, the mysterious quality of the forest. ’” Mr. Wong was unofficially promoted to the rank of inspirational sketch artist. “But he was more than that,” Mr. Canemaker explained. “He was the designer he was the person they went to when they had questions about the color, about how to lay something out. He even influenced the music and the special effects: Just by the look of the drawings, he inspired people. ” Mr. Wong spent two years painting the illustrations that would inform every aspect of “Bambi. ” Throughout the finished film — lent a brooding quality by its stark landscapes misty, desaturated palette and figures often seen in silhouette — his influence is unmistakable. But in 1941, in the wake of a bitter employees’ strike that year, Disney fired Mr. Wong. Though he had chosen not to strike — he felt the studio had been good to him, Mr. Canemaker said — he was let go amid the lingering climate of resentments. On “Bambi,” Mr. Wong’s name appears, quite far down in the credits, as a mere “background” artist. Mr. Wong joined Warner Brothers in 1942, working there — and lent out on occasion to other studios — until his retirement in 1968. The indignities he endured were not confined to the studios. Trying to buy a house, he and his wife, the former Ruth Kim, were told that each property they inquired about had just been sold. “Then in a month you’d go back there and the sign was still there,” Mr. Wong recalled in “Tyrus. ” After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Mr. Wong, like many took to wearing a lapel button proclaiming his heritage, lest an angry American beat him up on the street. The war permanently dispersed the fledgling Oriental Artists’ Group. Mr. Wong’s friend Mr. Okubo was sent, with tens of thousands of other to an internment camp. “If World War II hadn’t happened when it did, I think these artists, even the artists, would have more of a name than they do today,” Ms. See said. “And that’s because this little movement that had just barely started was split apart by the war. ” Mr. Wong, who became a United States citizen in 1946, also designed Christmas cards for Hallmark and painted elegant designs on dinnerware, now sought after by collectors. A longtime resident of Sunland, Calif. he became, in retirement, a renowned kitemaker, designing, building and hand coloring astonishing, airworthy creations — butterflies, swallows, whole flocks of owls, centipedes more than 100 feet long — that streaked the Southern California sky like paint on blue canvas. During the last 15 years of Ruth Wong’s life, when she was ill with dementia, Mr. Wong forsook his work to care for her. After her death in 1995, he slowly began making art again. In 2001, in formal recognition of his influence on “Bambi,” Mr. Wong was named a Disney Legend. The honor — whose previous recipients include Fred MacMurray, Julie Andrews and Annette Funicello — is bestowed by the Walt Disney Company for outstanding contributions. In 2003, a retrospective of his work, curated in part by Ms. See, was the inaugural exhibition at the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles. The Disney Family Museum’s retrospective, “Water to Paper, Paint to Sky,” traveled in 2015 to the Museum of Chinese in America, in Lower Manhattan. Mr. Wong’s death, at his home in Sunland, was confirmed by the filmmaker Ms. Tom. His survivors include three daughters, Kay Fong, Wong and Kim Wong and two grandchildren. When his daughters were small, Mr. Wong encouraged them to make art, as his father had encouraged him. Yet he would not let them have coloring books. The reason was simple: He did not want his children constrained, he said, by lines laid down by others. | 1 |
Russia Seeks to Expand Baltic Fleet as Troops Pour Into Eastern Europe by Jason Ditz, October 26, 2016 Share This
A day after reports NATO was soliciting even more ground troops for their deployment into Eastern Europe, officials are reporting “progress” in recruiting more troops from more member nations to participate in the deployment, intended to be around 40,000 troops along the Baltic states, near Russia’s border.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg claimed to have been “ very inspired ” by the response of nations he sought troops from, after yesterday’s report quoted diplomats as saying the deployment was meant to both “confront” Russia and to undercut Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s complaints NATO isn’t participating enough in its own defense.
The new participants in the deployment include Albania, Slovenia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Croatia, Belgium, and Norway. The size of individual deployments from different nations is unclear, but there will be four battalions, and the US is expected to provide the majority.
With all these troops headed to the Baltic coast, reports out of Russia’s media suggest that they are planning some new warship deployments into their Baltic Fleet, with an eye toward enhancing their targeting capacity along the shore. Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz | 0 |
WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump is expected to choose as director of national intelligence Senator Dan Coats, a former ambassador to Germany, secret foodie and lover of all things Indiana who also served as a member of his chamber’s Intelligence Committee. Known for a style, Mr. Coats was popular among his colleagues. “I always thought he should wear a red cardigan,” said Senator Cory Gardner, Republican of Colorado. “He was the closest thing to Mister Rogers we could come up with. ” While fiscally conservative, Mr. Coats, an Indiana Republican who completed his second Senate stint this month, often found common cause with Democrats, who described him as thoughtful on intelligence and national security issues, with a sharp intellect and disarming humor. “I have always been impressed with his demeanor,” said Senator Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with the Democrats, and who served on the Intelligence Committee with Mr. Coats and traveled with him in Eastern Europe. “He’s not a fierce partisan and knows the intelligence community. He’s very amiable and easy to work with. ” The position of America’s top intelligence official was created by Congress in 2004, as a response to criticism that the nation’s spy agencies had failed to detect and prevent the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Since then, the director has been charged with coordinating the and analysis of the country’s 16 civilian and military spy agencies, helping to prevent a terrorist attack and serving as a central liaison to presidents and their White House staff. But bureaucratic turf wars have dogged the office of the director of national intelligence since its creation. Officials who run the C. I. A. and the Defense Intelligence Agency, among others, have sought to maintain control over parts of the spying apparatus, and to exert influence with presidents and members of Congress. In 2009, for example, Leon E. Panetta, President Obama’s incoming C. I. A. director, clashed with Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence at the time, after Mr. Blair sought to select the top American spies for overseas postings. Mr. Panetta sent a dispatch to the agency’s employees telling them to ignore Mr. Blair’s message — an assertion that the C. I. A. was in charge. The rivalries have weakened the national intelligence office and led some critics in the government to question its effectiveness. The year that Mr. Obama took office, an internal report criticized the office of national intelligence for adding to — not removing — bureaucratic bloat and doing little to end the tensions among the various spy agencies. In 2010, James R. Clapper Jr. the current director of national intelligence, insisted during his Senate confirmation hearings that he would not be a “hood ornament,” saying that despite the inherent limitations on his job, he would try to bring an end to turf battles among the nation’s spy agencies. Six years later, the job appears to have limited appeal to some intelligence professionals, several of whom were not eager to serve in the position for fear that they would not be empowered. Mr. Coats had been an early and strong contender for secretary of defense in the first term of President George W. Bush, until Mr. Bush’s vice president, Dick Cheney, successfully pressed for Donald H. Rumsfeld. Mr. Coats, 73, graduated from Wheaton College in Illinois, and served in the Army before studying at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. He began a career in life insurance in Fort Wayne, Ind. before joining the office of Dan Quayle as a district representative. Mr. Coats owed much of his political career to his ties to Mr. Quayle, the former vice president. Mr. Coats won Mr. Quayle’s House seat in 1980, the year the latter was elected to the Senate. After Mr. Quayle was elected vice president in 1988, Mr. Coats was appointed to fill his seat he served on the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence Committees. In 1998, Mr. Coats decided to not seek largely because the Democratic challenger, Evan Bayh, was considered unbeatable. In 2001, Mr. Coats was named ambassador to Germany, arriving only three days before the Sept. 11 attacks. “Ambassador Coats found himself thrown into a role he couldn’t have foreseen a day earlier, a role in which he would excel but one that would forever change him,” Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said on the Senate floor last year in remarks praising Mr. Coats. “Those who know Dan Coats say that day in September affected him profoundly,” he said. “He may not have known it then, but he would feel the tug of that responsibility many years later, and answer the call. ” After a brief foray into lobbying, Mr. Coats returned to the Senate in January 2011, serving again on the Intelligence Committee. Mr. Coats was also one of only a few Republican senators who supported compelling Congress to officially authorize the use of military force abroad. “You’re asking our sons and daughters to take up our cause,” he said, “and every person who is here has to decide with their own conscience if that’s something we’re going to do. ” Mr. Coats enjoys visiting restaurants both in Indianapolis and in small hamlets that serve food, and featured several interesting restaurants and food purveyors when it was his turn to host lunch for his Republican colleagues. | 1 |
0 22 1 0 The UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) in Syria needs to include broader functions if its mandate is to be extended, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said after a UN Security Council meeting.
UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) — Churkin explained that Russia had previously proposed expanding the JIM's mandate to track reports of terrorist groups preparing or using chemical weapons, but the proposal was blocked. © AP Photo/ Channi Anand India, China Set to Announce Mechanism to Counter Extremism "We need to understand, if we are to extend the mandate of JIM, if some added value can be given to it," Churkin told reporters on Wednesday. "First, we need to understand what the fourth report is going to be. We are discussing that tomorrow."
Overall, Churkin said the scope of the JIM had been too narrow and the value of their product was questionable.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons United Nations Joint Investigative Mechanism was established in 2015 and allows for the investigation and prosecution of alleged war crimes involving chemical weapons in Syria.
The UN Security Council is scheduled to discuss the JIM again on Thursday. ... | 0 |
Lloyd Billingsley
“Presidential debates between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton included a third participant: Vladimir Putin, standing in the background, stealthily inserting himself in the process.” Putin’s Russia “uses deniable cyber-hooliganism to actively prank the American political system. And it’s taking a toll. . . This is the Putin Playbook. Steal, cheat, attack, disrupt, mislead, confuse. If caught, lie and deny.” And it gets worse.
“Unfortunately, the Republican presidential nominee reinforces this narrative, referring to a ‘rigged’ system and an indictable opponent. His outbursts follow years of domestic political discord, where comity is history, crazy seems the new normal, and a sitting president can be heckled with ‘You lie!’”
All told, the piece reads like a Clinton press release, but it’s actually “Putin’s powerful playbook: Hack, steal, disrupt, mislead, confuse,” in the October 30, Sacramento Bee , two days after the Comey email bombshell. The author is Markos Kounalakis, billed as “a senior fellow at Central European University and visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution.” That doesn’t quite capture the man and his connections with the Clintons, which have shown up in Wikileaks.
Mr. Kounalakis’ author line fails to reveal that he is married to Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis, daughter of real-estate tycoon Angelo Tsakopoulos. According to Greek USA Reporter , Angelo is a “top political donor to the Clintons as well as the Democratic Party,” whose “donations to former President Bill Clinton were rewarded with a night in the prestigious Lincoln Bedroom.” In 2013 Tsakopoulos, “confirmed that Hillary Clinton will seek the Democratic nomination in the next Presidential election.”
Angelo’s daughter Eleni, a protégé of Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer , raised more than $1 million for Hillary Clinton in 2008 , and that money found its reward. On January 7, 2010, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton swore in Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis as U.S. Ambassador to Hungary. In that capacity , she condemned Wikileaks for releasing secret diplomatic cables, but declined comment on the authenticity of the material. Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis served as ambassador until 2013 but as Wikileaks confirms, she continued as a key Clinton supporter doing her best to beat back a presidential run by Joe Biden.
In a June 11, 2015 email, Eleni Tsakopoulos Kounalakis tells John Podesta that a Bay Area bagman “swears Biden is running. He said he took him on Air Force Two, and he’s getting emails.” Last July, Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis emailed Clinton confidant Jake Sullivan that “HRC indicated her view that it would be best to avoid Grexit” and a July 9, 2015 email to Sullivan, John Podesta and Huma Abedin, she supports “terms that will allow Greece to stay in the Eurozone.”
On October 11, 2015, Tsakopoulos Kounalakis emailed Podesta that “there is a Greek American love fest going on with Joe Biden, very boy-club.” The same day she emailed Podesta and Huma Abedin that “we had a David Brock dinner with Annie Karni from Politico. She asked to use four quotes from me (see attached). I told her the first two could be with attribution, and the second two without.”
As the emails to John Podesta and Humba Abedin reveal, “Ambassador Eleni Kounalakis,” as she styles herself, remains part of Hillary Clinton’s inner circle. Tellingly, the McClatchy-Tribune newspapers that run her husband’s columns, do not acknowledge the strong Clinton connection.
The New York Times proclaimed Kounalakis a “White Knight” for rescuing Washington Monthly , where he served as publisher and teamed with editor Paul Glastris. This tandem made the publication a “progressive must-read,” according to Clinton strategist James Carville. Kounalakis reported for Newsweek in East Germany and ran their bureau in Prague. He also worked in Moscow for NBC Radio and Mutual news.
Kounalakis’ books include Hope Is a Tattered Flag: Voices for the Post-Bush Era , with Peter Laufer, and Beyond Spin: the Power of Strategic Corporate Journalism with Drew Banks and Kim Daus. It remains something of a mystery how the leftist Kounalakis became a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, known for strong conservative writers and scholars such as Thomas Sowell, Victor Davis Hanson, and Bruce Thornton.
Only one time, as this writer recalls, has Kounalakis acknowledged in print his wife’s strong Clinton connections. Even after the Wikileaks revelations, and with a presidential election only days away, Kounalakis did not acknowledge his wife’s key role in HRC’s inner circle with John Podesta and Huma Abedin. His October 30 Sacramento Bee piece suggests Markos is right at home in those circles.
Kounalakis attacks “the Republican presidential nominee,” implying that he is “crazy,” and a tool of the evil Putin. On the other hand, the Clinton email scandal gets zero attention and the author piles on the ad copy: “American society has made great strides in LGBTQ rights, women’s rights and minority rights, and has a relatively strong and resilient globally innovative economy.”
The author gives readers good cause to regard this article as pure Clinton campaign propaganda from a camouflaged Clinton crony. Maybe Markos will join his wife, Huma Abedin, and John Podesta in the Wikileaks revelations. For many observers, the issue is not where the leaks came from but whether the revelations are true and authentic. If Markos Kounalakis believes they are bogus, maybe he can write about what’s in the real ones. | 0 |
The United States got its first gold of the Rio Games from a teenager who wasn’t expected to medal and its last from the men’s basketball team, an collection of N. B. A. players who came into the Olympics as the overwhelming favorite. Like the Ginny Thrasher, who opened the finals of the air rifle event with a bull’ on her way to the upset victory, the Americans, led by Kevin Durant, were perfect, at least on paper, capping off an campaign with a thrashing of Serbia in Sunday’s game. With the victory, the Americans extended their winning streak in the Olympics to 52 games and sent Mike Krzyzewski into his Team U. S. A. retirement as the first coach to win three Olympic gold medals. The Serbians did not have a scorer reach double figures until late in the fourth quarter. They had given the Americans one of their toughest tests in the preliminary rounds, coming within a missed of sending the game into overtime before succumbing by . Despite early foul trouble, Serbia was within four points of the Americans after the first quarter. The U. S. squad earned few style points during the tournament with its isolation offense, but it started to move the ball better as the game went on and wisely got it in the hands of Durant, who finished with 30 points. Durant, who left the Oklahoma City Thunder last month to join his U. S. Olympic teammates Klay Thompson and Draymond Green on the Golden State Warriors, took over the game in the second quarter. His highlight reel included a spectacular run in the span of less than a minute that included contested and a steal that he finished emphatically with a dunk. At halftime, Durant had 24 points, five fewer than Serbia, which trailed by . “I just tried to go out there and be who I am,” Durant said, adding that in the first few games of the tournament, “I was trying too hard to sacrifice and make the extra pass and it was taking away from my game. ” Durant was finished for the night before any Serbian player reached double figures. “We just wanted to play a good game,” Durant said, adding, “To come out there and play as well as we did against a team that had stepped up its level as well shows that we came together at the right time. ” The Serbian defense that had locked down Australia, holding its semifinal opponent to 14 points in the first half, could not slow the Americans, who made several shots with hands in their faces. The United States shot 44 percent from the field. Serbia, which shot 38 percent, was led by Nemanja Nedovic’s 14 points on 10 shots. Durant, at the urging of his team, had 19 attempts. As Krzyzewski joked, “It’s called the ultimate green light. ” The Serbian coach, Aleksandar Djordjevic, said that from the second quarter on, “Our morale was going down. ” The Americans’ margin of victory in their first seven games was 21. 4 points, which sounds impressive until measured against the gold standard set by the 1992 team, the first to include N. B. A. players, which beat its opponents by an average of 44 points. The U. S. mission to win gold allowed for few frivolities. Citing the energy drain of mixing and mingling with other Olympians, the American men and women players stayed on a cruise ship, eschewing the athletes’ village, where they might have run into Usain Bolt, whose individual star power outshines the Americans’ collective eminence. That is not to say the men lived in a bubble. The Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony ventured into a favela to play basketball with youngsters and the Pacers’ Paul George met and had his photograph taken with the Brazilian soccer star Ronaldo. Anthony, criticized for his inability to bring an N. B. A. championship to Denver or New York, now has three golds to go with his bronze from 2004 as a member of the only U. S. men’s team since 1992 that failed to win. Anthony had seven points and also finished with seven rebounds for a career total of 125 to pass David Robinson as the U. S. leader. He struggled to corral his emotions afterward as he reflected the journey that has seen him become the most decorated male player in Olympic basketball history. Anthony, who said this was his final game for Team U. S. A. said, “I don’t think I can explain how I feel right at this very moment. ” During the medals ceremony, Anthony exercised his leadership role one last time, pointing out to his teammates where the flag was during the playing of the national anthem. ”I just told them look at the highest flag,” he said. | 1 |
Pentagon Preparing for Massive Election Day Hacking Offensive by Jason Ditz, November 04, 2016 Share This
This US has publicly threatened ‘retaliatory’ hacks against Russia for weeks now, based on allegations that Russia may have been involved in certain hacks related to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Russia denied involvement and the US government has been unable to produce any concrete evidence of Russian involvement.
