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In tiny Sellersburg, Ind. just across the border from Kentucky, Manitowoc Foodservice is in the final stages of closing a factory that makes beverage dispensers and ice machines and is laying off 84 workers. The company is moving production to Mexico. Just 100 miles away, Donald J. Trump will appear on Thursday with workers at Carrier’s Indianapolis plant to boast of his success in saving at least 1, 000 jobs from moving to Mexico. The truth across the Rust Belt is that there are more Manitowoc Foodservices than Carriers. The layoffs and closing in Sellersburg follow similar shutdowns by Manitowoc in Ohio and Wisconsin. “I’ll give Trump his due, but I hope he and the American people and Congress don’t forget about all these other jobs going to Mexico,” said Chuck Jones, the president of Local 1999 of the United Steelworkers in Indianapolis, which represents Carrier. “Down the pike, a lot more are going to be moving out. ” Indeed, Rexnord, the ball bearing factory in Indianapolis where Mr. Jones went to work straight out of high school nearly 40 years ago, said in October it would be moving to Mexico. It is just a mile from the Carrier plant. The mayor of Indianapolis, Joe Hogsett, and Senator Joe Donnelly, both Democrats, tried to exert Trumplike pressure to force Rexnord to rethink its plans, but so far the company has not shown any sign it will change course. “On a personal level at Carrier, it is huge,” said Jerry N. Conover, director of the Indiana Business Research Center at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. “But by itself, the disappearance or retention of 1, 000 jobs is a small slice of the total economy in Indiana. ” “I think there will be continued downward pressure on employment in factories because of trends toward automation especially and moving to areas for production,” he added. Carrier, in its official statement on the deal on Wednesday, said that it thought the agreement it negotiated with Mr. Trump and Vice Mike Pence “benefits our workers, the state of Indiana and our company. ” But it said that incentives provided by Indiana, where Mr. Pence is governor, “were an important consideration. ” It added that “the forces of globalization will continue to require solutions for the competitiveness of the U. S. and American workers. ” Those 1, 000 Carrier jobs saved represent just 0. 2 percent of total manufacturing employment in the state. And despite a rebound since the aftermath of the Great Recession, at just over half a million positions, factory employment in Indiana this year is still down by more than 20 percent since 2000. The good news is that Indiana has been doing well economically, with an unemployment rate below the national average and steady gains in employment like food service, retail and logistics. But those service jobs pay well below the $20 to $25 an hour that veteran Carrier employees — with only a high school diploma — can earn building furnaces and fan coils in Indianapolis. The typical manufacturing worker in the state earns $59, 000 a year, about $20, 000 a year more than the typical service job. And for less credentialed workers, that margin is the difference between having a shot at a life, including owning a home and sending children to college, and having to struggle to make ends meet. “These are truly irreplaceable jobs,” said Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, an advocacy group, and a native of Rensselaer, Ind. “A manufacturing job is one of the only ladders to fulfilling the American dream for a worker without a college degree. ” “A manufacturing worker who loses their job at Carrier will be resigned to facing a lower standard of living and leaner retirement years,” Mr. Paul added. “Carrier is special because it happened at the right time and the right place and it gained a high profile. But obviously, Donald Trump and Mike Pence can’t intervene every time a plant closes. ” The economic fortunes for this group have been shrinking for years, which is a major reason the story of Mr. Trump and Carrier has resonated so deeply. In Indiana, in particular, as in other Rust Belt states, there are a lot of people who are less educated: Just 16. 5 percent of the state’s residents ages 25 to 64 have a bachelor’s degree, half the rate for the country over all. And while about 30 percent have an associate degree or some college, the bulk of Indiana residents, 44 percent, have only a high school diploma — or less. Nor has manufacturing remained the sole domain of whites. It provides a crucial source of jobs for minorities. In the popular imagination, the Indianapolis factory where 1, 400 Carrier workers build furnaces and fan coils looks like a scene out of “The Deer Hunter” or “Norma Rae. ” guys walking through the plant gate, lunch pail in hand, or white women barely getting by after years on the line. But the reality at the Carrier plant that Mr. Trump will visit on Thursday is very different. About half the workers are making it a much more diverse workplace than many settings. Women account for a substantial portion of the work force as well, but the wages are anything but subsistence: over $20 an hour plus benefits for workers with just a high school diploma. That is an almost level of pay for Indiana workers with that level of education in other sectors like food service and retail or even many health care jobs. Carol Bigbee, 59, who has worked at Carrier for over 13 years, earns $22 an hour. Her daughter has a bachelor’s degree and works in a medical lab, but earns less. “You have to be really blessed to find a job that pays that kind of money,” she said. In southern Indiana, where the Manitowoc Foodservice factory will close next year, jobs are just as rare. But Rich Sheffer, vice president for investor relations and treasurer at the company, said it had little choice but to relocate to Mexico. “This company has 20 percent excess manufacturing capacity,” he said. A few of the jobs are being transferred to Covington, Tenn. he said, but the Sellersburg plant “would have required a massive investment in automation. And we have to deal with profit margins that are trailing the industry. ” Mr. Sheffer said his company’s situation was different from that of Carrier, which has profitable operations in Indiana but could make more money in Mexico. “Our motivation is completely different, but,” he added, “we haven’t been contacted by anybody in the Trump administration. ” | 1 |
On Friday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked U. S. Attorney Zachary Fardon and 45 other U. S. Attorneys appointed by Barack Obama to resign. [Fardon became Chicago’s “top federal prosecutor on Oct. 23, 2013,” and has been heavily criticized for his lack of prosecution of federal gun law violations. Fardon played up “his office’s role in fighting gun violence on the streets of Chicago” but a Chicago report on “court records in October 2016 showed federal weapons charges in Chicago had actually fallen slightly over the previous five years. ” The report squares with the experience of the Chicago Police Board. During a January 7 interview with NPR, police board chairwoman Lori Lightfoot said Chicago needed more federal prosecutions if they were ever to turn the tide on the city’s gun crime. Lightfoot said: We need to have more federal gun prosecutions in Chicago. Our federal partners from the U. S. attorney’s office, the ATF, the FBI need to be much more invested in this overall strategy. Chicago Police Department cannot tackle this issue by itself. Sessions shifted the posture of the Department of Justice as soon as he was confirmed. He used a February 27 memo to direct the DOJ to “increase prosecutions of violations” so criminals know they will be doing time if they use guns for crime. And on March 8 he followed up by asking prosecutors to pursue “harsh sentences” for gun crimes and other violent offenses. 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 |
Realism About the Jihad Threat in Oklahoma Oklahoma State Rep. John Bennett ventures where few dare to tread. October 27, 2016 Robert Spencer
In an age of near-universal denial and willful ignorance at the highest levels about the ideological roots, nature and magnitude of the jihad threat, it is as unusual as it is refreshing to find lawmakers at any level who are willing to approach the problem honestly. State Representative John Bennett of Oklahoma, a Marine and combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan , is one of an all-too-rare breed.
On Tuesday, Bennett held an “Interim Study” on “the current threat posed by radical Islam and the effect that Shariah Law, the Muslim Brotherhood and jihadist indoctrination have in the radicalization process in Oklahoma and America.” In his request to hold this study, he explained: “This will be a study of the current threat posed by radical Islam and the effect that Shariah Law, the Muslim Brotherhood and jihadist indoctrination have in the radicalization process in Oklahoma and America.”
This kind of study should have been held not just in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, but in the U.S. House, and Senate as well. That such an idea is inconceivable is an indication of the fix we’re in. And the situation is only marginally better in Oklahoma: nowadays the misinformation and disinformation about what we’re up against is so universal that anywhere the truth is told about this threat, there is significant pushback from the allies and enablers of jihad and Islamic supremacism.
And so it was in Tulsa on Tuesday. The interim study featured testimony by former FBI agent John Guandolo and Chris Gaubatz, whose exploits as an undercover agent infiltrating the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) are chronicled in the eye-opening book Muslim Mafia .
Gaubatz and Guandolo presented evidence, including land records, showing that the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City (ISGOC) is owned by the Muslim Brotherhood group the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), that both CAIR, which has an active chapter in Oklahoma City, and ISGOC are Muslim Brotherhood organizations, and that CAIR has extensive ties to the jihad terror group Hamas, which styles itself the Muslim Brotherhood for Palestine. They pointed out that since Imad Enchassi, the imam of ISGOC, is a Palestinian and has all these ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, he likely also has links to Hamas.
Guandolo and Gaubatz did not base their case on innuendo and hearsay. They laid out FBI evidence, Muslim Brotherhood documents, and more, demonstrating that the claims they were making were based on solid evidence.
Predictably, however, the mainstream media, which we now know beyond any shadow of a doubt is simply and solely a propaganda arm for the Left and the Democratic Party , focused entirely on the presence of Adam Soltani of CAIR-OK and Enchassi. The Tulsa World ran a piece with the hysterical headline “State representative brands CAIR-OK, its director and a local imam as terrorists.” It quoted Soltani raging against Bennett: “Rep. Bennett is shamefully wasting taxpayer money to promote his own biased agenda. This hearing was a new low for Rep. Bennett, as his guests presented a biased narrative that achieves nothing more than demonizing and marginalizing the Oklahoma Muslim community.”
The World magisterially told its readers that “CAIR is a Muslim civil liberties and advocacy group working to enhance the understanding of Islam.” It didn’t see fit to mention that CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case — so named by the Justice Department. There was not a word in the World report about how CAIR officials have repeatedly refused to denounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups. Several former CAIR officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror . CAIR’s cofounder and longtime Board chairman (Omar Ahmad), as well as its chief spokesman (Ibrahim Hooper), have made Islamic supremacist statements . (Ahmad denies this, but the original reporter stands by her story .) A California chapter distributed a poster telling Muslims not to talk to the FBI, and a Florida chapter distributed pamphlets with the same message . CAIR has opposed virtually every anti-terror measure that has been proposed or implemented and has been declared a terror organization by the United Arab Emirates.
But the Tulsa World and other mainstream media outlets that covered Bennett’s study did not see fit to inform their readers of any of that; instead, predictably enough, they portrayed the hearing as a baseless exercise in race-baiting and fearmongering conducted by a politician up for reelection.
John Bennett, and the people of Oklahoma, deserve better. There are legitimate questions about CAIR and ISGOC; Bennett dared to raise them Tuesday; for that, he is being subjected to a media lynching that is cynically designed to obscure the genuine concerns he raised – yet ever since a member of ISGOC beheaded a coworker in 2014, these concerns are more urgent than ever.
The media enablers of jihad must be decisively repudiated. Please email the Speaker of the Oklahoma House, Jeff W. Hickman, politely and courteously expressing your support for John Bennett and requesting that his hearing be just the first of a series. His email is [email protected] and his phone number is (405) 557-7339.
John Bennett has yet again stuck his neck out for freedom. In these hard times, those who are willing to do that have to hang together. | 0 |
Brilliant Takedown Of Feminism From An Old Man Brilliant Takedown Of Feminism From An Old Man December 28, 2012 30 Comments Culture
Many of you are probably familiar with Fred On Everything , a member of the old guard when it comes to the fight against feminism. His Hooking Up article gives a birds-eye view of how feminism corrupted women, in a way that only a senior citizen who has seen it all can elucidate.
What I don’t get is, why are gals bitching? This is the world they wanted. They clawed and scratched and burned their bras and had court cases and threw fits to get exactly what they have. They hated men because, they said, men weren’t letting them copulate frantically like men had always wanted them to. Men, or more likely their mothers, didn’t let them make themselves unattractive by dressing like hod-carriers and swearing like sailors. Finally men gave in and now women hate them for that . Whatever happened to gratitude? […]
Sally Sue might have teeth like pearls and brains and perky tits and a wacky sense of humor and actually be quite a prize, but sex trumps art. If Sally didn’t say Yes, she knew that Greta would. Women had commoditized themselves. It was a marvelous thing for the testosterone wads we think of as college boys. […]
“All you want is sex!”
“Uh…what else have you got?” or “So what?”
Or, “Marriage? Why? Would sex be better? Would food taste better? I don’t get it.”
Or, “Marriage doesn’t make sense. Do you want to eat in the same restaurant all your life?”
Women weren’t happen then and aren’t happy now. Trying to please them will just sacrifice what you want while giving no guarantee that they’ll be content, yet we still have beta males and white knights fighting among each other to appease the unappeasable. Will they collectively realize their folly?
Maybe a more relevant question is if we want them to wake up. When I’m looting the Best Buy after a hurricane, I don’t want to compete with other looters. It’s possible the quality of goods I’d be able to steal would be much less due to the competition. | 0 |
Donald J. Trump named as his new campaign chief on Wednesday a conservative media provocateur whose news organization regularly attacks the Republican Party establishment, savages Hillary Clinton and encourages Mr. Trump’s most pugilistic instincts. Mr. Trump’s decision to make Stephen K. Bannon, chairman of the Breitbart News website, his campaign’s chief executive was a defiant rejection of efforts by longtime Republican hands to wean him from the bombast and racially charged speech that helped propel him to the nomination but now threaten his candidacy by alienating the moderate voters who typically decide the presidency. It also formally completed a merger between the most strident elements of the conservative news media and Mr. Trump’s campaign, which was incubated and fostered in their boisterous coverage of his rise. Mr. Bannon was appointed a day after the recently ousted Fox News chairman, Roger Ailes, emerged in an advisory role with Mr. Trump. It was not lost on Republicans in Washington that two news executives whose outlets had fueled the rebellion that bedeviled congressional leaders and set the stage for Mr. Trump’s nomination were now directly guiding the party’s presidential message and strategy. Mr. Bannon’s most recent crusade was his failed attempt to oust the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan, in this month’s primary, making his new role atop the Trump campaign particularly provocative toward Republican leaders in Washington. Party veterans responded Wednesday with a mix of anger about the damage they saw Mr. Trump doing to their party’s reputation and gallows humor about his apparent inability, or unwillingness, to run a credible presidential campaign in a year that once appeared promising. “If Trump were actually trying to antagonize supporters and antagonize new, reachable supporters, what exactly would he be doing differently?” asked Dan Senor, a longtime Republican strategist who advised Mitt Romney and his running mate, Mr. Ryan, in 2012. Terry Sullivan, who ran Senator Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign, said Mr. Trump and Breitbart “both play to the lowest common denominator of people’s fears. It’s a match made in heaven. ” For Mr. Trump, though, bringing in Mr. Bannon was the political equivalent of ordering comfort food. Only last week, Mr. Trump publicly expressed ambivalence about modifying his style. “I think I may do better the other way,” he told Time magazine. “They would like to see it be a little bit different, a little more modified. I don’t like to modify. ” Mr. Bannon’s transition from at Breitbart to the inner circle of the de facto leader of the Republican Party capped the second of Mr. Trump’s campaign in two months. Kellyanne Conway, a veteran pollster and strategist who was already advising Mr. Trump, will become his campaign manager and is expected to travel with the candidate, filling a void that opened up when Corey Lewandowski was fired on June 20. Mr. Trump’s loyalists put the best possible face on the changes announced Wednesday, but their timing, after a New York Times article detailing his advisers’ frustration at trying to impose discipline on him, underscored why so many in the party have soured on his prospects: His decisions are often made in reaction to news coverage. Paul Manafort, the campaign chairman, will retain his title and focus on the political shop but was widely seen as being sidelined: Mr. Bannon and Ms. Conway have both developed close relationships with Mr. Trump, and Mr. Bannon is likely to be more amenable to letting him run the sort of campaign he prefers. “This is an exciting day for Team Trump,” Mr. Manafort wrote in an internal staff memo. “I remain the campaign chairman and chief strategist, providing the campaign vision,” he added. On a conference call Wednesday morning, Jason Miller, a Trump spokesman, said the moves had been well received, along with a speech on crime reduction that he gave in Wisconsin, pointing to favorable coverage on the MSNBC show “Morning Joe. ” Under Mr. Bannon, Breitbart News has been an amen corner for Mr. Trump, and perhaps more relentless than any other conservative outlet in its criticism of the Republican establishment. But what most distresses mainstream party strategists about the union of Mr. Trump’s campaign with Breitbart’s guiding vision is the brand of populism that the website has advocated, and that Mr. Trump has championed. Mr. Bannon has overseen a site that is focused primarily on pushing Republicans away from what it calls a globalist agenda and toward a and often overtly racial one, railing against what it sees as the threats of free trade, Hispanic migration and Islamist terrorism. “This is Trump going back to the nativism and nationalism that fueled his rise in the primary,” said Lanhee J. Chen, who was Mr. Romney’s policy director in 2012. “But it’s very dangerous to the future of the party because it only further narrows the appeal of a party whose appeal was already narrow going into this cycle. ” Mr. Chen called Mr. Trump’s shift “a base reinforcement strategy” and noted that it was very different from the tack of most party nominees, who use the final months of the presidential race to broaden their appeal in hopes of winning over the maximum number of voters. But to those on the right who are hoping to permanently shift Republicans away from conservatism and toward a populism, the addition of Mr. Bannon was a victory for the “America First” approach they want to ingrain in the party. “He doesn’t need any help formulating his message — his message is perfect,” the conservative author Ann Coulter said of Mr. Trump. Referring to Mr. Trump’s policy adviser, speechwriter and speaker, she added, “Maybe he could use 10 more Stephen Millers. ” As comfortable as Mr. Trump may feel with Mr. Bannon’s style of politics, their unconventional alliance, and the possibility that the coming weeks could resemble a conservative publicity tour more than a conventional White House run, fueled speculation that Mr. Trump was already looking past November. In recent months, Mr. Trump and his Jared Kushner, have quietly explored becoming involved with a media holding, either by investing in one or by taking one over, according to a person close to Mr. Trump who was briefed on those discussions. At a minimum, the campaign’s homestretch offers Mr. Trump, who has begun to limit his national media appearances to conservative outlets, an opportunity to build his audience and steer his followers toward the combative Breitbart site. Even before announcing the staff Mr. Trump intensified his criticism of the mainstream news media in a speech on Tuesday night in which he declared that he was running against the “ complex. ” Mr. Trump’s elevation of Mr. Bannon and Ms. Conway also highlights the growing influence of Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah, conservative donors from Long Island. The Mercers are investors in Breitbart, and their foundation funds a host of other conservative activist groups. They spent millions on Senator Ted Cruz’s behalf during the Republican primary, an effort Ms. Conway helped lead. And they began bankrolling a “super PAC” in recent weeks after becoming friendly with Mr. Trump, his daughter Ivanka and her husband, Mr. Kushner. At Breitbart and its sister foundation, the Government Accountability Institute, Mr. Bannon ran a hybrid between a news organization and an operation aimed at discrediting Mrs. Clinton. The institute sponsored a book about Mrs. Clinton’s financial entanglements, “Clinton Cash,” which spawned various articles in mainstream newspapers last year, including in The New York Times. Rival conservative news organizations viewed Breitbart as something of an outlier, which was evident in the title of an article the Weekly Standard writer Stephen F. Hayes wrote on Wednesday: “Trump Has Decided to Live in Breitbart’s Alternative Reality. ” “It’s the merger of the Trump campaign with the kooky right,” William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, said of Mr. Bannon’s new role. Mr. Bannon has now joined with Mr. Ailes in a common cause on Mr. Trump’s behalf, a mission that Breitbart never pretended to deny. But Mr. Ailes’s direct involvement casts a new light on how his network handled Mr. Trump’s candidacy. In the weeks before the Fox News host Gretchen Carlson filed the sexual harassment lawsuit that led to Mr. Ailes’s forced resignation, Mr. Ailes had been in regular contact with Mr. Trump and met with him at least twice, people briefed on the sessions said. While meetings between a presidential candidate and the chairman of an influential television network are hardly especially with Mr. Trump, Mr. Ailes’s direct involvement in the campaign raises new questions about whether the sessions involved more than the usual complaints about coverage. Before Mr. Ailes’s ouster, some of the network’s journalists and contributors privately complained that Mr. Ailes was pushing them to be more supportive of Mr. Trump. This drew particular umbrage from longtime Republican staff members and contributors who either opposed Mr. Trump’s candidacy on ideological grounds or believed it demanded tough reporting on journalistic grounds. There was, though, one prominent conservative voice unambiguously in Mr. Ailes’s corner since the beginning of the sexual harassment scandal: Breitbart. The website emerged as a singular defender of Mr. Ailes, with a piece about a planned walkout by network stars loyal to him should he be forced out — it never came to pass — and one by Mr. Bannon ridiculing the “minor Murdochs” (the 21st Century Fox chief Rupert Murdoch’s sons and James and Lachlan) who were seen as leading the push for Mr. Ailes to resign. | 1 |
Debate a draw at minus 6 on a ten point scale Wide-ranging response to presidential debate 2 has now settled down to a tie, with a rating of minus 6 on a ten point scale for each candidate. A 1 on a ten point scale would be much lower than a 9. A 9 would indicate "very good" or "excellent."... The President in the locker room Spoof Investigations has just been handed a video related to a certain candidate for president in the 2016 election. It shows him in his own locker room at Trump Tower being interviewed by a radio show host with first name Billy. This new inter... Obama Replaces John Kerry with Jack Reacher as the New Secretary of State Trying to secure his legacy, especially when it comes to foreign policy, President Barack Obama replaced reigning Secretary of State, John Kerry, with Jack Reacher. Obama wanted to leave the White House remembered as a tough guy who could handle the... Kirk lands killer blow on Trumphole™ with 'Rope a Dope' Weapon™ The Earth Defense League has landed a killer blow on the Trumphole™ Fleet using a variation of Mohamed Alis 'Rope a Dope' strategy and has developed a 'Give the Psychopath Enough Rope to Hang Himself' Gun™ The Earth Defense League hea... Trump's Minority Outreach Met With Deafening Silence Faced with faltering poll numbers, Donald Trump and his advisors are taking a shot at tapping the African American vote, which normally goes Democratic 9 to 1. His recent outreach, however, might be doing more harm than good. Trying to piggyba... | 0 |
For Hillary Clinton, Britain’s emotionally charged uprising against the European Union is the sort of populist victory over establishment politics that she fears in the coming presidential election. Mrs. Clinton shares more with the defeated “Remain” campaign than a similar slogan — her “Stronger Together” echoing its “Stronger In. ” Her fundamental argument, much akin to Prime Minister David Cameron’s against British withdrawal from the European Union, is that Americans should value stability and incremental change over the risks entailed in radical change and the possibility of chaos if Donald J. Trump wins the presidency. She offers reasonableness instead of resentment, urging voters to see the big picture and promising to manage economic and immigration upheaval, just as Mr. Cameron did. She, too, is a pragmatic internationalist battling against nationalist anger, cautioning that the turmoil after the Brexit vote underscores a need for “calm, steady, experienced leadership in the White House. ” But prudence is cold comfort to people fed up with . According to their friends and advisers, Mrs. Clinton and former President Bill Clinton have worried for months that she was out of sync with the mood of the electorate, and that her politically safe messages — like “I’m a progressive who gets results” — were far less compelling to frustrated voters than the “political revolution” of Senator Bernie Sanders or Mr. Trump’s promise to “Make America Great Again. ” Mr. Sanders and Mr. Trump won a combined 25 million votes during the primary season, compared with 16 million for Mrs. Clinton. And while many of Mr. Sanders’s supporters are expected to support her in November, she has not recalibrated her message to try to tap into the anger that he and Mr. Trump channeled. Nor does Mrs. Clinton have any plans, advisers say, to take cues from the Brexit campaign and start her support for globalized markets, or denouncing porous borders, illegal immigrants and the lack of job protections in agreements. Much distinguishes the presidential contest from the British fight, of course, including a matchup between candidates, a sharply different economic context, and a long and proud history of immigration. Yet in addition to worrying that she is out of step, Mrs. Clinton is somewhat hemmed in by her record: She supported her husband’s North American Free Trade Agreement, which caused significant economic pain in the industrial Midwest after it went into effect in 1994. And her nuanced views about free trade are a harder sell to many voters than Mr. Trump’s vows to trash bad trade deals and use tariffs as economic weapons of national defense. While Mrs. Clinton is counting on Mr. Trump’s history of racist and sexist remarks to doom his candidacy, Thursday’s Brexit referendum was an unnerving reminder that voter anger is deeper and broader than many elite politicians and veteran pollsters realize. In swing states like Ohio, many Democrats and Republicans yearn for an economic comeback and are not confident that Mrs. Clinton understands their frustrations or has the ideas and wherewithal to deliver the sort of change that could satisfy them. “Brexit is clearly a cautionary tale for the Clinton campaign not to get too complacent with a potential victory,” said David B. Cohen, a professor of political science at the University of Akron. “Trump, Sanders and those in Great Britain who ran the Leave campaign are tapping into an anger and anxiety that is clearly festering. folks in the United States are similar to folks in Europe. And a lot of those people feel as if the international economic system is not working for them and strangling the middle class. ” Mike DuHaime, a Republican strategist, said the British vote was the clearest sign yet that “the intensity against the status quo is far more real than many are still willing to acknowledge. ” “If the Trump victory in the primary wasn’t enough of one, the Brexit vote serves as a major call indicating just how frustrated average voters are with those in power,” Mr. DuHaime said. Several Democrats cautioned against drawing too many lessons from the Brexit vote, saying mass immigration and economic malaise were bigger problems in Britain and the European Union than in the United States. They also said many British voters were revolting against a bureaucracy in Brussels that they regarded as bloated, overpaid and prone to interfering in the affairs of sovereign countries. Yet the Democrats acknowledged that the worldview held by Mrs. Clinton and many of the party’s elites was not as attractive to many voters as it once was. “Liberal internationalism seems to have been dying for a while,” said Mark S. Mellman, a Democratic pollster who is not involved with the Clinton campaign. “But while that may be the animating philosophy of foreign policy intellectuals the world over, it is not the animating philosophy of America, nor of our domestic politics. ” For Sean Harrington, a husband and father of three who owns the Town Pump Tavern in downtown Detroit, the support for deals and international markets cannot die fast enough. Taking a break from his bookkeeping duties on Friday, he said President Clinton’s economic policies were still “ruining the economy” by giving benefits to large corporations that move jobs overseas, while in states like Michigan, “the average work force loses. ” “If my fellow Americans were doing better, there would be more money around and traded in and out of my pockets,” said Mr. Harrington, a registered independent who is undecided between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump. On the campaign trail, Mrs. Clinton regularly pledges to “make sure our economy works for everyone, not just those at the top,” as she put it on Wednesday in Raleigh, N. C. where she also promised to reject “bad trade deals and unfair trade practices. ” She also argued in favor of Britain’s remaining in the European Union. But she was not surprised that the “Leave” campaign won, her advisers said Friday, because she understands the extent of voter anger. Her advisers said they were confident the referendum in Britain did not mirror the presidential election in the United States. “These are two different countries, with very different circumstances and demographics, facing different choices,” said Jennifer Palmieri, Mrs. Clinton’s communications director. “We believe American voters are looking for concrete solutions to address their economic frustrations and unlikely to find the turmoil, economic uncertainty and roiling of markets caused by the Brexit vote particularly appealing. ” Frank Luntz, a Republican expert on political messaging, said Mr. Cameron and the “Remain” camp had failed to “personalize, individualize or humanize their campaign. ” The “Stronger Together” slogan shared by the “Remain” campaign and Mrs. Clinton feels bloodless and overly intellectual compared with the more emotional, appeals of Mr. Trump and the “Leave” movement, he said. “The problem with the concept of ‘together’ is that it promotes groupthink rather than individual pursuits,” Mr. Luntz said. “We are in an age of individual action, not collective responsibility. ” Mrs. Clinton’s arguments against Mr. Trump often require a great deal of explanation to voters, which can sometimes turn them off. While Mr. Trump thrills his audiences with big promises — without saying much about how he would fulfill them — Mrs. Clinton can get caught in the gears of policy. One recent exception was a foreign policy speech in early June, when she hit a rhythm and ripped into Mr. Trump with memorable lines like “He says he has foreign policy experience because he ran the Miss Universe pageant in Russia. ” But when Mrs. Clinton takes pains to explain why Mr. Trump’s promises and policies do not add up, or are too risky, she runs a risk of her own: that she will sound as though she is instructing or talking down to her audience. Not many voters want a lecturer as president. “A slogan and a message must be aspirational — either give people hope things will get better or that the bad stuff will stop — both,” said Ruth Sherman, a political communications analyst who is not affiliated with any campaign. Referring to one of Mrs. Clinton’s taglines, she said: “Hillary’s ‘I’m with her’ — I remember thinking when I first saw it, ‘Really?’ It’s not my job to be with her. She should be with me. ” If Mr. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” is resonant — “by far the best slogan of all the candidates,” Ms. Sherman said — Mrs. Clinton is counting on voters to appreciate policy ideas that are more strategic than . She argued in Raleigh, for instance, that markets like the European Union “work best when all the stakeholders share in the benefits. ” While that statement was hardly in the aspirational vein that Ms. Sherman recommends, it set a clear goal and was less divisive than Mr. Trump’s comments on the British referendum. The American electorate has tilted this year toward presidential candidates who make them feel as much as think, but Mrs. Clinton and her allies hope that voters will reflect on the vote in Britain and opt for the steadiness and predictability that she promises. “I don’t think the average American who has a retirement account right now is thrilled about Donald Trump’s support of Brexit,” said Thomas R. Nides, who was a deputy secretary of state under Mrs. Clinton. “Hillary Clinton understands we always need to change — but change that doesn’t cause unintended consequences for the average American. ” | 1 |
Internet users in Venezuela have finally quantified what it truly means to have a rare Pepe, buying and selling trading cards as a way to escape the economic control of their socialist government. [The idea of images of the popular green frog being “rare” started off as a joke on 4chan, where users would claim that their images of Pepe were rarer and more valuable than everyone else’s. It escalated into people selling their collections of Pepe on eBay, with bids reaching up to almost $100, 000 before eBay took it down. There were never any serious transactions however, with everyone involved enjoying the ironic humour of the situation. More recently, a group of redditors have been “trading” memes of any shape and size on attempting to create a stock market in meme popularity. But, it turns out that rare Pepe collecting online is now a serious business. Sometime last year, an unknown individual began issuing “official” rare Pepe trading cards using the Counterparty platform to link them to bitcoin, in an attempt to poke fun at another online trading game called Spells of Genesis. Today, these cards can be exchanged for the equivalent of thousands of US dollars on Counterparty’s decentralised exchange. This is due to a creation of artificial scarcity in the cards (as one would expect trading cards to have). Anyone can issue their own rare Pepes, but these are then verified by the official Rare Pepe Foundation, and linked to a certain piece of the bitcoin chain via a practice known as coin colouring. Whomsoever owns that particular bitcoin key address owns the Pepe associated with it. All verified rare Pepes can be viewed in a complete directory of them. This is in particular use in Venezuela. Developers of a game called Rare Pepe Party that would utilise some of these cards have claimed that they are needed to keep their company afloat. “We’re based in Venezuela, and our business has been saved by bitcoin many times,” the developer, who wished to remain anonymous, told Crypto Insider. According to them, around 80% of offices in the vicinity of theirs have been closed down in the past year, with even the biggest businesses still around losing up to 90% of their employees. “In that timeframe, thanks to bitcoin related business, we’ve grown our employee base from just 5 to 10 (we’re still a small company),” said the developer. “We’ve our office. we’ve been improving, so we’re banking big on bitcoin and now over Counterparty assets. ” However, bitcoin is not completely safe in the South American nation. Venezuela’s equivalent of secret police, SEBIN, have been targeting people using bitcoin and bringing them up on or extortion and bribes, especially bitcoin miners, according to the developer. “Anything bitcoin related is a big here at the moment … this week I got wind of at least two mining operators getting knocks on their doors. ” Jack Hadfield is a student at the University of Warwick and a regular contributor to Breitbart Tech. You can like his page on Facebook and follow him on Twitter @ToryBastard_ or on Gab @JH. | 1 |
Today I Rise: This Beautiful Short Film Is Like a Love Poem For Your Heart and Soul Nov 10, 2016 2 0
This beautiful short film will have you warm, fuzzy, and inspired. Here’s “Today I Rise”.
“The world is missing what I am ready to give: My Wisdom, My Sweetness, My Love and My hunger for Peace.”
“Where are you? Where are you, little girl with broken wings but full of hope? Where are you, wise women covered in wounds? Where are you?”
h/t Films for Action , Image: Banksy Vote Up | 0 |
The listing Nadia Krivickova and Michael Krivicka had been waiting for popped up early last September: a pristine 1924 colonial with a backyard in the lower Westchester County village of Pelham Manor. Then living in an apartment in Manhattan, the couple (she’s an accountant, he’s a founder of Thinkmodo, which creates viral video campaigns) were in need of more space for their two toddlers. After their real estate agent, Arthur L. Scinta, an associate broker with Houlihan Lawrence, advised them to move quickly, they went to see the house the very next day. By 5 p. m. they had submitted an offer for the full asking price of $942, 000. The sellers wanted to give it more time. After several days, the couple raised their offer to $999, 000. The sellers wanted another week. “We asked them to give us a number they would take it off the market for,” Ms. Krivickova said. “They said no. ” The couple really wanted the house. They huddled with Mr. Scinta, who analyzed recent sales prices of similar properties to help them strike a balance between a strong offer and an overzealous offer, which, if it exceeded the bank’s appraisal, could cause problems with financing. Finally, on a Monday morning, they submitted their highest offer: $1, 087, 000, a full 15 percent premium. Mr. Scinta heard back that afternoon. “Arthur called and told us there were nine other offers,” Ms. Krivickova said. “But we got it — by three or four grand. ” And fortunately, the bank appraisal came in on the nose. The family moved in last December a third child is expected to arrive in August. They are delighted with their new home. But as for the angst involved in buying it? “It was awful,” Ms. Krivickova said. The bidding wars that have become the norm in New York City are now also common in select suburbs within easy commuting distance. Buyers priced out of the city are heading for the ’burbs, driving up demand and creating a more fraught buying process in towns that have long enjoyed reputations for good school systems, lively downtowns and ready access to the city. “The city is this pot of water that’s spilling over on the sides, and that excess demand is going to the suburbs,” said Jonathan Miller, the president of Miller Samuel, a New York appraisal and research firm. “It’s all being driven by the lack of affordability. ” Across Westchester, northern New Jersey, parts of Long Island and lower Fairfield County, Conn. the competition is fiercest for homes toward the lower end of the price scale — under $1 million in some markets, under $2 million in others — in places within a rail commute to the city. Walking distance to a lively downtown, a train station or both heightens the appeal. homes in good condition in these markets often draw multiple offers within days of coming on the market. An analysis of sales this year conducted by Miller Samuel showed the highest percentages of Westchester properties (23 percent to 44 percent) selling at or above asking price — signs of likely bidding wars — in places like Larchmont, Irvington, Bronxville, White Plains and Pelham. The average premium ranged from 1. 7 percent to 4 percent, actually lower than a year ago at the same time, when buyers were paying more like 5 percent or 6 percent over the asking price. Fairfield County and Long Island could not claim the same intensity in sales activity in the first quarter, Mr. Miller said. In Fairfield County, Stamford, Norwalk, Greenwich, Fairfield, Westport and Darien, 2 percent to 13 percent of properties sold at or over the asking price. On Long Island, Garden City, Huntington, Levittown, Port Washington, Franklin Square and Manhasset showed signs of bidding wars on 1 percent to 3 percent of transactions. Mr. Miller said he suspects bidding wars may have been more prevalent in those towns a couple of years ago, while now, “Westchester is center stage. ” Mr. Miller’s firm does not cover New Jersey. But there, “the housing market is looking better than it has in a very long time,” said Jeffrey Otteau, the president of the Otteau Valuation Group in East Brunswick, N. J. Among the briskest markets are Hoboken, Glen Ridge, Maplewood, Montclair and South Orange, judging by their very low levels of inventory, he added. Generally speaking, buyers are not lining up for luxury properties. homes — upward of $2 million or $3 million, depending on the location — are still going begging across the metropolitan area, agents said. Demand for these homes is weakest in affluent suburbs without a train station. “The reason is clear: The jobs in the region are now disproportionately located in Manhattan,” Mr. Otteau said. “And if that’s where you’re going, there’s just not enough hours in the day to involve a car in that commute. ” At the same time, the luxury market in towns is also slow, as they vie for fewer Wall Street bonus dollars and compete with a growing preference for urban living. Said Mr. Otteau, “Because of the dramatic improvement in urban life in the last 20 years, it’s no longer a given that when you’re ready to raise a family, you need to go out and buy a house in the suburbs. ” But many buyers who would prefer to stay in New York City simply can’t afford to. In Pelham, “almost all of our buyers are coming from the city, increasingly from Brooklyn,” Mr. Scinta said. “They are being priced out in terms of the additional space they need. They’ve outgrown their apartments and can’t afford to move up to the apartment. ” In their search for a home, Anil and Smita Abraham, who are moving from the Washington, D. C. area for Mr. Abraham’s financial services job in New York, have hit many of the market hot spots, like Greenwich, Conn. and numerous places in lower Westchester. But on a Sunday in the Abrahams and their two children, ages 6 and 4, were concentrating on open houses in Pelham. “Pelham is our top choice, I would say,” Ms. Abraham said. “We really loved Greenwich, but it’s too far to commute. ” They were among a dozen or so buyers checking out a Georgian colonial that had been listed for $1. 465 million the previous Thursday. The couple were smitten with the updated house, particularly because of its ample bedroom space — room for visiting grandparents — and large basement playroom. Although the open house wasn’t busy, the listing agent, Caroline Baccellieri, an associate broker with McClellan Sotheby’s International Realty, already had two offers in hand before it began. By that night, she had two more — including one from the Abrahams. But the sellers took one of the earlier offers. “It came in at over asking the day the house went on the market,” Ms. Baccellieri said. “We felt like they were going to see it through and there weren’t going to be any problems. ” Earlier this month, the Abrahams were in negotiations for another house in Pelham, but weren’t certain they would reach a deal. With the spring season slowing and fewer properties coming on the market now, Mr. Abraham said they would buy elsewhere in lower Westchester if need be. Mike and Wendy Buzzeo of Jersey City were outbid three times as they searched recently for a home in Montclair, Maplewood and South Orange, N. J. During a crowded open house at a Queen Anne Victorian in Montclair last month, the Buzzeos, who have two sons, ages 1 and 3, said, based on their previous experiences, they suspected the list price of $539, 000 was set deliberately low to spark a bidding war. “We figure you have to add at least $100, 000 to the list price to get an idea of what the house is really going for, and usually it’s more than $100, 000,” said Mr. Buzzeo, the head of international marketing for FXCM, an online brokerage firm. Betsy Ceccio of Keller Williams in Montclair, who had the listing along with her business partner, Joyce Slous, disputed the notion that homes were being underpriced to spark a frenzy. But she acknowledged that many homes were selling above their list prices, especially in the $500, 000 to $900, 000 range. Even with older bathrooms in need of updating, the Victorian, which is within walking distance of downtown and a train station, wound up netting 13 offers, all over asking, and several a full 20 percent higher, well beyond what the sellers expected, Ms. Ceccio said. “Buyers were waiting and waiting for inventory to open up, and they’re looking at the school calendar and thinking they need to get settled before the school year starts,” she said. “The clock is ticking. ” The Buzzeos were not among the bidders on that house, but Ms. Buzzeo, the director of digital marketing for MetLife, later said that they had made an offer that had been accepted on a house in Maplewood. The dearth of inventory relative to demand is sometimes sparking bidding wars in towns where they are usually few and far between. In Weston, Conn. for example, which has no train station or downtown, and where sales have been sluggish this year, JoAnn and Doug Cohen found themselves in an unexpected bidding war earlier this spring for a listed for $635, 000. Having sold a large house in Westport two years ago, the Cohens, who have an daughter, had been renting in Weston while they looked for a modestly sized house priced under $850, 000. “I didn’t want another large house,” said Ms. Cohen, who works for an accounting services firm. (Her husband is a talent scout for a recruiting firm.) “We’re on a — we’re going to move to a different area when our daughter graduates from high school. ” The was the nicest house they had seen others in their price range had tended to need a lot of work. (The median sales price in Weston from February through May averaged around $780, 000.) This one had an open floor plan with lots of natural light, a newer kitchen and a flat yard on a . “There just aren’t a whole lot of these out there,” said Gabrielle DiBianco, the agent with the Higgins Group who represented the Cohens. Still, the Cohens were surprised when they made an offer under the asking price and were told they were competing with two others. They raised their bid enough to secure the house, and closed earlier this month. At the same time, in some of the rail towns on Long Island, houses sell so quickly that some agents aren’t even bothering with open houses, said Maggie Keats, an associate broker with Douglas Elliman Real Estate in Manhasset and Port Washington. “They have sufficient traffic by appointment,” she said. Calling Manhasset and Port Washington “the ‘it’ markets” for buyers moving from the city, Ms. Keats said the towns were benefiting from highly rated school districts, a quick commute to Penn Station, “true” downtowns and waterfront access. “In both of these communities, some of the movement you see is people within the community, whether up or down,” she said. “You don’t see a huge amount of turnover, and we do not get a great amount of inventory. So when something new comes on, there’s high demand. ” In Garden City, properties in good condition for under $1 million routinely draw multiple bids, as buyers are waiting in the wings, according to Stephanie Cullum, an associate broker and manager at Coach Realtors. In 23 years of selling real estate, Ms. Cullum said, she had never seen buyers as determined to get a home as they were at the beginning of the spring market. “A lot of them have bid on something and lost it,” she said. “They get out to see homes right when they come on. ” In her opinion, not only the high prices in the city are driving demand rising rents on Long Island are as well. “ are asking $2, 900 to $4, 500 a month,” she said, referring to Garden City. “You could get a nice mortgage for that. ” Not all buyers are motivated solely by budget considerations, of course. George and Brooke Antonopoulos have spent most of this year looking for a home in Darien, Conn. They’ve lived in Manhattan for 10 years, but as they consider having a family, they are looking for more square footage for their money, along with the lifestyle they grew up with: “yards and barbecues,” said Ms. Antonopoulos, who works in accounting. They have made offers on two houses so far neither worked out “for various reasons,” said Mr. Antonopoulos, who works for a hedge fund. But they’re not frazzled. They don’t have to stand in line for a good property under $1. 5 million, like so many other Darien buyers. Given their budget of up to $4 million, the Antonopouloses say, the market, in their case, is tilting in their favor. | 1 |
A few months ago, Sarai Gonzalez’s proudest distinction was being a funny older sister. She hammed it up during dance parties in her family room in Green Brook, N. J. She wore studded pink and baked a mean cupcake. Now, Sarai, 11, is in a Get Out the Vote ad. Miranda is praising her on Twitter. She recently attended an event for Hispanic Heritage at the White House, where she hugged the president and was in high demand for selfies, wearing a blue satin gown. “It was like a flash,” Sarai said. In record time, she had gone from unknown little girl to Latina icon, all thanks to a viral music video: Sarai is the nerdy, round and confident tween who confronts bullies on the streets of Brooklyn in the video for “Soy Yo” or “That’s Me,” by the Colombian group Bomba Estéreo. If you’re Latina, chances are you’ve already seen her. The video, released by the band last month, got a million views in its first days. (It now has more than six million.) It was featured all over, from NBC News to Fusion. It spawned a hashtag, schoolchildren’’s art, and animated GIFs, which in turn became memes. “Soy Yo” seemed to appear at precisely the right moment — a defiant, and adorable, rebuke to the rhetoric of the Trump campaign, and haters in general. “Don’t worry if they don’t accept you,” goes the song’s chorus, in Spanish. “If they criticize you, just say, ‘That’s me.’ ” The video resonated particularly with Latinas. Rarely in American life, especially in an era of ugly debates over immigrants, had popular culture created a young, brown, character so heroic, free of victimhood, full of dignity. Sarai made Latinas visible. Real Latinas. And they responded, in a chorus of “yes, that’s me. ” “It’s a reminder that Latinos are part of American life, American space is Latino space,” said María Elena Cepeda, who studies Latino representations in popular culture and teaches at Williams College. “Right now, that is a pretty transgressive statement. ” For Sarai, the video became like a home movie forever on repeat. “My mom was always checking it,” Sarai said. “My dad was playing it when he was washing clothes. ” It all came together through a mix of accident and authenticity. Sarai’s father, Juan Carlos Gonzalez, is from Costa Rica. Her mother, Diana Gonzalez, is from Peru. They came to the United States when they were about Sarai’s age. Devout Catholics, they met in church. Mrs. Gonzalez is a computer analyst at a Newark hospital and Mr. Gonzalez left his job as a construction engineer to be a father. Sarai is the oldest of their three daughters, and as a child, “she would sing everywhere. ‘Mother Goose,’ ” Mrs. Gonzalez said. “The microphone, that was her best friend. ” And she was always . In her mostly pink bedroom, a sign says, “I am awesome!” Last year, recognizing her charisma, Sarai’s parents enrolled her in a program run by Actors, Models and Talent for Christ, or A. M. T. C. a Christian talent and modeling ministry. She traveled to Orlando, Fla. and was picked up by an agent in New York. But it was her father who saw the casting call for the video on an actors database. The director, Torben Kjelstrup, also entered the picture almost by chance. Mr. Kjelstrup, who lives in Copenhagen, won a contest to make the video for “Soy Yo,” which is off Bomba Estéreo’s 2015 album, “Amanecer. ” He didn’t intend to make a political statement. He was inspired by the message of the song — “about being yourself,” he said — and by a photo of his girlfriend from high school. “She had braces, red hair, this incredibly ugly track suit,” he said. “She just had something. ” He pictured “a story about her walking down the street, just emitting this that rubs off on the viewer. ” He wanted to “paraphrase a video,” so he headed to Brooklyn. (The video is shot in Williamsburg and Bushwick.) He held auditions over the summer that drew more than 100 young actors. “When I saw Sarai,” he said, “when she was waiting, the look on her face was just priceless. ” It was her first role, if you don’t count playing one of “The Three Little Pigs” in a school production. Mr. Kjelstrup had little trouble building out her character: short overalls, Crocs, big glasses and pigtail braids. That look, paired with Sarai’s attitude, was contagious. Immediately, thousands shared the video on social media many posted childhood photos. A woman who saw it in Montana, Alma Castillo, tweeted: “#Soyyo you have captured my infancia! Thank you for making me feel proud! #Latina” Melissa Zepeda, a student and barista in Austin, Tex. wrote on Instagram: “I wish this song and video was released when I was actually around this age, when I probably needed it the most. When I was too nerdy, too American, too fat, too Mexican. ” Jillian Báez, author of the forthcoming book “Consuming Latinas: Latina Audiences and Citizenship,” about how Latinas perceive media targeted toward them, said the response showed the therapeutic power of the video. “I absolutely think it can be recuperative for Latina audiences who may not have seen themselves when they were little girls. ” There have been startlingly few unconventional Latinas in popular culture. “Ugly Betty,” adapted from the Colombian telenovela “Yo Soy Betty, La Fea,” is virtually the only nerd Google “Latina girl nerds” or “Hispanic girl nerds” and the hits are for pornography. If Latinas are portrayed at all, said Isabel author of “Dangerous Curves: Latina Bodies in the Media,” “the expectation is that they are going to be sexual, they are going to be spectacle. ” Sarai’s character is empowered, without any of that baggage. She drives off two snickering white girls by playing a recorder to the track of Andean panpipes. She confronts older boys, busting out dance moves learned from watching clips of Will Smith on “The Fresh Prince of . ” If the video resonated most of all with Latinas, it may have been for this fluid blending of cultures, which came naturally to a little girl raised between them. “We would blast the music in our family room and my mom and dad would dance with me,” Sarai said. “It was pretty funny. ” Lately the family has a new ritual. At night, Sarai crawls into bed with her parents to look at the latest photos fans have posted. “I always cry,” her mother said. At Sarai’s age, Mrs. Gonzalez and her sister, recently arrived to the country from Peru, had to work in the Georgia tobacco fields with their parents. “I never saw myself on television,” she said. “I see myself finally on the big screen. And I don’t have to be a size 2 or have perfect skin or a certain color hair,” she added. “I can be myself. ” “This little girl is in every Latina woman,” said her husband. When her parents get emotional, Sarai tells them what to write. “Wow!! You look beautiful,” she wrote to the barista in Texas, who had never fit in. “Sarai sends a hug. ” Then she sent some hearts. Pink ones. | 1 |
VIDEO : Neil Cavuto to Defeated Hillary Pundit, “You Look Sad and Depressed” VIDEO : Neil Cavuto to Defeated Hillary Pundit, “You Look Sad and Depressed” Videos By Amy Moreno November 5, 2016
The Hillary supporters see the writing on the wall.
It’s the end of the big game, and Trump has the ball and is running the clock out.
While he surges in the polls, Hillary and her supporting cast of dropkicks, like Obama, are SCREAMING at the crowds of people in what looks to be unhinged desperation.
Hillary sounds like Howard Dean, screeching as if her political life depends on it, and Obama is lecturing voters, chastising them for not “LISTENING WHEN HE SPEAKS.”
It’s a clown show.
Neil points some of this out to his Hillary supporting guest, who appears very, very sad.
