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Feds: 275,000 born to illegals in 1 year 7% of all U.S. births, would fill city size of Orlando Published: 1 min ago
(WASHINGTON EXAMINER) Moms in the United States illegally gave birth to 275,000 babies in 2014, enough birthright U.S. citizens to fill a city the size of Orlando, Florida, according to an analysis of data from the National Center for Health Statistics.
The data showed that newborns to illegals accounted for 7 percent of all births in 2014, according to the analysis from the Pew Research Center. | 0 |
Only one American has ever won an Olympic gold medal in judo: Kayla Harrison. And she has won two, in London in 2012 and in Rio this year. Yet despite her achievements, Harrison is the country’s famous judoka. No. 1 is her former roommate Ronda Rousey, who won a bronze medal in 2008 and went on to fame, fortune and magazine covers as the fighter in mixed martial arts. Now Harrison, 26, plans to follow her into the cage, in the World Series of Fighting organization. “If you had peeked through our apartment window in 2007 and said, ‘One of you is going to win two Olympic gold medals, and one is going to become a sports icon,’ we both would have said: ‘What are you talking about? We’re eating ramen noodles and barely getting by,’” Harrison said. “Four years ago, if I wanted to be an M. M. A. athlete, it’s not something a female could really make a lot of money doing. ” Harrison said. Referring to Rousey, she added: “She trailblazed a way for girls like me who want to make some money. I’m hoping to stand on top of her shoulders and continue to have judo girls kill it in the cage. ” It will be quite a change for Harrison. The world of Olympic sports like judo is vastly different from the colorful, crazy scene of mixed martial arts. When asked about a possible career in mixed martial arts after winning her second gold medal, in August, Harrison said, “I don’t know if I’m cut out for a world where you get fights by how pretty you are and how you talk. ” She stands by that remark, but said: “The World Series of Fighting is looking to bring some legitimacy to the sport, and have real athletes who are treated like real athletes, not W. W. E. superstars. I hope to see it go more toward the professional route versus the entertainment route, but I’m not in charge. ” The man who is, Carlos Silva, the chief executive, said: “I want people to perceive it as a sport, not just a show. A big part of that is adding sporting people like Kayla. ” Harrison competed in judo at 172 pounds but expects to fight at 145 pounds. (Such discrepancies are not unusual Rousey competed in judo at 154 but fights in the Ultimate Fighting Championship at its highest weight class, 135.) Women at 145 pounds have been somewhat overlooked in mixed martial arts in favor of smaller fighters. The World Series of Fighting expects to add athletes to build up the division with its new star in mind. The biggest name in the heavier division is Cristiane Justino, known universally as Cyborg. Currently signed with the U. F. C. she is a fearsome competitor with a record and a brutal knockout punch. A match between her and Rousey, if it could be arranged, would undoubtedly be one of the biggest in mixed martial arts history. The bigger Harrison, though, might be a more natural matchup for Cyborg down the road. “I’m not going to go out in my first fight and fight Cyborg,” Harrison said. “That would be crazy. ” But she admitted: “I had a dream the other night that I was fighting Cyborg and I got her in an armbar and I broke her arm. But she wouldn’t tap, so I choked her unconscious. ” In Rio, when Harrison was asked about a possible career in mixed martial arts, her longtime coach, Jimmy Pedro, sitting next to her, was seen shaking his head. “That pretty much sums up how he and his father feel about it,” Harrison said of Pedro and his father, known as Big Jim. “They just feel like I’ve accomplished everything an athlete could ever dream of, having such an amazing career in judo. And I think personally they don’t want to see me put that all on the line and see me get hurt. ” Still, Harrison will continue to work with the Pedros, as well as adding training in disciplines like boxing and wrestling. She said her serious training will begin in January. Harrison has no timetable for her first fight. She will start her mixed martial arts experience as a commentator for the World Series of Fighting’s card at the Theater at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 31. The event will feature three championship bouts, including lightweight champ Justin Gaethje against João Zeferino. For a judoka transitioning into mixed martial arts, the biggest issue is striking, which is not allowed in judo. “I feel I have a great base, because judo is takedowns and finishes, armbars, chokes,” Harrison said. “When you’re doing judo, you’re gripping, your hands are moving, so I already have that spatial awareness for striking, which I think gives me an advantage learning a new sport. “I’ve been doing the same thing for 20 years. Everything I do in judo I learned in the first six months with the Pedros. Now I’m learning new things. I’m learning heel hooks and knee bars and a jab and a hook, uppercuts. It’s invigorating. ” Still, Harrison is aware that the differences are there, and that they are real. Soon, for the first time, she will be hitting people in the face, and being hit in the face in return. “Judo is controlled violence,” she said. “Judo in Japanese means ‘the gentle way.’ It’s about disarming your opponent or defending yourself, but never killing them. But M. M. A. is gladiating. So, yeah, I’m scared. Absolutely. I would be foolish not to be. ” | 1 |
The Most Interesting Chart In The World - Part 2 By Lee Adler. In Part 1 of this report you saw the rollercoaster shape of the European Central Bank balance sheet. The ECB’s assets grew massively under the long term loan program known as LTRO in 2011 and 2012. Then the central bank’s assets fell just as massively when the ECB allowed those loans to be repaid. You need to login to view this content.
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David Stockman's Contra Corner is the only place where mainstream delusions and cant about the Warfare State, the Bailout State, Bubble Finance and Beltway Banditry are ripped, refuted and rebuked. Subscribe now to receive David Stockman’s latest posts by email each day as well as his model portfolio, Lee Adler’s Daily Data Dive and David’s personally curated insights and analysis from leading contrarian thinkers. | 0 |
Growing up as a member of the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona, Brian Howard attended an elementary school that was within the boundaries of Phoenix and beyond those of his reservation. There, in the third grade, he was first called “redskin. ” Did the white classmate intend it as a term of endearment, akin to buddy? Or was it used as a verbal fist, intended to hurt and to sting? “A slur,” said Mr. Howard, 28, a legislative associate for the National Congress of American Indians. “Oh, yeah. Yes. ” But the widespread acceptance of the term as a pejorative — “now considered by many to be an offensive term,” according to Webster’s New World College Dictionary — has apparently been tossed into linguistic uncertainty by a recent Washington Post poll that centers on the name of a certain professional football team. Suddenly, the poll seems to suggest, “redskin” is not so bad after all, raising the question of how society should decide what constitutes a slur. After all, if the victims of the term are not offended, then. … According to the poll, nine of 10 Native Americans said they took no offense in the name of the Washington Redskins, a contentious, litigious issue that has pitted advocates against the team’s owner, Daniel Snyder, and Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the National Football League. In addition, the poll — a survey of 504 people across the country — found that more than 70 percent of those questioned said they did not consider “redskin” to be disrespectful to Native Americans. What’s more, 80 percent said they would not be offended if called that name by someone who was not an American Indian. (An interesting might be to spend a day or two at, say, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, walking up to random members of the Oglala Lakota community and calling them “redskin” — and recording how well that goes over.) The poll’s results have been interpreted as some kind of vindication for Mr. Snyder. It also led to a humbling admission by Robert McCartney, a longtime Washington Post journalist who had written many opinion articles calling on his favorite football team to drop the name, which he considered a racial slur. While acknowledging that he remains “deeply uncomfortable” with the term, Mr. McCartney said that “it’s unsettling to learn now that I vented all that energy and passion on behalf of such a small fraction of the Native American population. ” The connotation of words can evolve over time. Not long ago, for example, “queer” was considered a pejorative for gays and lesbians now it has become what linguists call a reclaimed epithet — a word adopted by a group in empowering defiance. In addition, accepted use might depend on the circumstances: The sharing of a certain racial slur among does not entitle white people to use that term, so freighted is its ignominious history. Things can change in a mere generation. As a boy in Boston in the 1970s and early 1980s, Eugene Chay identified himself as Oriental, or . It was the accepted term. “I grew up using ‘Oriental’ and being referred to as ‘Oriental,’” recalled Mr. Chay, who is a senior staff lawyer for a civil rights organization called Advancing Justice. But by the Mr. Chay had become aware of a shift in the language — of the growing sentiment that “Oriental” was geocentric, ethnocentric, and disparaging to Asians. It was a rhetorical tool of separation and otherness, he said. “We didn’t refer to people in the West as Occidental,” he said. “I eventually reached a point in my teens where I did not want to be referred to as Oriental, and where I took to task people who referred to me as Oriental. I asked to be referred to as Asian. ” But redskin? Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguist at the University of California, Berkeley, who served as an expert for Native Americans petitioning to have the federal government cancel the Washington Redskins organization’s trademark registration, said the term was a qualified form of a reclaimed epithet. Some scholastic teams in Indian country have nicknames that include Redskins and Braves, he said, sort of as a way to say, “If you want redskin savages, then we’ll give you redskin savages. ” “It’s used in those schools in that reclaimed way,” Mr. Nunberg said. “But that doesn’t license its use by third parties. ” The term has come to be associated with hostility, and savagery, and a mélange of popular culture stereotypes that include “F Troop” and “Davy Crockett,” removed in some way from the fact of sustained genocide and mistreatment. “A word can be offensive simply because of its history,” Mr. Nunberg said. “You can’t pluck this term out of its history and say, ‘Because my intentions are honorable, it’s O. K.’” Debra Krol, a journalist in Arizona and an enrolled member of the Xolon Salinan Tribe, on the central coast of California, characterized the opposition to the term as symptomatic of the broader movement by blacks, Latinos and to “strip our language of these terms that are offensive, demeaning. ” “These terms make it easier for people to think of us Indians as not really Americans,” she said. “Kind of like of a person that blacks used to be under the U. S. Constitution. ” Ms. Krol also said there was disagreement among American Indians about the seriousness of the issue. “There are a lot of people out there who have a problem with it,” she said. “But there are a lot of other people who really don’t care either way — who say we have bigger problems to worry about than a sports team’s mascot and a name. ” But Tara Houska, a tribal lawyer and a member of the Couchiching First Nation in Canada, along the Minnesota border, pointed out that during the American Indian Movement of the 1960s, tribal leaders across the country cited mascots and team names like the Redskins and the Cleveland Indians as racist and dehumanizing. “This goes back long before I was born,” said Ms. Houska, 32, who helped organize a protest in Minneapolis in 2014 against the appropriation of Indian culture for team names and mascots. She questioned the methodology of the Post poll — which mirrored the results of a poll conducted in 2004 by the Annenberg Public Policy Center — saying that a survey of 504 people could hardly represent the feelings of 5. 2 million Native Americans. She also said that those who clung to family lore — of, say, being part Cherokee on their mother’s side — had experiences profoundly different from those who actually lived the Native American life, whether on or off a reservation. And, she said, the damage has been documented. A decade ago, the American Psychological Association recommended the immediate retirement of Native American mascots and symbols, in part because they appear “to have a negative impact on the of American Indian children. ” Ms. Houska, who lives in Washington, said she was bracing for all the people who would be waving the poll in her face — “the poll, the poll, the poll” — and saying she had no right to be offended by the name of the local football team. That the matter is even up for debate baffles her. “It’s a slur,” she said. “It’s a racial slur. It should be a — but somehow, it’s not. ” | 1 |
HE KNEW | 0 |
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The former Assistant Minority Counsel to the Watergate committee, Michael Madigan, has described comparisons between the Watergate scandal and the firing of FBI Director James Comey’s as “bordering on the absurd. ”[Since Trump’s decision to fire Comey last week, a number of politicians and commentators have compared it to the 1972 Watergate scandal that led to Richard Nixon’s resignation. Earlier this week, former Comey associates leaked a memo asserting that Trump asked him not to investigate his former national security adviser Mike Flynn over his meeting with the Russian ambassador. However, Michael Madigan, currently the Democratic speaker for the Illinois House of Representatives, dismissed the claims, pointing to the fact that numerous Democrats had previously called for Comey’s dismissal. In a statement, he said: Having served as Assistant Minority Counsel to the late Senators Howard Baker and Fred Thompson, it borders on the absurd to hear the comparisons from a gaggle of politicians and pundits between Watergate and the firing of the FBI Director by President Trump. Leaving aside that numerous Democrats have themselves ‘demanded’ the firing of Comey and that Comey himself notes that the FBI Director can be fired for ‘no reason’ at all, the comparisons are not only blatant partisan nonsense, they diminish the historic process which lead to President’s Nixon’s resignation in the summer of 1974. Watergate involved a clear crime for which those involved were indicted, tried in a jury trial or pleaded guilty to clear criminal actions. Having missed the mark with such comparisons, this politically driven gaggle has now moved on to argue that our President’s suggestion (if there was one) that the FBI should have its priorities in stopping the damaging leaks around classified information and not chasing down a former employee is equally weak and frankly an insult to both Democrats and Republicans who served this country so well at a critical time under the impartial guidance of Senators Ervin and Baker. You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart. com | 1 |
Mr. Denton, a Times photographer, and Mr. Gordon, a Times military correspondent, are with Kurdish forces near Sheikh Amir, Iraq, on the eastern approach to Mosul. The Kurdish pesh merga forces started their advance by moonlight, in the early hours of Monday. East of the Islamic city of Mosul, columns of tanks and trucks lumbered their way toward the objective: clearing villages of militants before any broader advance on the city could happen. As day broke, the vehicles piled off the roads to avoid any improvised bombs and began moving across the dusty Nineveh plain toward the villages. The tank fire began, booming across the distance. Soon the crawl became a run. Thick funnels of black smoke began rising from the towns — a past tactic used by the Islamic State militants, setting oil barrels aflame to try to screen them from American airstrikes. The strikes came anyway, sending shock waves through the haze. The campaign to retake Mosul was officially underway. In the weeks ahead, officials are planning an array of efforts by Iraqi security forces, allied militias, Kurdish forces and air support from the United States as the assault reaches to the city — the most critical population center captured by the militants in their blitz across Iraq in 2014, and now their last major stronghold in the country. But in the opening hours on Monday, the Kurdish advance on outlying villages east of Mosul was the main action. New York Times journalists traveled with one group of Kurdish fighters as they set out. Islamic State militants quickly showed that they were not going to abandon the villages without a fight: They unleashed at least five suicide vehicle bombs — the militant force’s take on weapons. Near the village of Badana, one vehicle packed with explosives streaked toward the Kurdish positions. A blast and a billowing plume of white smoke proclaimed its fate: Either a missile or airstrike had abruptly halted the suicide run, short of its target. One Kurdish officer, Col. Salar Jabar, put the final toll of the operation at five Kurdish dead and five wounded. Colonel Jabar, who uses a cane after surviving a attack this year, was understated about the challenge. “There was some resistance” was how he put it, insisting that his troops could handle it. As the Kurds settled into their positions, bulldozers came up to start making walls of sand outside some of the villages — berms against further car bomb attacks. Kurdish commanders insisted that they were satisfied by the day’s advance, which came in three main columns. Even so, fewer than half of the 10 or so villages they had encircled had been fully cleared, in painstaking and potentially dangerous operations to ensure that no Islamic State fighters were hiding in the settlements. And on Tuesday, Iraqi officials said the advance had halted indefinitely. The monumental challenge that lies ahead was becoming clear. After all, the ultimate objective of the combined assault is not to clear largely depopulated villages, but to reclaim a city of more than a million people that is defended by as many as 4, 500 Islamic State fighters. In preparation, the militants have filled trenches with oil, built tunnels and planted copious improvised bombs along the roads to the city and on the streets within it. “The Iraqi flag will be raised in the middle of Mosul and in each village and corner very soon,” Iraq’s prime minister, Haider promised early Monday as he announced the start of the assault. Mr. Abadi has closely tied his political fortunes to the retaking of Mosul, Iraq’s city, and his announcement of the operation, just before 2 a. m. was hours before the Kurds began their main push. Under the overall plan to retake Mosul, troops from Iraq’s counterterrorism unit are to link up with the pesh merga in coming days and press forward. That could be the first serious test of Iraq’s premier force in the fight for Mosul. But political tensions between the Kurds and the Iraqi government are a concern. Toward the end of the day, Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdish semiautonomous region, appeared with a senior Iraqi military officer, in a news conference intended to demonstrate that the two sides could work together, at least as far as fighting the Islamic State is concerned. There is little in the way of shelter or cover along the approaches the pesh merga were taking, and there are many other villages to clear. Smoke from some could be seen from miles away over the flat plain. The stark nature of the landscape points to another problem ahead: As fighting intensifies, hundreds of thousands of residents are expected to pour out of the city — even though the United States and Iraqi forces are publicly urging the civilians to stay in their homes. “Basically, we have little less than a week,” Lise Grande, the top United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, said on Monday. Ms. Grande said that the United Nations had stockpiled supplies — including tents and shelters that can accommodate 400, 000 people at the ready — but that there were not yet enough sites ready for temporary camps. It is also unclear in which direction fleeing civilians will go. The military, Ms. Grande said, has drawn up secret escape routes for civilians that will be conveyed to residents inside Mosul as the battle progresses. This is a lesson from the battle of Falluja last summer, when the routes — known as humanitarian corridors — were targeted by the Islamic State after being made public. | 1 |
In another example of “fake news,” several journalists have spread unconfirmed speculation from a government agency to attack Breitbart — and, unsurprisingly, they were 100% wrong. [A USDA spokesperson told Washington Post writer Erik Wemple (pictured) that a Breitbart News article may have been the basis for a Fox News story about food stamp fraud. “We reported that back in 2016, $70 million were wasted on food stamp fraud. That was actually incorrect,” Fox and Friends Abby Huntsman said Friday, correcting a report she made on Tuesday. Huntsman’s retraction came at the behest of the USDA, according to Wemple. “We are not quite sure where this came from,” a USDA spokesperson reportedly told Wemple, adding “We saw that there was a story on Breitbart. We have not issued a report on this recently. There is no new rate that we’ve published. So we’re not quite sure why they’re so interested in stirring this up. ” The USDA spokesperson was correct Breitbart News did recently publish a piece about food stamps titled: “Under Obama, 10. 7 Million More Use Food Stamps — A 32 Percent Jump. ” However, nowhere in that article does the word “fraud” appear — not once. Wemple did not bother to mention that fact. Within hours of Wemple’s report, several journalists with Verified Twitter accounts used the quote from USDA to call Breitbart the “source” of Fox’s false report. Fox News falsely reported on a gov study, and you’ll be SHOCKED by who the source was pic. twitter. — Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) December 30, 2016, Wasn’t @FoxNews, it was @BreitbartNews that made it up. That outlet has had zero credibility sonce their namesake died. https: . — Benjamin Allbright (@AllbrightNFL) December 30, 2016, wait @FoxNews just invented a USDA report that doesn’t exist to claim food stamp fraud is at an high? https: . pic. twitter. — Jesse Lehrich (@JesseLehrich) December 30, 2016, So made up Breitbart nonsense gets sent to Fox News and it comes out of @HuntsmanAbby’s mouth? Not ok. pic. twitter. — Alex Leo (@AlexMLeo) December 30, 2016, Once again, even by Fox News’ ”standards” this fake report they got from Breitbart is despicable. Sham journalism. https: . — Erick Fernandez (@ErickFernandez) December 30, 2016, Fox News and Breitbart cite USDA to claim fraud is at an high. USDA says that’s false#FakeNewshttps: . — Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) December 30, 2016, These outraged individuals did not produce a link to any recent Breitbart article claiming record food stamp fraud — before accusing the site of having “zero credibility” and trafficking in “sham journalism. ” whoa this is a very serious charge, can u specify the link where that happened so we can fix https: . — Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) December 30, 2016, So far, only Mother Jones’ Kevin Drum appears to have investigated the claim, concluding that “the recent Breitbart piece didn’t even mention fraud. I checked. ” | 1 |
— Don't Panic (@dd42bb) October 30, 2016 @mattzap That sounds like the worst possible answer.
— DC Dude (@DCDude1776) October 30, 2016
That’s not entirely unbelievable, seeing as Weiner was up to all sorts of things he wasn’t eager to share with the wife. Then again, it’s not a great defense to mount when trying to counter charges that Hillary Clinton and her aides at the State Department were extremely careless with their handling of sensitive materials. Trending If Hillary wants to know what new information the FBI has, Sharyl Attkisson knows someone she could ask
That’s weird, though: the story before was that Abedin would forward government emails to her Yahoo mail account so she could print them for the boss, who liked paper copies so that she could relax to the familiar, comforting sound of the office shredder grinding away. But all someone had to do was log into her Yahoo account, and … @ktumulty She used his computer at least once to check her email or maybe he was checking her email. Spouses are known to do that. | 0 |
“The statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.” – Mark Twain ( source ) Award winning journalist Ben Swann shares a number of facts regarding the origin and creation of ISIS, the supposed terrorist group that seems to have replaced Al-Qaeda and, according to former FBI translator and founder of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC) Sibel Edmunds, has revived the “terror war industry.” When it comes to supposed “terrorist” attacks, it’s no secret that the government or the “powers that be” are involved in some way, shape, or form. We’ve seen this with Al-Qaeda, and various documents that have tied them to U.S. intelligence agencies like the CIA. We’ve also seen a lot of shady circumstances surrounding the “terrorist” attacks that occurred on 9/11; the evidence alone has approximately half of the American people believing it was an inside job – a simple Google search of the polls will show you that, and for the evidence we are referring to, you can access our articles on that topic here . “All three buildings were destroyed by carefully planned, orchestrated and executed controlled demolition.” – Professor Lynn Margulis, Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts at Amherst and National Academy of Science member, one of many academics who has been very outspoken regarding 9/11 ( source ) ( source ) All of this activity continues to be used as more justification for a heightened national security state, one in which citizens are being forced to give up their freedoms and privacy in order to be “protected” from such attacks. The entire national security state would crumble if people found out that it was their own government perpetrating these attacks, and this realization is finally beginning to leave the realm of conspiracy and enter into the realm of reality in the minds of the masses. It’s about time. “Most terrorists are false flag terrorists, or are created by our own security services. In the United States, every single terrorist incident we have had has been a false flag, or has been an informant pushed on by the FBI. In fact, we now have citizens taking out restraining orders against FBI informants that are trying to incite terrorism. We’ve become a lunatic asylum.” – David Steele, a 20-year Marine Corps intelligence officer, and the second-highest-ranking civilian in the U.S. Marine Corps Intelligence ( source ) The “terrorists” we are pointing our fingers at (or so I believe, along with many others, after having done careful research) are a creation of Western intelligence, used to justify the infiltration of other countries for ulterior motives. Those who usually do not believe that, almost one hundred percent of the time have not actually done any research, or examined the information for themselves. This is the power mainstream media has over us – if something is depicted on television, it’s instantly believed without question. Any other explanation which does not come from a major mainstream media outlet (like CNN, for example), or fit the framework of accepted knowledge, seems to be met with harsh resistance. This resistance comes despite the fact that a tremendous amount of evidence is available in the form of videos, documents, and whistle-blowers, yet a large majority of people still refuse to do any research for themselves, or again, believe something contrary to what Western media is telling them. “The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al-Qaeda, and any informed intelligence officer knows this. But, there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an intensified entity representing the ‘devil’ only in order to drive TV watchers to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the United States.” – Former British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook
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Trump and the Power of Money
By Peter Koenig
" PIPR " - Imagine, Donald Trump would accede to the US Presidency, an unlikely event with the presstitute media relentlessly slamming, slashing and demonizing him, not unlike they do with President Putin while cheering no-end for the warmonger Killary, no matter what atrocities she has on her hands and body, no matter that blood is dripping out of her mouth every time she opens it like Iraq, Libya, Syria, Palestine, Afghanistan, Sudan and more, much more. They, the elite, the military-security complex, the financial mafia, want more blood, more than is already covering the entire current Obama Administrations structure of psychopaths. Blood is weapons, blood is money, blood is more profit, blood is good for business so said the Washington Post, just slightly translated from war is good for business. The warmongering MSM (mainstream media) also propagate for more weapons to enrich the military-security complex that pays them. But just for a moment, lets assume, Trump would get elected with such a large margin that voter fraud would be difficult to manage.
Trump is sending a different narrative from that of eternal war. Trump seems to be looking into a different direction. He essentially says stop the conflict with Russia, make Russia a partner, stop outsourcing jobs, bring them back, give labor back to Americans, slash the unemployment rate which is, of course, everybody knows, way above the silly fabricated 5%. The reality is that unreported but real unemployment in the US is hovering between 22% and 25%, a real hammer for the economy, increasing anger and unhappiness and crime. Trump also says in the same vein as bringing back jobs STOP globalization, restrain NATO, rein in the banks yes, Wall Street, the Goldman Sachs-es and Co. of this world of fake pyramid money, dominated by the Rothschild-Rockefeller-Morgan clan. Trump says, lets have a financial system that works for the people.
Does he mean it? I dont know. Could be true. Most of what he says makes sense for America, for Americans and by extension for much of the rest of the world, especially Europe, the genuine Europe, not the puppet-commandeered Europe. He also says a lot of outright discriminatory and xenophobic rubbish like building a wall separating Mexico from the US of A, emulating Israel; and propagates a crackdown on Moslems. Does he mean it? Or does he want to please potential voters? Such statements are indeed dangerous rubbish, but they are secondary to all the other things that are PRIORITARY, as they would help restore American society, workforce, dignity most important: DIGNITY. Dignity is important for Americans to wake up to realize that they are living in a country that wastes their money, the peoples resources on countless criminal wars around the world, feverishly racing towards Full Spectrum Dominance to benefit a few. The secondary stuff is important too, but can be dealt with in parallel by Americans that have come to senses.