Vice President Joe Biden went so far as to confirm the US had informed Vladimir Putin that the US would conduct revenge attacks “at the time of our choosing.” The time may ultimately be America’s election day, according to officials familiar with the situation.
NBC News has reported seeing top secret documents from these officials detailing potential US plans to launch military cyber attacks against Russia’s civilian infrastructure, with the documents claiming advanced US cyber weapons were prepared to take down Russia’s entire electricity grid, all telecommunications networks, and the Kremlin’s own command systems.
The reports are emerging in the context of US officials speculating that Russia might launch cyber attacks against the US during the election to try to disrupt it. Since they offered no evidence for this either, it raises concerns that the US is simply setting up a pretext for timing its own attacks around them.
That officials are trying to assure the media that such huge attacks would only be launched in retaliation offers little comfort, given the administration’s willingness to claim anything and everything remotely election-related and embarrassing to the Clinton campaign as a Russian plot.
Such massive US attacks on Russian infrastructure, regardless of the pretext, would likely be seen as an act of war. The US has made clear in the past they would regard cyber attacks of a large enough scale as equivalent to conventional military attacks, and given the scale that it being discussed it’s hard to imagine Russia would not react similarly. Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz | 0 |
WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton expressed doubts about whether the United States should go forward with a modernization of its nuclear forces at a in February, questioning an Obama administration plan that she has remained largely silent on in public. Mrs. Clinton also suggested she would be far tougher against foreign nations that hack into American computer networks and would kill one of the Pentagon’s pet projects, a cruise missile. “The last thing we need,” she told the audience, “are sophisticated cruise missiles that are nuclear armed. ” Her comments were contained in an audio recording of the that appeared on the website of The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative publication, which said it was gleaned from the hack of a campaign staff member. But it said nothing about who did the hacking. At a moment when Mrs. Clinton and the Obama administration have warned that Russia is trying to influence the American election, the mysterious release of the tape is also certain to raise new questions about the scope of attacks on the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign. A former Defense Department official present at the Andrew C. Weber, who raised the question about nuclear modernization, verified the contents of the tape, but also suggested its release was part of the same hacking campaign that exposed D. N. C. emails. Before she turned to nuclear matters, Mrs. Clinton used the to suggest that she would be much firmer against foreign nations that hack into American networks. Though the administration never formally accused China of stealing the records of nearly 22 million federal employees and contractors, she called the theft “a gold mine for Chinese intelligence. ” “They are at it all the time,” she said of the Chinese hackers. But she also seemed to suggest — more directly than she did in Monday night’s debate — that she thinks the best deterrent to the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians and the North Koreans, all of whom she named, was a dose of American offensive cyberweaponry. “They have physical assets that are also connected on the internet,” she said. “So they have to know we would retaliate. So that provides a certain level of deterrence. ” It may not: The hacks of the Democrats’ infrastructure, so far without a visible American response, suggest that the deterrence Mrs. Clinton is relying on is not working. The recording was made in February during a event at the home of Beatrice and Anthony Welters in McLean, Va. Mrs. Welters was ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago when Mrs. Clinton was secretary of state. Mr. Weber was an assistant secretary of defense for nuclear programs from 2009 to 2014. Last year, after leaving office, he joined William J. Perry, a secretary of defense in the administration of President Bill Clinton and one of the Democratic Party’s most influential nuclear advisers, to write an in The Washington Post strongly opposing White House approval of an upgraded nuclear cruise missile. The missile is part of a sweeping modernization of the American nuclear arsenal that is estimated to cost up to $1 trillion over three decades. Undertaken by the Obama administration, it features new factories, refurbished nuclear arms, and a new generation of weapon carriers, including bombers, missiles and submarines. The new bombers are to carry the new cruise missile. At the Mr. Weber asked Mrs. Clinton about the modernization push and whether she, as president, would cancel the cruise missile, which he called a “particularly destabilizing, dangerous type of nuclear weapon. ” “I certainly would be inclined to do that,” she answered. “The last thing we need are sophisticated cruise missiles that are . ” Mrs. Clinton went beyond the question to warn of an emerging nuclear arms race, naming Russia and China as well as Pakistan and India. “This is one of the most dangerous developments imaginable,” she told the audience. “Pakistan is running full speed to develop tactical nukes in their continuing hostility with India. ” she said. “But we live in fear that they’re going to have a coup, that jihadists are going to take over the government, they’re going to get access to nuclear weapons, and you’ll have suicide nuclear bombers. So, this could not be a more threatening scenario. ” The United States, Mrs. Clinton said, needs to “do everything we can” to restrain the competitions, including exploring new treaties with Moscow that would go beyond the New Start treaty of 2010, which she helped negotiate. Mrs. Clinton proceeded to praise Mr. Perry, saying the more he spoke out publicly and joined with Republican statesmen in trying to curb nuclear arms, “the better off we’ll be in trying to really cut this off.’ “This is going to be a big issue,” she added. “It’s not just the cruise missile. There’s a lot of other money we’re taking about to go into refurbishing and modernization. ” “Do we have to do any of it?” Mrs. Clinton asked. “If we have to do some of it, how much do we have to do? That’s going to be a tough question, so I will look to people like you and Bill Perry to help me answer that question. ” Mr. Obama has said he wants to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in American strategy, and his aides have hinted he may believe the modernization program needs reconsideration. But he seems to have left that to his successor, and the cruise missile Mrs. Clinton spoke about so disparagingly remains in the Pentagon budget. | 1 |
Friday during a news conference, House Speaker Paul Ryan ( ) offered remarks on his decision not to proceed ahead with a vote on the American Health Care Act, which would have according to Ryan began the process of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, also know as Obamacare. During the question and answer session, Ryan was asked about the prospect of another stab at repealing and replacing Obamacare, to which he said, “We’re going to be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future. ” Partial transcript as follows: I don’t know what else to say other than Obamacare’s the law of the land. It’s going to be remain the law of the land until it’s replaced. We did not have quite the votes to replace this law. And so, yeah, we’re gonna be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future. I don’t know how long it’s gonna take us to replace this law. My worry is Obamacare is — is going to be getting even worse. Actually, I think we were probably doing the Democrats a favor. I think we are doing the architects of Obama a favor by passing this law before it gets even worse. Well, I guess that favor’s not going to be given to them and it’s going to get worse. And so, I don’t think the architects of Obamacare — I’m sure they may be pleased right now. But when they see how bad this thing gets, they said all the projections were being told by — by the plans that are participating in Obamacare. I don’t think they’re gonna like that either. Look, five states you got one plan left, one choice. Over a third of the counties in America, one plan left. And the kinds of projections we’re being told from the people providing health insurance to these people in plans, it’s gonna get even worse. And so, I don’t think the architects of Obamacare envisioned this future. It’s certainly not one we want for the American people. And I wish we had the kind of consensus we needed to bring a bill to the floor to pass and replace it but we just don’t have that right now. Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor | 1 |
QUEBEC — From the outside, the Islamic Cultural Center’s building in the Ste. neighborhood of Quebec City looks more like a medical center than a place of worship. But it is very much the heart of the city’s Muslim community and, now, a site of tragedy. Several of the six people killed by a gunman at the mosque during Sunday night prayers lived in the surrounding neighborhood, which is dominated by postwar brick houses and apartments. Others had initially come to the area to study or teach at Laval University in Ste. . They came from Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Guinea, but they were connected by community and faith. Khaled Belkacemi, 60. A professor of soil and engineering at Laval University, Mr. Belkacemi arrived in Canada with his wife, Safia Hamoudi, to escape turmoil in his native Algeria, said Dufour, the university’s dean of agriculture and food science. Professor Dufour said that Ms. Hamoudi, who is also a faculty member at Laval, told him after the attack, “We came to Quebec and Canada because we didn’t want to stay in an environment where we have to fight or there is too much danger. ” She added, “We never thought it would happen in Quebec,” the professor said. Professor Belkacemi, who held Ph. D. s from a university in Algeria and the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec, was an authority on the effects of freezing on foods. In addition to teaching and research, Professor Belkacemi consulted on the design of food processing equipment and factories. On Facebook, Professor Belkacemi’s son, Amir, recalled his father’s decision to seek out a better life for his family in Canada. He described his father as “a good man, an example of resilience, a man loved by all, a professor and researcher emeritus, a fighter, a man who left his country to give his family a chance to live far away from horror. ” Abdelkrim Hassane, 41. An immigrant from Algeria, Mr. Hassane was a programming analyst for the Quebec provincial government. He and his wife, Louiza Mohamed Said, had three children ranging in age from 15 months to 10 years. “How will I tell my kids?” Ms. Said said in an interview with the French service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, adding of the man charged with the killings: “I don’t care about that person. It’s too late. It’s my husband I care about. ” Aboubaker Thabti, 44. Mr. Thabti worked in a poultry processing plant just outside Quebec City, and his wife operated a day care center. Several news reports indicated that Mr. Thabti immigrated from Tunisia about five years ago and that he was the father of two young children. “Know that this man was seen by his colleagues and manager as a courteous man, a hard worker who was smiling and discreet,” said Stéphanie Paquet, a spokeswoman for his employer, Exceldor. “Mr. Thabti was very much appreciated by all around him. ” Azzeddine Soufiane, 57. Among the first victims to be identified without official confirmation, Mr. Soufiane was a butcher who owned a small halal grocery store, Boucherie Assalam, about two minutes’ drive from the mosque. The Globe and Mail, a Toronto newspaper, reported that Mr. Soufiane came from Morocco during the 1980s to study geology at Laval University. Several members of the mosque said that Mr. Soufiane’s connection to Muslims through his store had made him an unofficial leader of the city’s Muslim community. Mamadou Tanou Barry, 42. Mr. Barry worked as a computer technician at a cosmetics company. A native of Guinea, Mr. Barry had two young children. Ibrahima Barry, 39. Another native of Guinea, Mr. Barry was a close friend of Mamadou Tanou Barry, although they were not related. Their families lived in the same apartment building in Ste. . Mr. Barry was a provincial public servant and the father of four children. | 1 |
New York Times journalists are in the field in central and northern Iraq to assess the humanitarian impact of battles between the government and Islamic State fighters. TIKRIT, Iraq — Udbais Musa says he punched his son and threatened to disown him when the announced last year that he was leaving home to join the Islamic State. Ultimately, Mr. Musa lost both his son and his house. To punish the son, Iraqi security forces evicted Mr. Musa and his family from their home on Tikrit’s outskirts on Jan. 4. He said they had been transported by military truck to a windswept displaced persons camp with only the clothes they were wearing and a few tattered personal papers. Under a new collective punishment policy by the provincial government here, at least 345 families accused of ties to the Islamic State have been evicted and confined to Al Shahama camp outside Tikrit this month, according to provincial leaders. Officials said about 200 other families had been evicted and held in a school and at a separate camp called Rubaidha. Mr. Musa, 60, now shares a tent with nine family members whose only crime was to have a relative who had joined the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh. Several women evicted from their homes and trucked to the Shahama camp said Iraqi security forces demolished their houses with explosives after accusing their sons or husbands of joining the terrorist group. The authorities of Salahuddin Province say the punishment against the families of ISIS members is intended to force the group’s recruits to pay a painful personal price. “Our aim is to defy the terrorists and send a stern message to the families,” Amar Hekmat, the deputy governor, said inside the barricaded provincial government center. But the evictions have set off a rancorous dispute between officials in Tikrit and politicians in Baghdad. Prime Minister Haider in a letter to the provincial governor last week, sharply criticized the removals and ordered provincial and Baghdad officials to resolve the issue. The tensions raised by the Salahuddin officials’ actions cut to the heart of sectarian grievances across the whole country, where tens of thousands of Sunni families have been displaced either by the Islamic State or by government offensives against the group. Even as Mr. Abadi’s national government has tried to address reports of abuses by the security forces and their militia allies, deep distrust persists in Iraq’s Sunni communities. In an interview, Mishan a member of Parliament from Salahuddin Province, accused the provincial security commander of human rights violations against “the innocent and the repressed. ” The Salahuddin operations commander, Brig. Gen. Juma Enad Sadoon, called critics like Mr. Jiboori “barking dogs and mercenaries” and said they should not interfere in security matters in Tikrit. In an interview, General Sadoon did not indicate whether the removals would be halted. The evictions have evoked unwelcome comparisons to collective punishments, including home demolitions, imposed by Israel against families of Palestinians accused of attacks. Collective punishment is prohibited under the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions and is generally considered illegal under international law. Officials in Tikrit cited extraordinary security concerns for the evictions. “This is a very difficult situation for us because of the terrible suffering caused by Daesh,” Mr. Hekmat said. “We are under great pressure to rebuild our city and impose civil order” after almost a year under Islamic State occupation in 2014 and 2015, he said. Khazhal Hamad, the province’s first deputy governor, said the removals protected families from retaliation by neighbors who lost family members to ISIS attacks. “There are hostile feelings toward these people, and these feelings can affect the civil peace we are trying to achieve,” Mr. Hamad said. The Tikrit evictions are perhaps a prelude to postcombat frictions in the city of Mosul, 140 miles north, if government forces can uproot Islamic State forces there. Tikrit is a potent symbol of Sunni dominion in central Iraq. Saddam Hussein was born in Awja, just outside Tikrit, and his palaces still tower over the landscape here. Yet Shiite Muslim militias, backed by Iran and known as popular mobilization forces, led the charge to evict the Islamic State from the city in April 2015. The main highway into Tikrit is now festooned with posters featuring the faces of Shiite militiamen killed in battle and images of the revered Shiite imams Hussein and Ali. Some of the posters are mounted next to Iraqi government military compounds. But local Sunni militiamen, along with Iraqi security forces, have themselves carried out some of the evictions — all targeting Sunnis. Thousands of Sunni tribal fighters had joined the fight against ISIS in Tikrit. Today, pockets of Islamic State fighters remain in Tikrit districts west of the Tigris River. Security officials said the small militant cells occasionally fired mortars from Sunni neighborhoods where many of the evictions have occurred. Hussein Ahmed Khalaf, director of the Shahama camp, said none of the 345 evicted families — 1, 111 people — had been permitted to return home. All will undergo security screenings to determine their fates, he said. Several of those evicted said security forces had confiscated their cellphones and interrogated them about family members’ ties to the Islamic State. They said they had not been told when, or whether, they would be allowed to return home. Several acknowledged that fathers or sons had joined ISIS, but they insisted that they supported the Iraqi government. They said their children had been removed from school and compelled to endure a harsh existence in the forlorn Shahama camp. “What is the guilt of my children? They don’t know anything about Daesh,” said Eman Khalil Hamad, 34. She said she and her seven children had been evicted and their home demolished to punish her husband, an Islamic State fighter she said she had not seen for months. Ms. Hamad said the family had suffered under the Islamic State’s harsh social codes. But now, she said, she was abused by security forces who slapped and insulted her as she was forced onto a military truck this month. Hussein 55, a Sunni Muslim tribal sheikh and a commander of a Sunni militia force that helped restore Tikrit to government control, said collective punishment was counterproductive. “It will only turn people away from the government and strengthen Daesh,” said Mr. Gibory, who wore combat fatigues with military insignia of the popular mobilization forces — the collective name for militia forces in Iraq. He said authorities should use “social rehabilitation” to convince families of Islamic State members that “Daesh is more dangerous than a nuclear bomb. ” “We are tribal people,” Mr. Gibory said. “We should turn to dialogue rather than dragging women and children from their homes. ” Mr. Musa, the father of the ISIS fighter, said he felt betrayed by his government. He said he had alerted the tribal sheikh in his village, on Tikrit’s west side, after his son joined the group, and disavowed both his son and the Islamic State. The sheikh signed and stamped a letter attesting to Mr. Musa’s innocence. But the security forces who evicted him refused to read the document, Mr. Musa said, clutching the worn letter inside his camp tent. Hadia Ibrahim, 44, a mother of 11 children, said two of her sons — one an Iraqi police officer — had been killed by the Islamic State. But she said she and her four daughters were now confined to the Shahama camp after her husband joined ISIS in 2014, she said. When security forces descended on her home three weeks ago, Ms. Ibrahim said, they told her, “You are the family of Daesh — leave!” Mr. Hamad, the first deputy governor, said evicted families ultimately might be moved to other areas, or even other provinces. “That is to be determined by security agencies,” he said. Some families with Islamic State relatives have fled Salahuddin Province altogether to avoid evictions, Mr. Hamad said. “Those people,” he said, “will never be allowed to come back. ” | 1 |
Lost Children of the Anunnaki CONFIRMED: Melanesian Tribe’s DNA Carries Genes from Unknown Species Published on October 31, 2016 in Forbidden History by UFOholic Scientists recently discovered that islanders from Melanesia posses genes belonging to an unknown hominid species. Will this prove our Anunnaki ancestry?