Watch the video: DEPRESSION SETTING IN: Neil Cavuto to Clinton supporter, “You look sad, what’s the matter?” #SaturdayMorning pic.twitter.com/bs8oOUzlVH
— Asa J (@asamjulian) November 5, 2016 This is a movement – we are the political OUTSIDERS fighting against the FAILED GLOBAL ESTABLISHMENT! Join the resistance and help us fight to put America First! Amy Moreno is a Published Author , Pug Lover & Game of Thrones Nerd. You can follow her on Twitter here and Facebook here . Support the Trump Movement and help us fight Liberal Media Bias. Please LIKE and SHARE this story on Facebook or Twitter. | 0 |
A lawsuit filed by Melania Trump depicts her heightened profile as a “unique, opportunity” to make millions of dollars in business, once again raising questions about the relationship between President Trump’s official role and his family’s business interests. Mrs. Trump’s suit, filed on Monday in a New York State court, accuses The Daily Mail, a British tabloid, of libel for reporting last year on claims that a modeling agency she worked for in the 1990s was also an escort service. The new complaint does not refer explicitly to the White House or Mr. Trump, or even her status as a candidate’s wife when the article was published and now as first lady. Instead, it refers to opportunities she had “to launch a commercial brand in multiple product categories, each of which could have garnered multimillion dollar business relationships for a multiyear term during which plaintiff is one of the most photographed women in the world. ” Because of the Daily Mail article, it says, “plaintiff’s brand has lost significant value,” greatly reducing those opportunities. It claims $150 million in damages. A spokeswoman for Mrs. Trump said she was not trying to make money from her role as first lady. Mr. Trump has fended off criticism that his business dealings around the world create conflicts of interest in his official role, and he has put his adult sons in charge of his businesses rather than sell his assets or put them into a blind trust. On the day he took office, the White House altered its online biography of Mrs. Trump, after complaints that the original wording promoted her line of jewelry. The Daily Mail published its article on Mrs. Trump on Aug. 20, quoting from a report in a magazine in Slovenia, Mrs. Trump’s native country, and a book about her. She and her representatives have insisted that the claims it repeated are false. On Sept. 1, Mrs. Trump sued The Daily Mail in a state court in Montgomery County, Md. and on the same day, the tabloid published a retraction. Last week, the Maryland court dismissed the case, saying it did not have jurisdiction. The new case against Mail Media, a corporation that operates the Daily Mail’s website, was filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, where the company has offices. Mrs. Trump also sued a Maryland blogger, Webster Tarpley, who published claims like those cited by The Daily Mail. She settled that case on Tuesday, and her lawyer, Charles J. Harder, said in a statement that Mr. Tarpley had agreed to pay Mrs. Trump “a substantial sum as a settlement. ” | 1 |
Buy land: They’re not making it anymore. That often repeated adage sounds like good financial advice. But over the long run, it hasn’t been. Despite solid price increases over the last few years, land and homes have actually been disappointing investments. It’s worth considering why. Let’s start by looking at the numbers. The best data on land in the United States is for farmland, which is valuable in its own right and can also be considered a great reservoir that can be converted to housing and other purposes at opportune times. Over the century from 1915 to 2015, though, the real value of American farmland (deflated by the Consumer Price Index) increased only 3. 1 times, according to the Department of Agriculture. That comes to an average increase of only 1. 1 percent a year — and with a growing population, that’s barely enough to keep per capita real land value unchanged. According to my own data (relying on the U. S. National Home Price Index, which I helped create) real home prices rose even more slowly over the same period — a total increase of 1. 8 times, which comes to an average of only 0. 6 percent a year. What all that amounts to is that neither farmland nor housing has been a great place to invest money over the long term. To put this in perspective, note that the real gross domestic product in the United States grew 15. 5 times — or, on average, 3. 2 percent a year — from 1929, the year official G. D. P. numbers began to be kept, to 2015. That’s a much higher growth rate than for real estate. But why? For home prices, a good part of the answer comes from supply and demand. As prices rise, companies build more houses and the supply floods the market, keeping prices down. The supply response to increasing demand may help explain why real home prices nationwide fell 35 percent from 2006 to 2012 (and even more in some cities). Investment in residential structures in the United States was at levels as a percentage of G. D. P. just before the price declines. Prices have been rebounding since then — and so has construction of new houses. But it is true they aren’t making land anymore. And, in fact, farmland prices have done better than home prices over the last century as well as in the worst years for housing, the years bracketing the recent financial crisis. Real farm property values actually rose 21 percent over the full financial crisis, that is, between 2006 and 2012. For farmland, there was only a small 3 percent drop in real price from 2008 to 2009, which was quickly reversed. Don’t get too excited. They aren’t making land, but because of technological advances collectively called the Green Revolution, there has been something akin to a supply increase. This miracle in agricultural science greatly improved crop yields per acre. From the standpoint of farm output, there was no need for new land. This revolution involved the discovery by Fritz Haber of a cheap process to produce ammonia for fertilizer at the beginning of the century and the discovery of new strains of wheat by Norman E. Borlaug at midcentury. Both men won Nobel Prizes for their work. These innovations permitted multiplication of yields per acre and very likely saved hundreds of millions of lives from starvation worldwide. The effects of this revolution are complicated. One might think that progress that improves yield per acre would put upward pressure on land prices. But that is not necessarily so, if it occurs globally and prevents food price increases that would otherwise earn farmers more revenue. What’s more, the food revolution may be accelerating with changes like milk from genetically modified yeast and meat from stem cells, eliminating the need for livestock and their pasture. This could have deleterious effects on farmland prices. Of course, underneath every home is a piece of land. Although that is typically only a bit of former farmland, it is often in an urban or suburban area, where a plot of land tends to cost much more than in the country. Sometimes that little piece of land dominates the value of the home, particularly in dense urban areas. But if we are to understand trends, we need to realize what land represents, even in Manhattan or Silicon Valley or any booming area. People in such places usually aren’t buying land for its own sake but for the myriad services that housing provides. A home is not just a place to sleep and store clothing and keepsakes. It can be a place that is convenient to a stimulating place of work, good schools and entertainment and, indeed, part of an entire human community. These services have developed enormously over the last 100 years, changing the spatial and geographic dimensions of housing. There are vastly more highways and automobiles, telephones and various electronic connections, enabling people to leave center cities and still obtain the housing services they want. Thus, from a perspective, these developments relieved a great deal of the upward pressure on home prices in cities. Right now, there are some interesting developments in the supply of housing services that economize even further on urban land. We have recently seen interest in “” which may be little more than 200 square feet but manage to squeeze in a kitchen, a bathroom and an entertainment center. For many people, this tiny space, with its proximity to people, interesting neighborhoods and restaurants, is preferable to living in a house in a suburb. Carrying this idea further, keepsakes can be kept in remote storage, maybe deliverable someday, on demand, with driverless cars. Already, rules are being changed in many cities, including New York, allowing the little apartments to be built and to accommodate many more people per acre of city land. These factors could lead to future demands on valuable urban land. When you add all this together, the slow pace of farmland and home price increases is not surprising. Nor would it be shocking if this trend continued for the next century, despite price surges over the last few years. A more extreme outcome is also quite plausible. In a hundred years, we might even see much of our former farmland converted back to wildlife preserves. In fact, it’s far from inconceivable that the real price of land could be even lower than it is right now. | 1 |
By Whitney Webb UNICEF found air pollution to be a major contributing factor in the deaths of nearly 600,000 under the age of five. Most recent environmental concerns regarding pollution have been... | 0 |
LONDON — Jeremy Corbyn strengthened his grip on Britain’s opposition Labour Party on Saturday, beating back a challenge to his leadership by members of Parliament with increased support from the party’s rank and file. The results of the leadership struggle were announced in Liverpool, in northwestern England, on the eve of the annual Labour Party conference. Mr. Corbyn, a politician, won 61. 8 percent of the more than 500, 000 votes cast, up from the 59. 5 percent he won a year ago, when his victory shocked and divided the party. A revolt by Labour members of Parliament, who said they feared that Mr. Corbyn would lead the party to electoral disaster, came to nothing as their favored candidate, Owen Smith, won only 38. 2 percent of the vote. The result tightened Mr. Corbyn’s grip on the party and isolated many of its members of Parliament from a growing membership that is younger and more drawn by Mr. Corbyn’s policies to reduce inequality, make Britain and renationalize key areas of the economy, like the railways and energy. The party has almost tripled its membership to more than 500, 000, making it the largest political party in Western Europe, Mr. Corbyn said. But opinion polls regularly indicate that if an election were held tomorrow, Labour under Mr. Corbyn would suffer a historic defeat in the country as a whole. In a victory speech, Mr. Corbyn called for unity, said that more held “the Labour family” together than divided it and vowed that the party would win the next election under his leadership. Mr. Corbyn also promised forgiveness to the rebels, noting that many heated things are said in a campaign that are later regretted. “Let’s wipe that slate clean from today and get on with the work we have to do as a party together,” he said. There are concerns among the rebels in Parliament that Mr. Corbyn and his team will move against them. Electoral districts are to undergo boundary changes as the House of Commons shrinks from 650 members to 600, and Mr. Corbyn’s opponents fear the leadership team will use those changes to replace them with other candidates. Some of Mr. Corbyn’s allies have been pressing for “mandatory reselection” of all candidates in every district before another British election. Anticipating his victory before it was announced, Mr. Corbyn had issued a plea for unity. “Whatever the result, whatever the margin, we all have a duty to unite, cherish and build our movement,” he said. Mr. Corbyn and his allies see Labour as a socialist movement whose purpose is to change society. But most Labour members of Parliament, who regard Mr. Corbyn as a man of the fringe, believe the best way to effect change is to win power in elections, which in Britain has meant moving toward the center, not farther to the left. They have also criticized Mr. Corbyn for poor organization and weak leadership, and have said Labour is not doing its job as an effective opposition to the governing Conservative Party. But after this resounding victory, Mr. Corbyn is highly unlikely to face another challenge before the next general election, which is due in May 2020. Labour members of Parliament who refused to serve in his shadow cabinet, or who resigned from it as part of the revolt, will be under pressure to join it, even if they sharply disagree with his policies. Tony Travers, a professor of government at the London School of Economics, said the Labour Party was “like a miserable, unhappy family trying to coexist. ” Labour’s home affairs spokesman, Andy Burnham, told BBC radio that while the party’s “war of attrition” must stop, Mr. Corbyn must also build more support among the general public, not just among Labour activists. “No one gets the right to take Labour down to a devastating defeat,” said Mr. Burnham, who is trying to avoid the party’s parliamentary problems by running for mayor of Manchester. Some Conservatives have urged the new British prime minister, Theresa May, who took over from David Cameron, to change the law to call an election sooner, in order to get her own mandate and take advantage of the divisions in Labour. But she has said there will be no early election. The former Labour foreign secretary David Miliband, a centrist narrowly beaten to the party leadership in 2010 by his more brother, Ed, wrote in the New Statesman magazine this past week: “We have not been further from power since the 1930s. ” | 1 |
First of Three Parts … 1. The Trump Nationalist Vision, Ascendant It’s an obvious fact: Donald Trump hasn’t even been sworn in as the 45th President, and yet, already, he’s setting the national agenda. Through Twitter, other social media, and the occasional public appearance, he’s still doing what he did throughout the presidential campaign — dominating. Only now, as he says, he’s doing it not for himself, but for the American people. In recent weeks, Trump has struck deals with Carrier and Ford. Hence this revealing January 3 headline: “Chided by Trump, Ford scraps Mexico factory, adds Michigan jobs. ” He’s also announced a $50 billion, 50, 000 jobs deal with Japanese investor Masayoshi Son and has just touted a new plan from Fiat Chrysler. Yet at the same time, Trump is using sticks, as well as carrots. He has made it clear that any company that takes jobs out the country will be lambasted for doing so. As he said in his January 11 press conference, The word is now out, that when you want to move your plant to Mexico or some other place, and you want to fire all of your workers from Michigan and Ohio . . . it’s not going to happen that way anymore. And in that same press conference, he went after the pharmaceutical companies for charging too much. And he had a solution: “What we have to do is create new bidding procedures for the drug industry, because they’re getting away with murder. ” And of course, he has chastised defense contractors Boeing and Lockheed, which he believes have been asking too much from the taxpayers. The result of this “tweet therapy” has been an overhaul of thinking in Corporate America. Surveying Trump’s new style of presidential bully pulpiteering, Reuters concludes, “Corporate leaders . . . can no longer focus only on maximizing shareholder value they must now also weigh national interest. ” Yes, that’s correct: American business executives are now getting a crash course in economic patriotism they can no longer act as if they aren’t citizens of this country — or that other US citizens don’t matter. Because of Trump, they must now take into account the overall strength and of the nation in which they reside. And here’s the interesting thing: Trump’s activism is also proving to be . It’s a win for all three sectors call it a national . And it only makes sense: If there are more American workers with big paychecks buying things and paying their fair share of taxes, that’s good both for American business and for Uncle Sam’s budget. Indeed, according to the National Federation of Independent Business, small business optimism has “skyrocketed,” and consumer confidence is also up meanwhile, the dollar is up, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 2000 points since the election. So it’s fully evident that the American economy is responding positively to Trump as . And President Trump will be joined in his administration, of course, by a slew of other successful dealmakers. Yes, it’s interesting to think back on the old ways of the federal government, the ways. That is, the feds have been interventionist on so many matters for so long, and yet they were almost entirely when it came to good jobs and wages corporations were free to come and go — mostly, go. The message to employers was, in effect, Do whatever you want to your workers, but you must, at all costs, protect wetlands, spotted owls, and the feelings of “protected victims” and their free choice of bathrooms. Thankfully, that strange and unfair policy choice by Uncle Sam — to ignore the interests of the broad middle class while catering to ever more — seems to be coming to an end. So it’s possible, perhaps even likely, that under President Trump we will once again become a nation for all Americans — even Middle Americans. We could yet be the “city on a hill” that Ronald Reagan so eloquent described. That is, a true “Team America,” united in its determination to work hard and do well, with US citizens coming first. As Trump said in his press conference on Wednesday, his victory was “a movement like the world has never seen before . . . that was a beautiful thing on November 8. ” 2. The Old Globalist Vision, Descendant Of course, not everyone thinks that what happened on Election Day 2016 was a beautiful thing, because they have been living their lives according to a vision much different than Trump’s economic nationalism. Let’s get specific. We can start with Barack Obama for the last eight years, as we know, Obama never worried much about the middle class, or, for that matter, about America. Instead, his eyes were on a different prize: the vision of a relentlessly globalized world, in which the US would fit in . . . somewhere. Here’s how the 44th president expressed himself in his first inaugural address, back in 2009: As the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace. That might be a nice thought to have in some academic ivory tower, but in the real world, there’s precious little evidence that the polyglot peoples of the planet agree on much of anything, let alone how to usher in a new era of peace. Heck, even Obama, having received a Nobel Peace Prize for making nice speeches, immediately escalated that forlorn war in Afghanistan. Yet still, in his dogmatically ideological mind, he was determined to shrink American power so that it would “play its role” in this new global order. And so in April 2009, the president was at pains to deny that “American exceptionalism” was anything worth taking note of, let alone being proud of. Instead, he snarked that “American exceptionalism” was an illusion, because all countries see themselves as exceptional. Obama’s dismissiveness inspired one reporter to observe, If all countries are “exceptional,” then none are, and to claim otherwise robs the word, and the idea of American exceptionalism, of any meaning. And yet again, Obama’s comments made perfect sense, if we see that his goal was to cubbyhole the United States as just another country on the world stage, somewhere between Uganda and Uzbekistan. So of course, Obama devoted his first few months in office to a worldwide “apology tour,” although many say that it lasted, really, for his entire eight years in the White House. John Fonte, a conservative critic of globalism at the Hudson Institute, calls this ideology “transnational progressivism,” and it certainly defines the progressive worldview. Indeed, if we dig deeper, we can see that globalism is, in fact, a kind of religion. Everyone has heard, whether they wanted to or not, that 1971 John Lennon song, “Imagine,” including these lyrics: Imagine there’s no countriesIt isn’t hard to doNothing to kill or die forAnd no religion, too. This “Lennonism,” to be sure, is shared by many around the world. Thus it’s little wonder that Obama made common cause with other globalists, including former British prime minister David Cameron, German chancellor Angela Merkel, and European Union chief Juncker. These are the people who presided over the creation, or the elevation, of various murky transnational enterprises, including the United Nations, the European Union, the Paris Climate Change Agreement, and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, aka, the Iran nuclear deal. The common thread running through all these bureaucratic contraptions is the “democracy deficit. ” That is, in the mind of the elite, the fewer real people, including in the US, who get to vote on, or otherwise scrutinize, the doings of these bureaucracies, the better. Indeed, it’s also best, the elite thinks, if people never even learn the truth about what’s being done in their name. We can cite, for example, the issue of refugees. To globalists, it’s a point of honor to accept refugees, even with the prospect of subsidizing forever, in unassimilated dependency. So we can readily see that Germany’s Merkel is, in the globalist hierarchy, the most “honorable. ” Yet, as we know, the Obama administration has done its best to keep up. And if these programs aren’t popular with the public, well, the standard elite instinct is to mislead and deceive. In the mind of these deceivers, it’s all for the greater good because the ideal of the sacred “global village” is never better off if the “deplorables” get to decide anything. It’s been well documented that the US government has been hiding the truth about the crimes of refugees, the health of refugees, and even the actual number of refugees. Is anyone in the Obama administration the least bit apologetic for these dishonest abuses? Of course not. And yet, of course, in light of the recent election results, in which globalism was decisively rejected, we have to ask: Did the elite really think that they would get away with it? Did they really think that people wouldn’t notice what has been happening to their communities and neighborhoods? The answer seems to be, “Yes” — the Obamans truly believed that they could get way with it. They thought that Trump would be buried by a blue demographic wave in 2016, and that Hillary Clinton would be continuing their favored globalist policies in 2017. To which we can say: Perhaps the elite aren’t as smart as they think they are. And yet, of course, even after being booted out of power, the Obama globalists will enjoy a soft landing: Many of them will soon be working for some George think tank, or pressure group. And from those cushy perches, they will be able to keep up their “resistance” to Trump (more on this in the next two installments). Now we cite a second sacred item on the globalist agenda: international free trade. And here we see, once again, that elite thinking on globalism has a way of turning a theory into a transcendentally moral first principle. And it’s been this way for a long time. Back in 1846, the leading British free trader Richard Cobden declared, that free trade would save the world: I see in the principle that which shall act on the moral world as the principle of gravitation in the universe — drawing men together, thrusting aside the antagonism of race, and creed, and language, and uniting us in the bonds of eternal peace. Cobden was a capitalist, and capitalists are often but, as we can see, there’s a dreamy, even giddy, utopianism in Cobden’s thinking. And amazingly, it won the battle of public opinion in Britain. Interestingly, one contemporary of Cobden’s — who was much and decidedly not a capitalist — nevertheless endorsed the same idea. That would be Karl Marx, the founder of communism. As a theoretical prognosticator, Marx may have had a mistaken view of what communism would become in the future, and yet, nevertheless, he was a shrewd observer of current events. Marx could see that unchecked and unbalanced capitalism would quickly pulverize cultures, traditions, even whole nations in an endless gale of creative destruction. That is, individuals might be better off in some material ways, but, as a community, they would be atomized and unhinged. In the meantime, Marx continued, left to their own devices, untrammeled free markets would concentrate most of the wealth in the hands of speculators and other financialists. And so a result, Marx concluded, the masses, in their vexation, would be ready to experiment with socialism and then communism. With that Red scenario in mind, Marx declared in a famous 1848 speech, “Gentlemen, I am in favor of free trade. ” Yet today, the most ardent proponents of free trade aren’t communists they are globalists, and they are achingly sincere. Some might be Democrats, some might be Republicans, some might think of themselves as liberal, some might identify as conservatives. Yet what unites them all is a vision of a borderless world, with minimal restrictions on exports and imports. (And, of course, minimal restrictions on the transit, also, of people.) To be sure, some globalists, such as the EU’s Juncker, have turned globalism into a profitable ideology for years now, Juncker has been in the middle of efforts by his home country, Luxembourg, to become the world’s most tax haven. So yes, there’s plenty of in globalism. And yet at the same time, there’s more than that — much more. 3. The Gospel of Globalism, Indeed, this globalist faith is so strong that one can fairly conclude that it’s more than an ideology — it must be a kind of theology. As writer Fay Voshell suggested last September in American Thinker, globalism, for many, is a kind of transmuted Christianity. That is, globalism is a new kind of faith: Replacing the beatific vision of Christianity is a new universal . . . an order in which human beings’ allegiance is to a global City of Men ruled by elite priests who act as gods for the masses. Preachers of the globalist vision present an ersatz kingdom . . . The religion of globalism sees an earthly, utopian world order in which all men pay allegiance to elite priests who rule over a World City without national borders. Sometimes the substitute beatific vision is expressed in terms of a “global village,” a mystical entity that takes the place of the family of God. The globalists’ family of humanity is without distinction of country, tribe or creed. Those last words, “without distinction of country, tribe or creed,” take us right back to where we started — with John Lennon’s “Imagine. ” For the globalists, this vision is so powerful that it’s easy to see how they would be inspired to do exactly what they have done: open their borders, impose political correctness on their people, and transform their societies through vast schemes. Indeed, as we have seen, globalist political leaders are so committed to their beliefs that they are even willing to risk losing elections, sacrificing their careers on the altar of their faith. And that’s just what happened with the Brexit vote in June, which not only put Britain on a course to leave the European Union, but also cost David Cameron his high office at Number 10 Downing Street. And here in the US in November, the same thing happened to Hillary Clinton — and to Barack Obama’s legacy. Given the passionate depths of globalist sentiments, it’s little wonder that the elites took those defeats with bitter dismay. In the United Kingdom, for example, the beginning of the angry globalist response was to put a permanent hex on the leader of Brexit, Nigel Farage. And oh yes, you might have noticed: Here in the US, the elite is just as angry at Trump. In the globalist mind, Farage and Trump aren’t just enemies, they are heretics. Maybe even, in a sense, they are . So while Farage and Trump have won their respective political victories, the full fury of the elite has yet to be felt. Next: The Deep State Divebombs Trump. | 1 |
ORLANDO, Fla. — Amid the massacre at a gay nightclub here, while the gunman held dozens of people hostage, the police got word from multiple sources that the killer had himself, hostages and the building with explosives, Orlando’s mayor said on Wednesday. Holed up in Pulse nightclub early Sunday, the gunman, Omar Mateen, told the police by phone that he would strap explosives to four hostages and place them strategically in the corners of the building, Mayor Buddy Dyer told reporters. People trapped inside made panicked calls and text messages to 911 operators, friends and family members, also warning that Mr. Mateen was talking about bombs, he said. “We had a lot of information from the inside and they independently were saying yes, the bomber is about to put on an explosive vest,” Mr. Dyer said. So far, investigators have not found any evidence that Mr. Mateen, 29, had explosives, senior law enforcement officials said Wednesday. His rampage with an assault rifle and a handgun left 49 people dead and 53 wounded, the worst mass shooting in United States history, and he died in a shootout with law enforcement officers. Investigators continued looking into whether his wife, Noor Zahi Salman, knew what he had planned, but at a news conference, officials deflected questions about possible criminal charges against her. “I’m not going to speculate with respect to any charges that might be brought,” said A. Lee Bentley III, the United States attorney for the Middle District of Florida. “We’re not sure what charges will be brought, or if charges will be brought. ” Ms. Salman has told F. B. I. investigators that she had tried to talk her husband out of some kind of attack, according to senior law enforcement officials. But she also told them that she had gone with him to buy ammunition, and that she had once driven him to Pulse, they said. Ronald Hopper, an assistant agent in charge of the F. B. I. ’s Tampa office, urged patience with investigators, who he noted were still analyzing a complex crime scene. He also appealed for the public’s help in retracing Mr. Mateen’s movements, as investigators scour his past for motives or possible accomplices. Efforts to parse Mr. Mateen’s motivation have revealed strands of Islamist radicalism, bigotry, mental illness and even — one possibility being investigated was that he was gay. Mr. Mateen had expressed hatred of gays and made contradictory claims of links to terrorist groups. His former wife has said he abused her. In talking with the police on Sunday, he pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. News 13, a local cable news channel, reported that the gunman also called the station during the siege and declared his allegiance to the group. Mr. Dyer confirmed reports that Mr. Mateen had been driving around the night of the slaughter, visiting locations, possibly casing potential targets for an attack. But Mr. Hopper said investigators believed that Pulse was the gunman’s intended target. One woman who escaped the nightclub unharmed said Wednesday that she was angry that, after an initial exchange of gunfire with Mr. Mateen, police officers pulled back and settled into a standoff, rather than quickly forcing a confrontation. “By the time I came out and came around I told the officers that he’s already shot at least a hundred rounds, and I told the officers on my way out that there was already at least 20 people that were dead,” said the woman, Jeannette McCoy, 37, of Orlando. “I wanted this guy dead,” she said, but instead, “they gave him so much time. And I’m yelling at the officers like, ‘This is what my tax dollars go to? You’re supposed to be there to protect and serve.’ You can’t tell me this occurred at 2 o’clock in the morning and finally at 5 o’clock in the morning is when you finally decide to go ahead and shoot him?” On Wednesday, signs, flowers, balloons, candles and beaded necklaces dotted the area, some with inscriptions for loved ones lost. In front of the Fire Department’s Engine No. 5 firehouse, less than 150 feet from Pulse on Orange Avenue, dozens of American flags were planted in the grass. Law enforcement agencies shrank the cordon around the nightclub, allowing access to several blocks most businesses in the area remained closed Wednesday, although a Chipotle restaurant reopened. Across the street, an Ace Hardware store was open this week, supplying water and fans to officers, but traffic has been sparse. “We usually get about 450 to 600 customers per day, but we’ve only pulled in about 300 over the last three days,” said Mike Williams, an assistant manager. The immediate area around the club remained with mobile command posts parked nearby and F. B. I. agents combing through the crime scene. Several cars that were abandoned in Pulse’s parking lot on Sunday still had not been removed. The possibility that Mr. Mateen might have had bombs sheds some light on the decision by police commanders to storm the building Sunday morning, breaching an outer wall with explosives and an armored vehicle. John Mina, Orlando’s police chief, has said that they had reason to believe they were facing an “imminent loss of life,” but he did not offer details. Survivors of the siege said they were searched by the police when they escaped the club or were rescued, to make sure they did not have explosives or guns on them. The threat of explosives also accounts for the delay of several hours before the building was cleared and bodies removed, “because all indications were that it was ” Mr. Dyer said. “When the shooter was killed, you could see a battery pack right next to him, which would indicate to us that there’s a detonator of some sort,” he said. “There was also a bag near his body, so you would logically lead to the conclusion that the bag contained explosives and he had some type of detonator that could have been a pressure detonator that was under the body. ” Officials in Florida have been reluctant to discuss Mr. Mateen’s academic career, including his stint at an alternative school. But on Wednesday, TCPalm. com, a local news site, published excerpts from his elementary and middle school records that depicted him as a troubled student. “The main factor prohibiting Omar from success in school is not that the work is too hard, but rather his difficulties in conforming to rules,” one document, addressed to Mr. Mateen’s father, said. According to the website, which did not say how it had obtained the documents, Mr. Mateen “talked frequently of violence and obscenities” as a child and was the subject of 31 disciplinary actions from 1992 to 1999. | 1 |
DJIBOUTI — The two countries keep dozens of intercontinental nuclear missiles pointed at each other’s cities. Their frigates and fighter jets occasionally face off in the contested waters of the South China Sea. With no shared border, China and the United States mostly circle each other from afar, relying on satellites and cybersnooping to peek inside the workings of each other’s war machines. But the two strategic rivals are about to become neighbors in this patch of East African desert. China is constructing its first overseas military base here — just a few miles from Camp Lemonnier, one of the Pentagon’s largest and most important foreign installations. With increasing tensions over China’s efforts in the South China Sea, American strategists worry that a naval port so close to Camp Lemonnier could provide a seat to the staging ground for American counterterror operations in the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa. “It’s like having a rival football team using an adjacent practice field,” said Gabriel Collins, an expert on the Chinese military and a founder of the analysis portal China SignPost. “They can scope out some of your plays. On the other hand, the scouting opportunity goes both ways. ” Established after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Camp Lemonnier is home to 4, 000 personnel. Some are involved in highly secretive missions, including targeted drone killings in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, and the raid last month in Yemen that left a member of the Navy SEALs dead. The base, which is run by the Navy and abuts Djibouti’s international airport, is the only permanent American military installation in Africa. Beyond surveillance concerns, United States officials, citing the billions of dollars in Chinese loans to Djibouti’s heavily indebted government, wonder about the durability of an alliance that has served Washington well in its global fight against Islamic extremism. Just as important, experts say, the base’s construction is a milestone marking Beijing’s expanding global ambitions — with potential implications for America’s longstanding military dominance. “It’s a huge strategic development,” said Peter Dutton, professor of strategic studies at the Naval War College in Rhode Island, who has studied satellite imagery of the construction. “It’s naval power expansion for protecting commerce and China’s regional interests in the Horn of Africa,” Professor Dutton said. “This is what expansionary powers do. China has learned lessons from Britain of 200 years ago. ” Chinese officials play down the significance of the base, saying it will largely support antipiracy operations that have helped quell the threat to international shipping once posed by marauding Somalis. “The support facility will be mainly used to provide rest and rehabilitation for the Chinese troops taking part in escort missions in the Gulf of Aden and waters off Somalia, U. N. peacekeeping and humanitarian rescue,” the Defense Ministry in Beijing said in a written reply to questions. In addition to having 2, 400 peacekeepers in Africa, China has used its vessels to escort more than 6, 000 boats from many countries through the Gulf of Aden, the ministry said. China’s military has also evacuated its citizens caught in the world’s trouble spots. In 2011, the military plucked 35, 000 from Libya, and 600 from Yemen in 2015. As China’s navy has assumed these new roles far from home, its commanders have struggled to maintain vessels and resupply them with food and fuel. Capt. Liu Jianzhong, a former political commissar of a Chinese destroyer plying the Gulf of Aden, said the lack of a dedicated port in the region took a toll on personnel forced to spend long stretches at sea. “For six months, we didn’t reach the shore, and a lot of sailors had physical and psychological problems,” he told the China Military Online. To that end, the new base will include a gym, the ministry said. Professor Dutton said Beijing would most likely try to “acclimatize” the world by using the facility for commercial purposes when it begins operating this year and then gradually increase the number and variety of warships that dock there. “It will be relatively incremental in the forward deployment of naval power. You are not going to see a Yokosuka,” he said, referring to the base for the United States Seventh Fleet in Japan. In its written answers, the ministry said that China was not budging from its “defensive” military policy and that the base did not indicate an “arms race or military expansion. ” In recent years, China has moved aggressively to increase its power projection capabilities through the rapid modernization of its navy. Military spending has soared, with Beijing’s defense budget expected to reach $233 billion by 2020, more than all Western European countries combined, and double the figure from 2010, according to Jane’s Defense Weekly. In 2016, the United States spent more than $622 billion on the military, Jane’s said. These days, Chinese naval vessels, including nuclear submarines, roam much of the globe, from contested waters of the Yellow Sea to Sri Lanka and San Diego. China’s decision to establish an overseas military installation comes as little surprise to those who have watched Beijing steadily jettison a principle of noninterference in the affairs of other countries. The shift is an outgrowth of China’s evolution from an impoverished slumbering introvert to mercantilist with economic interests across the globe. Half of China’s oil imports sail through the Mandeb Strait, the choke point off Djibouti that connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean. Across Africa, companies are investing tens of billions of dollars in railways, factories and mines. And the millions of Chinese citizens who live and work overseas have come to expect that the government will look out for their interests — a point driven home in recent years when Beijing was forced to rescue Chinese nationals from Libya and Yemen. “The facility in Djibouti is a very interesting lens through which to view China’s growing capabilities and ambitions,” said Andrew S. Erickson, an expert at China’s maritime transformation at the Naval War College and the editor of the book “Chinese Naval Shipbuilding. ” “Not only will it give them a huge shot in the arm in terms of naval logistics, but it will also strengthen China’s image at home and abroad. ” A encampment built adjacent to a new commercial port, the base is designed to house up to several thousand troops and will include storage structures for weapons, repair facilities for ships and helicopters, and five berths for commercial ships and one for military vessels. At the base’s front gate recently, Chinese workers in construction helmets waved away a reporter who tried to ask questions. China’s Defense Ministry declined a request to tour the site. American officials say they were blindsided by Djibouti’s decision, announced last year, to give China a lease for the land. Just two years earlier, Susan Rice, the national security adviser under President Barack Obama, had flown here to head off a similar arrangement with Russia. Shortly afterward, the White House announced a lease renewal that doubled its annual payments for Camp Lemonnier, to $63 million, and a plan to invest more than $1 billion to upgrade the installation. If the Pentagon’s current base restrictions are any guide, American and Chinese troops are unlikely to be sharing beers any time soon. American officials, citing possible security threats, keep most personnel confined to the rectangle of scrubland, which is a drive from the center of Djibouti city. It is a policy that stirs some discontent among those who often spend yearlong stints at Camp Lemonnier without venturing outside. By contrast, French military personnel can often be seen jogging through the city and socializing with locals. Americans who work for the United States Embassy also live in the community and say they feel little threat to their safety. Life on base can be monotonous, broken up by visits to the fitness center or meals at the camp’s Subway sandwich outlet. Capt. James Black, the camp’s commanding officer, said one of his primary challenges was to provide salubrious distractions for those stationed here. The distractions include free a movie theater, Texas Hold ’em tournaments and the occasional soccer match with Italian and German troops. “We’re like a landlocked aircraft carrier,” Captain Black said during a recent tour of the installation, which is blasted in summer by broiling heat. “Part of my job is to create opportunities to give people a break and attend to their mental health needs. ” Local residents also crave more face time with the Americans. Some say Camp Lemonnier personnel could play a more active role in helping to alleviate Djibouti’s crushing poverty by building schools, painting hospitals or simply taking part in language exchanges. Others, like Mohamed Ali Basha, the owner of a restaurant that serves grilled fish and massive discs of baked flatbread, said he would welcome business from military personnel. “I don’t understand why the Americans are so obsessed with security here, but I would be happy to close the restaurant for them if they would come,” Mr. Basha, 26, said. “Just call in advance. ” In interviews, Djiboutian officials expressed little concern that two strategic adversaries would be sharing space in a country the size of New Jersey. It helps that the Chinese are paying $20 million a year in rent on top of the billions they are spending to finance critical infrastructure, including ports and airports, a new rail line and a pipeline that will bring desperately needed drinking water from neighboring Ethiopia. Critics say the surge of loans, which amount to 60 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, raises concerns about China’s leverage over the Djibouti government should it fall behind on debt payments. “Such generous credit is itself a form of control,” said Mohamed Daoud Chehem, a prominent government critic. “We don’t know what China’s intentions really are. ” But on the city’s dusty, potholed streets, most people are pleased to see China joining the club of a foreign militaries that have a presence here, among them Japan, Italy and Britain. Also here is a large contingent of French soldiers who stayed on after 1977, when the colony formerly known as French Somaliland gained independence. Abdirahman M. Ahmed, who runs Green Djibouti International, an environmental social enterprise, said many people viewed foreign militaries as a stabilizing force, given their country’s diminutive size, its lack of resources and the potential threats from neighbors like Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea, where expansionist sentiments continue to burble. “We don’t see any problem having the Chinese here,” he said. “They provide revenue and help play a deterrence to those who would love to annex Djibouti. ” The plethora of foreign troops, some say, also served as a bulwark against the jihadist violence that has destabilized other countries in the region. Djibouti, whose population of 900, 000 embraces a moderate form of Sunni Islam, has not been entirely spared: In 2014, a double suicide bombing at a downtown restaurant popular with foreigners killed a Turkish national and wounded 11 people. The Shabab, the militant group, later claimed responsibility, saying the attack was motivated by the presence of so many Western troops in Djibouti. For American military strategists, the security implications of the Chinese base are unclear, though practically speaking, many experts say the military threat is minimal. “A port like this isn’t very defensible against attack,” said Philip C. Saunders, director of the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs at the National Defense University. “It wouldn’t last very long in a war. ” | 1 |
Donald J. Trump may have leapt from success to the highest echelons of political power. But that does not mean he is ready to give up the part just yet. Although Mr. Trump is not starring in NBC’s coming season of “The New Celebrity Apprentice,” the is still involved: Mr. Trump will be credited as one of the show’s executive producers, a spokeswoman for Mark Burnett, the creator of the “Apprentice” franchise, said on Thursday. MGM, Mr. Burnett’s studio, declined to comment on what the would be paid for his participation in the new season, which will feature Arnold Schwarzenegger as the show’s businessman. But in the past, Mr. Trump has held as much as a 50 percent stake in “The Apprentice,” and received payments from the show’s international editions and a version that starred Martha Stewart. “Mr. Trump has a big stake in the show and conceived of it with Mark Burnett,” Hope Hicks, the ’s spokeswoman, said on Thursday. Ms. Hicks confirmed that she was referring to a financial stake. For an incoming president whose business holdings have already drawn ethical scrutiny, Mr. Trump’s continuing involvement with “The Apprentice” could spawn a new round of questions about conflicts of interest. For NBC, which nurtured Mr. Trump’s celebrity until he left the show in 2015 to pursue a presidential bid, the fact that the stands to profit from the program could raise concerns about how a politically polarized audience may react to one of its biggest shows. Mr. Schwarzenegger’s first episode airs on Jan. 2, and major companies, including Trident gum, Welch’s, and Carnival Cruise Line, have signed on as sponsors. NBC declined to comment on Mr. Trump’s producing credit, which was first reported by Variety. Mr. Trump, for months, has shown a keen interest in how Mr. Schwarzenegger, a former governor of California, bodybuilder and actor, might perform as host, asking friends and even campaign crowds, “How do you think Arnold’s going to do?” During an interview in May about his history with “The Apprentice,” Mr. Trump made clear that he remained invested in the program, emotionally and otherwise. “You know I have a big chunk of that show, going forever,” Mr. Trump said. “Mark and I did it together. We were partners. ” The and Mr. Burnett are on good terms, even though the producer issued a statement in October denouncing Mr. Trump’s candidacy, referring to “the hatred, division and misogyny that has been a very unfortunate part of his campaign. ” This week, Mr. Burnett met privately with Mr. Trump and suggested ideas for his inauguration, including a helicopter ride from New York to Washington and a parade on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. During the interview in May, Mr. Trump said that he had not spoken to Mr. Schwarzenegger about the program. “I don’t know how he is going to do,” Mr. Trump said, “but I hope he does well. ” “We tried to do it with Martha Stewart,” Mr. Trump added, “and that didn’t get the ratings, to put it mildly. ” | 1 |
Home | Health | Hook Up Sites Tinder and Grindr Good For Population Control Hook Up Sites Tinder and Grindr Good For Population Control By Girolamo Fracastoro 30/10/2016 22:17:24
LONDON – England – News that there has been a massive spike in syphilis amongst users of Tinder and Grindr is welcome news to many who are seriously concerned with over population.
Because syphilis can stay mainly undetected if untreated it can remain latent in the body for years. In the late stages of syphilis, the disease damages the internal organs, including the brain, nerves, eyes, heart, blood vessels, liver, bones and joints leading to early death.
Antibiotics are increasingly becoming redundant due to overuse and the WHO has warned of a coming cataclysmic disaster where many ailments are untreatable due to resistance.
“These people are spreading STIs around like candy and soon their diseases will not be treatable. It works both ways, deaths from syphilis and gonorrhoea will eventually cull these populations thinning the herd,” a clinical insider revealed.
What about HIV? Unfortunately it has not had the effect in population reduction that was needed. Although it is still prevalent amongst the gay population, it needs to make more in roads into the heterosexual population to become effective in reducing the population numbers.
Since the discovery of HIV/AIDS it has only killed 36 million, considering the global population is 7.5 billion and growing, it’s a drop in the ocean.
We must therefore encourage more sites like Tinder and Grindr, the more the better. These sites peddle death to the stupid, and less stupid people on earth can only be a very good thing.
App developers need to make in roads in creating more hookup apps tailored not only for the developed world but for the third world, especially nations like China and India as well as the African continent, where population growth is beyond unsustainable.
Once STDs like syphilis explode in these regions, which are wholly untreatable, they will continue to spread like wildfire.
The creators of Tinder and Grindr should be commended for their great works, you have fired the starting gun in the race to reduce the global population before it is too late. Promiscuous risky sexual encounters should be encouraged at all junctures to spread STIs.
Finite resources are being permanently depleted daily, and it is only a matter of time before the Malthusian nightmare is upon us. Estimated projections for global population growth are 11.2 billion by 2023 according to the UN.
This cannot be allowed to happen, so please go on Tinder and Grindr now, and do your bit. You can catch chlamydia, genital warts, HIV, syphilis and gonorrhoea, maybe all at the same time. Share on : | 0 |
Breitbart – by Deborah Danan
TEL AVIV – Donald Trump told a Republican rally in Jerusalem on Wednesday that he loves Judaism and will work to make “America and Israel safe again.”
“I love Israel and honor and respect the Jewish tradition and it’s important we have a president who feels the same way,” Trump said in a video message via satellite to several hundred Israelis and Americans who had gathered for the event.
“My administration will stand side-by-side with the Jewish people and Israel’s leaders to continue strengthening the bridges that connect not only Jewish-Americans and Israelis, but also all Americans and Israelis,” Trump said.
“Together we will stand up to enemies, like Iran, bent on destroying Israel and her people, together we will make America and Israel safe again,” he added.
The event, organized by Republicans Overseas Israel on the rooftop of a restaurant overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem, was titled “Jerusalem Forever,” in protest of the recent UNESCO resolutions that erased Jewish and Christian connections to the holy city.
Last week, Trump slammed the resolution as a “one-sided attempt to ignore Israel’s 3,000-year bond to its capital city” and “further evidence of the enormous anti-Israel bias” at the United Nations.
Trump’s running mate Mike Pence also addressed the event via video, saying that Jerusalem is “the eternal undivided capital of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.”
“Donald Trump and I stand with Israel because Israel’s fight is our fight, because Israel’s cause is our cause,” he said. “Israel is our most cherished ally.” Pence added that he and Trump “understand that Israel is not hated by her enemies for what she does wrong but rather for what she does right.”
“Like the U.S., Israel is hated by terrorists and the failed states that support them. She is hated by too many progressives, because she is successful and her people are free,” he said.
Pence also said Israel’s military defends the Jewish state with “decency, humanity and restraint.”
Trump’s adviser on Israel affairs, David Friedman, came to Israel for the event. He promised the crowd that if Trump were elected he would treat Israel very differently than the Obama administration.
He added that Trump would make good on his promise to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
“Under a Trump administration there is going to be no daylight between the U.S. and the State of Israel,” he said. “If there are disagreements they will be handled in private as is done between close friends.”
According to Friedman, some 80 percent of registered U.S. voters in Israel are expected to vote for Trump.
Many of the Trump supporters at the rally were sporting red “Make America Great Again” hats and said they believed he was the most pro-Israel candidate to lead America.
“I’m here today to show support for Donald Trump as he is standing with us, supporting us here in Israel,” the Times of Israel quoted Reuven Ashenberg saying. Ashenberg, originally from Teaneck, New Jersey, now runs the Republican party’s campaign in Beit Shemesh.
“He’s the only candidate that’s pro-Israel and we need to show him our support as we’re rallying around the right choice, to help ‘Make America Great Again,’ and thereby helping Israel become great again as well,” Ashenberg said.
Abe Marks, who hails from New York and now lives in Jerusalem, said his biggest concern about Hillary Clinton would be who she appoints to the Supreme Court. Her choices “will be destructive to American freedoms and the American way of life.”
Marks admitted that while he was not completely “enamored” by Trump, he likes that “he’s not part of the big boys’ club.” Clinton, Marks said, was “under the thumb of the New World Order” and as such he’s “very, very scared of her.”
Marks added that, most crucially, Trump will fulfill his campaign pledge to relocate the American embassy to Jerusalem.
“They all promise it, but he will actually do it. He has nothing holding him back,” he said. | 0 |
A Texas sheriff is actively promoting visas to the illegal immigrant community. The sheriff is preparing pamphlets advising certain illegal immigrants how they might qualify for special visas. [Travis County Sheriff “Sanctuary Sally” Hernandez came up with the idea of instructing crime victims who happen to be in the country illegally on how they can apply for a “U visa,” Fox 7 in Austin reported. Merely filing out the application for the visa, intended to help true crime victims, is enough to at least temporarily block immigration officials from deporting an applicant. Her work continues to propagate the myth that Texas’ new sanctuary city law (previously known as Senate Bill 4) is a threat to crime victims. During the final days of the debate, several Texas law enforcement officials joined together penning an published in April by the Dallas Morning News. The police chiefs stated: Officers would start inquiring about the immigration status of every person they come in contact with, or worse, inquire about the immigration status of people based on their appearance. This will lead to distrust of police and less cooperation from members of the community. And it will foster the belief that people cannot seek assistance from police for fear of being subjected to an immigration status investigation. Distrust and fear of contacting or assisting the police have already become evident among legal immigrants. Legal immigrants are beginning to avoid contact with the police for fear that they themselves or undocumented family members or friends may become subject to immigration enforcement. Such a divide between the local police and immigrant groups will result in increased crime against immigrants and in the broader community, create a class of silent victims, and eliminate the potential for assistance from immigrants in solving crimes or preventing crime. Their statement ignores the fact that SB 4 specifically prohibits officers from inquiring about the immigration status of a crime victim or a witness to a crime, unless the information is pertinent to the crime as in the case of human smuggling or sex trafficking crimes. ARITCLE 6, SECTION 6. 01 Article 2. 13: (I) n the course of investigating an alleged criminal offense, a peace officer may inquire ast o the nationality or immigration status of a victim of or witness to the offense only if the officer determines that the inquiry is necessary to: (1) Investigate the offense or (2) provide the victim or witness with information about federal visas designed to protect individuals providing assistance to law enforcement. In apparently ignoring this section of the new law (effective September 1, 2017) the Travis County Sheriff’s Office is preparing to distribute flyers. These flyers could be used to teach people how to abuse or take advantage of a program designed to protect true victims of or witnesses to crimes. “I think that just with the political climate in general across the U. S. that we have victims not reporting crime and that’s a concern for us. I mean, we care about all of the victims regardless of immigration status. We want to make sure that we have an avenue to ensure them they’re safe to come and speak with us,” Captain Craig Smith of the Travis County Sheriff’s Office told Fox 7 News. Sheriff Hernandez is having the pamphlets printed up to begin distribution, Travis County Sheriff’s Office Spokesman Kristin Dark told Breitbart Texas in an email response. It is currently being published in English and Spanish, despite the fact that Travis County has immigrant communities speaking many different languages. The report by Fox 7 does not state what funds the sheriff is using to pay for these pamphlets. Dark told Breitbart Texas she would research the source of funding. The sheriff’s office told the local Fox affiliate they currently receive about 10 U visa applications per month. They stated the department attempts to process the visas within 30 days to forward to immigration officials. The federal government issues approximately 10, 000 U visas per year. Victims or witnesses granted approval receive up to four years of protected status. They are required to cooperate with law enforcement regarding prosecuting the crime they witnessed or were a victim of. While the application is pending, the applicant cannot be removed from the U. S. Fox 7 reported. At least one Democrat Texas sheriff stood up to tell the truth about SB 4. Hidalgo County Sheriff J. E. “Eddie” Guerra joined with local chiefs of police in the Rio Grande Valley to try and calm the flames of fear being fanned by others across the state. “As Texas Governor Greg Abbott has stated [SB 4] is simply a mechanism such that when someone has a criminal record, or who is also wanted by [U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] they are going to be detained and turned over to ICE,” Sheriff Guerra told local reporters. “If you have not committed a crime, regardless of your immigration status, and unless you are subject to an ICE detainer, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. ” Sheriff Guerra told the McAllen newspaper, The Monitor, “To all the people we serve, we want you to know we are here to help you. We want you to continue working with us. Now more than ever we all need to work together — we need to encourage you to report crimes, suspicious activity and fugitives, so that we may all enjoy a better quality of life and a safer community. ” In contrast to Sheriff Guerra’s honesty about the new law, Breitbart Texas reported that Travis County Sheriff “Sanctuary Sally” Hernandez teamed up with four other Texas sheriffs to claim that “FBI crime statistics have found that labeled ‘sanctuary’ cities experience lower rates of all crime types, including homicides. ” Although fact checkers at the PolitiFact admitted that the FBI report does not exist, they still dubbed the statements “ . ” “In my book, a ‘half true’ for an open borders study from Politifact means it was definitely bogus,” Center for Immigration Studies Director of Policy Studies Jessica Vaughn told Breitbart Texas. “It means ‘we would like it to be true, but it wasn’t. ’” 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 |
اجتماع لمجلس الأمن من 28 أكتوبر 2016
مذكرة مفاهيمية عن رئاسة الروسية شبكة فولتير | نيويورك (الولايات المتحدة) | 27 تشرين الأول (أكتوبر) 2016 français English Español русский 中文 التعاون بين الأمم المتحدة والمنظمات الإقليمية ودون الإقليمية في صون السلام والأمن الدوليين: منظمة معاهدة الأمن الجماعي، ومنظمة شنغهاي للتعاون، ورابطة الدول المستقلة. ورقة مفاهيمية
يعتزم الاتحاد الروسي أن يعقد مناقشة في 28 تشرين الأول/أكتوبر بشأن موضوع ”التعاون بين الأمم المتحدة والمنظمات الإقليمية ودون الإقليمية في صون السلام والأمن الدوليين: منظمة معاهدة الأمن الجماعي، ومنظمة شنغهاي للتعاون، ورابطة الدول المستقلة“، وذلك بوصفها محور فترة رئاسته لمجلس الأمن.
في ضوء الطابع العالمي للتحديات والتهديدات المعاصرة، تتطلب صياغة النهج الجماعية اللازمة للتصدي لها بفعالية تعزيز التعاون بين الأمم المتحدة والمنظمات الإقليمية ودون الإقليمية في صون السلام والأمن الدوليين.
وفيما يتعلق بالأمم المتحدة، يرتبط ذلك في المقام الأول بطابعها العالمي، وذلك من حيث عضوية المنظمة وعملها على السواء، وكذلك بشرعيتها المعترف بها دوليا. وبالمقابل، فإن المنظمات الإقليمية غالبا ما تتمتع بفهم أفضل للحالة في المجالات التي تندرج في نطاق مسؤولياتها، وفي الكثير من الحالات، تكون مجهزة بآليات وقائية وآليات لحفظ السلام تتكيف مع الحقائق المحلية. ومن المهم في هذا الصدد أن تكون أنشطة المنظمات الإقليمية موجهة نحو السعي إلى إيجاد حلول سياسية سلمية للنزاعات الناشئة.
وفي هذا السياق تحديدا، يكتسب التنسيق المنتظم مع الشركاء الإقليميين الرئيسيين للأمم المتحدة بشأن المسائل المتعلقة بصون السلام والأمن الدوليين أهمية بالغة. فعلى سبيل المثال، يعقد مجلس الأمن اجتماعات منتظمة بشأن التعاون مع الاتحاد الأفريقي، ومنظمة الأمن والتعاون في أوروبا، والاتحاد الأوروبي. وفي السنوات الأخيرة، أجريت استعراضات للتعاون مع جامعة الدول العربية، ورابطة أمم جنوب شرق آسيا، واتحاد أمم أمريكا الجنوبية وغيرها من الجهات الفاعلة الإقليمية.
ولا يخفى على أحد أن التعاون بين المنظمة وشركائها الإقليميين يغطي مجموعة لا تنفك تتسع من المسائل. وتكمل هدفي حفظ السلام وبناء السلام الجهود الرامية إلى مكافحة انتشار أسلحة الدمار الشامل والتدفق غير المشروع للأسلحة الصغيرة والأسلحة الخفيفة ومكافحة الإرهاب الإلكتروني والهجرة غير الشرعية - وكلها مجالات يزداد التعاون فيها بين المنظمات المذكورة أعلاه والأمم المتحدة زخما. وهذا أمر بالغ الأهمية لصون السلام والاستقرار على امتداد المنطقة الأوروبية الآسيوية المترامية الأطراف، وخاصة في منطقة آسيا الوسطى.
وفي هذا المجال تحديدا، تعمل ثلاث منظمات فتية نسبيا في المنطقة الشاسعة الممتدة من أوروبا الشرقية إلى الشرق الأقصى، وهي منظمة معاهدة الأمن الجماعي، ومنظمة شنغهاي للتعاون، ورابطة الدول المستقلة. وتعمل هذه المنظمات على بناء نفوذها السياسي في العالم وتسهم إسهاما ملموسا في تعزيز الأمن على الصعيدين الإقليمي والدولي.
وستركز المناقشات على مساهمة منظمة معاهدة الأمن الجماعي، ومنظمة شنغهاي للتعاون، ورابطة الدول المستقلة في التصدي للأخطار التي تهدٍّد السلام والأمن في المنطقة، بما في ذلك مكافحة الإرهاب والاتجار بالمخدرات والجريمة المنظمة. وستوفر هذه المناسبة أيضا فرصة للتأكيد مجددا على التزام هذه المنظمات الثلاث بتطوير التعاون العملي مع الأمم المتحدة، بما في ذلك مركزها الإقليمي للدبلوماسية الوقائية لمنطقة آسيا الوسطى.