Trump is in many ways like Frances Marine LePen, representing the extreme right, and therefore, no matter what sensible things she says and has on her agenda to do and I dont doubt one minute that she means what she says like EUREXIT and send NATO to hell she is still framed by the left intellectuals if such a thing still exists in our neoliberal universe as a discriminatory xenophobe who would expel all colored and veiled foreigners. Of course, thats bad. But let her first initiating France exiting from the EU, the Euro and NATO the likely salvation of Europe, then tackle the other issues. First comes first. A true intellectual left would have to understand that and not bend to the presstitute promoted clichés.
Trump has enough money power. He doesnt have to bend to the military security complex, to the banks, to the Obamacare pharma-fiefdom. He doesnt really have to bend to anybody. That worries the elite. He is independent. Lets give him the benefit of the doubt. In no case could he be worse than Hillary the killer so much can be read from every word she says. Her pattern of pathology We came, we saw, we won , when she saw the bloodstained image of the NATO-slaughtered Ghaddafi indicates that she would not stop from pressing this infamous Red Button of Death and total world annihilation perhaps even repeating that same smirk, , We came, we saw, we won .
Now lets go to the next hypothesis, assuming Trump would be elected and they the elusive high-powered small elite that pulls the strings on Washington and the White Houses overseas puppets, and lets assume they would let him live, at least for a while, Trump might be doing irrational things in the eye of the Beltway slaves. Recognizing the perils for his own country and those for his neighbor, Canada, Mr. Trump might call on the western stooges, in Europe particularly, who for the sake of brown-nosing the naked king in Washington, are prepared to sell-out 500-plus million European and their future generations to the most nefarious trade deals the world has ever known CETA, TTIP and TiSA (let alone the TPP, where 12 Pacific countries are about to kiss ass in Washington) telling them to come to senses, think democracy and stop the deals that 80% or more of Europeans despise and reject.
As a parenthesis and philosophically speaking, one could say that given the hundreds of years of colonization around the globe, of shameless exploitation, of raping and killing millions of people throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America, that these trade deals are Europes historically deserved heritage.
The Saker wrote a great essay on the aberration of this upcoming election and what might follow after the election, The US Is About To Face The Worst Crisis in Their History http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45729.htm . One of the articles commenters pinned it down to the point: If Trump does become Commander in Chief, his first job will be securing his life. Those who really run the show in the US will stop at nothing to safeguard their empire. Truly the US is at a cross roads and by extension the world. Times are really scary .
What Trump says he would do during his first 100 days in office, he presented in a groundbreaking speech at Gettysburg, Pa. this past weekend, is for the most part truly astounding http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2016/10/24/donald-trump-delivers-a-powerful-policy-speech-on-his-first-100-days-in-office/ . It is not less than revolutionary, because no US politician, let alone a Presidential candidate or President has said something for the most part so sensible as did Presidential candidate Trump. Summarizing, he promises bringing back overseas jobs, would prevent the continued outsourcing of the American production processes, bring order to the crime-ridden communities, he would seek friendly partnership with Russia, defusing the WWIII threat and he would tackle, restrain and control the corrupt banking system, including the endless money-making machine, the privately owned, Rothschild dominated FED. That is a challenge other Presidents have failed to master, including Lincoln and JFK. We know how they ended.
Trump has already hinted that to revive the American economy the zero-interest policy may have to be changed, so that banks become more responsible. The owners off the system would hardly allow Trumps interference in their obscene profit-making scheme. Theyd rather at their calling let the bomb loose. A sudden change of this policy would hit many over-stretched banks like a bombshell reminiscent of 2008 Lehman Brothers, just magnified by a factor of 10. There are currently at least three, possibly five Wall Street giants that are on the edge. They get by, because of the FEDs zero interest policy- and they make sure that this doesnt change, as several if not all of them are part of the private FED system. Would Trump dare touching this system? Its a deadly challenge. He knows it.
This time there may be more at stake then just another banking collapse, a planned emulation of the 2007 / 2008 crisis, where Wall Street was copiously rewarded for its excesses by tax-money bail-outs. Be aware, this time it would not be tax-payers money that would rescue the Too-Big-To Fail (TBTF) banks, but it would be YOUR money, your deposits, your savings, your pension funds, possibly even your shares if you have any in the bank being collapsed and the process would be called bail-ins.
The (western) world is under the hegemon of a privately-owned money system, the US-dollar and most people dont even know it. The accent is on the western world , because the east, comprising Russia, China, the SCO countries (Shanghai Cooperation Organization comprising China and Russia and most of the Central Asian former Soviet Republics, plus Iran and Pakistan and others are waiting in the wings), the EEU (Eurasian Economic Union), as well as most of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), are forming their own eastern economic and monetary block. I have said this before, but will repeat it for readers to realize this economic block is largely, if not entirely, delinked from the dollar scheme. It consists of about half the worlds population and one third of the worlds GDP, a solid GDP that is. In contrast to the western, especially the US GDP; in the eastern block much of the GDP is based on real labor output and manufacturing.
In reality, this eastern economic power block which is also displaying the worlds largest economic development potential, since history remembers, the New Silk Road or the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) economic development scheme, stretching from Vladivostok to Lisbon (if Europe chooses to participate), does not need the west anymore. The OBOR project has already begun. It represents a view into the future, with job opportunities and the outlook for a truly better life for hundreds of millions, possibly billions of people during coming generations a dynamic vision for the future. The east is where the future lays.
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Donald Trump as President notwithstanding, a new western well-planned banking collapse may start in the US, the ramifications and impact would be felt around the globe sinking millions, hundreds of millions of people into poverty, misery, the like we havent seen in recent history. The banks depositors money might not be enough. The reptiles are hungry. They might privatize public properties, infrastructures, roads, ports railways, health care, education, pensions, natural resources anything that is still in the hands of the people. If Greece is a reminder, then think of Greece blown up by a factor of 1000 all around the globe, touching in extremis the vulnerable people of the vulnerable countries billions of people. While the money flows again from the poor to the rich, to an ever-shrinking pool of super-rich; widening the rich-poor gap to a disgusting yawn. Leaving the 99.99 % by now the 99. % ever more powerless, having to fend for sheer survival seeking refuge in better lands Its a war by money. Canons, bombs and guns could rest for a while.
For years, I have felt the Empire will have to be brought down from inside from the people who cant take it anymore, from an internal revolt that eventually would break the worldwide extended monsters back. Rome and most subsequent empires have fallen this way. It may still happen. But now I side more with The Sakers theory, namely that the defeat may come from a combination of inside revolt and outside forces, not so much military forces, but economic forces. In theory, it could happen tomorrow. Just imagine, the one third of world-GDP-countries would drop all their dollar reserves, all the dollar denominated international contracts, all dollar issued trade agreements and in particular, abandon at once the unwritten rule of hydrocarbons to be traded only in US-dollars. It would most likely wipe out the western economy.
This will not happen, of course. Simply, because the One Third GDP holders do not want to destroy the economy of the rest of the world, especially the so-called developing and emerging countries, many or most of them eventually to become allies of this eastern block that promises peaceful co-existence rather than the current western pattern of ever multiplying wars and conflicts a sheer dollar-fed killing spree, with destruction and weapons manufacturing no end.
The Power of Money. Would Donald Trump, as President, himself a moneyed powerhouse, survive such a calamity? In fact, would he be able and strong enough to veer the ship around, guiding the world away from such destructive scenarios and towards peace and cooperation between East and West? Or is the train already too far out of the station? No telling at this time. The signals are certainly not good. But, lets put in a grain of optimism and bank on a positive strand of dynamics fueled by an increasing human consciousness one that would not allow Hillary to push the Death Button.
Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a former World Bank staff and worked extensively around the world in the fields of environment and water resources. He writes regularly for Global Research, ICH, RT, Sputnik, PressTV, The 4th Media, TeleSUR, TruePublica, The Vineyard of The Saker Blog, and other internet sites. He is the author of Implosion An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! Essays from the Resistance .
John Pilger : The specter haunting Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America: | 0 |
Next Swipe left/right Attack of the Clones translated into Chinese and back to English makes for hilarious subtitles
KnifeOfPi2 over on Reddit writes, “I translated Attack of the Clones into Chinese and back to English.
“Here are the hilariously mangled subtitles for The Second Gathers: The Duplicate Offensive.” 1.
palpatine begs to change his gender 3.
anakin is adamant that research is research. a wise position. 4.
that is a lot of breakups, anakin! 5.
padme is a lesbian now. 6.
this guy doesn’t care much for jedi. 7.
anakin: “the chancellor doesn’t appear to be corrupt” 9.
obi-wan: “why do i get the feeling you’re going to be the death of me?” 10.
anakin thinks the chancellor is… a map. 11.
yoda thinks there are too many jedi 12.
padme doesn’t want to hold jar jar’s bottle 13.
dex admits he’s blind. 16.
obi-wan: “kamino, i’m not familiar with it. is it in the republic?” 17.
apparently those kaminoans have nice looking cd burners 18.
obi-wan expresses his frustration with the computer. 19.
padme informs anakin she’s going to kill him. 20.
yoda teaches the younglings how to use tinder 22.
yoda tells the younglings about a failed romance 23.
yoda urges obi-wan to destroy the evidence 24.
…but then realizes that it can’t be done. 25.
obi-wan introduces himself with a familiar name. 27.
padme decides to become celibate. 29.
lama su disputes that django pets is a bounty hunter. 30.
padme forgets who anakin is, and anakin doesn’t remember either 31.
interestingly, ‘sifo-dyas’ keeps getting translated as ‘obi-wan.’ i have no idea why, the names don’t even sound similar! 32.
jango reveals his former name 33.
anakin *knew* she wasn’t gone! 34.
anakin asks padme to resist her temptation to kiss the scar. 35.
obi-wan discusses medicare with r4-p17. 37.
obi-wan thinks pretty highly of the kaminoans 38.
anakin orders padme to stay right where she is. 39.
that doesn’t sound very good, watto. 40.
boba urges his father to take notes. 42.
“and miss padme. oh my.” 44.
cliegg is an avid gambler 45.
count dooku wants to conquer africa 46.
anakin: “n !” 47.
obi-wan decides to contact allah. (for those who don’t know, anakin was translated as ‘allah gold’ through much of backstroke of the west, so it’s not unusual to see it here.) 48.
anakin wants to learn how to die. impressive! 49.
anakin is furious that obi-wan hugged him 50.
…but padme assures anakin that anger is just another person. 51.
governor ray gun! that’s a sufficiently sci-fi name… 52.
the west strike again! (“a sith lord called darth sidious.”) yet another coincidence with backstroke. 54.
you two careful, he is a big 55.
dooku: “you’re impossibly outnumbered” 56.
well, that didn’t translate! 57.
the viceroy urges dooku to redo his makeup 58.
obi-wan: “what do you think padme would do were she in your position?” 60. 61.
mr. speaker, we are for the big
“”camino. I am not familiar. It is in Africa?”
I BLESS THE CLONES DOWN IN FRICA “, says dwrlewis .
“[The entire Prequel Trilogy, in a nutshell](https://i.imgur.com/Re18SEI.png)”, writes tristamgreen .
“EARTHQUAKE FEE!
“The best one is where it translated the Chancellor to Merkel :P”, says Chell_the_assassin .
“Yoda: “You must delete the email. You can delete these files hopeless.”
Dammit I was really looking forward to reading about Obi-Wan’s yoga routines as well… /s”, writes Veefy .
“*Padme does not want to hold Jar Jar’s bottle.*
O_O”, notes IamSnokeO_o .
“Find fuck and wan planets, we will.”, writes KnifeOfPi2 .
“”You must delete the e-mail”
Holy shit, thats relevant as fuck.”, notes joshthewumba .
“”You must delete the e-mail.”
CORRUPTION GOES ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP OF THE JEDI COUNCIL, FOLKS! CROOKED YODA!”, says whitemamba83 . | 0 |
The University of Arizona’s College of Humanities is instructing students to say “ouch!” when they are offended by a faculty member or classmate. [The guidelines for how to respond to offensive speech is outlined in a new handbook for faculty, which is entitled “Diversity and Inclusiveness in the Classroom. ” Students are instructed to use “ouch” to indicate that they have been offended. Offenders are instructed to use “oops” to signify their acknowledgment that their words have offended one of their peers. “This document is intended to be a resource for addressing difficult or challenging topics in the classroom. ” Although faculty members are not “required to utilize” the handbook, they are encouraged to utilize it so that they can best “engender the broadest possible perspectives” and “maximize free speech in the classroom,” as the handbook claims. Some criticized the public institution for the expense at which the “ ” initiative has been introduced. Jesus Trevino, the university’s Vice Provost for Inclusive Excellence, is paid $214, 000 per year to develop diversity and inclusion themed programming for the community and instructional material for the faculty. Similar programs have been introduced at other institutions around the country. Several schools have licensed a program from the website, ouchthatstereotypehurts. com, which is a $700 program that guides administrators in addressing racial aggressions on campus. Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about education and social justice for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart. com, | 1 |
CLINTON CASH 3.0: Chelsea Clinton Being Groomed To Buy Seat In Congress By NWO Handlers While Chelsea Clinton currently lives, and is registered to vote, in Manhattan, she could easily make Chappaqua her legal residence in order to run for Lowey’s seat when it becomes vacant. 11, 2016 While some pundits are declaring the Clinton political dynasty dead, sources tell us that it is far from over. Chelsea Clinton is being groomed for the New York seat held by Rep. Nita Lowey.
Chelsea Clinton could run for the seat in NYC’s 17th Congressional District once Lowey, a respected, 79-year-old career politician with nearly 30 years in office, decides to retire, we have exclusively learned.
Lowey’s district includes parts of Rockland and Westchester counties and, conveniently, Chappaqua, the Clinton family home base. Continuing the Clinton Crime Brand:
If you thought for one, fleeting second that the Clintons would just somehow walk away after Crooked Hillary’s rejection by the American people, think again. There are many more billions to be made, and many more state favors to sell and trade. So the baton gets passed to Chelsea. Congresswoman Chelsea Clinton. Thanks for the Congressional seat, mom and dad!
In August, Hillary and Bill Clinton purchased a home next door to their primary residence in Chappaqua for $1.16 million, which is intended for Chelsea, her husband, Marc Mezvinsky, and their two children, Charlotte and Aidan. While Chelsea currently lives, and is registered to vote, in Manhattan, she could easily make Chappaqua her legal residence in order to run for Lowey’s seat when it becomes vacant.
A source told us , “While it is true the Clintons need some time to regroup after Hillary’s crushing loss , they will not give up. Chelsea would be the next extension of the Clinton brand. In the past few years, she has taken a very visible role in the Clinton Foundation and on the campaign trail. While politics isn’t the life Hillary wanted for Chelsea, she chose to go on the campaign trail for her mother and has turned out to be very poised, articulate and comfortable with the visibility.”
The source continued, “There has been a lot of speculation within New York Democratic circles about Lowey’s retirement and Chelsea running for the seat. There is a belief that Chappaqua is a logical place for Chelsea to run, because it would be straightforward for her to raise money and build a powerful base.”
A spokesperson for Lowey — who is serving her 14th term in Congress and was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1988 — declined to comment. A spokesperson for Chelsea didn’t get back to us. source SHARE THIS ARTICLE | 0 |
The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee are moving quickly and aggressively to head off the fledgling effort to stage a revolt at their convention next month in Cleveland, hoping to spare the party an embarrassing spectacle that could deeply wound the presumptive nominee. They are employing tactics, warning delegates that attempting to undermine Donald J. Trump’s claim to the nomination violates party rules, and threatening to deny speaking slots to Republicans they deem disloyal for not backing him. “If there’s no endorsement, then I would not invite them to speak,” Mr. Trump said in an interview, adding that former rivals like Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio should not expect to address the convention if they continue to withhold their support. The R. N. C. and the Trump campaign are also installing loyal party stalwarts in key party positions to help ensure that they maintain control of the convention if rogue delegates attempt a disruption. And they are trying to discredit Republicans who are advocating an interpretation of party rules that would allow delegates to vote for anyone they want on the first ballot. Their moves are intended to buttress Mr. Trump as he confronts a faction of Republicans who, emboldened by his recent missteps, say their efforts to stage a convention coup are gaining more support. In the last week, prominent Republicans like House Speaker Paul D. Ryan and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin have breathed new life into these efforts by saying that delegates should be free to follow their consciences instead of being committed to back a candidate. Stopping the presumptive nominee at the convention — one who won 37 states and has an indisputable majority of delegates — would be an extraordinary affront and seems improbable at this point. But even if the forces fall short, the scene that threatens to unfold on national television would be an unwelcome one for Mr. Trump and the Republican Party: a band of angry, rebelling delegates trying to seize control of the convention and wrest away the nomination. Mr. Trump insisted in an interview last week that his opponents would fail to derail his nomination. “You mean to tell me we’re going to get the largest vote in the history of the Republican primaries,” he said, “and now the same people that either didn’t run or got beaten in a landslide are going to try and ?” “My supporters are tremendously loyal to me,” he added. “They would not stand for it. ” Such a approach would seem to create grim prospects for any kind of reconciliation with Mr. Cruz, who will command more than 500 delegates when the convention begins in three weeks. And to deny Mr. Cruz a speech — or for that matter Mr. Kasich, the governor of the state that is hosting the convention — would be a rare rebuke. Speeches by the are usually a draw at any convention, and usually a foregone conclusion for an event that is supposed to convey party unity and good will. But the speaking arrangements may not be entirely up to Mr. Trump. Because Mr. Cruz won a majority of delegates in at least eight states, he would probably be able to have his name entered into nomination, guaranteeing him a speech under party rules. For its part, the committee is leaving little to chance as it works closely with the Trump campaign in plotting the mechanics of the convention. The two have hired about a dozen operatives to ensure that the nominating vote goes off without a hitch. Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee chairman, has dispatched associates to reach out to delegates. And lawyers for the committee are advising state party leaders how to beat back the efforts, prompting party chairs from Minnesota to Washington State to issue admonitions to delegates who may be thinking of breaking their obligation to vote for Mr. Trump. Party officials are now gently reminding delegates that in the process of applying to be a delegate, many of them signed statements vowing to vote for the candidate to which they were pledged. Mr. Trump has the pledged support of more than 1, 500 delegates, the vast majority of whom were awarded to him based on party rules that allot the most delegates to the winner of each primary and caucus. The R. N. C. pushback has been strong in states that Mr. Trump lost, like Iowa and Minnesota. “The proposed ‘conscience exemption’ does not change anything for Minnesota, especially given each national delegate’ ’s signed pledge,” a message to Minnesota delegates from state party leaders said last week. Party officials are also working to thwart delegates who are encouraging a “conscience vote” based on the notion that Republican rules cannot bind anyone to any candidate. Freeing the delegates, known as unbinding, has been promoted for years by Curly Haugland, a committee official from North Dakota. Yet as his ideas gained currency, Mr. Haugland found that committee officials were sending out emails attempting to discredit him — like one forwarded to him by a delegate friend that read in part: “Curly Haugland is the originator of the ideas that are flooding the inboxes of delegates nationwide. He is the North Dakota National Committeeman who every four years challenges the Convention Rules — and loses. ” “It’s a total smear campaign,” Mr. Haugland said in an interview. But the forces are determined to push their cause. One activist, Steve Lonegan, who directed Mr. Cruz’s losing campaign in New Jersey, is now helping a political action committee that advocates letting delegates vote their consciences. The group, Courageous Conservatives, started running a radio ad in Iowa last week that urged people to call Steve Scheffler, a national committeeman in Iowa who is trying to quash the revolt, and demand “to let our delegates pick the best Republican to fight for our conservative values. ” Another group called Delegates Unbound has begun a nationwide ad campaign that implores, “Vote your conscience. ” Mr. Scheffler, who is among the 112 members of the convention’s rules committee, which could ultimately resolve the unbinding issue, said in an interview that he did not even vote for Mr. Trump in the Iowa caucuses. But he believes the will of the voters should be honored at the convention. “Don’t bellyache to me that you don’t like the process. It is what it is,” Mr. Scheffler said, noting that he did not plan to check his voice mail until after the convention. “The voters have spoken,” he added. “Why would 112 people say, ‘We don’t care what you did, we’re going to set our own rules? ’” One major hurdle the forces face is that the rules committee will be full of delegates like Mr. Scheffler, Republicans loyal to the party committee who might not have wanted Mr. Trump as the nominee but are nonetheless determined to keep the convention from turning into a debacle. Adding to those hurdles, Mr. Priebus has put in trusted loyalists to run the convention rules committee while working with the Trump campaign and state parties to make sure the most important committees are not stacked with unpredictable delegates. In that sense, the motives of the Trump campaign and the Republican Party have aligned after months of mutual mistrust. While party people are not necessarily Trump people, and Trump people are not necessarily party people, the two sides are now locked in a marriage of convenience. Mr. Trump is trying to protect his nomination, while the party is trying to protect the integrity of its nominating process. Peter Feaman, who will serve on the convention rules committee and has a long history with the party, including serving as Florida’s party chairman, called the talk of ditching Mr. Trump “a lot of sound and fury. ” “We’re going to ride the Trump bandwagon into 1600 Penn Ave. or into oblivion,” he added. “One or the other. ” | 1 |
Why Trump's Already In Trouble: Steve Bannon---Rightwing Statist By David Stockman. If Steve Bannon is going to be the chief White House political and policy strategist, Donald Trump is in deep trouble before he even gets started. But the problem is not the mainstream media's baseless caricature of him as some kind of white supremacist. What's actually troubling are the views on which the liberal press gives him a thumbs up... | 0 |
WASHINGTON — Giants in telecommunications, like Verizon and ATT, will not have to take “reasonable measures” to ensure that their customers’ Social Security numbers, web browsing history and other personal information are not stolen or accidentally released. Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase will not be punished, at least for now, for not collecting extra money from customers to cover potential losses from certain kinds of trades that helped unleash the 2008 financial crisis. And Social Security Administration data will no longer be used to try to block individuals with disabling mental health issues from buying handguns, nor will hunters be banned from using bullets, which can accidentally poison wildlife, on 150 million acres of federal lands. These are just a few of the more than 90 regulations that federal agencies and the Congress have delayed, suspended or reversed in the month and a half since President Trump took office, according to a tally by The New York Times. The emerging effort — dozens more rules could be eliminated in the coming weeks — is one of the most significant shifts in regulatory policy in recent decades. It is the leading edge of what Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s chief strategist, described late last month as “the deconstruction of the administrative state. ” In many cases, records show that the changes came after appeals by corporate lobbyists and trade association executives, who see a potentially historic opportunity to lower compliance costs and drive up profits. Slashing regulations, they argue, will unleash economic growth. On a near daily basis, regulated industries are now sending in specific requests to the Trump administration for more rollbacks, including recent appeals from 17 automakers to rescind an agreement to increase mileage standards for their fleets, and another from pharmaceutical industry figures to reverse a new rule that tightens scrutiny over the marketing of prescription drugs for unapproved uses. As of late Friday, word had leaked that the automakers’ request for a rollback was about to be granted, too. “After a relentless, regulatory onslaught that loaded unprecedented burdens on businesses and the economy, relief is finally on the way,” Thomas J. Donohue, the president of the United States Chamber of Commerce, wrote in a memo last week. But dozens of public interest groups — environmentalists, labor unions, consumer watchdogs — have weighed in on the potential threat to Americans’ . “Americans did not vote to be exposed to more health, safety, environmental and financial dangers,” said one letter, signed by leaders of 137 nonprofit groups to the White House last week. In other cases, the rules under attack have drawn objections even from some liberal groups that called them examples of overreach, like the American Civil Liberties Union’s protest of a system to block mentally ill people from buying guns. The regulatory retrenchment is unfolding on multiple fronts. Congress, with Mr. Trump’s approval, has erased three rules in the last month, lifting regulations related to coal mining and oil and gas exploration, as well as the sale of guns to the mentally ill. More than 25 more rules could also be erased in the coming weeks the House has already voted to eliminate nearly half. Mr. Trump has separately signed executive orders directing agencies to pursue the reversal of other rules, including a requirement that financial advisers act in the interest of their clients, and a rule aimed at protecting drinking water from pollution. New White House appointees at agencies including the Federal Communications Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency have also personally intervened in recent weeks to block, delay or start the process to nullify other rules, such as a requirement that corporations publish tallies comparing chief executive pay with average employee wages. The Trump administration has also imposed a broad regulatory freeze, instructing agencies to delay the adoption of any rules not already in effect, and to consider whether those rules should be targeted for elimination. And it has set up barriers to enact any new regulations — such as a requirement that for each new rule, at least two others must be identified for repeal — and ordered every federal agency to create a team of employees to look for more rules that can be eliminated. “By any empirical measure, it is a level of activity that has never been seen,” said Curtis W. Copeland, who spent decades studying federal regulatory policy on behalf of Congress while at the Congressional Research Service and the Government Accountability Office. “It is unprecedented. ” Mr. Trump, in his address to Congress last week, called it “a historic effort to massively reduce regulations,” a line that drew thunderous applause from Republicans. Presidents wield considerable influence over the process. They set the agenda and appoint the and, since the Reagan administration, a White House office has reviewed every major regulation to try to ensure that benefits to society exceeded compliance costs. It is not uncommon for new presidents to make quick changes in regulatory policy or try to reverse certain rules their predecessors enacted. Barack Obama, shortly after being elected president, pressed the E. P. A. to let the State of California set more stringent limits on auto emissions, a proposal that the Bush administration had rejected. But the courts have generally held that new administrations need to justify such reversals. The Reagan administration tried to rescind a rule requiring airbags in passenger vehicles. The courts found the move unjustified. “It is not a relevant or adequate defense to say that the president told us to do it,” said Michael Eric Herz, a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York. The Trump administration could face a host of similar challenges — the requirement that agencies must find two regulations to eliminate before enacting any new rules is already being challenged in federal court. In addition, Democratic attorneys general from New York, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Oregon and Vermont have threatened in recent days to sue the Trump administration to try to block some of the regulatory rollbacks. It is a radical role reversal for state attorneys general — their Republican colleagues spent the last eight years suing the federal government to block the enactment of many rules. Now the Democrats are planning to try to prevent many of these same rules from being revoked. “Demolish the administrative state? I don’t even know what that means,” Attorney General Maura Healey of Massachusetts said during a visit to Washington last week, where she and other state attorneys general met with Mr. Trump at the White House. The pushback has hardly deterred industry executives. The Business Roundtable, which represents some of the nation’s largest corporations and is led by Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, in gave Mr. Trump a wish list of 16 rules it wanted killed, including the mandatory disclosure of how much chief executives are paid compared with other employees, and a rule intended to curb the trade in minerals that might benefit militant groups in parts of Africa. Efforts to repeal at least 10 of those measures are underway. “The majority of these regulations directly and negatively impact economic growth,” the executives said in their letter, adding that they were convinced that rules could be repealed “without undermining critical protections for consumer health, safety and the environment. ” The reversals by federal regulators are happening, at times, at an extraordinary speed. Lawyers representing the National Mining Association, the American Petroleum Institute and other fossil fuel trade groups and companies asked the Interior Department on Feb. 17 to suspend a new rule changing the way these companies pay royalties for oil, gas or coal extracted from federal lands. While the lawyers called the requirement “impractical and in some cases impossible,” environmentalists and conservative nonprofit groups like Taxpayers for Common Sense praised the effort, saying that for decades energy companies had been underpaying the federal government. The new standard was expected to push up federal revenue by as much as $85 million annually. The Interior Department wrote the industry lawyers back five days later, telling them that the agency, after three years of backing the rule, would suspend enforcement of the new standards. “We agree you have raised serious questions,” the agency’s letter said. This shift in federal regulatory policy is already having implications for tens of thousands of citizens nationwide. Nearly two years ago, the Social Security Administration first moved to set up a new system that would automatically turn over to the Justice Department information it collects on Americans who are receiving federal benefits based on a disabling mental illness for inclusion in a database used for gun background checks. This would effectively prevent these individuals — an estimated 75, 000 a year — from buying guns unless they sought a Justice Department waiver after being rejected, given the longstanding federal limitation on the sale of firearms to individuals with known mental illnesses. Groups like the National Rifle Association, the A. C. L. U. and the National Alliance on Mental Illness objected to the provision, which had been scheduled to go into effect in January. They argued that it unfairly presumed a tendency toward violence by a wide range of people with mental disabilities, including conditions like bulimia and obsessive compulsive disorder. Mr. Trump signed legislation on Tuesday revoking that rule under the Congressional Review Act, which gives Congress a limited window to overturn the decisions of regulatory agencies. A total of 46 such Congressional Review Act resolutions are now pending in Congress, on topics including air pollution, unemployment compensation, endangered species listings, debit card fees and oil and gas drilling on federal lands as well as the Arctic Outer Continental Shelf. The act, first adopted in 1996, had been used only once before to nullify a regulation, at the start of the Bush administration in 2001, when a rule was revoked. Rules not subject to congressional review may still be at risk. The most radical shift has perhaps come at the Federal Communications Commission, which voted on Wednesday to halt new government rules related to data security from taking effect this week, after objections were raised by companies including Comcast, Verizon and ATT. Ajit Pai, a Republican whom Mr. Trump recently named as the F. C. C. chairman, has also made clear that he intends to push to roll back or abandon several other major rules, including the landmark net neutrality regulation intended to ensure equal access to content on the internet, as well as efforts to keep prison phone rates down and a proposal to break open the cable box market. The efforts have been praised by telecommunications giants, like Comcast, but condemned by consumer advocates. The administration started its campaign against regulation on the afternoon of Inauguration Day, with a memo from Reince Priebus, Mr. Trump’s chief of staff, instructing agencies to halt work on new regulations and to delay putting completed regulations into effect. So far, the effective dates of at least 75 rules have been delayed as a result of this order, based on an analysis of the Federal Register. That includes a measure intended to prevent potentially toxic formaldehyde exposure in homes caused by certain furniture products — an effort that has been underway since victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 were moved into contaminated trailers. Such delays are not uncommon with new presidents — both George W. Bush and Mr. Obama did the same, to differing degrees. And certain measures are still going into effect as the Trump administration gets underway, including one that prohibits smoking in public housing nationwide as of Feb. 3. Still, the general Trump administration freeze has drawn broad opposition, some of it surprising. The Department of Agriculture has delayed a rule that would make it easier for chicken farmers to sue chicken processors. Business groups, including the National Federation of Independent Business, want to kill the rule. But chicken farmers are fighting back. Mike Weaver, a West Virginia farmer who said he had voted for Mr. Trump and was pleased with most of what he had seen so far, said he wished Mr. Trump would meet with farmers. “I’d love to have a visit with the president about this, to tell him that these are federal regulations, yes, but these are good regulations,” said Mr. Weaver, the president of a group called the Organization for Competitive Markets. “These are regulations that we want implemented. ” | 1 |
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Officially, of course, the national bird of the United States is that half-a-peace-sign that Philadelphia sports fans like to hold up at opposing teams. But unofficially, the film National Bird has it right: the national bird is a killer drone.