On October 20, the American Society of Human Genetics held its annual meeting and the conclusions they reached can be easily described as staggering. The data they gathered shows that people from Melanesia (an area in the South Pacific that encloses Papua New Guinea and its neighboring islands) may be packing some strange genes in their DNA. The geneticists believe the unrecognized DNA belongs to a previously undiscovered species of humanoids.
According to Ryan Bohlender, one of the researchers involved in the study, that species is not Neanderthal or Denisovan, but something completely different. “We’re missing a population or we’re misunderstanding something about the relationships,” he stated. Like this
The Denisovans represent an extinct species belonging to the hominid genus. They were named after the Denisova Cave in the Siberian Altai Mountains, where the first bone fragment belonging to this species was found. Very little is known about this enigmatic cousin of ours.
Human history is a lot more complicated than we thought it was,” Bohlender said.
Oh, yes, it is. But piece by piece, humanity’s convoluted past is brought to light. And discoveries such as this one seem to point in one direction: we might not be who we think we are. Here is a quote from the study that I think you’re going to appreciate:
“With assumptions about population size and more recent population separation dates taken from the literature, we estimate the archaic-modern separation date at ~440,000 ± 300 years ago for all modern human populations.”
If that number doesn’t ring any bells, allow me to reiterate the Anunnaki hypothesis.
According to the genesis story, the twelfth planet, known as Nibiru was populated by humanoid beings very similar to us humans. After they encountered a severe atmosphere problem, they went on a quest through the solar system in order to find gold, a special metal that could heal their planet.
When Nibiru approached Earth’s orbit, about 432,000 years BC, the Nibiruans used space ships to send people and essential goods from their planet to Earth. After they reached the surface, the advanced beings established bases in ancient Mesopotamia.
Many believe this is the true station of mankind’s creation – inside the Anunnaki geneticists’ laboratories. And this recent study confirms this hypothesis almost to the day. It offers insight that might answer one of our oldest and most significant question: Who are we?
In order to obtain the irrefutable solution to this age-old enigma we either have to dig deep where no-one has dug before. But this is harder said than done. Another way to do this would be to analyze the microscopic records that are hidden away inside each and every one of us. The Anunnaki knew that their DNA was the key to engineering the ideal nine-to-fiver. In our never-ending search for our true lineage, we as humans must do the same.
In a recent endeavor, another group of scientists reached a similar conclusion. Led by evolutionary geneticist Eske Willerslev of the Natural History Museum in Denmark, the scientists examined DNA samples taken from 83 aboriginal Australians. They also tested 25 participants belonging to populations native to the highlands of Papua New Guinea. To their surprise, the researchers discovered exotic, Denisovan-like DNA in the genomes of the study volunteers. Please note, the researchers only called it Denisovan-like but in reality, the group that lent its genes to the ancestors of the participants is completely unknown. “Who this group is we don’t know,” Willerslev said. Neither do we, but one particular crowd comes to mind.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that such discoveries are always made when studying the genome of remote populations. Over time, these isolated groups had little contact with the outside world. They lived and procreated within closed communities and this is reflected in their genome. The richer and more diverse your ancestry is, the less likely it is for particular genes to remain unchanged. In the case of aboriginal Australians and Melanesians, the isolation meant fewer genes were altered over the course of their existence.
It’s not hard to picture this alternative version of our past. The Anunnaki come to Earth, play god and engineer mankind. The chief scientist Enqi and the medical chief Ninti use genetic manipulation and in-vitro fertilization in order to create humans in their own image.They use mankind to serve their purposes and when it suits them, they dispense destruction in the form of a deluge of biblical(!) proportions. A few chosen humans are protected by a faction of the Anunnaki that decided to go against protocol. They survive and spread in all corners of the globe. Thousands of generations pass, and the genomes of those who ‘socialized’ the most become mingled beyond recognition.
But in a few places, the flame of the creators still burns. | 0 |
Economist and American civil servant Dr. Paul Craig Roberts warns of a real possibility that we might all end up dead much sooner than later as tensions rise between Russia and U.S. and the age of the apocalypse draws closer in the Middle East.
Via YourNewsWire
Armageddon could soon be played out between east and west, between Russia and U.S. that could destroy the world and change it forever. Each side has a vast stockpile of nuclear weapons that have never been used and were painstakingly created for an unexpected day like today, with great reasoning and planning. A small percentage of these weapons of mass destruction is sufficient to destroy the world for centuries, as depicted in the film, Planet Of The Apes.
If the US thinks it can continually transgress against Russia until Moscow gives in, it is gravely mistaken
Suffice to say, though children are at play, this is not a game. Those who have been toying with outright war against Russia, and an escalation of the conflict in Syria, are putting the lives of all Americans at risk. Of course, the threat of nuclear annihilation has been with us since the earliest days of the Cold War, but Russia has now positioned itself with the largest and most destructive nuclear arsenal of any country in the world.
Economist and political critic Dr. Paul Craig Roberts explains how diplomatic relations have broken between Russia and the United States, after the U.S. knowingly attacked pro-Assad Syria forces… that, of course, was the cherry on top of a host of insults, deliberate antagonism and a strategy that could only result in further chaos and war.
The end of negotiations is unfortunately, given that fighting it out could mean thermonuclear war that would make Hiroshima and Nagasaki look trivial in comparison.
After a period of some patience, Russia is now warning that the United States is dangerously close to turning a proxy war into a direct world war – and they are deadly serious about defending the motherland and their sworn allies – namely Assad. Any further attack could result in immediate destruction.
Putin is a formidable opponent and Russia a powerful enemy. At present time, they have the capability of wiping the entire East Coast of the United States off the map – where more than 100 million people live. Will the ranking misleaders in Washington continue to gamble with all of our lives?
VLADIMIR Putin’s nuclear stockpile could completely destroy the east coast of the US in one clean swipe should the Russian leader launch an attack on the West, an expert has warned. A staggering 112.6 million people could be at risk of extermination from the deadly missiles. Russia has the largest haul of nuclear weapons of any country in the world and reportedly has the most powerful bomb named the SS-18 – menacingly nicknamed the Satan. Experts estimate Russia has 55 of the deadly weapons, but only five would be needed to destroy the East Coast of the US. […] “Five or six of these ‘Satans’ as they are known by the US military, and the East Coast of the United States disappears.” Dr Roberts said: “The atomic bombs that Washington dropped on these helpless civilian centres while the Japanese government was trying to surrender, were mere popguns compared to today’s thermo-nuclear weapons.
What’s more, the Russian have hinted strongly at the possibility that they would be able to disable electronics, communications and defense shields in the U.S. via electromagnetic warfare – perhaps an EMP.
Worst of all, the American misleaders haven’t even got a good reason for putting the population at such a risk – strategy in the middle east is muddied at best, and prodding for war with Russia doesn’t carry a clear narrative either.
The world could change, and American power could end in a few decisive minutes. Hopefully it would never come to that, but we shouldn’t live in a false world where we pretend these situations can’t harm us.
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The banner headline will read 97 percent of Puerto Rico voted for statehood, but only 23 percent of voters cast ballots on June 11 due to opposition boycotting. [Of the 2, 458, 036 registered voters in Puerto Rico, about 548, 387, or 97 percent, of Puerto Ricans voted in a referendum for the territory to become America’s 51st state, while approximately 16, 960, or 3 percent, were opposed, according to the Wall Street Journal review of early returns. Turnout was just 23 percent. Governor Ricardo Rosselló and his New Progressive Party [Republican] held the referendum, despite filing on May 3 for the largest municipal bankruptcy in the history of the United States. The island and its utility ran out of cash and defaulted on its $73 billion of debt. After the filing, Breitbart News reported that Puerto Rico’s public pension plans have only $1. 8 billion in assets to pay $45 billion in liabilities. The New Progressive Party, referred to as PNP in Spanish, pushed the “yes” vote for statehood. President Barack Obama provided the $2. 5 million in funding to hold the referendum. But with the PNP narrowly winning the governorship in 2016, the Republican Party’s GOTV ( ) operation funded social media and TV ads in favor of statehood. Jennifer Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner and only nonvoting member of Congress, is a strong advocate of statehood as a leader of the PNP. Just after taking office in January, she introduced statehood legislation into Congress, but found little interest in the idea that Puerto Rico would pick up two U. S. Senators. Congressional Democrats with Puerto Rican heritage, including Luis Gutiérrez ( ) and Nydia Velázquez ( oppose statehood and urged the islanders to boycott the referendum, according to the Associated Press. Puerto Rico currently suffers from a poverty rate of 45 percent and 12. 4 percent unemployment. The Republicans blame the island’s depression on the confusing status of being a territory. But Democrats enjoy spending the $22 billion in federal subsidies that the territory receives. Puerto Rico faces a huge battle against vulture capitalist hedge funds that have bought its defaulted bonds for as little as 25 percent of face value. The vultures claim that Puerto Rico can regain its solvency by raising taxes and firing tens of thousands public sector workers. Bloomberg reported on Election Day that Puerto Rico and the vultures will soon face off next week in a New York federal bankruptcy court “over who owns cash collected by the government’s sales tax agency, known by its Spanish acronym Cofina. ” The island claims that despite not making any bond payments, it needs the cash to avoid beginning to miss payroll and disability payments by around November 1. Investors claim their bonds should be paid first. | 1 |
RIO DE JANEIRO — It is not uncommon for the Olympics to leave behind some unneeded facilities. Rio, however, is experiencing something exceptional: Less than six months after the Summer Games ended, the host city’s Olympic legacy is decaying rapidly. Empty Olympic buildings abound, puncturing any uplifting buzz from the competitions last summer. At the Olympic Park, some stadium entrances are boarded up, and screws are scattered on the ground. The handball arena is barricaded with metal bars. The broadcast center remains half disassembled. The pool is decorated with piles of dirt and puddles. Deodoro, a neighborhood in Rio’s poor periphery, has the cluster of Olympic sites. The canoe slalom course was to be converted into a giant public swimming pool. It closed to the public in December. Today, residents fill plastic pools a few hundred feet away. “The government put sugar in our mouths and took it out before we could swallow,” Luciana Oliveira Pimentel, a social worker from Deodoro, said as her children played in a plastic pool. “Once the Olympics ended, they turned their backs on us. ” Olympic officials and local organizers often boast about the legacy of the Games — the residual benefits that a city and country will experience long after the competitions end. Those projections are often met with skepticism by the public and by independent economists, who argue that Olympic bids are built on wasted public money. Rio has quickly become the latest, and perhaps the most striking, case of unfulfilled promises and abandonment. “It’s totally deserted,” said Vera Hickmann, 42, who was at the Olympic Park recently with her family. She lamented that although the area was open to the public, it lacked basic services. “I had to bring my son over to the plants to go to the bathroom,” she said. At the athletes’ village, across the street from the park, the 31 towers were supposed to be sold as luxury condominiums after the Games, but fewer than 10 percent of the units have been sold. Across town at Maracanã Stadium, a soccer temple, the field is brown, and the electricity has been shut off. “The government didn’t have money to throw a party like that, and we’re the ones who have to sacrifice,” Ms. Hickmann said, referring to local taxpayers. In the preparations for the Games, the city of Rio promised “no white elephants” and outlined plans for facilities to be turned into public sporting areas and schools. The arena that hosted taekwondo and fencing was to be transformed into a school. Two other arenas were to be taken apart, and one put back together as four schools in another area. None of that has happened. The mayor’s office said those plans were still in the works, but it did not offer a specific timetable. The decay of Olympic sites is happening as a financial crisis engulfs federal, state and municipal governments. “The nation is in crisis, Rio de Janeiro is in crisis — it’s time to be cautious,” Marcelo Crivella, who became mayor on Jan. 1, told incoming city council members. “Spending is prohibited,” he added. Rio’s mayor during the Games, Eduardo Paes, was among the strongest evangelizers of an Olympic legacy. He said in an email that it was too soon to call any of the sites white elephants and that “the path to implementing a legacy has been given. ” After the Games, the city held an auction for private companies to bid on administering the Olympic Park, but there were no bidders. That left the Ministry of Sport, an organ of the federal government, with the financial burden. The minister of sport, Leonardo Picciani, said in an interview that the agency’s goal was to find a private company to take over the park, but because there has been no interest, it is the government’s responsibility to maintain the sites. Mr. Picciani also said that the stadiums would not become burdensome relics, pointing to several sporting events scheduled for this year at Olympic Park, along with sports training programs. Renato Cosentino, a researcher at the Regional and Urban Planning Institute at the Federal University of Rio, who studies the Olympic Park region, said the park “was born as a white elephant,” because it was built in a wealthy suburb that is home to only about 5 percent of Rio’s 6. 3 million residents. Having the majority of investment there, he said, proves that the Olympics were meant to serve real estate developers, who took on much of the construction for the Games in exchange for being able to build on the land afterward, in what is known as a partnership. But even developers’ expectations have not panned out. The construction giants Carvalho Hosken and Odebrecht took on the project of building the athletes’ village in hopes of selling the accommodations as luxury condominiums after the Games, banking on the area’s becoming a desirable neighborhood for the city’s elite. In the 31 towers that make up the village, only 20 units have been sold since the beginning of the Olympics in August, bringing the total sold to 260, out of 3, 604 apartments. In a scramble to sell off the apartments before Carvalho Hosken becomes responsible for about $6. 5 million in monthly interest payments (previously paid for by the local organizing committee for the Olympics) the company is in the process of striking a deal with Rio’s city government to sell them to civil servants, such as military personnel, at discounted prices with low interest rates, according to the Brazilian newspaper O Globo. Rio’s prominent soccer stadium, the Maracanã, which hosted the opening and closing ceremonies, has also fallen into disrepair, with a brown field, several thousand seats uprooted, televisions missing and nearly $1 million owed to the electricity company. The consortium that normally administers the stadium, Maracanã S. A. claims that Rio 2016 and the Rio State government did not hold up their end of a contract that required them to maintain the stadium and return it in the state in which it was given to them. The Deodoro neighborhood was a favorite talking point for Olympic officials before and during the Games. Several sites — including those for equestrian events, shooting and field hockey — were constructed there, heralded as a shining example of how the Olympics can lift a blighted area. The flagship, however, was the giant swimming pool, used as the canoe slalom course, which opened to the public before the Games. When the pool opened, Mr. Paes, the mayor at the time, beamed. “We’ve made an early legacy here,” he said. “I think this is something in the history of the Olympics. ” The pool is now closed, though temperatures are regularly in the 90s and the neighborhood is a long bus ride from Rio’s beaches. The current mayor, Mr. Crivella, again said the city intended to reopen the pool as soon as possible, but he did not forecast a date. Close by, the Triângulo favela community was disrupted to make way for rapid bus lines that were expanded before the Olympics. Several homes and the community’s plaza, its main leisure space, were removed by the construction. Today, a turnaround for the buses looms over where the plaza used to be, but residents have no access to the buses. They say they were promised a bus terminal and a new leisure space, but neither has come. “The government, business people — they tricked us,” said Camila Felix Muguet, 36, who lost part of her home and her backyard to the project. “They came, they robbed, and they said goodbye. Now they’re gone, and where are our upgrades?” Ms. Pimentel, the Deodoro resident whose children were playing in a plastic pool, said she had always suspected that the public pool might not last. “The Olympics ended, Deodoro ended,” she said, shaking her head. “We’re going to be forgotten. ” | 1 |
Home › SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY › GLOBAL WARMING ALARMISTS DISAPPOINTED THAT HURRICANE MATTHEW WASN’T WORSE GLOBAL WARMING ALARMISTS DISAPPOINTED THAT HURRICANE MATTHEW WASN’T WORSE 0 SHARES
[10/26/16] J.D.HEYES – Only the sickest, most warped and ideologically polluted minds would secretly hope for greater death and destruction to their own people and country, but such is the case with “climate change” zealots .
As pointed out by Investor’s Business Daily (IBD), it was former President Obama crony and current Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel who once infamously remarked that political leaders should never let serious crises “go to waste,” because they can use them to advance a political agenda where they could not do so before.
As for the recent Hurricane Matthew, it appears as though a number of political operatives and true believers in the global warming religion likely wanted it to be worse than it actually was (which, to many people, was bad enough).
Why? Because that would be consistent with their history.
For the record, the storm killed 30 Americans and more than 1,000 people in total. Early damage estimates were put at about $5 billion. Yet that is not enough death and destruction for the global warming hoaxers.
For the record, the hoaxers have tried advancing the narrative that in this day and age, thanks to man-caused actions, the weather is getting worse and more severe . Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton enlisted the assistance of the hoaxer-in-chief, Al Gore, her husband’s vice president and today’s chief global warming liar, to use Matthew to advance the phony narrative.
Only, before the hurricane actually made landfall days ago in South Carolina, it had been more than 4,000 days since a hurricane actually struck the United States. That’s 10 years, 11 months and some change.
Alarmists were “itching for a large-scale disaster,” IBD reported, because every day that passed that didn’t herald a major weather event, especially one on an epic scale, meant that their dire predictions of more and bigger storms made them look like clueless, silly con artists (which they are).