وتُعدُّ منظمة معاهدة الأمن الجماعي هيكلا متعدِّد الوجوه قادرا على الاستجابة بقوة للطائفة الواسعة من التحديات والتهديدات المعاصرة التي قد تواجهها الدول الأعضاء فيها. وفي هذا الصدد، تتوافر فرص جيدة لتعزيز التعاون بين الأمم المتحدة ومنظمة معاهدة الأمن الجماعي في مجال حفظ السلام. وفي إطار منظمة معاهدة الأمن الجماعي، يجري العمل بشكل مكثف من أجل تطوير القدرات الخاصة بها على حفظ السلام، بما في ذلك القدرات التي يمكن أن تتاح لعمليات الأمم المتحدة لحفظ السلام. وفي الوقت نفسه، تسهم منظمة معاهدة الأمن الجماعي بنشاط في الجهود الدولية لإعادة الإعمار بعد انتهاء النزاع في أفغانستان وتحييد خطر المخدرات النابع من إقليم ذلك البلد.
وتتطوَّر علاقات منظمة معاهدة الأمن الجماعي مع الأمم المتحدة بنجاح في مجالات عديدة منها مكافحة الإرهاب والاتجار بالمخدرات، وحفظ السلام، ومكافحة الجريمة المنظمة. وتحافظ منظمة معاهدة الأمن الجماعي على صلات مثمرة مع هياكل الأمم المتحدة المتخصِّصة وتعمل على تطويرها، بما في ذلك لجنة مكافحة الإرهاب التابعة لمجلس الأمن ومكتب الأمم المتحدة المعني بالمخدرات والجريمة.
وكل سنتين، تتخذ الجمعية العامة قرارا بشأن التعاون بين الأمم المتحدة ومنظمة معاهدة الأمن الجماعي. ومن المقرر اتخاذ قرار بشأن هذا الموضوع في الدورة الحادية والسبعين في سياق النظر في بند جدول الأعمال المعنون ”التعاون بين الأمم المتحدة والمنظمات الإقليمية والمنظمات الأخرى“.
ولقد أُنشئ الإطار القانوني للتعاون بين الأمم المتحدة ومنظمة شنغهاي للتعاون بشأن قضايا السلام والأمن الدوليين وفقا للفصل الثامن من ميثاق الأمم المتحدة بتوقيع إعلان مشترك بشأن التعاون بين أمانتي المنظمتين عام 2010. وفي الوقت الراهن، تتعاون منظمة شنغهاي للتعاون والأمم المتحدة تعاونا نشطا في مجالات من قبيل منع نشوب النزاعات وحلها، ومكافحة الإرهاب (ولهذا الغرض، يعمل هيكل إقليمي لمكافحة الإرهاب داخل منظمة شنغهاي للتعاون)، وعدم انتشار أسلحة الدمار الشامل، ومكافحة الجريمة العابرة للحدود الوطنية والاتجار غير المشروع بالمخدرات، وضمان أمن المعلومات على الصعيد الدولي.
وفي هذا السياق، تؤيد منظمة شنغهاي للتعاون بهمَّة جهود المجتمع الدولي وهيئات الأمم المتحدة الرامية إلى استعادة السلام في أفغانستان وتدعو باستمرار إلى الحفاظ على الدور التنسيقي المركزي الذي تضطلع به الأمم المتحدة في عملية التسوية الأفغانية.
ولقد كان التعاون في ضمان الأمن والتصدي للتحديات والتهديدات المعاصرة دائما وسيظلَّ أحد المجالات ذات الأولوية للتعاون المتكامل بين الدول الأعضاء في رابطة الدول المستقلة.
ويعتبر التعاون البنَّاء مع المنظمات الدولية أيضا عاملا رئيسيا في مكافحة التهديدات المستجدة بفعالية. ودول رابطة الدول المستقلة أطراف في جميع أهم الصكوك الدولية التي تنظم التعاون في ضمان الأمن، وتعزيز نزع السلاح، والتصدي للتحديات والتهديدات المعاصرة، وتسهم إسهاما كبيرا في تنفيذها.
ويجري تنفيذ تدابير مشتركة مع مراعاة الدور القيادي للأمم المتحدة والحاجة إلى تطوير شراكات بنَّاءة مع الهيئات الدولية الأخرى وهياكلها المتخصِّصة مثل لجنة مكافحة الإرهاب، ومكتب الأمم المتحدة المعني بالمخدرات والجريمة، والمنظمة الدولية للشرطة الجنائية (الإنتربول)، والمنظمة الدولية للهجرة، ومفوضية الأمم المتحدة لشؤون اللاجئين، وفرقة العمل المعنية بالإجراءات المالية المتعلقة بغسل الأموال.
ويؤدي استمرار تعزيز التعاون وتوثيقه بين الأمم المتحدة ومنظمة معاهدة الأمن الجماعي، ومنظمة شنغهاي للتعاون، ورابطة الدول المستقلة على أساس الفصل الثامن من ميثاق الأمم المتحدة دورا بنَّاء في تعزيز أهداف المنظمة، بما في ذلك مجابهة التحديات والتهديدات المعاصرة. ويجب أن تحدِّد هذه المنظمات الإقليمية موقعها بصورة فاعلة من حيث توظيف إمكانياتها لمصلحة الأمم المتحدة. وفي الوقت نفسه، ينبغي للأمم المتحدة نفسها أن تواصل إيلاء الاهتمام اللازم إلى زيادة التنسيق والتعاون مع تلك المنظمات، في إطار التقيد الصارم باختصاصات المنظمة ومجلس الأمن التابع لها.
وفي هذا السياق، نود أن نقترح أن تقدم الدول الأعضاء رؤيتها الخاصة عن السبل الكفيلة بتعزيز الأمن في المنطقة الأوروبية الآسيوية باستخدام الآليات الإقليمية القائمة. ومن الواضح أن الاستقرار في هذه المنطقة الكبرى سيكون الأساس لتحقيق النمو الاقتصادي وبناء الدولة للبلدان الأوروبية الآسيوية، ولذلك نرحِّب بآراء الوفود، بما في ذلك بشأن الصلة القائمة بين الأمن والتنمية. ونحن مقتنعون بأننا هنا، في الأمم المتحدة التي تتمتع بالشرعية العالمية، سنتمكن بشكل جماعي من اقتراح نُهُج مبتكرة لتناول مسائل تحقيق الاستقرار في المناطق الضعيفة يمكن تطبيقها لاحقا على أجزاء أخرى من العالم تشكل محط اهتمام مجلس الأمن.
وستشمل المناقشة ملاحظات يدلي بها السيد بان كي - مون، الأمين العام للأمم المتحدة، والسيد ن. ن بورديوزها، الأمين العام لمنظمة معاهدة الأمن الجماعي، والسيد ر. ك. عليموف، الأمين العام لمنظمة شانغهاي للتعاون، والسيد س. إ. إيفانوف، نائب رئيس اللجنة التنفيذية لرابطة الدول المستقلة. والدعوة موجهة أيضا إلى الدول الأعضاء في المنظمات الإقليمية المذكورة أعلاه وممثلي الدول المهتمة الأخرى للمشاركة في الاجتماع. | 0 |
BREAKING VIDEO : Trump is Providing Police Officers at “Trump Protests” With Dinner BREAKING VIDEO : Trump is Providing Police Officers at “Trump Protests” With Dinner Breaking News By Amy Moreno November 13, 2016
Donald Trump is a great man.
He will be an even greater president!
Tonight, as butt-hurt liberals and violent anti-American domestic terrorists flood the streets and protest against DEMOCRACY, Donald Trump is supplying police officers in Chicago with dinner. Not working #Chicago #Trumpprotest tonight but friends telling me @TrumpTower providing place to eat for officers working. Pretty #Standup | 0 |
by Health Impact News
A North Carolina grandmother writes:
“I never thought in my life that child trafficking would be legal in our own government.”
Yet, her grandson has been forcibly taken from his family and currently lives with strangers, through the Child Protective System. His grandmother, Kimberly Deese, is one of thousands of parents and grandparents who view the actions of Child Protective Services as literally being a form of legalized child trafficking. It has been one year since Health Impact News first reported the heartbreaking story of Malakai, a little boy who was medically kidnapped from his family and has suffered abuse and malnutrition since being in state custody.
Since that time, there has been little change. Several times, the family was told that there would be an investigation into the reports of abuse and photographs showing his dramatic weight loss, but nothing has reportedly materialized. Malakai is still in state custody, and the last window of opportunity to get him back home is rapidly closing.
Kimberly Deese says that a new attorney has assured them that he can get him back home, but they have less than 60 days to come up with attorney’s fees and to get the legal process rolling before the January 6th deadline. ( Contribute to these legal fees here .) His mother Heather has lost her parental rights, and the new attorney plans to file for an appeal. They are still working to get Malakai placed with his grandmother, but CPS in Wake County has fought them at every turn. The family believes that Malakai never should have been taken from his home.
See original story: North Carolina Child Medically Kidnapped Starving to Death in Foster Care
In September, Malakai’s godmother ran into him with the foster family in a clothing store. The friend was shocked to see how skinny Malakai has become. She was able to get a picture, but the photo quality is very grainy. Malakai in a store in September. Photo source: Help Save Malakai Facebook page .
Kimberly is very fearful for him:
I feel like my grandson’s been forgotten and it hurts bad. My daughter did nothing wrong but loved her children.
Why does CPS have to put a price tag on children’s heads? I never thought in my life that child trafficking would be legal in our own government.
I don’t have much hope anymore and my pain is ongoing since the day they took him.
We are just another family that’s lost in this corrupted government kidnapping our children.
This pain will live in me till the day the good Lord takes me.
I still have Tony, my Heather’s youngest, because I fear in my heart should I give him back to his innocent mother they would take him too. Blessings.
They are very hopeful that the new attorney will help them to set things right. The family says that they have done everything in their power to get him out of foster care, “where he is being malnourished and neglected.”
However, as most families dealing with the system have reported to Health Impact News , the fight has been “mentally and financially draining.” Kimberly writes:
We NEED your help! Wake County CPS refuses to let him come home due to the large amounts of federal funding they receive on his behalf!
For over 2 years Wake County CPS has denied Malakai his mother, whose rights have been terminated, his grandmother, who has custody of his 2 siblings and has been approved as a suitable home for his 2 siblings with no criminal history and other family members who have tried to gain kinship or custody of him to keep him with biological family.
Family SHOULD always be first choice!
Before Malakai was taken from his family, he was a happy and healthy little boy with a ready smile and chubby cheeks. Malakai was happy and healthy before CPS. Photo source: Help Save Malakai Facebook page .
He and his brother were taken from his family in April of 2014 after his younger brother Zechariah sustained a small burn on his leg. Their grandmother later figured out that the burn must have come from a hot buckle on a wagon, after she was able to match his injury to the buckle.
Heather’s boyfriend had placed him in the wagon. He misinterpreted Zechariah’s cries as fear, and pulled him around on the wagon for a couple of minutes in the hope that he would settle down before taking him out of the wagon. It was an accidental injury, and the boys’ mother was not even involved.
Someone who reportedly didn’t like Heather called CPS and told them that she had purposefully caused the burn. Social workers placed Zechariah with his other grandmother, but placed Malakai in a foster home with strangers.
Since he went into foster care, his condition allegedly has rapidly deteriorated. By November of 2014, the once-healthy boy was considered special needs. His grandmother reports that he showed evidence of being:
starved, neglected and abused … and eventually needed leg braces to help him walk. His ribs and shoulder blades began to protrude from his small frail body so now Wake County can claim Special Care funding while holding him hostage from us. Kimberly Deese: “I could see all my grandson’s bones, it was so horrible, reminded me of a child from a third world nation. I just wanted to cry. This is America – this thing should NOT BE HAPPENING.” Source: Help Save Malakai Facebook page . Malakai Suffering in Foster Care
The family has not had any visitation with Malakai since that November. Though there have been many phone calls and reports made to CPS by the family, nothing has been done. Kimberly reports that she has been told that social workers have investigated but have not found any of the allegations to be substantiated. She does not believe that the authorities are listening or that they care about her grandson.
In July of 2016, the family learned that Malakai had been hit by a car while in foster care. Though he was allegedly hospitalized for cuts, scrapes, and bruises, his family was not permitted to see him. Even after the car accident, nothing has changed. The family has learned that he remains in foster care, in the same foster home he was in when he was hit by a car. All phone calls from concerned friends and family have reportedly been ignored. How You Can Help
The family has very limited finances and no means to hire the attorney who believes that he can help them to bring Malakai home. Former court-appointed attorneys have not been helpful in getting Malakai returned to his family.
They need support and prayer as well as financial assistance to raise the retainer fee. They have less than 60 days to come up with the retainer fee for the private attorney. Kimberly Deese believes that this is their last, best hope to get Malakai home and out of the risks that he is facing in foster care.
Health Impact News has set up a special fund to help families in our stories who need financial help. Donations may be made to Malakai’s legal defense fund through this page: | 0 |
Good morning. (Want to get California Today by email? Sign up.) California pulled off several mayoral firsts on Election Day. The city of Elk Grove in Sacramento County elected Steve Ly, the first Hmong mayor anywhere in the country. In Berkeley, Jesse Arreguin became the city’s first Latino mayor. And in Stockton, voters elected not only the city’s first black mayor, but also its youngest ever — the Michael Tubbs. Californians have in the past elected a number of mayors, but perhaps never in a city the size of Stockton, with a diverse population north of 300, 000. (The League of California Cities said it did not track the ages of mayors.) Mr. Tubbs, a City Council member for the last four years, focused his campaign on renewal in a city that was hammered by the 2008 housing crisis. “He sort of represents, I think, people’s hopes for the future of Stockton,” said Keith W. Smith, an associate professor of political science at University of the Pacific, which has a campus in Stockton. Mr. Tubbs, a Democrat, won 70 percent of the vote, a result that was also seen as a repudiation of his rival. The campaign of the incumbent Mayor Anthony Silva, a Republican, was tainted by reports of improper conduct. The latest was an arrest over accusations that he gave alcohol to minors during a strip poker game. Mr. Silva did not respond to requests for comment. “So as much as the vote is for Michael Tubbs a lot of the vote is also against Anthony Silva,” Professor Smith said. Mr. Tubbs was born in south Stockton to a teenage mother and an incarcerated father. He went on to graduate from Stanford and intern at Google and the White House, before going into politics. Speaking on Thursday, he said he was “a little overwhelmed” by his victory. “Coming from where I’m from, living in poverty, not coming from a political family, it’s an incredible honor,” he said. Asked what his political future might hold, Mr. Tubbs said he was focused on the job at hand. As a however, he was more candid. In 2008, Mr. Tubbs was part of a team that won a national debate competition sponsored by the N. A. A. C. P. As a result, he got to meet Senator Barack Obama, then the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. ”I looked at him, shook his hand and told him, ‘I’m next,’” Mr. Tubbs said, according to one local news account. “He said, ‘O. K.’” • Los Angeles leaders began outlining a battle plan against deportations of people who are in the country illegally. [Los Angeles Times] • Tensions are flaring in the Bay Area and beyond over how to talk about Donald Trump in schools. [San Francisco Chronicle] • Homelessness across the United States fell slightly last year but increased in California. [SFGate. com] • Los Angeles factories that made clothes for Forever 21 paid workers as little as $4 an hour, officials said. [Los Angeles Times] • Now more than ever, California is the capital of liberal America. [Opinion | Bloomberg] • . cars. Regulatory flux. At the Los Angeles Auto Show, an industry buckles up for change. [The New York Times] • Now you can use Airbnb to reserve dance parties in Havana, historical tours in Cape Town and tours in Los Angeles. [The New York Times] • The author Michael Chabon is a big deal. So why doesn’t he act like one? [BuzzFeed] • Now a M. V. P. Mike Trout may be the Angels’ greatest player ever. [The New York Times] • The craftsman J. B. Blunk, who died in 2002, built his Marin County cabin by hand: a holistic expression of an artistic life. [The New York Times] • Movie Review: Fiction and reality intersect in the moody melodrama from Tom Ford, “Nocturnal Animals. ” [The New York Times] • “Gilmore Girls” is back, and with its repartee, pop culture savvy and heartfelt drama intact. [The New York Times] People on San Francisco’s sidewalks this week have been encountering kindness in an unusual way. Posters have appeared on poles across the city with little dangling paper slips that can be torn off and taken away. But instead of offering yoga lessons or a used sofa, they are simple written compliments — and they’re free. The posters are the brainchild of Anna Sergeeva, 26, a San Francisco artist. The idea came to her weeks before the presidential election, Ms. Sergeeva said, but she acknowledged that the mood in liberal San Francisco after Mr. Trump’s victory inspired her to act on it. “I feel like I’m doing a marketing campaign for kindness,” she said on Thursday. Since she and some friends put up a bunch of the posters last weekend, the campaign has taken off, fueled by the Instagram posts of and the hashtag #thecomplimentproject. As momentum built, Ms. Sergeeva created a website in which other people could download the posters. She said people have reached out from Los Angeles, New York, Arizona, Colorado, Israel, France and Britain. “It’s crazy,” she said. “I’m really excited and happy to part of something that feels special and needed at the moment. ” California Today goes live at 6 a. m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes. com. The California Today columnist, Mike McPhate, is a Californian — born outside Sacramento and raised in San Juan Capistrano. He lives in Davis. Follow him on Twitter. California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and attended U. C. Berkeley. | 1 |
Shadow Government in South Korea page: 1 archive.is... >being a ... >since 2~3 years ago there was Ancient Aliens tier rumor that president Park is indoctrinated and being controled by handful of secret society called "8선녀 (The 8 Goddess)", and they're ruling Korea from behind >everyone laughed at this crude joke rumor >suddenly a week ago whistleblower confirmed this # was real >the 8 powerful Korean billionaire women formed secret society and ruled Korea from behind the veil >whistleblower stole PC and tablets from them, opened to media, confirming they did it all >they made decisions, from Park's text of speeches, reforming taxes by their own, maintaining national treasury, deciding every diplomatic moves from toe toe, assigning secretaries and ministers by their own >only 1 members of The 8 Goddess identity confirmed, it's former psychic woman named 'Choi Sun-sil' >according to the leak she indoctrinated President Park since age of 23 >yes, a psychic woman who's member of secret society indoctrinated the president >I ain't joking >tfw everyone didn't believed this anime plot tier ba# insane absurd news >seriously who's gonna believe this >then suddenly president Park made news conference yesterday >SHE CONFIRMED THIS LEAK IS REAL AND ASKED FORGIVENESS >tfw a country's president confirming that she's indoctrinated by the secret society at the news conference >EVERYONE PANIC >people started to get #s together >gathering informations about them >after digging it's confirmed that # loads of men are in jail right now for leaking the truth about The 8 Goddess >politicians who's in jail right now mentioned Choi and 8 Goddess right before they went jail >people found photos that Choi escorting Park since her age of early 20's >diggings found US ambassador report documents >it saying "Choi Tae-Min (Choi Sun Sil's father) is fully control of Park's body and soul" >Choi Sun Sil's whereabouts is mystery, she's somewhere in Germany edit on 27-10-2016 by WindCharger because: (no reason given) edit on 27-10-2016 by WindCharger because: (no reason given) | 0 |
Google has long stressed that Android, its popular mobile software, is open for anyone to use, including its rivals. But the company’s claims are now under threat after Europe’s antitrust authorities on Wednesday charged the company with unfairly using Android to promote its own services — like mobile search — over those of its rivals. In doing so, regulators brought particular scrutiny to Google’s relationships with some of the world’s biggest cellphone makers, which have helped expand the reach of Android. Margrethe Vestager, the European Union’s antitrust chief, said Google had required some of the cellphone manufacturers to preinstall the company’s services, including its Google Play smartphone application store, and had given them unfair financial incentives to favor Google’s services on their mobile devices. Those practices undermined competition and consumer choice, she said. “Google has abused its dominant position,” Ms. Vestager said on Wednesday. The company’s “behavior has harmed consumers by restricting innovation in the wider mobile space. ” The company denies it has broken European competition rules, and the charges may not lead to financial or other penalties against Google, which now has three months to respond to the accusations. “We take these concerns seriously,” Kent Walker, Google’s general counsel, said in a blog post. “But we also believe that our business model keeps manufacturers’ costs low and their flexibility high, while giving consumers unprecedented control of their mobile devices. ” By taking aim at Android — the mobile software that holds more than 80 percent of the worldwide market share for smartphone operating systems — Europe has opened the latest chapter in its continuing battle with American technology companies. These players, including Amazon and Facebook, dominate how Europe’s 500 million people use digital services, including social media, online movies and . Google is facing separate charges, filed last year, in Europe over whether it unfairly favored some of its search services over those of rivals. Europe’s antitrust claims highlight Google’s increasingly thorny relationships with smartphone manufacturers such as HTC and Samsung, among others. Ms. Vestager said Android’s prominent role in the mobile market was not in question but that she was concerned the contracts the company signed with smartphone manufacturers had made it difficult, if not impossible, for rival search engines and smartphone app stores to compete in the European Union. “If a company is dominant, that’s fine,” Ms. Vestager told reporters. “But if that dominance is abused, then we have an issue. ” She declined to name which cellphone manufacturers might be affected, citing their right to privacy. The device makers, already struggling against cutthroat competition, have become reliant on Google’s digital services available on Android, even as they have tried to persuade consumers to try their own mobile services or those of Google’s competitors. Some, including Samsung, have backed rival operating systems to loosen Android’s grip, but such efforts have so far proved unsuccessful. And while global cellphone manufacturers once profited from using Android to expand rapidly, particularly in emerging markets, their growth has since slowed. Analysts say these cellphone makers’ inability to wean consumers off Google’s popular mobile mapping, email and other services has potentially shut them out of billions of dollars in extra revenue as people’s digital habits — including online search and purchases — shift to mobile devices. “Their attempts at beating Google’s services haven’t worked,” said Neil Mawston, a mobile analyst at the technology research group Strategy Analytics. “For most companies that want to operate in the smartphone market, there isn’t another option but to use Google. ” Representatives from the leading smartphone manufacturers declined to comment on their relationship with Google. The dominance of Android, at least in Europe and the United States, is almost absolute. The basic Android software can be downloaded for free and modified by device makers and telecom operators. But they must sign contracts that place a selection of Google’s services in prime spots on smartphone screens and link to the company’s app store, from which Google takes a cut of each application sold. The search giant also generates income from advertising from mobile search queries, though manufacturers are free to include their own applications as part of the mobile software. In total, Google’s version of Android powers more than 98 percent of the smartphones in Europe and the United States, according to Ian Fogg, a senior director at IHS, a technology consultancy in London. Only in China, where Google is banned, and Russia, where the local search engine Yandex holds a significant market share, does Google not dominate in mobile. “If someone buys an Android device in Europe or the U. S. it’s almost certainly Google’s version,” said David McQueen, research director at ABI Research in London. Google says its relationships with cellphone manufacturers are voluntary and that rival mobile services, including those from the likes of Amazon and Facebook, are readily available on its Android software, which does not restrict people from downloading competitors’ applications. The search giant has also pointed to smartphones from Amazon and Nokia that are based on the free version of Android and that do not come packaged with Google’s mobile services as signs of healthy competition. Those devices, particularly Amazon’s Fire smartphone, have not proved popular with consumers. Kirt McMaster, the chief executive of Cyanogen, an American that makes a mobile operating system based on Android, said he was cautiously optimistic that the regulatory intervention could improve innovation on the operating system. “There are ways to enable services on top of Android today, even within the confines of the existing relationships,” he said. “But there are scenarios that will be beneficial for the ecosystem if Android was even more open. ” If Google is found to have broken European rules, the company may face fines of as much as 10 percent of its annual revenue. Given the company’s recent annual revenue, that could be roughly $7 billion. Such a high financial penalty is unlikely, however, according to legal experts. The company could also be forced to alter its Android software to give competitors a greater position in its mobile software or to change its existing contracts with cellphone makers. That would potentially provide Europeans with a wider choice of mobile services than would be available to their American counterparts. Most people in the 28 member states of the European Union, though, still rely primarily on Google services for many daily activities. Such remedies, if eventually imposed on Google, would be reminiscent of similar steps taken by Microsoft, which in 2009 agreed to offer consumers a choice of rival web browsers to end a European antitrust investigation into its dominance of Internet browsers at that time. Paulo Trezentos, chief executive of Aptoide, a rival Portuguese Android app store that is one of the complainants in the European competition case against Google, said his company would welcome greater access to Android users. “Google makes it difficult for people to install applications from rivals,” Mr. Trezentos said. “It’s actively making it harder to compete. ” In the United States, some lawmakers on Wednesday called on the Federal Trade Commission to more closely scrutinize Google after Europe’s charges. In 2013, the F. T. C. closed a antitrust investigation into Google’s search business, citing a lack of evidence for pursuing a case. The F. T. C. said it did not comment on or confirm investigations. Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, who is a member of the Judiciary Committee, said regulations and laws differed in Europe and the United States but “the spirit and goal of our laws is very similar. ” “There is now clearly a need for exacting and penetrating scrutiny,” Mr. Blumenthal said in an interview. “Perhaps it is overdue. But it is now clearly necessary. ” | 1 |
my mums fitter than her | 0 |
Alain Soral is an influential French-Swiss thinker, author, and filmmaker. His beliefs are summarized as “French Third Position,” basically a third party for those that reject the traditional left and right political views, and there have been Third Position movements in many European countries over the past several decades.
Major beliefs of Soral’s ideology include nationalism, political sovereignty, social conservatism, anti-globalism, anti-immigration, anti-feminism, anti-bankster, and a non-interventionist anti-war foreign policy. A major slogan of Third Position is “Reconciliation” between the Labor Left and the Values Right—economic policy which values individual work and labor, and social policy focused on nationalism and traditionalism.
Early Life
Alain Soral was born in 1958 in southeastern France. He attended a well-regarded private Catholic school, before enrolling in the distinguished National School of Fine Arts in Paris, founded in 1648, and later transferred to study under the philosopher and economist Cornelius Castoriadis, a famous 20th century thinker.
Castoriadis
Castoriadis favored autonomous societies that are self-aware of their autonomy and independence, and believed societies should provide legitimacy for their laws and government actions. Historically, this was often done through absolute monarchy by invoking religion and God, with the monarch having a direct connection to the almighty (What God has commanded is what we must institute with the law).
Modern capitalist societies proved their legitimacy through circular tautology; that is they claimed that capitalism was logical and just, and therefore whatever a capitalistic society deemed profitable was therefore logical and just. A just autonomous society was always questioning and challenging its laws, but at the same time adhering to, respecting, and upholding the law.
Castoriadis described modern society as a struggle between creative imaginary and capitalist imaginary:
“The repetition of empty forms, of conformism, apathy, irresponsibility, and cynicism at the same time as it is that of the tightening grip of the capitalist imaginary of unlimited expansion of “rational mastery,” pseudorational pseudomastery, of an unlimited expansion of consumption for the sake of consumption, that is to say, for nothing, and of a technoscience that has become autonomized along its path and that is evidently involved in the domination of this capitalist imaginary. The other road should be opened: it is not at all laid out. It can be opened only through a social and political awakening, a resurgence of the project of individual and collective autonomy, that is to say, of the will to freedom. This would require an awakening of the imagination and of the creative imaginary”
Post-University
Soral loved books and knowledge, studying radicals from throughout the political spectrum. He was a dragueur de rue (street pick-up artist) when the PUA movement was virtually unknown. He developed a skill at attracting young, narcissistic, valueless city girls and claimed to bed hundreds of women, and published a book on game in 1996. His experiences with these women led him to develop strong anti-feminist beliefs.
He developed a strong dislike for the French Bobos—Bourgeois bohemians, younger wealthy highly educated narcissistic hedonists interested in fashion and trends. Perhaps something like rich hipsters, but less retro, more fashionable and trendy.
He joined the French Communist Party, motivated by his dislike of the bobos, and his camaraderie with the working man. The Communist Party, along with the Front National, were among the few opponents of the creation of the EU. Soral studied the works of Marx and other Marxists before leaving to join the far right Front National, where he was a speechwriter for Marie Le Pen. He noted that both Communists and Front National members were strongly nationalistic, and indeed many workers left the Communist Party to join FN around this time.
He became a strong critic of feminism and minority politics (gay, feminist, and Islamist or other racial multicultural groups). After Front National performed poorly in the 2007 elections, he formed Equality and Reconciliation , seeking to consolidate ideas on the left and right who believed in nationalism, patriarchy, anti-communism, anti-immigration, and anti-Zionism. E&R is an alternative news site, with some tendencies to the American alt-right, pro-nationalist, and critical of modern culture and feminism. He describes it as “Left for the workers and Right for morals.”
He is a boxer, and since 2004, has coached boxing. He records videos, has a regular feature naming the “cunt of the month,” and his works and website are very popular despite harsh attacks against him in the mainstream media.
Summary Of Views Trolling a feminist
Not much is available in English of Soral, and even English subtitles on his many videos are hard to find. I have but a cursory understanding of French, so I have relied on secondary sources and translations. His major beliefs are:
Anti-Feminism Views feminism as not pro-work, as women have always worked, but instead as anti-family and anti-mother. Discusses two classes of feminists: freaks and bitches. The real struggle is between rich and poor, not man and woman, who are naturally attracted to each other. He has attacked women’s magazines as altering the social conscience and relegating women to the status of objects. Stresses self-improvement and virility in men.
Anti-capitalism and anti-consumerism Opposed to valueless consumption and consumerism. In favor of bankster-free economics, and an end to the nanny state. Opposes “desire society” and the cult of celebrity.
Anti-imperialism Opposed to the Globalist Empire, and American Imperialism, attempting to spread its cultural, ideological, economic, social views everywhere and to destroy all nation-states.
Anti-Zionism Has attacked Jewish lobbying and intervention in French affairs. Made statements criticizing the Jewish people for being ostracized in societies around the world, throughout history, which earned him an immediate and harsh media blackout. He makes a distinction between French Jews and Zionism, saying that Zionists are opposing the interests of France and French Jews.
Anti-communitarianism Favors nationalism, not communitarianism. Calls communitarianism “a poison.” Opposed to ethnic, racial, sexual, Islamist or feminist communitarianism, which is opposed to morality and national standards. Opposes the public effeminate, homo and transsexual society, and laments the lack of strong male role models. Makes a strong distinction between homosexuality and the Gay Pride community movement, which promotes drag queens, parties, vulgar parades, and hypersexualization.
Anti-vulgarity Opposes vulgar language, dress, and speech, especially in women. Has said he prefers publicly wearing the Muslim veil to thong underwear. Would go crazy at a Slutwalk. Critic of profanity and vulgarity; proponent of morality and modesty.
Islam Feels the “menace of Islam” is an artificially created and manipulated threat; primitive Islamic society is not a real threat to modern western states, and capitalistic globalist interests manipulate the region to destroy the anti-globalist anti-feminist culture of Islam, to foster animosity between social groups, to possibly create a clash of civilizations, or world war, leading to a full globalist takeover, and to loot Mideast nations, and that the fundamental values of moderate Islam are perfectly compatible with French moderate Catholic views.
Anti-modern culture and mainstream media Opposed to the decline in western values and culture, and the sorry state of mainstream media, who has labeled him a pariah.
Le Neo masculinité
Many like-minded red pill men are turned off by the left-right politics in America. The third position combines right views on nation, morality, and law, with some left positions on social issues and economics. I believe if both the left and right hate you, you are probably doing something right. The ideas here strongly resonate with neomasculinity. Soral’s ideas are stimulating and interesting and definitely deserve further investigation.
An excellent summary of Soral and his beliefs is available here .
Read More: What Is Neomasculinity?
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Former U. N. Ambassador, John Bolton, joined Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Raheem Kassam on Thursday to discuss the London terror attack and issues involved in fighting terrorism in general. [As the March 22 London attacker was reportedly born in Britain, Bolton stressed, “As if a terrorist comes into a Western country, or a radical Islamist sympathizer, and they raise a family in that country, so they have a son or a daughter who’s born in Britain, as this terrorist reportedly was, it is as if being born on English soil strips away the terrorist possibility. I wish it were so magical. ” Bolton added, “If you go back to the London transportation attacks of 2007, those were all carried out by people born in Britain, as well. That to me is more terrifying than refugees or immigrants coming in because it proves, whether for Britain or the United States, you can be born in a free country, you can grow up experiencing all the possibilities and freedoms that these systems bring, and you can still consciously reject it all and turn to terrorism. That worries me more than the immigrants, frankly. ” Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. | 1 |
Universal’s Fate of the Furious revved its way to $1 billion in worldwide gross and stayed atop the domestic chart in its third weekend as romantic comedy How To Be a Latin Lover and Indian film Baahubali 2: The Conclusion both managed to come in ahead of the Tom Watson tech thriller The Circle at the box office. [Fate of the Furious, the eighth installment in the franchise and the first since the death of series star Paul Walker last year, pulled in an additional $19. 4 million this weekend to stay number one with a domestic total to date of $192. 7 million, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The Vin action flick becomes the 30th movie ever to cross the $1 billion mark after picking up a staggering $867. 6 million overseas to date. Meanwhile, How to Be a Latin Lover — starring Salma Hayek and Eugenio Derbez — brought in $12 million from just 1, 000 screens to set a new record for Lionsgate’s Hispanic label Pantelion and place second for the weekend. The film — which stars Derbez as a playboy forced to move in with his estranged sister (Hayek) — was released in both English and Spanish, and 89 percent of its audience was Hispanic, according to Deadline. Kristen Bell, Rob Lowe, and Michael Cera . Latin Lover is expected to expand into more theaters next weekend, when it will serve as some of the only to Marvel’s superhero juggernaut Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, which is currently tracking to open at a monstrous $150 million. In third place for the weekend was the Indian film Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, taking $10. 1 million from just 450 theaters to make it the best opening ever for an Indian film in the United States. In its native India, the film reportedly grossed between $ million through its first weekend, which would make it the debut in its home country, too. Entertainment’s The Circle, starring Tom Hanks and Emma Watson, was the big loser this weekend, taking in an estimated $9. 3 million to come in fourth place and marking one of the worst openings of Hanks’ career. The Circle — directed by James Ponsoldt and based on the novel by Dave Eggers — stars Watson as a young employee of a tech company run by Hanks’ character, which she soon discovers is up to no good. As Deadline reported, the $18 million film scored a premiere this week at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival, but that may have done more harm than good, as it currently sits at just 18% on ratings aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Even worse, The Circle earned a D+ CinemaScore, a rare feat and an especially disappointing result for Hanks. John Boyega, Patton Oswalt and the late Bill Paxton also star. Rounding out this weekend’s top five was 20th Century Animation’s The Boss Baby, which earned an estimated $9 million to bring its domestic total to $148. 5 million in its fifth week of release. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum | 1 |
WASHINGTON — President Trump used his first full day in office on Saturday to unleash a remarkably bitter attack on the news media, falsely accusing journalists of both inventing a rift between him and intelligence agencies and deliberately understating the size of his inauguration crowd. In a visit to the Central Intelligence Agency intended to showcase his support for the intelligence community, Mr. Trump ignored his own repeated public statements criticizing the intelligence community, a group he compared to Nazis just over a week ago. He also called journalists “among the most dishonest human beings on earth,” and he said that up to 1. 5 million people had attended his inauguration, a claim that photographs disproved. Later, at the White House, he dispatched Sean Spicer, the press secretary, to the briefing room in the West Wing, where Mr. Spicer scolded reporters and made a series of false statements. He said news organizations had deliberately misstated the size of the crowd at Mr. Trump’s inauguration on Friday in an attempt to sow divisions at a time when Mr. Trump was trying to unify the country, warning that the new administration would hold them to account. The statements from the new president and his spokesman came as hundreds of thousands of people protested against Mr. Trump, a crowd that appeared to dwarf the one that gathered the day before when he was sworn in. It was a striking display of invective and grievance at the dawn of a presidency, usually a time when the White House works to set a tone of national unity and to build confidence in a new leader. Instead, the president and his team appeared embattled and defensive, signaling that the pugnacious style Mr. Trump employed as a candidate will persist now that he has ascended to the nation’s highest office. Saturday was supposed to be a day for Mr. Trump to mend fences with the intelligence community, with an appearance at the C. I. A. ’s headquarters in Langley, Va. While he was lavish in his praise, the president focused in his speech on his complaints about news coverage of his criticism of the nation’s spy agencies, and meandered to other topics, including the crowd size at his inauguration, his level of political support, his mental age and his intellectual heft. “I just want to let you know, I am so behind you,” Mr. Trump told more than 300 employees assembled in the lobby for his remarks. In recent weeks, Mr. Trump has questioned the intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia meddled in the United States election on his behalf. After the disclosure of a dossier with unsubstantiated claims about Mr. Trump, he accused the intelligence community of allowing the leak and wrote on Twitter, “Are we living in Nazi Germany?” On Saturday, he said journalists were responsible for any suggestion that he was not fully supportive of intelligence agencies’ work. “I have a running war with the media,” Mr. Trump said. “They are among the most dishonest human beings on earth, and they sort of made it sound like I had a feud with the intelligence community. ” “The reason you’re the No. 1 stop is, it is exactly the opposite,” Mr. Trump added. “I love you, I respect you, there’s nobody I respect more. ” Mr. Trump also took issue with news reports about the number of people who attended his inauguration, complaining that the news media used photographs of “an empty field” to make it seem as if his inauguration did not draw many people. “We caught them in a beauty,” Mr. Trump said of the news media, “and I think they’re going to pay a big price. ” Mr. Spicer said that Mr. Trump had drawn “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration,” a statement that photographs clearly show to be false. Mr. Spicer said photographs of the inaugural ceremonies were deliberately framed “to minimize the enormous support that had gathered on the National Mall,” although he provided no proof of either assertion. Photographs of Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009 and of Mr. Trump’s plainly showed that the crowd on Friday was significantly smaller, but Mr. Spicer attributed that disparity to new white ground coverings he said had caused empty areas to stand out and to security measures that had blocked people from entering the Mall. “These attempts to lessen the enthusiasm of the inauguration are shameful and wrong,” Mr. Spicer said. He also admonished a journalist for erroneously reporting on Friday that Mr. Trump had removed a bust of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from the Oval Office, calling the mistake — which was corrected quickly — “egregious. ” And he incorrectly claimed that ridership on Washington’s subway system was higher than on Inauguration Day in 2013. In reality, there were 782, 000 riders that year, compared with 571, 000 riders this year, according to figures from the transit authority. Mr. Spicer also said that security measures had been extended farther down the National Mall this year, preventing “hundreds of thousands of people” from viewing the ceremony. But the Secret Service said the measures were largely unchanged this year, and there were few reports of long lines or delays. Commentary about the size of his inauguration crowd made Mr. Trump increasingly angry on Friday, according to several people familiar with his thinking. On Saturday, Mr. Trump told his advisers that he wanted to push back hard on “dishonest media” coverage — mostly referring to a Twitter post from a New York Times reporter showing frames of Mr. Trump’s crowd and Mr. Obama’s in 2009. But most of Mr. Trump’s advisers urged him to focus on the responsibilities of his office during his first full day as president. However, in his remarks at the C. I. A. he wandered off topic several times, at various points telling the crowd he felt no older than 39 (he is 70) reassuring anyone who questioned his intelligence by saying, “I’m, like, a smart person” and musing out loud about how many intelligence workers backed his candidacy. “Probably almost everybody in this room voted for me, but I will not ask you to raise your hands if you did,” Mr. Trump said. “We’re all on the same wavelength, folks. ” But most of his remarks were devoted to attacking the news media. And Mr. Spicer picked up the theme later in the day in the White House briefing room. But his appearance, according to the people familiar with Mr. Trump’s thinking, went too far, in the president’s opinion. Mr. Trump’s appearance at the C. I. A. touched off a fierce reaction from some current and former intelligence officials. Nick Shapiro, who served as chief of staff to John O. Brennan, who resigned Friday as the C. I. A. director, said Mr. Brennan “is deeply saddened and angered at Donald Trump’s despicable display of in front of C. I. A. ’s Memorial Wall of Agency heroes. “Brennan says that Trump should be ashamed of himself,” Mr. Shapiro added. “I was heartened that the president gave a speech at C. I. A. ,” said Michael V. Hayden, a former director of the C. I. A. and the National Security Agency. “It would have been even better if more of it had been about C. I. A. ” Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said that he had had high hopes for Mr. Trump’s visit as a step to begin healing the relationship between the president and the intelligence community, but that Mr. Trump’s meandering speech had dashed them. “While standing in front of the stars representing C. I. A. personnel who lost their lives in the service of their country — hallowed ground — Trump gave little more than a perfunctory acknowledgment of their service and sacrifice,” Mr. Schiff said. “He will need to do more than use the agency memorial as a backdrop if he wants to earn the respect of the men and women who provide the best intelligence in the world. ” Mr. Trump said nothing during the visit about how he had mocked the C. I. A. and other intelligence agencies as “the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. ” He did not mention his apparent willingness to believe Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, who is widely detested at the C. I. A. over his own intelligence agencies. He also did not say whether he would start receiving the daily intelligence briefs that are prepared for the president. The agency sees the president as its main audience, and his dismissal of the need for daily briefings from the intelligence community has raised concerns about morale among people who believe their work will not be respected at the White House. Since the election, hopes at the C. I. A. that the new administration would bring an infusion of energy and ideas have given way to trepidation about what Mr. Trump and his loyalists have planned. But the nomination of Mike Pompeo, a former Army infantry officer who is well versed in issues facing the intelligence community, to lead the C. I. A. has been received positively at the agency. “He has left the strong impression that he doesn’t trust the intelligence community and that he doesn’t have tremendous regard for their work,” Mark M. Lowenthal, a retired C. I. A. analyst, said of Mr. Trump. “The obvious thing to do is to counter that by saying, ‘I value you. I look forward to working with you. ’” “He called them Nazis,” Mr. Lowenthal added, referring to Mr. Trump’s characterization of the intelligence community. Mr. Lowenthal said Saturday’s visit should have been “a stroking expedition. ” | 1 |
A series of fake news hoaxes over social media, which falsely suggested authorities had set up immigration checkpoints aimed at deporting illegal aliens, caused panic this weekend across California. [“It appears that unknown subjects are trying to create a public panic and we want our community to be assured that this is a complete hoax,” the Fontana Police Department said in a statement, according to the Los Angeles Times. “We understand that fake news can spread quickly via social media and encourage you to always fact check things you read or hear. ” U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Spokeswoman Virginia Kice told the Daily Bulletin, “We don’t do checkpoints. ” According to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, the rumors about the immigration checkpoint were traced to the Mr Checkpoint account on Twitter, which tweeted, “NOW #InlandEmpire Immigration Checkpoint #Ontario near Euclid Ave 60 Freeway. ” @jr1224_ it was on Mr. Checkpoint. They usually get DUI checkpoints correct they use police scanners. Haven’t passed by personally though. — jaime (@himay3000) February 3, 2017, However, once Mr Checkpoint discovered those rumors were fake news, it posted on Facebook: “[]Looks like we have false reports of Immigration Checkpoints. Many people had messaged this and it looks like intentional misinformation that was meant to spread confusion negativity. ” It added, “Please move past this so we can shift back to positive energy. ” It’s all about love! pic. twitter. — Mr. Checkpoint (@MrCheckpoint) February 3, 2017, Trying to figure out this whole immigration checkpoint thing going on in Ontario right now. I’m hoping we don’t see more of these.. 😫 — Mr. Checkpoint (@MrCheckpoint) February 2, 2017, We received several reports of an immigration checkpoint that were found to not have occurred. Deleting that tweet and will keep you posted. — Mr. Checkpoint (@MrCheckpoint) February 3, 2017, Some social media users reportedly stated that the brief detentions of some individuals in airports this past weekend, coupled with protests that wound up backing up traffic for hours, amplified concerns. “Rumors currently being circulated — primarily on social media, claiming the agency has set up checkpoints at multiple locations in Los Angeles — or that the agency is conducting random ‘raids’ are completely baseless,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice told the Times. “The agency is working diligently to address these false reports, and we urge the media not to give them credence. It only encourages people to act irresponsibly. ” Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter and Periscope @AdelleNaz | 1 |
Second of Four Parts … The Republicans Face Flak, The fate of Obamacare dominates the news — again. Eight years ago, Republicans and Tea Partiers were on the offensive. Today, it’s Democrats, perhaps joined by “astroturf” activists, on the offense. In the first installment of this series, we looked at the hot political issue of pharma drug prices. Now we’ll look at an even hotter political issue, the fate of Obamacare — and we’ll also see how it ties into the question of pharma drugs. As Republicans grapple with Obamacare, the Main Stream Media headlines are, well, daunting. For example: My worry now is that many people are talking about a partial repeal of Obamacare. If you only repeal part of it and you leave some sort of Obamacare light, which some are talking about, my fear is the situation actually gets worse. The problem is that if you get it done, you own the entire system of American medicine. . . . If you replace, you are going to have to redo all of American medicine all over again, and then you become responsible. . . . So if something goes wrong in anybody’s life — denied coverage, lousy coverage, no available doctor, premiums increasing, whatever it is — whether or not it is caused by the replacement bill, you will be responsible for it and blamed. In the meantime, the Democrats and the left are, indeed, turning up the heat. So should Republicans be worried? Some observers say yes. On February 14, Jim VandeHei and David Nather, writing for the buzzy Beltway publication Axios, observed that some 147 million Americans benefit from health programs, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and VA benefits. The Democratic strategy, they added, is to scare all these beneficiaries about Obamacare repeal. That is, lump them all together and message them so that they all feel threatened. Will it work? We’ll have to wait to find out, of course, but here’s how the Axios scribblers see it in the meantime: This year’s version of “government takeover” is “throwing 20 million people off of health insurance. ” Democrats have been throwing that line around, even though Republicans are trying to find a replacement plan that covers people in other ways. (Their problem: They can’t guarantee it will cover all 20 million.) Continuing, the two write: Democrats in Congress are under direct orders from party leaders to crank up their own protests, to build on the loud and angry demonstrations at Republican town halls. And there is every reason to believe they will be highly effective. How do we know? Because Republicans exploited the same fears, energy and trends to do unto Democrats as Democrats are about to do unto them. [emphasis added] Again, no one is an oracle, but just on February 21, in the early days of Resistance Recess, came some indicators. One was this New York Times headline, surveying the activist activity surrounding Republican lawmakers’ meetings in Iowa and around the country: “Republicans Return to Town Halls, and Protesters Follow. ” And this, from Politico: “This time, [Sen. Chuck] Grassley hears voices: The Iowa senator’s 2009 town halls helped kill bipartisanship for the health law. Now, the crowds worry about repeal. ” Once again we might ask: Is all this noise simply journalistic hype? We’ll have a better handle on that question this spring, when Georgians go to the polls to fill the vacancy in the 6th Congressional district left by the departure of Tom Price, now Secretary of Health and Human Services. Price himself handily won to the House last year, but Trump won the district by just a single percentage point. And so, of course, the Democrats will seek to make the voting a referendum on Trump, not Price. The balloting takes place on April 18, and, if needed, a runoff will be held on June 20. In the meantime, we can observe that special elections are typically affairs, with the advantage going to the side that can bring out the most “mad as hell” voters. So Peach State Republicans will have to get themselves energized to keep the seat. Moreover, looking beyond that special election, we can see that the precise details of the Republicans’ legislation will be vital to their fortunes in the 2018 midterms. So if we recall Rep. Sensenbrenner’s jigsaw puzzle analogy, we know that each tiny detail of the GOP plan will be critical. We might further observe that it’s the American middle class that finds itself right smack in the middle of the Obamacare fight. And why is that? It’s because the rich and the have all the insurance, and the money, that they need. And the poor already have Medicaid and charity. So that leaves the middle class at the mercy of the tides. Veteran health observer Robert Laszewski, a frequent critic of Obamacare, offers these words of warning to the GOP and, in particular, to the Trump coalition: If you take Obamacare as it looks right now, [about half of enrollees] don’t get a subsidy because their incomes are too high. They make $90, 000 or $100, 000 a year but are in the individual market. These tend to be Trump supporters. So if [the administration’s forthcoming legislation] further destabilizes this thing and there are rate increases, he’ll be screwing his own people. | 1 |
Tweet Widget by Nathan J. Robinson
Bill and Hillary Clinton’s role in the “remaking” of Haiti after a devastating earthquake and foreign occupation is “indefensible,” according to the author’s article, “Superpredator: Bill Clinton’s Use and Abuse of Black America,” from which this piece is excerpted. “Many Clinton projects “have primarily benefited wealthy foreigners and the island’s ruling elite.” Other projects simply fizzled. “The money donated and invested was extraordinary, but nobody seems to know where it has gone.” What the Clintons Did to Haiti by Nathan J. Robinson
This article previously appeared in Global Research and Current Affairs .
“She intended to ‘make Haiti the proving ground for her vision of American power.’”
Bill and Hillary Clinton had long shared a personal interest in Haiti, dating back to the time of their honeymoon, part of which was spent in Port-au-Prince. In his autobiography, Bill says that his understanding of God and human nature were profoundly transformed when they witnessed a voodoo ceremony in which a woman bit the head off a live chicken. Hillary Clinton says the two of them “fell in love” with Haiti and they had developed a “deep connection” to the country. So when Hillary Clinton became Secretary of State in 2009, she consciously made the redevelopment of Haiti one of her top priorities. The country, she announced, would be a laboratory where the United States could “road-test new approaches to development,” taking advantage of what she termed “the power of proximity.” She intended to “make Haiti the proving ground for her vision of American power.” Hillary Clinton selected her own chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, to run the Haiti project.
Mills would be joined by Bill Clinton, who had been deputized by the U.N. as a “special envoy” to Haiti. Bill’s role was not well-defined, and Haitians were curious about what was in store. Mills wrote in an email to Hillary Clinton that Haitians saw Bill’s appointment as “a step toward putting Haiti in a protectorate or trusteeship status.” Soon, “joking that he must be coming back to lead a new colonial regime,” the Haitian media “ dubbed him Le Gouverneur.”
The project was heavily focused on increasing Haiti’s appeal to foreign corporations. As Politico reported , Clinton’s experiment “had business at its center: Aid would be replaced by investment, the growth of which would in turn benefit the United States.”
“Clinton announced that Haiti would be a laboratory where the United States could road-test new approaches to development, taking advantage of ‘the power of proximity.’”
One of the first acts in the new “business-centered” Haiti policy involved suppressing Haiti’s minimum wage. A 2009 Haitian law raised the minimum wage to 61 cents an hour, from 24 cents an hour previously. Haitian garment manufacturers, including contractors for Hanes and Levi Strauss, were furious, insisting that they were only willing to agree to a seven-cent increase. The manufacturers approached the U.S. State Department, who brought intense pressure to bear against Haitian President René Préval, working to “aggressively block” the 37-cent increase. The U.S. Deputy Mission Chief said a minimum-wage increase “did not take economic reality into account” and simply “appealed to the unemployed and underpaid masses.” But as Ryan Chittum of the Columbia Journalism Review explained , the proposed wage increase would have been only the most trivial additional expense for the American garment manufacturers:
“As of last year Hanes had 3,200 Haitians making t-shirts for it. Paying each of them two bucks a day more would cost it about $1.6 million a year. Hanesbrands Incorporated made $211 million on $4.3 billion in sales last year, and presumably it would pass on at least some of its higher labor costs to consumers. Or better yet, Hanesbrands CEO Richard Noll could forego some of his rich compensation package. He could pay for the raises for those 3,200 t-shirt makers with just one-sixth of the $10 million in salary and bonus he raked in last year.”