Finally, finally, finally, somebody allowed me to see this movie. And finally somebody made this movie. There have been several drone movies worth seeing , most of them fictional drama , and one very much worth avoiding ( Eye in the Sky ). But National Bird is raw truth, not entirely unlike what you might fantasize media news reports would be in a magical world in which media outlets gave a damn about human life.
The first half of National Bird is the stories of three participants in the U.S. military's drone murder program, as told by them. And then, just as you're starting to think you'll have to write that old familiar review that praises how well the stories of the victims among the aggressors were told but asks in exasperation whether any of the victims of the actual missiles have any stories, National Bird expands to include just what is so often missing, and even to combine the two narratives in a powerful way.
Heather Linebaugh wanted to protect people, benefit the world, travel, see the world, and use super cool technology. Apparently our society did not explain to her in time what it means to join the military. Now she suffers guilt, anxiety, moral injury, PTSD, sleep disorder, despair, and a sense of responsibility to speak out on behalf of friends, other veterans, who have killed themselves or become too alcoholic to speak for themselves. Linebaugh helped murder people with missiles from drones, and watched them die, and identified body parts or watched loved ones gather up body parts.
Even while still in the Air Force, Linebaugh was on a suicide watch list and had a psychologist recommend moving her to a different sort of job, but the Air Force refused. She has episodes. She sees things. She hears things. But she's forbidden to discuss her work with friends or even with a therapist who doesn't have the proper "security clearance."
We let Daniel down even more than Heather. He says he actually opposed militarism but was homeless and desperate, so he joined the military. We could have given him a house for much less than we paid him to help murder people at Fort Meade.
Lisa Ling worked on a database filled by drone surveillance that compiled information on 121,000 "targets" in two years. Multiply that by a dozen years. With 90% of victims not among the targets, add up how many people would die in the targeting of the whole list. That'd be over 7 million. But it's not numbers that have poisoned the souls of these three veterans; it's children and mothers and brothers and uncles lying in pieces on the ground.
Ling travels to Afghanistan to see the place at ground level and to meet with drone victims. She meets a little boy who lost his leg and his 4-year-old brother and his sister and his father. On February 2, 2010, drone "pilots" at Creech Air Base murdered 23 innocent members of one family. - Advertisement -
The filmmakers have voices read the written transcript of what the drone operators said to each other before, during, and after sending in the missiles that did the damage. This is worse than Collateral Murder . The people whose job it is to identify children and others who should not be murdered have identified children among the group of people being targeted. The "pilots" at Creech are eager to reject this information and to get onto killing as many people as they can. Their lust for blood drives the decision process. Only after they've killed 23 people do they recognize children among the survivors, and the lack of guns.
We see the bodies brought home to bury. Those injured describe their suffering, physical as well as mental. We see people being fitted with artificial legs. We hear Afghans describe their perception of drones. They imagine, just as many Americans may imagine, and just as viewers of Eye in the Sky would imagine, that drone operators have a clear, high resolution view of everything. In fact, they have a view of fuzzy little blobs on a computer screen that looks like it was created in the 1980s.
Linebaugh says there is no way to distinguish the little "civilian" blobs from little "militant" blobs. When Daniel hears President Obama claim that there is always near certainty that no civilians will be killed, Daniel explains that such knowledge is simply not possible. Linebaugh says she was often on the side of the conversation telling the "pilots" at Creech not to murder innocents, but that they always pushed for permission to kill.
Jesselyn Radack, attorney for whistleblowers, says in the film that the FBI told two whistleblowers that a terrorist group had put them on a kill list. She said that the FBI has also contacted Linebaugh's family and warned her that "terrorists" have been searching for her name online, suggesting that she fix this problem by shutting up. (She had written an op-ed in the Guardian ).
The FBI also raids Daniel's house, arriving with 30 to 50 agents, badges, guns, cameras, and search warrants. They take away his papers, electronics, and phone. They tell him he is under investigation for a possible indictment under the Espionage Act. This is the World War I-era law for targeting foreign enemies that President Obama has made a routine of using to target domestic whistleblowers. While Obama has prosecuted more people under this law than did all previous presidents combined, we probably have no way of knowing how many people have been explicitly threatened with the possibility. - Advertisement -
While we should be apologizing to, comforting, and aiding these young people rather than denying them the right to speak to anybody and threatening them with decades in prison, Lisa Ling did manage to find some kindness. Victims of drone strikes in Afghanistan told her that they forgave her. As the film ends, she's planning another trip to Afghanistan. View Ratings | Rate It http://davidswanson.org David Swanson is the author of "When the World Outlawed War," "War Is A Lie" and "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union." He blogs at http://davidswanson.org and http://warisacrime.org and works for the online ( more... ) | 0 |
Advocates say prison officials at the Kilby Correctional Facility in Alabama turned off the water to Kinetik Justice Amun’s solitary cell after he initiated a hunger strike. Officials then transferred him to the Limestone Correctional Facility, which has a “behavioral modification program” known among prisoners as a “hot bay” dorm in which prisoners are forced to live in pairs in hot and squalid solitary confinement cells.
Kinetik, also known as Robert Earl Counsil, is the second leader of the Free Alabama Movement (FAM) to be transferred to Limestone. FAM is a group of incarcerated people and their families struggling to end prison slavery and shed light on inhumane conditions in Alabama’s prison system.
James Plesant, also known as Dhati Khalid, was the first leader to be transferred. Melvin Ray, also known as Bennu Hannibal Ra-Sun, is the last remaining leader of FAM not to be transferred to Limestone.
According to a statement released by the Ordinary People Society, an Alabama-based human rights group for the incarcerated, Kinetik refused meals upon arrival at the Kilby Correctional Facility on October 21. Before the transfer, Kinetik spent three years housed in solitary confinement at the Holman Correctional Facility.
As previously reported by Shadowproof, Kilby is said to be a “ bully camp .” When one Alabama prisoner learned of Kinetik’s transfer to Kilby, he explained the prison is where they send those that “they have to iron out with brutality.” He added, “When they send you to Kilby, that’s where they break your arms and break your legs.”
Prison officials turned off the water to Kinetik’s cell in response to his hunger strike, advocates say. “They are trying to kill him,” argued Pastor Kenneth Glasgow, founder of the Ordinary People Society and an “outside” spokesperson for FAM. The Alabama Department of Corrections did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The Alabama Department of Corrections is currently facing a federal investigation into the rampant violence, overcrowding, and structural decay in its prison system. Kinetik believes his transfer was an act of retaliation by prison officials for his political activity, and that they timed the transfer to prevent him from meeting with this lawyer.
Kinetik is an outspoken advocate for the human rights of the incarcerated. Along with Dhati Khalid and Bennu Hannibal Ra-Sun, Kinetik and the Free Alabama Movement were some of the people behind the call-to-action for the national prison strike against prison slave labor, which began on September 9.
Prominent human rights lawyer and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, Bryan Stevenson, announced he will work with Pastor Glasgow and look into Kinetik’s case.
Bennu Hannibal Ra-Sun told Shadowproof the “behavioral modification” dorm or Hot Bay like the one at Limestone is “supposed to be a volunteer program where you volunteer to go into it, but there’s no volunteer aspect. They’re just putting people in it.”
“You don’t have to have anything specific that you’ve done. They’re not serving you any paperwork, there’s not any kind of due process, and they’re getting funding from it,” he said. “So to justify funding, they have to have bodies.”
“Really what they’re doing is they’re targeting individuals,” Bennu said. He noted there is a Hot Bay program at Donaldson, where he is incarcerated. “That’s where James Plesant was originally. T hey framed him. They’re constantly framing and jumping on people in that Hot Bay.”
In the Hot Bay, prisoners are denied visitation, religious services, recreation, and social services, according to the Free Alabama Movement.
“[The Hot Bay] is worse than solitary confinement because they take all of your property and you have a cell mate,” Bennu said. “So the one here at Donaldson is two men to a cell. You’re in the cell with another person for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Y’all defecating with each other. Y’all urinating with each other, passing gas, burping, sleeping, waking up. Constantly, you’re in the cell with the door locked 24/7 with someone else.”
“They’re sending you up there, they’re torturing people up there. People first got exposed to the Hot Bay program from Bibb County,” Bennu recalled.
“There was a bunch of young guys in there. They tore the Hot Bay up,” he said, referring to a July 2015 riot. “They made it where you couldn’t stay in it. They had to get everyone out of there. That’s how bad they are. That’s how bad it was.”
“A lot of people think that when they say they put us in solitary confinement that it’s solitary confinement. In and of itself, that constitutes the torture. It’s not just putting me in the cell. It’s the conditions that they put me in inside of these cells,” Bennu argued.
He continued, “They put us in contaminated cells. What they do is, they have people in solitary and they be complaining about the plumbing or complaining about the lights or the ventilation or something. And they will put us in those cells.”
“They already know there are issues—there’s plumbing issues, there’s maintenance issues, and they’ll put us in these, what they call ‘black out cells’ or contaminated cells. The lights won’t work, we’ll be in the cells in the dark trying to read, ruining our eyesight. The mattress will be torn up, sleeping on top of these concrete slabs. The water will be leaking, running all over the cell. The vents and stuff are filthy. “
“It’s all of these elements that are added on, but that doesn’t show up in the paperwork, and that’s what they’ve done to people like myself. They put me in an isolated cell. I’m on what they call, ‘Walk Along Status.’ That means I cannot interact with anyone. I can’t be around another person. Same thing with Kinetik and James Plesant,” Bennu concluded.
A prisoner previously explained to Shadowproof that Limestone is “where they send everybody and you have to spend one year in isolation.” That prisoner hoped Kilby was not a “layover” on Kinetik’s way to Limestone.
“If he doesn’t reach Limestone, he’ll be okay,” the prisoner said at the time. According to the website for the Alabama Department of Corrections, Kinetik is now incarcerated at Limestone.
The post Alabama Prison Officials Retaliate Against Prison Strike Leader By Cutting Water To Cell appeared first on Shadowproof .
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I Just Lost All Faith In Our Deeply Corrupt Legal System And In The Rule Of Law In The United States 6th, 2016
The FBI just gave Hillary Clinton the biggest gift in the history of presidential politics. Two days before the election the FBI has announced that they are ending their investigation into Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified information. After reviewing the emails that were found on electronic devices owned by Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner, FBI Director James Comey sent a letter to Congress telling them that “we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July with respect to Secretary Clinton.” That means that there will be no indictment, and the path is now clear for Hillary Clinton to become the next president of the United States on Tuesday unless an election miracle happens.
These days it is unusual for a news story to hit me on a deeply emotional level, but this one sure did. When the FBI originally announced that they were renewing this investigation, it gave me a glimmer of hope that there may be a little bit of integrity left in our legal system.
But after today’s announcement I have lost all faith in our deeply corrupt system of justice. America has become a lawless nation, and the rule of law is completely dead in this country.
Yes, it is true that those of us in the general public do not know what was contained in those emails, and Director Comey says that nothing significant was found in them …
In a letter to lawmakers, Comey said the FBI is standing by its original findings, made in July, that Clinton should not be prosecuted for her handling of classified information over email as secretary of State.
“The FBI investigative team has been working around the clock to process and review a large volume of emails from a device obtained in connection with an unrelated criminal investigation,” Comey said in the letter. “During that process we reviewed all of the communications that were to or from Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of State,” Comey wrote. “Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July with respect to Secretary Clinton.”
But of course the truth is that the FBI already had more than enough to go after Clinton based on what they discovered the first time around.
In the world of national security, if you transmit a single classified document via a channel that is unsecured, you will lose your security clearance in a heartbeat and it is quite likely that you will be prosecuted and sent to prison for mishandling classified information.
In fact, two different members of the U.S. military were recently convicted for doing precisely that …
Just last month, Bryan Nishimura, a California Naval reservist, was sentenced to two years’ probation and a $7,500 fine after he pleaded guilty to removing classified material and downloading it to a personal electronic device. The FBI found no evidence he planned to distribute the material .
Last year, Bronze Star recipient and combat veteran Chief Petty Officer Lyle White pleaded guilty to storing classified documents on a nonsecure hard drive in Virginia. He received a suspended 60-day sentence and a suspended $10,000 fine in return for the plea. White said the information was for training purposes to study and that he had no intent to communicate with anyone .
Neither of those individuals intended to mishandle classified information, and they certainly never intended to share it.
But they were both convicted anyway.
So what makes Hillary Clinton any different?
During the initial investigation, the FBI found 113 emails that contained classified information …
Clinton had repeatedly said she did not have any classified emails on her server, but the results of the FBI investigation show that claim was incorrect .
Of the tens of thousands of emails investigators reviewed, 113 contained classified information, and three of those had classification markers. FBI Director James Comey has said Clinton should have known that some of the 113 were classified, but others she might have understandably missed.
And I would be willing to bet that the FBI found some more classified emails that they had not seen previously among the 650,000 or so that they reviewed for this renewed investigation.
But it doesn’t matter now. Hillary Clinton is free as a bird even though she mishandled 113 classified emails, and it looks like she is going to become the next president of the United States on Tuesday.
As a law student and then later as an attorney working in Washington D.C., I got to see just how deeply corrupt our legal system has become.
But after today, I don’t see how any American can ever have faith in the rule of law again.
If the law does not apply equally to all persons at all times and in all circumstances, we might as well not even have a legal system.
At this point, there is only one way that some sort of justice can be achieved in this case. And that is if the American people go to the polls on Tuesday and vote to keep her out of the White House.
It won’t be perfect justice of course, but at least it would keep Hillary Clinton from getting what she wants more than anything else in life.
The choice before the American people is very simple. Hillary Clinton is the most corrupt politician to ever run for the presidency, and the extremely long laundry list of Clinton scandals and crimes has been well documented over the past three decades.
The voters know exactly what they are getting with her. And if they choose her anyway despite all of the things that have been revealed, that means that America is willingly choosing lawlessness.
To most conservatives, this election is all about Trump, but I believe that it is far more about Hillary Clinton.
I am convinced that we are at a pivotal moment in American history, and if the American people willingly choose Hillary Clinton it will be an indication that there is zero hope for the future of this nation.
So let us pray for an election miracle, because right now Donald Trump is behind in most national polls and time is running out.
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Hillary Clinton Appears Disoriented And Confused At New York Airport Day Before Presidential Election A few seconds later, her handlers become aware that she's having a Parkinson's freeze moment, and immediately swarm around her pushing the video cameras backwards. But not before video of her is recorded showing she doesn't know what she's supposed to do. After Hillary Clinton posed for photos with the media covering her, she was confused about whether she needed to board the awaiting plane or get in the motorcade that had just dropped her off.
Hillary Clinton was at the White Plains, New York airport about to start her day, when she exhibited some startling behavior . It was the very beginning of her day, so presumably she was rested and alert as she prepared to hit the campaign trail. Yet when speaking with the loud mob of reporters, she appeared to speak gibberish mixed in with her sentences, and laughing awkwardly even though nothing funny was being said. Then it got really weird. Shocking Video Footage Of A Confused Hillary Clinton Mumbling Gibberish On Campaign Trail
As she walks in the direction of her personal campaign plane, she suddenly freezes and is not sure whether she needs to get into the motorcade which had just dropped her off, or board the plane like she was supposed to do.
A few seconds later , her handlers become aware that she’s having another Parkinson’s freeze moment , and immediately swarm around her pushing the video cameras backwards. But not before video of her is recorded showing she doesn’t know what she’s supposed to do. Hillary’s Health: More than just a cough
The cameras capture her saying “where am I going”? and then “what am I doing”? before she disappears into the protective huddle of her watchers.
This stands is very stark contrast to am energized Donald Trump, making nearly a dozen stops in a 24 hour period and speaking for almost an hour wherever he goes. Hillary Clinton barely has the energy to get out of her car, and when she does get out, she has no idea what to do after that.
This deceitful woman is not only hiding her crimes and scandals , she and her people are also hiding the fact that she is very ill and physically unfit to serve for 4 years as president of the United States. SHARE THIS ARTICLE | 0 |
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In last issue of Black Agenda Report, I argued that readers should vote for the Green Party this November. This week, I will outline what to expect from a Hillary Clinton Presidency. The great migration of Republicans into the Democratic Party tent of Hillary Clinton has guaranteed her victory in the highly undemocratic US Presidential elections. Corporate media outlets have collaborated with Clinton to instill deep popular fear of a Trump administration. Fear of Trump has been used to distract the many millions of people in the US who are fed up with both corporate parties. This has led to a lack of investigation and analysis of what can be expected once Hillary Clinton actually takes office.
The corporate media has exploited the general population's distaste for sexism and white supremacy in the process. Trump has made heinous statement after heinous statement, all of which should be taken seriously by anyone who calls themselves a movement activist. It is critical that the left in the US extend solidarity to those who experience the consequences of racism and sexism every day. However, Trump's vile character has been used as a means to legitimize the candidacy of Hillary Clinton. His characterization as a fascist has convinced many that his rule would be a greater danger to humanity than a Clinton Presidency.
One could endlessly debate Clinton supporters on the validity of such a claim. Trump's vulgar and putrid presentation has provided Clinton supporters with a convenient weapon of defense against all criticism of their own vile choice. Yet the lesser evil argument has never been weaker than in the 2016 elections. It is reasonable to assume that a Hillary Clinton Presidency will be far less effective than Obama in effecting capitalist and imperialist hegemony. This is why her support system, the entire ruling class, has gone into overdrive to spread fear of a Russia-Trump collaborative threat in every sphere of US political life.
Here are ten things to expect from a Clinton Presidency. I will leave it to readers to judge as to whether Clinton represents a "lesser evil" than Trump or just plain evil.
1.) The Privatization of Social Security - Hillary Clinton has stated publicly and privately to her Wall Street friends that she will reignite conversations to downsize the program. Wikileaks exposed Clinton's support for the Obama's Administration's "deficit reduction" commission that originally proposed cuts to entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare in 2012. Clinton donors on Wall Street have made it clear that they would love to get a hold of Social Security earnings and turn them into a financial market to be traded for profit.
MORE... Hillary Clinton must be indicted How Hillary Clinton ushered in a one party dictatorship of monopoly capital Voting for the “Lesser Evil” John Pilger: Clinton policies will bring great aggression to the US and the world 2.) World War III - Hillary Clinton has stated in nearly every debate that her administration would consider placing a no-fly zone in Syria. That means US airstrikes would rain down on Syrian and Russian assets in Syria. Such a move would place the US military in direct confrontation with the Russia. Clinton has been caught stating that the Syrian and Russian lives that will die in such a conflict are well worth the benefits.
3.) The Transpacific Partnership - Often called "NAFTA on steroids," the massive corporate trade agreement that captures much of Asia Pacific region has been a major talking point in the 2016 elections. Clinton has supported the agreement in the past, only to switch her position due to pressure from the Bernie Sanders campaign. With Sanders firmly in the Clinton camp, there is currently nothing in the way to stop Clinton from moving forward with the TPP's passage and making her private position on the deal a public reality.
4.) Maintenance and Expansion of the Surveillance State - Not much needs to be said here. The Obama Administration's vast expansion of the surveillance state has been exposed by the likes of Ed Snowden and Julian Assange. Wikileaks additionally revealed Clinton's desire to drone Julian Assange for releasing Washington’s secrets to the public. A Clinton Presidency has every intention of following up on the Obama Administration's passage of bills such as the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012. This bill gave the US government the right to militarily detain "terror" suspects indefinitely.
5.) Trump's Wall - Hillary Clinton was Obama's Secretary of State from 2009-2013. Over this time, she helped facilitate the largest deportation of undocumented people in US history. Furthermore, she oversaw the detention of thousands of Central American children during the great migration from the 2009 fascist coup in Honduras, a coup that was drawn up by Clinton herself. The US-Mexico border is more militarized than it has ever been. Trump's wall rhetoric was indeed a racist trip, but too few recognize that something just as dangerous actually exists under current US immigration policy.
6.) Servitude to the Bankers - Hillary Clinton has received over forty million in support from Hedge funds in the 2016 elections. Before selling out, Bernie Sanders made it a point to request public access into Clinton's private, quarter million dollar speeches to banks like Goldman Sachs. The deregulation of the banks with the passage of the Glass-Steagall Act was a Clinton project. Both her current list of donors and past connection to her husband’s policies make her the obvious choice for the finance capitalist class.