Their sick impatience for a major weather-related crisis was summarized very well a couple of years ago when a guy named Greg Blanchette announced that since the weather is getting worse and more severe , that he “kind of” hoped that North America “gets it’s a** kicked this hurricane season. It would motivate us on climate action.”
Like we said, sick .
This may or may not be the same Greg Blanchette who advocated placing scary global warming warnings on gasoline pumps – which is now law in North Vancouver, British Columbia. That doesn’t matter, though, because if it’s not the same person, that only means there are two global warming hoaxer cranks out there sharing the same name.
Then, as IBD noted, a couple of years before this Blanchette dude was hoping for weather-related death and destruction, British naturalist David Attenborough noted that a “disaster” was required to wake people up to the massive threat of climate change.
Up to that point, the “disasters” that the U.S. had experienced “with hurricanes and floods … [didn’t] do it.” So, a cataclysmic event was needed in order to scare enough people into demanding some sort of action, which of course would come in the form of costly government regulations that are not based on sound, demonstrable and replicable scientific data.
Then, as Matthew tore up Florida’s Atlantic Coast, Marshall Shepherd, an atmospheric sciences professor at the University of Georgia, outed the sick hoaxers , tweeting that he was hearing “ridiculous complaining” that the hurricane was actually less powerful than anticipated.
“Some seem disappointed there isn’t tragic loss of life/apocalyptic,” he noted, adding: “I am thankful.”
IBD summed up the facts: While the environmental movement contains sincere people, it is also replete with idiots and lunatics who yearn for a planet devoid of humans (with the exception of themselves, of course). Attenborough himself has complained to the British press that human beings are a “plague on the Earth.” (We assume he is counting himself as well, which – if he is – seems even less rational, if that’s possible.)
There are nothing but theories claiming that man-caused activity is responsible for changing weather patterns. There is no hard evidence and there is no replicable data, which there should be if such claims were provable outside of anecdotal findings . If this was a real issue the language would not have changed from “global cooling” in the 1970s, to “global warming” in the 1980s and ’90s, to “climate change” today. Post navigation | 0 |
WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump moved quickly on Friday to begin filling national security posts at the top echelons of his administration, selecting a group of hawks and campaign loyalists who reflect the views that defined his run for president. Mr. Trump said he would nominate as attorney general Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who has been a fierce supporter of a crackdown on undocumented immigrants. The also moved to install Michael T. Flynn, a retired lieutenant general who has said that Islamist militancy poses a global existential threat, as his national security adviser. And as director of the C. I. A. Mr. Trump selected Representative Mike Pompeo of Kansas, who harshly criticized Hillary Clinton during the House investigation of the 2012 attack on the United States diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. All three are regarded, in some ways, as outliers from conventional Republican thinking, shunned at times for strident statements, controversial positions or highly partisan moves. The flurry of announcements indicated that Mr. Trump was gaining control over a transition operation that had been entangled in infighting during its early stages. The results were the first seeds of an that will break starkly with that of President Obama. Transition officials said Mr. Trump would meet over the weekend with a broad array of potential cabinet members and other advisers as a signal that he wanted to build a diverse team, without regard to political affiliation or support for his presidential bid. Among them are Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee and one of his party’s harshest critics of the ’s campaign, who is a contender for secretary of state, and Michelle A. Rhee, a Democrat who pursued sweeping reforms during her tenure as the District of Columbia’s chancellor of schools. Mr. Trump also planned to meet on Saturday with James N. Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general who headed United States Central Command and is being considered for secretary of defense. But there was no evidence in Friday’s selections that Mr. Trump, who has hinted that he might pursue a more centrist agenda once he sits in the Oval Office, is inclined to moderate his approach on key questions of national security and civil rights. In a statement on Friday, Mr. Trump called Mr. Sessions a “ legal mind,” and added that Mr. Pompeo would be “a brilliant and unrelenting leader for our intelligence community. ” Of General Flynn, he said: “I am pleased that Lieutenant General Michael Flynn will be by my side as we work to defeat radical Islamic terrorism, navigate geopolitical challenges and keep Americans safe at home and abroad. ” Both Mr. Sessions and General Flynn were early and fervent supporters of Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign, even as many establishment Republicans were criticizing Mr. Trump for inflammatory statements and dismissing his chances of winning the nomination. Mr. Pompeo initially supported Senator Marco Rubio of Florida in the Republican primary, but switched after it became clear Mr. Trump would be the nominee. Mr. Pompeo is also close to Vice Mike Pence, who is heading the transition effort. In 1986, Mr. Sessions — who, if confirmed, would be charged with safeguarding civil rights in the United States — was blocked from becoming a federal judge by the Senate’s Judiciary Committee because of previous racially charged comments and actions. In testimony before the committee, former colleagues said that Mr. Sessions had referred to the N. A. A. C. P. the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and other civil rights groups as “ ” and “ . ” An federal prosecutor, Thomas H. Figures, said at the time that Mr. Sessions had referred to him as “boy,” and testified that Mr. Sessions had said the Ku Klux Klan was fine “until I found out they smoked pot,” a remark Mr. Sessions later dismissed as a joke. Aides to Mr. Trump dismissed the past statements, and described Mr. Sessions as a champion of civil rights, citing as evidence a number of desegregation lawsuits he filed while serving as a United States attorney in Alabama, his votes to extend the Voting Rights Act and to confirm Eric H. Holder Jr. as the first attorney general, and his efforts to award the Congressional Gold Medal to Rosa Parks. “Senator Sessions is someone who’s universally respected across party lines in the United States Senate,” said Jason Miller, a spokesman for Mr. Trump’s transition team, calling him “very well qualified for this position. ” Senator Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, said on Twitter that Mr. Sessions was “well liked and well regarded, even by those who don’t always agree with him. ” He added, “I look forward to supporting his nomination. ” Other Republican senators and conservative groups likewise rallied behind Mr. Sessions, while Democrats have pledged to keep an open mind on confirming him. But, in a reflection of the tough questions he is likely to face in his confirmation hearing, civil rights groups and their champions in Congress condemned the choice. “Given some of his past statements and his staunch opposition to immigration reform,” said Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the new minority leader, “I am very concerned about what he would do with the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice, and want to hear what he has to say. ” Mr. Trump’s selection of General Flynn, which does not require Senate confirmation, was similarly cheered by conservative organizations and met with alarm by Democrats. He has called Islam a political ideology that has “metastasized” into a “malignant cancer. ” After building a reputation as a respected military officer, he was fired by President Obama after two years as the chief of the Defense Intelligence Agency. General Flynn has since been a vociferous critic of a Washington elite he contends has refused to name radical Islam as the enemy, and is therefore doomed to fall short in defeating it. “His statements about Muslims are profoundly as well as damaging to the fight against terrorism and national security,” said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon and a member of the Intelligence Committee. “He has indicated an openness to torture and the destruction of an entire city, both of which are clearly illegal, not to mention immoral and destructive to America’s global leadership. ” Mr. Wyden said that the who last week chose Stephen K. Bannon, who has promoted nationalism as the chairman of Breitbart News, appeared to be building “a White House leadership that embodies the most divisive rhetoric of his campaign. ” Mr. Pompeo, a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and Harvard Law School, was elected to Congress in 2010 with substantial financial backing from a political action committee funded by Koch Industries, based in Wichita, Kan. He has criticized Mr. Obama’s decisions to shut down the C. I. A. ’s “black site” prisons and to require all interrogators to strictly adhere to laws. In 2014, he accused Mr. Obama of refusing “to take the war on radical Islamic terrorism seriously. ” After the House Select Committee on Benghazi found no new evidence of wrongdoing by the Obama administration or Mrs. Clinton, who was the secretary of state at the time of the attack, Mr. Pompeo and another Republican on the committee, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, said they were convinced there had been a and they filed a addendum that included far harsher criticism of the administration and of Mrs. Clinton. Other Republicans, including the committee’s chairman, declined to add their names to the document. Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California, called Mr. Pompeo “very bright and . ” “While we have had our share of strong differences — principally on the politicization of the tragedy in Benghazi — I know that he is someone who is willing to listen and engage, both key qualities in a C. I. A. director,” Mr. Schiff said. | 1 |
0 комментариев 4 поделились
"На примере террористической опасности со всей очевидностью проявляется неспособность оценить характер, причины возникновения и нарастания угроз. Мы видим это по тому, как развивается ситуация в Сирии, остановить кровопролитие и запустить политический процесс не удается. Казалось бы, после долгих переговоров, огромных усилий и сложных компромиссов наконец начал формироваться единый фронт борьбы с терроризмом, однако этого не произошло, он, фактически, не создан", - сказал российский лидер.
Президент отметил, что примеры терактов последних лет (в том числе США и Франции) показывают - террористы могут действовать в одиночку.
По его словам, люди напуганы тем, что терроризм из далекой угрозы стал повседневностью, что "теракт может произойти буквально рядом, на соседней улице, если не на собственной улице, а орудием массового убийства способно стать любое подручное средство - от изготовленной кустарным способом взрывчатки до обычного грузовика".
В том же время Запад в противостоянию терроризму наступает на одни и те же грабли.
"Не сработали и наши личные договоренности с президентом США. В Вашингтоне нашлись силы, которые сделали все, чтобы они - эти договоренности - не были реализованы на практике. Все это демонстрирует необъяснимое, я бы сказал, иррациональное стремление западных стран раз за разом повторять свои ошибки, как у нас в народе говорят, наступать на одни и те же грабли", - заявил Путин.
По словам российского лидера, любые вызовы можно преодолеть только сообща, на базе правил ООН.
"Универсальные правила ООН необходимы, чтобы включить как можно большее число стран в процесс экономической и гуманитарной интеграции, гарантировать политическую ответственность и обеспечить согласованность действий, разумеется, при сохранении суверенитета", - сказал Владимир Путин.
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In presidential politics, everyone is on the lookout for them and an army of analysts is eager to declare them: turning points. It’s the moment when a single image or phrase or blunder could change the trajectory of the campaign. But when is a turning point really a turning point? Where — if at all — does Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” remark or her health scare at the Sept. 11 memorial land on that scale? What about Donald J. Trump’s widely denounced comments about Mexicans and Muslims? In the latest episode of The my colleagues on the campaign team answer those questions by talking about the turning points they’ve experienced in this race — not always the big, kind, but frequently the smaller, subtler, ones that nevertheless signaled a shift in the political terrain. Our guests are Patrick Healy, a national political reporter Amy Chozick, who covers the Clinton campaign Ashley Parker, who reports on Donald J. Trump Maggie Haberman, who has written about both candidates Robert Draper, a writer at large for The New York Times Magazine and Jim Rutenberg, the media columnist at The Times. And we look back at what many regard as the biggest turning point of the last presidential campaign, in 2012, to explore whether it was as consequential as everyone thought at the time. From a desktop or laptop, you can listen by pressing play on the button above. Or if you’re on a mobile device, the instructions below will help you find and subscribe to the series. On your iPhone or iPad: 1. Open your podcast app. It’s a app called “Podcasts” with a purple icon. (This link might help.) 2. Search for the series. Tap on the “search” magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen, type in “The ” and select it from the list of results. 3. Subscribe. Once on the series page, tap on the “subscribe” button to have new episodes sent to your phone for free. You may want to adjust your notifications to be alerted when a new episode arrives. 4. Or just sample. If you would rather listen to an episode or two before deciding to subscribe, tap on the episode title from the list on the series page. If you have an internet connection, you’ll be able to stream the episode. On your Android phone or tablet: 1. Open your podcast app. It’s a app called “Play Music” with an icon. (This link might help.) 2. Search for the series. Click on the magnifying glass icon at the top of the screen, search for the name of the series and select it from the list of results. You may have to scroll down to find the “Podcasts” search results. 3. Subscribe. Once on the series page, click on the word “subscribe” to have new episodes sent to your phone for free. 4. Or just sample. If you would rather listen to an episode or two before deciding to subscribe, click on the episode title from the list on the series page. If you have an internet connection, you’ll be able to stream the episode. | 1 |
November 1, 2016 at 10:33 pm
You never see these debates in Parliament on the BBC news not one bit. Just shows you all the bullshit that doesn't really have anything to do with the people of this country. They have no good intentions for our people and are only concerned about the 1% | 0 |
…not since the mini-skirt has there been something worn by so many women who should never have it on in the first place…
— Alan Sorrentino, a sexagenarian gay man, in his letter to a local Rhode Island newspaper
A senior citizen and self-described “short, little gay Italian” in Rhode Island has been the victim of a vicious intimidation campaign by feminists with too much time on their hands. After he wrote a newspaper letter saying that women over 20 should not wear yoga pants, the backlash against Alan Sorrentino was vitriolic. 300 women marched on his home, which was publicly shared, using the excuse that it was just a “neighborhood protest.”
In retaliation for exercising his First Amendment rights, which you might have incorrectly thought encouraged violence given the heavy-handed feminist response, Sorrentino received threatening calls and explicit death threats. Publications such as The Washington Post regarded the shameful intimidation of an old man as some kind of fun outing. Rabid social media users and the protesters themselves also lost sight of the context of Sorrentino’s letter and later comments, which pointed out that men rocking up to supermarkets in Speedos would be considered inappropriate, too.
“Violent” gay man whose fashion prescriptions in a newspaper reaching only a few thousand people are capable of disemboweling feminists and ejecting them into space.
If anything, the moronic march on Sorrentino’s home and throughout his neighborhood demonstrates the paucity of real issues women have to complain about. For all the talk of the “misogyny” and “patriarchy” that triggered the march (pun intended), these women were able to assemble freely in one of the most liberal states in America and harass, without interruption, an old white male, albeit not a straight one. They evidently did not feel the fear they continually reference in their diatribes. Where were the Saudi-style female dress code police or the rape squads of the rape culture they always talk about to teach them a lesson? Alas, the dastardly misogyny and patriarchy must have chosen to remain invisible again!
Women tell men what to wear all the time I didn’t see anyone staking out Jennie Price’s home for telling her husband and other men what to wear. Image attribution: Martin Spaven.
It goes without saying that one of the biggest criticisms leveled by women towards their boyfriends or husbands is their allegedly bad fashion sense. Even beyond their relationships, women have a penchant for sticking their noses into what a man wears, from his sporting clothing and clubbing attire to his choice of bathing suit. Here in Australia, an entire media sub-industry emerged to criticize our former conservative Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, for wearing so-called “budgie smugglers” whilst swimming and keeping fit.
Because Alan Sorrentino had 300 women obviously stalk his home for his fashion comments, should men have stalked the residence of one Jennie Price, a hack journalist from The Daily Mail ? Instead of celebrating her husband’s decision to resist middle-age decline and obesity through cycling, Price penned a ridiculous piece in 2014 decrying so-called MAMILs (middle-aged men in lycra).
She joined BBC “journalist” Dominic Casciani, who equated men taking up the amateur sport with a mid-life crisis . Notwithstanding that men in lycra wouldn’t get I or my readers off, at least men wearing this fabric actually engage in exercise when they don it (in the morning, too, when fewer folks are awake to see them!). By contrast, yoga pants seem to be the default female fashion option for non-exercise more than physical exertion (or even yoga).
Naturally, had just three guys , let alone 30 or 300, made their intention to protest-cycle their way through Jennie Price’s neighborhood in Britain, the police would have been called. The same can be said of any of the countless female journalists and female “fashion experts” who have opined on what men should or should not wear. And let’s not forget women telling each other what to wear. A number of females make their careers out of critiquing what other women wear, especially on the celebrity red carpet. I wonder how many times, for example, then zombie and now dead zombie Joan Rivers found her home marched on by offended feminists after she berated either a piece of female fashion attire or the women wearing it.
Sending a tweet is “violence” but 300 people marching on someone’s house is not–what world do we live in? The national debt? Nah. Terrorism? Nah. Urban crime? Nah. These folks are protesting fashion comments.
At the start of this year, I brought you the story of Holly Michelle Wood , a putrid Harvard PhD candidate and feminist, who went around calling white people “awful.” After the now banned Milo Yiannopoulos simply retweeted Wood’s criticisms of him, fellow feminist Catrin Cooper used the “cyber violence” argument and tried to get a Twitter stooge, Michael Margolis, to alert its founder, Jack Dorsey. We would not have the time to go through even a relatively small fraction of the other instances in which women who cannot argue their position online reframe criticism as “misogyny” or even outright “violence.”
As Alan Sorrentino clearly feared for his safety during the march, potentially hundreds or thousands of women gave themselves excuses for calling some man disagreeing with them online or in person “violent.” A climate now exists where whatever words certain women finds offensive becomes the basis for stopping whatever they’re doing (presumably not much) and going after the person saying them in the most organized and appalling fashion.
At a minimum, the target of their fury must lose his job, reputation, and sense of personal safety to satiate their desire for revenge. In the meantime, the very act of their protest and abuse, which is not interfered with, validates the idea that women are not the targets of systematic hate or oppression in society.
As a gender, women, particularly the middle and upper middle-class women who seem to dominate these kinds of pointless, abusive protests, have nothing to complain about. Except maybe having too much time on their hands.