“U.S. Deputy Mission Chief said a minimum-wage increase ‘did not take economic reality into account” and simply ‘appealed to the unemployed and underpaid masses.’”
The truth of the “economic reality” was that the Haitian undergarment sector was hardly likely to become wildly less competitive as a result of the increase. The effort to suppress the minimum wage was not solely a Clinton project. It was also a “concerted effort on the part of Haitian elites, factory owners, free trade proponents, U.S. politicians, economists, and American companies.” But it was in keeping with the State Department’s priorities under Clinton, which prioritized creating a favorable business climate. It was that same familiar Clinton move “from aid to trade.” Bill Clinton’s program for Haitian development, designed by Oxford University economist Paul Collier, “ had garment exports at its center.” Collier wrote that because of “propitious” factors like “poverty and [a] relatively unregulated labor market, Haiti has labor costs that are fully competitive with China.” But the Clintons’ role in Haiti would soon expand even further. In 2010, the country was struck by the worst earthquake in its history. The disaster killed 160,000 people and displaced over 1.5 million more. (The consequences of the earthquake were exacerbated by the ruined state of the Haitian food economy, plus the concentration of unemployed Haitian farmers in Port-au-Prince.) Bill Clinton was soon put in charge of the U.S.-led recovery effort. He was appointed to head the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), which would oversee a wide range of rebuilding projects. At President Obama’s request, Clinton and George W. Bush created the “Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund,” and began aggressively fundraising around the world to support Haiti in the earthquake’s aftermath. (With Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State overseeing the efforts of USAID, the Clintons’ importance to the recovery could not be overstated; Bill’s appointment meant that “at every stage of Haiti’s reconstruction—fundraising, oversight and allocation—a Clinton was now involved.”
Despite appearances, the Clinton-Bush fund was not focused on providing traditional relief. As they wrote , “[w]hile other organizations in Haiti are using their resources to deliver immediate humanitarian aid, we are using our resources to focus on long-term development.” While the fund would advertise that “100% of donations go directly to relief efforts,” Clinton and Bush adopted an expansive definition of “relief” efforts, treating luring foreign investment and jobs as a crucial part of earthquake recovery. On their website, they spoke proudly of what the New York Daily News characterized as a program of “supporting longterm programs to develop Haiti’s business class.”
“At every stage of Haiti’s reconstruction—fundraising, oversight and allocation—a Clinton was now involved.”
The strategy was an odd one. Port-au-Prince had been reduced to ruin, and Haitians were crowded into filthy tent cities, where many were dying of a cholera outbreak (which had itself been caused by the negligence of the United Nations). Whatever value building new garment factories may have had as a longterm economic plan, Haitians were faced with somewhat more pressing concerns like the basic provision of shelter and medicine, as well as the clearing of the thousands of tons of rubble that filled their streets.
The Clinton-led recovery was a disaster. A year after the earthquake, a stinging report from Oxfam singled out Clinton’s IHRC as creating a “quagmire of indecision and delay” that had made little progress toward successful earthquake recovery. Oxfam found that:
“…less than half of the reconstruction aid promised by international donors has been disbursed. And while some of that money has been put toward temporary housing, almost none of the funds have been used for rubble removal.”
Instead, the Clinton Foundation, IHRC, and State Department created what a Wall Street Journal writer called “a mishmash of low quality, poorly thought-out development experiments and half-finished projects.” Haitian IHRC members lamented that the commission had produced “a disparate bunch of approved projects. . . [that] do not address as a whole either the emergency situation or the recovery, let alone the development, of Haiti.” A 2013 investigation by the Government Accountability Office found that most money for the recovery was not being dispersed, and that the projects that were being worked on were plagued by delays and cost overruns. Many Clinton projects were extravagant public relations affairs that quickly fizzled. For example, The Washington Post reported that :
“…[a] 2011 housing expo that cost more than $2 million, including $500,000 from the Clinton Foundation, was supposed to be a model for thousands of new units but instead has resulted in little more than a few dozen abandoned model homes occupied by squatters.”
“ A stinging report from Oxfam singled out Clinton’s IHRC as creating a ‘quagmire of indecision and delay.’”
Other Clinton ventures were seen as “disconnected from the realities of most people in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.” Politico reported that many Clinton projects “have primarily benefited wealthy foreigners and the island’s ruling elite, who needed little help to begin with.” For example, “the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund invested more than $2 million in the Royal Oasis Hotel, where a sleek suite with hardwood floors costs more than $200 a night and the shops sell $150 designer purses and $120 men’s dress shirts.”
Predictably, the Royal Oasis didn’t do an especially roaring trade; The Washington Post reported that “[o]ne recent afternoon, the hotel appeared largely empty, and with tourism hardly booming five years after the quake, locals fear it may be failing.” In a country with a 30-cent minimum wage, investing recovery dollars in a luxury hotel was not just offensive, but economically daft. Sometimes the recovery projects were accused not only of being pointless, but of being downright harmful. For instance, Bill Clinton had proudly announced that the Clinton Foundation would be funding the “construction of emergency storm shelters in Léogâne.” But an investigation of the shelters that the Foundation had actually built found that they were “shoddy and dangerous” and full of toxic mold. The Nation discovered , among other things, that the temperature in the shelters reached over 100 degrees, causing children to experience headaches and eye irritations (which may have been compounded by the mold), and that the trailers showed high levels of carcinogenic formaldehyde, linked to asthma and other lung diseases. The Clinton Foundation had subcontracted the building of the shelters to Clayton Homes, a firm that had already been sued in the United States by the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) for “having provided formaldehyde-laced trailers to Hurricane Katrina victims.” (Clayton Homes was owned by Warren Buffett ’s Berkshire Hathaway, and Buffett had been a longstanding major donor to the Clinton Foundation.) The Nation ’s investigation reported on children whose classes were being held in Clinton Foundation trailers. Their semester had just been cut short, and the students sent home, because the temperature in the classrooms had grown unbearable. The misery of the students in the Clinton trailers was described:
“Judith Seide, a student in Lubert’s sixth-grade class [explained that] she and her classmates regularly suffer from painful headaches in their new Clinton Foundation classroom. Every day, she said, her ‘head hurts and I feel it spinning and have to stop moving, otherwise I’d fall.’ Her vision goes dark, as is the case with her classmate Judel, who sometimes can’t open his eyes because, said Seide, ‘he’s allergic to the heat.’ Their teacher regularly relocates the class outside into the shade of the trailer because the swelter inside is insufferable. Sitting in the sixth-grade classroom, student Mondialie Cineas, who dreams of becoming a nurse, said that three times a week the teacher gives her and her classmates painkillers so that they can make it through the school day. ‘At noon, the class gets so hot, kids get headaches,’ the 12-year-old said, wiping beads of sweat from her brow. She is worried because ‘the kids feel sick, can’t work, can’t advance to succeed.’”
“Three times a week the teacher gives her and her classmates painkillers so that they can make it through the school day.”
The most notorious post-earthquake development project, however, was the Caracol industrial park . The park was pitched as a major job creator, part of the goal of helping Haiti “build back better” than it was before. The State Department touted the prospect of 100,000 new jobs for Haitians, with Hillary Clinton promising 65,000 jobs within five years. The industrial park followed the Clintons’ preexisting development model for Haiti: public/private partnerships with a heavy emphasis on the garment industry. Even though there were still hundreds of thousands of evacuees living in tents, the project was based on “the more expansive view that, in a desperately poor country where traditional foreign aid has chronically failed, fostering economic development is as important as replacing what fell down.” Much of the planning was focused on trying to lure a South Korean clothing manufacturer to set up shop there, by plying them with U.S. taxpayer funding. The Caracol project was “the centerpiece” of the U.S.’s recovery effort. A gala celebrating its opening featured the Clintons and Sean Penn, and it was treated as the emblem of the new, “better” Haiti, that would demonstrate the country’s commitment to being “open for business.” In order to build the park, hundreds of poor farmers were evicted from their land, so that millions of dollars could be spent transforming it.
But the project was a terrible disappointment. After four years, it was only operating at 10% capacity , and the jobs had failed to materialize :
Far from 100,000 jobs—or even the 60,000 promised within five years of the park’s opening— “Caracol currently employs just 5,479 people full time. That comes out to roughly $55,000 in investment per job created so far; or, to put it another way, about 30 times more per job than the average [Caracol] worker makes per year. The park, built on the site of a former U.S. Marine-run slave labor camp during the 1915-1934 U.S. occupation, has the best-paved roads and manicured sidewalks in the country, but most of the land remains vacant.”
Most of the seized farmland went unused, then, and even for the remaining farmers, “ surges of wastewater have caused floods and spoiled crops.” Huge queues of unemployed Haitians stood daily in front of the factory, awaiting jobs that did not exist. The Washington Post described the scene:
“Each morning, crowds line up outside the park’s big front gate, which is guarded by four men in crisp khaki uniforms carrying shotguns. They wait in a sliver of shade next to a cinder-block wall, many holding résumés in envelopes. Most said they have been coming every day for months, waiting for jobs that pay about $5 a day. From his envelope, Jean Mito Palvetus, 27, pulled out a diploma attesting that he had completed 200 hours of training with the U.S. Agency for International Development on an industrial sewing machine. ‘I have three kids and a wife, and I can’t support them,’ he said, sweating in the hot morning sun. ‘I have a diploma, but I still can’t get a job here. I still have nothing.’”
“ The interests of the market, the interest of foreigners are prioritized over the majority of people who are impoverished in Haiti.”
For some , the Caracol project perfectly symbolized the Clinton approach: big promises, an emphasis on sweatshops, incompetent management, and little concern for the actual impact on Haitians. “Caracol is a prime example of bad help,” as one Haiti scholar put it . “The interests of the market, the interest of foreigners are prioritized over the majority of people who are impoverished in Haiti.”
But, failure as it may have been, the Caracol factory was among the more successful of the projects, insofar as it actually came into existence. A large amount of the money raised by Bill Clinton after the earthquake, and pledged by the U.S. under Hillary Clinton, simply disappeared without a trace, its whereabouts unknown. As Politico explained :
“Even Bill’s U.N. Office of the Special Envoy couldn’t track where all of [it] went—and the truth is that still today no one really knows how much money was spent ‘rebuilding’ Haiti. Many initial pledges never materialized. A whopping $465 million of the relief money went through the Pentagon, which spent it on deployment of U.S. troops—20,000 at the high water mark, many of whom never set foot on Haitian soil. That money included fuel for ships and planes, helicopter repairs and inscrutables such as an $18,000 contract for a jungle gym… Huge contracts were doled out to the usual array of major contractors, including a $16.7 million logistics contract whose partners included Agility Public Warehousing KSC, a Kuwaiti firm that was supposed to have been blacklisted from doing business with Washington after a 2009 indictment alleging a conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government during the Iraq War.”
The recovery under the Clintons became notorious for its mismanagement. Clinton staffers “ had no idea what Haiti was like and had no sensitivity to the Haitians.” They were reportedly rude and condescending toward Haitians, even refusing to admit Haitian government ministers to meetings about recovery plans. While the Clintons called in high-profile consulting firms like McKinsey to draw up plans, they had little interest in listening to Haitians themselves. The former Haitian prime minister spoke of a “weak” American staff who were “more interested in supporting Clinton than helping Haiti.”
“A large amount of the money raised by Bill Clinton after the earthquake, and pledged by the U.S. under Hillary Clinton, simply disappeared without a trace, its whereabouts unknown.”
One of those shocked by the failure of the recovery effort was Chelsea Clinton, who wrote a detailed email to her parents in which she said that while Haitians were trying to help themselves, every part of the international aid effort, both governmental and nongovernmental, was falling short. “The incompetence is mind numbing,” she wrote . Chelsea produced a detailed memorandum recommending drastic steps that needed to be taken in order to get the recovery on track. But the memo was kept within the Clinton family, released only later under a Freedom of Information Act disclosure of Hillary’s State Department correspondence. If it had come out at the time, as Haiti journalist Jonathan Katz writes , it “would have obliterated the public narrative of helpful outsiders saving grateful earthquake survivors that her mother’s State Department was working so hard to promote.”
The Clintons’ Haiti recovery ended with a whimper. The Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund distributed the last of its funds in 2012 and disbanded, without any attempt at further fundraising. The IHRC “ quietly closed their doors” in October of 2011, even though little progress had been made. As the Boston Review ’s Jake Johnston explained , though hundreds of thousands remained displaced, the IHRC wiped its hands of the housing situation:
“[L]ittle remained of the grand plans to build thousands of new homes. Instead, those left homeless would be given a small, one-time rental subsidy of about $500. These subsidies, funded by a number of different aid agencies, were meant to give private companies the incentive to invest in building houses. As efforts to rebuild whole neighborhoods faltered, the rental subsidies turned Haitians into consumers, and the housing problem was handed over to the private sector.”
The Clintons themselves simply stopped speaking about Haiti. After the first two years, they were “nowhere to be seen” there, despite Hillary’s having promised that her commitment to Haiti would long outlast her tenure as Secretary of State. Haiti has been given little attention during Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, even though the Haiti project was ostensibly one of great pride for both Clintons.
“One of those shocked by the failure of the recovery effort was Chelsea Clinton.”
The widespread consensus among observers is that the Haiti recovery, which TIME called the U.S.’s “compassionate invasion,” was a catastrophically mismanaged disappointment. Jonathan Katz writes that “it’s hard to find anyone these days who looks back on the U.S.-led response to the January 12, 2010, Haiti earthquake as a success.” While plenty of money was channeled into the country, it largely went to what were “little more than small pilot projects—a new set of basketball hoops and a model elementary school here, a functioning factory there.”
The end result has been that little has changed for Haiti. “Haitians find themselves in a social and economic situation that is worse than before the earthquake,” reports a Belgian photojournalist who has spent 10 years in Haiti:
“Everyone says that they’re living in worse conditions than before… When you look at the history of humanitarian relief, there’s never been a situation when such a small country has been the target of such a massive influx of money and assistance in such a short span of time… On paper, with that much money in a territory the size of Haiti, we should have witnessed miracles; there should have been results.”
“If anything, they appear worse off,” says Foreign Policy of Haiti’s farmers. “I really cannot understand how you could raise so much money, put a former U.S. president in charge, and get this outcome,” said one Haitian official. Indeed, the money donated and invested was extraordinary. But nobody seems to know where it has gone.
Haitians direct much of the blame toward the Clintons. As a former Haitian government official who worked on the recovery said , “[t]here is a lot of resentment about Clinton here. People have not seen results. . .. They say that Clinton used Haiti.” Haitians “ increasingly complain that Clinton-backed projects have often helped the country’s elite and international business investors more than they have helped poor ‘Haitians.” There is a “suspicion that their motives are more to make a profit in Haiti than to help it.” And that while “striking a populist pose, in practice they were attracted to power in Haiti.”
But perhaps we should be more forgiving of the Clintons’ conduct during the Haitian recovery. After all, instead of doing true harm, the Clintons simply failed to do much good. And perhaps it’s better to have a luxury hotel than not to have one, better to have a few jobs than none at all. Thanks to Bill Clinton, there’s a gleaming new industrial park, albeit one operating at a fraction of its capacity.
Yet it’s a mistake to measure Clinton against what would have happened if the United States had done nothing at all for Haiti. The question is what would have happened if a capable, nonfamous administrator, rather than a globetrotting narcissist, had been placed in charge. Tens of millions of dollars were donated toward the Haiti recovery by people across the world; it was an incredible outpouring of generosity. The squandering of that money on half-baked development schemes (mainly led by cronies ), and the ignoring of Haitians’ own demands, mean that Clinton may have caused considerable harm through his failure. Plenty of people died in tent cities that would not have died if the world’s donations had been used effectively.
“Defending the Clintons’ Haiti record is an impossible endeavor.”
Democrats have bristled at recent attempts by Donald Trump to criticize Hillary Clinton over her record in Haiti. Jonathan Katz, whose in-depth reporting from Haiti was stingingly critical of the Clintons, has now changed his tune , insisting that we all bear the responsibility for the failed recovery effort. When Trump accused the Clintons of squandering millions building “a sweatshop” in Haiti in the form of the Caracol park, media fact-checkers quickly insisted he was spewing Pinocchios. The Washington Post said that while Clinton Foundation donors may have financially benefited from the factory-building project, they benefited “writ large” rather than “directly.” The Post cited the words of the factory’s spokesman as evidence that the factory was not a sweatshop, and pointed out that Caracol workers earned at least “minimum wage” (failing to mention that minimum wage in Haiti remains well under a dollar). PolitiFact also rated the sweatshop claim “mostly false,” even though Katz notes “long hours, tough conditions, and low pay” at the factory and PolitiFact acknowledges the “ongoing theft of legally-earned wages.”
Defending the Clintons’ Haiti record is an impossible endeavor, one Democrats should probably not bother attempting. As the Center for Economic and Policy Research, which has studied the recovery, noted , when it comes to the Clinton-led recovery mission, “it’s hard to say it’s been anything other than a failure.” Haitians are not delusional in their resentment of the Clintons; they have good reason to feel as if they were used for publicity, and discarded by the Clintons when they became inconvenient.
None of this means that one should vote for Donald Trump for president. His tears for Haiti are those of a highly opportunistic crocodile, and his interest in the country’s wellbeing began at the precise moment that it could be used a bludgeon with which to beat his political opponent. As we have previously noted in this publication , one does not need to be convinced that Hillary Clinton is an honorable person in order to be convinced that she is the preferable candidate. It is important, however, not to maintain any illusions, not to stifle or massage the truth in the service of short-term electoral concerns. It remains simultaneously true that a Clinton presidency is our present least-worst option and that what the Clintons did to Haiti was callous, selfish, and indefensible. | 0 |
Travelers, beware: When you take your gadgets abroad, maintaining the security of the data on your devices is just as important as protecting yourself from muggers. For whatever reason, foreign and domestic governments may have an interest in your personal data, including your social media accounts. This is not just theoretical. Several travelers, including American citizens like Haisam Elsharkawi, were recently pressured into giving officers from the United States Customs and Border Protection access to their cellphones at the airport. Some travelers now face additional privacy risks because of a new regulation that separates them from their computing equipment. This week, the Department of Homeland Security announced that passengers traveling from eight countries to the United States could not bring devices larger than cellphones onto planes. So computers, tablets and other devices will have to be stowed in checked luggage. Legally, citizens are not required to unlock their cellphones or share their passwords with United States government officials. But rules may vary depending on where you are traveling to and from. And any stopping by a government official can be inconvenient, and even intimidating. What to do? There’s one thing all the experts agree on: Do not lie to government officials about your passwords or social media accounts. “They’d make your life miserable if they found that out,” said Jeremiah Grossman, the head of security strategy for SentinelOne, a computer security company. But there are methods for safeguarding your cellphones, tablets and computers from invasive searches, all while remaining honest. Here are some of the best tips, based on interviews with security and forensics specialists. The best way to prevent your information from being searched is to travel with a device that never had any of your data in the first place. It’s a wise idea to invest in a travel device, a cheap smartphone or computer that you use only abroad: You don’t want your nice equipment to get lost or stolen while traveling, anyway, let alone searched by border agents. So leave your fancy equipment — along with your photo album, Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter apps — at home. Which devices to buy? The Wirecutter, the product recommendations site owned by The New York Times, published a guide on budget Android phones, including the $100 Moto G4 Play that comes unlocked so that it can work with foreign SIM cards. For cheap computers, consider a $550 Acer laptop or a $430 Dell Chromebook. Fingerprint sensors, like the ones found on many Apple and Android smartphones, are a nifty security feature for unlocking your phone quickly. But Jonathan Zdziarski, a security researcher who has taught forensics courses to law enforcement agencies on collecting data from smartphones, said your best bet when traveling was to turn the feature off. That’s because in the United States, law enforcement agencies have successfully used warrants to compel people to unlock their cellphones with a fingerprint. But because of your right to remain silent, it would be tough (though not impossible) for the federal government to force you to share your passcode. So disabling your fingerprint sensor when traveling is generally a safer move. The best way to protect your passwords is to not know them. When resisting a data frisk, it is easier to say you didn’t memorize your password as opposed to refusing to provide it to border agents, Mr. Grossman said. “If you don’t know them it’s hard to compel you to give them over if you don’t know how,” he said. “Even if somebody put a gun to my head, I don’t know it. ” Password management apps like 1Password and LastPass can automatically create strong, lengthy passwords for all your online accounts and keep them stored in a vault that is accessible with one master password. However, Mr. Grossman said you are better off traveling without your password management software loaded on your devices so that you won’t be asked to hand over the master password to your vault. You could store a copy of the password vault on a cloud service like Dropbox and get access to your vault of passwords when you reach your travel destination, he said. An alternative to using a app is to write your passwords down and leave them with someone you trust. After getting through customs, contact that person and ask him or her to read off your passwords. In the unlikely event that you are asked to provide a password to your email or social media account, having verification enabled will act as an extra safeguard — assuming that you left your primary cellphone at home. With verification turned on, whenever you enter your password, you will receive a text message with a code that you must enter before you can log in. Because the message containing the code would be sent to your phone at home, a customs agent wouldn’t be able to log in to your account even if you gave up your password. Of course, verification could make logging in to your accounts difficult for yourself if you left your primary cellphone at home. You could always leave your phone with someone you trust and contact them to ask for codes when you are trying to log in. However, it would generally be wiser to stay off your social media accounts while traveling to avoid leaving any traces of data on a burner device. Whether you are using a burner device or your own, always make sure to lock down the system with encryption, which scrambles your data so it becomes indecipherable without the right key. Desktop apps like BitLocker or Apple’s FileVault let you encrypt your hard drive, requiring a passphrase to decrypt your files. To avoid surrendering this passphrase, you could jot it down and hand it to a friend and contact that person for the passphrase after crossing the border. When you’re traveling, at minimum you will need access to your address book and calendar, and you may also want to take some photos. But this is all sensitive information that border patrol agents could get their hands on. Your best option is to back up your data to a cloud service and then wipe, or erase, all the data from your device before arriving at the border, Mr. Zdziarski said. After passing through customs, you could then restore your information from the online backup. | 1 |
By Justin Gardner
The Colorado cannabis industry has quickly gone from bud to full flower, as indicated by a new in-depth data analysis by the Marijuana Policy Group.
Using a new “Marijuana Impact Model” they say is the first to “accurately characterize how this industry impacts the overall state economy,” the researchers confirmed the astounding positive impact that legalization has brought upon Colorado.
Legal cannabis activities generated an output of $2.39 billion in 2015, with almost $1 billion in sales for the year. The sales represent a 42.4 percent increase from the previous year, translating into a staggering 112 metric tons of buds and 132 metric tons of “flower-equivalent” products (edibles, concentrates, etc.).
Cannabis now ranks number six in terms of product sales, following closely behind cigarette sales. It beats gold mining by a large margin, and even performing arts and sports venues as well as all non-grain crop farming.
However, the real impact is seen when put in terms of “output and employment per dollar spent,” where spending in the cannabis industry outperforms all private industries in Colorado – including coal and other mining, oil and gas, casinos, business services, general manufacturing and retail trade (incl. alcohol).
Each dollar spent on retail cannabis generates $2.40 in state output, while cannabis manufacturing follows with $2.34 and cannabis cultivation comes in at a close $2.13. Combining the three, cannabis is generating far more than any other entity, including federal government spending.
Much of this has to do with the fact that the Colorado cannabis industry operates almost entirely within the state, due to continuing prohibition in other states.
There is equally impressive news in the jobs sector, where legal cannabis created more than 18,000 jobs in a year .
“Legalization of marijuana created 18,005 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs in 2015. Among those jobs, 12,591 were employees directly involved with the marijuana business — either in stores and dispensaries, cultivations, or infused product manufacturing operations. The remaining 5,414 full-time equivalent positions were generated by intermediate input purchases made by the cannabis industry for general business goods and services, and through general spending by marijuana industry employees and proprietors.”
Security guards comprise a significant portion of these indirect jobs, due in large part to the fact that the industry is still being forced to operate on a cash basis — because of asinine banking prohibitions by the federal government and the Federal Reserve .
This isn’t stopping entrepreneurs and other productive individuals from taking advantage of the new, wildly popular market. Legal cannabis is having profound effects in many other industries, including commercial real estate, construction, and a raft of business services.
The cannabis industry itself is growing at a faster pace than any other sector, at an astonishing 42.4 percent. Colorado’s general economic growth is at 3.5 percent and the U.S. average is 1.75 percent.
The growth analysis found a very interesting result that supports a primary argument for ending prohibition. 36.2 percent of the economic growth was the result of the disappearance of the black market.
When people are free to indulge in the personal behavior of ingesting a substance – as they can with alcohol – they will naturally choose to do so through the legal market, even if it means having to pay exorbitant taxes.
And Colorado is gladly raking in this tax revenue.
“In 2015, marijuana taxes were the second largest revenue source among excise products in the state (e.g., tobacco, alcohol, and gaming).
Combined marijuana excise and sales tax revenues were $63.4 million in 2014, and $121.2 million in 2015. 5 For 2015, they were 14 percent larger than casino/gaming revenues, 6 about 5 percent less than lottery revenues, and almost three times larger than alcohol revenues.”
The huge increase in tax revenue is primarily caused by the rapid increase in recreational use sales since legalization in 2014, and the fact that recreational products are taxed at a much higher rate than medical cannabis products.
Interestingly, the report noted that a significant portion of the cannabis industry growth is coming from visitors who go to Colorado on cannabis vacations, rather than some other reason like skiing or hiking.
“This visitor demand segment is poised to grow from 14 metric tons in 2015, to 55.1 metric tons by 2020, based upon these new, sole-purpose visitors choosing Colorado as a marijuana destination.”
If there is one negative aspect to the report, it is that small cannabusinesses are struggling to stay alive as the industry becomes dominated by larger companies. While some of this is the natural result of competition, it appears that many of them are being regulated out of business by the state.
“Private industry owners purport that consolidation is not being caused purely by price competition, but instead by high compliance costs. For example, the owner of one of Colorado’s largest retailers recently stated that many small operations are unable to properly comply with the state’s complex regulations, leading them to exit the market.”
There lies the hidden barb of legalization. There’s no question that ending prohibition is the right thing to do, but government tends to place needless, cumbersome burdens on free enterprise which favors larger conglomerates and smothers the little guy. This ultimately leads to less competition and the tendency for monopolies to develop, which makes it easier for government to siphon their taxes.
All in all, though, the analysis by the Marijuana Policy Group is heartening, and it shows other states how incredibly beneficial it is when people regain freedom and a new market is born. The report is especially timely, as nine states will be voting in less than a week to expand legal access to cannabis through recreational and medicinal means. Delivered by The Daily Sheeple
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Contributed by The Free Thought Project of thefreethoughtproject.com .
The Free Thought Project is dedicated to holding those who claim authority over our lives accountable. | 0 |
АР
Как сообщается на сайте Общественной палаты(ОП), шествие начнется в 10:30 от Пушкинской площади, колонна пройдет по Тверской улице и завершит свое движение на Манежной площади. В 11:00 на пересечении ул. Тверской с улицами Охотный ряд и Моховая начнется митинг-концерт. Предполагается, что участие в мероприятиях примут около десяти тысяч человек.
Ранее Pravda. Ru писала, что инициативная группа Общественной палаты РФ намерена обратиться к столичным властям с заявкой на проведение шествия и митинга-концерта "Мы едины" 4 ноября, в День народного единства.
В состав инициативной группы вошли, в частности, секретарь ОП РФ Александр Бречалов, первый заместитель секретаря палаты Вячеслав Бочаров, член комиссии ОП РФ по развитию общественной дипломатии и поддержке соотечественников за рубежом, поэт Андрей Дементьев.
ОП призывает присоединиться к акции гражданских активистов, некоммерческие организации, общественные объединения, национально-культурные автономии, каждого, для кого День народного единства — важный и радостный праздник.
Напомним, в акции "Мы едины" в прошлом году в российской столице приняли участие около 85 тысяч человек.
Актер Евгений Стеблов ранее рассказал Pravda. Ru об отношении к празднованию Дня народного единства: "Я родился в советское время и народ привык к так называемым ноябрьским праздникам. Есть это внутреннее какое-то ожидание ноябрьских праздников. Не идеологических, не коммунистических, а просто — в ноябре будет праздник. И когда сделали День народного единства 4-го числа — я считаю, это разумное решение. Оно, с одной стороны, удовлетворяет эту потребность ноябрьских праздников, с другой — ставит все по своим местам, потому что повод гораздо более достойный, чем переворот октябрьский".
Согласно опросу Фонда "Общественное мнение", День народного единства, который отмечается в России 4 ноября, для большинства россиян уже стал "родным" праздником.
По данным социологов, большинство респондентом были в курсе, какой именно праздник отмечается в России 4 ноября. Так 42% участников опроса верно назвали его "День единения наций и народностей России", "День народного единства". Некоторые, впрочем, называли его правильно, но приблизительно "День какого-то единства". При этом 8% опрошенных уверены, что Россия в эту дату празднует День независимости, а еще 5% — что День России.
Специалисты Фонда сделали вывод: "Так или иначе, праздник этот считается нужным, и доля придерживающихся такого мнения год от года растет".
При этом многие россияне считают 4 ноября важным для себя праздником. Как заявили социологи, на вопрос "Если говорить в целом, по вашему мнению, нужен или не нужен России такой праздник, как День народного единства?" большинство (69%) ответило — нужен.
В целом россияне отмечают рост чувства единства нации на фоне роста международной напряженности и внешнего давления на Россию. Об этом свидетельствует недавний опрос Всероссийского центра изучения общественного мнения (ВЦИОМ). Как отмечают жители нашей страны, главный объединяющий фактор — это умение объединиться в тяжелые для страны времена.
"Россию объединяют любовь друг к другу и Родине!" Поделиться: | 0 |
As Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York turns toward his fight next year, an issue that galvanized his first run — achieving significant police reform — is suddenly becoming a liability. Caught in the gap between his soaring rhetoric as an outsider candidate and the realities of leading a city with a sensitivity to crime, Mr. de Blasio is disappointing many who once supported him, in a community he can ill afford to lose: the black voters who propelled him to office. “All I know is, in all our circles, folks have conversations and there’s a buzz going around about the disappointment,” said Bertha Lewis, the former leader of Acorn who served on Mr. de Blasio’s transition team in 2014, but has become a vocal critic. “There’s a growing enthusiasm gap. ” Throughout the mayor’s term, there have been opportunities for him to live up to his image and his promise as a police reformer. Instead, those issues have become magnets for dissent. Tens of thousands in extra pay for Daniel Pantaleo, the Staten Island officer who put Eric Garner in a fatal chokehold in 2014. Disciplinary records newly shielded from disclosure. Resistance to legislation in the City Council. Continuing fidelity to a “ ” model of policing. Frustration can be heard at New York Communities for Change, a social justice advocacy group and early endorser of Mr. de Blasio in the 2013 Democratic primary, and from a former aide, Kirsten John Foy, whose handcuffing at a Brooklyn parade in 2011 helped galvanize Mr. de Blasio’s views on the need for changes in police practices. Last month, Mr. Foy stood alongside Representative Hakeem Jeffries, a Brooklyn Democrat and a possible challenger to Mr. de Blasio in 2017, at a protest outside Police Headquarters. At the Council, a growing number of members have been refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of meetings, in part, they say, because of the administration’s handling of policing issues. Councilman Jumaane D. Williams, who was detained along with Mr. Foy in 2011, began the effort, saying his decision to offer the silent protest came after he learned that Officer Pantaleo accrued overtime pay while on modified duty. “That’s what brought me over the edge,” said Mr. Williams, a Democrat from Brooklyn. “I had to do something. ” On the other side, members of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association have orchestrated protests outside the mayoral residence at Gracie Mansion, and by the Prospect Park Y. M. C. A. where Mr. de Blasio regularly works out. In their view, he has already gone too far. Mr. de Blasio, seemingly cognizant of his potential vulnerability, has responded in recent weeks. After the city’s police tactics became an issue in the first presidential debate between Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton, the mayor seized the opportunity to emphasize his opposition to the overuse of the tactics during the administration of former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, doing so on national television and local radio. On Friday, he said that he would press for changes to state law to allow greater transparency with police disciplinary records, a pledge that garnered a lukewarm response from reform advocates. The mayor moved swiftly last month to restrict overtime pay to officers on modified duty — like Officer Pantaleo — then headed to Harlem to bring his message to a gathering at the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. In the speech, the mayor outlined his administration’s efforts to improve relations between the police and minority communities — fewer arrests retraining of officers on the use of force a commitment to reinventing community policing — while embracing demands for more in the future. “That’s the only way things change,” Mr. de Blasio said. “Keep those demands coming. Keep the pressure on. ” Mr. de Blasio has not yet announced new police reform initiatives. Phil Walzak, a top mayoral aide, said the mayor would do so during his campaign, but he declined to characterize them. “I don’t think at any point is anyone saying, ‘All done here,’” Mr. Walzak said. “There’s more to do. But this mayor is absolutely committed to real reform. He’s put real reforms in place, and there’s more to come. ” Mr. de Blasio is also facing pressure to embrace a distant and difficult goal: the closing of the Rikers Island jail complex. His campaign has stuck to a simple message when it comes to the police: Crime is down, even with far fewer of the arrests and police stops that fall heavily on black and Hispanic communities. Dan Levitan, a spokesman for the mayor’s 2017 campaign, said Mr. de Blasio had “proven New York City can improve relations while remaining the safest big city in America. ” Mr. Levitan pointed to poll numbers showing that Mr. de Blasio’s support remained high among black voters and had remained steady on questions of relations. Indeed, Mr. Sharpton said the mayor’s “basic supporters have been pretty much satisfied. ” Critics of Mr. de Blasio’s concede that there have been changes at the Police Department during his tenure. But they lament that the reforms have been unilaterally taken and directed by the police themselves. And they focus on the apparent absence of punishment for officers, even for those involved in the deaths of unarmed black men, like Mr. Garner and Ramarley Graham, who was fatally shot in his Bronx home in 2012. “When your training fails you in the field, there’s no accountability for that,” said Councilman Robert Cornegy, a Democrat who represents parts of Brooklyn. But, he added despairingly, the issue may not cost Mr. de Blasio at the polls because black voters are already “disaffected” in their hopes for police reform. “They’re disappointed,” Mr. Cornegy said of his black constituents, adding: “The community and the Caribbean communities love really hard, and, consequently, when they’re done, they’re done really hard. They’re not at a done period. ” Policing presents a tightrope for any New York mayor, perhaps none more so than Mr. de Blasio, who began his administration amid the high hopes of reformers and the skeptical eye of officers. Those tensions burst into public view starting in 2014 after street protests arose in response to a grand jury’s decision not to indict Officer Pantaleo in Mr. Garner’s death, followed by the killing of two patrol officers in Brooklyn and a de facto work slowdown by officers, as some turned their backs on the mayor while he spoke at the officers’ funerals. Mr. de Blasio has at times presented what he hopes will be a new model of community policing in ways that are likely to appeal to officers. “This is not social work this is crime fighting,” he said recently when asked of the program, in terms oddly reminiscent of the early administration of former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. Representative Jeffries said the mayor’s resistance to the Council’s legislating police activity, his continued support of policing — a tactic that involves aggressively going after minor offenses to prevent major ones — and his embrace of a proposal to make resisting arrest a felony were “not the positions of a police reformer. ” “These are the positions,” he continued, “of someone who seems afraid to aggressively go at the police unions that defend the status quo. ” That feeling has been shared by some who worked in the de Blasio administration, and say they were drawn there by the promise of making deep changes to the criminal justice system. Dominique Day worked on justice initiatives at the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice until January. She said she left disheartened at the lack of zeal for changes, such as improving the quality of the information used in the increasingly interactions between New Yorkers and the criminal justice system. “You have this really exciting rhetoric of reform that has been embraced by almost everyone, including the police and prosecutors,” she said. “But in practice, it’s business as usual. ” | 1 |
German Chancellor Angela Merkel launched a broadside at internet media giants, accusing them of “narrowing perspective,” and demanding they disclose their privately-developed algorithms. Merkel previously blamed social media for anti-immigrant sentiment and the rise of the far right. “The algorithms must be made public, so that one can inform oneself as an interested citizen on questions like: what influences my behavior on the internet and that of others?” said Merkel during a media conference in Berlin on Tuesday.
“These algorithms, when they are not transparent, can lead to a distortion of our perception, they narrow our breadth of information.”
Google uses an algorithm to decide which search results are first shown to a user, while Facebook arranges the order of the news feed, and decides to include certain posts from a user’s liked pages and friends, at the expense of others. Both sites also promote links to news articles, often based on a user’s own media interests.
These algorithms are at the core of the intellectual property of any social media or search website, and comprise some of the most highly-protected trade secrets in the world, potentially worth billions. No internet giant has ever revealed its inner workings.
Merkel did not specifically name Facebook, Google or Twitter, but implied that the large platforms are creating “bubbles” of self-reinforcing views, and squeezing out smaller news providers.
“The big internet platforms, via their algorithms, have become an eye of a needle which diverse media must pass through to reach users,” warned Merkel. “This is a development that we need to pay careful attention to.”
The internet giants themselves have argued that the so-called social media bubble is largely a myth, and that online users have a wider access to differing views than under a pre-internet model, where most news would be acquired from just a handful of newspapers and one or two TV channels.
German establishment raises ‘Sword of Damocles’ over social media This is not the first attack on social media by Merkel and her Grand Coalition government, and while the German politician advocates diversity of views, she has previously accused it of perpetrating opinions that are most at odds with those of the establishment and traditional media.
Last month, Merkel accused AfD, the recently-established anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim party, which receives overwhelmingly negative coverage in most newspapers, of “spreading their lies” through social media, as it achieves breakthroughs in regional elections around the country.
A year ago, at the height of the refugee influx into the country, Merkel, who was first elected in 2005, was caught on a hot mic personally pressing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to clamp down on anti-migrant posts during a UN session in New York.
A fortnight ago, the leader of Merkel’s parliamentary CDU faction, Volker Kauder, said that social media should be fined €50,000 for failing to remove “hate speech,” saying that a “Sword of Damocles” has to hang over social media. Kauder also called for warnings, similar to those on cigarette packs or before entering pornographic websites, to be given to those about to go on social media.
Justice Minister Heiko Maas – who said that there had been a 77 percent increase in hate crimes following the arrival of 900,000 asylum seekers – has given internet media companies until February next year to comply with EU directives on xenophobia and racism, or face legal action.
Source: RT News
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Three in Florida, Virginia charged with voter fraud Reuters
Officials in Florida and Virginia filed voter fraud charges against three people in apparently unrelated cases on Friday, just 11 days before American voters cast ballots in the hotly contested presidential race.
The charges targeted a Florida woman and a Virginia man accused of filing bogus voter registration forms and a Florida woman alleged to have tampered with absentee ballots she was opening at the Miami-Dade Elections Department.
In the Iowa capital of Des Moines, county election officials referred three cases of suspected voter fraud to police earlier this week, leading to one arrest on Thursday, police said.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has charged in recent weeks that the election will be rigged in favor of Democrat Hillary Clinton, though he has shown no proof for these claims and many Republicans have called them unfounded.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle in Florida said that 74-year-old Gladys Coego had been working as an absentee ballot opener when a supervisor allegedly saw her changing ballots that had been left blank to support a mayoral candidate. Prosecutors said that Coego admitted to marking the ballots and was charged with two felony counts of marking or designating the ballot of another. | 0 |
Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley fired off letters to two Cabinet agencies demanding answers about the illegal alien suspected accused of raping a girl during school hours at Rockville High School. [Officials in the Maryland county where the alleged March 16 rape use their legal power to shield illegal aliens with criminal convictions from being sent home — and Grassley wants to know how the Department of Homeland Security plans to stop the possible release of illegal alien suspects Henry E. Sanchez. Sanchez Milian, 18, and Jose Montano, 17. “Montgomery County, Maryland is a sanctuary jurisdiction,” Grassley asked DHS Secretary John Kelly. “If Montgomery County or any other local law enforcement agency declines to honor a detainer or notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) regarding Jose Montano and Henry Sanchez Milian, what action will DHS take to ensure that they are not released from custody and allowed to reoffend?” Grassley also wants to review the agency’s record of the suspects’ immigration histories, criminal records, gang affiliations and immigration benefits. The Iowa senator also requested that Department of Health and Human Services, which oversaw young illegals from the Central American surge caught at the border and released into the U. S. under Obama administration policies, provide information about the illegal alien suspects’ sponsors. Roughly eighty percent of the illegal alien minors were placed in the custody of other illegals. Roughly eighty percent of the illegal alien minors released at the border were placed in the custody of other illegals. There is almost no monitoring of the young illegals once they’re shipped into the U. S. interior, an expert on illegal immigration told Breitbart News: “The federal office within HHS that is responsible for their resettlement has spent billions of dollars, but does little monitoring of the kids beyond one phone call to check in with the household. They say that many kids will not be at the address where they were resettled, and they lose track of most of them. ” Sanchez Milian and Montano allegedly dragged the young victim into a bathroom and forced her into a stall as she tried holding onto a sink. They allegedly raped the victim orally, vaginally, and anally, sometimes simultaneously, in a bathroom stall while she screamed, according to a police interview with the victim. A forensic specialist later found blood and bodily fluids in the boys’ bathroom after the victim told school staff about the alleged attack. The alleged took place a month before her fifteenth birthday, according to the date of birth marked on the detective’s statement of probable cause. Sanchez Milian’s attorney claims the alleged rape was “consensual” and his client “is being used as an unjust scapegoat by the opponents of recent immigration practices. ” Sanchez Milian and Montano face “ rape and two counts of sexual offense,” according to WTOP. com. ICE has a immigration detainer request on Sanchez Milian, but would not comment on Montano’s case since he is still a minor at 17. Read Grassley’s letters to Kelly and HHS Secretary Tom Price are here. | 1 |
An Afghan woman whose photograph as a young refugee with piercing green eyes was published on the cover of National Geographic in 1985, becoming a symbol of the turmoil of war in Afghanistan, was arrested on Wednesday in Pakistan on charges of fraudulently obtaining national identity cards. The woman, Sharbat Gula, was arrested at her residence in the northwestern city of Peshawar after more than a year of investigation, said Shahid Ilyas, the assistant director of the Federal Investigation Authority. “We raided the house and picked her up,” he said. “It took us a while to collect all the evidence against her, and the officials involved in helping her and her two sons get Pakistani national identity cards. ” He added, “We have the evidence now, and we are going to go for prosecution. ” The arrest came as the Pakistani authorities were cracking down on Afghans with illegal national identity cards. The authorities said Ms. Gula had illegally obtained a Pakistani identity card in 1988 and a computerized identity card in 2014, while retaining her Afghan passport, which she used in 2014 to travel to Saudi Arabia for the hajj. She faces up to 14 years in prison and a fine of $3, 000 to $5, 000 if she is convicted, according to the Dawn news agency. Her arrest goes to the heart of an ordeal confronting many Afghan refugees who fled across the border into Pakistan because of decades of war. The Pakistani crackdown on Afghans appears to have intensified since May, when the former Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour was killed in a drone strike in Baluchistan Province. He had been traveling with forged Pakistani documents, officials said. Gerry Simpson, a senior researcher and advocate for the Refugee Rights Program at Human Rights Watch, wrote online that 1. 5 million Afghans in Pakistan have received “proof of registration” cards, which protected them from deportation. About one million more who did not get the paperwork resorted to using false identity cards. Mr. Simpson wrote that Pakistan was now on a mission to repatriate all Afghans. The Pakistani authorities have revoked or blocked thousands of national identity cards illegally obtained by foreigners. Ms. Gula, who is believed to be in her 40s, was caught up in that dragnet when she was arrested. A court said on Wednesday that she could be kept in custody for two days while the authorities investigated. Ms. Gula was known as “the Afghan girl” when Steve McCurry’s photograph of her wearing a red scarf and staring directly at the camera became world famous in the ’80s. After the United States invaded Afghanistan, the photographer searched in 2002 for the schoolgirl he had photographed in a Pakistani refugee camp. He found her in the mountains of Afghanistan and put a name to the face. Mr. McCurry said in a statement on Wednesday that he had been informed of the arrest through a friend and was trying to find out more. “I am committed to doing anything and everything possible to provide legal and financial support for her and her family,” he said. “We object to this action by the authorities in the strongest possible terms,” he said. “She has suffered throughout her entire life, and we believe that her arrest is an egregious violation of her human rights. ” According to the 2002 National Geographic article about Mr. McCurry’s journey to find Ms. Gula, her exact age in the refugee camp had been unknown at the time because there were no records, but she was believed to have been 12. When he went back to look for her, she had returned to the mountains of Tora Bora in Afghanistan. He discovered that she belonged to the Pashtun ethnic group, and that she had returned to her village in Afghanistan during a lull in the fighting. She agreed to be photographed again because her husband told her it would be proper, he said. The magazine article described the adult Ms. Gula: “Time and hardship had erased her youth. Her skin looks like leather. The geometry of her jaw has softened. The eyes still glare that has not softened. ” | 1 |
By Claire Bernish at theantimedia.org
Thanks to Wikileaks, we now have the smoking gun email irrefutably proving not only did President Barack Obama know about Hillary Clinton’s non-government-issued email account, he used it in correspondence with her.
Even more damning to the president’s credibility, it appears the lie was a purposeful attempt to protect Clinton’s upcoming bid for the presidency.
Shortly after the New York Times broke the story on March 2, 2015, of Clinton’s use of a personal server to supplant the government system — and, as has been revealed, to thwart transparency — Obama announced publicly his lack of prior knowledge.
“The same time everybody else learned it through news reports,” the president told CBS News White House correspondent Bill Plante, as Zero Hedge reported . “The policy of my administration is to encourage transparency, which is why my emails, the BlackBerry I carry around, all those records are available and archived.
“I’m glad that Hillary’s instructed that those emails about official business need to be disclosed.”
It wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine, however, Obama’s placid public appearance guarded secret internal panic — a panic echoed behind the scenes at the burgeoning Clinton campaign.
An email penned by Clinton campaign spokesman Josh Schwerin to Director of Communications, Jennifer Palmieri, and a few others, calling immediate attention to a tweet by journalist Katherine Miller paints an entirely different picture.
Miller tweeted a snippet of the aforementioned interview in which Plante asked Obama, “Mr. President, When did you first learn that Hillary Clinton used an email system outside the U.S. Government for official business while she was Secretary of State?”
“The same time everybody else learned it,” he responded, “through news reports.”
I have some questions here pic.twitter.com/ufkeoZCx2m | 0 |
We Use Cookies: Our policy [X] 2016 Asked What Its Fucking Problem Is November 11, 2016 - BREAKING NEWS , ENTERTAINMENT Share 0 Add Comment
FOLLOWING the news that the year 2016 has added songwriting legend Leonard Cohen to its list of prominent homicides this year, the world has confirmed it wants to know what 2016’s fucking problem is.
“You’re just fucking taking who you like – a funk and pop God, a Glam hero and someone I played on vinyl when I needed a good cry, I don’t get it. It’s like you are trying to ruin every day of my life,” Colm Henry, a Dublin native, shared as part of furious temper tantrum.
“And don’t get me started on fucking Brexit and that shower in America,” Henry added while blocking out thoughts of whom 2016 might potentially take next.
2016, a 366 day calendar year has been consistently criticised throughout its reign of terror as its record of killing people and a penchant for batshit crazy happenings compares unfavourably with its peers 2015, 2014 and 2013.
“Raspberry Beret wasn’t supposed to make me sad, it was supposed to make me look like a fool on the dance floor at weddings, and 2016 has fucked that up for me, cheers, you complete bastard,” added Maggie Dunleahy, from Waterford.
Livid members of the public also pointed out that 2016, despite having an Olympics and European Championships, still managed to leave people feeling ‘incredibly sad, frustrated and annoyed’.
“It’s not too much to ask is it, for an explanation like, seriously, what the fuck is its problem?” added just about everyone. | 0 |
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The main causes are an unhealthy diet, a sedentary lifestyle, and genetics, but considering how many people are affected by this issue and how much strain it is placing on our already overburdened medical systems, researchers are desperate to find other avenues to treat it. And through their efforts, they have now discovered that our gut plays a crucial role in weight management.
New evidence suggests that gut bacteria alter the way we store fat, how we balance levels of glucose in the blood, and how we respond to hormones that make us feel hungry or full. If we have the wrong mix of microbes from birth, we may be predisposed to obesity and diabetes.
Thankfully, researchers are starting to find the differences between the wrong and the right ones, and what factors determine those differences. Their hope is that, with this knowledge, they can prevent and maybe even reverse obesity. We also need to learn how to keep our gut microbes happy in order to avoid weight gain. This begins with redesigning our food choices. Understanding The Importance Of Microbes
While researchers have long known about microorganisms in the human body, only in the past decade did they come to understand that they outnumber our own cells 10 to 1. And rapid gene-sequencing techniques have discovered that the biggest and most diverse of the bunch live in the large intestine and mouth.
From birth, we build up our microbes, first from our mother’s bacteria and then from the environment around us. The genes of these microbes, collectively called the microbiome, have been diligently studied — researchers pinpointing their census, and now the kind of jobs they perform. advertisement - learn more
It was first thought that gut microbes might play a role in obesity from studies comparing intestinal bacteria in obese and lean individuals. Researchers found that the gut community in lean people was very diverse, and they tended to have a wider variety of Bacteroidetes , which are a large tribe of microbes that work to break down bulky plant starches and fibers into smaller molecules in order for the body to use them as a source of energy. But obese people proved to have a much less diverse community.
Other studies pointed out that these discrepancies aren’t necessarily responsible for obesity; however, one series of experiments with “humanized” mice concluded that there is a cause-and-effect relationship , and that obesity may be preventative. So the obesity conversation is now turning to how we can shape our gut ecosystem to work in our favor. Keep Evolving Your Consciousness Inspiration and all our best content, straight to your inbox. How Diet Plays A Role
Jeffrey Gordon of Washington University in St. Louis and his team of researchers came to the conclusion that highly processed foods have been linked to a less diverse gut community in people by feeding humanized mice a specially prepared unhealthy chow high in fat and low in fruits, vegetables, and fiber. Mice with obese-type microbes grew fatter when housed with lean cagemates. The researchers found that the unhealthy diet kept the bacteria from moving in and flourishing.
Studies have also found how diet can harm our gut bacteria and predispose us to obesity from the day we are born as well, showing that both formula-fed babies and infants delivered by cesarean section have a higher risk for obesity and diabetes than breast-fed babies or those delivered vaginally. For instance, Rob Knight of the University of Colorado Boulder and Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello of N.Y.U. have found that when newborns traverse the birth canal, they ingest bacteria that helps them to digest milk . And babies raised on formula do not get substances in breast milk that both allow beneficial bacteria to thrive and prevent unhealthy ones from doing likewise. A Canadian study even concluded that a major reason for babies being more susceptible to allergies, asthma, eczema, and celiac disease, as well as obesity, may be due to them being fed formula instead of being breast fed .