7.) Maintenance of the Mass Black Incarceration State - Hillary Clinton is the enemy of Black America. From her callous use of the term "super predator" to describe working class Black men to being the architect of the 1994 crime bill, the Clinton dynasty virtually built the mass Black incarceration state. Under Bill and Hillary Clinton's two terms, the prison population rose by 673,000. This was facilitated by draconian "three strikes" laws, mandatory drug sentence, and the deep militarization of local police departments. With her record, it isn't too difficult to assume what another four years of Clinton rule will bring in the realm of policing and prisons.
8.) Austerity and More Austerity - It was the first Clinton Administration that eliminated "welfare as we know it." The evisceration of Aid to Families and Dependent Children (AFDC) and its replacement, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), threw millions of women and children into poverty. Obama has followed up with draconian cuts to SNAP (foodstamps). There is nothing on Clinton's track record that indicates her administration would do anything but roll back whatever social programs and protections still exist for the poor in the US.
9.) A Boost to the Privatization of Education - Hillary Clinton received boos in July when she urged teachers' unions and charter operators to "work together" for the greater good of students. Ever since, Clinton has attempted to exploit the rise of Sanders by courting teachers unions to endorse her. Her position has slightly softened on the privatization of education, but that hardly matters. Clinton receives broad support from school privatizers (like Wal-Mart) and should not be expected to roll back the "shock and awe" war on public education waged by the Obama Administration.
10.) An Economic Crisis - Bankers and economists have been predicting an economic crash for much of 2016. Capitalists everywhere were given free rein to "recover" with trillions in stimulus cash after sending the entire global capitalist economy into collapse in 2008. The internal contradictions of the system are only sharpening as workers become poorer and global production stagnates. Whether Clinton can manage a crisis in service of the capitalists as well Obama has remains to be seen.
Clinton may very well be the highest expression of ruling class consensus that has ever presented itself in an election season. Her political record represents a greater material threat to humanity than Donald Trump for the sheer fact that she is the preferred candidate of the ruling class. The question now is whether mass sentiment exists to organize around an alternative to the two-party corporate duopoly. Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka are attempting to build the base of the Green party ticket. Whatever method is chosen, it must be wielded to combat lesser evil politics and build an organized force ready to struggle against the intensified suffering that will surely be imposed on the world by a Clinton Administration. | 0 |
(4) Representative democracy
(5) Overt minority dictatorship
The present society oscillates between (4) and (5), i.e. between overt minority rule and covert minority rule camouflaged by a façade of token democracy. A liberated society would eliminate (4) and (5) and would progressively reduce the need for (2) and (3). . . .
In representative democracy people abdicate their power to elected officials. The candidates’ stated policies are limited to a few vague generalities, and once they are elected there is little control over their actual decisions on hundreds of issues — apart from the feeble threat of changing one’s vote, a few years later, to some equally uncontrollable rival politician.
Representatives are dependent on the wealthy for bribes and campaign contributions; they are subordinate to the owners of the mass media, who decide which issues get the publicity; and they are almost as ignorant and powerless as the general public regarding many important matters that are determined by unelected bureaucrats and independent secret agencies.
Overt dictators may sometimes be overthrown, but the real rulers in “democratic” regimes, the tiny minority who own or control virtually everything, are never voted in and never voted out. Most people don’t even know who they are. . . .
In itself, voting is of no great significance one way or the other (those who make a big deal about refusing to vote are only revealing their own fetishism). The problem is that it tends to lull people into relying on others to act for them, distracting them from more significant possibilities. A few people who take some creative initiative (think of the first civil rights sit-ins) may ultimately have a far greater effect than if they had put their energy into campaigning for lesser-evil politicians. At best, legislators rarely do more than what they have been forced to do by popular movements.
A conservative regime under pressure from independent radical movements often concedes more than a liberal regime that knows it can count on radical support. (The Vietnam war, for example, was not ended by electing antiwar politicians, but because there was so much pressure from so many different directions that the prowar president Nixon was forced to withdraw.) If people invariably rally to lesser evils, all the rulers have to do in any situation that threatens their power is to conjure up a threat of some greater evil.
Even in the rare case when a “radical” politician has a realistic chance of winning an election, all the tedious campaign efforts of thousands of people may go down the drain in one day because of some trivial scandal discovered in his (or her) personal life, or because he inadvertently says something intelligent. If he manages to avoid these pitfalls and it looks like he might win, he tends to evade controversial issues for fear of antagonizing swing voters. If he actually gets elected he is almost never in a position to implement the reforms he has promised, except perhaps after years of wheeling and dealing with his new colleagues; which gives him a good excuse to see his first priority as making whatever compromises are necessary to keep himself in office indefinitely.
Hobnobbing with the rich and powerful, he develops new interests and new tastes, which he justifies by telling himself that he deserves a few perks after all his years of working for good causes. Worst of all, if he does eventually manage to get a few “progressive” measures passed, this exceptional and usually trivial success is held up as evidence of the value of relying on electoral politics, luring many more people into wasting their energy on similar campaigns to come.
As one of the May 1968 graffiti put it, “It’s painful to submit to our bosses; it’s even more stupid to choose them!” | 0 |
The government of China has drafted a list of “overly religious” names banned in western Xinjiang province, home to the nation’s Uighur Muslim ethnic minority. The list includes names such as “Muhammad,” “Jihad,” and “Imam. ”[According to Radio Free Asia (RFA) the initiative is meant to diminish the public profile of religion, particularly Islam, in the region. The communist Chinese government has long considered religion a threat to its dominance and has, in recent years, imposed a series of initiatives to limit Islamic practices, in particular, in response to a series of terrorist attacks in Xinjiang and threats from outside jihadist groups like the Islamic State. RFA lists “Islam, Quran, Mecca, Jihad, Imam, Saddam, Hajj, and Medina” among the names in the document, titled “Naming Rules for Ethnic Minorities. ” The New York Times, which reports that the list includes “more than two dozen names,” adds “Mujahid,” “Arafat,” and “Muhammad” to that list. Anyone with such names will be banned from officially registering with the government, which excludes them from, among other things, public education and denies them the legal documents necessary to find work and generally participate in society. Government officials confirmed the ban to both outlets. The official who spoke to RFA argued that it would not be difficult for Uighurs to keep from running afoul of the new regulations: “Just stick to the party line, and you’ll be fine,” the official told RFA. “You’re not allowed to give names with a strong religious flavor, such as Jihad or names like that. The most important thing here is the connotations of the name. … [It mustn’t have] connotations of holy war or of splittism [Xinjiang independence]. ” Voice of America adds that the name restrictions are part of a larger set of regulations handed down in the region. The Chinese government will now also “prohibit ‘abnormal’ beards, the wearing of veils in public places and the refusal to watch state television” . Islamic head scarfs had already been banned in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, and Islamic garb and Muslim beards already banned individuals from using public transportation. The World Uyghur Congress, an advocacy group from the ethnic minority operating outside of China, has condemned the new measures. “In setting limits on the naming of Uyghurs, the Chinese government is in fact engaging in political persecution under another guise,” Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the group, told RFA. “They are afraid that people with such names will become alienated from Chinese policies in the region. ” These restrictions are the latest handed down from Beijing to the nation’s westernmost province. In February, the government implemented mandatory GPS tracking on all cars and trucks registered in Bayingol, Xinjiang. “Cars are the major means of transportation for terrorists and also a frequently chosen tool to conduct terrorist attacks. So it’s necessary to use the Beidou system and electronic vehicle identification to enhance the management of vehicles,” the local government said in a statement. China has also implemented measures to universalize language in the country, promoting Mandarin — Beijing’s main language and that of the Han ethnic majority — in places where Cantonese, Uighur, and Tibetan are more common tongues. The government refers to Mandarin as the “common tongue” and has moved to eradicate other languages from local schools. In January, Xinjiang announced new border security measures, as well. Xinjiang borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, homes to a variety of Islamic terrorist groups to which Uighur terrorists may flee. The main terrorist group operating in Xinjiang is the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) which aspires to establish an Islamic State in Xinjiang. Communist Party officials in Xinjiang have long been banned from publicly observing the Ramadan fast. The law requires shopkeepers in Xinjiang to sell multiple brands of alcohol and cigarettes, items banned by Islamic practice. | 1 |
Sunday night’s Writer’s Guild of America awards show turned into a exercise in as Hollywood’s top writers repeatedly skewered the president during presentations and acceptance speeches.[ Patton Oswalt took on hosting duties for the Los ceremony and began the night by introducing his event security, two men dressed as “soldiers from armed forces of the Russian Federation. ” “People here tonight are angry about two things — that Deadpool is nominated for Best Screenplay and that Trump is President,” Oswalt joked. “Donald Trump, I want to be very careful about making jokes about. I don’t want to be kicked to death tonight by James Woods,” at which point the conservative actor hopped onstage, snatched off Oswalt’s shoe, and chided him: “This is an awards show, get some shoes, Jesus. ” The impromptu bit was not scripted, Oswalt assured his social media followers. Regaining control of the show, Oswalt continued: “I feel bad for Trump. Here’s what happened: They had the [White House] Correspondents’ Dinner, Obama went up and made fun of Donald, and Donald said, ‘I’m taking his job. ’” “Now he’s sitting there saying: ‘This job sucks! My life before this was amazing! ’” he added. “Donald Trump taking Obama’s job would be like if the head of linguistics at Rutgers made fun of David Lee Roth … and he said, ‘I’m the head of linguistics at Rutgers. Bring on the hookers and cocaine! ’” Later, Chelsea Handler took her own shot at Trump by ridiculing his claim that millions of people may have illegally voted in the 2016 general election, though the talk show host’s jokes didn’t appear to land with the audience. “If you win this award tonight I want everybody to remember not to get a big head because there are millions of illegal voters in California. Not to mention the ones in Massachusetts who took a bus and voted in New Hampshire,” Handler joked. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, who was awarded the Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement, went on a fiery tirade during his acceptance speech. The West Wing creator condemned Trump as being “out of touch” and urged the room full of writers to combat the administration by writing stories that help heal the country. While accepting the WGA West’s Laurel Award, director Oliver Stone broke from the night’s bias and instead bashed both major political parties. “It’s fashionable now to take shots at Republicans and Trump and all that and avoid the Obamas and Clintons,” Stone said, according to Deadline. “But remember this: In the 13 wars we’ve started over the last 30 years and the 14 trillion dollars we’ve spent and the hundreds of thousands of lives that have perished from this Earth, remember that it wasn’t one leader but a system — both Republican and Democrat. ” Introducing Stone was actor and rare Hollywood conservative James Woods. “So my publicists says ‘Whatever you do don’t talk politics.’ I say, ‘Ok.’ And I show up and 15 minutes later I’m Darth Vader,” Woods joked. Back in New York at the WGA Awards East, which were taking place simultaneously, host Lewis Black also took shots at Trump. “We’re living at the intersection of satire and reality,” Black joked. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @jeromeehudson | 1 |
The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee told Breitbart News the new Border Adjustment Tax is the way for Capitol Hill conservatives to support President Donald Trump’s efforts to reform the tax code and reverse American trade disadvantages, as well as unleashing trillions of dollars currently sitting on the sidelines. [“We know what our competitors do to beat us,” said Rep. Kevin Brady (R. ) who took over one of the House’s most powerful committees from Speaker Paul Ryan (R. .) upon Ryan’s taking up the gavel. “China, Canada, Germany, Mexico, and these others, they beat us on low rates, but not anymore,” Brady said. “They border adjust. ” The chairman said virtually every other country in the world has a system in place, where they take major taxes off of a product as it is exported to the United States and they slap a tax on products coming into their country from the United States. Brady said the president is deeply involved with the chairman’s tax reform effort, because it lines up with his campaign rhetoric. “President Trump gets it,” he said. “He knows it is not a level playing field and American workers and American communities are really getting hurt by this, so we are having very good discussions about how to end the ‘Made in America Tax’,” he said. “I am very encouraged with our talks with President Trump,” Brady added. Helping Brady’s cause is the popular support for what he promises the Border Adjustment Tax achieves. According to a confidential poll by Trump campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio and his partner David Lee that is circulating Capitol Hill offices and was made available to Breitbart News, 58 percent of the voters in 14 states key support the BAT, and 29 oppose it. Among Republicans, 80 percent support the BAT with Democrats split: 45 percent oppose and 39 percent support. The poll asked: “( ) people say that they would prefer a tax code that incentivizes goods imported and sold in American stores for lower prices. ( ) People say that they would prefer a tax code that incentivizes American manufacturing of goods to be sold in American stores and exported throughout the world.“ percent chose to incentivize American goods, and 13 percent chose to incentivize foreign goods. The poll was conducted among 1, 000 registered voters from Feb. 20 to Feb. 22 in 14 states and the District of Columbia. percent of the calls were made over landlines, and 44 percent were made on cell phones. The poll carries a 3. 1 percent margin of error with a 95 percent level of confidence. Brady’s BAT is not a small piece of the puzzle it is the puzzle. It is estimated that the tax will reassign a macro tax burden by roughly $1 trillion, or about of federal revenues. The legislative lift alone is massive, given that this is the most significant restructuring of the tax code since President Ronald Reagan’s 1986 reform. That reform reduced the individual tax code to three brackets, lowered the rates, and eliminated hundreds if not thousands of tax breaks. The BAT’s $1 trillion haul then allows conservatives to achieve long overdue items on their agenda, such as the full repeal of the tax on estates, lowering the tax rates on personal and business taxes, and elimination of the tax code’s infestation of tax loopholes written in for special interests. Brady said the estimates vary, but it is safe to say that American businesses are sitting on $6 trillion in cash that they were unwilling to use to hire new workers or invest. “Because of President Obama’s constant attack on the free enterprise system, businesses didn’t feel comfortable unleashing that investment,” he said. “Under the Republican blueprint, we allow businesses to immediately write off from their taxes all their new investment, new buildings, new equipment, new technology, and new software,” the Texan said. “We’ll bring all that investment off the sidelines and inject it right into the US economy,” he said. “That’s where you are going to see lots of growth as well. ” Under the current system, low American trade barriers and the tax rebate other countries offer on exports means that American companies have a solid incentive to move manufacturing overseas and then send their products into the United States as our competitors do. Brady said the BAT equals out that disadvantage and fosters an environment where businesses are comfortable hiring and investing. During the campaign, Trump promised to lower the business tax to 15 percent from its current 35 percent. This rate is one of the highest in the world and creates the conditions for lawmakers to give their friends tax breaks. Were Congress to lower the business tax from 35 percent, there would be less reason to hire lobbyists to secure a tax loophole. One other advantage of lowering the business tax rate is the estimated $2. 5 trillion parked overseas by companies unwilling to pay 35 percent off the top when they bring those profits home — those funds suddenly become reasonable to repatriate, he said. “Those profits, stranded overseas, we want them reinvested in America in new jobs, new research, and new growth. ” The chairman said his goal is to have the bill marked up out of committee by the end of spring and signed into law before the end of 2017. “You want to give the Senate plenty of time to act on their tax reform as well,” he said. “After 30 years, the prospects of getting tax reform done this year are the best they have ever looked. ” | 1 |
In a stunning turn of events 11 days before the 2016 presidential election, the FBI announced it is reopenning its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server case, by probing newly emerging emails linked to Hillary Clinton.
‘NEW PROBE’– The FBI gives Hillary Clinton a second look. (Photo illustraion 21WIRE)
FBI October Surprise?
According to reports , in a letter written today, FBI Director James Comey , stated that the FBI has begun a new probe into Hillary Clinton related emails once again. Comey offered scant details about the new probe, but due to an unrelated case, additional classified material may have been mishandled on Clinton’s personal email server.
CNBC reported the latest FBI developments, including a passage from Comey’s letter discussing the new investigation:
“In previous congressional testimony, I referred to the fact that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had completed its investigation of former Secretary Clinton’s personal email server. Due to recent developments, I am writing to supplement my previous testimony,” Comey wrote.
In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation. I am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday, and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation,” he added.
Although the FBI cannot yet assess whether or not this material may be significant, and I cannot predict how long it will take us to complete this additional work, I believe it is important to update your Committees about our efforts in light of my previous testimony,” Comey concluded.”
Huma’s Estranged ‘Sexting’ Husband
According to a new report released via The New York Times :
“The presidential campaign was rocked on Friday after federal law enforcement officials said that emails pertinent to the now-closed investigation into Hillary Clinton ’s private email server were discovered on a computer belonging to Anthony D. Weiner, the estranged husband of a top Clinton aide.” “ In a letter to Congress , the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, said the emails had surfaced in an unrelated case, which law enforcement officials said was an F.B.I. investigation into illicit text messages from Mr. Weiner to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina. Mr. Weiner, a former Democratic congressman from New York, is married to Huma Abedin, the top aide.” Comey has come under fire recently for apparently letting Clinton off the hook for mishandling, and lying to Congress, about classified emails coming through her ‘home brew’ email server while she was Secretary of State. After previously closing the case, Comey has done a U-turn and is now saying the FBI will review the new emails to for classified information, and see whether it was mishandled.
This unprecedented investigative move comes just two days after a Wikileaks docu-dump revealed a memo containing detailed financial information between Clinton Foundation donors and former president Bill Clinton ‘s private financial activities. Among those included in the memo, was a $30 million dollar business arrangement under “Bill Clinton, Inc.,” with another $66 million dollar deal scheduled over nine years.
The following is a tweet from Brad Jaffy of NBC Nightly News containing the new FBI recommendation…
The new investigation into the Clinton camp will most certainly spark new ‘Pay-to-Play’ allegations , as the new FBI revelations also comes days after a Project Veritas hidden camera sting operation revealed that the Democratic consultant Robert Creamer of Democracy Partners, discussed ways to commit ‘large-scale’ voter fraud as well as paying political agitators to cause violence at Donald Trump rallies. Out of Creamer’s 342 visits to the White House, also included his wife, a 9-term Illinois Democratic congresswoman, Jan Schakowsky some 47 times. White House visitor records show that Schakowsky took 47 “private meetings with Obama or his senior staff,” also over the past year. The consultancy Democracy Partners appears to have applied Schakowsky as a political buffering point, possibly in the event of a fallout over their operations at a grassroots level. The impetus of this type of procedural separation is to keep certain high-ranking officials of the hook in case of a massive upheaval over various underhanded campaign tactics – thus giving a political campaign or political entity plausible deniability. ‘CAUGHT ON FILM’ – Robert Creamer resigns over a massive Democratic Party controversy. (Image Source: CNN ) Creamer, a convicted felon , (in 2005, Creamer plead guilty $2.3 million in bank fraud and tax violations) was promptly “shoved out of the Hillary Clinton campaign’s inner circle,” following a heavily publicized video sting revealing his discussion about voter fraud and violence at Trump rallies. ‘PAY TO PLAY?’– Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe closely allied with the Clinton’s negotiated a a campaign contribution involving the FBI. (Image Source new republic ) It remains unclear what exactly reopened the new Clinton probe, but perhaps the FBI had its own cobwebs to clear out after it was revealed that a longtime Clinton associate , Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe , “helped steer $675,000 to the election campaign of the wife of an FBI official who went on to lead the probe into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email system, according to a report.” The NY Post also reported on the matter this past week:
“The political action committee of McAuliffe, the Clinton loyalist, gave $467,500 to the state Senate campaign of the wife of Andrew McCabe, who is now deputy director of the FBI, according to the Wall Street Journal .
The report states Jill McCabe received an additional $207,788 from the Virginia Democratic Party, which is heavily influenced by McAuliffe.
The money directed by McAuliffe began flowing two months after the FBI investigation into Clinton began in July 2015. Around that time, the candidate’s husband was promoted from running the Washington field office for the FBI to the No. 3 position at the bureau.”
In a CNN report from October 18th, a week before the McAuliffe revelations, “…According to notes from interviews conducted during an FBI investigation into Clinton’s email practices, Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy personally tried to convince FBI officials that the email should be declassified. One interviewee described feeling “pressured” by another FBI official at Kennedy’s request.”
The newly reopened FBI investigation into Clinton could be related to all or some of the items listed above, but there’s no doubt that due to public backlash the FBI received following the first Clinton investigation, in addition to concerns over dealings between the FBI and Clinton associates – the agency needed to save face.
It remains to be seen how new case will impact the US Presidential election.
More from RT below… | 0 |
The White House again hit former National Security Adviser Susan Rice for refusing to testify to Congress regarding allegations that she “unmasked” the identities of Trump campaign aides during the 2016 election. [“I do think that it’s sad that she has chosen not to be transparent in this process,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters during the press briefing on Friday. Sanders added that it was up to Congress whether or not they should subpoena Rice, but that the White House was confident in the investigation. Rice declined a request from the Sen. Lindsey Graham to testify in the investigation into interference in the United States presidential election. “While Ambassador Rice commends the Subcommittee’s efforts to examine this matter of extraordinary national significance, it is extremely rare for the Congress to request the testimony of a former senior advisor to the President,” a letter from Rice’s lawyer read to the committee, citing “separation of powers” concerns. President Donald Trump also reacted to the news, calling it “not good. ” | 1 |
Donald J. Trump was rushed offstage by security guards not long after he began speaking on Saturday night at a rally in Reno, Nev., in a startling scene that was not immediately explained.
Via NewYorkTimes
Two members of Mr. Trump’s security detail raced toward Mr. Trump, with one of them grabbing him and forcibly escorting him away from the lectern. Moments before, Mr. Trump had seemed to notice a commotion in the crowd in front of him. As he was led away, video from the event appeared to show people near the stage subduing someone in the audience.
Soon after, police officers escorted a man into a bathroom away from the crowd. Several officers followed him inside, and several more stayed outside, guarding the door. With Mr. Trump off the stage, some in the crowd in the Reno-Sparks Convention Center grew confused and panicked.
“What’s going on?” asked one woman, leaning over the metal barricades to inquire if the news media had any information. “Are we in danger?” A few minutes later, Mr. Trump returned to the same lectern and indirectly addressed the matter.
“Nobody said it would be easy for us,” he said. “But we will never be stopped. Never. Ever.” He added: “I want to thank the Secret Service. They don’t get enough credit. They are amazing people.”
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President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, overseer of a contentious and bloody crackdown on drug dealers and users, boasted on Monday about having personally killed criminal suspects when he was mayor of Davao City. “In Davao, I used to do it personally — just to show to the guys that if I can do it, why can’t you?” Mr. Duterte told business leaders at a meeting in Manila, explaining how he goaded police officers to gun down suspects. “And I’d go around in Davao with a motorcycle, with a big bike around, and I would just patrol the streets, looking for trouble also,” he said, according to The Manila Times. “I was really looking for a confrontation, so I could kill. ” Mr. Duterte is known both for his tough stance on crime and for controversial remarks. He has acknowledged killing before — in 2015, he said that he had killed at least three men suspected of kidnapping and rape in Davao City — but his remarks on Monday appeared to be his first such public admission since he became president. When he was mayor of Davao City, Mr. Duterte was known to carry a . 38 pistol and was accused of overseeing a death squad to kill people suspected of being criminals. As president, he has led a nationwide “war on drugs” by the police and vigilante groups, which has left more than 3, 000 people dead. Hours earlier on Monday, Mr. Duterte spoke at an awards ceremony in Manila, where he said, “I am not a killer,” and then threatened to kill police officers who disobeyed him. “I do not relish or enjoy a Filipino sprawled there with all the blood,” he said, according to the Philippine Star. “With regard to the killing of persons on bended knees, with hands tied behind their back, that’s not ours. Will that make you a better soldier or policeman? If they do that, I’ll shoot them. ” Though he has led a brutal crackdown on drug addicts, Mr. Duterte seemed to imply in his remarks to the business leaders that he had overused an addictive drug himself. Speaking in English, Mr. Duterte said he had been prescribed the powerful painkiller fentanyl because of chronic back pain and migraine headaches. “I was only given a fourth of that square thing,” he said, describing a patch containing the drug that was to be applied to the nape of his neck. “There was a time that if I took two — of course, my doctor learned that I was using the whole patch, because I felt better. ” The Philippine Star posted a video of the speech online. A hit man told a Philippine Senate committee in September, as part of an inquiry into extrajudicial killings in Davao City, that Mr. Duterte had personally ordered the killing of citizens when he was mayor. In October, Mr. Duterte compared himself to Hitler, saying that he would be “happy to slaughter” three million drug addicts. | 1 |
The Charles Koch Institute and rapper Snoop Dogg will team up to host a panel on criminal justice reform at South by Southwest (SXSW) later this month. [The panel, titled “Artist to Advocate: Fighting for Criminal Justice,” will also feature Weldon Angelos, the founder of record label Extravagant Records. Angelos was caught selling marijuana in 2002 and was sentenced to years in prison. Angelos was released from prison last year, thanks to a campaign to free him and other in his situation. The Koch panel will also feature the institute’s senior research fellow for criminal justice reform, Vikrant Reddy, and Koch Industries’ general counsel, Mark Holden. Snoop Dogg is also one of the most outspoken celebrity proponents for marijuana use and frequently uses the drug himself. In 2015, the “Smoke the Weed” rapper founded Merry Jane, an online marijuana lifestyle website. . @SnoopDogg will speak on the ”Artist to Advocate: Fighting for Criminal Justice” panel at #SXSW 2017! https: . — SXSW (@sxsw) March 6, 2017, SXSW, one of the biggest film, media, and music festivals in the United States, is set to run March in Austin, Texas. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson | 1 |
Decade-old audio exposes then-Senator Hillary Clinton saying the US should have manipulated Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006 to prevent a Hamas victory. The presidential candidate lamented that the US didn’t “determine who was going to win.”