Read More: Yoga Pants CEO Is Attacked For Speaking The Truth About Fat Women
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Thousands of women in Nigeria took the streets of the northern capital Maiduguri this weekend to protest the government’s inability to eradicate the Islamic State affiliate Boko Haram, which has not ceased in committing mass abductions, rapes, and murders since the government claimed victory over them in 2015. [Recent reports indicate that Boko Haram terrorists, mostly sheltered in the dense Sambisa Forest of the nation’s northeast, have continued to force poor underage girls to engage in suicide bombings, paying them as little as 50 cents for their lives. The women who organized in Maiduguri, the capital of northeastern Borno state, did so to attract the attention of representatives of the United Nations Security Council, who were visiting the city to evaluate the condition of the refugee and person (IDP) camp for Boko Haram victims in the area. The protests targeted not only Boko Haram terrorists but the government of President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja, who won the nation’s presidency on a campaign promise to ride the nation of Boko Haram entirely. Protesters complained that the government was not doing enough to ensure the safety of IDPs at the camp in question. “We told the (UN) delegation about our grievances. There’s no food, there is nothing good here for us,” one protester told the Agence . “We were expelled from our homes by Boko Haram and we came to Maiduguri to seek refuge, but unfortunately we haven’t been well treated. ” Reports of abuse of Boko Haram victims at the Maiduguri camp have continued to surface for years. In September, an NGO report revealed that Nigerian officials had done such an inadequate job feeding the refugees that many of the women and girls stranded there were forced to have sex with Nigerian soldiers in exchange for food to survive. Many Boko Haram victims are either pregnant or have given birth to children after being repeatedly raped by Boko Haram jihadists, making their need for a stable food source even more desperate. A report published a month later accused Nigerian soldiers of raping Boko Haram victims, sometimes impregnating them or coercing sex out of them by promising them marriage and a stable home. 43 women told Human Rights Watch that they had experienced “sexual abuse, including rape, and exploitation” at the hand of Nigerian soldiers. Buhari vowed to investigate the charges upon the release of the report. The abuse and neglect in Nigeria’s northern refugee camp have led some women to choose to join Boko Haram. The terrorist group, some women have told NGOs, offered “financial empowerment” by ensuring the women are fed and teaching them to read and write in Arabic — in order to study the Quran — so long as they succumb to extreme sexual abuse. In addition to abusing its residents, the Nigerian military conducted an airstrike on the Maiduguri camp in January, killing over 100 displaced Nigerians. The military called the bombing a “regrettable operational mistake. ” protests have not solely occurred against Buhari in Nigeria. On Saturday, thousands of protesters took over Niamey, the capital of Niger, demanding President Idriss Deby improve the quality of life in Niger. The protesters demanded an improved economy and the release of political prisoners, holding signs reading “Life is too hard. ” The nation’s economy has been hit by, among other factors, a wave of mass abductions and suicide bombings by Boko Haram. Borno state lies on the Niger border, allowing Boko Haram terrorists access to that country as well as neighboring Cameroon. Despite claims from both governments that the Boko Haram threat has been significantly limited, reports this week indicate that Borno residents continue to face the near constant threat of suicide bombings, abductions, and other jihadist activity. Boko Haram terrorists often seek young women and girls to conduct their terrorist attacks, as they can hide bombs under their Islamic clothing. A Sky News report published this week reveals one such exchange, in which a Boko Haram terrorist pays a girl 50 cents to wear a suicide bomb and explode it in a Maiduguri market. The girl surrendered to police before detonating her explosives. In one attempt to disguise a suicide bombing, as police have learned to suspect of young girls, Boko Haram sent two women holding an infant into a village to detonate a bomb in May 2016. The Foundation for the Defence of Democracies (FDD) estimates that women and girls tied to Boko Haram have committed at least 123 suicide bombings in the past three years. These women are among the estimated thousands Boko Haram has abducted and forced into slave marriages and terrorist activity. While Boko Haram jihadists turn their young girls into suicide bombers, the boys are taught at an early age how to properly rape women while limiting the chances of her escape. “They tell us to remember to hold the girl tight on both hands, pinned to the floor,” a boy identified as “Ahmed” explained to reporters last year. “They said we shouldn’t let a woman overpower us. ” President Buhari declared that Nigeria had “won the war” against Boko Haram in December 2015 and has not yet retracted that claim. | 1 |
Declan Walsh, our bureau chief in Cairo, is in a area of Aleppo, Syria, covering the civil war. As bombs fall on the city, he is talking to civilians, witnessing the wounded and interviewing soldiers who have been at war for years. On Saturday, we will publish his look at the besieged city, but here is a first look from his point of view. Follow him on Instagram. The reaction to the sound of shellfire varies dramatically in Aleppo, depending on which neighborhood, or even street, you happen to be standing in. In some places, people don’t even flinch, and continue as if nothing has happened in others like Midan, where civilians have died from mortar fire in recent days, they quicken their step and move to safety. This road — a narrow strip of undulating asphalt lined by the ruins of bombed villages — is the lifeline of Aleppo, Syria’s most populous city. Opposition forces lie to the left, Islamic State to the right. Trucks speed along the road, pressing toward Aleppo. Nobody stops if they can help it. A heavy barrage of shells fired from areas fell on Aleppo on Thursday morning. The emergency room at Al Razi Hospital was inundated with the wounded. This man arrived unconscious with a gash in his head and was quickly wheeled off to an operating room. Trying to comfort a soldier at Al Razi Hospital on Friday. This soldier, grieving for a comrade who had died at the hospital, writhed on the ground, shouting and kicking. Passing though Homs, en route to Aleppo, we caught a glimpse of the destroyed ancient city. Residents go about their business, but look weary. | 1 |
Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson has introduced a motion to end oil drilling and production near public places in a measure that could kill America’s next oil and gas fracking boom. [Over the objections from the oil industry, Wesson introduced a motion on April 19 to conduct a study regarding how the Department of City Planning, with the assistance of the city attorney and the city’s petroleum administrator, could change the city’s zoning code to require a setback for oil and gas activities within public and residential facilities. Wesson’s motion stated, “The closer oil and gas wells and storage facilities are to sensitive land uses, the higher the risk that the health and safety of nearby residents could be threatened. ” And in a call to action, Wesson added, “Due to the ongoing health impacts experienced by residents from neighborhood drilling activity, it is imperative that we identify and implement a meaningful, solution. ” Despite Wesson’s claims about health risks, the Center for Disease Control found that from 2003 — 2013 as the U. S. oil and gas extraction industry doubled the size of its workforce and increased drilling rigs by 71 percent, the annual occupational fatality rate in the industry decreased 36. 3 percent, to 1, 189 deaths over the decade. About 40 percent of fatalities were due to transportation accidents, and 26 percent was due to equipment accidents. The CDC found illnesses and fatalities from all environmental exposure were extremely low. Wesson and his environmental lobbying allies claim they are only seeking a setback, or about a half mile. But with California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources website revealing that there are about 3, 000 active wells, tens of thousands of inactive wells, and underground pipelines running throughout the city, the proposed setback would essentially ban oil and gas activity in almost 100 percent of Los Angeles. The new effort follows a failed 2014 national initiative that was led by California environmental groups including Earthjustice, California Communities Against Toxics, California Safe Schools, Center on Race, Poverty the Environment, Comite Pro Uno, the Esperanza Community Housing Corporation, and many more. The California sponsors attempted to have the Obama administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issue a new regulatory order under Section 112 of the Clean Air Act that would allow all oil and gas production wells and associated equipment to be listed as an “area source” of toxic pollution, if the EPA Administrator “determines that emissions of hazardous air pollutants from such wells present more than a negligible risk of adverse effects to public health” in any combined metropolitan statistical areas with a population of at least 1 million. Give that the definition of “negligible” according to the dictionary. com website is: “so small, trifling, or unimportant that it may safely be neglected or disregarded,” the EPA would have been able to ban all oil and gas drilling, production and refining in the 54 combined metropolitan statistical areas in America that have a total population of at least 206 million, or about of the entire U. S. population. The Monterrey Shale Formation that covers the entire Los Angeles Basin is potentially the richest shale oil reserve in the United States. Since water is key to the shale hydraulic fracturing drilling process, Breitbart News predicted that a state economic boom would take off as soon as California experienced its next cyclical rainy season. With all California reservoirs already above historic levels, record snowpack levels in the Sierras, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicting a National a very wet El Niño during the water year that begins on November 1, the L. A. City Council motion could kill a potential local economic boom. | 1 |
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Officials with the State Department told Hillary’s campaign staffers that they planned to leak a story about the missing Benghazi emails to a “friendly” AP reporter before giving it to Congress.
“Just spoke to State a little more about this,” Clinton’s travelling press secretary Nick Merrill wrote to campaign staffers on June 24, 2015, regarding emails sent between the former Secretary of State and her longtime confidant Sidney Blumenthal, The Daily Caller is reporting .
State Department told officials they would tip off AP reporter that at least 15 emails between Clinton and Blumenthal were missing from the more than 55,000 pages of emails given to a House committee investigating the 9/11/2012 attack on the Benghazi compound in Libya.
“They do not plan to release anything publicly, so no posting online or anything public-facing, just to the committee,” Merrill said. “That said, they are considering placing a story with a friendly at the AP (Matt Lee or Bradley Klapper), that would lay this out before the majority on the committee has a chance to realize what they have and distort it.”
“On that last piece, we think it would make sense to work with State and the AP to deploy the below,” Merrill wrote, referring to press statements the campaign had crafted after they got tipped off State would hand over Blumenthal emails to Congress.
Staffers with the Clinton campaign put together a series of statements on the missing emails after being told it would have to disclose it to House investigators.
“So assuming everyone is in agreement we’ll proceed,” Merrill wrote. “It would be good to frame this a little, and frankly to have it break tomorrow when we’ll likely be close to or in the midst of a SCOTUS decision taking over the news hyenas.”
AP reporters Lee and Klapper did run with a story on July 25, 2015 — the day after Merrill’s email. Their story cited “officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter.”
Lee and Klapper’s article also included the statement crafted by Clinton campaign staffers in the email chain — that chain was one of thousands released by WikiLeaks from Clinton campaign chair John Podesta’s hacked Gmail account.
Podesta’s emails suggest the Clinton campaign had a cozy relationship with many members of the media, including the AP.
In one email chain, Center for American Progress President Neera Tanden told Podesta to get the New York Times to cover Clinton favorably.
Tanden said former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg met with Arthur Sulzberger, NYT’s publisher, to alter coverage of him.
Tanden told Podesta that “when bloomberg was having problems w the times he called Arthur Schulzburger and asked for coffee.”
“He made the case that they were treating him like a billionaire dilettante instead of Third term mayor,” Tanden wrote. “It changed the coverage moderately but also aired the issues in the newsroom so people were more conscious of it.” | 0 |
U.N. declares junk food a 'human rights' issue Says countries failing to meet globally agreed upon nutrition targets Published: 9 mins ago
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A U.N. expert says junk food is a human rights concern.
Hilal Elver, the U.N.’s special representative on the right to food, said Tuesday the rise of industrial food production combined with trade liberalization has allowed large corporations to flood the global market with cheap, nutrient-poor foods that force poor people to choose between economic viability and nutrition, effectively violating their right to adequate food.
“Within the human rights framework, states are obliged to ensure effective measures to regulate the food industry, ensure that nutrition policymaking spaces are free from private sector influence and implement comprehensive policies that combat malnutrition in all its forms,” she said. | 0 |
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. Donald Trump was in Louisiana, above, early Friday to campaign for a Republican seeking a United States Senate seat. He headed to Michigan afterward to continue his victory tour. Rex Tillerson, the head of Exxon Mobil, appears to be the leading candidate for secretary of state. Mr. Trump said earlier that Rudolph Giuliani was no longer in the running for the job. Selections for other top posts keep coming: Gary D. Cohn, the president of Goldman Sachs, will be named to direct the National Economic Council. And Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a representative from Washington State, may be chosen for secretary of the interior. _____ 2. President Obama has ordered intelligence agencies to produce a full report on Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election, days after Mr. Trump dismissed the possibility that Russia intervened. A broader look at cybermischief linked to Russia indicates it has expanded in both range and sophistication, with some dissidents saying hackers have planted child pornography on their computers. _____ 3. Russia is also coming under fire in sports after a new report laid out mountainous evidence of the broad scale of a doping program. The investigation implicates more than 1, 000 athletes in 30 sports and could affect the outcomes of past Olympics and other competitions. _____ 4. Hundreds of men have been reported missing in eastern Aleppo as the Syrian Army continues its push to retake the city. Human rights groups are blaming both government forces and some rebel fighters. In Afghanistan, where the Taliban is threatening major cities and Islamic State affiliates are gaining a foothold, the U. S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter visited the Bagram Air Base to thank American troops stationed there. _____ 5. A Dutch politician who is using the campaign slogan “Make the Netherlands Great Again” was convicted of inciting discrimination for saying the country would be safer with fewer Moroccans. Geert Wilders, above, is a likely contender for prime minister, and the trial seems to have improved his party’s standing among voters. _____ 6. It is now up to South Korea’s Constitutional Court to decide whether the charges against President Park above, merit her ouster. The country’s Parliament voted on Friday to impeach Ms. Park, the nation’s first female leader, following a corruption scandal. She has given no indication she’ll resign. _____ 7. Our investigation into Chicago’s crisis of violence took our journalists to the city’s 11th police district, where homicides are up 89 percent from a year ago. Only about 74, 000 residents call it home, yet 91 people have been killed there so far in 2016 — more homicides than larger cities like Seattle and Buffalo saw in all of last year. “It’s about desperation, decadence, depression and rage,” said the Rev. Marshall E. Hatch Sr. _____ 8. “Did you know that the Nazis took loads of drugs?” That was the question from a D. J. and fan of substances that set a Berlin author, Norman Ohler, above, on a path to years of researching drug use in The Third Reich. Now, his book chronicling the blitzkrieg of France and Hitler’s addiction to powerful opiates is a best seller in Germany and Britain. It will be published in the U. S. in April. _____ 9. Taylor Swift surprised fans with the release of a new single — her first new music since the album “1989” came out in the fall of 2014. The moody track “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” was a collaboration with the former One Direction member Zayn Malik and will be featured in the movie soundtrack “Fifty Shades Darker. ” _____ 10. A volcano straddling the border between China and North Korea remains largely tranquil. But when North Korean scientists recorded a swarm of tiny earthquakes rumbling underground years ago, they reached out to the West for help. The rare collaboration with scientists from the U. S. and Britain led to a new understanding of the volcano, which unleashed one of the most violent eruptions in recorded human history when Mount Paektu last awoke. _____ 11. Finally, bundle up. A winter storm has begun making its way across the northern swath of the U. S. bringing plunging temperatures, snow, or in some places, freezing rain. The weather system is projected to reach the Northeast late Sunday and into Monday. Above, Portland, Ore. on Thursday. _____ 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 |
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán delivered a stinging speech in the European Parliament Wednesday, asserting Hungary’s right to and defending its actions regarding immigration and against American financial speculator George Soros. [“I know that the power, size and weight of Hungary is much smaller than that of the financial speculator, George Soros, who is now attacking Hungary,” Orbán said. “Despite ruining the lives of millions of European with his financial speculations, being penalized in Hungary for speculations, and who is an openly admitted enemy of the euro, he is so highly praised that he is received by the EU’s top leaders,” he said. The Prime Minister’s address built upon comments he made in an Easter interview with Magyar Idők, in which he stated the motives behind Hungary’s diffidence toward George Soros. “There can be no special privileges, and no one may stand above the law — not even George Soros’s people,” he said. Through his organisations in Hungary, and hidden from the public gaze, Orbán said, “George Soros is spending endless amounts of money to support illegal immigration. ” “To pursue his interests he pays a number of lobbying organisations operating in the guise of civil society. He maintains a regular network, with its own promoters, its own media, hundreds of people, and its own university. ” “I believe that George Soros must not be underestimated: he is a powerful billionaire of enormous determination who, when it comes to his interests, respects neither God nor man,” he said. In his address before Parliament Wednesday, Orbán said that the basic stance of the government is contrary to the intentions of the European Commission regarding immigration. “Our position is clear: we do not want, and do not think it is in accordance with the founding treaties of the Union, to settle migrants in our country in a mandatory way,” he said. “The decision on who we live with can only be made by the Hungarian citizens. ” The Prime Minister said it is important to note that “George Soros and his NGOs want to transport one million migrants to the EU per year. He has personally, publicly announced this programme and provides a financial loan for it. You could read this yourselves. ” “We reject this,” Orbán said. “We do not want to lose the right of national ratemaking for public utilities, because we fear that this would increase the burdens of the people and once again lead to drastic price increases, from which Hungarian families have suffered enough. Regarding the regulation of organisations (NGOs) Orbán said that the Hungarian proposal “follows the American example. ” The “complicated question,” he said, is “how we can make the operations of financially strong foreign external lobbies, willing to influence democratic transparent to everyone. ” “The Hungarian legislation builds on the principal of clarity and transparency. We want nothing else but to be able to know of NGOs what kind of money and what kind of interests are behind them. This does not undermine their constitutional rights to have their voices heard, represent their interests and be able to organise themselves freely,” he said. Orbán said that Hungarians are in favor of “straight talk” and reject attempts to beat around the bush or hide behind diplomatic language when discussing important issues. “We talk clearly and unambiguously, so everyone can understand, even if we know that this may not appeal to everyone,” he said. “We on the other hand are irritated by the restrained political language, unable to name things for what they are, that has become widespread in European public life nowadays. ” Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome | 1 |