Antibiotics may also play a role in obesity, with research finding that young mice given low doses of antibiotics develop about 15 percent more body fat than mice that are not given such drugs. “Antibiotics are like a fire in the forest,” Dominguez-Bello proclaims. “The baby is forming a forest. If you have a fire in a forest that is new, you get extinction.” What’s Next
Scientists hope the work they are doing on understanding the microbiome will introduce a new generation of tools to treat and prevent obesity, but with so much research still to be done, and so many questions to answer, time will only tell what will come of these various studies connecting the dots between the gut and weight.
“Data from human studies are a lot messier than the mouse data,” explains Claire Fraser of the University of Maryland, who is studying the connection of obesity and gut microbes in the Old Order Amish population.
Many scientists are still developing potential treatments nonetheless, including Dominguez-Bello, who is conducting a clinical trial in Puerto Rico where she will monitor the weight and overall health of babies born by cesarean section who are immediately swabbed with a gauze cloth laced with the mother’s vaginal fluids and resident microbes.
The Sacred Science follows eight people from around the world, with varying physical and psychological illnesses, as they embark on a one-month healing journey into the heart of the Amazon jungle.
You can watch this documentary film FREE for 10 days by clicking here.
"If “Survivor” was actually real and had stakes worth caring about, it would be what happens here, and “The Sacred Science” hopefully is merely one in a long line of exciting endeavors from this group." - Billy Okeefe, McClatchy Tribune | 0 |
Obama and Michelle are out, she could be hauled off in handcuffs in 72 hours! Her only hope is Tim Kaine but he’s demanding a ransom in a Quatar bank. He wants a 130 foot boat.
Federal Marshalls have Hillary under surveillance 24 hours a day! She will NOT go quietly, she has a fortress up there in Chelsea’s apartment – stuff going to ISIS! Automated guns!
It’s own power core and atmosphere.
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Home / Badge Abuse / Cop Caught on His Own Body Camera Stealing Money From Unconscious Crash Victim Cop Caught on His Own Body Camera Stealing Money From Unconscious Crash Victim Matt Agorist November 1, 2016 1 Comment
Denver, CO — A Denver cop has been arrested and suspended without pay after his own body camera footage caught him stealing $1,200 in cash from a crash victim.
Instead of helping an unconscious crash victim, officer Julian Archuleta took advantage of the situation for his own personal gain by going through the man’s clothing and robbing him. Archuleta now faces charges of misdemeanor theft, 1st-degree official misconduct and tampering with physical evidence.
According to an arrest affidavit, Archuleta responded to a call of shots fired in the early morning hours of October 7. The call then led to a short pursuit which ended as the car crashed. The driver got away while the passenger of the vehicle was knocked unconscious.
Archuleta’s body camera then recorded the officer for the next 24 minutes and 40 seconds. In the footage, he took pictures of the scene and then searched the man’s clothing which had been removed by paramedics.
In the video, Archuleta finds a stack of cash in the man’s pants with a $100 bill on top, according to the arrest affidavit. He then separates the $100 bill from the stack and a $1 bill remains on top.
Throughout the footage, Archuleta shuffles money and rearranges paperwork in his patrol car, the affidavit said.
According to the Denver Post, when a detective collected the cash and logged it into the property bureau as evidence, he counted $118 and did not find any $100 bills, the affidavit said. But while reviewing Archuleta’s body camera footage as part of the investigation, the detective noticed the $100 bill.
Amazingly enough, instead of covering up the theft, the detective crossed the thin blue line and reported the inconsistency with the $100 bill to internal affairs. When confronted by investigators, Archuleta told them he would “check his war bag” to see if any of the money had slipped into a crevice in his patrol car.
According to the arrest affidavit, Archuleta called the detective back an hour later and claimed he found 12 $100 bills that “must have fallen in his bag.” After being caught red-handed, Archuleta then turned in the money.
According to the Post, the Denver district attorney’s office declined to prosecute the shooting suspect because of the missing cash and because Archuleta allegedly moved evidence inside the suspect’s vehicle before detectives had a search warrant, the affidavit said.
Earlier this year, the Denver police department was equipped with body cameras. We now know why it took so long for the department to adopt them. Archuleta will now go down in history as the first Denver cop to be criminally charged based on body camera evidence.
Like most cases of police theft, this incident is not isolated. In fact, just 2 months ago, Grants Police Department Sgt. Roshern C. McKinney, 33, was arrested after an investigation found that he’d stolen both money and marijuana from the police department. Like Archuleta, he entire theft was captured on the officer’s own body camera. McKinney has since been charged with marijuana distribution, conspiracy, and felony embezzlement.
State police also charged McKinney’s 23-year-old girlfriend Tanicka Gallegos-Gonzales, for drug distribution and conspiracy. Both were arrested in Albuquerque and booked into the Sandoval County Detention Center, according to KOB.
Public Information Officer for the New Mexico State Police, Elizabeth Armijo said Grants police chief, Craig Vandiver alerted state police after the department found video from Mckinney’s lapel camera that “exposed possible illicit activity by a Grants Police Department sergeant.”
What does it say about the criminal tendency of some police officers when they are unable to practice restraint from theft — knowing that they are being recorded? Share Google + The Kali Whrite Boi
Ok am NOT cool with corrupt criminal cops, but still this MSM puppet is infuriating. This “civilian” was fleeing a scene of “shots fired” leading the cop in a short chase before crashing.
Stupid MSM puppets. | 0 |
BREAKING: Trump Jumps in FL, Takes 4 Point Lead in OH
Take for example Florida and Nevada, which had been consistently labeled “lean Democrat” by CNN but have now been shifted into the “battleground” category, according to The Hill .
The shift was most likely due to a slew of new polls showing the race in Florida to be essentially tied, with some surveys placing Republican nominee Donald Trump up a couple of points while others still showed Clinton with a slight lead.
The same holds true for Nevada . CNN also listed as “battleground” states places like Arizona, North Carolina, Ohio and Utah, even though Trump has shown a consistent lead in a few of those “toss-up” states. Advertisement - story continues below
CNN still predicted a Clinton win, though her possible margin of victory had contracted significantly from previous estimates.
CNN suspected that Clinton already has the 270 electoral college votes necessary to win via the states they have labeled “lean” or “solid Democrat.”
Conversely, it projected that Trump only had about 179 electoral votes in hand from similarly labeled Republican states, leaving about 87 electoral votes up for grabs.
Of course, as always, the situation remains much more fluid than the media would like to let on, and things can change quite rapidly, particularly considering that Clinton appears to be sliding in many states while Trump is steadily gaining ground across the country. Advertisement - story continues below | 0 |
Sources Say Weiner Ready to Sail Huma and Hillary Down the River Sources Say Weiner Ready to Sail Huma and Hillary Down the River Breaking News By Amy Moreno November 1, 2016
FBI sources say Weiner is looking to beat the “Child porn” wrap and is ready to sail Huma, Hillary and anyone else, down the proverbial river.
Sources indicate that Weiner will swap a pass on kiddy porn in exchange for his cooperation in the email scandal.
There’s no honor among thieves. Sources in FBI say that Weiner wants immunity for underage sex crimes in exchange for Clinton foundation & email scandal re Qatar pipeline.
— Hector Morenco (@hectormorenco) November 1, 2016
The email are rumored to outline a sinister and enormous pay to play deal involving a billion dollar pipeline. Soon the world will discover HRC & Obama are at the center of the Syrian conflict, profited from the Clinton foundation, & ignored ISIS. pic.twitter.com/PO0ziHiueX
— Hector Morenco (@hectormorenco) October 30, 2016 This is a movement – we are the political OUTSIDERS fighting against the FAILED GLOBAL ESTABLISHMENT! Join the resistance and help us fight to put America First! Amy Moreno is a Published Author , Pug Lover & Game of Thrones Nerd. You can follow her on Twitter here and Facebook here . Support the Trump Movement and help us fight Liberal Media Bias. Please LIKE and SHARE this story on Facebook or Twitter. | 0 |
TEL AVIV — Immigration lawyers from groups financed by billionaire George Soros, a champion of open border policies, were signatories to a lawsuit filed Saturday to block President Donald Trump’s executive order halting visas for 90 days for “immigrants and ” from Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, Iran, and Iraq. [The executive order further suspended the entry of all refugees for 120 days, indefinitely blocks Syrian refugees from entering and lowers the ceiling to 50, 000 for refugees allowed to enter the U. S. during Fiscal Year 2017 . The New York Times first reported on the lawsuit: At least one case quickly prompted a legal challenge as lawyers representing two Iraqi refugees held at Kennedy International Airport in New York filed a motion early Saturday seeking to have their clients released. They also filed a motion for class certification, in an effort to represent all refugees and other immigrants who they said were being unlawfully detained at ports of entry. The suit was filed by lawyers from the International Refugee Assistance Project, the National Immigration Law Center, the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the International Refugee Assistance Project (formerly Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project) at the Urban Justice Center. The ACLU is massively funded by Soros’s Open Society Foundations, including with a $50 million grant in 2014. The National Immigration Law Center has received numerous Open Society grants earmarked for general support. The Urban Justice Center is also the recipient of an Open Society grant. Taryn Higashi, executive director of the Center’s International Refugee Assistance Project, which is listed on the Trump lawsuit, currently serves on the Advisory Board of the International Migration Initiative of Soros’s Open Society Foundations. Over the last decade, Soros has reportedly provided some $76 million for immigrant issues. In 2014, the New York Times credited “immigrant rights groups” financed by Soros and a handful of other donors for influencing President Obama’s immigration policy. The newspaper reported: When President Obama announces major changes to the nation’s immigration enforcement system as early as next week, his decision will partly be a result of a yearslong campaign of pressure by immigrant rights groups, which have grown from a cluster of lobbying organizations into a national force. A vital part of that expansion has involved money: major donations from some of the nation’s wealthiest liberal foundations, including the Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Open Society Foundations of the financier George Soros, and the Atlantic Philanthropies. Over the past decade those donors have invested more than $300 million in immigrant organizations, including many fighting for a pathway to citizenship for immigrants here illegally. In August, Breitbart Jerusalem first reported hacked documents from Soros’s Open Society Institute boasted that the billionaire and his foundation helped to successfully press the Obama administration into increasing to 100, 000 the total number of refugees taken in by the U. S. annually. The documents revealed that the billionaire personally sent President Obama a letter on the issue of accepting refugees. 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. With research by Brenda J. Elliott. | 1 |
Bias bashers Ukraine Stunned as Vast Cash Reserves of Political Elite Are Made Public
Ukraine is the latest country to discover that cronyism and corruption in politics pays - a lot - and is very unhappy about it. Originally appeared at Zero Hedge
As a result of an anti-corruption reform requiring senior Ukrainian officials to declare their wealth online, the local population has been been exposed to the vast difference between the fortunes of politicians and those they represent.
As Reuters reports , some declared millions of dollars in cash. Others said they owned fleets of luxury cars, expensive Swiss watches, diamond jewelry and large tracts of land - revelations that will crush public confidence in the authorities in Ukraine, where the average salary is just over $200 per month. Officials had until Sunday to upload details of their assets and income in 2015 to a publicly searchable database, part of an International Monetary Fund-backed drive to boost transparency and modernise Ukraine's recession-hit economy.
As in the US, the corruption starts (and ends) at the top, and the value of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's assets soared despite economic crisis and conflict while those of other tycoons shrank in an annual wealth list published Friday. The 50-year-old Western-backed president 's business empire ranges from chocolates to media holdings still under his control. Poroshenko - a prominent fixture of the Panama Papers - retains control of a top TV channel and has failed to follow through on his promise to sell off his Roshen chocolate empire due to a lack of foreign interest and a dearth of rich-enough investors in Ukraine itself.
The Novoye Vremya weekly showed the Ukrainian leader, often criticised for failing to curb the political powers of fellow tycoons, ranked as the country's sixth-richest man. Perhaps Poroshenko should be more criticized for focusing mostly on his own net worth at the expense of the general population: his reported assets rose by 20% to $979 million, only just supporting his claim he is no longer a billionaire.
The president's official spokesman did not pick up his phone when contacted repeatedly by AFP.
How did Poroshenko's wealth grow by hundreds of millions? Chocolate.
"Poroshenko's (wealth) rose thanks to the rise in value of his candy business that- even in the midst of the deepest of crises - is developing quickly, building new capacities and conquering new markets," the weekly said.
Poroshenko promotes himself as a Western-style businessman who built his empire from the ground up and kept to transparency standards that most others simply ignored. Many of Ukraine's other mega-rich scooped up their holdings at cut-price rates in pre-arranged privatisation deals in which which they rewarded the government by funding its parliamentary parties and campaigning for them in the media.
Now, the people finally are starting to see right through it: "This will not benefit the president's ratings or help improve Ukraine's image as a nation run by oligarchs," Vadym Karasyov of Kiev's Institute of Global Strategies told AFP.
Poroshenko is not the only oligarch to take advantage of the "crony capitalist chaos" unleash in Ukraine with the US-backed 2014 presidential coup. Prime Minister Voldymyr Groysman, who last week likened the declarations process to jumping out of an airplane, revealed that he and his wife had a total of $1.2 million and 460,000 euros in cash and a collection of luxury watches.
The database also shows that Groysman, a former businessman and provincial mayor, is not alone in preferring to keep much of his money out of Ukraine's banking system. Reuters calculations based on the declarations show that the 24 members of the Ukrainian cabinet together have nearly $7 million, just in cash .
The declarations of two brothers in President Petro Poroshenko's faction, Bohdan and Yaroslav Dubnevych, show holdings of over $26 million, also in cash only .
"When the Economy Ministry says that in some areas around 60 percent of the economy is in the shadows, then this is accounted for by the volume of cash registered by civil servants, officials and lawmakers," said Taras Kachka, deputy executive director at George Soros's International Renaissance Foundation. "This is a reflection on the state of our society."
Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko, who declared $1 million in a bank account and a further $500,000 in cash, said officials' decision to hold cash pointed to a mistrust in the banks that many Ukrainians could relate to. It also points to a burning desire not to have one's wealth easily confiscatable when another political regime emerges.
"Of course to EU countries it seems uncivilised that people hold cash," he said. "But it is linked to the fact that the banking system could, let's say, be doing better. This is a problem for many Ukrainians who lost their savings in the bank."
* * *
Not everyone's wealth is soaring, however. The wealth list is topped by 49-year-old metals magnate Rinat Akhmetov, a controversial figure accused by some local media of impeding Poroshenko's efforts to halt the 18-month war in the pro-Russian east. Novoye Vremya said Akhmetov's fortunes had plunged by 56 percent to $4.5 billion due in part to the sharp recent fall in global commodity prices.
Poroshenko's sworn political foe and banking giant Igor Kolomoyskiy came in third with an estimated fortune of $1.9 billion. The 52-year-old grey-bearded and fiercely outspoken figure finds himself in the peculiar position of being at odds with both Kiev and Moscow. Russia's state media accuse him of funding Ukrainian neo-Nazi combat units that commit grave crimes in the separatist east.
Poroshenko's fight against Kolomoyskiy began with efforts to strip him of his indirect control of a state-owned oil company and culminated in the businessman losing his seat as governor of the industrially important Dnipropetrovsk region in March. Kolomoyskiy's wealth reportedly slipped by 17 percent due to the country's financial woes.
* * *
While the online declaration system has been intended to represent a show of good faith that officials are willing to open their finances up to public scrutiny, to be held accountable, and to move away from a culture that tacitly allowed bureaucrats to amass wealth through cronyism and graft, the public reaction has been one of shocked dismay at the extravagant lifestyles conjured up by many of the disclosures according to Reuters .
"We did not expect that this would be such a widespread phenomenon among state officials. I can't imagine there is a European politician who invests money in a wine collection where one bottle costs over $10,000," said Vitaliy Shabunin, the head of the non-governmental Anti-Corruption Action Center.
Something tells us Vitaliy would be surprised, although considering that some European politicans are "allegedly" even more corrupt than their Ukrainian peers, a similar exercise in transparency would never take place in Brussels as it would lead to revelations that put the Panama Papers to shame.
Among the disclosures, it emerged that opposition bloc lawmaker Mikhail Dobkin's declaration included 1,780 bottles of wine and an antique copy of Russian novel Anna Karenina worth at least $5,500. Roman Nasirov, the head of the State Fiscal Service, disclosed that he and his wife owned Swiss watches, diamond jewellery, fur coats, fine porcelain and crystal glassware, an assault rifle and cash in euros and dollars worth $2.2 million.
The declaration of Oleh Lyashko, the head of the populist Radical party who has styled himself as a representative of the common man, showed he rented a house and land in Kiev's most exclusive district and his household had cash worth the equivalent of over $1 million.
* * *
Other forms give an insight into particular hobbies and interests of Ukraine's elite. Ihor Hryniv, the head of Poroshenko's faction, has a collection of icons dating from the 14th century and several works by Ukrainian impressionist masters. Lawmaker Ihor Mosiychuk declared an array of antique weapons, including a 16th century Turkish scimitar, an English broadsword and a Nazi SS dagger .
Many senior politicians filed their forms in the last two days before the deadline, resulting in a crescendo of surprise and anger on social media over the weekend.
Some of the angriest responses came from members of the army.
"I personally feel unwell. Or rather, like someone who has been beaten and is therefore unwell. I had no illusions about our political and official elite. But all the same, what's come out is beyond the pale ," Roman Donik, a volunteer to Ukraine's frontline troops, said on Facebook.
Needless to say, Ukraine's corrupt politicians better watch out: the last group they want to anger with their show of wealth is the army, which will have no problem in "redistributing" it once .
Actually, they should probably avoid any public contact for a while: the average Ukrainian citizen has been hit hard by the economic crisis that unfolded in the wake of the 2014 pro-European 'Maidan' uprising and subsequent pro-Russian separatist conflict. The national hryvnia currency has plummeted to 25 to the dollar from 8 in 2013 and energy tariffs have soared under the IMF-backed economic reform programme.
As Reuters concludes, the latest revelations will likely add to public dissatisfaction with the current leadership's progress on reforms. A September poll showed that only 12.6 percent would now vote for Poroshenko's faction, down from 21.8 in the last election. Meanwhile support for populist and opposition parties has risen. The anti-corruption agency says it will now start verifying the declarations, but with over 100,000 forms submitted, it is unclear how thorough the process can be.
* * *
Ukraine's economy is on track to shrink by about 12 percent this year and only return to marginal growth should the eastern campaign end in 2016.
So what's next: a presidential coup that brings back the ousted President Yanukovych under whom most were just as poor, but at least equally so? While purely hypothetical, it would be a fitting end to yet another disastrous US intervention in a foreign state's internal affairs. | 0 |
Let’s review just how small we are in comparison to the universe: for every grain of sand on every beach on Earth there are 10,000 stars, the Milky Way includes billions of Earth-like, potentially habitable planets.
Via CollectiveEvolution
The Milky Way itself is only one of billions of galaxies, and we may be living in an infinitely-increasing number of universes, otherwise known as the multiverse. Given all of this, it is reasonable to assume that other life forms exist outside of our planet. In addition, Earth is a part of a fairly young planetary system, so it’s possible there are extraterrestrials out there that are far more advanced than us. This begs the question: where are all of the extraterrestrials?
This question was first addressed by Italian physicist Enrico Fermi in the 1950s when he asked, “If life is so abundant, why have we never heard from anyone?” More recently, Physics and Astronomy Professor at the University of Manchester, Brian Cox, attempted to answer this question, which is now commonly referred to as the Fermi Paradox. Unfortunately for us, Cox’s theory isn’t very optimistic for the human race.
What is the Fermi Paradox? There are at least 500-quintillion (or 500 billion billion) sun-like stars out there, and keep in mind that that’s a very conservative estimate. A study from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science suggests that at least 1% of the total stars in the universe have Earth-like planets orbiting around them, meaning that 100 billion billion Earth-like planets may exist.
For those of you who are sceptical about extraterrestrials, let’s make a conservative estimate that after 1 billion years of existence, only 1% of these Earth-like planets develop life. To help you visualize this, that would be the equivalent to every single grain of sand on Earth representing one planet with life on it. Even if only 1% of that number developed equal intelligence to humans, that would mean there are 10 million billion intelligent civilizations in the universe.
If you scale these numbers down using the same estimates to predict how many intelligent civilizations exist in the Milky Way, you’d get 1 billion Earth-like planets and 100,000 intelligent civilizations in our galaxy alone.
So, I ask you this: Do extraterrestrials exist and if so, why haven’t they contacted you? Welcome to the Fermi Paradox!
Potential Explanation 1: Physicist Brian Cox’s Theory Physicist and Astronomer Brian Cox was the latest to address the Fermi Paradox in a recent interview. Although his outlook is relatively pessimistic, it is still a very real possibility. Cox says, “One solution to the Fermi Paradox is that it is not possible to run a world that has the power to destroy itself and that needs global collaborative solutions to prevent that.” He continues, “It may be that the growth of science and engineering inevitably outstrips the development of political expertise, leading to disaster. We could be approaching that position.” (source)
In other words, extraterrestrials may have destroyed their entire civilization by means of political turmoil and/or technological advancement, and we could repeat this same pattern of self-destruction. Cox’s theory reminds me of Stephen Hawking’s recent warning to the public about artificial intelligence and how it could threaten the entire human race and lead to our demise (read the full article here). Could the greatest threat to humanity be humanity?
Potential Explanation 2: The Great Filter Created by Associate Professor at George Mason University, Robin Hanson, the Great Filter (GF) theory suggests that an incredibly difficult step exists in the evolution of life, one that prevents civilizations from reaching interstellar travel. The question is: Where are we in relation to the GF?
Option 1 is that we’ve somehow managed to pass the GF, a task that very few or potentially no other civilization has accomplished. Option 2 is that life is very rare, so the GF is actually the fact that life began on Earth in the first place. Option 3, the worst possibility, is that the GF is in front of us and we are approaching some sort of event or circumstance that prevents us from reaching higher intelligence.
Potential Explanation 3: Extraterrestrials Have Visited Us Before There is substantial evidence that proves extraterrestrials exist and that UFOs have been visiting us for a long time. More than a dozen NASA astronauts have publicly stated that UFOs have been spotted including Dr. Edgar Mitchell and Princeton University Physics Professor Brian O’Leary (read some of their quotes here). Chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, John Podesta, has been quoted many times discussing the lack of UFO disclosure.
“There is a serious possibility that we are being visited and have been visited for many years by people from outer space, by other civilizations. Who they are, where they are from, and what they want should be the subject of rigorous scientific investigation and not be the subject of ‘rubbishing’ by tabloid newspapers.” (source) – Lord Admiral Hill-Norton, Former Chief of Defense Staff, 5 Star Admiral of the Royal Navy, Chairman of the NATO Military Committee
Another example that may prove extraterrestrials (ETs) have been trying to contact us for years is the crop circle phenomena. For example, in 1974, a broadcast (known as the “Arecibo” message) created by Carl Sagan and his colleagues was sent into space via radio waves at a special ceremony celebrating the re-modelling of the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. 27 years later, in 2001, we received a response to the 1974 broadcast when an intricate crop circle appeared next to Britain’s largest telescope and observatory, the Chilbolton, home to the world’s largest fully steerable meteorological radar. Although many people are skeptical, the Thrive documentary produced by Foster Gamble, the heir to Proctor & Gamble, provides a compelling argument in support of ETs creating many of these crop circles.
Potential Explanation 4: Extraterrestrials Are Constantly Visiting Us To understand this theory, let’s first examine the Kardashev scale, which attempts to define civilizations of different intelligence levels. Type 0 civilizations extract its energy from crude, organic-based resources (Carl Sagan estimated we are Type 0.7). Type 1 can utilize all available resources on their home planet, Type 2 has the capacity to harness all of the energy from its star, and Type 3 could use all of the energy from its galaxy.
We currently live in a third dimensional world. We have not yet accessed, as a collective, a higher dimension. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of higher dimensions, Carl Sagan provides an excellent explanation here. If a type 3 civilization was in fact visiting us, we may not even notice. If a civilization of higher intelligence is operating in the fourth dimension, we, as three dimensional beings, wouldn’t be able to see them let alone communicate with them.
American Theoretical Physicist, Michio Kaku, explains:
“Let’s say we have an anthill in the middle of the forest. And right next to the anthill, they’re building a ten-lane super-highway. And the question is “Would the ants be able to understand what a ten-lane super-highway is? Would the ants be able to understand the technology and the intentions of the beings building the highway next to them?”
So, Which Explanation Is Correct? I believe there is truth within each of these solutions. Ultimately, our egos are our greatest enemies and we could end up destroying ourselves; however, I believe we are experiencing a shift in consciousness, and as a result, the possibility of this happening is decreasing. I believe life in and of itself is a miracle, so we’ve probably passed the Great Filter, but I think other civilizations have as well due to the significant evidence in support of UFOs and the existence of ETs. It’s no secret that the U.S. government has tried to hide this from the public, but perhaps that’s a good thing. Maybe we aren’t ready to contact ETs regularly until we reach a higher state of consciousness, access higher dimensions and become a more intelligent civilization. No matter what you believe, the Fermi Paradox is clearly a subject that merits further research and discussion!
I’ll leave you with this video to let you think of the other possibility, that we have seen
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The Associated Press won the Pulitzer Prize for public service on Monday for a series that exposed slavery and vicious abuse in the Southeast Asia fishing trade, leading to the release of 2, 000 captives and broad reforms in the United States and overseas. The series, “Seafood From Slaves,” involved a sprawling reportorial effort across several countries that discovered scores of fishermen in captivity — and sometimes locked in cages — in an industry that supplies seafood to American restaurants, brands and big retailers like Walmart. The A. P.’s reporting prompted arrests, ship seizures and action by the federal government. One year after magazines became eligible in some Pulitzer categories, The New Yorker received two prizes: for Emily Nussbaum’s television criticism, and for “The Really Big One,” Kathryn Schulz’s ominous article about the potential for a major earthquake in the Pacific Northwest, which won for feature writing. William Finnegan, a New Yorker staff writer, won the biography award for his memoir, “Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life. ” In an honor that was widely predicted, the musical “Hamilton,” a retelling of the founding fathers story, received the prize for drama. The musical’s creator and star, Miranda, reacted joyfully on Twitter, writing: “PULITZER? !” Alissa J. Rubin, the Paris bureau chief of The New York Times, won the prize for international reporting, for a deep examination of the abuse and injustice faced by women in Afghanistan. “I always am curious what people who are usually invisible are thinking, and how they see the world,” Ms. Rubin said in the Times newsroom on Monday. The Times also won the award for breaking news photography, its fourth photography prize in three years. Four Times photographers — Tyler Hicks, Mauricio Lima, Sergey Ponomarev and Daniel Etter — won for a searing collection of images of migrants seeking asylum in Europe, sharing the prize with the news agency Reuters. It was Mr. Hicks’s second Pulitzer he won in 2014 in the same category, for his photos of the terrorist attack at the Westgate mall in Kenya. The Times had 10 finalists over all, the newspaper’s most since 2002, when it was recognized for coverage of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The Pulitzers are now in their centennial year, and the winners announced by Columbia University on Monday reflected some of the changes sweeping the media landscape. Among the winners was The Marshall Project, an online outlet founded 17 months ago. The Washington Post took the national reporting prize for a project that used data, graphics and other tools of digital journalism to chronicle every killing by a police officer in 2015, unearthing fresh insights into a subject that has dominated the national political debate. Ken Armstrong of The Marshall Project and T. Christian Miller of the online investigative news site ProPublica won the explanatory reporting prize for their harrowing account of a botched rape investigation. The article, “An Unbelievable Story of Rape,” revealed how the police dismissed a claim of rape by an woman, and even prosecuted her for an ostensibly false report — a decision that delayed for years the capture of her actual attacker, a serial rapist. The piece is now being cited in training programs for law enforcement. Two other newspapers besides The Times won two prizes apiece. Farah Stockman of The Boston Globe, who recently joined the Times staff, won the commentary prize for columns examining the legacy of busing and segregation in Boston Jessica Rinaldi of The Globe won in the feature photography category for her photos of a young boy struggling after a history of abuse. The Tampa Bay Times won for local reporting for its look at the stunning failure rates among black students in a Florida county school system that abandoned racial integration. The newspaper also shared the investigative reporting prize with The Sarasota for a joint exposé on abuse and neglect in Florida mental hospitals. The Los Angeles Times won in the breaking news category for its coverage of the shootings in San Bernardino, Calif. in December. Jack Ohman of The Sacramento Bee received the award for editorial cartooning, and John Hackworth of Sun Newspapers of Charlotte Harbor, Fla. won for editorial writing. The award for fiction went to Viet Thanh Nguyen for his debut novel, “The Sympathizer,” which opens in 1975 in Saigon and centers on a Communist sympathizer who escapes to Los Angeles and spies on a South Vietnamese group he has infiltrated. The novel was hailed by critics for blending espionage, satire and historical fiction. “Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS,” by Joby Warrick, a reporter for The Washington Post, won the nonfiction prize. The book explores the rise of the Islamic State, in part through a detailed portrait of Abu Musab the group’s founder, who was killed in an American airstrike in 2006. T. J. Stiles, a biographer who won a Pulitzer in 2010 for his portrayal of Cornelius Vanderbilt, won this year’s prize in history, for “Custer’s Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America. ” Mr. Stiles’s book is a biography of George Armstrong Custer, the Civil War general who died in the Battle of Little Bighorn in Montana in 1876. | 1 |
They can "ignore" all they want, but they cannot ignore history. | 0 |
WASHINGTON — A man carrying a backpack jumped over a fence and got within several steps of the White House before being arrested late Friday, the Secret Service said. The intrusion, the first reported since President Trump took office, came as the president was inside the residence. A Secret Service official said the intruder did not pose a threat to Mr. Trump. But the breach was more serious than most other cases of at the White House: The man was able to elude multiple layers of security before being stopped near the entrance at the South Portico. The intruder, identified as Jonathan Tran, 26, of Milpitas, Calif. was charged with entering a restricted area “while using or carrying a dangerous weapon. ” The Secret Service official said that he was not armed and that his backpack did not contain any hazardous materials, but that he was carrying two cans of pepper spray. When confronted by the officer who arrested him, Mr. Tran said, “I am a friend of the president. I have an appointment,” according to a court document filed in the case. The officer said Mr. Tran was wearing a hooded jacket or sweater. In addition to the pepper spray, Mr. Tran was carrying an American passport, an Apple laptop, a book by Mr. Trump and a letter to the president, in which he referred to “Russian Hackers. ” In the letter, Mr. Tran said that he had been followed, that his phone calls and emails had been intercepted, and that he had “been called schizophrenic. ” Speaking to reporters on Saturday at a meeting of cabinet members at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va. Mr. Trump said the “Secret Service did a fantastic job last night. ” He described Mr. Tran as a “troubled person. ” The Secret Service said in a statement that at about 11:38 p. m. “an individual scaled the outer perimeter fence by the Treasury Building and East Executive Avenue,” adding, “Secret Service Uniformed Division officers arrested the individual on the south grounds without further incident. ” But the court document suggested that Mr. Tran had been able to walk unimpeded alongside the residence until he nearly reached the entrance at the South Portico. The east side of the White House is where guests enter the building for social events. It is separated from the Treasury Department by a fence. Mr. Tran had no criminal record and no history with the Secret Service, the official said. Officers searched the north and south grounds of the White House and found nothing amiss. Security at the White House became a major issue in 2014, when there were several cases of intruders scaling the fence and entering the grounds. In one episode, a man carrying a knife, Omar J. Gonzalez, managed to overpower a Secret Service agent inside the North Portico entrance and run through the ceremonial East Room before he was tackled. The Secret Service came under criticism because in its initial account of the episode, officials indicated that Mr. Gonzalez had made it only steps inside the North Portico after running through the door. The fuller account emerged from Representative Jason Chaffetz, Republican of Utah and chairman of a subcommittee that investigated the breach. The National Capital Planning Commission recently approved plans for the Secret Service to install a stronger and higher perimeter fence around the White House. In 2015, the Secret Service added spikes to the top of the fence on the north and south sides of the grounds as a temporary deterrent. | 1 |
DATA FOR THE PEOPLEHow to Make Our Economy Work for YouBy Andreas Weigend Illustrated. 299 pp. Basic Books. $27. 99. THE ART OF INVISIBILITYThe World’s Most Famous Hacker Teaches You How to Be Safe in the Age of Big Brother and Big DataBy Kevin Mitnick with Robert Vamosi309 pp. Little, Brown Company. $28. Data is the new oil, and we humans are the wells. Our digital crude is a rich brew of mundane, everyday activities — our searches, texts and tweets — along with the GPS coordinates from our phones, the biometric information we share with fitness devices, even the IP addresses of our connected refrigerators. To the average person, this raw material is undetectable noise. But for organizations that know how to identify signals, there’s immense value in refining what has become an unlimited supply. Understanding what data we create, and how others exploit it, is vitally important. Soon, powerful algorithms and artificially intelligent systems will analyze our data to reach decisions about and for us: whether we qualify for a bank loan, whether we’re likely to commit a crime, whether we deserve an organ transplant. And unlike us, machines aren’t burdened with an emotional attachment to privacy. The popular old idea opens Andreas Weigend’s new book, “Data for the People,” an exhaustive and insightful look at how data is collected and used, often without our knowledge and almost always without our input. Weigend, the former chief scientist at Amazon, details the “social data” that emanates from billions of cameras, sensors and other devices, as well as social networks, online retailers and dating apps. Data refineries — those companies and people who turn our digital crude into profitable information — hunt for patterns, then sort us into buckets based on our behavior: what we might buy, what we’ll watch, whom we might fall in love with. As Weigend points out, this exchange benefits everyone: If we let ourselves be mined, we receive personalized recommendations, connections and deals. Yet there’s an imbalance of power. Companies make a lot of money from our data, and we have very little say in how it’s used. Weigend argues persuasively that in this “ ” world, we should give our data freely, but that we should expect certain protections in return. He advocates a set of rights to increase data refineries’ transparency and to increase our own agency in how information is used. Companies like OkCupid, WeChat and Spotify should perform data safety audits, submit to privacy ratings and calculate a score based on the benefits they provide — a sort of credit score for the companies that mine our data. Meanwhile, we should have the right to amend, blur and import or export our own data into any system we please. Not everyone believes that our information should be freely available as long as we agree to the terms of use. In “The Art of Invisibility,” the internet security expert Kevin Mitnick advocates the opposite. Mitnick notes various reasons we may want to hide our data: We’re wary of the government we don’t want businesses intruding into our lives we have a mistress we are the mistress we’re a criminal. Mitnick, who served five years in prison for hacking into corporate networks and stealing software, offers a sobering reminder of how our raw data — from email, cars, home networks and so on — makes us vulnerable. He describes basic privacy protections (using a strong password, avoiding public computers) along with more advanced techniques (encrypting files on a hard drive, using a VPN and Bitcoin for online purchases). Most will seem familiar and perhaps rudimentary to those with any technical savvy. For everyone else, he offers an uncomfortable view of how data can be exploited. Both books are meant to scare us, and the central theme is privacy: Without intervention, they suggest, we’ll come to regret today’s inaction. I agree, but the authors miss the real horror show on the horizon. The future’s fundamental infrastructure is being built by computer scientists, data scientists, network engineers and security experts just like Weigend and Mitnick, who do not recognize their own biases. This encodes an urgent flaw in the foundation itself. The next layer will be just a little off, along with the next one and the one after that, as the problems compound. Right now, humans and machines engage in “supervised learning. ” Experts “teach” the system by labeling an initial data set once the computer reaches basic proficiency, they let it try sorting data on its own. If the system makes an error, the experts correct it. Eventually, this process yields highly sophisticated algorithms capable of refining and using our personal data for a variety of purposes: automatically sorting spam out of your inbox, say, or recommending a show you’ll like on Netflix. Then, building on this foundation of data and algorithms, more teaching and learning takes place. But human bias creeps into computerized algorithms in disconcerting ways. In 2015, Google’s photo app mistook a black software developer for a gorilla in photos he uploaded. In 2016, the Microsoft chatbot Tay went on a homophobic, rampage after just one day of interactions on Twitter. Months later, reporters at ProPublica uncovered how algorithms in police software discriminate against black people while mislabeling white criminals as “low risk. ” Recently when I searched “C. E. O. ” on Google Images, the first woman listed was C. E. O. Barbie. Data scientists aren’t inherently racist, sexist, or homophobic. But they are human, and they harbor unconscious biases just as we all do. This comes through in both books. In Mitnick’s, women appear primarily in anecdotes and always as unwitting, jealous or angry. Near the end, Mitnick describes trying to enter Canada from Michigan, and wonders if he’s stopped “because a Middle Eastern guy with only a green card was driving. ” (He might be right, but he doesn’t allow for the possibility that his own criminal record could also be responsible.) Weigend’s book is meticulously researched, yet nearly all the experts he quotes are men. Early on he tells the story of Latanya Sweeney, who in the 1990s produced a now famous study of anonymized public health data in Massachusetts. She proved that the data could be traced back to individuals, including the governor himself. But Sweeney is far better known for something Weigend never mentions: She’s the Harvard professor who discovered that — because of her name — she was appearing in Google ads for criminal records and background checks. Weigend could have cited her to address bias in the second of his six rights, involving the integrity of a refinery’s social data ecosystem. But he neglects to discuss the sexism, racism, xenophobia and homophobia in the infrastructure. The omission of women and people of color from something as benign as book research illustrates the real challenge of unconscious bias in data and algorithms. Weigend and Mitnick rely only on what’s immediate and familiar — an unfortunately common practice in the data community. University computer science, math and physics departments lack diversity in staff and coursework. Corporate data science is homogeneous. So are professional and academic conferences, where the future of data is discussed. If the people mining and processing our data are nothing like us, and if the machines learn only from them, our data can yield only warped caricatures, like the zombies you see on TV. As a futurist, I try to figure out how your data will someday power things like artificially intelligent cars, doctors and robot security agents. That’s why I found both books concerning. Think of all the characteristics that make up who you are: how much coffee you drink, how fast you drive, how often you open your refrigerator, your respiratory rate, what slang you use, the random strangers you’ve friended on Facebook. You may look like Weigend and Mitnick and therefore may not have experienced algorithmic discrimination yet. You, too, should be afraid. We’ve only recently struck oil. | 1 |
Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy ( ) responded to a report by The Washington Post that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had met with Russians officials and did not disclose those meetings during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. McCarthy said Sessions should clarify any meetings with Russian officials and that he should recuse himself if appropriate. However, he went on to say he didn’t see anything “very serious” regarding the matter given Sessions was acting in his role as a U. S. Senator. Partial transcript as follows: SCARBOROUGH: What’s your reaction to the Jeff Sessions news? Should the Attorney General recuse himself from any investigation moving forward on Russia? REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY ( ) MAJORITY LEADER: Well, I think Sessions, the little clip I just saw listening to you, said he would recuse himself going forward. But I think I’m just now reading about this myself. I could see in his role of Senator, yes, meeting with different ambassadors. I just think he needs to clarify what these meetings were and when did he have them. BRZEZINSKI: If you had a meeting with the Russian Ambassador and you were supporting a campaign that was swirling with questions about Russia, would you disclose that you had that meeting? MCCARTHY: Well, in this role, we meet with Ambassadors all the time. BRZEZINSKI: Exactly. MCCARTHY: Yes, you just say, and at a convention, ambassadors all come to both conventions and they try to get as many members as come through and just say hi. I imagine that’s kind of a big room. You’re really not meeting with one per se. BRZEZINSKI: . MCCARTHY: I don’t see anything very serious in terms, I mean, by the standpoint that there’s an internal meeting here. But I just think he needs to clarify from what I read in the paper right now. SCARBOROUGH: Mark? MARK HALPERIN, MSNBC SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: He didn’t say he would recuse, he is recusing himself. He said if it comes appropriate to recuse, kind of in a (INAUDIBLE) way but, so let me ask you, do you think he should recuse himself from this investigation given this now disclosed meeting? MCCARTHY: I think the trust of the American people you recuse yourself in these situations, yes. HALPERIN: He should, you would urge him to recuse himself? MCCARTHY: I don’t have all the information in front of me. I don’t want to . But I just think for any investigation going forward, you want to make sure everybody trusts the investigation — HALPERIN: Yeah. MCCARTHY: It’s just easier — HALPERIN: Does that require his recusal, Congressman? MCCARTHY: I think it would be easier from that standpoint, yes. Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor | 1 |
Speaking to workers and business people in Italy’s port city of Genoa Saturday, Pope Francis surprised his hearers by praising entrepreneurship and touting the importance of healthy businesses for the economy. [“There can’t be a good economy without good businessmen, without their capacity to create and to produce,” he said, shattering his reputation as an enemy of the free market economy. The Pope met with “representatives of the world of work,” including businessmen, workers and unemployed persons at the Ilva steel plant in Genoa Saturday, fielding their questions and reflecting with them on a Christian view of the economy. The Pope recognized that the essential value of work and employment is only possible when companies are sound and successful. Moreover, only an economically healthy society can keep a democracy afloat, he suggested. “The world of work is a human priority,” Francis said, “and it’s also a priority for the pope. There’s always been a friendship between the church and work, starting with Jesus, who was a worker. ” “When work is weakened, it’s democracy that enters into crisis,” he said. “There’s a social compact. ” Without denouncing unemployment benefits, Francis insisted that state intervention wasn’t a real solution. “A monthly check from the state that allows you to keep the family afloat doesn’t solve the problem. It has to be resolved with work for everyone,” he said. The Pope went on to underscore differences between healthy entrepreneurship and financial “speculation,” the latter of which he called both dangerous and unethical. “A sickness of the economy is the progressive transformation of business people into speculators,” Francis said. “A speculator is a figure similar to what Jesus in the gospels called ‘ ’ as opposed to good shepherds. ” Like a hired hand, Francis mused, a speculator “doesn’t love his company or his workers, since they are merely a means for making profits. He has no problem firing people, closing a factory or relocating the company,” because he doesn’t care about his workers but uses them simply as a means for increasing his profits. Francis also said that when competition goes too far and affects the internal life of a company, it becomes . “The accent on competition, beyond being an anthropological and Christian error, is an economic error because it forgets that a company is above all about cooperation,” he said. “When it’s a system of individual incentives that puts workers into competition among themselves, you can obtain some advantages, but it ends up ruining the trust that’s the soul of any organization,” the Pope argued. “When a crisis comes, the company falls apart. It implodes, because there’s no longer any harmony. ” This isn’t the first time that Pope Francis has shocked pundits by pointing out the important values of a free market economy. In his historic address to the joint session of the U. S. Congress in September, 2015, the Pope took advantage of the occasion to instruct politicians on the importance of wealth creation for lifting the poor out of poverty. The Pope chose to hold up members of the middle class as an example to all and praising the U. S. free market system. Dashing the predictions of the pundits who prophesied that the Pope would “probably discuss American capitalism’s flaws” in his words to Congress, he actually did the opposite. Comparing the men and women of Congress to the biblical figure of Moses, he reminded them of the importance of the simple, industrious people who make America great. The Pope said that it is “the many thousands of men and women who strive each day to do an honest day’s work, to bring home their daily bread, to save money and — one step at a time — to build a better life for their families” who “sustain the life of society. ” These men and women “generate solidarity by their actions, and they create organizations which offer a helping hand to those most in need,” he said. The Pope’s most remarkable words came when speaking about the ability of the free market to lift people out of poverty. In the fight against poverty, Francis said, it “goes without saying that part of this great effort is the creation and distribution of wealth. The right use of natural resources, the proper application of technology and the harnessing of the spirit of enterprise are essential elements of an economy which seeks to be modern, inclusive and sustainable. ” “Business is a noble vocation,” the Pope continued, “directed to producing wealth and improving the world. It can be a fruitful source of prosperity for the area in which it operates, especially if it sees the creation of jobs as an essential part of its service to the common good. ” Time and time again Pope Francis has shown that he is more complex and unpredictable than both his critics and his boosters suppose. While focusing his attention on helping the poor, he has also suggested that the free market system may be the best instrument to do just that. Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome | 1 |
There is more you can do with fallen leaves than just rake them up or jump in them. Leaves have multiple beneficial purposes in the yard and garden. Don’t miss out on this sustainable garden treat!
Compost
Leaves are the perfect carbon ingredient for your compost pile. Layer dead leaves in between all the green garden debris you find as you gather as you clean up the garden and prep it for winter. If you shred the leaves first, they will decompose even faster. You don’t even need a compost pile or bin! There are many town and city waste disposal sites that will gladly compost your leaves for you and put the final product out for residents.
Leaf Mold
If you have a lot of dead leaves, leaf mold is a great option. It does miraculous things to your garden! It is a crumbly, compost-like product that remains when leaves are left to decompose on their own.
Leaf mold improves soil structure, which greatly improves the soil’s water holding capability. It also attracts beneficial organisms who are important in maintaining healthy soil.
All you have to do is rake up your leaves into a pile and let them rot. So easy! The more compact the pile, the faster your leaves will decompose. You can also contain your leaves in a bin or any other composting contraption.
Mulch
Leaves make an excellent attractive mulch, suppressing weeds and eventually decomposing and feeding the soil. When using leaves for mulch, it is a good idea to shred them first. Placing a thick layer of wet leaves over you garden soil will block water and air from getting through the soil which isn’t what you want. Yet when shredded, the leaves will form an airy cushion that slowly settles in and settles down. This makes perfect mulch!
If you live in an area that gets windy in the fall, hose your leaves down when you first shred them. This will help them stay in place.
Amend Your Soil
Add your leaves directly into your soil. Soil is constantly in flux and you can never have enough soil amendments. Leaves make a great alternative to buying bags of manure. It’s a lot cheaper too!
Shred the leaves first and either turn them into the top few inches of soil or simply spread a layer of leaves on top of the soil and chop them a bit with a fork or spade. Be sure they are making good contact with the soil and watch nature work its wonders!
The leaves will disintegrate and create a great habitat for earthworms and other beneficial organisms that reside in your garden soil.
Insulation
Leaves can be used to insulate tender plants and even cold storage vegetables. Circle your plants or planted containers with wire fencing and stuff leaves around your plant. In the spring, rake them up and toss them in the compost. Double use!
If you have a root cellar or storage basement, use dry leaves to layer your vegetables in, instead of saw dust or newspaper. This will help your veggies easily last through the winter. | 0 |
Earlier this month, a couple of inventive young at BuzzFeed tied enough rubber bands around the center of a watermelon to make it explode. Nearly a million people watched the giant berry burst on Facebook Live. It racked up more than 10 million views in the days that followed. Traditional journalists everywhere saw themselves as the seeds, flying out of the frame. How do we compete with that? And if that’s the future of news and information, what’s next for our democracy? President Kardashian? Grandkids: It was not so long ago — oh, say, five, maybe six years — that traditional news organizations like this one could laugh at BuzzFeed’s gag along with everyone else, smugly secure. An exploding watermelon was just an exploding watermelon. These days, however, news articles — be they about war, voting rights, the arts or immigration policy — increasingly inhabit social media feeds like the frighteningly dominant one that Facebook runs. They are competing for attention against zany kitchen experiments your friend’s daughter’s bat mitzvah and that wild video of a train whipping through a ridiculously narrow alleyway in Thailand. After watching the fruiticide, I noticed a Twitter post by the freelance journalist Erik Malinowski that read, “the watermelon … is us,” and sighed. Seemed about right. The sense of dread was compounded a few hours later, when the website Mashable, which first came to prominence covering Internet businesses and culture, appeared to pare back an ambitious effort to prove that serious world and political news could thrive alongside “Grumpy Cat. ” Mashable announced that as part of a reorganization it was shedding several highly regarded journalists, including its executive editor, Jim Roberts, a former assistant managing editor at The New York Times. Look out, White House, I thought, here comes Kimye. Then, sweet relief (or was it? ): The Financial Times reported that BuzzFeed — which is best known for hits like the watermelon video, though its news team wins awards — missed its financial targets last year and was revising this year’s projections downward. BuzzFeed, which does not disclose its finances, denied the report, saying this year will meet expectations. But traditional newsrooms everywhere were reveling in the schadenfreude just the same. Aha! Perhaps random snapshots of callipygian Corgis do not a business model make news as we know it is safe. Well, not really. We may not yet be the watermelon. But executives who run news organizations almost universally say that we’d all better find our own watermelons — and find them yesterday. It means big changes are coming fast in the way major news institutions present their journalism, what that journalism includes, and how decisions are made about what to include. The goal: to draw big, addicted audiences. A lot of it is being done in the rushed panic that comes with the demands of quarterly earnings. And yet, given the highest calling of the news industry — hold politicians to account, unearth corruption — the importance to our political and civic life could not be greater. A good way to understand the thinking is to check in on people who are trying to build a news and information business from scratch. I did that last week over breakfast with Jim VandeHei, a of Politico, and Mike Allen, one of the site’s journalists. Both are also veterans of The Washington Post. Mr. VandeHei, who stepped down last week as Politico’s chief executive, and Roy Schwartz, the company’s departing chief revenue officer, have been seeking potential investors and video and television partners. Mr. Allen is for the time being continuing to write his vital morning tip sheet at Politico, “Playbook,” seven days a week. When I met with Mr. VandeHei and Mr. Allen, they were about their next venture. They would only describe it in the broadest terms, as “a media company” that will focus on news and information, exist largely on mobile devices and social media, and not directly compete against Politico. But that was O. K. for my purposes. I was more interested in hearing what this venture wouldn’t be doing. Their answers may require a trigger warning for the proudly set. It starts with Mr. VandeHei’s admittedly provocative proposition that “journalists are killing journalism. ” They’re doing this, he says, by “stubbornly clinging to the old ways. ” That’s defined as producing 50 competing but nearly identical stories about a presidential candidate’s latest speech, or updates on the transportation budget negotiations. Survival, Mr. VandeHei says, depends on giving readers what they really want, how they want it, when they want it, and on not spending too much money producing what they don’t want. It’s not only about creating big audiences for advertisers, he and Mr. Allen said. It’s about convincing audiences that they want what you’re producing, and they want it so badly that they will pay for it through subscriptions. That’s essential as advertising revenue drops to levels that will not support robust news gathering. Hooking people on your news product is a lot harder than, say, hooking them on heroin or even coffee. But news organizations have ways they never had before to figure it out. Through analytics, reporters and editors know how many people are reading their work and through which devices and sites, how long those readers are sticking with it, and what they’re ignoring. Screens featuring these analytics are increasingly showing up, prominently, in American newsrooms, including those of The New York Times and The Washington Post. This is the biggest and least talked about development in traditional print media as it converts to digital: It now has ratings, just as television does. The findings from these ratings have been fairly consistent. Videos, podcasts, short items of interest that can be read easily on smartphones, and almost anything with the words “Donald Trump” rate well. Perhaps counterintuitively, deeply reported features and investigative pieces like The Times’s coverage of ISIS’ brutality or its nearly article about one man’s lonely death in Queens can draw readership levels that were never possible in the era. That’s a big deal, and in Mr. VandeHei’s and Mr. Allen’s view — as well as those of the bosses at The Times, The Post and elsewhere — it shows that big, important work will prove more valuable than fun stunts that may or may not draw big online audiences. What do not necessarily rate well, however, are the (often important if sometimes unsexy) articles about yesterday’s doings — or, nondoings — at the Federal Election Commission, or the latest federal budget fight. “We didn’t know if, in a newspaper, people were reading our piece on the transportation markup on A10 — now we do,” Mr. VandeHei said. “I’m not saying you let the audience dictate everything, but a smart, aggressive, media company is going to write what it thinks is important and its audience thinks is important. ” This is talk you hear in newsrooms across the country, and it’s where there is some cause for concern. Those drier articles may not score in the ratings, but they can lead to the bigger ones. Watergate started as a story about a burglary. The sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church that The Boston Globe exposed — captured in the movie “Spotlight” — began as a column about a single priest. Once ratings come into the picture, will reporters still want to pursue those smaller stories? And will their editors, who once called these stories “spinach,” want to publish them? The answer from Mr. VandeHei and news executives is yes, but it’s incumbent upon news organizations to do a better job with them — make them shorter and more distinctive, with data and striking visual presentation. Understood. All I’m asking is that we be careful not to lose too many core values on our way to the future. Otherwise, it’s watermelon flambé at the Kardashian inauguration, and yes, we’re the watermelon. | 1 |
28. Oktober 2016 Jekaterina Iwanowa 30 Prozent der befragten deutschen Unternehmen in Russland bezeichnen das Geschäftsklima als leicht verbessert und mehr als die Hälfte rechnet optimistisch mit Wachstum im Jahr 2017. Dieses Ergebnis liefert eine gerade präsentierte Umfrage der Deutsch-Russischen Auslandshandelskammer.