“I do not think we should have pushed for an election in the Palestinian territories. I think that was a big mistake,” then-New York Senator Clinton told the Jewish Press, a New York-based weekly newspaper, several months after the January election.
“And if we were going to push for an election, then we should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win,” she said.
Until Friday, the comment Clinton made on September 5, 2006, only existed on a private audio cassette belonging to journalist Eli Chomsky. An editor and a staff writer for the Jewish Press, he interviewed Clinton at the newspaper’s office in Brooklyn.
Chomsky, who shared and played the tape for the Observer, says it is the only existing copy of that meeting with Clinton, during which the Palestinian parliamentary election was among top topics. The comments have been posted on SoundCloud.
Speaking to the news portal, he recalled being confused by the fact that “anyone could support the idea — offered by a national political leader, no less — that the US should be in the business of fixing foreign elections.”
The interview took place nine months after the Hamas movement claimed 76 of the 132 parliamentary seats, pushing aside the US-favored Fatah movement and securing the right to form a new cabinet. That victory was neither welcomed in Israel, nor in the US. In Washington, where Hamas is considered a terrorist organization, officials repeatedly stated that they would not work with a Palestinian Authority that included Hamas.
Then-President George W. Bush spoke of the elections as symbolizing the “power of democracy,” but refused to deal with Hamas as long as it opposed Israel’s existence and espoused violence.
That day in September 2006, Clinton made “odd and controversial comments,” all now saved on the 45-minute record that Chomsky “held onto all these years.”
“I went to my bosses at the time,” Chomsky told the Observer. “The Jewish Press had this mindset that they would not want to say anything offensive about anybody — even a direct quote from anyone — in a position of influence because they might need them down the road. My bosses didn’t think it was newsworthy at the time. I was convinced that it was and I held onto it all these years.”
Source
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President Donald Trump again signaled his support for the United Kingdom after the terrorist attack on London Bridge that killed seven and wounded nearly 50, vowing to fight terrorism in his administration. [“This bloodshed must end. This bloodshed will end,” Trump said, vowing to “do what is necessary” to prevent terrorism from coming to America. Trump said that he spoke with UK Prime Minister Theresa May to express “unwavering support” for Britain and promised to assist them in their struggle against terror. “America sends our thoughts, our prayers and our deepest sympathies to the victims of this evil slaughter and we renew our resolve — stronger than ever before — to protect the United States and its allies from a vile enemy that has waged war on innocent life. ” Trump made his remarks on Sunday during a reception at Ford’s Theatre and recognized Lincoln Medal recipients Ronald O. Perelman and quarterback Peyton Manning. “He’s a good guy to have as my golf partner,” Trump said about Manning, who was spotted at the White House after returning in the presidential motorcade from Trump’s golf course in Virginia. | 1 |
A police dog took a bullet for an officer during a shootout that involved a wanted suspect and several South Florida deputies, police said. [The suspect, Philip O’Shea, died Friday evening after a shootout that took place Friday morning. He was wanted for robbing a suburban bar in West Palm Beach, the Palm Beach Post reported. O’Shea had a warrant out for his arrest in Raleigh, North Carolina, stemming from a motel robbery that took place May 2, according to Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw. He added that O’Shea had multiple warrants for his arrest in North Carolina before he came to Florida. Deputies spotted the suspect and chased him until he crashed his car, WPEC reported. The suspect allegedly then engaged deputies in a shootout until he was shot and killed. Bradshaw said a police dog, PBSO Officer Kasper, took a bullet in the shootout that was meant for another officer. Kasper had surgery Friday night but is expected to recover. | 1 |
A New Jersey Transit train that crashed in Hoboken last week accelerated to about 21 miles per hour just before it smashed into the terminal, killing a woman and injuring more than 100 other people, federal investigators said on Thursday. In the minute before the crash, the train had been moving toward the platform at just eight miles per hour, the National Transportation Safety Board said. The engineer had blown the train’s horn and activated the bell that signals its approach before suddenly accelerating, braking only at the last second before the train plowed through a bumper and onto the platform. The federal agency is still investigating the accident and has not determined a cause, officials said. But the new details from an event recorder recovered from the train provided the clearest picture yet of what happened leading up to the crash. Shortly after the crash, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey said the train appeared to be speeding into the station. The speed limit for trains entering the busy station is 10 m. p. h. On the morning of Sept. 29, the crowded train hurtled into Hoboken Terminal, causing part of the roof to collapse onto the train. Investigators have interviewed the train’s engineer, Thomas Gallagher, 48, who told them he did not remember the accident and woke up on the floor of the cab after the train had stopped. Mr. Gallagher told investigators that the train was traveling about 10 m. p. h. as it entered the station. He reported that he felt well rested and that his cellphone was turned off and stored in a personal backpack. On Wednesday, New Jersey Transit issued new rules requiring a second crew member to join the train engineer in the operating cab when entering stations in Hoboken and Atlantic City. The measure was aimed at providing a second set of eyes and ears during the final segment of trips into those stations. Train service at Hoboken Terminal has been suspended since the crash. New Jersey Transit has not said when trains will start traveling there again. James E. Hall, a former chairman of the safety board, said the event recorder information showed the engineer had accelerated the train before the crash, but it did not explain why. “What it doesn’t answer is: If there were those movements by the operator of the throttle, were they accidental or intentional?” he said. Mr. Hall praised the railroad’s decision to place a conductor next to the train’s engineer to serve as a backup. But he also urged the railroad to install an automatic braking system to prevent future accidents. “It’s unimportant whether it was human error or accidental,” Mr. Hall said. “There are technologies to prevent the train from accelerating. ” The National Transportation Safety Board has long pushed for railroads to implement a technology known as positive train control, which can automatically stop or slow a train. Investigators said they did not know whether the technology would have prevented the crash in Hoboken. | 1 |
FBI Warns Of Possible Terrorist Attacks In New York, Texas and Virginia FBI Warns Of Possible Terrorist Attacks In New York, Texas and Virginia Posted By admin on November 5, 2016 Subscribe
FBI is warning 3 US States to take caution in order to prevent potential terrorist attacks. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is warning that terrorist organizations like Al-Qaeda could be planning pre-Election Day attacks in New York, Texas and Virginia. Officials have notified local and federal terrorism task forces about the threat, reported the New York Post . There are no information about specific sites that could be targeted in the three states, as the threat report is still being assessed.
1 1 like CBS News came out with a report that the most probable day for the attacks could be Monday. “The counter-terrorism and homeland security communities remain vigilant and well-postured to defend against attacks here in the United States,” said FBI officials. “The FBI, working with our federal, state and local counterparts, shares and assesses intelligence on a daily basis and will continue to work closely with law enforcement and intelligence community partners to identify and disrupt any potential threat to public safety,” FBI stated. Possible cyber attacks have also been reported on NBC News saying that the US Government believes that hackers from Russia or other countries may unleash cyber attacks causing chaos right before the elections.
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NEW Donna Brazile email shows more questions given to Hillary in advance. | Print This
Her family has lead poison and she will ask what, if anything, will Hillary do as president to help the ppl of Flint. Folks, I did a service project today. It's so tragic. And what's worse, some homes have not been tested and it's important to encourage seniors to also get tested. Sent from Donna's I Pad. Follow me on twitter @donnabrazile
Download raw source Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: by 10.25.88.78 with SMTP id m75csp785144lfb; Sat, 5 Mar 2016 15:16:36 -0800 (PST) X-Received: by 10.107.10.20 with SMTP id u20mr15455469ioi.160.1457219796322; Sat, 05 Mar 2016 15:16:36 -0800 (PST) Return-Path: <[email protected]> Received: from smtp94.ord1c.emailsrvr.com (smtp94.ord1c.emailsrvr.com. [108.166.43.94]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id x1si5748423igl.20.2016.03.05.15.16.35 for <[email protected]> (version=TLS1 cipher=AES128-SHA bits=128/128); Sat, 05 Mar 2016 15:16:36 -0800 (PST) Received-SPF: neutral (google.com: 108.166.43.94 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of ) client-ip=108.166.43.94; Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=neutral (google.com: 108.166.43.94 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of ) [email protected] Received: from smtp12.relay.ord1c.emailsrvr.com (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by smtp12.relay.ord1c.emailsrvr.com (SMTP Server) with ESMTP id AEA0E380181; Sat, 5 Mar 2016 18:16:35 -0500 (EST) Received: from smtp192.mex05.mlsrvr.com (unknown [184.106.31.85]) by smtp12.relay.ord1c.emailsrvr.com (SMTP Server) with ESMTPS id A1E6C380171; Sat, 5 Mar 2016 18:16:35 -0500 (EST) X-Sender-Id: Received: from smtp192.mex05.mlsrvr.com ([UNAVAILABLE]. [184.106.31.85]) (using TLSv1 with cipher AES256-SHA) by 0.0.0.0:25 (trex/5.5.4); Sat, 05 Mar 2016 18:16:35 -0500 Received: from ORD2MBX03G.mex05.mlsrvr.com ([fe80::92e2:baff:fe20:be50]) by ORD2HUB27.mex05.mlsrvr.com ([fe80::be30:5bff:fef5:1eb8%15]) with mapi id 14.03.0235.001; Sat, 5 Mar 2016 17:16:35 -0600 From: Donna Brazile <[email protected]> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>, Jennifer Palmieri <[email protected]> CC: Adrienne Elrod <[email protected]>, Minyon Moore <[email protected]> Subject: One of the questions directed to HRC tomorrow is from a woman with a rash Thread-Topic: One of the questions directed to HRC tomorrow is from a woman with a rash Thread-Index: AdF3NQ9ZgXjJ0bvXRrqmqv8rTKbGbA== Date: Sat, 5 Mar 2016 23:16:34 +0000 Message-ID: <[email protected]> Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable MIME-Version: 1.0 Her family has lead poison and she will ask what, if anything, will Hillary= do as president to help the ppl of Flint. Folks, I did a service project today. It's so tragic. And what's worse, som= e homes have not been tested and it's important to encourage seniors to als= o get tested. Sent from Donna's I Pad. Follow me on twitter @donnabrazile Share This Article... | 0 |
View source Re: Obama Says He Didn’t Know Hillary Clinton Was Using Private Email Address - NYTimes.com From:[email protected] To: [email protected] Date: 2015-03-08 10:21 Subject: Re: Obama Says He Didn’t Know Hillary Clinton Was Using Private Email Address - NYTimes.com Ok. Sounds like people are putting words into his mouth. On Mar 8, 2015, at 7:56 AM, Jennifer Palmieri <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Suggest Philippe talk to Josh or Eric. They know POTUS and HRC emailed. Josh has been asked about that. Standard practice is not to confirm anything about his email, so his answer to press was that he would not comment/confirm. I recollect that Josh was also asked if POTUS ever noticed her personal email account and he said something like POTUS likely had better things to do than focus on his Cabinet's email addresses. Sent from my iPad On Mar 8, 2015, at 12:40 AM, Philippe Reines <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: I find it odd the NYT didn't actually quote the President saying what's in their headline. Especially since the story has a disbelieving tone to his not noticing. One of us should connect with the WH just so they know that the email will show his statement to not make sense. I'm happy to do so to Josh Earnest since Jen is in a weird position, unless Cheryl or John you want to (or already have) with someone else. But it's not unreasonable to assume that Josh is going to get asked how this was possible, and he should have the factset. Especially if it's some weird technical thing with the President's email setup that he doesn't see addresses. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/03/08/us/obama-says-he-didnt-know-hillary-clinton-was-using-private-email-address.html Download raw source Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: by 10.25.24.71 with SMTP id o68csp815128lfi; Sun, 8 Mar 2015 05:21:43 -0700 (PDT) X-Received: by 10.70.30.162 with SMTP id t2mr38495774pdh.142.1425817301725; Sun, 08 Mar 2015 05:21:41 -0700 (PDT) Return-Path: <[email protected]> Received: from na01-bn1-obe.outbound.protection.outlook.com (mail-bn1bon0087.outbound.protection.outlook.com. [157.56.111.87]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id bi15si2383845pdb.24.2015.03.08.05.21.40 (version=TLSv1.2 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA bits=128/128); Sun, 08 Mar 2015 05:21:41 -0700 (PDT) Received-SPF: neutral (google.com: 157.56.111.87 is neither permitted nor denied by domain of [email protected]) client-ip=157.56.111.87; Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=neutral (google.com: 157.56.111.87 is neither permitted nor denied by domain of [email protected]) [email protected] Received: from CY1PR0301MB0617.namprd03.prod.outlook.com (25.160.142.24) by CY1PR0301MB0732.namprd03.prod.outlook.com (25.160.159.150) with Microsoft SMTP Server (TLS) id 15.1.106.15; Sun, 8 Mar 2015 12:21:38 +0000 Received: from CY1PR0301MB0617.namprd03.prod.outlook.com ([25.160.142.24]) by CY1PR0301MB0617.namprd03.prod.outlook.com ([25.160.142.24]) with mapi id 15.01.0099.004; Sun, 8 Mar 2015 12:21:37 +0000 From: Philippe Reines <[email protected]> To: Jennifer Palmieri <[email protected]> CC: John Podesta <[email protected]>, CDM <[email protected]>, =?windows-1252?Q?Nick=0D=0A_Merrill?= <[email protected]>, Heather Samuelson <[email protected]> Subject: =?Windows-1252?Q?Re:_Obama_Says_He_Didn=92t_Know_Hillary_Clinton_Was_Usin?= =?Windows-1252?Q?g_Private_Email_Address_-_NYTimes.com?= Thread-Topic: =?Windows-1252?Q?Obama_Says_He_Didn=92t_Know_Hillary_Clinton_Was_Using_Pr?= =?Windows-1252?Q?ivate_Email_Address_-_NYTimes.com?= Thread-Index: AQHQWWJwYRF+GQsZaU2O152Pna5kkJ0SeyOAgAAG8F0= Date: Sun, 8 Mar 2015 12:21:36 +0000 Message-ID: <[email protected]> References: <[email protected]>,<[email protected]> In-Reply-To: <[email protected]> Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: x-originating-ip: [73.200.111.123] authentication-results: gmail.com; dkim=none (message not signed) header.d=none; x-microsoft-antispam: UriScan:;BCL:0;PCL:0;RULEID:;SRVR:CY1PR0301MB0732; x-forefront-antispam-report: BMV:1;SFV:NSPM;SFS:(10009020)(377454003)(24454002)(110136001)(54356999)(15975445007)(83716003)(82746002)(16236675004)(2900100001)(19617315012)(99286002)(19580405001)(19580395003)(86362001)(87936001)(36756003)(2950100001)(2656002)(77156002)(62966003)(40100003)(33656002)(66066001)(106116001)(50986999)(46102003)(76176999)(102836002)(92566002)(104396002)(42262002);DIR:OUT;SFP:1101;SCL:1;SRVR:CY1PR0301MB0732;H:CY1PR0301MB0617.namprd03.prod.outlook.com;FPR:;SPF:None;MLV:sfv;LANG:en; x-microsoft-antispam-prvs: <CY1PR0301MB0732CE7A0443C6281E131E81A71A0@CY1PR0301MB0732.namprd03.prod.outlook.com> x-exchange-antispam-report-test: UriScan:; x-exchange-antispam-report-cfa-test: BCL:0;PCL:0;RULEID:(601004)(5002009)(5005006);SRVR:CY1PR0301MB0732;BCL:0;PCL:0;RULEID:;SRVR:CY1PR0301MB0732; x-forefront-prvs: 0509245D29 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="_000_17B2908FF9FA45188D243FD49AAEEB2Dhrcofficecom_" MIME-Version: 1.0 X-OriginatorOrg: hrcoffice.com X-MS-Exchange-CrossTenant-originalarrivaltime: 08 Mar 2015 12:21:36.7877 (UTC) X-MS-Exchange-CrossTenant-fromentityheader: Hosted X-MS-Exchange-CrossTenant-id: cd8891aa-8599-4062-9818-7b7cb05e1dad X-MS-Exchange-Transport-CrossTenantHeadersStamped: CY1PR0301MB0732 --_000_17B2908FF9FA45188D243FD49AAEEB2Dhrcofficecom_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Ok. Sounds like people are putting words into his mouth. On Mar 8, 2015, at 7:56 AM, Jennifer Palmieri <[email protected]= m<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Suggest Philippe talk to Josh or Eric. They know POTUS and HRC emailed. J= osh has been asked about that. Standard practice is not to confirm anythin= g about his email, so his answer to press was that he would not comment/con= firm. I recollect that Josh was also asked if POTUS ever noticed her perso= nal email account and he said something like POTUS likely had better things= to do than focus on his Cabinet's email addresses. Sent from my iPad On Mar 8, 2015, at 12:40 AM, Philippe Reines <[email protected]<mailto:pir@= hrcoffice.com>> wrote: I find it odd the NYT didn't actually quote the President saying what's in = their headline. Especially since the story has a disbelieving tone to his n= ot noticing. One of us should connect with the WH just so they know that th= e email will show his statement to not make sense. I'm happy to do so to Jo= sh Earnest since Jen is in a weird position, unless Cheryl or John you want= to (or already have) with someone else. But it's not unreasonable to assum= e that Josh is going to get asked how this was possible, and he should have= the factset. Especially if it's some weird technical thing with the Presid= ent's email setup that he doesn't see addresses. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/03/08/us/obama-says-he-didnt-know-hillary-cl= inton-was-using-private-email-address.html --_000_17B2908FF9FA45188D243FD49AAEEB2Dhrcofficecom_ Content-Type: text/html; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <html><head><meta http-equiv=3D"Content-Type" content=3D"text/html; charset=3DWindows-1= 252"></head><body dir=3D"auto"><div>Ok. Sounds like people are putting words into his mouth.<br><br><br></div><div><br> On Mar 8, 2015, at 7:56 AM, Jennifer Palmieri <<a href=3D"mailto:jennife= [email protected]">[email protected]</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><div><div>Suggest Philippe talk to Josh or Eric. They know POTUS and HRC e= mailed. Josh has been asked about that. Standard practice is no= t to confirm anything about his email, so his answer to press was that he w= ould not comment/confirm. I recollect that Josh was also asked if POTUS ever noticed her personal email account and he sai= d something like POTUS likely had better things to do than focus on his Cab= inet's email addresses.<br><br> Sent from my iPad</div><div><br> On Mar 8, 2015, at 12:40 AM, Philippe Reines <<a href=3D"mailto:pir@hrco= ffice.com">[email protected]</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type=3D"cite"><div><div style=3D"white-space:pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">I find it odd t= he NYT didn't actually quote the President saying what's in their headline.= Especially since the story has a disbelieving tone to his not noticing. On= e of us should connect with the WH just so they know that the email will show his statement to not make sense= . I'm happy to do so to Josh Earnest since Jen is in a weird position, unle= ss Cheryl or John you want to (or already have) with someone else. But it's= not unreasonable to assume that Josh is going to get asked how this was possible, and he should have the f= actset. Especially if it's some weird technical thing with the President's = email setup that he doesn't see addresses. </div><div style=3D"white-space:pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><br></div><div style=3D"white-space:pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><a href=3D"http= ://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/03/08/us/obama-says-he-didnt-know-hillary-clinto= n-was-using-private-email-address.html">http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/03/0= 8/us/obama-says-he-didnt-know-hillary-clinton-was-using-private-email-addre= ss.html</a></div><br><div style=3D"color: rgb(38, 38, 38); font-family: Calibri, 'Slate Pro', sa= ns-serif;"></div></div></blockquote></div></body></html> --_000_17B2908FF9FA45188D243FD49AAEEB2Dhrcofficecom_-- e-Highlighter | 0 |
Rand Paul Warns Poll Manipulation Will Suppress Voter Turnout
“I think we have seen a very similar thing here in the U.K. with Brexit ,” she continued. “We saw a lot of the liberal press kind of sneering at Brexiteers. We see a lot of the sneering that we’re seeing from the Clinton News Network.”
Gorani interjected, “That’s CNN, you’re calling us the Clinton News Network,” to which Hopkins immediately responded, “That’s exactly correct.”
When Gorani pressed as to why Hopkins would say such a thing about the network, Hopkins explained that she was referring to the manipulated polls that CNN routinely passes off on viewers showing Clinton with a seemingly insurmountable lead over Trump.
Hopkins proceeded to say that she and many others had “grown bored” with the collection of “meaningless” polls that were clearly biased in favor of Clinton and downplayed support for Trump.
“I will say having sat in the Republican convention and having watched your coverage, it is completely biased. And I think Trump is doing a great job,” stated Hopkins.
The two then attempted to speak over each other for a moment, with Gorani demanding proof that CNN was biased, until Hopkins finally broke through by decrying CNN’s portrayal of woman as “victims” who need to be shielded from someone like Trump, informing the host that women in general are plenty capable of deciding for themselves if they are threatened by Trump or not.