PHILADELPHIA — President Trump’s decision to build a wall along the length of the United States’ southern border with Mexico erupted into a diplomatic standoff on Thursday, leading to the cancellation of a White House visit by Mexico’s president and sharply rising tensions over who would pay for the wall. With the conflict escalating, Mr. Trump appeared to embrace a proposal by House Republicans that would impose a 20 percent tax on all imported goods. The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, told reporters that the proceeds would be used to pay for the border wall, estimated to cost as much as $20 billion. But a furious uproar prompted Mr. Spicer to temper his earlier remarks, saying the plan was simply “one idea” that might work to finance the wall. Mr. Spicer said it was not the job of the White House to “roll something out” on tax policy, while Mr. Trump’s chief of staff, Reince Priebus, said the administration was considering “a buffet of options. ” If Mr. Trump does eventually announce his support for the tax plan, it could have a broad impact on the American economy, and its consumers and workers, by sharply increasing the prices of imported goods or reducing profits for the companies that produce them. Other nations could retaliate, prompting a trade war that could hit consumers around the globe. Retail businesses could see their tax bills surge, said David French of the National Retail Federation, who predicted that those costs would be passed on to consumers. He called the idea “very counter to the way consumers are feeling at the moment. ” If nothing else, the developments showed Mr. Trump that international diplomacy and a overhaul of the tax code would not be as easy as an announcement before a campaign microphone. The events unfolded after Mr. Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday to strengthen the nation’s deportation force and start construction on a new wall along the border. Adding to Mexico’s perception of an insult was the timing of the order: It came on the first day of talks between top Mexican officials and their counterparts in Washington, and just days before a scheduled meeting between Mr. Trump and the Mexican president, Enrique Peña Nieto. The sense of chaos and confusion about the tax issue added to the fallout from Mr. Trump’s conflict with Mr. Peña Nieto, his first direct clash with a world leader since becoming president a week ago. The Mexican peso bounced sharply with each new development. Tensions between the two have been simmering for months, despite comments by both men that they were trying to work together. Mr. Trump’s immigration and decisions on Wednesday appeared to shatter the remaining good will between them. In a video message delivered on Twitter on Wednesday night, Mr. Peña Nieto reiterated his commitment to protect the interests of Mexico and the Mexican people, and pledged to devote the resources of Mexico’s consulates in the United States to protecting its citizens. “I regret and condemn the United States’ decision to continue with the construction of a wall that, for years now, far from uniting us, divides us,” Mr. Peña Nieto said. Mr. Trump responded on Twitter, “If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting. ” Within hours, that is just what happened. Blasting Mr. Trump for sowing division between the countries, Mr. Peña Nieto angrily backed out of the White House meeting, which had been scheduled for next week. In remarks at congressional Republicans’ retreat in Philadelphia, Mr. Trump portrayed the decision to cancel the meeting as his own and issued a stern warning to Mr. Peña Nieto about the consequences of refusing to cooperate with him on financing the wall. “Unless Mexico is going to treat the United States fairly, with respect, such a meeting would be fruitless, and I want to go a different route,” Mr. Trump said. “We have no choice. ” In the same remarks, Mr. Trump alluded to the idea of a border tax, saying, “We’re working on a tax reform bill that will reduce our trade deficits, increase American exports, and will generate revenue from Mexico that will pay for the wall if we decide to go that route. ” After the speech, in a brief, impromptu news conference as Mr. Trump flew back to Washington, Mr. Spicer told reporters that the president now favored the plan to impose a 20 percent border tax as part of a sweeping overhaul of corporate taxation. Only last week, Mr. Trump had dismissed the tax as too complicated, favoring his own plan to impose a 35 percent tariff on manufactured goods made by American corporations in overseas factories. Mr. Spicer said that the plan for the tax was “taking shape” and that it was “really going to provide the funding” for the wall. Mr. Spicer said that was a direct reference to the centerpiece of House Republicans’ proposal to overhaul the tax code. They have been pushing the idea for months, but with little evidence, until Thursday, that Mr. Trump was interested in it. But by the time Mr. Spicer returned to the White House two hours later, he had already recanted. In another hastily arranged conversation with reporters, he called the proposal “one idea” that might work and said it was not the job of the White House to “roll something out” on tax policy. “We’ve been asked over and over again: ‘How could you possibly do this? There’s no way that Mexico will pay for it,’ ” Mr. Spicer said. “Here’s one way. Boom. Done. We could go in another direction. We could talk about tariffs. We could talk about other custom user fees. There are a hundred other things. ” The White House and House Republicans have been hashing out their respective tax proposals as they press forward with Mr. Trump’s agenda to revive American manufacturing and increase exports. The House proposal would replace the current system of corporate taxation with one that more closely resembles the approach taken by many other developed nations. The government would impose a 20 percent tax on corporate income earned in the United States, which would have the effect of taxing imports while exempting exports. The approach, known as border adjustment, creates the appearance of taxing trade deficits. The goods that the United States imported from Mexico in 2015 were worth about $60 billion more than the goods it exported to Mexico, so federal revenue in the short term would increase by roughly $12 billion. But the House plan would offset that revenue by reducing the 35 percent corporate income tax rate, and would thus generate no new federal revenue over all. It was unclear how that fit with Mr. Spicer’s repeated contention Thursday afternoon that revenue from the tax adjustment would help finance construction of the border wall. By siphoning off that revenue, Mr. Trump would make it impossible to reduce the tax rate as far as Republicans wish. He is pressing for a 15 percent corporate tax rate. Moreover, the tax would not be paid by Mexico. It would be paid by companies selling Mexican goods in the United States. Some might raise prices, imposing the cost on consumers, while others might be forced by competitive pressures to absorb the tax, reducing their profits. Many economists also doubt that the change would end up penalizing imports or encouraging exports. They predict that the value of the dollar would rise, offsetting those effects. Nonetheless, many businesses in industries such as retail and energy, which rely heavily on imports, were in a panic. Representative Kevin Brady, the Texas Republican who wrote the plan, told Fox News on Thursday afternoon that he was pleased that Mr. Trump appeared to be on board with it after his appearance in Philadelphia. “What I heard today from this president was that in tax reform, that they would level the playing field for imports around the world and level it with the U. S. products here in America at the exact same rate,” Mr. Brady said. | 1 |
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Someone is getting anxious . With the Establishment’s preferred candidate losing the U.S. Election, more anti-Russia propaganda has appeared yet again in attempts to instill another “divide and conquer” type message to the U.S. masses. Before reading any further, note that this article is not to defend or support Donald Trump, but rather to dis-spell myths around Russia.
In what used to be an unbiased media outlet, the Huffington Post, thanks to emails from Wikileaks , has proven yet to only be another puppet outlet of the banking and political cabal.
In the cabal’s latest desperate attempt to smear Russia as the villain, the article labeled Vladimir Putin as a dictator ruling with fear and hate. In reality, the Russian Federation is an established multi-party representative democracy with Putin receiving a nearly 90% approval rating from it’s citizens . This is compared this to the 51% approval rating Barack Obama received from the U.S. in 2016. Vladimir Putin is systematically taking down the banking cabal.
The article goes on to claim that “Brexit, Trump and Putin are in isolation” while also defending NATO, a well-known hostile military tool of the U.S. and political cabal. However though, reason sets in and we see through the lies and spins of the media. Let’s take a look at some established facts and see how the dust settles.
NATO
The North Atlantic Trade Organization has 28 member states and has long been used as another military option by the U.S. to try and provoke Russia and prevent them from gaining more friends throughout Europe. In reality, take a look to see how many NATO bases exist around Russia and in Europe. So, who is actually looking to create war? Russia or NATO? An image mocking the alleged threat of Russian “aggression.”
Brexit
Brexit had very, very little to do with immigration and hate. It had everything to do with Britain reclaiming sovereignty from the EU. While there have indeed been many good things that have come from the creation of the EU, it served as a blueprint for how the globalist cabal wanted to create a one world government, in which all nations belonged to a single world order. Amazingly, this information made it into The Telegraph in late 2015 , which is a mainstream media outlet in the UK that gave detailed evidence that the EU was created and funded by the US State Department and the CIA, as written by Professor Alan Sked. In Alan’s word’s:
“Voters in Britain need to understand that the European Union was about building a federal superstate from day one.”
In fact, Brexit was a direct blow to the cabal’s globalist agenda. This was not an isolated move by “angry Britains.” It was a rejection of fascism from the people of the world and the rejection is only going to continue…and Russia is leading the way.
Alliances
While the U.S. has claimed several times that Russia is “isolated,” let’s ask ourselves a very logical question. Is is possible to isolate a country that exists in 11 different time zones? Is it logical to believe a nation this big, with industry, business and military presence across these times zones to be even possibly isolated? Is it logical to believe that Russia is isolated when over 3,000 German companies do active business Russia? Remember, Germany has the EU’s best economy and is the biggest reason the EU has not financially collapsed yet. Russia exists across 11 time zones. Good luck in attempts at isolation.
Further exposure of the “isolation” lies comes with Russia’s multiple alliances it has made with the BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization(SCO), the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the Eurasion Economic Union, among others. Keep in mind too that the U.S. (who is the figurehead in the cabal’s agenda) was not invited to join the nearly 60 nation alliance of the AIIB, or the BRICS and the SCO. Remember, the West’s Russia bashing is all about finance and gold. “Who owns the gold makes the rules.” With India, China and Russia mining and holding a lot of gold, they have made it no secret as to their intention of resetting the world’s financial system to a gold and asset backed system.
To the cabal, this must be avoided at all costs as The Federal Reserve and European Central Bank continue to print money without it being backed by anything. This fiat currency allows the cabal to control entire nations with paper money that is backed by nothing but words. A gold-backed system on the other hand will allow for more transparency and will eliminate currency manipulation as a means to suppress entire nations and sometimes, entire continents (Africa).
Additionally, the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are well aware of the global collateral accounts and their original humanitarian purposes. The banking cabal has been fraudulently abusing those accounts for decades and is the real reason JFK was assassinated. He had issued Executive Order 11110 and signed the Green Hilton Memorial Agreement with President Sukarno of Indonesia, which was to end the Federal Reserve and CIA and replace Federal Reserve Notes with Treasury Notes, and backing those notes with gold from the global collateral accounts. These accounts also relate to the events of 9/11 .
While the U.S. claims Russia is isolated, we see that a few former U.S. allies have turned their backs on the U.S. and are defying the cabal that controls the U.S. In recent weeks, we’ve seen Turkey and the Philippines pivot East. So again, who is isolated?
Syria
Despite the fact that the U.N. has yet to provide undeniable proof that the Assad regime has used chemical weapons on it’s own people (the only proof that has been submitted is that chemical weapons have been used, but no evidence of who used them), the cabal and it’s media outlets continue to blast Russia for being in Syria as well as making claims Russia shouldn’t be in Syria. Keep in mind, Russia was formally invited by Syria and the U.S. was not.
The reason so much energy is focused around toppling Assad is not because he is a “dictator,” but because of oil and gas.
Back in 2009, two middle eastern pipelines were proposed:
One that started in Qatar and went through Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq then on to Turkey [then to Europe]. The second proposed pipeline was to go through Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Turkey [then also on to Europe]. Saudi Arabia said no to the first and Syria said no to the second.
This “no” from Assad in Syria was certainly done to protect his Russian ally, as well as to protect himself from being overthrown . The reason that Russia has a strong interest in protecting the Assad regime is that Assad is stopping natural gas from flowing from the Persian Gulf to Europe. And since Europe is dependent on and the biggest customer of Russia’s natural gas (from the Gazprom company which holds the world’s largest supply of natural gas), it is important financially and politically for Europe to remain that way, in the view of Russia.
A year after Assad said no to the Qatar, Saudi Pipeline (which was US and EU backed), he called for a pipeline running from Iran (who has the world’s second largest supply of natural gas, behind Russia) through Iraq and into Syria, which then could begin supplying Europe as well. This move was supported by Russia, Iran and Iraq, which now makes up a growing alliance throughout the Middle East. Syria is once again all about control of oil and resources.
Soon after Assad proposed this new Iran-Iraq-Syrian pipeline, was when the “civil war” broke out and ISIL began creating havoc in the Middle East and more specifically, Syria. Once again, this situation in Syria has nothing to do with chemical weapons, but everything to do with controlling resources and thus, money. It also has nothing to do with Vladimir Putin being a “ dictator.” In reality, Putin is taking a stand against the banking and political cabal who have deep and vested interests in control over Middle Eastern oil and gas.
ISIL
Back in mid-November 2015, Vladimir Putin told the world that Russian intelligence had gathered information that 40 countries were funding ISIL and that some of those countries are G-20 members. To make things more interesting, he made this announcement at the G-20 Summit in Antalya, Turkey. The cabal knows Putin and the growing alliance he is working with has the goods on the U.S./Saudi/Israeli trained and funded terrorist outfit known as ISIL. The charade is quickly coming to an end and international exposure is drawing near.
Monsanto and GMO’s
Last September, Putin made it known that Russia stopped producing genetically modified foods and were set on becoming the world’s largest exporter of organic foods by 2020.
“We are not only able to feed ourselves taking into account our lands, water resources – Russia is able to become the largest world supplier of healthy, ecologically clean and high-quality food which the Western producers have long lost, especially given the fact that demand for such products in the world market is steadily growing.”
Taking a stand against the cabal’s Monsanto was and is a big victory for Russia and for humanity.
With established facts, we can see the desperate attempts to vilify Vladimir Putin are falling short of their desired outcomes. The world is seeing through it. Unfortunately, there are still many Americans believing the lies and unknowingly supporting the agenda of the banking and political cabal. We must seek peace with Russia and all other nations. We must applaud and support any and all genuine attempts to mend ties and cooperate peacefully with Russia and all nations. We can not let emotional ties to political parties or candidates disable our instinctual drive for peace and harmony to be established with other countries. Peace it must be.
With humanity continuing to wake up and the world continuing to reject the cabal’s agenda, we must increasingly sharpen our skills at discernment. Attempts at propaganda will continue to come even quicker now and from more angles, as the lies are being revealed at an ever-increasing rate.
Remember the words of Malcolm X in the days ahead:
“If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people doing the oppressing.”
Lance Schuttler graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in Health Science and does health coaching through his website Orgonlight Health . You can follow the Orgonlight Health facebook page or visit the website for more information and other inspiring articles. | 0 |
By Alice Salles Last week, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Edith Ramirez, chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), requesting that the... | 0 |
After Melania Trump met with Pope Francis in the Vatican Wednesday, her spokeswoman confirmed that the First Lady is indeed a Roman Catholic, the first to occupy her post since Jackie Kennedy. [The last time the United States had a Catholic as First Lady was during the presidency of John F. Kennedy, whose wife Jackie Kennedy — like him — was a Roman Catholic. When Melania moves into the White House together with their son Barron this summer, she will become the first Catholic occupant of the White House since the Kennedy era. On meeting the Pope Wednesday, Melania asked him to bless her rosary and later visited the Bambin Gesù (Baby Jesus) pediatric hospital, where she met with young patients and their families, prayed in a chapel and laid flowers at the feet of a statue of the Virgin Mary. Later that day, the First Lady’s spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham confirmed to DailMail. com that Melania is a practicing Catholic. Having grown up in Slovenia, then part of the Communist and officially atheist Soviet bloc, it is unclear when Melania was baptized a Catholic. President Trump is a Presbyterian, and he and Melania were married in a Palm Beach Florida Episcopal church. Melania’s father was a nominal member of the Communist Party in order to be able to obtain employment. In February, Melania kicked off a presidential rally in Melbourne, Florida, by reciting the Lord’s Prayer, beginning with the typical Catholic invocation “Let us pray. ” The first lady later tweeted about the development with the hashtags “#Blessings” and “#Faith. ” In another tweet, she sent “blessings to all” after her audience with the pontiff, which she described as an “honor” she will never forget. Today’s visit with His Holiness Pope Francis @Pontifex is one I’ll never forget. I was humbled by the honor. Blessings to all. pic. twitter. — Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) May 24, 2017, Mrs. Trump told Pope Francis at the Vatican that she was looking forward to going to the hospital “for the bambinos,” a visit she later described as “very moving. ” “To spend time speaking to and coloring with children who have such a positive spirit despite illness was an amazing gift,” she said. “The time I spent with the little ones in the Intensive Care Unit is something I will never forget, and I will pray for each of them daily,” she said. Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome | 1 |
This story by Paris Swade .
CNN is over. CNN is over! We need to black them off the television screen. They should not even be aired in the United States because they are nothing but a propaganda arm for the Clinton campaign. WIKILEAKS JUST LEAKED PROOF THAT CNN WORKS WITH THE CLINTON CAMPAIGN.
They were just caught colluding with the DNC on what questions Wolf Blitzer should ask Trump ahead of his foreign policy address.
Here is a newly leaked email by Wikileaks with someone from the DNC asking for questions from the DNC to send to Wolf Blitzer. You can find the Wikileaks here .
Here is a new Wikileaks email where someone named [email protected] asking for questions to ask Cruz on CNN. You can find the Wikileaks by clicking here .