Quelle: Deutsch-Russische Auslandshandelskammer | 0 |
By Headly Westerfield on Fri, Oct 28th, 2016 at 10:20 pm As Megyn Kelly garners headlines for her feminism or lack thereof, Rupert Murdoch seems desperate to keep her. Share on Twitter Print This Post
Earlier this week Friday Fox Follies , under the assumption the explosive , and bizarre battle between Megyn Kelly and Newt Gingrich, would be this week’s lede , I had already tricked up an opening paragraph. In case you missed it , that’s when he got personal , accused her of being obsessed by sex and she told him that he should work on his anger issues . This week’s column would have been about how the Fox audience continues to splinter as they take sides in the presidential election. The NYT calls ’em Megyn Moments ; I call them fissures in what had been assumed to be the bedrock foundation of the Fox “News” Channel: it’s unthinking audience.
Then came word that Rupert Murdoch was playing hardball as Kelly’s contract negotiations break out into the open. That paragraph, lovingly crafted, went out the window. But, let’s see what this fight was about because heat is always better than light for ratings, as Trump Congratulates Newt Gingrich For Getting His Butt Kicked By Megyn Kelly . Watch:
As Kelly garners headlines for her feminism or lack thereof , Rupert Murdoch seems desperate to keep her. Her contract expires next year and Rupie opened up to the Wall Street Journal — of which he is owner — to partially cajole Kelly and partially to threaten her into extending her contract. Million in Contract Talks With Fox News
“If they are going to make a network that is going to be a post-Ailes/post-Trump, it will be around Megyn Kelly, Chris Wallace and Shep Smith, and they are going to have to throw Hannity and O’Reilly overboard,” said Andrew Tyndall, a television-news consultant, of other hosts at the network. That isn’t going to happen, promised Mr. Murdoch. “We’re not changing direction…that would be business suicide,” he said. Mr. O’Reilly’s contract is also up at the end of next year, and Mr. Murdoch said, “we’re going to want Bill to stay with us.” Mr. Hannity’s contract isn’t up until 2020. Ms. Kelly has forged close ties to Mr. Murdoch’s sons, particularly Lachlan Murdoch, who is co-executive chairman of Fox and has taken an active role in contract talks, people close to the situation said.
Fox would like to settle this before the election and before Kelly’s book is released, both of which could only strengthen her position in the negotiations if all goes well.
From the The Power of Megyn Kelly’s Feminism—Even if She Doesn’t Call It That , by The Daily Beast’s Tim Teeman :
Imagine, then, her mix of satisfaction and maybe ennui as she scrolled across some of the praise-ridden screeds out today: “How Megyn Kelly Became an Improbable Feminist Icon” (Vanity Fair); “Megyn Kelly Has Become The Biggest Example of White Feminism At Work (Pajiba); and “Aw Crap—Here’s Proof That Megyn Kelly Is Kind of a Feminist Role Model Now” (The Stir). Note the grudging headlines. Because of Kelly’s employer, and because she has not fought the good feminist fight in a conventional, left-wing context throughout her career to date, the F-word mantle is being conferred upon her with something of a scowl. This, in itself, reveals a kind of blinkeredness on the part of Kelly’s critics: It is perfectly possible to work for a right-facing institution and not be 100 percent right wing yourself, or spout the prevailing dogma of the TV station you work for. (Full disclosure: I worked for The Times of London, a British, Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper, for over 13 years.)
Aside from the fact that when she tilts Right, she tends to tilt alt-right, the biggest knock on Kelly is that she’s too hard-edged. Marshall McLuhan spoke of the Medium Cool of tee vee, but Kelly comes across as the opposite of warm and fuzzy . This makes her less attractive to other networks. She’s hoping to change that impression when she co-hosts Live with Kelly Ripa (The Kelly & Kelly Show?) the morning after the election . Think of her as a designated hitter, trying to knock Murdoch’s hardball right out of the park.
STILL WATTERS STILL: A few weeks back FFF reported on a racist Watters World in which the White Privileged Pencil-Necked Geek made fun of Asians. This week Asian American groups meet with Fox News personnel over awful Jesse Watters segment :
Paul Cheung, president of AAJA, told the Erik Wemple Blog that the meeting was “productive.” “I think they heard what the community’s reactions are,” he said of the session at New York’s Museum of Chinese in America. Approximately 130 Asian American “groups and allies” have signed an open letter to Fox News regarding the unfortunate episode, said Cheung. Ron Kim, a New York state assemblyman in attendance, told this blog that a representative from “The O’Reilly Factor” and a senior representative from the news side of the channel attended the meeting. Together they played a “good cop, bad cop” routine, said Kim. “The gentleman from O’Reilly’s show was defending what they were doing and trying to explain that this is a part of the opinion section of Fox News and sometimes edgy humor can go too far,” said Kim. Once again, the specter of Fox News’s vaunted news-opinion divide presents itself. As we’ve noted before, this is a convention borrowed from the newspaper industry to justify Fox News hosts such as Sean Hannity openly campaigning for Donald Trump, Steve Doocy of the morning show “Fox & Friends” spreading harmful innuendo into the public square … and O’Reilly allowing his protege to spread racist stereotypes all about Chinatown. | 0 |
TRAL, Kashmir — They hide in the forest, emerging occasionally to lure police officers into villages where they try to kill them with explosive devices. They steal weapons from the security forces. Then they disappear back among the trees. They are members of Hizbul Mujahedeen, a militant group that has emerged as the face of the independence movement in Kashmir, the Himalayan region that was subsumed into India when it shook off colonial rule in 1947 and that remains at the center of the country’s dispute with neighboring Pakistan. Relatively few in number, about 200, roughly half of them from local villages, Hizbul Mujahedeen is the larger of two militant organizations and has widespread support from a populace that has lost faith in dialogue to resolve differences with the Indian government. “They are adored,” said Sridhar Patil, the head of the regional police in Kulgam district, where crowds have burned a courthouse and a police station. “The younger generation of Kashmir is searching for a good leader, a good role model,” he said, and it has settled, for better or worse, on these young men. Daily life in Kashmir has come close to a standstill since July, when Indian security forces killed the leader of the local militancy, Burhan Muzaffar Wani, who had attracted a broad following through videos he posted on Facebook and WhatsApp. He started the trend of young, charismatic militants, dressed in military fatigues and carrying assault weapons, revealing their names and faces on social media in efforts to spread their message to a wide audience. The killing of Mr. Wani touched off four months of violence, including bombings, shootouts and attacks by youths, as well as protests by tens of thousands of people. In a lengthy interview, the young man’s father, Mohammad Muzafar Wani, said he had tried hard to influence the path of his son, a handsome youth who gelled his hair and changed his outfits twice a day, preferring to traditional kurtas. But in 2010, three weeks after Burhan and his older brother were beaten up by security forces, the brainy boy who got top grades at school dropped the original plan to train as a doctor and instead joined Hizbul Mujahedeen. “He was not a small child I couldn’t have confined him to home,” his father said. “I could have stopped him for a day or two, but not all days. ” The Kashmir police have counted 2, 400 clashes since July. Schools remain closed, more than 30 of them burned, and public transportation is almost entirely shut down. The state’s education minister was holed up in his home for days after receiving a threat. people have been killed in the violence, the police in Kashmir say, while local activists put the toll at closer to 100. At least a thousand protesters have been struck in the eyes by pellets fired by police officers, and some have been blinded. Kashmir, part of India’s only state, Jammu and Kashmir, was promised some measure of and autonomy after India was partitioned and Pakistan was formed. That promise was not fulfilled, and since then, India and Pakistan have fought two border wars over the region and have assembled nuclear arsenals. A violent secession movement arose in Kashmir in the late 1980s, as thousands of militants spilled over the border from Pakistan. India responded by moving tens of thousands of troops into the scenic Kashmir valley and slowly crushing the uprising. Still, the independence movement persisted, giving rise every few years to violence and protests. Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India made overtures to Pakistan early in his tenure that rekindled hopes for a resolution of Kashmir’s future. But he has made no public moves to restart discussions over the region. “Is people’s confidence in dialogue shaken? Yes, it is,” said Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a founder of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, a coalition of separatist groups. The young men who have joined the Kashmir militancy grew up in a militarized land where they were routinely stopped and searched by security forces, and at times brutally beaten, their families say. Mr. Wani’s older brother, Khalid, did not join the insurgency, even after the two were beaten by the security forces. Nevertheless, he was the first to be killed. In 2015, he was shot after delivering a meal to his brother and his comrades, his father said. The older Mr. Wani, 54, the principal of a government high school in the valley, said he was now focused on trying to keep his only surviving son, Naveed, from following his brother’s deadly path into the militancy. “My life is in him,” Mr. Wani said, looking over at the lean, bearded teenager who gave monosyllabic answers to visitors’ questions. The current rebel commander, Zakir Rashid Bhat, 22, went through many of the same experiences as his predecessor, said his father, Abdul Rashid Bhat, 56, an assistant government engineer. Mr. Bhat said his son was arrested and jailed in 2010 for pelting security forces with stones. Mr. Bhat said he had tried to broker a deal with the police to bring back his son, then 16, who was hiding in another part of the state, in return for leniency. But not only did the police throw the son in jail for several days until a court granted him bail, they also opened several criminal cases, accusing him of violence and of destroying government property, his father and the Kashmir police say. The rebel commander’s older brother, Dr. Shakir Rashid Bhat, 32, an orthopedic surgeon in the Kashmiri city of Srinagar, tried to explain why his sibling had joined the militancy. “The experience of seeing his father begging police for mercy changed him,” he said. “It was humiliating. ” In 2012 and 2013, even as Zakir attended an engineering college in another state, he had to return to Kashmir every few months for court hearings. Then, in July 2013, one month into his summer vacation, he disappeared, leaving a note saying that his parents should not look for him and that he was at peace with himself and with his God, his father said. Mr. Bhat said his son had left his iPhone, his iPad and cards for his family’s three bank accounts, taking nothing except the pants and he was wearing. In retrospect, the father said, the only clue to his son’s radicalization was an increased interest in religion in the days before he left. The youth, whose major passion had previously been his Yamaha motorcycle, suddenly began accompanying his father to the mosque each day during the holy month of Ramadan. On a recent Saturday morning, only hours after an explosive device went off a few miles from the brick house where Zakir grew up, a security officer was on the phone with his father, telling him his son was the prime suspect. Three police officers had been wounded, one critically. Mr. Bhat, a stocky man who was wearing a brown woolen cape and sitting on the floor of his living room when the call came through, sounded despondent at times as he responded again and again that he had no idea of his son’s whereabouts. “If you want to kill me, kill me,” he told the officer. “If that ensures safety to your country, do it. ” A few miles away, in another village in the Tral area, several dozen children and young men played cricket in a field adjoining the graveyard where Mr. Wani is buried. They stopped playing when visitors arrived. A boy in a blue cape, Muneeb Shah, began leading the crowd in a cheer, egged on by his father, a shawl merchant. “What do we want?” the boy shouted. “Azaadi,” the group responded, using the Urdu word for freedom. “For the sake of Burhan,” the boy called out next, going down the list of dead militants, one by one. Local people say dozens show up at the graveyard each day to pay tribute to Mr. Wani, some carrying away clumps of mud from the mound of grass covering his grave. Security officials worry that the glamorization of militant leaders might draw a larger number of young people into the fold. The police are trying to counter the appeal, in part by aggressively tracking down the leaders and the new recruits. But it is hard to make arrests because the militants operate in the forests around the villages where they grew up. When the police close in, crowds of people rush to the scene and try to stop the security forces by throwing rocks, yelling chants and generally interfering, knowing the officers will resist shooting at them. “From the front side you are fighting the militants, and from the back side you are getting hit by stones,” said Mr. Patil, the police chief. | 1 |
Joseph A. Wapner, a California judge who became a widely recognized symbol of tough but American jurisprudence during the 12 years he sat on the bench of the syndicated television show “The People’s Court,” died on Sunday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 97. His son David confirmed the death, The Associated Press said. Judge Wapner had served for 20 years on the California Municipal and Superior Courts before becoming the occasionally irascible, highly watchable star of “The People’s Court,” a daytime series on which plaintiffs and defendants from California small claims courts would argue their cases before him. A decorated veteran of World War II, Judge Wapner ran his television courtroom from the show’s debut in 1981 to the end of its original run in 1993 with stern, mesmerizing discipline, cutting off onscreen complainants who displeased him and threatening to levy unspecified penalties on those who dared to interrupt him. But Judge Wapner’s reasoned verdicts, in disputes over missing pets, encroaching fences or botched hairdos, were difficult to argue with. And his evenhanded hearings of cases in which mere pocket change was at stake let millions of viewers know that no matter how seemingly insignificant their legal disputes, they, too, were entitled to their day in court. “People think I’m kind and considerate, and that I listen and evaluate, and give each party a chance to talk,” Judge Wapner said in an interview just as “The People’s Court” was becoming a nationwide hit. “The public’s perception of judges seems to be improving because of what I’m doing, and that makes me happy. ” Born on Nov. 15, 1919, in Los Angeles, Joseph Albert Wapner graduated in 1937 from Hollywood High School, where he briefly dated the future film actress Lana Turner, and in 1941 from the University of Southern California, where he received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy. During World War II, he served with the Army in the Pacific and was wounded by sniper fire on Cebu Island in the Philippines, leaving him with shrapnel in his left foot. He received the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star for his bravery and was honorably discharged in 1945. After earning his law degree from the University of Southern California in 1948, Judge Wapner worked in private practice as a lawyer for nearly a decade, until Gov. Edmund G. Brown of California appointed him to a judgeship in Los Angeles municipal court in 1959. Two years later, Judge Wapner was elected presiding judge of the city’s vast Superior Court system, in which he supervised some 200 fellow judges. “I was the only Jew who’d ever been elected,” he said in a 1982 interview, “and I don’t know when there’ll be another. ” Of the numerous cases Judge Wapner heard before his retirement from the bench in 1979, perhaps the most notorious was the divorce trial of the California sports tycoon Jack Kent Cooke and his first wife, Jeannie Carnegie. The $49 million settlement that Ms. Carnegie ultimately received would earn an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records. But the full measure of Judge Wapner’s celebrity was not realized until 1981, when he was approached by the television producer Ralph Edwards, the creator of “Truth or Consequences” and “This Is Your Life,” to officiate on a new show, loosely inspired by daytime legal dramas like “Divorce Court” but involving actual litigants arguing actual cases. At his audition for “The People’s Court,” Judge Wapner was asked to hear an argument between a petite woman and her boyfriend, a professional football player. When the diminutive plaintiff finished her testimony, Judge Wapner saw the hulking defendant approaching her, and he unflinchingly instructed the man to sit down. The producers knew they had found their judge. Joined by a host, Doug Llewelyn, and Rusty Burrell, a bailiff who had served in the trials of Charles Manson and Patricia Hearst, Judge Wapner deposed such unusual petitioners as a female oil wrestler who confessed to punching a competitor in the nose (she was ordered to pay $5, 000 in damages and was later prosecuted in a criminal trial) and a woman who refused to pay an advertised reward for her missing dog to claimants who had brought her the dog’s remains (she was told she did not have to pay them). Judge Wapner became such a trusted figure that in 1986, he agreed to oversee the disbursement of a settlement awarded to a group of 141 families in the Fullerton, Calif. area, who sued development groups and oil companies for not warning them that an abandoned refinery dump near their homes was potentially hazardous. A poll conducted by The Washington Post in 1989 found that while of those surveyed could not name any of the nine justices on the United States Supreme Court, 54 percent could identify Judge Wapner as the judge of “The People’s Court. ” That same year, a study published by the National Center for State Courts found that caseloads for small claims courts across the country had nearly doubled and largely attributed that increase to the show’s influence. “The People’s Court” ceased production in 1993, but Judge Wapner returned to television in 1998 as the magistrate of “Judge Wapner’s Animal Court,” a series on the Animal Planet cable channel. By that time, he had numerous competitors and imitators, including former Mayor Edward I. Koch of New York, who hosted a resurrected “People’s Court” from 1997 to 1999, as well as Judith Sheindlin, a former Manhattan family court judge, who since 1996 has presided over another television courtroom as “Judge Judy. ” Judge Sheindlin’s husband, Jerry, a former New York State Supreme Court judge, replaced Mr. Koch on “The People’s Court” and was in turn replaced in 2001 by Marilyn Milian, a former Florida Circuit Court judge, who has presided there ever since. Judge Sheindlin, whose show has long been one of the highest rated on daytime television, has freely acknowledged the inspirational debt she owes to Judge Wapner. “All the judges watched Judge Wapner,” she told Larry King in 2005. “All America at one point or another watched Judge Wapner. ” (Judge Wapner was not as kind to Judge Sheindlin, criticizing her in interviews for her brusque, often angry courtroom demeanor.) So many courtroom shows have been introduced since Judge Wapner’s initial success that in 2008, the Daytime Emmy Awards created a separate category: outstanding program. Besides his son David, survivors include his wife, Mickey, and another son, Frederick, a judge on the Superior Court of Los Angeles. In addition to being a television star, Judge Wapner was a vocal advocate for the California judiciary. In 2005, he appeared in a series of television commercials opposing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Proposition 77, which would have given the power to draw legislative and congressional districts to a panel of three retired judges, and which voters rejected at the polls. “Judges should decide legal disputes,” Judge Wapner said in one of the ads. “Judges should not make law. ” In November 2009, Judge Wapner observed his 90th birthday by returning to “The People’s Court” to try a case. That same month he received a rare honor for a judge: a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. | 1 |
Posted on October 27, 2016 by Melissa Dykes
This. Is. Horrifying.
In another Wikileaks email , this time from Chairman of the National Jewish Democratic Council Marc Stanley to Hillary campaign chairman John Podesta dated February 11, 2016, Stanley lays out his best argument for why voters should choose Hillary over Bernie…
(click to enlarge)
He writes:
I tell the voter that I like Bernie and I like Hillary, but that’s not what matters. What matters to me is that there are 4 justices on the Supreme Court who will be in their 80’s and be replaced by the next president – and that President will appoint 40 year old Justices and they will serve for 30 or 40 years.
He goes on to say that voters shouldn’t want Republicans making decisions about issues like Obamacare, Citizens United, voter rights, etc. and that Bernie is “a 20-1 horse” versus Hillary as a “1-1 or even 2-1 horse”.
Can you imagine it? Hillary being able to personally nominate four out of nine Supreme Court justices for life ?
Hillary will own half the Supreme Court and for long after she’s gone.
That’s seven out of nine… or the entire Supreme Court, basically.
Think about that for a second. Just let it sink in. Melissa Dykes is a writer, researcher, and analyst for The Daily Sheeple and a co-creator of Truthstream Media with Aaron Dykes, a site that offers teleprompter-free, unscripted analysis of The Matrix we find ourselves living in. Melissa and Aaron also recently launched Revolution of the Method and Informed Dissent . Wake the flock up! Don't forget to follow the D.C. Clothesline on Facebook and Twitter. PLEASE help spread the word by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks. Share this: | 0 |
The Islamic State has formally taken responsibility for the slaughter at the Reina nightclub in Istanbul, issuing an unusually direct official statement that hailed the gunman as a “heroic soldier of the caliphate. ”[“In continuation of the blessed operations that Islamic State is conducting against the protector of the cross, Turkey, a heroic soldier of the caliphate struck one of the most famous nightclubs where the Christians celebrate their apostate holiday. He used hand grenades and a machine gun and transformed their celebration to mourning,” read the statement from the terror state, as translated by and the New York Times. “The apostate Turkish government should know that the blood of Muslims shed with airplanes and artillery fire will, with God’s permission, ignite a fire in their own land,” ISIS added, in an apparent reference to Turkey’s military operations in Syria. Although several terrorist attacks in Turkey have been blamed on the Islamic State, the New York Times notes it is rare for ISIS to formally claim responsibility for attacks in Turkey, possibly because it did not want to provoke the Turkish government into taking more severe actions against it. Turkey is now fighting both Kurdish militias and ISIS in Syria, announcing airstrikes on Monday that killed at least 22 ISIS fighters on Syrian soil. Leaders of the Kurdish separatists in Turkey, the PKK, condemned the nightclub attack, and insisted they had nothing to do with it. The attack on the Reina nightclub in Istanbul killed 39 and wounded 70 at last count. The Times reports 27 of slain victims were foreigners: “Seven victims came from Saudi Arabia Iraq and Lebanon each had three citizens among the dead India, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia each had two and Canada, Israel, Kuwait, Russia and Syria each had one. ” Heavy. com notes that ISIS began circulating a message on social media in December warning Muslims that “to celebrate New Year’s Eve with the kuffar is to embrace their idolatry and paganism and to shun the rulings of our Lord. ” Kuffar is a derogatory term for those who do not believe in Islam. “There is nothing to celebrate. The Gregorian calendar is rooted in kufr and blatantly ignores the lunar calendar and that introduced to follow the Hijrah of our honorable Prophet,” the Islamic State’s theologians insisted. | 1 |
by Matt Agorist
“It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.” – Joseph Stalin (allegedly)
One thing in US history is consistent throughout every single election cycle — allegations of voter fraud. These allegations, however, are not the ramblings of a kook with tinfoil wrapped around his head, they are substantiated and reach as high as the Supreme Court. Don’t believe it? Ask Al Gore and George W. Bush .
If you think that the ruling class would leave it up to the voters to decide who gets elected, you should think again. Every single candidate who actually challenges the status quo becomes a target.
This year is one of the worst years ever for voter fraud, as it’s been captured on video — multiple times.
Last Month, Hillary Clinton declared herself the winner of the Democratic Party in the much-anticipated Iowa caucuses. Immediately after the ‘victory,’ Clinton went on CNN to bask in her counterfeit fame.
“I am so thrilled,” Clinton told Wolf Blitzer in an interview Tuesday afternoon. “My luck was not that good last time around, and it was wonderful to win the caucus, to have that experience.”
However, fraud was so rampant that a C-SPAN video caught it. Clinton’s ‘victory’ would have nothing to do with ‘luck,’ and her premature declaration of the “razor thin” tie, was no mistake.
When campaign minions aren’t fudging the physical vote count, computers, tasked with tallying the vote, are susceptible to hacking.
In 2006, the documentary Hacking Democracy , exposed Diebold and their role in rigging elections with their electronic voting machines.
Clinton Eugene “Clint” Curtis is an American attorney, computer programmer and ex-employee of NASA and ExxonMobil, who also exposed election hacking.
He is notable chiefly for making a series of whistleblower allegations about his former employer and about Republican Congressman Tom Feeney, including an allegation that in 2000, Feeney and Yang Enterprises requested Curtis’s assistance in a scheme to steal votes by inserting fraudulent code into touch screen voting systems.
Curtis is seen in the video below testifying under oath in front of the U.S. House Judiciary Members in Ohio.
He tells the members how he was hired by Congressman Tom Feeney in 2000 to build a prototype software package that would secretly rig an election to sway the result 51/49 to a specified side.
After watching the video, you’ll know why true change is hard to come by.
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Contributed by The Free Thought Project of thefreethoughtproject.com .
The Free Thought Project is dedicated to holding those who claim authority over our lives accountable. | 0 |
Kenneth P. Thompson, the first black district attorney of Brooklyn and a voice for racial justice at a moment of tension between law enforcement and minority communities, died on Sunday from cancer, his family said. He was 50. Mr. Thompson was elected district attorney in 2013 after campaigning on a platform of reform and racial justice, and unseating Charles J. Hynes, a fellow Democrat and a troubled incumbent who had served more than 20 years. After being absent from his office for nearly two months, Mr. Thompson released a statement on Tuesday saying he had cancer. His office released a second statement on Sunday night, announcing his death and saying that his family had been by his side at Memorial Cancer Center in Manhattan when he died. A former federal prosecutor who went on to have a successful private law practice, Mr. Thompson earned a reputation in office as one of the country’s most progressive district attorneys, creating a robust internal unit that reviewed questionable convictions and establishing a policy of not prosecuting most marijuana arrests. At a moment of heightened racial tension over shootings, he chose to prosecute — and eventually won — the complicated case of Peter Liang, the former New York City police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man, Akai Gurley, in the stairwell of a housing project in 2014. After the trial was over, Mr. Thompson decided not to seek prison time for Mr. Liang, which enraged Mr. Gurley’s family and led to protests. “The thoughts and prayers of our entire city are with District Attorney Ken Thompson, his family and his loved ones tonight,” Mayor Bill de Blasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray, said in a statement on Sunday. “With a life and promise cut far too short, our city was blessed with but a glimpse of Ken’s unwavering commitment to justice and his unrivaled pursuit of a more fair system for all those he served. ” Born and raised in New York City, Mr. Thompson was the son of a police officer and lived in public housing in Harlem before moving to City, a housing development in the Bronx. He attended the city’s public schools and applied to the Police Department, as his mother had, before choosing instead to attend the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. After his graduation, he obtained a law degree from the New York University School of Law. On the advice of one of his law professors, Ronald K. Noble, a onetime Treasury Department official and the secretary general of Interpol, Mr. Thompson sought and found a position as a federal prosecutor in Brooklyn. In 1997, he was assigned the prestigious task of making the opening statement at the trial of Justin Volpe, a former police officer who eventually pleaded guilty to torturing a Haitian immigrant, Abner Louima, with a broken broomstick in the bathroom of a Brooklyn station house. After leaving government service, Mr. Thompson went into private practice. His most prominent case was representing an hotel housekeeper, Nafissatou Diallo, who accused the French politician Dominique of raping her in a Manhattan hotel room in 2011. Cyrus Vance Jr. the Manhattan district attorney, eventually dismissed the case, and Mr. Thompson was criticized for his incendiary personal attacks against Mr. Vance and members of his staff. Mr. Thompson had harbored ambitions for higher office, but, according to a friend who spoke on the condition of anonymity because Mr. Thompson declined to disclose the type of his cancer, learned he had an aggressive form of the disease this year. By the time he received the diagnosis, the cancer had already metastasized and was incurable. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo may now name a replacement for Mr. Thompson, who would have faced next year. “A lifelong New Yorker, Ken was known as an effective, aggressive civil rights leader — and a national voice for criminal justice reform,” Mr. Cuomo said in a statement on Sunday. Mr. Thompson is survived by his wife of 17 years, Thompson his children, Kennedy and Kenny his mother his father his brother and his sister. In his own statement, Eric Gonzalez, Mr. Thompson’s chief assistant, said that in his three years as Brooklyn’s district attorney, Mr. Thompson “transformed the office into a model urban prosecutor’s office with a mandate to do justice and treat everyone and every case fairly and with the utmost integrity. ” Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill said: “We are deeply saddened by the death of District Attorney Ken Thompson. He dedicated his life to the pursuit of justice and his legacy will live on through his contributions to the criminal justice system. ” | 1 |
Dr. Sebastian Gorka, deputy adviser to President Trump and former Breitbart News national security editor, echoed President Trump’s denunciation of the “witch hunt” against Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday’s Breitbart News Daily. [“The Democrats have lost touch with reality,” he said. “It’s not just fake news. It’s very fake news. The whole Russia story is a the Democrats cannot cope with, and their facilitators in the mainstream media, simply, psychologically, cannot cope with the reality that the American people didn’t choose Hillary Clinton. ” Gorka said they were using this “ of ties to Russia” as a “coping mechanism. ” “The fact that it’s the last administration that had the most disturbing ties to Russia — that’s what the newspapers should be reporting,” he said. SiriusXM host Alex Marlow noted that Gorka produced an extensive body of work for Breitbart News that was very far from “ . ” He worried that fake news stories about Russia controlling the Trump administration could interfere with the war against global jihadism, in which Russia is clearly a significant player, no matter what one thinks of the Putin regime. “I think that there are probably people, constituencies, forces that would like that to happen, but I can assure you, it will never happen,” Gorka replied. “I have to go back to the man who is the . There was, if you recall, I think it was his last press conference from Trump Tower when he turned the ground floor into a giant press conference facility. In the QA, they asked him bluntly, one of the reporters said, ‘So what about your links to Vladimir Putin? What about relations in the future with Moscow?’ And the president was unequivocal. He said, ‘Look, I’d like to be able to have good relations with Putin and the Kremlin. It doesn’t really look very likely, and if that’s the case, so be it. ’” “We are pragmatists. We’re not ideologues,” he declared. “My friend Monica Crowley said something very, very important: Our president must be understood as not an ideological candidate, our future president is an attitudinal one. That’s the important thing to understand. That attitude is about making America great again. That’s all we care about: national security and returning America to a place of leadership. The fake news will not be allowed to distort our understanding of the U. S. national interest and how we’re going to realize that for all Americans, whatever newspapers they read, Alex. ” Marlow asked which top priorities the White House feels are not receiving the coverage they deserve because the media is so busy with fake news attacks. “I think that the biggest ones remain the two versions of the Caliphate,” Gorka replied. “I love to quote the line that Bibi Netanyahu used in front of Congress where he said, ‘If you want to understand the Middle East, the chaos in the world today, it’s basically a Game of Thrones for who’s going to control and have the crown of the Caliphate. ’” “We focus on ISIS. We will obliterate ISIS, as the president said in his joint address. But there’s another version of the Caliphate, and that’s the Iranian version that they’ve been exporting, their theocratic version of the Caliphate that they’ve been exporting since 1979. That’s a very, very serious threat — especially if you look at how the last administration empowered Iran through billions of dollars, through the JCPOA, the Iran deal, and the threat of a nuclear Iran,” he said. “On top of that, there’s a subtler one, and that’s what has happened to the armed forces of America under the last eight years — the underfunding, the being thinly stretched, the operational tempo especially of our Tier 1 units,” he continued. “We are going to rebuild the military because if you don’t have strength, you can’t have peace. ” Marlow asked about reports that Iran is preparing for a weapons “shopping spree” after existing U. N. resolutions expires. “This is just another example of the ticking deadlines expiring on certain limits to what Iran can do,” Gorka said. “Here we have not quite a sanction, but it is a moratorium that will expire and allow the mullahs to access the technologies that they haven’t been able to do before. If you compare this to how they responded to the lifting of U. S. sanctions recently, or sanction measures — unfortunately, these things are all done in the expectation that there will be better behavior afterwards from Tehran, and in every single case, we’ve seen exactly the opposite. ” “We release the billions. We pay the ransoms. The pallets of cash are shipped over to Iran. What happens? Our naval vessels are harassed. There’s a ballistic missile test. Our friends are fired upon,” he said. “So again, the most important thing to understand here is not the idealistic attitudes of the multilateral institutions it’s that there are nations out there — Iran included — that are fundamentally powers, who do not share the same interests of America and her allies, who need to start toeing the line, and that’s why they were put on notice. We need to see better behavior out of Tehran before any similar measures are implemented, either multilaterally or unilaterally,” he declared. Marlow cited another recent report that suggested the Obama administration moved data from the investigation of alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russian government to a lower level of classification, to facilitate “easier sharing. ” He called this revelation “troubling and strange. ” “Well, it looks quite transparent,” Gorka said. “Just a matter of days before the Trump administration took control, there was a decision made inside the White House that certain special types of intelligence, certain types of signals intelligence, certain types of intelligence related to Russia could be promulgated, could be shared across the whole intelligence community in ways that had never been possible before. The reasoning for that is very, very hard to determine, unless there was some kind of political motivation. ” “Why, days before we come into office, after dozens and dozens of fake news reports about potential connections to Russia, would we wish to downgrade this information and make it more shareable across the intelligence community — unless you’re hoping that somehow it will leak and be used for political purposes?” he asked. “If you want to have an investigation on Russia, don’t look at AG Sessions look at the Obama administration’s decisions to do things like this,” he suggested, “because it smacks of a very, very dangerous thing: the politicization of intelligence. ” Marlow applauded the Trump White House’s firm stand with the United Nations, most recently with a demand for the Human Rights Council to end its “obsession with Israel. ” “We try to keep our promises,” Gorka said. “I think you’ll agree that the last six weeks have produced what in other administrations would have taken six months. ” He counted “dealing with the attitude of multilateral organizations like the U. N. ” as one of those rapid accomplishments. “We want to cooperate if it’s in the interests of the United States, but the constant bashing and the ideologically driven actions of individual states and states coming together in various committees of organizations like the United Nations to hammer again and again and again our closest ally in the Middle East is just unacceptable. It’s simply unacceptable,” Gorka stressed. “We have, as the president has said, an unbreakable bond with Israel, and the idea that they are in the crosshairs of the U. N. repeatedly, when around them you see true human rights abuses happening on a massive scale that the U. N. somehow forgets or doesn’t see — if you wish to see American leadership in the world again, assisting the United Nations to do the good that it was originally meant to do, then these kinds of, again, politically motivated attacks must decrease and hopefully stop,” he insisted. Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. LISTEN: | 1 |
When Coach Stephanie Gaitley is out recruiting for her Fordham women’s basketball team and sitting in the living rooms of potential players and their parents, she gives an unconventional spiel. Gaitley tries to sell the teenagers on taking extra classes when they arrive on campus, to go beyond the workload of even college students. Classes, classes and more classes. In basketball season and out. In summer, when their peers had gone home. Even at times that might interfere with working out. So many classes that the players can earn their undergraduate degrees in just three years — then come back for their fourth year and gorge on more classes, this time in graduate school, taking a drop step toward a master’s degree. “We use it as a recruiting tool,” Gaitley said. You can see why some players might find that tool to be more like a pitchfork. But Gaitley said she recruited athletes who find the prospect of being overworked appealing. “I kind of align myself with that type of kid because I overloaded my classes in college, too,” said Gaitley, who played at Villanova, graduated in 1982 and earned a master’s degree in education the next year. “I find myself magnetized to the high achievers. ” This year she has three especially high achievers who, for one reason or another, graduated from college early — and then kept going. Those players — Danielle Burns of Gainesville, Va. Hannah Missry of Manasquan, N. J. and Danielle Padovano of Dayton, N. J. — are in their fourth year at Fordham and bound to get their master’s degrees in media management by the fall. Burns, a starter on the team, now has a bachelor’s degree in visual arts and urban studies. She averaged 8. 8 points over Fordham’s first 11 games. Missry, another starter (7. 1 points per game) and Padovano, a backup player, have degrees in communications and media studies. Right now, college sports often seem dysfunctional: University of Minnesota football players who threatened to boycott a bowl game over the suspension of 10 teammates linked to a sexual assault case. Academic scandals at places like the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. A stream of athletes at elite universities expending their verbal skills on repugnant commentary about female peers. Then there is this Fordham team — making Division I sports work for its players, in all the best ways. Each of the three players will get two free degrees on one athletic scholarship while playing for a team that is now after beating Manhattan College on Saturday and that won the championship in 2014. For a student, an undergraduate degree at Fordham costs about $191, 000, and a master’s degree is worth $ . Of the three, only Burns came to Fordham with the academic fast track as a goal. As a sophomore, after hearing that Burns was on schedule to graduate early, Padovano figured out that she, too, could have enough credits to finish early. “‘Hey, I took the same number of classes as you did,’” Padovano said, recalling the first conversation she had with Burns about the accelerated program. She had stayed on campus over the summer to train with the team and simultaneously piled up credits. She soon began aiming for a diploma. “I decided to do it on a little bit of a whim,” Padovano said. “It’s crazy, right?” Missry soon followed her teammates, loading up on summer classes at the end of her junior year to finish her bachelor’s degree. For all of them, it was a breathless run: squeezing schoolwork into schedules packed with practices and scrimmages and weight lifting and cardio and travel to away games. Missry didn’t believe she could handle the pace until she actually did. Her parents were thrilled to hear the good news that it was plausible, after all. “I will never forget the phone call I had with my dad when I told him I was graduating early and would go to graduate school, too,” Missry said. “He was so, so happy. ” What an understatement. This would be like finding a $50, 000 gift card under your Christmas tree. It’s a dream for parents, making their hearts, not their wallets, lighter. For the three to graduate early, Gaitley said, she had to be flexible about their being late to practice, or having to leave early because of class or exams, or missing a team workout and having to make it up on their own. She said she couldn’t be a stickler for doing things her way every time, or else the whole program wouldn’t work. And she wanted it to work as much as her players did. “I’m a mom first, and my No. 1 thing is to prepare my kids for life first,” said Gaitley, who has three sons. One, Dutch, played basketball at Monmouth — and graduated early. Gaitley, who is in her sixth season at Fordham, said she had had one other player there finish a bachelor’s degree early. But, Gaitley said, that player didn’t face the same obstacles as the current three. She was injured and had more time to study. That player is still slacking off, but at Goldman Sachs. Graduate students on a Division I team roster aren’t that unusual, but they tend to be redshirted athletes using a fifth year of eligibility after sitting out a season of competition because of an injury, a transfer or an effort to gain more physical maturity. But to have three teammates who entered school together and didn’t hit pause before reaching this academic level? “This just doesn’t happen,” Gaitley said. She said the program is too grueling for most students. “It’s like saying you can run that mile and trying to do it while eating bonbons,” Gaitley said. “It gets a lot harder when you’re actually eating the bonbons. ” Now, believe it or not, all three seniors say they are basically loafing — at least compared with the last three years. They have found graduate school to be much easier than their accelerated undergraduate program. With practices in the morning and classes, held at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus, in the evening, they have so much more free time. Missry finds herself exploring the city, recently shopping at the Columbus Circle mall before or after her graduate classes, something she would have never done as an undergrad. “Ah, yes, HM,” she said, with a laugh. Padovano, who graduated magna cum laude, has even more time to lead the Advisory Council, a group on campus that does service projects, like mentoring, organizing food drives and volunteering in soup kitchens. This is her second year as president. “Sometimes I wonder how we did it for three years, running from class to practice, from practice to class,” Missry said. “But now our reward is graduate school. And without Coach, I don’t think any of this could have happened. ” | 1 |
Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s New York office features an oil painting in which two men are preparing to eat another human.
The image, which was shown during a 2015 exposè on the Clinton campaign headquarters by Politico, was lent to Podesta by his lobbyist brother Tony.
The painting was specifically mentioned 9 months later in an article on Podesta by Time Magazine .
“On the wall in his office at Hillary Clinton’s Brooklyn headquarters, campaign chairman John Podesta has an oil painting on loan from his lobbyist brother, who is an avid art collector,†the Time article states. “The image shows two men hunched over a dining room table, bearing knives and forks. On the table lays a man in a suit, who looks vaguely like Podesta.â€
Podesta explained during the interview that he regularly tells colleagues that he would prefer to be the man with the fork.
“It’s better to be the guy with the fork than the guy on the table,†he said.
The image resurfaced on social media Friday after emails published by WikiLeaks revealed both John and his brother Tony’s connection to Marina Abramović, a performance artist known for gory and occultist performances.
Podesta’s painting is incredibly similar to one of Abramović’s art displays in which she and pop star Lady Gaga eat off of a mock bloodied body.
The WikiLeaks emails specifically surrounded Abramović inviting both the Podesta brothers to attend an event known as “Spirit Cooking.â€
“Spirit Cooking is an event and central ritual started by Marina Abramović, who is an artist known for her gory performances and occultist rituals,†the website Everipedia notes.
“The origins of Spirit Cooking can be found in the preludes to production of the Cake of Light material, a sacrament in the religion of Thelema which was founded by Aleister Crowley.â€
The Podestas' "Spirit Cooking" dinner?
It's not what you think.
It's blood, sperm and breastmilk.
But mostly blood. https://t.co/gGPWFS3B2H pic.twitter.com/I43KiiraDh
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) November 4, 2016
Video of Abramović engaging in the ritual, which involves menstrual blood, breast milk, urine and sperm, can be found online.
The hashtag #SpiritCooking trended for hours on Twitter Friday following the email chain’s discovery. Clinton-supporters in the media attempted to outright deny or downplay Podesta’s extracurricular activities, claiming such behavior is mundane.