She then proceeded to state that polls have shown how much Clinton is disliked by the general public, even saying, “I find her abhorrent to look at. Her little smile there does nothing for me.” | 0 |
Donald J. Trump will visit Mexico on Wednesday for a private meeting with President Enrique Peña Nieto — a trip that will take him to a nation he has repeatedly scorned — before quickly flying back for what is billed as a major immigration speech in Arizona. Mr. Peña Nieto’s office said Tuesday night that the meeting would take place at the presidential palace in Mexico City, and Mr. Trump, on Twitter, said he looked “very much forward” to the visit. The Mexican president’s office said Mr. Peña Nieto had sent invitations last week to both Mr. Trump and Hillary Clinton. The negotiations for both trips were first reported by The Washington Post. The Clinton campaign said Mrs. Clinton last met with the Mexican president in 2014 and would talk again with him “at the appropriate time,” without elaborating. Mr. Peña Nieto is reaching out to Mr. Trump in the face of the Republican candidate’s antagonistic attitude toward Mexico in his policies and campaign rallies. He has said many Mexican immigrants who enter the United States illegally are rapists, and he has repeatedly insisted that Mexico will pay for his proposed wall along the southern United States border. He is widely reviled in Mexico, where the wall proposal has revived deep grievances over sovereignty and respect that have historically dogged Mexico’s relationship with the United States. “They are not our friend, believe me,” Mr. Trump said in a speech last year in which he accused Mexico of treating the United States unfairly, “but they are killing us economically. ” “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” he added. “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists, and some I assume are good people. ” Politicians in Mexico have largely remained silent on Mr. Trump, though there have been outbursts, including from Mr. Peña Nieto himself. In March, he compared Mr. Trump to Hitler and Mussolini for what he called Mr. Trump’s strident remarks and populism, though he later tried to soften his words without quite taking them back. The trip will take place hours before Mr. Trump is to give a speech in Phoenix that is expected to clarify his stance on immigration, which has plagued his campaign over the past few weeks as he has wavered on key elements of his platform. His campaign has given conflicting signals over whether he will stick to the positions he took during the Republican primaries, particularly on deportations, and he suggested recently that he was open to “softening” some of his proposals. But his calls to have Mexico pay for the wall have continued. “From the first days of his campaign, Donald Trump has painted Mexicans as ‘rapists’ and criminals and has promised to deport 16 million people, including children and U. S. citizens,” Jennifer Palmieri, the Clinton campaign’s communications director, said in a statement. “What ultimately matters is what Donald Trump says to voters in Arizona, not Mexico, and whether he remains committed to the splitting up of families and deportation of millions. ” The trip is the latest gamble for Mr. Trump and his struggling campaign. But for all the risk it poses, it offers an image Mr. Trump relishes: of a wily negotiator willing to do the unexpected — meeting with a perceived enemy — to advance his agenda. It will also be his first official meeting with a head of state as the Republican presidential nominee. Despite Mr. Trump’s routine scolding of Mexico and its leadership, several of his closest allies have warm ties with the country and its president. Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, a top Trump adviser and confidant, traveled to Mexico in 2014 to meet with Mr. Peña Nieto, arguing that it was imperative for the United States to put Mexico at the center of its foreign relations. During that trip, Mr. Christie offered lavish praise for Mr. Peña Nieto’s policies and, unlike Mr. Trump, spoke of the need to cultivate stronger ties with Mexico. “Too often, our neighbors in Mexico and Canada have felt that they were an afterthought in U. S. foreign policy,” he said. “My view is that they should be our first thought. ” A person briefed on the trip discussions said that Mr. Christie, who leads Mr. Trump’s transition team, had helped with them. Mexico’s disaffection with Mr. Trump began early in his campaign, when he said, among other things, that the immigrants entering the United States illegally from Mexico were criminals. From that point on, columns, articles and public forums have been filled with tirades, his words galvanizing Mexicans across the social spectrum. Artisans have fashioned Trump piñatas, and former President Vicente Fox has made it his mission to rebuke Mr. Trump’s every word, to name but two of the rejoinders from Mexican society. Last year, writers, intellectuals and scientists from across the world wrote a public letter denouncing Mr. Trump and accusing him of xenophobia. Mr. Peña Nieto’s finance minister has said that under no circumstances would Mexico pay for a border wall. Andrew Selee, the executive vice president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a Mexico expert, said Mexico’s motivation to invite Mr. Trump might simply have been pragmatic. “I think the Mexican government wants channels with whoever is going to be president of the U. S. next, and Trump is a legitimate candidate,” Mr. Selee said. “And from a political perspective, Peña Nieto getting Trump to come to Mexico shows that Trump has been forced to shift some of his rhetoric and take Mexico seriously. ” But considering how often Mr. Trump comes up in conversation in Mexico, and the uniform insult felt by the nation every time he talks about the wall, the government has remained disciplined in their public statements. That is in part a political decision: Officials feel that any responses will do little but provide more publicity for the candidate. For Mr. Peña Nieto, though, the politics could be difficult. His poll numbers are the lowest of any Mexican president in a . | 1 |
Good morning. Here’s what you need to know: • Britain’s House of Commons will debate “Brexit” today. An opposition motion called on Prime Minister Theresa May to reveal her strategy for leaving the European Union. In return, Ms. May asked that lawmakers approve the beginning of talks, in late March. Michel Barnier, one of the E. U.’s lead negotiators, took a hard line against Britain’s plans to retain some advantages after leaving. He also said a deal needed to be reached within 18 months of the start of talks. We look at how populists in Continental Europe, as in Britain and the U. S. are tapping into discontent in the countryside and exploiting resentment against urbanites viewed as elites. _____ • Angela Merkel accepted her party’s nomination for another term as Germany’s chancellor in next year’s election. Trying to ward off challenges from the populist right, she said veils should be banned “wherever legally possible. ” While not mentioning Donald J. Trump by name, Ms. Merkel indicated that his rise to the White House could make it harder to define global policy and tackle international security challenges. _____ • Mr. Trump’s latest disruption involves one of the most hallowed symbols of the American presidency: Air Force One. Mr. Trump suggested that Boeing was inflating the costs of an upgrade. “Cancel order!” he wrote on Twitter. The lobbying firm of former Senator Bob Dole received $140, 000 from the government of Taiwan for its work in establishing contacts that led to the president of Taiwan’s phone call with Mr. Trump last week. Here’s the latest on the presidential transition. _____ • Libyan fighters declared victory over the Islamic State in Surt, ending the group’s ambitions for a caliphate on the southern shores of the Mediterranean. But the government in Tripoli remains weak, having failed to extend its authority even over the capital since it started work in March. Many militias fighting under its banner are more concerned about Gen. Khalifa Hifter, a strongman who dominates Benghazi and the east of the country, than about the Islamic State. _____ • Saudi Arabia has voiced support for U. S. efforts to nourish democracy in Afghanistan. But it has also lavishly funded Sunni extremism there, under various guises. Our special report examines how the kingdom manages to be on both sides of the conflict. _____ • Affluence doesn’t guarantee better results in education, particularly in science and math, a global survey suggests. America’s most advantaged teenagers scored below their peers in science. The countries with the highest scores — Singapore, Japan, Estonia, Finland and Canada — tend to be those that have acted to make teaching more prestigious and selective and directed more resources to their neediest children. _____ • The Trump Organization scrapped its contentious application to build a sea wall in Ireland. • Google uses almost as much energy as San Francisco. Next year, the company said, all that energy will come from wind farms and solar panels. • The U. S. economy has more than doubled since 1980, but new research finds there was close to zero growth for adults on the bottom half of the income ladder. • Here’s a snapshot of global markets. • President Hassan Rouhani of Iran, above, pledged that Iran would not allow Mr. Trump to “rip up” the nuclear deal and warned of consequences if President Obama signed a extension of sanctions. [The New York Times] • Malta outlawed “conversion therapy” to change sexual orientation. [Times of Malta] • A court in Greece said three pilots who fled Turkey after the failed coup in July must go back. A day earlier, it said three Turkish soldiers could stay. [Reuters] • Voters in Ghana go to the polls today in presidential elections. The country’s economy has plunged, with this year’s growth on track to be the slowest in decades. [The New York Times] • Russia published a plan to defend itself against online attacks and operate the Russian internet autonomously, if needed in time of war. [The New York Times] • Moscow also announced plans to sell “Kremlin Quality” dairy products online. [BBC] • Whether a woman’s name changes after marriage can be a personal choice, but also a matter of culture, political environment and law. We’re asking women around the world to let us know if they kept or changed their names, and why. • A rape scene in Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1972 film “Last Tango in Paris” is at the center of an internet outcry. • Real Madrid will host Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League’s final round of group games. Arsenal secured first place in its group by defeating Basel. Napoli and Benfica advanced. • Beyoncé, with nine nods for her album “Lemonade,” leads the nominations for the 59th annual Grammy Awards. Other nominees include Adele, Drake, Rihanna and Justin Bieber. • Giacomo Puccini’s original version of “Madama Butterfly” will get a second chance at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, more than a century after its premiere was met with catcalls and jeers. The standoff over an oil pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in the American Midwest took a turn this week when the Army Corps of Engineers said it would reconsider the pipeline’s route. The Corps has helped shape American infrastructure since its establishment in 1802 as the “world’s largest public engineering, design and construction management agency. ” As a part of the Department of the Army, its early projects involved forts. But the Corps’ most notable legacy may be making Great Lakes harbors safer and reducing river obstacles, a boon to the growing nation’s economy. The Standing Rock protest stems from the pipeline’s planned routing under the Missouri River, raising Native American fears of an environmental catastrophe. When those happen, the Corps often responds, as it did in the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska in 1989. The Corps has often been credited with a marvel that it didn’t actually build: the original Panama Canal, which transformed global trade. The canal’s construction was, however, overseen by a famous member of the Corps, Gen. George Washington Goethals. When he died in 1928, officials called the canal “a monument to one of the world’s greatest engineers. ” He was buried at the U. S. Military Academy in New York, overlooking the Hudson River. Sean Alfano contributed reporting. _____ Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings. What would you like to see here? Contact us at asiabriefing@nytimes. com. | 1 |
Several asylum seekers in Sweden have killed themselves in recent weeks, and the government has held a crisis meeting to find the cause and deal with the issue. [Five asylum seekers have taken their lives in Sweden, three of them in the last two weeks alone. The migrants have two things in common, all were young Afghan asylum seekers, and they were all scheduled to be deported. The problem is especially prevalent among young asylum seekers who even encourage others to kill themselves online Deutschlandfunk reports. Psychologist Julia Tiberg works with young migrants at Vi står inte ut, an organisation dedicated to helping young asylum seekers in Sweden. Tilberg said, “We observe young asylum seekers in closed internet forums encouraging each other to commit suicide,” adding, “suicide is also considered moral by the group and is for the sake of others, to affect the current policy. ” Ombudsman Fredrik Malmberg has backed up the claims saying, “I have been informed by the social authority that there are seemingly organised suicidal thoughts among asylum seekers without families, which is extremely worrying because several of them have actually committed suicide. ” In the past year around 3, 000 underage Afghan migrants have arrived in Sweden and 600 of them have been rejected for asylum status. Of those rejected, many have been allowed to stay in Sweden because they claim not to have any family back in their native country. Musse Hossein is an asylum seeker from Afghanistan who tries to help his fellow countrymen. He said of the underage migrants he has met, “they feel lonely, have mental problems, and when their asylum petition is rejected, the situation is, of course, serious. ” Over the past year, Sweden has also had problems with abuse in underage migrant homes. In February of last year, a Afghan migrant boy who had recently arrived in Sweden was tricked into going to a field near his asylum home by several other underage asylum seekers who proceeded to beat him and rape him. A few months later in April, another underage migrant was sexually abused. In that case, the victim was a girl, and her attacker was another Afghan migrant who claimed to be underage, though authorities discovered that he was lying about his age and had only been in Sweden for two days before the attack. Another boy was sexually abused by Afghan migrants in December in the Swedish city of Uppsala. The boy, who is said to have been under 15, was lured by five underage Afghans to a wooded area where the boys sexually abused him, beat him and filmed the ordeal on their mobile phones. | 1 |
The way Donald J. Trump tells it, his first solo project as a real estate developer, the conversion of a faded railroad hotel on 42nd Street into the sleek, Grand Hyatt, was a triumph from the very beginning. The hotel, Mr. Trump bragged in “Trump: The Art of the Deal,” his 1987 best seller, “was a hit from the first day. Gross operating profits now exceed $30 million a year. ” But that book, and numerous interviews over the years, make little mention of a crucial factor in getting the hotel built: an extraordinary tax break that has cost New York City $360 million to date in forgiven, or uncollected, taxes, with four years still to run, on a property that cost only $120 million to build in 1980. The project set the pattern for Mr. Trump’s New York career: He used his father’s, and, later, his own, extensive political connections, and relied on a huge amount of assistance from the government and taxpayers in the form of tax breaks, grants and incentives to benefit the 15 buildings at the core of his Manhattan real estate empire. Since then, Mr. Trump has reaped at least $885 million in tax breaks, grants and other subsidies for luxury apartments, hotels and office buildings in New York, according to city tax, housing and finance records. The subsidies helped him lower his own costs and sell apartments at higher prices because of their reduced taxes. Mr. Trump, the Republican nominee for president, has made clear over the course of his campaign how proud he is that “as a businessman I want to pay as little tax as possible. ” While it is impossible to assess how much Mr. Trump pays in personal or corporate income taxes, because he has refused to release his tax returns, an examination of his record as a New York developer shows how aggressively he has fought to lower the taxes on his projects. Mr. Trump successfully sued the administration of Mayor Edward I. Koch after being denied a tax break for Trump Tower, his signature building on Fifth Avenue. Two decades later, in a lawsuit that spanned the administrations of Mayors Rudolph W. Giuliani and Michael R. Bloomberg, he won a similar tax break for Trump World Tower, a building on First Avenue with some of the city’s condominiums in 2001. The tax breaks for those two projects alone totaled $157 million. The tax break at the Trump International Hotel and Tower at Columbus Circle came to $15. 9 million. No possible subsidy was left untapped. After the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Mr. Trump lined up a $150, 000 grant for one of his buildings near ground zero, taking advantage of a program to help small businesses in the area recover, even though he had acknowledged on the day of the attacks that his building was undamaged. “Donald Trump is probably worse than any other developer in his relentless pursuit of every single dime of taxpayer subsidies he can get his paws on,” said Alicia Glen, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s deputy mayor for housing and economic development, who first battled Mr. Trump when she worked in Mr. Giuliani’s administration. In seeking those subsidies, Mr. Trump is not that different from many other developers. But the level of subsidies he has received along with his doggedness in claiming them seem at odds with his rhetoric as an outsider candidate who boasts of his success and who has denounced what he calls the culture of politics and a “rigged” system of government. Without addressing specific questions about his pursuit of tax breaks and other subsidies, Mr. Trump in a telephone interview defended going after them. “In many cases, they made the difference between building and not being able to build,” he said. “I’ve gotten incentives in other parts of the world as well. ” In the eager to make his mark in Manhattan, the Mr. Trump focused his attention on the failing Commodore Hotel on East 42nd Street, next to Grand Central Terminal. The owner, the bankrupt Penn Central Railroad, was keen to sell. It did not seem like an auspicious plan. The city was in the midst of both its own fiscal crisis and a broader economic one the neighborhood near the terminal had gotten seedy and Mr. Trump did not have the capital for the project. He needed his father, Fred C. Trump, to guarantee a portion of the construction loan. Hyatt, which was going to run the hotel, took a 50 percent stake in exchange for guaranteeing the rest of the project. But Mr. Trump insisted that the project was not viable without a tax break from the city. In pressing for government approval, Mr. Trump proved to be the quintessential insider, at least through his father: The elder Mr. Trump was a major contributor to and friend of Mayor Abraham D. Beame and Gov. Hugh L. Carey, both Democrats. “Fred was a big macher in Brooklyn,” said Martin J. McLaughlin, a lobbyist who worked for Donald Trump in the 1990s. “He had an extremely close relationship with Beame and Carey. ” Mr. Trump visited a young city official, Michael Bailkin, who devised a plan centered on a tax abatement, still the longest ever granted by the city, under which the state would own the land beneath the hotel and lease it to the partnership for $1 a year. “I viewed him as another developer, one with limited experience, but coming from a family with a lot of experience,” Mr. Bailkin recalled in an interview. Mr. Trump had one other qualification. “He did say,” Mr. Bailkin added, “the administration would support it. ” Mr. Carey was on board. But Mr. Trump needed the state’s Urban Development Corporation to go along. He hired Louise Sunshine, the governor’s chief who arranged a meeting with the head of the agency, Richard Ravitch. Mr. Ravitch said in a recent interview that he responded frankly after Mr. Trump laid out the project: “It’d be great to have a Hyatt on 42nd Street. I thought it’d be successful. But I don’t think it should be exempt from taxation. ” Mr. Trump stood up, Mr. Ravitch recalled, “and said, ‘If you don’t give me an exemption I’ll have you fired. ’” Ms. Sunshine did not respond to requests for comment. In the end, after phone calls from Mr. Beame and other Democratic politicians, Mr. Ravitch and the agency’s board voted to approve the project, though the partners in the hotel had to pay a modest rent for the land based on a percentage of their profits and allow for subway entrances to be built nearby. Mr. Trump said the decision was made on the merits. “We were a contributor like many people were contributors,” he said. “But there never was a quid pro quo. ” After a $120 million overhaul, the hotel, now sheathed in black glass, opened to great fanfare in 1980. Even before it opened, though, Mr. Trump had infuriated the new mayor, Mr. Koch, by reneging on the promise to allow for access to the subway on the east and west sides of the hotel. Mr. Trump eventually granted the western easement and allowed the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to build a stairwell, but shed his responsibility for the other entryway. City officials initially estimated that the tax break on the Hyatt was worth $4 million a year to Mr. Trump. But according to a recent analysis conducted by the city’s Finance Department at the request of The New York Times, the actual annual giveaway was far higher: $6. 3 million in 1983, rising to $17. 8 million in 2016. The combined value of the forgiven taxes is $359. 3 million, with four years left on the abatement. Over the same period, the hotel’s owners have paid the city $202. 5 million in rent and fees, according to the state agency overseeing the project, Empire State Development. Mr. Trump said the tax break did what it was supposed to do. “The hotel was a great success for the city,” he said. “It regenerated interest in that area. ” But early on, the city suspected something was amiss with the rent payments, when the total dropped in 1986, despite rising profits. A 1989 review by Karen Burstein, the city’s auditor general at the time, found that Mr. Trump and Hyatt owed the city $2. 9 million for 1986, having used “aberrant and distortive” accounting methods to reduce their obligation. “This was subsidized by city residents,” Ms. Burstein said recently of the tax break. “The last thing you do is cheat the very people who are your partners. ” After the city and state demanded payment, the hotel partners sued them in 1990. The suit was settled in 2004. Neither court files nor the city’s Law Department have a copy of the agreement, but a city official who requested anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the matter, said that the city recouped $850, 000. By the time of the settlement, the Pritzker family, which controls the Hyatt hotel chain, had paid Mr. Trump $140 million for his share of the hotel, after their partnership turned acrimonious. When the Hyatt opened, Mr. Trump was already at work on a second project: Trump Tower, the building that would become his home, the headquarters for his company and a tourist attraction. The idea was to raze the Bonwit Teller department store, whose prestigious Fifth Avenue address he described as a “Tiffany location. ” To build what he called “the ultimate vision of an elegant life seen through a golden eye,” Mr. Trump wanted a property tax break under the city’s program, which was created in 1971 to stimulate housing construction. As the city’s economy rebounded, and programs like it were coming under criticism as giveaways to developers. The Koch administration rejected Mr. Trump’s application, saying the project did not qualify because he was replacing a store with hundreds of employees and annual sales of $30 million, rather than an “underutilized property. ” Mr. Trump sued the city in 1981. Justice Arnold L. Fein of the Appellate Division ruled in the city’s favor, writing that “hardly contemplates the grant of benefits at the most choice, already adequately utilized location in Manhattan to create residential luxury apartments. ” Mr. Trump appealed and in 1984, the New York State Court of Appeals ruled that the city’s action had “impermissibly erected a barrier to the benefit,” and Mr. Trump was entitled to the tax abatement. Mr. Trump said at the time that the abatement was worth $7 million to $10 million over 10 years. The Finance Department, however, said in its recent analysis that the value of the benefit totaled $22. 5 million. Mr. Trump later got an additional $15 million tax break under a separate program for renovating the tower’s commercial space. Mr. Trump continued to fight the Koch administration’s attempts to restrict the tax breaks or to require developer concessions, such as subsidized apartments, in return. After the administration refused to provide tens of millions of dollars in benefits for another project, on the West Side of Manhattan, Mr. Trump declared: “the city under Ed Koch is a disaster. ” It is easy to understand why the tax breaks were so important to a developer like Mr. Trump. During a building’s to construction phase, when there is no rental or sales money coming in, a tax abatement can save a developer millions of dollars in taxes, because the property is taxed at the rate in effect before improvements are made. Once a building is completed and its apartments are sold, the benefits accrue to the buyers, significantly lowering taxes and making the apartments more appealing. In the 2004 offering plan for a new penthouse at 120 Riverside Boulevard in the Trump South development, which stretches from 59th Street to 72nd Street on Manhattan’s West Side, the estimated property taxes were $617 because of the building’s tax abatement. Without the subsidy, the taxes on the apartment, which was listed at $1. 6 million in 2004, would have been $32, 916. “It was a great selling point,” said Charles P. Reiss, a retired executive vice president for development at the Trump Organization. “For condos, the monthly fee was greatly reduced. ” The benefit declines over time, with the apartment owner paying full taxes after 10 years. After winning the court battle over Trump Tower, Mr. Trump received tax benefits from the Koch administration worth $20. 8 million for his Trump Plaza and Trump Palace projects. During the 1990s and into the 2000s, Mr. Trump built a number of New York projects without taxpayer subsidies. But he continued to chase benefits, large — and small. For instance, he sought, and received, a tax abatement worth $48, 000 for the conversion of a condominium tower called Trump Parc East under Mr. Giuliani. And after the Sept. 11 attacks, he obtained a $150, 000 grant for 40 Wall Street, an office tower eight blocks from ground zero, through a recovery program. In the hours after the attacks, Mr. Trump told German television that his property “wasn’t, fortunately, affected by what happened at the World Trade Center. ” At the other end of the spectrum, there was the tax abatement he got on seven apartment buildings in Trump South in which he held a partial stake. According to the Finance Department analysis, the city forgave a combined $331. 8 million in property taxes on the buildings, which were completed from 1998 to 2005. Under the revised rules governing the program, Mr. Trump was required to set aside 700 of the 3, 494 apartments — roughly 20 percent — for and tenants. In 2000, Mr. Trump began marketing a new condominium near the United Nations, Trump World Tower, which his brochures described as the “newest — and the most spectacular — achievement of the Trump Organization. ” Again, he wanted the city to give him a tax break. Ms. Glen, then an assistant commissioner at the city’s Division of Housing Finance, judged the project ineligible for public benefits. After the city’s court battle with Mr. Trump over Trump Tower, the City Council had passed legislation dictating that benefits no longer be used to demolish usable buildings at public expense. In a letter to Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Ms. Glen said Trump World Tower was to be built on the site of a functioning office building, and denied him the tax break. Mr. Trump sued and a State Supreme Court judge ordered the city to review his application. After that suit stalled, he filed a second one that ended in 2003 with a settlement that granted Mr. Trump a exemption worth $119. 5 million for the condo, according to the Finance Department. To meet his obligation to build affordable housing, Mr. Trump paid another developer $9. 65 million for 124 units earmarked for and tenants elsewhere in the city. according to court records. He also had to forego a tax abatement during construction. In 2002, apartments at Trump World Tower sold for an average of $1, 046 per square foot, or $1. 5 million for a small . “His whole MO is to exploit the government for everything he could get,” said Jerilyn Perine, the city housing commissioner during the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations. “In the end, the letter of the law gave it to him. ” | 1 |
Tue, 25 Oct 2016 13:25 UTC Officials say more than 900 wildfires have destroyed over 100,000 acres across the state this month amid an ongoing drought that has no signs of ending anytime soon. Interim State Forester Gary Cole said in a statement Monday that extremely dry conditions have created favorable environments for wildfires during the past several weeks. "The drought creates a dangerous scenario where wildfire can quickly spread out of control, destroying forestland and threatening homes," Cole said. Gov. Robert Bentley on Oct. 12 signed a drought emergency declaration, putting 46 counties under the no burn order. Cole says that order will remain in effect until weather conditions have significantly improved. Citing a 10-day forecast of low potential for rainfall, Cole says there is "no relief in sight." Violators of the burn ban could face a fine of up to $500 and up to six months in jail if convicted. Source: Associated Press | 0 |
15, 2016 How To Measure Water pH At Home
I was raised in the country and we had well water. It tasted good but it turned the tub, our clothes, and even our hair red. That’s because it had iron in it, which is a sign that the water was acidic.
To combat this, we used a water filtration system, which increased the pH in the water by removing the excess metals in the water.
But is water pH important for any other reason that white tubs? Yes it is!
We’ve discussed the importance of pH before, in articles such as how to make wine and vinegar . Obviously, those two food items are acidic, which means that the pH in each of them is less than 7. Pure water has a pH of 7; a pH less than 7 is considered acidic and a pH greater than 7 is considered basic, or alkaline.
The Visual Effects of Acidic or Basic Water
As I stated above, the contents of your water have an aesthetic effect on clothes, dishes, and pipes. The average pH for surface water is 6.5-8.5. Normal groundwater is 6-8.5. If you go too far in either direction, higher or lower, you’ll likely see some physical evidence of it.
Water with a pH of less than 6.5 or so is acidic and often contains heavy metals such as iron, manganese, copper, lead, and zinc. Obviously, you don’t want to drink too much of these because of the damage that these metals can do to your health. We’ll discuss that in a bit.
Acidic water is corrosive and can damage pipes, stain laundry and appliances with a blue-green tint, and leave a buildup on dishes. It may also taste metallic. You may remember what the water tasted like coming out of the water hose when you were a kid; that’s similar to what acidic water may taste like.
The way that you balance it is by adding a neutralizer such as soda ash (sodium carbonate).
Water with a pH higher than 7 is considered basic or alkaline, though it’s not really outside the realm of “normal” until it’s higher than 8 or 8.5.
Alkaline water is often high in calcium and will leave whitish scaly deposits on your dishes, utensils, tubs, and appliances and can clog your pipes. It also tastes a bit bitter, especially when you make your morning Joe, and can make it hard to get a lather out of soaps.
Health Risks Associated with Water pH
I’ve written content for the holistic health and medical fields for a long time, and though there’s a certain following that says that water pH can change the pH of your body, there’s simply not enough evidence to corroborate that. Your body does a dang good job of balancing itself and saying that water pH can alter your blood pH is a stretch.
Also, pH levels, in and of themselves, do not indicate the safety of water. For instance, arsenic may be present but not significantly affect the pH.
However, pH can be a good indicator that there are toxic substances such as heavy metals in your water because “soft” water (water with a low pH), can leach metal ions out of soil and pipes. For example, lead is never a good thing, and a low pH is an indicator that your water may contain lead or other poisonous metals.
On the flip side, calcium found in water with an alkaline pH can balance some of this out. It can make some heavy metals such as lead, copper, and zinc less toxic.
Calcium can strengthen pipes by lining them with a protective coating, but it can also clog them if it builds up too much. You’ve probably heard the term, “hard water.” That refers to water with a high pH, because of the build-ups. In limed soil, calcium can immobilize iron and cause a shortage even if there’s plenty of iron in the soil.
As you can see, the primary health concern when it comes to the pH of drinking water is consuming heavy metals. The important thing to remember is that pH is only one measure of water safely. It doesn’t necessarily tell you what other toxins such as fertilizers, fungicides, and other chemicals are in there.
The Effects of Water pH on Soil
The pH of water plays a much bigger role in other ways, though. The two biggest areas may be in how it affects soil and aquatic life. As we’ve already discussed, the calcium that’s typically found in alkaline water can affect how your plants absorb essential minerals such as zinc and iron.
Again, pH isn’t the only factor; some fish that can survive in water with a pH as low as 4.7 will die at a pH of 5.5 if the water contains just a tick too much iron. PH isn’t everything, but it’s a good indicator.
PH is important to soil because some plants prefer an acidic soil and some prefer an alkaline soil. Planting in the correct soil will increase plant health and growth, and therefore yield. If you’re going to plant it, you may as well get as much bang for your buck as possible!
PH affects everything from the levels and types of good and bad bacteria in the soil to the texture of the soil itself. For instance, clay that is in the optimal range or 5.5-7 is granular and easy to work with. If it’s overly acidic or alkaline, it becomes sticky and hard to work with.
Most plants thrive in neutral or almost-neutral soils, but there are some that love acidic soil. These include radishes, blueberries, cranberries, sweet potatoes, parsley, peppers of all sorts, and rhubarb. The majority of plants can tolerate a mildly-acidic soil, but they’re much less tolerant to alkaline conditions.
This is because minerals dissolve better in acidic soil. This sounds like a good thing, but only to a certain degree. A pH of about 5.5 is about as low as any plant will tolerate because below that, the concentration of metal ions, especially aluminum, manganese, and iron, become so high that they can inhibit plant growth. Phosphorus, calcium, and magnesium may also be less available.
Following the pattern, you may guess that alkaline soils inhibit the release of minerals and nutrients, which is why plants can’t tolerate those conditions.
It’s important to test your soil and know your plants. The goal isn’t so much to achieve a certain pH as it is to make sure that the soil acidity is such that there aren’t any toxic metals and the nutrient availability is maximized. In other words, no poison, plenty of nutrients!
If your soil is too acidic, you can neutralize it a bit using lime. Alkaline soils, on the other hand, aren’t as easy to adjust. Sometimes you can add sulfur or acid-forming fertilizers, but it’s probably easier just to add nutrients via fertilizer and compost.
Note that pH isn’t everything. Many sands have a great pH for growth but contain practically zero nutrients. That’s OK – you can always add nutrients .