*** Here is the interview in question.
The DNC literally gave the questions for Wolf Blitzer to ask Trump. We need to expose this to the people of America. They are being lied to. It hurts my heart to see so many people so blind.
*** Share this if you are tired of the mainstream media lies!
Comment ‘BLACK OUT CNN’ below. We need to expose CNN for the criminals that they are!
Stand up patriots and share this with all of your friends. We have to get this information out. God bless Trump for standing up to this. | 0 |
Last week’s American airstrike on a Syrian base believed to house chemical weapons used to attack Syrian civilians has brought the issue of refugees once again to the forefront of the political debate. [Democrats, ranging from Hillary Clinton to Maxine Waters, have used the airstrike as an opportunity to call again for the importation of 100, 000 more Syrian refugees into the United States. “Rep. Maxine Waters (D, Calif.) slammed President Donald Trump on Sunday for his temporary refugee ban and backed a MoveOn. org petition calling for the United States to take in 100, 000 Syrian refugees,” the Free Beacon reported earlier this week. “Former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton chided President Trump Friday for ordering airstrikes against the Syrian regime at the same time as he attempts to bar Syrian refugees from the U. S. urging the administration to recognize that we cannot in one breath speak of protecting Syrian babies and in the next close America’s doors to them,” CBS News reported last week. But for President Trump and many Republicans, the airstrike presents an opportunity to a concept President Trump raised on the campaign trail: the establishment of refugee safe zones overseas. The summary of President Trump’s proposed budget for FY 2018 released by OMB in March suggests the administration may be including a funding request to establish such refugee zones. “The blueprint for the Trump administration’s FY 2018 budget released on Thursday ‘allows for significant funding of humanitarian assistance, including food aid, disaster, and refugee program funding’ in the State Department,” Breitbart News reported in March: The language of the blueprint, however, could be interpreted to suggest that the Trump administration’s “significant funding of . . . [the] refugee program” defines the program broadly to include safe zones in other parts of the world in addition to the federal refugee resettlement program. As such, a further reduction of refugees resettled in the United States in FY 2018 could be entirely possible. President Trump supported the establishment of safe zones for refugees during the campaign. The Refugee Admissions Program authorized by the Refugee Act of 1980 has been surrounded by political and legal chaos for several years, and that controversy has heightened during the campaign of 2016 and the first months of the Trump administration. Trump campaigned on stopping the flow of Syrian refugees to the United States, while Hillary Clinton wanted to dramatically increase that flow. Trump won the Presidency in part based on his stance on refugees, but his efforts to honor his campaign pledge have been hampered by court decisions that have temporarily halted both Executive Order 13769 and Executive Order 13780. Overall, the flow of refugees into the United States has declined under the Trump administration, but a significant number of refugees from the six Middle Eastern countries “hostile to the United States” Trump attempted to impose a temporary travel ban on in Executive Order 13780 — Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, and Yemen — has continued unabated. Paying for the resettlement of refugees is expensive. Breitbart News estimated that the annual cost to American taxpayers to fund the resettlement of refugees exceeds $4 billion. Several cost estimates indicate that safe zones overseas would cost less than ten percent, on a per refugee basis, what it costs to resettle a refugee in the United States. In addition to the financial cost of refugee resettlement, the cultural cost to the United States is very high as well, since refugees — especially from Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, and Yemen — have a long track record of failing to assimilate into American culture. That failure manifests itself in several ways. These refugees have been involved in a number of terrorist incidents in the United States. Somalian refugees in particular have participated in a number of terrorist incidents in the United States and been arrested for attempting to join ISIS. Then there is the huge public health impact of refugees, again particularly from these six countries in the Middle East. Breitbart News has reported, for instance, that the number of cases of active TB from refugees during the four year period from 2012 to 2015 exceeded 1, 500: The increase in the number of refugees diagnosed with active TB from 358 in 2012 to 409 in 2015 was partially responsible for the increase in the total number of cases of active TB increased from 6, 274 to 6, 350 during those four years. Other categories of cases of TB that increased included those who arrived under regular immigrant visas, which increased from 1, 437 in 2012 to 1, 670 in 2015, those who arrived in the “other” category, which includes illegal immigrants (called “undocumented immigrants” in the CDC reports) which increased from 1, 312 in 2012 to 1, 408 in 2015, and those who arrived under student visas, which increased from 158 in 2012 to 191 in 2015. TB cases as a percentage of all TB cases diagnosed in the United States increased from 63. 1 percent in 2012 to 66. 4 percent in 2015. Finally, there is a huge problem of common crimes committed by refugees who do not assimilate into American culture, or actively reject it. “Three boys from Iraq and Sudan who were invited into the country via refugee programs pled guilty to charges of sexually brutalizing a American child in Twin Falls, Idaho, last year,” Breitbart News reported earlier this month. In North Dakota recently a “Somali refugee in the U. S. was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of molesting a teenage girl at gunpoint,” Breitbart News reported. The list of crimes reported by refugees in the United States is much longer than this, as a brief scan of the daily headlines around the country confirms on a regular basis. In one recent key appointment, President Trump indicated that it may no longer be “business as usual” in the Refugee Admissions Program. “President Donald Trump has selected Scott Lloyd to serve as the new director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) the office within the Department of Health and Human Services that administers the payments to the voluntary agencies (VOLAGs) that resettle refugees in the United States,” Breitbart News reported last month. Still, Obama holdovers who have historically been strong refugee advocates, most notably Jennifer Higgins, remain in positions of authority in the Department of Homeland Security’s program responsible for refugee vetting. The Trump administration will shortly reveal how serious it is about establishing refugee safe zones overseas as a preferable alternative to bringing thousands more Middle Eastern refugees into the United States. The Continuing Resolution that has funded the federal government’s operations for the first half of FY 2017 is about to expire later this month on April 28. Recent comments by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ( ) suggest refugee safe zones may be part of budget considerations. McConnell “wouldn’t comment on whether Trump should let refugees into the U. S. but said it would be beneficial to create some safe zone in Syria, “which would require some military action … so people don’t feel like they have to run for their lives,” Axios reported last week. Any proposal by the Trump administration to increase refugee funding to establish safe zones during the remainder of FY 2017 will be included in the budgets brought to a vote in Congress to fund the balance of the fiscal year later this month. | 1 |
Region: Southeast Asia Two years remain until the parliamentary elections in Cambodia. This is a really rather short period considering that the position of the current political regime of the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) remains in doubt. Despite the Party’s success at the municipal elections in 2015, there is no confidence that it may win and retain power at the parliamentary elections. The CPP is overloaded with a host of problems. Primarily, everyone is talking about corruption in the party, its nepotism, detachment from the people, who analysts state have long tired of seeing one and the same governing figures at the top of Cambodia’s political hierarchy. There is even the feeling that the leadership of the Party won’t plan to renew its policy and introduce new leaders even if it recognizes its problems. In January 2015, at an emergency session of the CPP, it was noted that “the corruption, nepotism, abuse of powers, violation of the laws spread among the Party’s members had undermined the confidence of the people and raised doubts about its right to rule the country.” The introduction of reforms inside the Party and society was named as a life-and-death issue for the CPP’s future at the session. However, almost two years have passed since the session and the Party has not even started to solve its acute problems. There are no new young and attractive leaders in its leadership, yet the provincial level has rather competent and authoritative governors of provinces – CPP members that might change the image of the ruling party if they became members of its leadership. Despite the fact that the number of members of the Central Committee has doubled, it is still dominated by the same veterans of the People’s Revolutionary Party who together with Hun Sen and supported by Vietnam and the Soviet Union built the People’s Republic of Kampuchea (1979-1991). Over this period, they went from being “comrade” to “Mr” and became even more detached from real life. The style of the political leadership was supposed to be corrected, and the session would promote steps aimed at a symbolic detachment from the personal leadership of Hun Sen. These expectations were not met. Soon after the session, he took up the position of CPP Chairman and consolidated both administrative and party powers into his own hands. The relations of the authorities and the opposition have been developing in a complicated and ambiguous way. At first, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) headed by openly pro-Western and anti-Vietnam policy maker Sam Rainsy, which obtained only 12 seats fewer than the ruling party at the elections in 2013, boycotted the National Parliament in protest against the alleged falsification of the figures and violations that prevented their victory. Then, pro-Western nationalists agreed with Hun Sen to return to the Parliament and started active work aimed at spreading their influence in the rural areas by opening its branches in the traditional CPP territories and carrying out protests in their interest. This activity led by the opposition clearly frightened the ruling regime and Sam Rainsy emigrated while the other leader Kim Socha and his supporters were brought to justice for the organization of illegal anti-governmental protests. At the same time, Cambodia’s leader initiated propaganda attacks on the opposition leaders, organised protests demanding the resignation of its representatives from public offices. A number of opposition members were even beaten, which was followed by the initiation of criminal cases against them. The situation became so serious that the Deputies of the European Parliament threatened the authorities of Cambodia with suspending the provision of economic assistance. This is a serious warning for Hun Sen, as the European Union is one of the leading donors to Cambodia’s economy. As for the tactics of the opposition, it is now refraining from mass protest campaigns in order not to give the authorities reason to expand repressions. At the same time, using non-commercial organisations related to it and gaining Western subsidies, the opposition is generating the conviction in society that the ruling regime is against the people, and its leaders should be judged and their property should be confiscated. It also proposes a social and economic program that presupposes an increase in the minimum wage and retirement benefits, and a reduction in fuel and electricity prices. Though the program is purely populist and unreal, it is attracting people who have started to perceive the CNRP as a political force able to change the situation in the country. While assessing the situation in Cambodia and its prospects, it becomes clear that the People’s Party has no clear pre-election strategy and it is not mobilizing party members for successful elections. The elaboration and presentation of a pre-election strategy might influence those who have doubts about their preferences and those who have not decided how to vote in 2018. In September, I had a chance to talk with the delegation from Cambodia at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. I was interested in the mood in the People’s Party in the run-up to the elections. One of the high-ranking members of the delegation answered, “We are very scared”, which just confirmed that our conclusions were correct. Dmitry Mosyakov, Professor, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Director of the Centre for Southeast Asia, Australia and Oceania and the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, exclusively for the online magazine “ New Eastern Outlook. “
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Disgraced commentator Donna Brazile took to Twitter earlier this week and asked her followers if Snowstorm Stella’s disastrous effect on Americans could potentially damage Donald Trump’s presidency. [She used the analogy of Hurricane Katrina and the hurt it caused President George W. Bush, and how Hurricane Sandy marred former President Barack Obama. “#43 twisted with Katrina, #44 soaked in Sandy. Will #DonaldDumpStella? Can 40 million ppl find #Stella sobering under #45 leadership?” Brazile tweeted. #43 twisted with Katrina, #44 soaked in Sandy. Will #DonaldDumpStella? Can 40 million ppl find #Stella sobering under #45 leadership? — Donna Brazile (@donnabrazile) March 13, 2017, The Democratic strategist further politicized potential tragedy by posting another tweet with the hashtag “#StellaGotGroove. ” #StellaGotGroove #WinterStormStella https: . — Donna Brazile (@donnabrazile) March 13, 2017, By Monday afternoon, Brazile was still pushing politics and posting photos of the storm’s advancement. Here comes #Stella! pic. twitter. — Donna Brazile (@donnabrazile) March 13, 2017, Hurricane Katrina took 1, 836 lives in 2005. Hurricane Sandy killed another 106 people in 2012. Brazile’s tweets sparked outrage on social media, with many Twitter users asking why the former Chair of the Democratic National Committee thought it wise to politicize a potentially deadly snow storm. Brazile resigned from CNN last year after she was caught secretly sharing information about official CNN events with Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @JeromeEHudson | 1 |
This post was originally published on this site
© Mikhail Metzel/TASS
KIEV, November 22. /TASS/. The Russian servicemen detained on the border with Crimea are the former servicemen of Ukraine’s army accused of breaking the military oath, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry spokesman on the Donbass military operation Alexander Motuzyanik said on Tuesday.
“We don’t know on what purpose these persons crossed the administrative border. They were detained on the territory controlled by Ukraine and it was found out that these are the former servicemen of Ukraine’s Armed Forces who failed to comply with the respective directive and did not leave Crimea,” the spokesman said.
“So they broke the military oath and there are the respective criminal proceedings against them,” he said, adding that the detention took place as part of Ukraine’s current legislation.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said late on Monday that the Ukrainian Security Service officers had illegally detained Russian contract servicemen in Crimea at about 13:00 Moscow time (10:00 GMT) on November 20 and took them to Ukraine’s Nikolayev Region.
The ministry said further that according to available data, the Ukrainian special services were attempting to fabricate a criminal case against Alexander Baranov and Maxim Odintsov for allegedly committed crimes against Ukraine.
Russia’s Defense Ministry does not rule out that psychological and physical pressure will be exerted on the Russian servicemen to obtain necessary confessionary evidence from them.
This information was confirmed earlier on Tuesday by a representative of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. “Officers of the Ukrainian Security Service used substitute persons to entice warrant officer Maxim Odintsov and contract service junior sergeant Alexander Baranov into the Dzhankoi checkpoint allegedly for giving them attested documents of receiving higher education at Ukrainian higher educational institutions,” the fleet’s representative said.
Shortly after Odintsov and Baranov left Russia’s territory, the servicemen were detained by representatives of the Ukrainian Security Service and brought to Ukraine’s Nikolayev Region, he added.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has come up with a statement that Ukrainian special services have made a provocation against Russian citizens on the territory of Russia by abducting two servicemen in Crimea.”We believe this was an unlawful provocation made by Ukraine’s special services on the territory of Russia against Russian citizens. Our law-enforcement agencies are dealing with this issue,” Sergey Lavrov said.
Russia’s human rights commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova plans to send a request to her Ukrainian counterpart Valeriya Lutkovskaya on Tuesday asking her to assist in releasing the two Russian servicemen.
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Dutch Anti-Islam MP Wilders to Snub Hate Speech Trial AFP, October 28, 2016
Defiant Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders said Friday he will refuse to attend his hate speech trial next week, dubbing it a travesty aimed at silencing him as the country prepares for 2017 elections.
The trial opens on Monday before a three-judge bench with the far-right politician facing charges of insulting a racial group and inciting racial hatred for comments he made about Moroccans living in the Netherlands.
“It is my right and my duty as a politician to speak about the problems in our country,” Wilders said in a statement Friday, dubbing the case “a political trial, in which I refuse to cooperate”.
It comes as opinion polls have shown his far-right Freedom Party (PVV) doing well ahead of March elections.
After riding high amid the migrant crisis, the party is now polling neck-and-neck with Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s Liberals each predicted to win between 25 to 29 seats in the 150-seat parliament.
Set to last until November 25, the trial focuses on a comment made at a March 2014 rally when Wilders asked supporters if they wanted “fewer or more Moroccans in your city and in the Netherlands?”
When the crowd shouted back “Fewer! Fewer!” Wilders answered: “We’re going to organise that.”
{snip}
Wilders said Friday he would leave his defence in the hands of his lawyer Geert-Jan Knoops and instead “go to work” in the parliament in The Hague.
{snip}
Judges earlier this month dismissed arguments by Wilders’ lawyers that the trial was “politically motivated” adding they did not believe it will impact the PVV’s election campaign.
Politicians “are granted broad freedoms of expression because of their official position,” the judges ruled last month.
“Precisely therefore politicians have an important role to avoid feeding intolerance by making these kind of public statements.”
Wilders hit back Friday saying “it is a travesty that I have to stand trial because I spoke about fewer Moroccans.”
“Millions of Dutch citizens (43 percent of the population) want fewer Moroccans,” he claimed.
“Not because they despise all Moroccans or want all Moroccans out of the country, but because they are sick and tired of the nuisance and terror caused by so many Moroccans.”