The fact that those close to Clinton are engaged in such disturbing rituals should cause concern to any American who doesn’t view carving Pentagram’s into their flesh as “normal.â€
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Sales at some of the country’s biggest restaurant chains — McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Buffalo Wild Wings, to name a few — are slumping. The culprit? People like John Reynolds, if you listen to restaurant executives. A salesman for a convenience store distributor, Mr. Reynolds used to spend several evenings a week eating in New York restaurants with friends and relatives after making the rounds of customers in the city. But in the last year, he has taken to making turkey burgers or a pot of chili at home. “It’s just a financial thing for me — eating out is expensive,” Mr. Reynolds, 31, said. “And eating at home more has actually had an additional benefit — it’s healthier. ” Such words strike terror into the heart of the restaurant industry, which has blamed a crash in food prices that has made groceries cheaper for its woes. Egg prices, for instance, hit a low this summer, and beef prices are lower than they have been in more than three years. “If I’m not mistaken, it’s the biggest gap we’ve seen in the last 10 years,” Mike Andres, the departing president of McDonald’s American business, told reporters in July. “This is clearly impacting the whole industry. ” The gap between grocery and restaurant prices adds to a variety of other factors putting pressure on the restaurant business, especially the segment. Americans now have a greater interest in healthy foods. They also have more and better choices of prepared food in grocery stores, and many options for meal kit and grocery delivery services, all of which make eating at home easier. It is unclear whether these changes add up to a temporary change or the start of a major reversal in where people eat. For the last couple of decades, the general direction of food spending in the United States has been toward restaurants, and in 2014, dining out eclipsed home cooking for the first time, according to the United States Agriculture Department. “The reasons people are eating more away from home aren’t going away,” said Howard Elitzak, an agricultural economist at the U. S. D. A. “Women continue to enter the work force. People continue to work longer hours. Families have higher disposable income. Everyone wants convenience — these are very trends. ” Yet the Agriculture Department statistics, and individual restaurant sales figures, strongly suggest that Americans are revisiting the kitchen table. In January, for instance, people spent more in supermarkets than in restaurants, an aberration that was repeated in June. (The department’s data from the Census Bureau is somewhat imprecise. For example, the supermarket numbers don’t include food bought at Walmart, America’s largest grocery chain.) The National Restaurant Association estimates that restaurant sales will increase 5 percent this year, to $783 billion. But B. Hudson Riehle, a senior vice president of the trade group, noted that the growth rate of those sales has slowed since 2007, partly because of the recession that started around that time. “It is still over all an environment where consumers continue to use restaurants, but for the industry, it’s a more moderate growth rate than in the past,” Mr. Riehle said. To help compensate for sagging profits, many restaurants have been raising prices, even as the cost of food has declined. For instance, Zoe’s Kitchen, a chain of more than 150 stores, said its sales in restaurants open at least one year had grown 4 percent. But more than 3 percent of that gain came from price increases. Slightly less than 1 percent of its sales growth came from what the industry calls “traffic” — or more customers. Diners have noticed. “I definitely feel like prices at restaurants have increased,” said Kathryn Shannon, who works at a financial services company in New York. Ms. Shannon, 28, began cooking at home with deliveries from Blue Apron, a meal kit service, but now she just goes to the grocery store. If she does go out for dinner, it is to a restaurant where she can get something she wouldn’t make at home. “I’m not going to buy a really nice cut of steak because I’ll probably screw it up,” Ms. Shannon said. “But I can make basic Chinese food that’s just as good as what I get on the corner and at a quarter of the price. ” Some restaurants, where people like Ms. Shannon might go for a steak, don’t appear to be having the same problem as their far bigger cousins. Sabato Sagaria, the chief restaurant officer at the Union Square Hospitality Group, said he had noticed more tourists dining this summer in the company’s restaurants, which include Gramercy Tavern and Blue Smoke in Manhattan. He expected that mix to change in the fall, when the regulars return. Nonetheless, he said, competition for customers has never been greater. “Restaurants are competing with delivery services, meal kit companies, prepared foods in the grocery store, salad bars,” he said. Jack Bishop, chief creative officer at America’s Test Kitchen, a media company that publishes Cook’s Illustrated and produces TV shows and events, said he had also noticed a difference among generations. Younger people, in his experience, seem to be more suspicious of food prepared by big corporations. And the rise of diet trends like Paleo, vegetarian and also is spurring more home cooking, he said, because adherents have difficulty finding something they can eat on many menus. “There’s also just an overall shift in the American diet to a healthier place,” he said. “After all, most of the worst trends in that diet over the last 20 years coincided with people eating less at home. ” One big question, of course, is whether America’s new cooks will stay in the kitchen once food prices at the grocery store rise again. Inara Kalnins, a retired retail executive, said she had no plans to return to restaurants. She began cooking for herself about a year ago, after finding a deal for Blue Apron meal kits on Groupon, the online commerce site. Before that, her stove was used to heat up leftovers from restaurants or a roast chicken from the grocery store. Now she’s in her kitchen three times a week, preparing meals from Blue Apron that she often shares with friends and neighbors. “I’m chopping and zesting and eating foods I’ve never tried before,” she said, “with ingredients I would have never thought of buying, like Meyer lemons and watermelon radishes. ” When she vacationed with a friend on a remote island off the Maine coast this summer, the mail boat delivered Blue Apron meal kits. “I’ve ordered so many times that I’m able to gift meal kits to friends,” Ms. Kalnins said. “I’ve given one to a friend whose wife passed away, and to my brother, who was used to eating out of a can. ” | 1 |
Share on Facebook A recent video released by a LiveLeak source shows a staged car bomb explosion followed by what I call must-watch jaw-dropping crisis actor fakery. The video is said to be in Iraq. The video shows a man busy doing something by the car. He then walks away from the car, gets into another car where at least one person is waiting for him before they drive off. Seconds after driving off, the car is seen to explode violently. That's not the important part. What follows is however. Immediately following the explosion crisis actors are seen quickly running into position, finding well-spread-out spots on the ground to lie down and pretend to be injured from the explosion. The video gets better though as coaches are seen guiding the crisis actors into position and waving in the “suddenly appeared” emergency medical workers. The crisis actors are seen pretending to be in agony and unable to carry their own weight. The video leaves one wondering if you should laugh, cry or get angry. This is another reminder that fakery is now the norm. Propaganda is legal here in the United States and it's a tactic commonly used by essentially all nations. Shockingly, many Americans today STILL cannot reconcile that this degree of fakery is now the norm. Because of this unwillingness to accept the degree of fakery we are seeing all the time now they continue to believe that unless you have overwhelming proof that mainstream media stories are not true you must believe that the stories are legitimate. This is simply no longer true. Sadly, because of this profound and persistent unwillingness to accept the new paradigm we now live in (that of standard fakery) many continue to keep themselves in a state of extreme mental vulnerability to state lies and propaganda. Those who refuse to see the in-your-face fakery of today, as clearly seen in the below video, are thus helping the ruling elite stay in power longer and helping keep humanity dumbed down. For those who refuse to see the fakery this video may offer a cure. | 0 |
TAVEUNI ISLAND, Fiji — In Fiji, flowers can take on a spiritual, magical significance. They are strung together as garlands for ceremonies and festivals or worn as an ornament behind the ear on any given day. The South Pacific archipelago is home to about 800 species of plants found nowhere else in the world. But the most special is the tagimoucia, a crimson and white flower that hangs down in clusters like a chain of ruby raindrops. Because of its beauty and rarity, it has attained a kind of celebrity status. “Just to touch it and see it with my own eyes,” said Lina Sena, 41, her sentence trailing off as she held a clipping recently. “See how we are treating it? It is history. ” Except for scattered sightings on a neighboring island, the flower grows only on a single mountain ridge on Taveuni, one of the northern islands. The tagimoucia is the unofficial floral emblem of Fiji and has a prime position on the nation’s $50 bill. But to Fijians, its significance stems from several legends of romance and heartbreak. Seeing the flower “was on my bucket list,” said Ravi Kumar, 31, who grew up in Fiji but later moved to Australia. Mr. Kumar spent a recent day on Taveuni, traipsing through the forest before finally sighting the flower atop its woody vine. Taveuni, known as the Garden Island for its rich volcanic soil and farming, is crowned with dense, dark rain forest that is often shrouded in mist. Mr. Kumar said he made the trek because the flower’s legend was “one of the tales you grew up with” in Fiji. Those tales can vary depending on whom you ask. The song “Tagimaucia ga” by Percy Bucknell, a traditional composer, describes how an outsider seized power on Taveuni and made the flower a symbol of his chieftainship. Another tells of a young girl whose tears became tagimoucia flowers when her parents scolded her for not doing her housework. According to Emori Tokalau, a governmental liaison to Taveuni’s clan leaders, only the flower’s custodian can tell the true legend. That is Ratu Viliame Mudu, the chief of Somosomo village on the island’s western side. Mr. Tokalau described the custodianship “as a form of copyright,” giving the holder authority to grant permission for outsiders to visit the flower or use its likeness. He had to get the chief’s approval before using the tagimoucia on his office letterhead, he said. To receive permission, one must arrive at the village with a sevusevu — a gift or offering — often the traditional root drink kava. A small ceremony is performed, with men in sarongs and women in long skirts gathered around. On a visit to the village in November, the chief’s son, Akuila Cavuilati, spoke about the flower’s history. “When I was growing up, it was the legend that my carried and gave to us,” he said. The tagimoucia already existed before the legend, but only as a simple white flower, Mr. Cavuilati said. That changed when a young princess fell in love with a man from another village, a union her parents vetoed. She ran away in despair. Village warriors searching for the princess could hear her crying in the forest (tagimoucia can be translated as “crying tears,” Mr. Cavuilati said). However, all they could see were tagimoucia flowers with a mysterious new addition: the ruby red petals. Those petals are the girl’s tears, Mr. Cavuilati said. As a boy, Mr. Cavuilati often climbed the mountain with his brothers to pick tagimoucia flowers, sometimes sending them into the capital, Suva, for display at festivals. “During that time there were so many flowers,” he said. “Nowadays, it is very hard to find. ” Until about 30 years ago, access to the flower came only by foot. But then a cellphone tower went up on the mountain’s peak, along with a service road. Now people can drive the pass more easily. Mr. Cavuilati said rarely did anyone come to him to hear the legend or receive his blessing for their journey to the flower. The path up the mountain is a hike that starts near Somosomo. Along the way, it was easy to see why the forested mountain was the tagimoucia’s natural protector before the access road was built. The trail is littered with felled trees and craters from giant root systems that were ripped out of the ground by cyclones. After several hours of hiking, the grandson of Somosomo’s chief, Viliame Mudu, spied a small cluster of flowers halfway up a tree. That was the sole sighting of ruby red petals by our group that day. The tagimoucia’s peak flowering season of November and December coincides with school’s end, so the flower is a “hot commodity” for graduation garlands, said Lin, an anthropologist who completed his Ph. D. thesis on conservation in Taveuni. During that period, local hotels bring flowers down for their guests. One morning, Alfred Lewenilovo, 26, headed up the mountain carrying a sugar cane knife and an empty backpack. He said his sister in Suva requested tagimoucia flowers for her 21st birthday garland. The flower’s popularity worries some on Fiji. “People are going there to see it and put it around their necks, then they come down. After two days they throw it into the rubbish bins,” said Marika Tuiwawa, a botanist with the University of the South Pacific. The fragility of the flower’s existence has always been a concern because of the small areas, or microhabitats, where it grows. While the opinion that the flower is now overpicked is widely held, no research has been done to confirm that, said Dick Watling, from . The conservation group had investigated the possibility of a Taveuni National Park that would provide more protection to the tagimoucia as well as the forest it inhabits. But its Taveuni office closed in 2014, from a lack of interest and funding. The area where the flower is found is currently a forest reserve, but it is often encroached upon by farmers, Mr. Watling said. “The real issue is that we have this enormous area of almost pristine forest, the last in Fiji,” he said. Unless the government realizes the value of that “it will become increasingly fragmented. ” For now, the tagimoucia continues to inspire Fijians. On a ferry that sails from Taveuni to Suva, I held a tagimoucia clipping given to me by the village chief of Tavuki. The flower turned heads. A young boy whispered “tagimoucia” as he walked past. A woman pointed and mouthed the flower’s name before breaking into a smile. And Ms. Sena indulged in a mini photo shoot. “Take another one — a good one,” she said as her daughter repositioned her camera to capture the flower, now perched behind Ms. Sena’s ear. | 1 |
Мир Антироссийская истерия, развернутая на Западе вокруг Украины и Сирии, порой навевает мысль, что не за горами новая мировая война. Насколько этот вывод обоснован? На вопросы главного редактора Pravda.Ru Инны Новиковой в авторской программе "Необычная неделя" отвечает ведущий эксперт Центра в оенно-политических исследований МГИМО Михаил Александров. 0 комментариев 0 поделились — Почему так важна Сирия? Это точка, в которой сошлись основные мировые противоречия . И чтобы понять, почему сейчас возможен ядерный конфликт между Россией и США, надо понять суть сирийского конфликта . Если руководствоваться логикой того, что это локальный конфликт, то кто в здравом уме будет думать, что американцы или русские из-за Алеппо начнут ядерную войну? Но на самом деле это проявление глобального конфликта между западной и российской цивилизациями, который начался не вчера и который идет уже в течение нескольких веков. Сейчас наступает момент, когда западная цивилизация почувствовала, что теряет позиции во всем мире. Нарастает многополярность, усиливаются другие цивилизации — китайская, исламская, индийская. И прежде всего это проявляется в экономике. И чтобы удержать экономические, политические позиции, у Запада остается только один инструмент — военная сила . Кто в военном отношении может реально противостоять Западу? Пока только одна страна — это Россия. Более того, российская цивилизация — единственная, которая инициативно предлагает альтернативную повестку дня, альтернативную идеологию международных отношений. Таким образом, на карту поставлено будущее западной цивилизации. Если они не смогут добиться военно-политического доминирования в мире, то экономически они проиграют и тогда им придется отказаться от многих преимуществ и преференций, которые они сейчас имеют. Уровень жизни на Западе существенно понизится, он не сможет влиять на многие мировые проблемы. И тогда встает вопрос вообще о его роли в современном мире. Россию совершенно не устраивает стремление Запада доминировать в мире. Оно, в общем-то, никого не устраивает: ни китайцев, ни индусов, ни жителей исламских стран. В Африке, Латинской Америке тоже никто не хочет этого доминирования. Но многие боятся открыто выступить против него, понимая, что их задавят. Запад постоянно устраивает показательные расправы: над Милошевичем, Хусейном, Каддафи. Почему же сейчас Россия вмешалась в Сирию? Я думаю, что это была месть Путина Обаме за то, что тот устроил на Украине. И если бы на Украине дела шли нормально, мы могли бы и не вмешаться так активно в сирийский конфликт. Но Обама бросил нам вызов, вторгся на постсоветское пространство , устроил государственный переворот и привел к власти откровенно русофобский режим. То есть создал ситуацию, которая реально угрожает нашей национальной безопасности. Украина — не Грузия, это огромная территория, где у нас очень существенные интересы. И наше руководство поняло: если сейчас мы всему этому дадим спуск, никак не отреагируем, то они дальше начнут разваливать и Россию. Последовал ответ в Крыму, на Донбассе, потом наше вмешательство в Сирии. И сейчас в Сирии мы выигрываем, а это означает, что есть реальная возможность остановить наших "партнеров". — О становим ИГИЛ или американцев? — Какова цель так называемой проамериканской оппозиции в Сирии? Свергнуть режим Асада, создать суннитский прозападный режим, который будет контролироваться союзниками США, такими как Саудовская Аравия, Катар. Они, собственно, и спонсируют суннитскую оппозицию в Сирии. После чего страна превратится, собственно говоря, в союзника Запада и рассадник международного терроризма. Надо понимать, что ИГИЛ и "Ан-Нусра" (организации, запрещенные в России. — Ред. ) - организации, созданные Западом, ЦРУ специально для дестабилизации режимов. Прежде всего, шиитского в Ираке, когда он стал смещаться в сторону союза с Ираном. Американцы в свое время допустили ошибку, безответственно решив вопрос о власти в постхусейновском Ираке, приведя к фактически единоличной власти там шиитское большинство. Оно, поскольку Иран — это шиитская страна, взяло курс на сближение с ним. В Сирии тоже у власти алавиты и шииты. В итоге образовывалась фактическая "шиитская ось", очень опасная для Запада. Потому что во главе ее стоит Иран — независимое суверенное государство, выступающее за полицентрическую систему международных отношений. Запад мечтает "задавить" и Иран. ИГИЛ в Ираке США создали для того, чтобы не дать возможность местному шиитскому правительству контролировать всю страну и оказывать на него давление: мол, если вы не будете с нами в военном отношении сотрудничать, мы уйдем, но тогда вместо нас, американцев, к вам придет ИГИЛ и всех вас перережет. ИГИЛ, в итоге, "осел" в нескольких иракских городах, запасся оружием, потом переместил боевую активность уже в Сирию. Надо понимать, что и ИГИЛ, и "Ан-Нусра" — только инструменты западной внешней политики. Когда некоторые наши деятели заявляют о некоем союзе с Западом в борьбе с терроризмом, это глупость. По существу, это лишь дипломатический экивок, озвученный нашим руководством, но его некоторые стали выдавать за чистую монету. На самом деле, как можно сотрудничать с теми, кто, фактически "крышует" "Ан-Нусру" в Алеппо, кто не дает ее уничтожить, кто бросил все свои информационные, дипломатические и политические ресурсы на поддержку этой террористической организации, кто навязывает прекращение огня для того, чтобы подкинуть "Ан-Нусре" боеприпасов, продовольствия? Нам надо просто добить прозападную оппозицию в Алеппо и прекратить все разговоры на эту тему. — Вы сказали, что Сирия — это наша месть за Украину. Насколько вообще правомерно мыслить такими категориями? — Я, конечно же, имел в виду "политическую месть". Месть в том смысле, что это ответный ход, а не то, что наш президент лично обиделся и ввел войска в Сирию. Нет, это не личная обида. Это политический ход, направленный на то, чтобы наказать Запад и сдержать его амбиции, и показать, что так больше делать не надо, что с нашими интересами надо считаться, иначе мы вам устроим, не только в Сирии, но и в других регионах "хорошую жизнь". — Вернусь к вашему заявлению, данному в одном из интервью: "Россия должна быть готова вести ядерную войну и в ней победить". Возможно ли вообще победить в ядерной войне, когда в ней, как вы говорите, нам будет противостоять весь Запад? — Поясню свою мысль… США далеко от нас, перекинуть сюда крупные соединения им достаточно сложно. Да и что смогут сделать пять-шесть тысяч человек, высади у нас их где-нибудь в Сибири? Они помрут там через пару недель. В Европе же далеко не все хотят с нами воевать. Что, Болгария так уж рвется с нами повоевать? Их Бойко Борисов, может, и пойдет, но остальные болгары — вряд ли. Одно дело — голосовать, другое — воевать. Чехи, венгры, словаки — никто не будет воевать. Разве что немцы, поляки, румыны, некоторые страны Бенилюкса. Если посмотреть, то воевать может незначительная часть западного сообщества. Так что мы вполне сможем создать паритет по численности вооруженных сил, даже если они перекинут свои войска. Но тут надо учитывать фактор тактического ядерного оружия. У нас превосходство над Западом в тактическом ядерном оружии, мы можем сразу же уничтожить все их основные военные базы, промышленные предприятия, производящие вооружения, электростанции, мосты. В итоге вся их военная инфраструктура будет разрушена. И как они будут воевать? Что, они пешком к нам придут, особенно зимой? — Но есть же системы ПРО, много всего у них есть. — Это все сказки. — А как же концепция одновременного глобального удара ? — Глобального удара? Ну, это тоже глупость, раздутая военными экспертами, которые пытаются посеять в обществе ажиотаж. Потому что американцам, если смотреть на вещи реально, нечем наносить молниеносный глобальный удар. Их крылатые ракеты в обычном оснащении — "Томагавк" — имеют дальность 1500 километров. Откуда они будут их запускать, если на карту посмотреть? Ну, по границам нашего государства они еще смогут удары нанести. На Украине они их поставить по договору о ракетах средней и меньшей дальности не имеют права, в Польше тоже. Они могут их в Балтийском и Черном морях разместить, но там все простреливается нашими системами противокорабельной обороны. Молниеносный глобальный удар — это сказка, его невозможно нанести при нынешнем уровне технологий, которые имеются у США. Военные теоретики, конечно, обсуждают, как может протекать та или иная форма военного конфликта между нами и Западом. Это правильно, потому что, к сожалению, администрация Обамы ведет себя непредсказуемо. Но военные мыслят предельно конкретно, стратегически они не мыслят. Вот, например, некоторые предлагают сейчас ввести над Сирией бесполетную зону . Запад сможет сбивать наши самолеты. А мы обещаем сбивать их. На Западе считают, допустим, что у них там больше баз и они собьют все наши самолеты. Но мы же не оставим это дело просто так, мы атакуем их в Прибалтике, где у нас стратегическое преимущество. Пара наших дивизий пройдут ее за один день и прикончат их единственную бригаду. — Но наша концепция не предусматривает превентивного ядерного удара, только удар ответный. А у американцев как раз концепция превентивного ядерного удара… — Я немножко проясню ситуацию… У нас действительно была концепция ответного удара, только это было во времена Брежнева, когда мы обладали существенным военным превосходством над НАТО в Европе. Тогда у нас не было необходимости наносить первыми ядерный удар. Теперь ситуация кардинально поменялась: у НАТО больше ресурсов в Европе. И если они начнут наступление, то наша концепция предусматривает первый ядерный удар тактическим ядерным оружием. Это записано черным по белому в нашей военной доктрине. Что же касается Запада, то ему как раз невыгодно использование тактического ядерного оружия, поэтому он и призывает отказаться от него. Поэтому и Обама сейчас заговорил, как Брежнев: мы берем на себя обязательство не использовать ядерное оружие первыми. — Зато в ы сейчас заговорили, как Рональд Рейган… — Да, как говорил НАТО. У НАТО во времена "холодной войны" была концепция гибкого реагирования. Она предусматривала, что при наступлении наших войск на Западную Европу они будут применять тактическое ядерное оружие. Фактически, мы эту концепцию адаптировали к нашим условиям. Ситуация зеркально поменялась, и поэтому у них нет шансов в случае войны в Европе. — Но некие генералы в США все равно утверждают, что война с Россией будет быстрой, смертоносной и почти неизбежной. — Мне бы хотелось посмотреть, как они собираются это все осуществить, какими ресурсами, куда будут нанесены удары… Пусть они объяснят, как за две недели разгромят Россию. Гитлер тоже за два месяца рассчитывал развалить Советский Союз. Но у него хоть было какое-то "рациональное зерно". Он рассчитывал, что жители СССР настолько ненавидят большевистский режим, что при первом мощном ударе он просто рухнет. Сейчас же все наоборот: вся нация сплочена вокруг президента . Посмотрите, какие у него рейтинги поддержки. Особенно когда президент проявляет политическую волю, действует решительно, как в Крыму и Сирии. Если он, допустим, захочет свергнуть киевский режим за то, что тот продолжает войну против Донбасса, я думаю, он получит в обществе еще большую поддержку. — Г ромкие разговоры по поводу того, что Россия оккупировала Донбасс, Крым, что люди там страдают, ведутся на уровне самых высоких международных организаций. Это тоже проявление "цивилизационного разлома"? — Это только говорит о том, что наше вступление в эти международные организации было ошибкой. Я лично, например, давно выступаю за выход России из ПАСЕ, Совета Европы. Это настоящие русофобские организации, и присутствие в них — глупость несусветная. С Западом у нас сейчас открытый конфликт, но он, в общем-то, был всегда. Рецидивы прозападной линии, начатой Горбачевым и продолженной Ельциным, еще сидят в мозгах. В конце концов, во Франции еще в 1812 году писали, что русские детей едят. Ну, пусть продолжают писать. Зачем вообще обращать на это внимание? — То есть, нам вообще надо отойти от всего мира? — Почему от всего мира? Только от Запада. Вот Индия не член ПАСЕ, Китай не член ПАСЕ, Иран не член ПАСЕ. Вообще, Европа — это географическое понятие. Николай Данилевский вообще утверждал, что понятие "Европа" — понятие географическое, но не цивилизационное. Есть западная цивилизация, есть православная цивилизация. Мы — православная цивилизация и от западной отличаемся. К этому выводу пришли все наши великие мыслители. И это не просто конфликт между православием и католицизмом как направлениями христианства. Речь идет о конфликте между православной цивилизацией, ядром которой является русская нация, и западной цивилизацией — полицентричной, но объединенной общими ценностями. Этот цивилизационный конфликт неизбежен, он был, есть и будет продолжаться. Другое дело — в каких формах. Участвуя в работе разных европейских институтов, мы что, рассчитываем сами вступить в западную цивилизацию? Но для этого мы должны отказаться от своей цивилизационной сущности, подделаться под них, признать однополые браки, феминизм и все остальное только потому, что все это "западные ценности". А зачем нам все это признавать? У нас своя собственная цивилизация, и мы должны развивать свои собственные принципы. Те же иранцы, которые от нас отстают очень существенно и в экономической, и в научно-технической сфере, или даже китайцы не преобразуют свою цивилизацию в западную. Почему мы должны преобразовывать? Мы, что, главные идиоты в мире? Культурные обмены — пожалуйста, контакты — пожалуйста, совместные научные исследования — пожалуйста. Но зачем вступать в организации, которые используются в качестве места, где нас постоянно порют, а если не порют, то поучают? Беседовала Инна Новикова К публикации подготовил Сергей Валентинов "Необычная неделя" с Инной Новиковой и Михаилом Александровым | 0 |
B y Danny Haiphong S yria is “the target of one of the greatest misinformation campaigns in recent history.” The author regrets that left analyst Eric Draitser has contributed to the confusion. Draitser criticizes leftists who firmly support the Syrian government. Danny Haiphong counters that “the left must act with uncompromising dedication to the principle of self-determination in every case where US and Western imperialism wages wars of neo-colonial plunder.” PHOTO ABOVE: Western supported Takfiri primes field gun supplied via Turkey. “To claim that the left in the US should fight for ‘peace’ and at the same time oppose the Syrian government is an intentional attempt to remain neutral in a time of war.” Imperialism’s war on Syria may be the most important question on the order of the day for those fighting for a world free of exploitation and oppression. Syria is currently the battleground of imperialism’s last gasp of life. In nearly six years, Syria has been turned into a site of intense struggle between the forces of resistance and imperialism’s forces of reaction. It has also been the target of one of the greatest misinformation campaigns in recent history. The imperialist countries and their media lackeys have sewed deep confusion about the true character of the war being waged on Syria. Nowhere is this confusion greater than in the United States, and it appears someone I deeply respect has been overtaken by it. Imperialism’s war on Syria may be the most important question on the order of the day for those fighting for a world free of exploitation and oppression. Syria is currently the battleground of imperialism’s last gasp of life. In nearly six years, Syria has been turned into a site of intense struggle between the forces of resistance and imperialism’s forces of reaction. It has also been the target of one of the greatest misinformation campaigns in recent history. In a recent issue of CounterPunch, Eric Draitser dives head deep into the confusion [3] . He criticizes what he deems as two critical problems with the left’s stance. Draitser first criticizes the pro-imperialist left for their decision to align themselves with the foreign-sponsored terror groups in Syria, which have been labeled “revolutionaries” or “rebels” by the imperialist countries. He then goes on to criticize leftists who have positioned themselves firmly in support of the Syrian government. ERIC DRAITSER: Usually solid analysis, but suddenly a plunge into rank political collaboration with the forces of imperialism which he supposedly opposes. The question is why act like a liberaloid? Given his record, we refuse to believe he is that dumb. It is his criticism of the “pro-Assad left” that needs further examination. Draitser reveals his deep confusion when he asks: “Will you continue to delude yourselves by refusing to accept the plainly obvious truth that no state or group has the best interests of Syrians at heart?” Draitser’s question assumes that the Syrian and Russian governments are equally to blame for the chaos in Syria. Their bombs are assumed to be prolonging the war and committing atrocities against the Syrian people at the same rate of the imperialists. If this is not the case, he doesn’t state otherwise in the piece. In fact, Draitser sets out to prove true what has already been proven false by a wide range of independent and corporate media sources. “The imperialist countries and their media lackeys have sewed deep confusion about the true character of the war being waged on Syria.” First, Draitser claims that the war on Syria began as a genuine protest against “neo-liberal” reforms instituted by the Syrian government. This narrative is popular among the liberal-left media as well as the white left generally. However, those who make this claim rarely specify what neo-liberal reforms were made or how the confrontation all of a sudden became violent. Stephen Gowans reviews numerous reports from the corporate media [4] that describe the uprising in March of 2011 as immediately violent, ill-supported, and ultimately insignificant in the midst of reforms from the Syrian government that were broadly supported by the Syrian people. At the same time as the violent uprisings, thousands of Syrians were protesting in the streets [5] in support of President Assad. US/Saudi supported Takfiri fanatics operating in Syria, and depicted by the media as “moderates”. Furthermore, reports from the city of Daraa during the 2011 uprisings confirmed the presence of armed “rebels” who had freshly arrived from their US-NATO backed destruction of Libya [6] . These “rebels” have since infested the country through various channels of the Syrian border. Each group possesses a fundamentalist Wahhabi ideology and receives varying degrees of assistance from the Gulf monarchies, Israel, Turkey, NATO, and of course, the US. This is confirmed in Draitser’s article. Yet he still reinforces the claim that a popular uprising started the war even though Assad possessed broad support in 2011 [7] . The truth is that the war on Syria has little to do with neo-liberalism or popular discontent. It has been acknowledged by UN sources that despite reforms, the Syrian economy remains highly regulated and socialist in character [8] . Syria’s own form of socialism has brought many benefits to the Syrian people. Healthcare and education are rights guaranteed to all citizens [9] . Syria also possesses a secular government where Muslims, Christians, and all religious and ethnic groups lived peacefully prior to the war. Syria is thus a poor example of neo-liberalism. What economic struggles that do exist in Syria have largely stemmed from the harsh sanctions imposed by the US [10] in 2004. “The war on Syria has little to do with neo-liberalism or popular discontent.” Furthermore, Draitser cites numerous sources that support regime change to smear the Syrian government and, by extension, the Syrian people. One of the sources receives much of its information from the White Helmets. The White Helmets have long been exposed as an NGO that works directly in service of imperialism’s regime change operation in Syria. The organization receives approximately 33 million in funds [11] directly from the US and UK governments. Eva Bartlett recently visited Aleppo and witnessed many White Helmet workers sporting arms and fighting among the terror groups [12] . Draister also cites a source from the New York Post . The Post article relies heavily on documents collected by the dubious Center for International Justice and Accountability. This purported “international law” NGO [13] is run by a consortium of corporate lawyers, former or current Amnesty International staffers, and various other servants of empire. The organization specializes in “transitional justice.” In other words, the Center for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA) provides a legal framework for regime change on behalf of its imperial funders. Draitser claims no group involved in the war has the interests of the Syrian people at heart yet cites directly from an organization dedicated to the promotion of war in Syria. The NGOs and their partners in the corporate media have worked together to distort the reality on the ground. Aleppo is case and point. A ceasefire was brokered by all parties in late October that was supposed to allow Syrians to escape safely from East to West Aleppo. However, the humanitarian corridors were repeatedly shelled by the Nusra Front [14] , the US-backed Al Qaeda affiliate . The media decided to ignore this and report instead that the ceasefire’s failure was due to the withholding of aid by Russia and Syria [15] . This is but one example of many where the Syrian government has been blamed for the rebel-sponsored terror inflicted on Syrian people. “His analysis uses an abstract, moral argument to violate Syria’s self-determination.” After five years of war on Syria, it is a wonder how anyone could believe a word that comes from the mouths of the imperialist countries. They lied about the origins of the conflict. They have continuously blamed the Syrian government for events that have all been traced back to the armed proxies they support. This includes the Houla Massacre [16] , the sarin gas attack [17] in Ghouta, and the so-called starvation of Madaya [18] . Aleppo is no different. The Syrian city has been under constant siege from NATO-backed terrorists. The terrorists are holding nearly 250,000 Syrians hostage in the Eastern side of war-torn Aleppo. This has been verified by journalists on the ground such as Vanessa Beeley [19] . These facts seem not to matter in Draitser’s newfound assessment of Syria. His analysis uses an abstract, moral argument to violate Syria’s self-determination. Calling those who unequivocally support the Syrian government “fetishists” assumes that the US left should take a position different from that of the Syrian people. Actual Syrians supported Bashar Al-Assad, and thus the Syrian Army, with 88.7 percent of the vote [20] in the 2014 elections. To claim that the left in the US should fight for “peace” and at the same time oppose the Syrian government is an intentional attempt to remain neutral in a time of war. As Howard Zinn brilliantly stated, one cannot be neutral on a moving train. And the imperialist war against Syria is moving dangerously toward a World War III scenario. Hillary Clinton will be elected the next President of the United States and has repeatedly expressed that she will pursue a no-fly zone [20] once in office. A no-fly zone would place Russian and Syrian military assets at risk of US-sponsored bombs and thus the world at risk of a global military confrontation not seen since World War II. How convenient it is then that Draitser should rebuke his former anti-imperialist stance in place of a stealth form of regime change. The world is on fire, yet Draitser has interpreted the situation as a chance to distort an already highly misunderstood situation . “Draister’s conclusions ultimately reinforce the Western assumption that the left must come to the rescue and save the Syrian people from their plight.” Positions such as Draitser’s are ultimately shaped by the material conditions of an imperialist empire in crisis and decline. White supremacy has been a principal condition of US imperialism since its inception. The war machine and white supremacy are deeply connected. The peoples and nations on imperialism’s hit-list are routinely depicted in a manner that justifies the need for US and Western military medicine. This notion has trickled down to the day-to-day actions of ordinary people, including what currently passes as the “anti-war” movement in the US today. Draister’s conclusions ultimately reinforce the Western assumption that the left must come to the rescue and save the Syrian people from their plight. Indeed, the Syrian people need allies and the left must be organizing toward an end to the war. But an end to the war cannot be achieved unless the left supports the will of the Syrian people. At the moment, this means the US left must align itself with the Syrian government and its allies. The left must act with uncompromising dedication to the principle of self-determination in every case where US and Western imperialism wages wars of neo-colonial plunder. Syria should be no exception. Of course, this critique should not be seen as a personal attack on Draitser himself. His body of work reflects a deep commitment to the struggle against war and Empire. He has often taken positions on international questions that are deeply unpopular with the US imperialist order. However, when mistakes are made, the left has a responsibility to correct them. There is too much at stake. Failure to step up in defense of Syria means another regime change scenario similar to what happened in Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Libya. Draitser’s piece is a study into the path that all genuine anti-imperialists should avoid. But what is the correct path forward? Imperialism is the unquestionable cause of the war in Syria, so imperialism must be the primary target of an anti-imperialist movement. The US and its allies are risking world war over Syria’s destruction. On the other side, the Syrian and Russian governments (along with Iran and China) are doing as much as they can to find a peaceful solution to the conflict that also respects Syria’s national sovereignty. It is without question that this is the side where the left ought to be in the continued struggle to end the war once and for all. Source URL: http://blackagendareport.com/haiphong_answers_eric_draitser | 0 |
I repeated it to myself as if it were a mantra: Stay on the left. Stay on the left. But the thoughts continued: That’s not the turn signal, dummy! The turn signal is on the side you just turned the wipers on. Remember, the transmission is on your left. Careful, here comes a roundabout! Stay on the left. Stay. On. The. Left. It was an first 45 minutes, to say the least, from the time I picked up my rental car outside Melbourne Airport to when I settled in and relaxed, at least slightly. Driving in Australia, like driving in London or Hong Kong, means driving on the side of the road. And if you’ve never done it before, it can take a little bit of adjusting. I was determined to make the effort, as this road trip had a particularly appealing payoff. I had just finished a whirlwind tour of Melbourne’s street art scene and had another day in town, and I was resolved to spend it on the Great Ocean Road, considered by many to be one of the world’s most beautiful scenic drives. Beginning in Torquay, a seaside town about 60 miles southwest of Melbourne, and ending in the town of Allansford, to the west, the road is 150 miles of winding coastline, towering cliffs, lush forests, fascinating wildlife and incredible views of southern Victoria. The construction of the Great Ocean Road dates back to the end of World War I, when returning soldiers set to work on the project. The mayor of Geelong, about 14 miles north of Torquay, had set money aside for the project, which was intended to employ veterans and also commemorate those who had died in the war. Over a decade later, the route was finally completed, both a practical civic improvement and what may be the world’s largest World War I memorial, indelibly carved into the rocky coastline. After leaving Torquay, the first contact with the ocean comes in the small town of Anglesea. A stiff wind and a small cloudburst caught my little Suzuki as I entered town, setting off my shaky nerves. I took a deep breath and reminded myself that I’d at least gotten the insurance on the rental car. The strong sun had but the breeze took the edge off the heat, and the ocean air was sharp in my nose. I grabbed a snack at the Oaks Bakery Cafe — a chunky prawn and scallop hand pie with a hot, flaky crust for 6. 50 Australian dollars (about $4. 85). In the parking lot, some friendly wild cockatoos were hanging around, scavenging for dropped food. I parked on a dirt road near Seventh Avenue, a little ways from the center of Anglesea, and, from a cliff slightly above sea level, was treated to a beautiful view of the beach and ocean: cobalt blue in patches, sea foam green in others. I hiked down the hill through the bush, a small, forested patch called the Lorne Queenscliff Coastal Reserve, past native trees and shrubs of common heath, soft and manna gum trees. Oh, and flies. Everywhere. The flies in Australia are relentless. They’re far more brazen than the meek little house flies in the United States Australian flies will land on your face again and again, requiring you to constantly wave them off. This continual shooing motion is sometimes called the Aussie salute. At one point I thought I was rid of my companions, but when I turned around and peeked at the back of my shirt, I saw about a dozen of them hitching a ride. You get used to it. But I recommend investing in some bug spray. The flies eased up once I emerged from the shade of the trees and reached the beach. A long swath of sand greeted me, along with limpid ocean water and the sound of lapping waves. I was the only person on the beach. I was already satisfied with this and I’d barely gotten started. I was satisfied, too, with how I had started the trip — an important decision. There is a local airport outside Avalon, closer than Melbourne to the start of the Great Ocean Road, that I could have flown into (on Jetstar, an Australian airline) and rented a car. I also considered flying into Warrnambool Airport (Sharp Airlines services this airport regularly) near Allansford, and driving east instead of west, which would have meant renting a car one way and driving it to Melbourne. But the rental would have cost around 200 dollars more. I knew I had to come back to Melbourne Airport, since I was flying out of there early the next morning, so I rented a car near the airport through Sixt Rent a Car for 44 Australian dollars. The insurance policy (purely elective, but reassuring for those who have never driven on the side of the road — not purposely, anyway) brought the total to around 70 dollars. I ended up driving most of the Great Ocean Road in the Suzuki, then doubling back near Lavers Hill when it got dark and heading back to Melbourne. Warned by periodic road signs reminding me to drive on the left in Australia, I continued from Anglesea down to Aireys Inlet, stopping to see the Split Point Lighthouse, a beautiful, massive white pillar against the blue sea. The lighthouse was constructed in 1891, after a slew of shipwrecks along the rocky coast. I passed on the tour, but there are guided (14 dollars) and (10 dollars) ones available. I was feeling more comfortable behind the wheel by the time I arrived in Lorne, one of the towns to which the Great Ocean Road was intended to ease access. (I had set off the windshield wipers just once or twice in the previous hour or so, and had managed to parallel park with moderate success.) The drive was even becoming, dare I say, enjoyable: The constant twists and hairpin turns in the road made for a lot of fun. I approached a bend in the road in Lorne, near three majestic conifers, and stopped at the imposing Grand Pacific Hotel, an 1870s landmark that was originally accessible only by sea. I had a cup of tea (4 dollars) and a white chocolate macadamia nut cookie (3 dollars). I recommend you do what I did: Take your tea up to the second floor and sit on the balcony. The panoramic views — even in an area with an embarrassment of visual riches — are fantastic. A friend had tipped me off about the location of some wild koalas, so I made a beeline out of Lorne toward Kennett River, where there is a small park. An access road near the appropriately named Kafe Koala took me into a eucalyptus forest — just as a downpour began. I had to move fast. I trudged up the muddy road, looking in the branches of the trees: nothing. After a bit more walking, I heard something: a frenetic grunt, a noise I imagined a warthog would make. I looked up, rain pelting my face, and saw two fuzzy gray shapes chasing each other up the trunk of a tree with bark. Koalas! And they seemed mad. They were spitting and hissing at each other, and making incredibly, well, noises. Once I noticed these koalas, I saw others everywhere. Perched in tree branches, snoozing, munching on eucalyptus leaves or chasing one another in playful and ways. (Koalas, incidentally, are suffering a horrible chlamydia outbreak. I still found them adorable.) But it was time to get out of the rain. I zigzagged through a large group of cockatoos and brightly colored crimson rosella parrots and hopped back into the car. I was on high alert again on the road (and of course, when I tried to turn the windshield wipers on, I promptly turned on the turn signal). I had to pull over to let by a big truck that was riding my tail. On the way toward Great Otway National Park, I recommend checking out a few of the many places to turn off and enjoy the scenery. Cape Patton Lookout Point is particularly and bucolic, with sweeping views of both the ocean and the surrounding bush. And it’s not just views — access points to the beach are plentiful. I spent some quality time on the beach in Apollo Bay, approaching it from Gambier Street. Much of what the Great Ocean Road has to offer is simply handed to travelers: Even just driving it, I couldn’t help but take in its beauty. A few things, though, are a bit more difficult to get to. Lighthouses abound in Victoria, and the Cape Otway Lightstation, the oldest working lighthouse in Australia — and “the most important,” according to the website — is worth going the extra mile. The lighthouse is far south on the tip of Victoria — a detour from the main road through the national park. The environs changed quickly: I was chugging along amid beautiful ocean scenery when suddenly I was in a lush, forest. Just as quickly, I was in dry, barren bush that looked almost apocalyptic. About seven miles after I turned off the main road, I made it to the Cape. And after a moderate hike, I was staring at the tiny, perfect lighthouse in the distance. The area is particularly remote and isolated — I encountered only two other people on my detour. There’s a sense of immense calm about the place, and while it’s not the southernmost point in Australia, it feels just as distant. From that point on, for the rest of my drive along the Great Ocean Road, and back to Melbourne, I felt pretty much at ease. No more no more mistakes with the windshield wipers. Driving on the left wasn’t second nature, but I had definitely gotten the hang of it. | 1 |
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — When a global governing body for sports barred Russia’s track and field team from the 2016 Summer Olympics on Friday over a doping scandal, it was greeted in Russia, as is so often the case here these days, with a deep sense of victimhood. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia called the decision “unjust, of course. ” Russia, Mr. Putin said, is strengthening antidoping controls and athletes should bear personal responsibility for using drugs. But punishing the whole team, he said, “doesn’t fit any norms of civilized behavior. ” Outside Russia, sporting officials viewed the unanimous decision as a long overdue restoration of some fairness in competitions. After all, in some sporting events Russian athletes had been trouncing competitors for years before it turned out they were using drugs. But here, the decision only added support for a narrative in Russia’s political culture of grievances that revolves around perceived slights and conspiracies taking place in the outside world, particularly in Western countries. “Only people who are lazy don’t kick Russia in sports these days,” Dmitry Svishchev, the chairman of the parliamentary committee on sports, culture and youth affairs, told a sporting news agency, in response to the ban. “Unfortunately, there is such a tendency now. ” The ban is the latest setback in Mr. Putin’s efforts to shed Russia’s pariah status on geopolitical issues like the Ukraine crisis and the war in Syria. When the news broke, Mr. Putin was seeking to win allies among European politicians Friday at an economic forum, where he recited in a speech a long list of grievances against Russia, including the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Russia, he said, expected an “era of benevolence,” but was . In 2014, the European Union and the United States imposed sanctions on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine. Russia annexed Crimea in March of that year and intervened in the war in the east of Ukraine, the bloodiest in Europe since the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s. The sense of humiliation over the period has been felt in sports, too, and the Olympic ban prompted some Russians to uncork their anger. The chairman of the Russian Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Aleksei Pushkov, wrote on Twitter that “the Rio Games ban for our track and field team is an act of political revenge against Russia for its independent foreign policy. ” The decision caps a glum week for Russian sports, during which soccer hooligans rioted in Marseille, France, after Russia and England played to a draw. Videos showed fans streaming through the streets, wielding the weapons of choice of soccer hooligans — beer bottles and folding chairs — in running melees that left property smashed and dozens injured. “I don’t see anything scary in the fighting of fans,” Igor Lebedev, a member of Parliament who is also on the executive committee of the Russian Football Union, said in a post on Twitter. “On the contrary, good job boys. Stand strong!” Also on Twitter, the spokesman for the Investigative Committee, a powerful law enforcement agency, responded to the assertion of a Marseille prosecutor that the Russians were apparently trained fighters. “A normal man, as a man should be, surprises them,” wrote the spokesman, Vladimir Markin. “They are used to seeing ‘men’ at gay parades. ” Officials also found themselves on the defensive when it emerged that a prominent extreme rightist, Aleksandr Shprygin, who has been photographed raising his hand in a Nazi salute, led a formal Russian fan club, the Union of Supporters, to France. Groups that monitor hate speech regard Mr. Shprygin as someone who has played a leading role in introducing ideals into Russia’s soccer hooligan culture. The global governing body for track and field, the International Association of Athletics Federations, announced the Olympics ban on Friday, ruling in a unanimous vote that Russia had not done enough to restore global confidence in its athletes’ integrity. Speaking before the announcement, Mr. Putin said the allegations of doping against his country’s athletes were part of a politically motivated “ policy” by the West. There should be “no collective punishment,” of athletes, Mr. Putin said of the allegations that Russia’s athletes engaged in the extensive use of drugs. Sports doping is a global problem, he said, and Russia has been unfairly singled out. “Sports area cannot be politicized,” Mr. Putin said Friday. “This cannot be a foundation for building policy. ” Mr. Putin denied of doping, one of the pivotal accusations against Russia. “There have never been and cannot be any support for violations in sports, in particular, in the field of doping, at the state level in Russia,” he said. “We have cooperated and will cooperate with all international organizations that work in this field. ” After the announcement, Mr. Putin added “I hope that we find some solution here, but that certainly doesn’t mean we will become insulted and say we won’t fight against doping. It’s the other way around, we will strengthen the fight against doping. ” Russia’s sports ministry, which has alternatively stonewalled investigators and conceded that abuses had taken place but said they had been addressed, issued a statement saying it would appeal the decision and expressed disappointment. “The Russian side has done everything to restore trust of the international sports community in our athletes,” it said. A laboratory in Britain now tests the urine of Russian athletes. “Every Russian athlete undergoes three additional tests. ” A Russian champion Yelena Isinbayeva, 34, said that she would sue the I. A. A. F. for “a breach of human rights” for barring her from the Olympics, and that the ban was particularly painful as the 2016 Games would be the last for her. Russian commentators said the sporting scandal could be seen as a microcosm of Russia’s broader struggles in the world today. “Officials share this view of Russian society, a society on the defensive,” Sergei Markov, a former lawmaker with the ruling United Russia party, said of the soccer riots in Marseille. “Why should we trust the French authorities that these Russian hooligans are more guilty than the British hooligans? No. If we believe we are under attack, then we believe that Russian soccer hooligans are under attack. They had a right to defend themselves. “Partly, they fought for Crimea on the Marseille streets,” Mr. Markov said. | 1 |
Tonopah Test Range Google Earth imagery 7/22/2016 page: 1 37.785314° -116.765487° lots of cars 37.788909° -116.756991° buildings removed 37.761840° -116.760566° new building 37.723731° -116.730658° new radar berm Happy hunting. Note they cut this really close to the north edge of the runway, as if someone ordered this imagery and Google poached it. Tonopah is the Area 51 site. These look like the White Sand targets I've fired at. (above) edit on 26-10-2016 by thesungod because: (no reason given) edit on 26-10-2016 by thesungod because: (no reason given) The only things missing are the "commercial gravel pits." That is how the mining tailings are covered up. Posted a thread on this here Looks like something (maybe F-117 or something else) being moved into a hangar 37.798244, -116.774809 The only things missing are the "commercial gravel pits." That is how the mining tailings are covered up. I would presume since available imagery would show large amounts of "Muck" which is the technical term for the rock left over (Tailings are actually something else) they would eat the cost associated with trucking it elsewhere or using previously excavated areas on site. Rumors persist that the proposed underground, mobile, MX system was mocked up and extensive tunnels were dug in and around the NTS and Nellis etc. which could also be used for storing the muck. Otherwise a giant pile of the stuff would be a dead giveaway new topics | 0 |
People over profits The India-Russia Alliance Isn't Going Anywhere Because It's Underpinned by Values as Well as Interests
There have been hiccups in the relationship before but ultimately the countries are united by far more than they are divided by Originally appeared at The National Interest
With the international system in a state of flux, we are witnessing significant political changes between nations. U.S.-China relations have come under great strain, as evidenced by their adversarial stand with regard to the South China Sea. Russia is ceding space to China with regard to East Asia. There seems to be a return to Cold War–like dynamics between Russia and the United States. It is being reported that Russia has placed nuclear-capable Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad, which borders Poland and Lithuania. The missiles are capable of hitting targets as far away as Berlin. Their differing positions with regard to the crisis in Syria and ISIS underline the tension between the two.
To the surprise of many observers, India-Russia relations, which have stood the test of time, also appear to have been affected by this trend, with Russia apparently upping its security ties with Pakistan, India’s traditional rival. For many in India, Russia’s decision to go ahead with its Druzhba (Friendship) 2016 military exercises with Pakistan immediately after the Uri terrorist incident, and its reticence in fully backing India on terrorism emanating from Pakistan at the recently concluded eighth BRICS Summit in Goa, are seen as worrying developments. From the perspective of a stakeholder in this bilateral relationship, the questions that come to one’s mind are: How worried should one be about these developments in India-Russia relations? Also, what should be done to ensure that there is no fundamental realignment in the relations between the two nations?
If one disregards the almost seventy-year history of relations between the two nations, it would appear that the observation of Rajan Menon , a close follower of India-Russia relations, is being proven wrong: “The two countries have established substantial trust and understanding, a convergent worldview, and a stake in preserving a relationship that few countries can claim to have.” A perusal of the bilateral relation will show that is all not particularly well.
On the security front, the Russians have been stepping up joint military exercises with Pakistan since 2014. The two naval exercises, Arabian Monsoon 2014 and Arabian Monsoon 2015, were followed up by Druzhba 2016, which was a two-week long military exercise conducted in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province involving seventy Russian service personnel.
While the naval exercises had combating crime groups and drug trafficking as their objective, Druzhba 2016 went a step further and had more conventional objectives, like training for combat in mountainous areas and taking on armed groups. India made its dislike of these military exercises known to Russia when India’s ambassador to Russia, Pankaj Saran, pointed out that “military cooperation with Pakistan which is a State that sponsors and practices terrorism as a matter of State policy is a wrong approach and it will only create further problems.”
Parts of Druzhba 2016 were to be held in the Gilgit-Baltistan province of Pakistan, an area India considers to be a part of Jammu and Kashmir, illegally occupied by Pakistan. The spokesperson of India’s Ministry of External Affairs, Vikas Swarup, told the press that “India repeatedly brought up its concerns about the venue of the exercise with Russia” and that the said province was “part of Indian territory.” This led the Russian embassy in New Delhi to issue a clarification that the military exercises would not be held in any “sensitive or problematic areas.” The exercises were subsequently held in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province.
Additionally, Russia has been selling military hardware to Pakistan. It is believed that the two nations are in discussions regarding the possible sale of Russian Su-35 warplanes to Pakistan. Pakistan also bought four Mi-35 helicopter gunships from Russia in 2015. The Hindustan Times reports that over the last fifteen months, the army, navy and air force chiefs of Pakistan have visited Russia to explore other such military deals. Given the fact that Pakistan is the world’s seventh-largest importer of defense equipment, it could prove to be a lucrative market for Russian arms manufacturers. This could have serious consequences for India-Russia relations.
On the economic front, Russia has agreed to lend $2 billion to Pakistan for the construction of an 1,100-kilometer pipeline to transport liquefied natural gas from Karachi to Lahore. On the diplomatic front, Russia did mention Pakistan in the wake of the Uri attack when it stated , “We note with concern the resurgence of terrorist attacks near the Line of Control. It is alarming and according to New Delhi, the attack on military unit near the town of Uri was committed from the territory of Pakistan.”
However, its activity on the issue of terrorism in the context of the eighth BRICS Summit, held in Goa in October 2016, was less encouraging. Many in India feel that Russia was reticent in backing India’s demands and did not push for the inclusion of terms like “nurture,”“shelter” or “sponsor” in the Summit declaration. The inclusion of these terms would have implicitly pointed fingers in Pakistan’s direction. While the declaration called for action against UN-recognized terrorist groups, and named groups such as Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra, it did not name Lashkar-e-Taiba or Jaish-e-Muhammad.
According to Indian strategic expert Brahma Chellaney , “The result was that the declaration failed to mention the most potent form of terrorism in the world, which is state-sponsored.” In the face of opposition from China and its strategy of sheltering Pakistan from India’s diplomatic offensive, Russia simply didn’t stand up for India. This sentiment is illustrated by a headline printed in the Times of India on October 17: “BRICS Summit: China bulldozed India’s security concerns as Russia looked the other way.”
These developments are certainly worrying to those who support positive India-Russia relations. However, once one situates these developments in the context of almost seventy years of bilateral relations, one will realize that downturns and heartburn have occurred in the past as well, with relations stabilizing and returning to normal afterwards. The 1960s were testing times on this front, when Russia started inching closer to Pakistan. Menon points out that in the aftermath of the 1965 India-Pakistan war, Russia diluted its support to India on the Kashmir issue, and “even published material inconsistent with Indian territorial claims against Pakistan.”
Pakistani president Ayub Khan’s 1965 visit to Russia raised many an eyebrow in India. A Pakistani military delegation visited Moscow in 1966, to discuss the purchase of weapons from Russia. This discussion was furthered the following year when Pakistan’s foreign minister visited Moscow. An arms deal was finally clinched when Gen. Yahya Khan visited Moscow some time later. High-ranking Soviet officials also visited Pakistan around the same time period included a naval delegation and Alexei Kosygin, head of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
It was not uncommon to hear voices of disgruntlement from Indians, including Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and President Zakir Hussain. Notwithstanding such tensions, the bilateral relation was put back on the rails. Hence, history suggests that the recent developments may just be a hiccup and that talk of bilateral relations fraying is nothing more than scaremongering and, possibly, hyperbole.
This optimistic interpretation is bolstered when one notes that India and Russia struck important defense deals on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Goa—such as a $5 billion deal for India’s purchase of the S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile system. Considered to be one of the most advanced antimissile systems in the world, it will be used to protect to high-value installations. The two countries also signed deals pertaining to India’s import and manufacture of Kamov Ka 226T light utility helicopters. The two countries will also be collaborating in the manufacture of four Admiral Grigorovich–class guided-missile stealth frigates.
Significantly, it was announced that India would also be leasing an Akula II–class nuclear-powered attack submarine from Russia for a sum of $2 billion. Writing in Business Standard, Ajai Shukla suggests that this would not be in addition to the existing nuclear submarine that was leased from Russia (and christened INS Chakra) in 2012. Instead, it will replace the INS Chakra and is expected to join the Indian Navy in 2020–21. Hence, for about two years, India will be in the possession of two such submarines, after which INSChakra will be sent back to Russia. In order to counter misgivings in India, and to underscore that the bilateral relations were built on trust and time-tested imperatives, a “top ranked Russian defense official” is reported to have remarked that “Russia is a friend, an ally and not a business partner. Russia stood by India during its darkest hours. Next year will mark 70 years of our relationship. It is a long time.”
A balanced, historically informed reading of the bilateral relation between India and Russia suggests that naysayers in India may be jumping the gun in harboring misgivings about threats to a time-tested relationship. However, one factor seems missing in the current bilateral relation that was present earlier, at least on the Indian side: admiration for the erstwhile USSR and some of the values it espoused. Indian-Soviet relations during the Cold War years were based on expediency and also on values. Some of the letters that Jawaharlal Nehru wrote to the chief ministers of the Indian states in 1955 (to be found in his Letters to Chief Ministers, Vol. 4) following his visit to the USSR make it clear that India’s engagement during the Cold War was based on his admiration of the USSR, even though he was aware of its failings. The fact that the “pull” worked both ways is made evident by Nehru, who writes, “I was astonished to find how popular some Indian films were. The names of several films were mentioned to me. The only two I remember now are Awara and Do Bigha Zamin.”
Given how central Nehru was to Indian politics, and his ability to shape the political discourse in the country, this sense of admiration for the USSR struck root in the Indian body politic. Bilateral relations based on expediency as well as values lived on, even after his death. As a result, when tensions did emerge between them, as was the case in the 1960s, the “glue” that bound India and Russia at a foundational level ensured that the drift was not permanent. The relationship encompassed the state and society on both sides. A dynamic that encompassed values ensured that things could be brought back on track should the narrower self-interest component of the relationship suffer.
International-relations scholars like Ian Hurd have pointed out that relations based purely on self-interest last as long as clear benefits accrue to the parties concerned. According to Hurd , “Actors are constantly recalculating the expected payoff to remaining in the system and stand ready to abandon it should some alternative promise greater utility.” Such relationships have a tendency to “defect” or have revisionism built into them. However, relationships based on something more than self-interest can check the tendency towards revisionism.
It is but natural that once the Cold War generation fades in India, the attraction and pull towards Russia and its ideals will also weaken. It would not be inaccurate to say that the current generation of Indians is much less enamored with Russia than the previous generation, which grew up in the Cold War years. In fact, the United States seems to have a greater following among the new generation of Indians than does Russia. According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in 2015, 70 percent of Indians who were polled viewed the United States favorably, with 75 percent of those in the age bracket of 18–29 seeing the United States in a positive light. Russia trailed the United States, with 43 percent of Indians seeing it in a positive light. While 8 percent of Indians polled viewed the United States in a negative light, twice as many—16 percent—viewed Russia in a negative light.
Should decisionmakers in New Delhi and Moscow want to ensure that the bilateral relationship is not endangered significantly, they need to examine its softer, ideational element. To what extent do values still underpin bilateral relations, and what is the extent of the erosion of values? They need to identify and inject elements into the relation that will buttress the dimension of self-interest with a value-based one.
The challenge is made greater given that socialism is no longer the principal vocabulary in the relationship. Some have argued that in order to maintain the health of bilateral relations, scientific and technological relations have to be deepened, joint manufacturing given a boost, and a convergence of views on terrorism put in place. Whether these measures will be sufficient to sustain India-Russia ties in the twenty-first century needs to be pondered.
Should one doubt the efficacy of values in the politics among nations, given the depiction of international relations as the domain of amoral and self-interested conduct in the shadow of anarchy, one ought to pay heed to Henry Kissinger, and the arch-realist’s reasoning for the success of the Concert of Europe system. The Concert system was inaugurated in 1815, in the aftermath of the drawn-out French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.
It consisted of dialogue and negotiation among the great powers, a commitment to the status quo based on conservative values, and modifications of boundaries based on discussion and not the unilateral use of force. It is believed that the absence of systemwide great-power wars barring the Crimean War was due to the Concert system. In the face of increasing offensive capabilities of nations spurred on by the Industrial Revolution; leaders who accepted risk and were interested in pushing the limits of the status quo, such as Czar Nicholas I; and the slow onset of nationalism across Europe, peace in Europe largely held. This was no mean feat.
Kissinger argues in his book Diplomacy that even though the Concert was created in the name of the balance of power, it relied shared values among the great powers. According to him, “There was not a physical equilibrium but a moral one.” The power and value-based components of the Concert system was propped up by two separate arrangements: the Quadruple Alliance and the Holy Alliance. While the first alliance was based on balance of power principles, the second addressed the moral dimension of the Concert system and used religion as a glue to bind the great powers together.
The British were not impressed with the Holy Alliance, with Lord Castlereagh referring to it as “a piece of sublime mysticism and nonsense.” Notwithstanding this, it is believed that the Concert system managed to avert great-power wars for almost a century thanks to its two dimensions: self-interest based on balance-of-power calculations, and values. The injection of values through the Holy Alliance had the role of checking revisionist tendencies among the great powers, which was not only dependent on the accrual of benefits.