Importance of pH in Streams
Now THIS is where water pH makes a real difference. We’ve already discussed how acidic water induces the release of minerals and we know that many of those minerals are toxic in high levels.
When the pH of water becomes too acidic due to contamination by acid rain or run-off that contains fertilizers or other acidic chemicals, it can be catastrophic to aquatic life.
Many plants and aquatic creatures are adapted to survive in a specific pH and can’t tolerate more than just a minuscule change.
Not only does the acid affect the nutrients in the water, it can also cause the same physical problems to fish and plants that they cause to your drains and pipes.
Heavy metals can accumulate on gills and even cause deformities on young, growing fish. The same idea goes for plants that grow in the water, except they’re affected by the pH in the soil as well as the water.
The biggest issue here isn’t that one fish or one plant can’t tolerate a change; everything that eats that fish or plant, or is eaten by that fish, is affected as well. Aquatic systems are delicate and even a small change can cause huge ripples.
As you can see, pH is just a number; it’s the changes that accompany that number that can cause problems or bring joy and growth. Keep an eye on the pH of your soil because it can change!
How to Measure pH
There are simple pH strips that you can buy at a pool store which use color strips to tell you what the pH of the water or soil is. If you’d rather do it the natural way, which is the way we usually prefer to do things, you have a couple of choices.
The first way is to gather 1 cup of soil (total) from a few different parts of your garden. Add a couple spoonfuls to 2 separate containers, then add 1/2 cup vinegar to the soil in one container. If it fizzes, your soil is alkaline, with a pH between 7 and 8. If it doesn’t, add 1/2 cup baking soda to the other cup. If it fizzes, you have acidic soil. It’s a good guess that the pH is somewhere between 5 and 6. If it doesn’t fizz either time, you have neutral soil – congrats!
The second way to test pH – and this works for soil and water – is to use a red cabbage. Yep, that’s right. Simmer 1 cup of red cabbage in two cups of distilled water for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let it steep for another 30 minutes or so.
To test your soil, place a couple of spoonfuls of your soil to a couple of containers, like you did before. It would be good this time around if the containers are clear. Strain the cabbage, keeping the water. It will be a purply-blue color and has a pH of seven – completely neutral.
Add 1/4 cup or so of cabbage water to each cup, stir it up, and let it sit for 30 minutes. If the water turns pink, your soil is acidic. If it’s blue/green, your soil is alkaline. Video first seen on Carl Nelson .
To test your water, simply substitute water for the soil. The same colors apply.
Now that you know a bit more about how and why pH makes a difference with your water and soil, try the tests. If you have something to add about pH, please feel free to comment in the section below.
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. This Ginger Tea Recipe Cleanses the Liver, Dissolves Kidney Stones, and Kills Cancer Cells Major health issues relating to the kidneys, liver, and of course cancer are on the rise. Our diets ... Print Email http://humansarefree.com/2016/11/this-ginger-tea-recipe-cleanses-liver.html Major health issues relating to the kidneys, liver, and of course cancer are on the rise. Our diets and lifestyles have been brutal for our bodies. Fortunately, there are small things we can do to improve our health, and one of those things I do every day is drink this homemade ginger tea. Ginger is rich in a number of important things for the body. It's anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-parasitic, and anti-inflammatory. It's one hell of a superfood. It's also loaded with vitamin C, magnesium, and has lots of other vitamins and minerals too, just in slightly smaller quantities.Drinking ginger is also good for combating cold and flu, which is perfect for the upcoming cold season. Ginger tea also improves circulation, relieves headaches and sore muscles, eases upset stomach, cleanses the liver, dissolves kidney stones, reduces the risk of stroke, and ginger has been known to kill some types of cancer cells. Here's how to make this cleansing tea: You will need: | 0 |
Missing California Mother Found Safe On Thanksgiving Day 3.8K shares by Ike Mclean / November 25, 2016 / LIFE /
A 34-year-old mother of two who vanished on November 2 while out jogging near her home in Northern California has been found alive and safe, the Shasta County Sheriff’s Department said Thursday.
Sherri Papini reappeared on Thanksgiving morning approximately 150 miles away from her house after she flagged down a car on I-5 near Sacramento.
“She is safe, in stable condition, and receiving medical clearance at an undisclosed hospital. She has been reunited with her husband,” said Sheriff Tom Bosenko.
Police are now actively searching for two Hispanic women armed with handguns and a dark SUV in connection to the kidnapping. There is no known motive in the case, authorities said on Thursday.
An iPhone, a pair of earbuds and a few strands of what was believed to be her hair were the only leads found on a jogging trail close to the Papini’s home when she went missing, CNN reported.
Sherri’s husband Keith noticed something was wrong when he arrived home, things were quiet, and his wife and two kids were not there.
“On normal days, I would open the door and my family comes, runs and gives me a hug,” he told KRCR-TV .
Keith called the day care center they leave their children at and was told his 2 and 4 year old kids were not picked up yet. He then tracked his wife’s Iphone, found it was down the street, and told the news station “That’s when I knew she had been taken or abducted, in my opinion.”
An anonymous donor had offered a $50,000 ransom to her captor for her safe return. The amount was raised to $100,000 and then withdrawn a day before she reappeared, DailyMail reported.
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A man was pulling out of his driveway when his wheel suddenly got stuck. Initially, he thought he had accidentally driven up on his flower bed, but once he took a closer look, he realized there was a hole in the ground. There was also a ladder in the hole, but nothing could have prepared him for what he’d find when he daringly went down.
Simon Marks was pulling out of his driveway in Luton, England, when he thought he had accidentally driven into one of his flowerbeds. When he got out to inspect the damage to the flowers, he quickly realized that he had been mistaken. He hadn’t driven onto his flower bed at all. Instead, there was a gaping hole in his driveway.
Even more unbelievable than the sudden hole that appeared, he also saw that there was a ladder in the hole, where the driveway collapsed. Wanting to know what the odd discovery was all about, he bravely took a look and was shocked to find a two-roomed shelter. Simon Marks next to the air raid shelter (Source: The Sun )
“This massive hole appeared. I thought it was a sinkhole or a badly constructed garden,” Simon explained, according to The Sun . “I was just terrified the whole house was going to vanish. I took some pictures and sent them to my dad. When I moved a few of the slabs out of the way, I found a ladder. I got my selfie stick and put it down the hole where I saw two rooms.”
When his dad Gerald saw the pictures, he instantly knew what it was – an air raid shelter. After looking on the internet for some more information, Simon and his father learned that there were quite a few of these bomb shelters in the area and that this particular one had probably been built after a German bomb landed nearby during World War II. Bottles and newspapers were found inside
“The previous owner must have known it was there, and when he built the house and put a garden in, he must have filled it in,” he explained. “He clearly wasn’t very worried about it and it just sat there until the hatch fell through. I think it’s great and I want to clear it out and preserve it if it’s structurally sound.”
The shelter is nearly 10 feet deep and was full of mud. As Simon and Gerald began excavating the shelter with buckets, they found various items along with glass bottles and old newspapers. “It’s incredible to think it has all been made by hand,” Simon admitted. “It’s part of our history so it should be kept.”
This just goes to prove that you never know when you’ll accidentally stumble on a piece of history hidden in your own backyard or your driveway. I can guarantee that Simon had no idea that his property held a treasure of the past – so you never know what you might stumble on someday and what it could reveal about the history in your area. | 0 |
WASHINGTON — President Trump plans to open a dialogue with Russia on Saturday that could lead to lifting American sanctions, even as Britain’s visiting prime minister and leading senators from his own party urged him not to let up the pressure on the Kremlin until it reverses its armed intervention in Ukraine. In what will be their first conversation since Mr. Trump took office, he and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia intended to talk by telephone on Saturday about areas of possible cooperation, particularly in fighting terrorism in the Middle East, a collaboration that would represent a significant turnabout from years of friction between the two countries. At the direction of the White House, American officials in recent days have been preparing memos outlining possible common ground, including the prospect of removing some or all of the sanctions imposed by former President Barack Obama, according to officials briefed on the matter. Mr. Trump has suggested lifting the punitive measures in exchange for nuclear arms cuts and Russian cooperation in fighting the Islamic State. Asked about sanctions on Friday, Mr. Trump played down the possibility of quick action, but did not rule it out. “As for sanctions, very early to be talking about that,” Mr. Trump said Friday at a White House news conference with Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain. “But we look to have a great relationship with all countries, ideally. ” As for Mr. Putin, he offered a far more distant assessment after months of praising the Russian president for his leadership. “I don’t know the gentleman,” Mr. Trump said. “I hope we have a fantastic relationship. That’s possible, and it’s also possible that we won’t. We will see what happens. ” Standing at Mr. Trump’s side, Mrs. May warned against easing sanctions unless Russia abides by a peace settlement for Ukraine negotiated in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. “We believe the sanctions should continue until we see that Minsk Agreement fully implemented, and we’ve been continuing to argue that inside the European Union,” she said. Any talk of lifting sanctions is all but certain to spark the first serious conflagration between Mr. Trump and congressional Republicans, who have largely given the president a pass on myriad policy areas where they disagree. Republican lawmakers have been bracing for Mr. Trump to make this move, and their concerns deepened Friday when his counselor, Kellyanne Conway, said in an interview that removing sanctions was under consideration. Senator John McCain of Arizona warned Mr. Trump on Friday against lifting sanctions and vowed to push legislation reinstating them if he does, a measure that already has strong bipartisan support, including from Republicans like Senators Rob Portman of Ohio and Ben Sasse of Nebraska. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, who has largely shunned confrontation with Mr. Trump, has been a longstanding opponent of lifting sanctions, a position he forcefully reiterated on Friday. In a scathing statement against Mr. Putin, Mr. McCain cataloged all of Russia’s controversial actions in Ukraine, Syria and elsewhere and said it could not be trusted as a partner. “President Trump should remember this when he speaks to Vladimir Putin,” Mr. McCain said. “He should remember that the man on the other end of the line is a murderer and a thug who seeks to undermine American national security interests at every turn. For our commander in chief to think otherwise would be naïve and dangerous. ” Mr. Portman concurred, saying in a statement, “We must stand by our allies in the region, including Ukraine. ” Mr. Trump’s meeting with Mrs. May was his first with a visiting foreign leader since taking office with a promise to pursue an “America First” foreign policy. For Mr. Trump, it was a debut on the world stage that took on additional meaning after a scheduled White House visit by Mexico’s president next week fell apart in a dispute over the border wall Mr. Trump wants to build. Mr. Trump appeared comfortable and confident with Mrs. May standing to his right. He offered a brief opening statement that referred twice to the “special relationship” between the two countries, a phrase Britons take seriously. He offered crisp answers, in contrast to Mr. Obama, who tended to talk at length. While Mr. Trump did not demonstrate detailed policy knowledge, he went out of his way to emphasize commonalities with Mrs. May. He also tried to reassure Europeans who view him with deep skepticism. When a British reporter referred to him as a “brash TV extrovert,” Mr. Trump replied, “Actually, I’m not as brash as you might think. ” Mrs. May, eager to forge a relationship with him akin to Margaret Thatcher’s alliance with Ronald Reagan, reciprocated the warm sentiments, praising his “stunning election victory” and conveying an invitation from Queen Elizabeth II for the president to make a state visit, which he accepted. Addressing one area of disagreement, Mrs. May said that the president had privately expressed his support for NATO, despite past comments disparaging the alliance as “obsolete. ” “Mr. President,” she said, “I think you said, you confirmed that you’re 100 percent behind NATO. ” Mr. Trump embraced the decision by British voters to exit the European Union, a referendum known as “Brexit” that he and others have seen as a precursor to his own election. “I think Brexit’s going to be a wonderful thing for your country,” he said. “I think when it irons out, you’re going to have your identity and you’re going to have the people that you want in your country. ” Mr. Trump and Mrs. May talked about negotiating a new agreement between the two countries. Ms. May is not the only European leader worried about Mr. Trump’s blossoming friendship with Russia, which United States intelligence agencies have concluded hacked Democratic email accounts to influence the American election last year. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany has been a leading voice of keeping the pressure on the Kremlin, and Mr. Trump is scheduled to talk with her by telephone, too. The United States and Europe have imposed sanctions on Russian officials and companies, mainly in response to the seizure and annexation of Crimea and the separatist war fomented in eastern Ukraine. Before leaving office, Mr. Obama imposed additional sanctions in response to the Russian election hacking. In an interview with The Times of London shortly before taking office, Mr. Trump suggested a bargain that would ease sanctions on Russia in exchange for nuclear arms cuts and cooperation in the fight against the Islamic State. One topic that may come up on Saturday’s call is the fate of Austin Tice, a freelance journalist who disappeared in Syria in 2012. Mr. Trump may ask Mr. Putin for help in pressuring Russia’s ally, President Bashar of Syria, to release Mr. Tice, according to an official briefed on the matter. Syria has never acknowledged holding him, but Mr. Trump has considered dropping support for the Syrian opposition. | 1 |
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Hmm, how about that? Eleven days before the game-changing 2016 presidential election, FBI Director James Comey announces that his agency is reopening the criminal investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton .
All of the expected angst and apoplexy from the Left come gushing out. An anti-Trump PAC issues a complaint against the FBI for interfering with the eletoral process . Better still, the Clinton campaign issues a statement via — of all people — its chairman, John Podesta. In it, Podesta accuses Comey of bending to presure brought by “Donald Trump and his Republican allies” regarding the director’s initial determination that no indictment against the former secretary of state should be brought.
Podesta’s prepared remarks also paraphrase Comey’s declaration in July that “no reasonable prosecutor would move forward with a case like this,” which at the time prompted much head-scratching since he also affirmed that Clinton had indeed sent and received classified information using her non-secured private email account .
Call me a conspiracy theorist if you like — my colleague Benny Huang probably would — but I have to wonder whether all this is too convenient. Could we be witnessing a calculated plan to divert attention from the WikiLeaks emails, which have been hurting the Democratic candidate’s standing in the polls? This development might even gain some sympathy for Hillary Clinton, who has long maintained the vast right-wing conspiracy — which, nota bene, includes James Comey — has it out for the Clintons.
Or better yet, suppose that the FBI does put a rush on its investigation, as Clinton herself has now demanded, and determines for a second time that there are no grounds for an indictment.
All the while, the press and impressionable voters would be focused on this probe. Envelope, please ! | 0 |
BNI Store Oct 31 2016 Do Canadian taxpayers know they are funding welfare for polygamous Muslim migrant families with up to 4 wives and countless children? Canadian Liberals have been stonewalling on any access to information requests relating to the Syrian Muslim migrants they’ve been shipping in by the tens of thousands . They’re either embarrassed by the facts or don’t even want to know what the facts actually are. Back in 2008, Toronto media left and right reported on hundreds of polygamous Muslim families in Toronto, many on welfare. Has anything changed? Neither Canada’s government nor its welfare agencies bother to screen for polygamous marriages. And the media won’t breathe a word about it. | 0 |
With Donald J. Trump’s campaign engulfed in crisis, the second presidential debate promised a clash of grand proportions: a decisive, even cataclysmic showdown between one candidate on his heels and the other, Hillary Clinton, emerging as a strong . The confrontation did not entirely live up to that billing, but Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump vented their vast differences over a revealing hour and a half. Here are some of our key takeaways: Mr. Trump had long threatened to go after Mrs. Clinton for her husband’s infidelities, and had often accused her of enabling Bill Clinton’s transgressions — but he had never said these things to Mrs. Clinton’s face. On Sunday night, he crossed that line. Claiming that Mrs. Clinton had intimidated women who accused her husband of assault, Mr. Trump told her she “should be ashamed of herself. ” But in the end, a charge long seen as the most incendiary Mr. Trump could offer echoed for only a few minutes. Mrs. Clinton opted not to counterattack, taking the course of saying that much of Mr. Trump’s tirade had been false, and quoting Michelle Obama’s case for avoiding retaliation in kind: “When they go low, you go high. ” Mr. Trump entered the debate as the most disliked presidential nominee in the history of polling, seen by most voters as biased against women and minorities and as lacking the temperament to be commander in chief. Shifting those perceptions is his overwhelming task in the race — as it has been for months — and it is unlikely that he accomplished that on Sunday. He expressed no contrition for virtually any of the statements and actions that have alienated voters, from denigrating a federal judge in racial terms to mocking a reporter’s physical handicap. The lone and partial exception came in Mr. Trump’s brief apology for crudely bragging about sexual assault in a 2005 recording: Mr. Trump said he regretted his comments but described them as “ talk. ” If Mr. Trump steadied himself as the night went on, he never showed a side of himself that might surprise voters and transform their overwhelmingly negative views of him. On defense for most of the evening, Mr. Trump repeatedly widened his political vulnerabilities with offhand and comments. Criticized for demeaning a former Miss Universe, Mr. Trump derided her as “no Girl Scout” and denied having urged people to view a “sex tape,” though he did exactly that on Twitter. He bluntly contradicted his running mate, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, in his approach to Syria. As opponents accused him of coddling foreign dictators and aspiring to unconstitutional powers, Mr. Trump said outright that if he were president, Mrs. Clinton would be behind bars. And Mr. Trump admitted in response to a direct question that he had used a massive business loss in the 1990s to avoid paying federal income taxes for years — a tactic Mrs. Clinton has long accused him of exploiting. Mr. Trump has now confirmed that charge. She rarely and did not interrupt. She sprang no surprise attacks and let Mr. Trump off the hook several times as he plainly struggled. Instead, Mrs. Clinton coolly prosecuted the case against Mr. Trump that she has offered all along, calling him unfit for the presidency and describing his candidacy as built on hate. “He owes our country an apology,” Mrs. Clinton said. She did not create an electric moment in the debate — the kind that might dominate news coverage for days — and with Mr. Trump’s fortunes falling, she likely did not need to. In a rare remark, she said Mr. Trump’s campaign was “exploding,” an assessment few Republicans would dispute. But for Republicans who feared the night would end with abject and complete humiliation for Mr. Trump, Mrs. Clinton’s cautious approach came as something of an unexpected relief. Mr. Trump’s defiant performance may not stabilize his candidacy, but it will likely put to rest frenzied speculation over the weekend that he might be forced from the presidential race. Facing abandonment by dozens of important Republican officials, he bucked calls to withdraw and instead offered a performance his core supporters will cheer loudly. His rhetoric was stocked with buzzwords that will gratify the party base: Benghazi. Sidney Blumenthal. Deplorables. Radical Islam. And Mr. Pence, who has faced calls to ditch Mr. Trump or even to replace him as the party’s nominee for president, doused predictions that the ticket might collapse. On Twitter, Mr. Pence offered Mr. Trump hearty congratulations “on a big debate win,” and declared himself “proud to stand with you” in the race. | 1 |
Italy Threatens to Veto EU Budget – No More Refugees by IWB · October 27, 2016
by Martin Armstrong
The Italian Prime Minister is calling for immediate help with the refugees. The EU refugee crisis is becoming a huge nightmare and Brussels refuses to simply admit it has made a bad decision. Italy is overwhelmed by the influx of refugees and is now calling for a fresh review. Italy cannot cope with a similar number of incoming refugees this year. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has said he would resign if the upcoming Constitutional Amendment is rejected on December 4. He realizes the vastly unpopular influx of refugees must be stopped or he may have to resign. The Italian coastguard rescued more than 6,000 people from the sea, and this year alone about 155,000 refugees have arrived by sea in Italy. They are pouring in from Libya where operating traffickers send refugees to make large sums to get them to Italy.
Renzi has now threatened that if other EU member states refuse to accept refugees he will veto the EU budget. Renzi pointed out that Italy pays the EU 20 billion euros and gets back only 12 billion. He has come out and stated that this system “does not work.” | 0 |
The bipartisan commission responsible for arranging presidential debates on Sunday rebuffed Donald J. Trump’s complaints that two of the three debates were scheduled to take place during pro football games, after Mr. Trump hedged about whether he would still participate. The Commission on Presidential Debates made the schedule last September after consulting with officials in both parties. The first two debates conflict with National Football League games: on Monday, Sept. 26 (Atlanta Falcons vs. New Orleans Saints) and Sunday, Oct. 9 (Giants vs. Green Bay Packers). A third presidential debate is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 19, and a debate is set for Tuesday, Oct. 4. The commission stood by its decision, saying it “selects the debate dates a year in advance in order for the television networks to have maximum lead time and predictability in scheduling these extremely important civic education forums,” and added that it “believes the dates for the 2016 debates will serve the American public well. ” In an interview with ABC’s “This Week” shown on Sunday, Mr. Trump accused Hillary Clinton of wanting to minimize the audience for the debates, saying her campaign had tried to do the same for debates with Senator Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primaries — and suggested that football fans should view her skeptically. “Hillary Clinton wants to be against the N. F. L. ,” Mr. Trump said. Separately, Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, expressed support on Sunday for Mr. Trump’s position, despite the party having agreed to the debate schedule last fall. “Certainly, we’re not going to agree with anything that our nominee doesn’t agree with,” Mr. Priebus said on CBS’s “Face the Nation. ” And Paul Manafort, the Trump campaign chairman, said on “Face the Nation” that he planned to “sit down with the commission in the next week or so” to make sure the debates “have a broad audience. ” But in a statement issued a short time later, the Commission on Presidential Debates said it had started planning the schedule 18 months ago and had worked to pick dates that would avoid holidays, baseball playoff games, N. F. L. games and other events that would compete for voters’ attention. “It is impossible to avoid all sporting events, and there have been nights on which debates and games occurred in most election cycles,” it said in a statement. “A debate has never been rescheduled as a result. ” The Clinton campaign, when asked for a statement on Sunday, directed reporters to a tweet sent by John Podesta, the campaign chairman. “This is just more Trump debate malarkey,” Mr. Podesta wrote. “We will be at the debates set by the bipartisan debate commission and expect he will too. ” | 1 |
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This week Tim McGraw and Faith Hill stopped by NBC's “The Voice” to offer their advice to the aspiring singers— many of whom were downright starstruck from meeting the couple.
As Josh Gallagher on Team Adam went in for a hug with Hill he said, “I don't feel like I'm worthy to hug you.”