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FARMVILLE, Va. — When Tim Kaine joyously proclaimed that “Old Virginny is dead” the day after Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, he was on to something. Virginia, the birthplace of American slavery and the state that provided the intellectual foundation more than 300 years later for “massive resistance” to integration, had just voted for a black man to go to the White House. But Virginia’s support for Mr. Obama that year was not an aberration. Long seen as a hotbed of social unrest, where ancestor worship was as much a favored pastime as football, the Old Dominion reflects the America of 2016 as much as any state in the country. Mr. Kaine, who was Virginia’s governor in 2008 and is now a senator and the Democratic nominee for vice president, will debate Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, the Republican nominee, on Tuesday night in a state that is increasingly suburban, racially diverse and culturally tolerant. “I bet we’ve got more scar tissue than any other state on this,” Mr. Kaine said in an interview, referring to issues of race. “But we have learned that the better path is the path that Jefferson announced at the very beginning, that equality is our North Star, and when we follow that and we progressively get closer and closer to it. ” Mr. Kaine, like Virginia’s other senator and its governor, is a transplant. I am not. Though I grew up in Northern Virginia, still seen by some as occupied territory, the debate in Farmville, in the central part of the state, represents something of a homecoming for me. I went to college a few minutes down the road from Longwood University, the debate host, at a and still school founded in 1776. It is fair to say I was not expecting the 2016 presidential race to go through the rural community where I had spent four years. When I heard that Farmvegas, as we used to call it, had been awarded the debate, I was thrilled. Not only would it be fun to cover a debate in a small town I knew so well, but the event would shine a light on a place that, unbeknown to many, was home to one of the most uplifting stories, and then one of the most tragic stories, in civil rights history. And if ever there was a campaign that needed historical perspective on race in America, it was this one. It was in Farmville that Barbara Johns, a girl, led a walkout from the community’s dilapidated school in 1951 to protest the inferior conditions. The protest, an astonishing display of physical courage in the Jim Crow South, ultimately led to a lawsuit that was merged with the cases collectively known as Brown v. Board of Education. Sadly, the integration story of Farmville, and the surrounding Prince Edward County, does not end there. In defiance of the Supreme Court, local white officials would eventually close the entire county’s public school system for five years rather than let black and white children learn together. An academy was built, and and some poor white students were denied an education. Many of them still live in the area, and some have benefited from a state program offering tuition assistance for those who had no place to go to school during this period. “This isn’t the past,” said Mr. Kaine, who in 2008 unveiled a civil rights monument honoring Ms. Johns and others outside Virginia’s Capitol. “It still has a very significant effect. ” He would know: He married the daughter of Linwood Holton, Virginia’s first racially progressive governor. “When my integrated the public schools in Virginia, he became persona non grata politically ever after,” Mr. Kaine said, “and it’s only now, at 93, people think he was a good governor. ” This community, like the state, has made considerable strides. A black woman is now the county prosecutor, and there is a civil rights museum where that segregated school stood. But the racial divide on education has not yet been bridged. The academy is renamed and includes some blacks, but it is largely white while the public schools are mostly black. Longwood’s public relations effort in the to the debate focused on Farmville as a place of reconciliation, highlighting the symmetry of the Civil War’s end in nearby Appomattox and, less than 100 years later, Ms. Johns’s walkout that helped fuel the civil rights movement here. Some natives would prefer more attention to the school closures and the bitter legacy they left. “I think it’s a missed opportunity,” said Kristen Green, who grew up in Farmville and returned recently to write a book, “Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County,” an account of the education struggle here and how the community is and is not reckoning with its history. W. Taylor Reveley IV, Longwood’s president, said a civil rights walking tour planned for Tuesday would include talk of the school closures, and he pointed to a discussion of the topic in the press materials. Farmville, Mr. Reveley said, is now “genuinely drawing strength from its history rather than avoiding its history. ” But he conceded that the town was still grappling with difficulties in educational opportunities and outcomes. In this regard, he said, Farmville is not unique. It is a reflection of the country. “There’s no place in the United States that has achieved a perfect state of grace when it comes to these issues,” he said. | 1 |
Part 4 Saints Saints https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af1-nnplWE0 | 0 |
Oklahoma officials on Saturday ordered oil and gas operators to shut down three dozen wastewater disposal wells following a 5. earthquake that tied a record as the strongest in state history. The quake, centered near Pawnee, rattled the state just after 8 a. m. Eastern time Saturday, tying a record set in 2011 for the strongest such tremor in Oklahoma history, according to the National Weather Service. Local officials reported moderate to severe damage and at least one injury. “We are finding a lot of rural houses north, northwest of Pawnee that are seeing extensive damage,” Sheriff Mike Waters of Pawnee County said on Saturday. Pawnee County Emergency Management posted photos on Facebook just before noon of a pile of rubble, noting that three buildings had moderate damage, while several others had minor damage. Rocks and bricks fell from some businesses in town, and items fell off grocery store shelves, Sheriff Waters added. Gov. Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency for Pawnee County. She said on Twitter that crews inspecting bridges for damage found few in need of repair. The United States Geological Survey recorded later earthquakes of magnitudes 3. 6, 3. 4 and 2. 9. The first quake was felt as far away as Chicago and Austin, Tex. Thousands of earthquakes have hit Oklahoma in recent years. Most have been imperceptible, but the number that can be felt — generally of magnitude 3. 0 and higher — has risen significantly. Only three earthquakes of that size or stronger were recorded in 2009. Last year, the state had 907 such quakes. So far this year, there have been more than 400. Many seismologists say the quakes are caused by injection of wastewater from oil and gas wells, both conventional and hydraulically fractured, or fracked. As wastewater under pressure migrates into rock formations, it alters stresses along old faults, allowing them to slip. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which oversees oil and gas activity, announced that it had ordered the shutdown of wastewater wells across about 500 square miles in the area hit by the quake. About three dozen wells are affected, and will have to shut down in as little as a week, Ms. Fallin said on Twitter. The United States Geological Survey said in a statement that oil and gas activity had set off many earthquakes in the state, but that it could not yet say the practice caused Saturday’s quake. “Without studying the specifics of the wastewater injection and oil and gas production in this area, the U. S. G. S. cannot currently conclude whether or not this particular earthquake was caused by human activities,” it said. Oklahoma has thousands of wastewater disposal wells. Since the state has ordered operators of some to reduce the volume of wastewater injected, in the hope of reducing earthquakes. The earthquake on Saturday was the largest in the state since a 5. quake struck near Prague, about 60 miles south of Pawnee, in November 2011. That quake injured two people and damaged more than a dozen homes and a college building. | 1 |
Экономика Постановлением правительства России расширены исключения из списка санкционной продукции. В документе, опубликованным 25 октября на официальном интернет-портале правовой информации, в частности, говорится о том, что теперь в Россию разрешено ввозить мальков камбалы-тюрбо, лаврака обыкновенного и молоди белоногой креветки, а также мальков лосося атлантического, форели и молоди мидий. 0 комментариев 0 поделились Фото: AP
Напомним, ограничения на импорт продовольствия из стран Евросоюза, США, Норвегии, Австралии и Канады вступило в силу в августе 2014 года. Запрет коснулся не только поставок говядины, мяса птицы, свинины, орехов, фруктов и овощей из этих стран, но и рыбы.
Некоторые из опрошенных Pravda.ru рыботорговцев, впрочем, признавались, что запрещенная к ввозу деликатесная рыба все равно импортировалась в Россию из Чили, Уругвая, Китая.
Прокомментировать решение кабинета министров Pravda.Ru попросила президента Всероссийской ассоциации рыбохозяйственных предприятий, предпринимателей и экспортеров (ВАРПЭ) Александра Фомина.
- Как вы оцениваете постановление правительства, исключившего из списка эмбарго ряд наименований рыбы? И дело касается только мальков?
- Как я понял, правительство сняло запрет на ввоз мальков по нескольким позициям. Как известно, своих посадочного материала, своих мальков у нас нет, и видимо кто-то, решив выращивать этих мальков, обратился в правительство. Соответственно, правительство приняло нужное решение и исключило эти позиции из санкционного списка.
- Сейчас, кажется, только форель сами разводят в России?
- Форель тоже разная. Есть форель как бы морская, которая в садках по норвежским технологиям выращивается, вот таких мальков у нас нет. Зато неплохо обстоят дела с разведением пресноводной форели , здесь своих мальков хватает. Ну и плюс там раки, какие-то креветки, этого тоже у нас просто нет.
С мидиями проще: мальки мидий у нас есть, но видимо предприниматели хотят завозить какой-то особый вид моллюсков, там личинки. Среди посадочного материала устриц есть интересные экземпляры - двустворки, они интересны тем, что более продуктивны. Вот таких у нас устриц нет, наши все больше "дикие".
- Почему же у нас нет своих мальков?
- Откровенно говоря, у нас и хозяйств таких еще нет. Я предполагаю, что кто-то решил создать такие бизнес-проекты, связанные с разведением этих видов рыб. А раньше мы этим никогда и не занимались , поэтому нет и мальков.
- Это хорошо, что сами будем разводить?
- Конечно, разводить свою рыбу надо. Но быстрых результатов ждать не приходится: чтобы получить собственных мальков, нужно работать над этим 5-10 лет. Однако, если мы начнем покупать мальков, выращивать их до взрослой рыбы, тогда этот процесс пойдет быстрее.
- Видимо, пока еще не стоит говорить о том, что цены на рыбу станут ниже?
- Ну, это в общем очень маленькая ниша. Пока рыбу вырастят, пройдет 2-3 года. И все равно это продукция премиум-сегмента, которые обычные жители даже не заметят, не услышат об этом ничего. Это продукты для ресторанов. Камбала тюрбо, допустим, это очень дорогая рыба. Форель тоже малодоступная. Поэтому, основная масса населения этого даже не почувствует.
- Получается, что-то решил производить именно элитные деликатесы?
- Да, вероятно у кого-то возникла именно такая идея. Другой вопрос, что по более серьезным позициям запреты не снимают, а по несерьезным - буквально по щелчку пальцев вопрос решился, и это странно.
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Amaal Elhaaj is fighting the same radical Islamic terrorism that threatens people around the globe, including in her home country of Libya. She is also a Muslim who agrees with President Donald Trump’s travel order and his effort to keep Americans safe. [In fact, Amaal and the eight other Libyans who were granted visas by the Trump State Department came to the United States to seek help from the United Nations and the United States to achieve stability in their country and to gain support for all Muslims in Libya, not just what Amaal calls “political Islam” in power there, including the Muslim Brotherhood. Members of that delegation, made up of tribal leaders and women activists and organized by the National Movement of Libya (NML) believe that the political processes led by the United Nations in Libya have been more accommodating to Islamists than tribes that represent much larger areas and far more people, partly due to the influence of foreign powers, including the United States under the Obama administration. “I believe Trump is not fighting Muslims just because they are Muslims,” Amaal told Breitbart News. “And the decision he made, I can accept it … because he has to make sure the people who enter America are not the wrong people. ” Amaal added that most Libyans are peaceful people who would not commit terrorists acts. “They were trying to empower political Islam in Libya,” Amaal said. ”This is the truth. ” Amaal said NML isn’t advocating for the exclusion of Islamist groups, with the exception of terrorist groups, but that they want the U. N. to respect Libya’s demographics and strengthen cooperation with tribal groups and representatives of cities and civil society. NML consists of groups that both supported and did not support Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi during the 2011 revolution, with members reconciling with the help of facilitators. During the delegation’s visit to New York City and Washington, D. C. this week, members met with officials from the U. N. Security Council, the U. S. State Department, the U. N. Development Program, the Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom to the U. N. and the U. S. Institute for Peace. Amaal, who fled her country in 2014 after being targeted for activism for women’s rights and human rights, including her efforts to be elected as the first female Libyan Prime Minister, said her countrymen who now live in the U. S. aren’t united about the future of Libya. “There are some in the Libyan community in the United States that support the Muslim Brotherhood and are happy about what is happening in Libya,” Amaal said. “Many of those who support the Islamists have dual citizenship. But there are many American Muslims that work hard against terrorism, and we appreciate what they have done and are doing,” she added. Libya has experienced years of violence and lawlessness since the ouster of Kadhafi, with rival parliaments and governments trading barbs and militias fighting over territory and the country’s vast oil wealth. Militias loyal to former prime minister Khalifa Ghweil, whose administration was replaced by the government last year, have stepped up a campaign of defiance against its authority. For her part, Amaal plans to move back to a safe area in Libya and continue her activism. “I want democracy,” Amaal said. “I want justice. ” The Libyan delegation was sponsored by the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers and the Libya Institute for Advanced Studies, with the support of Finn Church Aid. | 1 |
By Whitney Webb Late last week, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved two new strains of genetically engineered potatoes. The potatoes, created by JR Simplot, have been engineered to... | 0 |
WASHINGTON — The United States’ accidental bombing of Syrian troops over the weekend has put it on the defensive, undercutting American efforts to reduce violence in the civil war and open paths for humanitarian relief. The United States had thought that if a deal to ease hostilities in Syria, struck by Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart in Geneva nine days ago, fell apart, it would reveal Russia’s duplicity in the war, in which Moscow has supported the Syrian president, Bashar . Instead, the mistaken bombing — American pilots thought they were aiming at Islamic State jihadists but instead killed more than 60 Syrian soldiers, according to the Russian military — again exposed the White House’s struggle to put together a coherent strategy in a multisided war. The United States has conflicting aims in the war, from defeating the Islamic State to ultimately easing Mr. Assad out of office. Nearly a year after Mr. Kerry began a diplomatic process to reduce the violence, and then a political accord for a transition in power, he appears no closer to that goal than when he started. The early American calls for Mr. Assad to leave office have been muted because of fears that a power vacuum in Damascus would be exploited by jihadists. The errant bombing, for which the administration apologized to Mr. Assad, also gave both the Russians and the Syrian government a propaganda bonanza: Russia suggested it was a result of an American reluctance to share intelligence, and the Assad government said, contrary to all other evidence, that the United States was trying to protect the Islamic State. The attempt to achieve seven consecutive days of a “reduction of hostilities” — the first step in a series of events envisioned in the deal between the United States and Russia — is not dead. The clock can start anew. But American officials said it was clear that the effort could fall apart, as did a agreement in February. American officials accused Russia of not pressing the Assad government to stop military activity and allow in humanitarian aid. Mr. Kerry, appearing on CNN on Sunday morning, called on Russia to stop “grandstanding” and to push the Assad government to honor the Geneva agreement, including allowing the delivery of aid to besieged areas. “The biggest judgment they need to make is to stop Assad from bombing people indiscriminately, which he continues to do,” Mr. Kerry said. “To allow him to continue to go after opposition, pretending that they are Nusra, is in and of itself a huge challenge to this effort. ” The new plan to reduce violence was designed to prevent Syrian forces from bombing opposition groups while claiming the groups were embedded with Nusra forces, which until recently were officially linked to Al Qaeda. The situation in Syria on Sunday showed that the that began last Monday was fraying. Fighter jets fired at least four missiles at opposition neighborhoods in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, while Syrian government helicopters dropped improvised barrel bombs on a village in the country’s south, killing at least nine people, a conflict monitor said. Many American officials believe that the Russians were never serious about the deal that was sealed in Geneva. The officials argue that the Russians were looking for an excuse that would derail it and keep a status quo in which they have more control over events in Syria than any other power, with the possible exception of Iran. If so, the accidental bombing made that process easier. Mr. Kerry faced many skeptics in Washington that the arrangement he worked out with his Russian counterpart, Sergey V. Lavrov, would ever work. Chief among them was Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter, the only senior member of the administration to vocally oppose the deal on the night Mr. Kerry reached it in Geneva. Mr. Carter feared that the accord would reveal too much to the Russians about American targeting intelligence, and argued that Moscow was cynically dragging out the process in President Obama’s final months in office. Mr. Kerry had argued that it was worth testing the Russians on their willingness to act. But on Sunday, whatever optimism he once had seemed gone. “The humanitarian assistance is supposed to be flowing,” Mr. Kerry said. “The regime once again is blocking it. So Russia’s client, Russia’s supported friend, is the single biggest blockade to the ability to move forward here. ” But the deadly bombing underscored how difficult it has been to ensure that the American and Russian militaries do not become entangled on Syria’s complicated battlefield, much less to coordinate their targeting. Under the current system, terse phone calls between the Russian military and the American command post in Qatar are supposed to allow each side to notify the other about the movement of its jets — sometimes giving only minutes of warning. This occurred on Saturday, when an American officer in Qatar called his Russian counterpart to tell him of the impending strike, according to a Central Command official. The American strikes began, and an urgent call came 20 minutes later, in which the Russians notified the Americans in Qatar that they were slaughtering Syrian troops. “What is paradoxical here is that Centcom says it informed the Russian military it would be striking the area, which they had struck many times previously,” said Andrew J. Tabler, a Syria expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “You would think the Russians, as Assad’s chief international ally, would have passed on the message. ” On Saturday, Mr. Kerry also called Mr. Lavrov to reiterate the need for the Syrian military to stop its bombings and for humanitarian aid to start flowing. As of Sunday morning, the situation had not improved, a State Department official said. With world leaders and foreign ministers headed to New York for the annual opening of the United Nations General Assembly, Mr. Kerry will assemble a meeting Tuesday of the International Syria Support Group, the multinational body that has designed the plans for a reduction in violence and a political solution for Syria. That group includes the United States, Russia, China, Turkey, and European and Arab nations — each with different interests in the conflict. Even after the quick admission by the United States that it had accidentally killed Syrian troops and regretted the loss of life, Russian and Syrian officials seized on the bombing to argue that it was the United States, and the opposition forces it backs, that were undermining the agreement. They said that the Syrians who had been killed had been fighting Islamic State jihadists, and that the bombing was far from an accident. “The actions of coalition pilots — if they, as we hope, were not taken on an order from Washington — are on the boundary between criminal negligence and connivance with Islamic State terrorists,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “We strongly urge Washington to exert the needed pressure on the illegal armed groups under its patronage to implement the plan unconditionally,” the ministry said. “Otherwise, the implementation of the entire package of the U. S. accords reached in Geneva on Sept. 9 may be jeopardized. ” Sunday’s airstrikes in Aleppo, which is divided between government and opposition forces, were the first to hit the city since the agreement went into effect last Monday. It was unclear whether the strikes had been launched by Syrian or Russian jets, both of which frequently bomb the opposition. It was also unclear whether the Aleppo strikes had killed anyone. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict from Britain, said four missiles had struck the city, but it did not report any deaths medics in the city posted photos online of children they said had been wounded and killed in the strikes. The Observatory also reported nine dead in the barrel bomb attacks in southern Syria, as well as scattered shelling by government forces elsewhere in the country. | 1 |
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