The fact that India-Russia relations will face setbacks is inevitable. Whether the setbacks will be seen as aberrations, or whether they will herald a sustained drift, will in many ways be determined by the salience of shared values between the two nations. | 0 |
Senators John McCain ( ) Lindsey Graham ( ) and Susan Collins ( ) voted to keep an climate rule limiting methane emissions from oil and natural gas drilling.[ Republicans voted to abolish the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rule, one vote short of passing through the Senate. Vice President Mike Pence stood ready at the Capitol to break the tie. Graham and Collins previously publicized their intention to vote against the legislation. McCain’s vote came as a surprise to Senate leadership. McCain said he voted against the bill because he fears that it would prevent the BLM from writing improved regulation in the future. “While I am concerned that the BLM rule may be onerous, passage of the resolution would have prevented the federal government, under any administration, from issuing a rule that is ‘similar,’ according to the plain reading of the Congressional Review Act,” McCain said in a statement. McCain added, “I believe that the public interest is best served if the Interior Department issues a new rule to revise and improve the BLM methane rule. ” The bill marks the first time Republicans failed to pass a Congressional Review Act (CRA) bill to repeal an Obama administration rule since President Donald Trump took office. Critics of the rule argue that it adds unnecessary costs to oil and natural gas drilling in federal lands. Senator John Barrasso ( ) told reporters, “This was a very duplicative, unnecessary act of government interference in an area where BLM had no authority. ” Barrasso said that he will ask Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to repeal the rule instead of attempting to repeal the rule again in the Senate. “It was by the Obama administration, and we tried to remove it with the Congressional Review Act. That fell one vote short today, and as a result we’ll call on the secretary to withdraw it. ” Secretary Zinke told Sen. Bob Portman ( ) that no matter the result for the CRA bill, the BLM will take action to reduce methane pollution. Erik Milito, an executive at the American Petroleum Institute, lamented: While it is disappointing that the Senate did not act to correct the rule more quickly, we look forward to working with the administration on policies that continue our commitment to safely produce the energy that Americans rely on, help consumers, create jobs, strengthen our national security, and protect our environment. American Energy Alliance President Thomas Pyle issued a statement condemning the Senate’s inability to repeal the methane rule. He said: The Senate just squandered an opportunity to protect American workers and families from a regulation aimed at making energy more expensive. The evidence against this regulation is overwhelming. Not only does this regulation fall outside of the BLM’s jurisdiction, but the energy sector is already significantly reducing methane emissions without this directive from the federal government. The cost of complying with this regulation will ultimately fall on the shoulders of the American people. Fortunately, the fight isn’t over. It’s now up to the Trump administration to do what the Senate failed to do and protect the American people from this unnecessary and costly regulation. Despite the setback in the Senate, the Interior Department will attempt to repeal the rule through administrative action. Kate McGregor, the Interior Department’s acting secretary for land and minerals, said, regarding the methane rule, that the agency will “suspend, revise or rescind given its significant regulatory burden that encumbers American energy production, economic growth and job creation. ” The agency did not signal which option it might choose. McGregor cited Trump’s executive order asking agencies to repeal or change rules that damage domestic energy production. The Interior secretary added, “The rule is expected to have real and harmful impacts on onshore energy development and could impact state and local jobs and revenue. Small independent oil and gas producers in states like North Dakota, Colorado and New Mexico, which account for a substantial portion of our nation’s energy wealth, could be hit the hardest. ” | 1 |
More rumors are surfacing on Operation Bluebeam. Are the globalists desperate enough to unleash a fake alien invasion. Operation Bluebeam is real and it has been around since the 1970’s in operation form. However, I first giggled when I heard this rumor. I tracked down some of the rumor. This is a real possibility if the globalists think that Clinton will not win the election.
Here is what we know.
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+ Hillary Clinton is in no danger of losing the election and never has been. She could speak freely about the injustices being done to native people and native land in North Dakota. But she has remained “comfortably dumb” about the Dakota Access Pipeline. Her silence indicates her true position, which we already know from the Wikileaks documents. Anyone who believes otherwise is, to use the Clinton team’s own word, a “loser.”
+ HRC has already been endorsed as an eco heroine by every major green group in the country, which, naturally, means after taking office she can frack away with impunity.
+ Yesterday, police culled from across North Dakota encircled the encampment of tribal people protesting the Dakota pipeline. Outfitted in military gear, armed with assault weapons and backed by armored personal carriers, drones and helicopters, the police raided the camp, firing concussion grenades into the crowds, dousing people with pepper spray, shooting them with rubber bullets, savagely beating people with police clubs (baton is too dainty of a word.) In all, more than 140 protesters were arrested on fallacious charges of criminal trespassing and rioting. The riot was all the doing of the cops and the pipeline company. Dozens of protesters were injured, some seriously. The raid continues this morning, as does Hillary’s silence.
Meanwhile, in a federal court-room in Portland, Oregon, the armed militants who seized the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge last year, held it for 48 days, threatened federal officials and local residents and did more than $6 million worth of damage to the site walked free, acquitted of all charges.
Rarely have the hypocrisies of the American justice system been revealed more vividly. White privilege in action.
+ The bosses of organized labor continue to disgrace themselves and their unions by their support of the pipeline company and its brutal tactics. This week Terry O’Sullivan, head of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, lashed out at unions that opposed the pipeline, calling them “bottom-feeders.” O’Sullivan also smeared tribal protesters as “THUGS.”
“The facts are on our side, yet in the past month, we have witnessed vocal opposition from groups, including some self-righteous unions, who know little about the project and have no job equity in it,” O’Sullivan wrote to his members. “These unions have sided with THUGS against trade unionists. They are a group of bottom-feeding organizations that are once again trying to destroy our members’ jobs.”
Is it any wonder big labor is in decline?
+ Do black lives matter to Black Lives Matter, Inc?
The answer to that question probably depends on how you view DeRay Mckesson. Is the high profile activist the real power behind BLM or a self-anointed figurehead, angling for the spotlight?
Regardless, Mckesson has now endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, a move which is as predictable as it is crippling for the movement with which he is aligned. “Her platform signals both deep understanding of the challenges and a plan to move us forward,” McKesson wrote. “When I met with her last week, it was clear that she now understands these issues well at a policy level and that she has researched the implications of the positions that she has proposed.”
In exchange for a little face time with Hillary, Mckesson is willing to overlook or dismiss Clinton’s description of black youths as “super-predators,” her fanatical support for the racist Clinton Crime bill, her unapologetic backing of the awful welfare reform law pushed through Congress by her husband, her mercenary actions in Haiti, her bombings of brown and black people around the globe, her continued support for the death penalty as the rest of the nation finally turns against this vile form of punishment, her stubborn opposition to drug decriminalization and her constant hectoring about family values and personal responsibility, coded language for deprecations about the black family.
The Clintons have long mastered the technique of capturing the support of those battered precincts of American society on which they have inflicted the most damage. They expect that black support is in the bag, that blacks, like environmentalists and Hispanics, have no where else to turn, that their leaders will intoxicated by the merest nod of recognition in the waiting line. They are assured that the displaced and oppressed will vote for Clinton regardless of her record Like so many other social justice groups before them, Black Lives Matter is treated by the Clinton machine as just another prop which they can manipulate almost at will for their political advantage.
A Wikileaks document shows how this kind of stagecraft works in practice. On January 16 of this year, Jake Sullivan, one of Hillary’s top advisors, emailed Hillary and John Podesta draft language for Hillary to apologize for her rancid description of young black men as “super-predators.” This racist statement, which had never been retracted over the last 20 years, would have been fatal for nearly any other candidate.
Here are the tepid words Sullivan proposed putting in Hillary’s mouth:
Looking back, I shouldn’t have used those words.
It’s unfortunate because my life’s work has been about lifting up children and young people who have been let down by the system or society. Kids who never got the chance they deserved, especially in African-American communities. We haven’t done right by them. We need to. We need to replace the school to prison pipeline and replacing [sic] it with a school-to-college pipeline.
As an advocate, as First Lady, as Senator, I was a champion for children. And my campaign for president is about breaking down the barriers that stand in the way of these kids, so that every one of them can live up to their God-given potential.
Now that’s pretty dull pablum and doesn’t even approach being a real apology. But what’s really interesting here is the timing. The non-apology apology was crafted on the 21st with the advance notice of a planned Black Lives Matter protest at Hillary’s fundraiser on January 24th. The “apology” is publicly released the next day, on the 25th, as if it were an organic response to the Black Lives Matter protest. All theater.
As with climate change and economic inequality, the subject of racial justice in America has largely vanished from the scripts of Hillary’s stump speeches, the platform, venerated by Mckesson, is already moldering away in some vault at the National Archives. Do black lives matter to Black Lives Matter, Inc.? Of course, they do. But they don’t matter to Hillary Clinton and no one should believe for a moment that they do.
+ Jake Sullivan, by the way, is married to Beltway insider Maggie Goodlander, who sharpened her knives as a speechwriter for Joe Lieberman and now toils as a “senior advisor” to John McCain. Do you really think either Sullivan or Goodlander believe anything they write?
+ HRC backs the coup in Honduras. The new junta begins jailing and killing workers, trade unionists, human rights activists and native people. State Department funds the slaughter. The Nation magazine and Michael Moore avert their eyes.
+ If you ever feel the need to purge your lunch, no need to thrust your finger down your throat, just watch Michael Moore’s latest film, Trumpland, where he slobbers all over photos of the young Hillary Clinton.
Moore has been love with Hillary since the 1990s, but his once secret passion has suddenly erupted orgasmically on the screen. Trump’s perv-talk with Billy Bush is less nauseating than Moore’s vapid mewling about Hillary.
Here are a few gems from Moore’s embarrassing recent performance on MS-DNC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews”:
“I’d rather Hillary be the nominee than Bernie.”
“Hillary may not be [a socialist], but she’s a Christian and that’s the same thing.”
“Hillary won’t harm the children, she won’t harm the planet.”
Where’s Charlton Heston when you need him?
+ As far as he knows, Bill is still “dicking bimbos” in Chappaqua and Hillary continues to blame him for advising her on how to shield her e-mails from the prying eyes of the press. But none of that matters. They are members of the same cult, baptized in the blood of Iraq. Thus Colin Powell endorsed Hillary for president this week, one lying war criminal saluting another.
+ Tom Hayden, former SDS hotshot turned Clinton supporter, died this week. In Hayden’s FBI file, J. Edgar Hoover instructed his agents: “One of your prime objectives should be to neutralize him in the New Left movement.” In the end, Hayden neutralized himself.
I was never a huge Tom Hayden fan. My allegiance was to the Panthers and the Yippies: Stew Albert, Judy Gumbo, Abbie and Anita Hoffman, Nancy Kershaw, all of whom became friends over the years. In fact, in our last conversation Hayden asked me “why do you hate me so much?” This was just after his slavish endorsement of Hillary. That said, Jim Kavanagh , a former SDS organizer, recalls that Hayden did publicly confess his regrets about one of his most ignoble retreats, the one that led him into the arms of the Israel lobby–a mea culpa we ran on CounterPunch.
+ Alexander Cockburn on Hayden, from the Village Voice in 1982: “In the halls of the national gallery in Washington there are 46 portraits of Benedict Arnold. None look alike, yet they all resemble Tom Hayden.”
+ The New York Times doesn’t have a comics page. For laughs we have to turn to its editorials. This week we were treated to a real howler, Jonathan Rauch’s essay on “ Why Hillary Needs to be Two-Faced ,” in which Rauch argues, laboriously, that Hillary needs to deceive the electorate in order to enact policies for the “good” of the nation. But doesn’t the moral measure for “getting things done” depend entirely on who they’re done to (the poor) and who they are done for (Wall Street)?
+ Perhaps the decline in humaneness in politics is driven in part by a decline in the humanities in academia…
+ Oregon’s self-styled “progressive bisexual” governor, Kate Brown, has now endorsed the TPP. I think Congress pushes it through in the lame duck session after the election, though if the GOP had any brains, and it doesn’t, they’d wait until after HRC takes office and force her to publicly lobby for its passage.
+ Speaking of the Nanny State, 35% of the tax revenues from Oregon retail marijuana sales go toward funding……. the police .
+ California seems poised to legalize the sale and possession of marijuana. This move can’t come soon enough. Even though the Golden State began decriminalizing the use of pot in 1998, there have been more than 500,000 marijuana-related arrests in California the last 10 years alone.
+ Jeff Gerth is a former investigative journalist with the New York Times, who now writes for Pro Publica. Gerth has broken a lot of big stories in his career, including the Whitewater scandal, but his prose is so opaque and his narrative gifts so limited that few people have ever understood the import of his pieces, not even his editors. If a politician wanted to bury a scandal, all they really had to do was it leak it to Gerth, who would write it up in his muddled way and it would all be forgotten by the next morning.
The Wikileaks emails have a fascinating back-and-forth between Gerth and Podesta about the Clinton Foundation. If the Clintons had any sense, they would have dumped the whole matter into Gerth’s lap. Instead, Gerth writes Podesta to alert him to the fact that another reporter is onto the story:
Are you aware of a forthcoming–in a few days–massive examination of the Clinton Foundation by a conservative financial analyst? My understanding is that it raises questions about the foundation’s financial reports and its shift into areas–AIDS, for example–that exceeded its original authorization from the IRS. I’m not writing anything about it but curious if you have heard anything?
How Podesta’s hopes must have wilted at that last sentence.
+ Watching MSDNC talking heads, like Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow, dismiss the latest Clinton Foundation scandals reminds me of the BP press team spinning Deepwater Horizon.
+ Joe Biden was on MSDNC this week quoting the racist sociologist Charles “Bell Curve” Murray favorably. Biden told Chris Matthews that he made “my boys” take the quiz on white alienation in the back of Murray’s rotten book, Coming Apart: the State of White America. Should we be surprised? As chief author of the Clinton crime bill, Biden transformed Murray’s theories into vicious policies.
+ Lyin’ Hillary gets refreshingly honest for a moment: “I’m proud to have the support of real billionaires.”
+ Utah Rep. Chris Stewart compared Trump to Mussolini, and even though Trump falls a little short of the gold standard (i.e., Hitler), Stewart now says he’s going to vote for the authoritarian mogul any way.
+ Bernie Sanders says that he’s prepared to be a liberal thorn in Hillary’s side after she’s election. Being a socialist thorn in her side, alas, would prove a little too prickly, I suppose.
+ The Clinton campaign have shown Sanders no such consideration. Apparently, Clinton operatives have been stalking Sanders for much of the last two years. They even snapped a photo of Sanders sunbathing at an elite club in Martha’s Vineyard. The photo was sent to John Podesta by former Bill Clinton aid Tina Flournoy. A few days later the campaign leaked the photo to gossip blogger Perez Hilton, who posted the photo on his site, quipping that Sanders was lounging after having raised Wall Street money for the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee.
The Clintons wanted to embarrass Sanders, but it just proved that he has a pretty good body for his age.
This is the same creepy tactic the Clinton campaign used against Obama in 2008, when they leaked a photo of Obama in traditional Somali garb.
+ One state, under surveillance, divided by wealth, with liberty and justice for those who pay…
+ What’s really driving the national debt? America’s imperial boot print: $6 trillion and counting for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. With more than 800 military bases around the world, nearly half of the federal tax goes for military spending. Running out of enemies to fight? Wait a few minutes, we’ll create some new ones.
+ Clinton condemned Trump’s critique of the US military strategy in Mosul as “wrong” and “dangerous.” For HRC, any criticism of US foreign policy is “dangerous,” but not nearly as dangerous as the policy itself.
+ Israel’s politicians make Trump and Clinton seem almost sane by comparison. Check out the latest depraved boast from Israeli Defense Minister Avigidor Lieberman who announced, apropos of nothing, that Israel’s next war on Gaza will be its last “ because we will completely destroy them .”
+ NFL viewership is down, way down . Good. I’ve long thought that the sadistic joy NFL fans take from watching talented young black men inflicting brain damage on each other is an appalling metaphor for the dumbing down of American society.
+ Fragment from a dream last night: HRC moves into White House, notices an empty space on the wall of the Oval Office. Turns to Huma. Points. “Let’s put Qaddafi’s head there, shall we?”
Sound Grammar | 0 |
Yahoo News
A 38-year-old Oklahoma man who has evaded police for two days after killing two people and shooting four others — including two police officers — has a hit list and may intend to kill up to eight more people, authorities said Tuesday.
“This is a man who has indicated a total propensity to kill people, to injure people, shoot people,” said Oklahoma County Sheriff John Whetsel. “He has no care for human life whatsoever.”
Authorities believe he may be headed to Nevada and have notified police there to be on the lookout. Oklahoma County Sheriff John Whetsel told ABC News that the suspect, Michael Vance, could face the death penalty if convicted of the crimes. Whetsel is warning citizens to stay clear if they spot Vance, adding that he has “absolutely nothing to lose.” Vance’s rampage began Sunday evening, when he allegedly shot two police officers responding to the scene at a mobile home park over reports of shots fired in the area. The two officers sustained non-life-threatening injuries, officials say, and were temporarily disabled as Vance fled the scene in their patrol car. One officer was shot in the foot and another was hit by gunfire in both legs.
Investigators believe Vance live-streamed two videos while on the run, one from inside the police cruiser and another while inside another vehicle. In one of the videos, Vance appears in a blood-covered shirt and says he’s been shot before showing a rifle on the seat next to him.
“Letting y’all know, look, this is real,” he says in the video, according to the Associated Press. “If you want to know what’s up next, stay tuned to your local news.” Vance said things were “going to be intense,” according to an affidavit released on Monday night.
He then proceeded to a mobile home park, where police discovered the bodies of two of his relatives. Officials identified those victims as 55-year-old Ronald Everett Wilkson and 54-year-old Valerie Kay Wilkson, his wife.
The affidavit describes wounds consistent with attempts to sever one victim’s head and the other’s arm.
Vance then allegedly “shot at and injured” a woman as he was in the process of stealing her silver 2007 Mitsubishi Eclipse .
Vance is also suspected of shooting a man during an attempted carjacking early Monday.
Vance was last known to be driving a 2007 Mitsubishi Eclipse and was armed with an AK-47. He is considered to be armed and extremely dangerous, authorities say. Sheriff Whetsel instructed any potential witnesses not to approach Vance but to call 911 and let the police handle the situation. | 0 |
Gallup: Americans More Confident In Trump Since Election By: Robert Kraychik November 16, 2016 A Gallup poll published on Wednesday indicates that 51% of Americans are more confident in Donald Trump’s ability to serve as president following last week’s presidential election. 40%, conversely, are less confident. Partisanship was strongly correlated with the poll’s respondents’ responses: 95% of Trump voters said they were more confident in presidential capacity after the election, with 75% of Clinton voters saying they were now less confident. The same question was put to Americans by Gallup following the 1992 and 2000 presidential elections. Five weeks after the 1992 election, 84% of Bill Clinton voters said they were more confident in his presidential capability as opposed to 23% of George H. Bush voters and 37% of Ross Perot voters. In 2000, 85% of George W. Bush voters were more confident in his ability to be president as opposed to 29% of Al Gore voters. H/T Kaitlyn Scallhorn at The Blaze | 0 |
Clinton Insider: Rigging Only Way Hillary Can Win She’s going to lose and she knows it, he said Jamie White | Infowars.com - October 28, 2016 Comments
Hillary Clinton and the Democrats have begun stealing the election using every underhanded tactic because it’s the only way she can win, says Clinton insider Larry Nichols.
“She’s going to lose and she knows it,” Nichols said on The Alex Jones Show Thursday. “Unless she can amass and pull off the biggest amount of voter fraud in the history of this country.”
Nichols explained that the establishment is already doing what it can to prevent an open and transparent election.
“The DNC filed a lawsuit to try to force the removal of poll watchers at the polls,” he said. “Why would they do that if they know there’s no cheating going on? Why would they fight the voter ID if they don’t plan to have massive voter fraud?”
The mainstream media and the Clinton campaign are also doing everything they can up until Election Day to make everybody believe that the election is already over in Hillary’s favor, Nichols said.
“Folks, do not believe it,” he said. “The polling is a part of this game plan to destroy your confidence in your ability to win.”
“I believe Donald Trump is winning,” Nichols added. “You’re winning. You’ve just got to stay the course.”
Nichols warned that voters must take extra steps to ensure their vote isn’t being altered.
“You’ve got to make people at the precinct prove that your vote was recorded properly,” he said. “If they can’t show you proof, then demand a paper ballot.”
The damning videos provided by Project Veritas exposing high-level Democrat operatives discussing how they steal elections illustrate that worries about voter fraud aren’t unfounded, with even the New York Times acknowledging a recent survey showing that most voters fear their ballot won’t count because they believe “the political process is so dominated by corporate interests.” NEWSLETTER SIGN UP Get the latest breaking news & specials from Alex Jones and the Infowars Crew. Related Articles | 0 |
By Amanda Froelich For a long time, green juice and green smoothies were considered to be the ‘peak’ of what one seeking to nourish their body could consume. While both offer numerous benefits,... | 0 |
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Just how much of a sham was the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s national security-threatening, illegal private email server? According to an inside source, the bureau didn’t even bother to ask Clinton’s top aides to hand over devices essential to the probe. | 0 |
Natural Blaze
Brandon Turbeville made a fascinating journey to the Middle East and lives to tell you about it. He is a geopolitical expert and author of 7 books including The Road to Damascus .
In this rich conversation, he shares his experience which threatens to turn the media portrayal of the Middle East on its head.
He spent two weeks in Lebanon and is open about the food and agriculture of the Middle East as well as the culture and “life force” of the people there. While in Lebanon, Brandon spoke to Syrian refugees who have a perspective that contrasts the mainstream media.
What happened when Brandon tried to re-acclimate to American cuisine? Are U.S. corporations like Monsanto wrapped up in war and crisis in Syria? Does the Middle East raid and arrest raw milk farmers? You don’t want to miss this conversation!
Get a nifty FREE eBook – Like at Facebook, Twitter , Pinterest and Instagram . This entry was posted in General . Bookmark the permalink . | 0 |
Kenny Wells, the feckless owner of a Nevada mining company, is the latest entry in the Matthew McConaughey gallery of charming rogues. Swaybacked and paunchy, with a thinning dome and an appetite for Winstons and Seagram’s that would keep both brands in business if the rest of the world went cold turkey, Kenny doesn’t quite have the wolfish charisma or the mystical intensity of some of Mr. McConaughey’s other recent characters. But like them — like Mick Haller in “The Lincoln Lawyer,” Ron Woodroof in “Dallas Buyers Club” and that guy in those car commercials — he is fun to watch and hard not to root for. “Gold,” which chronicles a few of Kenny’s rises and falls in the 1980s, describes itself as “inspired by actual events,” but inspiration is precisely what the film, directed by Stephen Gaghan from a script by Patrick Massett and John Zinman, seems to lack. Mr. McConaughey is a ball of profane, entrepreneurial energy bouncing around in a vacuum. The story swings from the Nevada desert to the Indonesian rain forest to Wall Street boardrooms, and the screen bristles with signifiers of capitalist activity: meetings, phone calls, stock tickers. But the movie isn’t really doing any work. It’s just looking busy. Having nearly run the family prospecting business into the ground (so to speak) Kenny gambles on the expertise of a Mike Acosta (Édgar Ramírez) a geologist with an almost mystical reputation. They strike gold in Indonesia, and a gilded future opens up for Kenny and his longtime girlfriend, Kaylene (Bryce Dallas Howard). There are shadows and complications, of course, including the corruptions of wealth, the treachery of rivals and Kenny’s own impulsiveness. Broad hints are dropped that things will end badly. But enough goes wrong along the way — with the movie, I mean, not with Mike and Kenny’s scheme — to make the outcome feel almost moot. The film is well cast: You can’t really go wrong with Bill Camp, Corey Stoll, Stacy Keach and Bruce Greenwood. It’s beautifully shot (you can’t go wrong with Robert Elswit, either). There is a pleasingly sleazy, swaggering, ’80s vibe. And there are flickering reminders of other ambitious, mock epics, as if the filmmakers were hoping an algorithm would deposit “Gold” in the queues of viewers who liked “American Hustle,” “The Big Short” and Mr. Gaghan’s own “Syriana. ” With this material, he could have gone in any number of interesting directions, which may have been part of the problem. “Gold” could have been a biting satire of greed and folly, a tale of Western misadventure in Asia, a rousing fable of underdog triumph or a caper comedy. It tries, in its frantic, clumsy fashion, to be all of those things, and comes close enough to succeeding to qualify as an honorable failure. What holds your attention is the question of whether that description fits Kenny as well. He could just as well be the opposite — a dishonorable success. He is far from a subtle guy, but Mr. McConaughey is a sly enough actor to make us wonder whether we’re in the company of a fool or a con artist and to make us question whether there’s really a difference. His wild, abrasive and improbably delicate performance is what makes “Gold” watchable, even if the rest of the movie doesn’t supply sufficient reason to keep watching. | 1 |
PARIS — Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, went on trial in Paris on Monday, facing criminal charges that when she was France’s finance minister, her negligence resulted in the misuse of hundreds of millions of euros in public money. The trial caps a legal drama that has overshadowed her role at the agency, captivated and irritated the French public, and exposed ties between powerful politicians and the wealthy. It has also compelled Ms. Lagarde to defend herself repeatedly since taking over at the I. M. F. in 2011, when another former French finance minister, Dominique resigned after being accused of sexually assaulting a maid in a New York City hotel. Ms. Lagarde is accused of “negligence by a person in a position of public authority” in overseeing a politically charged arbitration case in 2007. In the case, Bernard Tapie, a flamboyant French tycoon close to Nicolas Sarkozy, then France’s president, was awarded more than 400 million euros, or $430 million, to settle a dispute with the partly bank Crédit Lyonnais. Her lawyer appealed for a postponement, but the court — which is hearing the case in the same courtroom where the French queen was tried — denied the request. The trial is scheduled to run through Dec. 20 but could conclude earlier. Immediately after the request for a delay was denied, Ms. Lagarde, wearing a black dress suit and a red scarf, stood before the court and delivered a combative statement to the chief judge. She said, her voice occasionally shaking, that she was “profoundly shocked” by the vigor with which the case against her was pursued and by the “theories of an imaginary plot” by her to defraud the state. “I would like to show you that I am not guilty of negligence, but that I acted in good faith and with confidence with the public interest in mind,” she said. “Was I negligent? No,” she continued. “And I will work to convince you allegation by allegation. ” Ms. Lagarde added that she was dismayed by the charges raised by the judge, “who doesn’t even know me,” prompting the judge to cut her off abruptly and to demand that she stop criticizing the court. If found guilty, Ms. Lagarde faces a maximum fine of €15, 000 and up to one year in prison. She would not have to resign immediately from the I. M. F. but the fund’s board would meet to decide what to do next. The I. M. F. board, which considers the case a private matter, was confident in Ms. Lagarde, the spokesman Gerry Rice said. Ms. Lagarde, a former senior executive and lawyer with Baker McKenzie, has contended that the investigation is without merit and may be politically motivated. She chose to present herself before the court to answer questions, rather than have only her lawyers represent her while she stayed in Washington. “She wants to respond directly to accusations that are completely unfounded,” Patrick Maisonneuve, Ms. Lagarde’s lawyer, said in an interview. She is taking personal time away from the I. M. F. in Washington to attend the proceedings but will continue to carry out her functions as the fund’s chief while in Paris dealing with the trial, holding conference calls with staff in the evenings and remaining largely in control. France’s top prosecutor halted the investigation into Ms. Lagarde in September 2015, citing insufficient evidence against her. But the chief magistrate of the court, the Cour de Justice de la République, which is made up of 12 French Parliament members and three Supreme Court justices, ignored a recommendation that the case be dropped and demanded that Ms. Lagarde stand trial anyway. As Mr. Sarkozy’s finance minister, she ordered an arbitration panel to examine claims made by Mr. Tapie, a former head of the Adidas sports empire and a Socialist who switched his political allegiance to support Mr. Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign. Mr. Tapie, an entertainer turned businessman who has served prison time on corruption charges, had long accused Crédit Lyonnais of cheating him when it oversaw a sale of his stake in Adidas in 1993. In 1998, the French government fully privatized Crédit Lyonnais and extended it a $21 billion bailout after a string of scandals and financial difficulties. Mr. then finance minister, oversaw the bailout and ordered that the ministry deal with Mr. Tapie’s claim because the bank was now in state hands. But it was Mr. Sarkozy who suggested that the ministry move Mr. Tapie’s case to arbitration to speed a resolution after years of legal battles costing French taxpayers tens of millions of euros. Ms. Lagarde in 2007 sent the dispute to a private arbitration authority that awarded Mr. Tapie damages and interest, to be paid with taxpayer money. The nearly award stunned and angered the French public. Ms. Lagarde’s advisers suggested that she annul the decision, which she declined to do because, her lawyer said, it would have resulted in costly new lawsuits by Mr. Tapie. A few months later, questions emerged about the impartiality of one of the arbitrators, Pierre Estoup, a former senior French judge who was said to have ties to Mr. Tapie’s lawyer, Maurice Lantourne. Mr. Estoup did not disclose any such ties when Mr. Lantourne and the state body representing Crédit Lyonnais recommended Mr. Estoup’s appointment to the arbitration panel. Mr. Estoup was later indicted on charges of organized fraud, which he is contesting. Mr. Estoup and Mr. Lantourne are expected to stand trial in France later to determine if they colluded to facilitate the judgment for a large payout to Mr. Tapie. So shaky was the outcome that a French judge in 2015 invalidated the arbitration decision, saying it was marred by fraud. The judge ordered Mr. Tapie to repay €404 million with interest to the state, leading Mr. Tapie to declare: “I’m ruined! Ruined!” However, Mr. Tapie is under bankruptcy protection and has not repaid the funds. Ms. Lagarde’s lawyers argued that until a court determined whether the funds were fraudulently awarded, there was no reason for her to stand trial for negligence leading to the abuse of public money. The court was expected to question Ms. Lagarde on why she agreed to proceed with arbitration and then declined to annul Mr. Tapie’s award, and whether she was aware of the possible partiality of the arbitration judge. The court has heard only four cases against French ministers since it was created in 1993. | 1 |
Below is a short email that my friend Sam posted this morning to his Facebook page about his surprisingly positive experience with the US healthcare system.
I thought it a fantastic read, and I wanted to pass it along to you:
I had to run to the emergency room today for what may be a neurological issue. Dizziness, staggering, loss of balance, that kind of thing.
I’m in San Diego, one of the most expensive cities in the world, and I have no insurance. I figured I was screwed.
But instead, the experience was unreal.
I got seen immediately. I didn’t even have time to sit down, they just whisked me into an examination room.
The doctor and nurse were ON IT, and they took their time with the exam and consultation.
The visit ultimately involved staying the whole day for observation, all kinds of tests, sedation and reversal, blood pressure check, a full blood panel work up (results tomorrow, yes TOMORROW keep your fingers crossed) and having both ears cleaned and flushed.
The bill was a mere $374.63.
Do I have some insane insurance plan? Nope.
Am I being super-subsidized by the rest of America? Nope.
Am I a privileged politician with a special “bosses only” healthcare plan? Don’t make me laugh.
It turns out that the care was for my dog, not for me. And we didn’t go to a ‘people’ hospital– I obviously took my dog to an animal hospital.
She and I are both biological machines, mammals made mostly of water (though she sheds more than I do).
The only other real difference is that the government is regulating the hell out of healthcare for people, while (relatively speaking), leaving healthcare for animals alone.
And that, my friends, is the reason Obamacare has flopped, and why your healthcare costs will keep going up.
It’s not greed. It’s not the drug companies. It’s not anything other than the application of government intervention in what should be a free market.
Simon again.
It’s not exactly controversial these days to suggest that the US healthcare system is in bad shape.
According to data collected by numerous independent agencies like the Institute of Medicine, Commonwealth Fund, and Kaiser Family Foundation, the US still ranks dead last among advanced economies in overall quality of its healthcare system.
In fact, the US healthcare system has the worst record in the number of deaths caused by mistakes or inefficient care.
And wait times in the US for urgent care and primary care visits rank lower than every other developed nation.
Americans pay at least 50% more for healthcare in terms of annual spending than people in other advanced nations, yet they receive less care as measured by the number of doctor visits.
Sure, it’s great that there are fewer uninsured people than ever before in the US, but this is a measure of QUANTITY, not a measure of QUALITY.
Undoubtedly the US is home to some of the finest medical professionals in the world.
But they’ve been buried under an expensive, over-regulated bureaucracy that continues to erode overall quality in the system.
A 2015 report from the National Academy of Sciences summed it up by stating, “For Americans, health care costs and expenditures are the highest in the world, yet health outcomes and care quality are below average by many measures.”
But instead of trying to understand WHY the system is so slow, bureaucratic, and expensive to begin with, politicians try to ‘fix’ it by creating more regulations.
It’s as if they believe they can legislate their way to a quality, efficient medical care system, just as they believe they can legislate their way to a better education system or economic prosperity.
This almost never works.
After all, the people who come up with these rules are notoriously unqualified and have rarely ever held a job outside of their giant government bureaucracy.
So despite what may be some very good intentions to fix the system, they invariably make things worse.
The end result is that your pet probably has access to more efficient healthcare than you do. | 0 |
A new Norwegian study has found the gap in labour participation rates between citizens born in Norway and third world migrants widens the longer newcomers have been in the country. [Researchers at the Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research uncovered “encouraging signs of labour market integration during an initial period upon migrants’ admission”. But after a period of just five to 10 years, according to the report, “the integration process goes into reverse with widening employment differentials and rising rates of immigrant social insurance dependency”. “Basically we were very surprised by these results, because really the differences between immigrants and citizens should be getting lesser and lesser the longer migrants have lived in Norway. We found that the opposite happens,” said Knut Røed, a senior researcher at the Frisch Centre. Norway’s acting minister for immigration and integration Per Sandberg said the government is aware of problems highlighted by the report, but suggested that not everything can be solved politically. “Even if the government went further still in delivering migrants jobs and opportunities, we mustn’t forget that politicians can’t force people to become integrated,” said the minister. He added: “There must also be a significant commitment from individuals themselves, if they are wanting to succeed in Norway. ” Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang described the findings of the study as “very bad news” for the nation’s welfare state. “The conclusion is clear: if we do not succeed in getting newcomers into work, our entire welfare model will be in jeopardy,” the paper’s editorial read. Norway’s welfare state is not the only aspect of life in the Nordic nation that mass migration threatens to disrupt, it has been warned. Last year, the head of the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) stated that Muslim immigrants are resistant to integration and can cause “problems” for the host nation. “A strong increase in immigration, particularly from Muslim countries, can cause other challenges. When a large number of asylum seekers come to a local community, it can have unfortunate consequences,” said PST head Marie Benedicte Bjørnland. | 1 |
Michael Eisen, an evolutionary biologist, is among the elite of American scientists, with a tenured position at the University of California, Berkeley, and generous funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for his research on fruit flies. But late last month, dismayed over the Trump administration’s apparent disdain for evidence on climate change and other issues, Dr. Eisen registered the Twitter handle @SenatorPhD and declared his intention to run in the 2018 election for a seat in the United States Senate from California. His campaign slogan: “Liberty, Equality, Reality. ” “I’m not sure I’m the best vehicle for this,” said Dr. Eisen, whose professional attire consists of shorts and bearing mottos supporting open access to scientific literature, a cause he has championed. “But if we want to defend the role of science in policy making, scientists need to run for office. ” Since Mr. Trump’s election, many other scientists have expressed concern about rumors and public statements on the new administration’s views on science, climate change and the role of federal offices like the Environmental Protection Agency. Mr. Trump has called climate change a hoax (although more recently said he would have an “open mind” about it) and appointed some officials to his transition team who dispute mainstream climate science. But there is much that is still unclear about his administration’s attitudes toward science. The president has yet to appoint a science adviser and has not responded to open letters calling on him to do so from science policy groups including the American Association for the Advancement of Science (whose president, Rush D. Holt, is a physicist and former congressman). Few scientists have gone as far as Dr. Eisen, but other researchers are now undergoing a political awakening, contemplating what their role should be for at least the next few years. “There are many conversations going on right now,” said Naomi Oreskes, a historian of science at Harvard who spoke at one of the first protests, a rally in San Francisco during the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in December. “Many scientists do feel that the time for sitting on the sidelines is past. ” A political action committee that seeks to get more scientists and engineers to run for elective office, 314 Action, has seen a surge of interest in its programs, with more than 2, 000 people registering at its website. The group is planning a training program for whether they want to run for local or state offices or Congress. Other scientists have organized demonstrations — including a march now set for Earth Day, April 22 — submitted letters or opinion articles to news organizations or joined efforts to preserve government data that they fear may otherwise disappear. Individuals and groups have also spoken out against Mr. Trump’s executive order restricting travel for citizens of Iran, Iraq and five other countries, an action that has affected some researchers. But an activist role is not an easy fit for many scientists. “I have plenty of colleagues who say, ‘Leave me alone in my lab,’” said Jonathan Overpeck, director of the Institute for the Environment at the University of Arizona. Still, he has seen more scientists take at least the first steps toward mobilization. “Right now it’s mostly talking about what to do,” he said. “We’re scientists — we tend to plan very carefully what we do and then we try to do it well. But certainly there’s an elevated sense that this is very real. ” That sense has motivated hundreds of student and faculty volunteers at nearly a dozen universities to participate in “data rescue” events over the last two months, the most recent of which was held this weekend at New York University. After a brief training session, participants spent six hours archiving environmental data from government websites, including those of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Interior Department. An anonymous donor has provided storage on Amazon servers, and the information can be searched from a website at the University of Pennsylvania called Data Refuge. Though the Federal Records Act theoretically protects government data from deletion, scientists who rely on it say would rather be safe than sorry. “For a problem like climate change, you can’t understand it if you don’t have data,” said Jerome Whitington, an environmental anthropologist and member of the group Environmental Data Governance Initiative, which sponsored the N. Y. U. event. Much of the concern among scientists has been centered on the E. P. A. which was a favorite target of Mr. Trump during the campaign. Comments by members of his transition team have led to speculation that the new administration would gut the agency’s science staff. Although he said he was speaking only for himself, Myron Ebell, who headed the E. P. A. transition but left on Jan. 19, said in a recent interview that science within the agency had become too politicized. “I’m a great believer in science,” Mr. Ebell said, “but I’m not a great believer in politicized science. ” Many scientists would argue that it is climate deniers and others who are politicized. The question of whether scientists should take sides politically is an old one, with the widespread and view among many researchers that they should be quiet and let their data speak for itself. Some scientists have objected to plans for the Washington march, arguing that the event will feed the view among many conservatives that scientists have a political agenda. But the idea that they should be above the fray has been slowly unraveling as researchers realize that their own aloofness may largely be to blame for public disregard for the evidence on issues like climate change or vaccine safety. And in the era of Trump, some say it could finally come completely apart. “I think that many people have moved well beyond that,” said Andrew Rosenberg, director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, which is enlisting scientists to monitor what is occurring in federal agencies. “It’s nonsense — you need to follow your own heart. You can do science and still be a good citizen. ” Youth is leading the way in rejecting the old view, Mr. Rosenberg said. “Early career scientists, younger scientists — that’s not an answer for them,” he said. Chanda a cosmologist and particle physicist at the University of Washington, is one of those younger researchers. She has long been politically active — she comes from a family of organizers and attended her first demonstration when she was 2 months old — but for her the talk and actions of the Trump administration have led to a new level of concern. Dr. said she was especially incensed by what she and others viewed as efforts by some science organizations to reach out to the Trump administration. Immediately after the election, she took to social media to criticize a news release from the American Physical Society that urged President Trump to strengthen scientific leadership and quoted his campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again. ” “What history has taught us is that collaboration doesn’t work for science,” Dr. said. “When we work with extremist, racist, Islamophobic or nationalist governments, it doesn’t work for science. ” The news release was quickly withdrawn and the society apologized for any “offense it might have caused. ” Michael Lubell, a physics professor who was director of public affairs for the society but who was terminated without explanation, said that “initially people were very worried that if anybody criticized Donald Trump there would be retribution. ” “People are now getting to the point where they are understanding that this is a guy in the White House who doesn’t have a firm grasp on science policy at all,” Dr. Lubell said. “Now they are mobilizing. But there’s absolutely no strategy. ” Dr. Eisen, the Berkeley biologist, would seem to have slim chances of winning a race for the Senate, since it is sure to be joined by several prominent Democrats if Dianne Feinstein, the longtime incumbent, decides not to run. But Jacquelyn Gill, a at the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute, has been actively recruited to — eventually — make a bid for a congressional seat by 314 Action, ever since she was quoted in the journal Nature urging her fellow scientists to “do more than write letters. ” Staff members at 314 Action (which takes its name from the number pi) liked her attitude, and she happens to live in a swing district. Like many academic scientists, Dr. Gill employs several graduate students in her laboratory and has received grant funds for research that is still in progress. But the idea of public service, at what she considers an urgent time for climate science, is tugging at her. “I came into this career wanting to do science that’s in the public good,” she said. “And maybe now that means something different than it did before. ” | 1 |
The NFL and the City of St. Louis have tried and failed three times to make a football marriage work. Now, they’re going to court to finalize the divorce. [The City and County of St. Louis have filed a lawsuit against the NFL, claiming that the league violated the law when they approved the relocation of the Rams from St. Louis to Los Angeles. The lawsuit claims that the league ignored its own bylaws when approving the Rams move, specifically that the move, “was not supported by the required statement of reasons or the adopted relocation standards. ” According to Yahoo! Sports, “The lawsuit claims that the City of St. Louis has lost an estimated $1. 85 million to $3. 5 million per year in ticket tax revenue, an additional $7. 5 million in property tax and $1. 4 million in sales tax revenue, as well as “millions” in earning taxes. “The suit alleges that the parties ignored the NFL’s relocation bylaws, which were established in 1984 following a rash of teams relocating and after a court told the league it might want to do so to prevent antitrust liability. In essence, the relocation rules state that teams must work in good faith to try to keep the franchises at home first before seeking to move them elsewhere. They must first satisfy all the relocation requirements and exhaust all opportunities at home first before moving. The suit claims the Rams and owner Stan Kroenke “made false statements regarding the team’s intent to engage in good faith negotiations” with St. Louis. ” On one hand, the NFL and their terrible, awful, no good commissioner getting smoked in a courtroom would definitely be more than satisfying. On the other hand, if the league loses a ton of money in court, they’ll hike ticket prices in order to pay it off. In any event, given the fact that they lost teams as well, you can bet that the cities of San Diego and Oakland will keep a very close eye on how this case plays out. Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn | 1 |
BEIRUT, Lebanon — With the Syrian rebel enclave of eastern Aleppo shriveling, Russia said on Monday that it would start talks with the United States this week on a deal for holdout insurgents to leave, and that any who refused would be regarded as terrorists subject to deadly assault. Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov of Russia, who conveyed the announcement at a news conference in Moscow, also said Russia and the United States were close to an agreement. Mr. Lavrov added that Secretary of State John Kerry had submitted a proposal for the routes and timing of the fighters’ departure after meeting with Mr. Lavrov in Rome over the weekend. American officials acknowledged the possibility of talks with the Russians in Geneva this week but would not confirm the substance of Mr. Lavrov’s remarks, which appeared to have taken them by surprise. They also condemned the indiscriminate bombing of eastern Aleppo by Syrian forces and reiterated their calls for a humanitarian pause in the fighting, a step that Russian and Chinese diplomats vetoed on Monday at the United Nations. Mark C. Toner, a State Department spokesman, said in Washington that there had been discussion of “technical talks taking place this week, but we don’t have anything to confirm at this point. ” The United States shares Russia’s antipathy for militants linked to Al Qaeda who are hiding in eastern Aleppo. But the Americans also support other groups of fighters there who oppose President Bashar of Syria. While the United States agreed that the fighters in Aleppo were a problem, Mr. Toner said, “there’s a moderate Syrian opposition that should not and does not deserve to be bombed into submission. ” American officials, as well as the special United Nations envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, have up to now called only for a deal to evacuate several hundred fighters linked to Al Qaeda, not all the insurgents, who are believed to number several thousand. The White House press secretary, Josh Earnest, suggested there was little the United States could or would do if Syrian and Russian forces targeted any eastern Aleppo holdouts. But he denounced the aerial assaults targeting the area, calling them “disgraceful. ” Russia’s assertion that an agreement with the United States on Aleppo was close played a role in the diplomatic wrangling on Monday at the United Nations Security Council, where Russia and China vetoed a resolution that would have imposed a . Russia said the measure was unnecessary, as talks were underway with the Americans. The United States said there was no breakthrough and therefore no reason to delay a humanitarian pause. “Today, we had a chance not to end — but to briefly stop — the ongoing butchery in eastern Aleppo,” said Michele J. Sison, the deputy United States ambassador to the United Nations. “We have failed because of a cynical act. ” United Nations officials have pleaded for a cessation in fighting in order to get food and medicine into the besieged portion of Aleppo. Mr. Lavrov’s comments came during another terrifying day for civilians in Aleppo, the formerly vibrant commercial center of Syria, which has become a pivotal battleground in the nearly Syria war. Two Russian nurses in western Aleppo were killed when mortar rounds apparently fired by rebels hit an army field hospital set up to help people who had fled from areas during the government offensive. The nurses’ deaths prompted calls from supporters of the Syrian government for Russia to escalate its involvement in the battle. In the shrinking rebel redoubt on the eastern side of the city, intense artillery shelling and airstrikes forced residents to cower in basements. Some barrages were striking at the rate of a shell every second, residents reported via text message, transmitting what appeared to be audio recordings of the blasts. It was unclear how many people were killed in the Monday barrages, as makeshift health care systems in eastern Aleppo collapsed, but residents described seeing bodies on the streets because no one could pick them up. On the government side, eight people were killed by rebel shelling on Monday, state news outlets reported. The Russian news media said the two nurses were killed by shelling on an Aleppo park that had been turned by the army into a field hospital for the displaced. They were among the deaths of Russian military personnel helping Mr. Assad. Russia’s military assistance has been crucial to keeping the government afloat, and Russia has been providing food and services to people fleeing eastern Aleppo in the recent fighting, even as it has been blamed by the opposition for backing indiscriminate bombing by the government. Mr. Lavrov said he was confident that an agreement on a rebel withdrawal would be reached with the United States during talks to be held in Geneva starting on Tuesday or Wednesday. “Those armed groups who refuse to leave eastern Aleppo will be regarded as terrorists,” Mr. Lavrov told reporters. “We will treat them as such, as terrorists, as extremists and will support a Syrian Army operation against those criminal squads. ” | 1 |
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter We are having a New Moon in Scorpio on October 30th in most places around the world, and during the early hours of October 31st in Australia and New Zealand. It will occur at 5:38pm Universal Time ( click here for your time zone). New Moons bring in a new wave of energy for the upcoming month. It is the beginning of the first half of the lunar cycle, which is when the Moon is waxing (gaining light), while the Full Moon is the transition into the second half, when the Moon is waning (losing light). Therefore, the energy of the New Moon serves as more of a guidepost for those first 10-14 days of the cycle. Scorpio: Powerful, Deep, Intense, and Passionate Scorpio is a primal and passionate sign about desires, fears, and intensity. As a ‘fixed sign’ ruled by Mars and Pluto, it holds a high concentration of power that can be used to control or to transform. It likes and seeks what is real and refrains from anything that is lacking substance. The deep merging of two individuals or parties, whether it be sexually, financially, or resourcefully, is Scorpio territory. This sign seeks loyalty, yet it must be earned after a period of being under scrutiny. It wants to know what is hidden beneath the surface to decide on how much trust is to be earned. Scorpio is about being willing to look at and even embrace the deepest, darkest, and scariest aspects of others, oneself, and the world around us. It is the sign of death and rebirth, love and hate, as it is the sign of extremes. An example of all of this is how we have Halloween followed by ‘All Saints Day’, and then followed by ‘All Souls Day’ back to back during Scorpio season. The shadow side of Scorpio is that it can be manipulative and controlling in a very calculated way. While the scrutinizing of others is to gain trust, it can also be about getting some sort of advantage to have more control over a person or situation. Although Scorpio seeks hidden aspects of others, it can be very guarded about one’s own secrets. New Moon Conjunct Mercury and Trine Neptune Mercury is also in Scorpio moving away from a conjunction with the Sun that was exact 3 days before on October 27th. In the days leading up to this New Moon, many people could have experienced important communications, ideas, deep thoughts, or some sort of mental efforts towards joint resources/efforts, money, sexuality, and/or some sort of strategy. Whatever it is, think of it as something that has been ‘gathered’ or ‘set-up’ to be implemented or expanded on in this moon cycle and in the coming months. The New Moon (with Mercury separating) is also in a trine with Neptune, which could assist us with our imagination, creativity, intuition, dreams, visions, and spiritual connection. Due to the nodes also being involved, there may also be a connection with how our past can help our future. For some lovers, it can be a time of feeling like soulmates. This energy is strong until November 2nd. Venus Conjunct Saturn, Mars In Capricorn Square Uranus The day before the New Moon, Venus made a conjunction with Saturn, which initiated a new 14 month cycle between the two. Venus is about fun, love, relationships, beauty, and pleasure while Saturn is serious and more concerned with responsibilities, structure, discipline, and commitments. Therefore, many of us will experience some sort of merging of these themes both in either favourable or unfavourable ways. Occurring in Sagittarius, it can be related to our beliefs, visions, travel, education, publishing, or marketing. Mars, a ruler of Scorpio, has been in the ambitious sign of Capricorn since September 27th. This has been an excellent time to really make things happen in terms of reaching our goals, and it will last until November 8th/9th. During this New Moon, Mars is separating from a square with Uranus which was stronger in the 2 days prior. At worst, their could have been sudden change, separation, instability, and the need to take some sort of action as a result. For some people, it could have of been rebellion or wanting to break free from a controlling situation. In other cases it could of positively brought innovation towards our ambitions. These are just some examples of how it could be manifested, but whatever it is for each of us, it has created the landscape for some new beginnings. Mercury and Sun Sextile Pluto, Venus Trine Uranus During the first week of the Moon cycle, Mercury (followed by the Sun) will be in a harmonious aspect with Pluto in Capricorn. Pluto, being the modern ruler of Scorpio, indicates that this is an excellent time to expand on what was initiated during the previous week when Mercury was conjunct the Sun. Powerful thoughts, communication, or deep research to assist us in our careers, managing or earning resources/money, or implementing some sort of structure or strategy to help gain some of sort of success and fulfill a goal. Venus is trine Uranus and will be strongest on November 4th-5th. This can be a fun and exciting time, and luckily it will fall on the weekend. This is a great time to connect with people, attend social events, especially since Venus is in Sagittarius, it is a good time to explore and try new things that can bring you enjoyment. This can be a great time for lovers as well with potential breakthroughs. Things To Consider And Making Intentions For This New Moon Look at everything that has played out for you in the last week prior to this New Moon. The next 10 days following it is a significant time to make a great effort to expand on what has been initiated, and take steps to move beyond anything challenging that has occurred. Your intentions for this Lunar Month should be related to improving on and/or facilitating the positive qualities of Scorpio energy into your life. This includes (but not limited to) improving your ability to earn or manage money/resources, tapping into and harnessing your inner power and sexual energy better, facing your fears, trying to understand complex things, seeing beyond fakeness or deceit, and becoming more in touch with what is real. The best time to make your intentions for the Moon cycle is during the first 24 hours following the New Moon but it could even be done within the first 3 days. The closer to the New Moon, the better. The exact time will be at 5:38pm Universal Time, but you can click here to find out what it will be in your time zone. — Have you ever had a personal astrology reading? For a limited time, Carmen is offering a 33% discount on personalized readings/consultations based on your exact birth date, time, and location. Click here for more information.
The Sacred Science follows eight people from around the world, with varying physical and psychological illnesses, as they embark on a one-month healing journey into the heart of the Amazon jungle.
You can watch this documentary film FREE for 10 days by clicking here.
"If “Survivor” was actually real and had stakes worth caring about, it would be what happens here, and “The Sacred Science” hopefully is merely one in a long line of exciting endeavors from this group." - Billy Okeefe, McClatchy Tribune | 0 |
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