McGraw, who was standing by them as it happened, had the perfect response... — The Voice (@NBCTheVoice) October 23, 2016
You can watch an exclusive clip not shown on TV of McGraw and Hill talking with the teams, below: | 0 |
Tesla Motors has told Senate investigators that its system failed to work properly in a fatal crash, but said its Autopilot technology was not at fault, according to a Senate staff member. Instead, Tesla told members of the Senate Commerce Committee staff on Thursday that the problem involved the car’s automatic braking system, said the staff member, who spoke on condition of anonymity. It was not clear how or why Tesla considers the automatic braking system to be separate from Autopilot, which combines automated steering, adaptive cruise control and other features meant to avoid accidents. Tesla declined to comment on Friday. “Those systems are supposed to work together to prevent an accident,” said Karl Brauer, a senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book, an auto research firm. “But either the car didn’t know it had to stop, or it did know and wasn’t able to stop. That involves Autopilot and the automatic braking. ” The company told the committee staff that it considered the braking systems as “separate and distinct” from Autopilot, which manages the car’s steering, and can change lanes and adjust travel speed, the staff member said. That argument is consistent with the company’s continued resistance to critics’ calls for the company to disable Autopilot. Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, and other company officials have continued to defend Autopilot, describing it as a lifesaving technology. The meeting on Thursday, which involved Tesla engineering executives, was in response to a request from the committee for more information about Autopilot and the cause of the crash in Florida. The executives also urged against governmental action that could slow introduction of technology, according to the staff member. Tesla expressed the view that while some deaths might occur as automakers developed and perfected these kinds of innovations, the safety benefits outweighed the risks, this person said. Tesla is still trying to determine whether the car’s radar and camera systems failed to detect a that was crossing the roadway, or whether they saw the truck but misidentified it as an overpass or overhead road sign. In a Twitter posting last month, Tesla’s chief noted that the radar system “tunes out” readings that appear to be overhead signs to prevent the car from braking unnecessarily. The information presented at the meeting is the most extensive explanation Tesla has given so far for what role its Autopilot system might have played in the crash, which took the life of Joshua Brown, 40, an entrepreneur from Ohio. Mr. Brown was traveling on a divided highway in Williston, Fla. with Autopilot controlling his Tesla Model S when it crashed into a rig that had made a left turn in front of the car. The company has previously said that neither the car’s Autopilot system nor Mr. Brown activated the brakes before the impact and noted that the radar and camera systems might have failed to detect the white truck against a bright sky. The reliability of Autopilot is a sensitive matter for Tesla because the company tries to present itself to customers and investors as a technology company rather than an automaker, said Mr. Brauer, the Kelley Blue Book analyst. “Autopilot is a key component of the image Tesla wants to project,” he said. “They’ve made a big deal about it. So they don’t want to be in the position of saying that there’s something wrong with something that’s part of the whole company’s image. ” Tesla was also due on Friday to provide the first batch of information requested by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is investigating whether a safety defect exists in Autopilot or other safety systems. Tesla declined to say whether it would meet the Friday deadline. The National Transportation Safety Board, which typically examines airplane and train accidents, is also investigating. It has found the car was traveling at 74 miles per hour, nine more than the speed limit. Tesla is scheduled to report its financial results on Wednesday. Analysts expect a loss, as the company spends heavily to increase production of a new Model X sport utility vehicle, finish the development of a more affordable Model 3 compact and start production at the gigantic battery factory that it is opening in Nevada. It is unclear whether the fatal crash and questions about the Autopilot technology are hurting Tesla’s sales or reputation. It delivered 14, 370 cars in the second quarter, fewer than expected, because 5, 150 cars were still in transit to customers, the company said. A year ago, it delivered 11, 507 cars in the second quarter. A repercussion of the Florida crash is that Mobileye, the Israeli provider of technology used in Autopilot, is no longer supplying Tesla because of disagreements over how the system is being used. Consumer Reports magazine also publicly called on Tesla to disable the Autopilot’s automatic steering function until it can find a way to make sure drivers keep their hands on the steering wheel while using it. Autopilot consists of a series of safety components that can steer, brake, overtake other vehicles and maintain lane position automatically with little input from the driver. The system warns drivers to keep their hands on the steering wheel and remain alert. But many drivers, Mr. Brown included, have posted videos on YouTube showing it is possible to go several minutes without looking at the road or holding the wheel. | 1 |
A Trump Named Sue (Video) Posted on Oct 30, 2016
By Mark Fiore Award-winning animator Mark Fiore wonders if the Republican candidate can "sue his way to the White House" in his latest animation. Watch the clip and read the animator's thoughts on Trump below. When Donald Trump warns of a rigged election depriving him of the White House, his call to arms will most likely be a call to his lawyers. Judging by his track record, surely there has never been a more sue-happy nominee for president . If voters don’t cooperate by Making America Great Again, maybe The Donald can sue his way to the White House. The American Bar Association sponsored a report that looked into Trump being a “libel bully,” that is, suing people willy-nilly to shut them up. The report on Trump was so ominous, the ABA refused to publish it. Fortunately, you can find it here . If Donald Trump will sue anyone from bartenders to journalists to Miss Pennsylvania, surely he is not above suing voters who have the temerity to vote for Hillary Clinton. Of course lawyers helped get George W. Bush into the Oval Office, but Trump-law is a different story . Enjoy the cartoon and be sure to see what’s going on over on my Patreon page . Click to see more Truthdig Cartoons | 0 |
During Friday’s Weekly Address, President Trump previewed his overseas trip and said, “our partners must show that they’re partners, they must show that they’re friends, and they must contribute financially to the tremendous cost — the money that we’re spending — is so big it’s so much and it’s not fair for our nation. They have to help and I’m sure they will. ” Transcript as Follows: “My fellow Americans, This weekend I begin my first trip overseas as president — a trip with historic significance for the American people. I will be visiting with the leaders in many different countries to strengthen our old friendships, build new partnerships, and unite the civilized world in a fight against terrorism. In that spirit of unity, I will travel to lands associated with three of the world’s great religions. My first stop will be Saudi Arabia — the heart of the Muslim World. There, I will address a historic gathering of the leaders of more than 50 Muslim nations. I will represent the views of the American people frankly and clearly. Many of these leaders have expressed growing concern about terrorism, the spread of radicalization, and Iran’s role in funding both. Now it appears Muslim leaders are ready to take more responsibility and a much bigger role in fighting terrorism in their region. It’s about time we do it, we’ll do it together, but it has to be done. America cannot solve all of the world’s problems, but we can — and we must — help any nation willing to join in the common cause of eradicating terrorism from the face of the earth. Next, I’ll travel to the ancient city of Jerusalem to talk with my good friend, Prime Minister Netanyahu, about bringing peace and prosperity to both our nations. Israel is an important American ally, but in recent years we haven’t always treated them that way. It’s time to renew our friendship. While I’m there, I’ll also meet with President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority in Bethlehem to discuss ways to advance peace between Israel and the Palestinians. From there, I’ll head to the Vatican, where I will have the great honor of an audience with Pope Francis. I look forward to speaking with the Pope about how Christian teachings can help put the world on a path to justice, freedom, and peace. I will also meet with friends and allies in Europe at a gathering of NATO in Brussels and at the Summit in Italy. Finally, I will close my trip by saying thank you to some of the courageous men and women of the United State Military serving their nation overseas. In my Inaugural Address, I pledged to strengthen America’s oldest friendships, to seek new partners in pursuit of peace, and above all — to always put American people first. I also pledged that our partners must show that they’re partners, they must show that they’re friends, and they must contribute financially to the tremendous cost — the money that we’re spending — is so big it’s so much and it’s not fair for our nation. They have to help and I’m sure they will. The fact is that I’m excited about new possibilities for peace and prosperity — and I hope you are too. Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America. ” Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett | 1 |
On Thursday’s edition of MSNBC’s “MTP Daily,” DNC Chairman Tom Perez argued that United, the Democrats won’t be able to match the Republicans in fundraising, and “That’s why we need to overturn Citizens United, all the dark money that goes there and elsewhere. ” After Todd asked Perez about the party’s investment in the Montana special election for the US House, Perez stated, “[I]n the world of United, we’re never going to match the Republicans dollar for dollar. That’s why we need to overturn Citizens United, all the dark money that goes there and elsewhere. ” Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett | 1 |
The awards season leaders whom everyone already knew were awards season leaders became ever more apparent on Thursday when the Directors Guild of America revealed the nominees for its top prize. They are: Damien Chazelle (“La La Land”) Garth Davis (“Lion”) Barry Jenkins (“Moonlight”) Kenneth Lonergan (“Manchester by the Sea”) and Denis Villeneuve (“Arrival”). The real news came further down in the announcement: Nate Parker received a nomination for outstanding achievement for a director. This signals a redemption of sorts for Mr. Parker, whose awards hopes for his debut film, “The Birth of a Nation,” were torpedoed when controversy emerged around rape charges he faced and was acquitted of nearly 16 years ago. In the category, nominations also went to Mr. Davis (a second one for his work on “Lion”) Kelly Fremon Craig (“Edge of Seventeen”) Dan Trachtenberg (“10 Cloverfield Lane”) and Tim Miller, whose satirical superhero film “Deadpool” has been a surprise presence in this year’s awards race. In the main feature film category, the notable omissions were Mel Gibson, for “Hacksaw Ridge,” and Martin Scorsese, whose passion project, “Silence,” received neither a Directors Guild nomination nor one from the Producers Guild, which found room for “Deadpool” in its nominations list this week. Taken with the film’s shutout from the Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, Mr. Scorsese and “Silence” are all but guaranteed to be ignored in the best picture and best director Oscar races this year. (Academy Award nominations are announced Jan. 24.) Guild awards are given far more weight in the Oscars race than awards from critics or journalists because they represent industry sentiment, and because a huge number of guild members also belong to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The DGA Award nominations capped a busy week that began with the Golden Globes and included nomination announcements from the producers and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, which also shares members with the American academy (and is now dealing with a #BAFTASoWhite controversy for picking an slate of lead acting and directing nominees). Taken with Golden Globes wins, the guild nominations make clear the calcification of this year’s race around the leading contenders, with “La La Land” more out front than ever. | 1 |
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Friday was a bad day for Hillary Clinton as the FBI announced the investigation into her emails and private server was being reopened. While news coverage was occupied with the controversial revelation, another one of the Clintons’ unlawful dealings was also exposed that many people missed. Hillary and Bill were busted in New York, and their habitual criminality is getting harder to deny. Bill & Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton wants you to believe that she’s just like everyone else, but her actions speak louder than words. She’s nothing like the average American, and she doesn’t think she should be held to the same standards. Her criminal activity proves it, but if you need more convincing, just have a look at what Hillary and Bill were busted for in New York while all eyes were on the FBI.
After dropping $1.15 million in August for the 3,631-square-foot house next door to their original Westchester home, the Clintons decided it was time for renovations. Originally hiring a contractor for “a paint job,” apparently turned into so much more when the Clintons’ wishlist grew and the duo decided that the work must be done before Thanksgiving. Demanding such a rushed deadline, they apparently also decided that time-consuming permits weren’t going to stand in their way. Unfortunately for them, someone didn’t like them skirting the law. The $1.15 million home they bought next door to their original house. (Source: HouseBeautiful )
An unidentified tipster ratted them out, which brought Building Inspector William Maskiell to their Chappaqua property for an inspection, and he didn’t like what he found. The “Clintons’ contractors filled in an in-ground pool, covering it with gravel, and extensively remodeled the interior of the property — all without applying for permits and paying the required fees to the town of New Castle ,” New York Post reports.
The contractors were quick to point their finger at the Clintons for the missing permits, explaining the pressure they were put under by Bill and Hillary to have the job completed by Thanksgiving. Now, Maskiell says the two face “several thousand dollars, at least,” in fees and penalties for failing to complete the paperwork. The Clintons were notified of the violations in a letter dated October 17, which disclosed the missing permits and more, according to The Post :
Attached to the letter was another document titled “ Clinton Violation Inspection Report ” in which Maskiell said the contractor told him the Clintons “were quite adamant about [the Thanksgiving deadline] and what had started as a paint job turned into this,” meaning the major renovation.
The outlet further reports, “Maskiell told the foreman for the contractor, Carl Petty Associates of Washington, DC, that he would not issue a stop work order if the contractor sought the proper permits,” but as of Friday, “the general contractor still had not filed all of the required paperwork or paid the fees.” Maskiell also explained that, although permit applications are usually submitted by the contractor, the owners are ultimately responsible and must sign the paperwork. Bill & Hillary’s original Chappaqua home, purchased for $1.7 million in 1999.
What’s worse, the missing permits isn’t the only problem the Clintons are facing regarding their properties.
The Clintons also have outstanding zoning and Building Department problems at their residence next door at 15 Old House Lane, which they bought for $1.7 million in 1999 to establish residency so Hillary could run for the Senate, Maskiell said.
They obtained variances in 2000 for a guard house on the property, for a higher fence and for “lot coverage,” or the amount of space buildings take up on the property.
The variances must be renewed every five years — but the Clintons never showed up before the Zoning Board of Appeals.
“Consequently, they are null and void. They should have come back in 2005, 2010 and 2015. So the variances have expired and they have to start from scratch” and reapply, said the inspector.
The original home and a combination library and gym in an outbuilding still have outstanding building permit issues as well, including a sprinkler “sign off” by the town engineer and an electrical inspection in the library/gym.
Many may be thinking, “What’s the big deal?” considering all the other things that Hillary and Bill have been accused of doing. However, it’s important to see that, even with the simplest of things, the Clintons don’t think the laws apply to them. Their criminality is habitual and never-ending.
Sadly, this woman, who can’t complete even the most mundane task lawfully, is running for President of the United States. Shall I remind everyone that the president, as the Executive Branch of our government, is responsible for implementing and enforcing the laws written by Congress? Someone with no regard for our laws shouldn’t be given that power. Hillary Clinton shouldn’t be in charge of law enforcement, she should be on the receiving end of it. | 0 |
NEW YORK CITY — The annual National Puerto Rican Day Parade has fallen into turmoil as sponsors and fire and police representatives drop their sponsorship over the parade committee’s decision to use the event to honor Oscar López Rivera — a convicted terrorist whose sentence President Barack Obama commuted, and who was released this month. [The New York Yankees, JetBlue, and ATT all pulled out of the June 11 parade this week in the wake of the parade committee’s decision to award López Rivera, an activist who enabled acts of terrorism in the name of Puerto Rican independence, the title of “national freedom hero. ” Goya pulled out of the parade last week, yanking $200, 000 of patronage, according to local lawmakers. In addition to sponsors, representatives of the city’s fire and police departments have also rescinded their support. The New York Police Department confirmed to Breitbart News that Commissioner James P. O’Neill will not attend the event over the decision to honor López Rivera, while the NYPD and FDNY’s Hispanic societies have both withdrawn from the parade. The union representing New York’s firefighters also withdrew its support. The controversy centers around López Rivera’s role as a key member of the radical Marxist Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN) which conducted more than 100 bombings in the United States in the seventies and eighties, killing five people, injuring dozens, and causing millions of dollars worth of damage. López Rivera was convicted on charges of transporting guns and bombs and was released this month after serving 35 years. Obama commuted his sentence in January. When he was released, López Rivera denied being a terrorist and thanked the governments of Venezuela and Cuba for their support, while reiterating the right for “colonized people” to use force. “Let me say this: We are a colonized people, and according to international law, that says all colonized people have a right to struggle for its independence using all methods within reach, including force,” López Rivera said, according to the New York Times. “That is a right. ” In a statement this month, the parade organizers stood by their decision to honor López Rivera, whom they conceded was “a controversial figure” who does not represent all Puerto Ricans. “Some people call him a terrorist while others think of him as a freedom fighter, as was the case with Nelson Mandela,” the statement said. The organizers said the intention was to honor those who worked to have his sentence commuted and to raise “awareness about Oscar López Rivera’s story, the grave colonial situation in Puerto Rico and the identity questions that continue to arise, even today. ” “Nevertheless, Oscar’s participation is not an endorsement of the history that led to his arrest, nor any form of violence. But rather a recognition of a man and a nation’s struggle for sovereignty,” the statement said. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says he still intends to march in the parade. “The parade committee made a choice this year on someone to honor,” de Blasio said, according to the Times. “That does not change the basic nature of the parade. Whether you agree with that choice or not, it’s still the Puerto Rican parade and my point is, I will be there to honor the Puerto Rican people. I intend on marching. It’s as simple as that. ” Adam Shaw is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamShawNY. | 1 |
Get short URL 0 44 0 0 Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is no stranger to driving a good point home. Speaking to representatives of the Association of European Businesses in Moscow on Tuesday, Russia's top diplomat explained how Western countries have absolutely contradictory approaches to virtually identical problems in Yemen and Ukraine.
At the meeting, Lavrov devoted a great deal of his speech to the subject of the crisis in Ukraine, the issue which effectively sparked the crisis in relations between Western countries and Russia, and resulted in tens of billions of dollars in economic losses for both sides, not to mention heightened military tensions. © Sputnik/ Vladimir Sergeev Saving Face: 'West's Attitude to Crimea Will Not Change' After US Elections Pointing out the difference in approach to Western policy in response to the crises in Ukraine and that in present-day Yemen, the foreign minister effectively schooled Western officials for their illogical behavior.
Lavrov recalled that when Yemen faced a coup in September 2014, and Yemeni President Hadi fled to neighboring Saudi Arabia, Western politicians reacted by demanding the reinstatement of the country's legitimate president. However, facing the exact same situation in Ukraine in February 2014, US and European leaders reacted very differently. "For over two years, the international community has been demanding that President Hadi be returned to Yemen and his legitimacy be reaffirmed," Lavrov recalled. "But our European colleagues, who share this view, remain silent when we ask them why the same principled approach cannot be applied to Ukraine."
Lavrov pointed out that two-and-a-half years ago, the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Poland brokered a deal between Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and the opposition, promising early elections in exchange for his security and an end to riots in the streets of Kiev. But just hours after the deal was signed, Yanukovych was ousted, and forced to flee in fear for his life. Apparently, the diplomat said, European officials "have more respect for Yemen and its political system than for Ukraine, where experiments can continue it seems. Ukraine has been suffering from this for several decades now." ... | 0 |
Charles Goyette https://www.lewrockwell.com/%3Fpost_type%3Dlrc-blog%26p%3D610232
Much of the news here in Arizona is about Obamacare. And it is big news. The Drudge Report today features a Wall Street Journal story, Inside the Affordable Care Act’s Arizona Meltdown , that explains: When Affordable Care Act insurance marketplaces launched in fall 2013, Arizona seemed like a success. Eight insurers competed to sign up consumers, offering a wide variety of plans and some of the lowest premiums in the country. Today, with ACA enrollment starting Nov. 1, Arizonans will find in most counties only one insurer selling exchange plans for 2017. Premiums for some plans will be more than double this year, some of the biggest increases in the nation.
Six major health insurers are leaving the Arizona market altogether in the new year.
The Arizona Republic story on the fiasco today quotes a Phoenix resident, Ken Hoag, who understands what’s going on. “There are no choices, really, for anybody in Maricopa County,” Hoag said. “The lack of choice is like having empty shelves (and) no food in a third world country.”
“Do I live in Cuba?” he asked.
It’s too bad this had to happen, but fortunately there is an upside. You see, during the debate on Obamacare, the Republicans warned that this was inevitable in a State-run, Soviet-style health care system. They warned of deteriorating service, fewer options, and higher prices. Instead, they extolled the virtues of a free market in health care, one free of government that would constantly improve service, increase options, and lower prices. Just like it does with government-free elective medical procedures like vision correction and cosmetic surgeries.
Now they are able to say, “We tried to warn you,” and their clarity being rewarded, we can hurry past this destructive socialist detour and restore a free-market in health care.
Oh.
Wait a minute.
That’s not what Republicans did during the national debate on Obamacare. With the legislation before Congress in 2010, the Republicans were reduced to accepting the statist presuppositions of government interventionism. Instead of standing firm, they wobbled about on their spindly little legs, as the Republican National Committee ran TV ads calling for a “responsible plan” and a “bipartisan plan.” With only the occasional exception like Ron Paul, Republicans were incapable of articulating an argument against accelerating American healthcare’s Soviet-style trajectory.
And one more thing. There was also Chief Justice John Roberts, the “conservative” whose lawyerly casuistry tipped the balance in favor of Obamacare at the Supreme Court. In voting to uphold Obamacare, Justice Ruth Ginsburg thought to remind us, as well, of Mitt Romney’s role in fathering this hideous creature.
So how do you like living in Cuba? 10:49 am on November 1, 2016 | 0 |
Breitbart News Senior Peter Schweizer addressed reports that President Trump’s Jared Kushner had an undisclosed business relationship with Goldman Sachs and billionaire financier George Soros on Wednesday’s Breitbart News Daily. [“This is a company that not only is Jared Kushner an investor in, he in 2014,” Schweizer noted. “So this is not some passive investment that one of his advisers said to put money into, and was forgotten about. He it. It’s a real estate tech startup. Obviously it has a lot of ambitions. He’s got a lot of money in it, and he failed to disclose it on his financial forms. ” LISTEN: “That’s a massive, massive problem. The whole purpose of disclosures — whether you are asking the Clintons to do it, Barack Obama to do it, Jared Kushner to do it, or Mitch McConnell to do it — is so the American people can know: who are they financially dependent on, who do they have ties to, who might have leverage over them?” Schweizer explained. “The problem is that Jared Kushner’s position in the White House, he is essentially the liaison with the business community. He’s not in charge of protocol. He’s not in charge of public outreach. He is basically the with the business community, so he is ground zero for precisely the kinds of concerns and issues that one might have about very, very troubling financial transactions,” he said. Schweizer conceded that “it’s always hard to look into somebody’s head” and judge whether such a filing omission was a mistake, or an intentional act of deception. “People that defend Jared Kushner could say, ‘Well, look, he’s got a lot of assets, a lot of companies.’ Here’s the problem: it’s hard even with Jared Kushner’s wealth to hide your stake, your involvement, with one billion dollars in loans. So I think this is a massive problem,” he contended. “I think a couple of things need to happen,” Schweizer suggested. “Number One, Jared Kushner needs to look at who filled out the disclosure forms for him. If he’s saying he had no involvement with lacking this disclosure, somebody needs to be fired. ” “I think the second question needs to be: what other investments could be out there lurking that we’re not aware of?” he asked. “To be clear, it is a federal penalty, it is a crime, to fail to disclose things on your financial forms. I’m not a lawyer, so I couldn’t speak to this particular case, but these rules and laws have real teeth because they present real problems. ” “On a scale from 1 to 10, I would put this at a 7,” he concluded, responding to SiriusXM host Alex Marlow’s request to rank the severity of this transparency issue. Marlow referred back to a recent interview he gave to New York Magazine, in which he observed that Kushner rarely grants interviews or issues public statements, so it is difficult to draw conclusions about his agenda, or measure how much influence he truly wields in the Trump White House. “Every president has advisers that have input, that offer insight, but those advisers — whether it’s Trump or Obama — generally there’s a good public knowledge about them, because they serve them during the campaign. They’ve been public officials, or outspoken on issues in one way or the other,” Schweizer noted. “Jared Kushner has not. During the campaign, he said very, very little publicly. Before that, in terms of his politics or his policy views, very, very hard to discern. And he, in a sense, kind of emerges out of nowhere to become this very powerful figure in the Trump White House. ” “Now, President Trump certainly has a right to do that,” he allowed. “But I think with that elevation of Jared Kushner needs to come, in a sense, allowing us to lift the hood up from the car and see what kind of engine is underneath there — to see really what his views are, have him do some public interviews about what his positions are. ” Schweizer reiterated that Kushner should expect heightened scrutiny because he is “a liaison with the business community. ” “He is now the sort of between President Trump and people like Goldman Sachs George Soros that might have business in the White House,” he elaborated. “These are people he does business with, and has commingled assets with. The American people need to know, and for a campaign that I think ‘draining the swamp’ and transparency were such important issues, this circumstance I think demands that kind of response. ” Schweizer called for “some sort of an independent audit,” a term he disliked using but found closest to what he envisions. “There needs to be somebody independently that goes in and looks through his assets to make sure that there aren’t other big conflicts that are undisclosed lurking,” he said. “The problem is, you really can’t have confidence in whoever prepared these forms for Jared Kushner because you’ve got these gaps. I would be surprised if there aren’t more of these kinds of mistakes or omissions, because it just seems to me this one is so big and so glaring, it’s hard for me to believe that it was just an oversight, and it’s hard for me to believe that this is the only one that exists. ” Marlow asked if Kushner specifically having ties with Goldman Sachs and George Soros would cause problems with Trump voters, of if such dealings should simply be understood as inescapable aspects of New York City high finance. “I think from the policy standpoint I would have less concern about this, precisely for what you said,” Schweizer replied. “Look, when you’re looking at these large investments where you have very wealthy people or their offices investing, you find this a fair amount. So I don’t think this necessarily says anything about Jared Kushner’s politics or policy views, the fact that he’s with George Soros. ” “But I do think, as we talked about earlier, there is this mystery. What actually are his views about crony capitalism?” he continued. “What are his views about the tax rate? What are his views about the Bank, and those other issues that have been lurking out there for so long?” “He obviously has an important voice and is going to be a player at the table. People know what everybody else around the table is thinking. People basically know what Gary Cohn thinks. They know what Steve Bannon thinks. People don’t know what Jared Kushner thinks, and I think the American people, particularly the people that have supported him, would expect to know and want to know what those views are,” Schweizer said. He pointed out that Kushner appears to have an extraordinarily broad portfolio in the Trump administration, having turned up in Iraq last month. “Is he a diplomat? Is he a liaison with the business community? Is he doing both of those things? If so, what are his views? Does he have any background or any qualifications in those areas?” Schweizer asked. “I think these are all legitimate questions that people have a right to ask, and to want to know. And yet, it’s kind of shrouded with mystery. ” “I can tell you, if you look through American history, any time there have been family members sort of intermingled with an American presidency — whether that’s a Kennedy administration, and Bobby Kennedy is Attorney General, or going back to Woodrow Wilson where he was basically disabled and his wife ran the country — this is the lurking concern and fear that people have,” he recalled. “That is, who is actually making the decisions? You really can’t fire a family member per se. They’re going to remain your family member. So it creates a different kind of dynamic and environment, that somebody can’t just be told to go away if they make a massive mistake or engage in destructive behaviors. It presents a unique challenge. ” “I think that’s why it’s important for the Trump White House to get out in front of his, and this issue of disclosure. This is sort of Clean Government 101,” he said. Schweizer recalled calling out Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta for “his failure to disclose his ties to this company that was funded in part by a Russian fund that Vladimir Putin ran. ” “We were right to call him out,” he maintained. “The same thing needs to occur here. This is basic stuff that needs to be done, and the fact that it’s not being done at this point, a hundred days in, is extremely troubling. ” Peter Schweizer is a Breitbart News Senior president of the Government Accountability Institute, and author of the book Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich. Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. Listen to the full audio of the interview above. | 1 |
Corrente.
2016
Days Until: -3. Comment on polling: Election “calls” have never seemed very interesting to me — were it my place to make them — in the same way that predicting when a flood will crest is a lot less interesting than understanding (and perhaps managing) a watershed. That doesn’t mean predictions are not fun! Madison asked in the Federalist 51 : “But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?” By the same token: “What is the horse race, but the greatest of all the performing arts?” That said, putting past Water Coolers into the “call” frame, the method I used didn’t yield bad results. Rather than tracking the very noisy individual polls, I decided to use the RealClearPolitics polling averages every Monday — once a week, for sanity’s sake — and plug those averages into a reasonable list of swing states provided by the New York Times, whose interactive tool then enabled me to game out scenarios in the electoral college. In all the weeks I did this but one, Trump had a plausible path to victory, depending on reasonable scenarios in individual states. In other words, still in the “call” frame, I beat most of the paid pollsters in the political class who were, er, trumpeting Clinton’s victory. And as we saw in yesterday’s Water Cooler, I tied the Trump team’s internal polling; they thought they were going to lose, though they qualified their views by pointing out the same plausible paths to victory that I did. Why did I not get the scale of Trump’s victory? I mean, in 2008 and 2012, and maybe farther back, the Republican candiate always made a show of putting Pennsylvania in play, and it never came to anything. Trump won it! Along with Michigan and Wisconsin (where Sanders, interestingly, defeated Clinton as well).
Policy
“It is clear to any objective observer that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which has resulted in rapidly rising premiums and deductibles, narrow networks, and health insurance, has not been a success. A Trump Administration will work with Congress to repeal the ACA and replace it with a solution that includes Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), and returns the historic role in regulating health insurance to the States. The Administration’s goal will be to create a patient-centered healthcare system that promotes choice, quality and affordability with health insurance and healthcare, and take any needed action to alleviate the burdens imposed on American families and businesses by the law” [ President Elect ]. Let us know how that works out. And:
To maximize choice and create a dynamic market for health insurance, the Administration will work with Congress to enable people to purchase insurance across state lines. The Administration also will work with both Congress and the States to re-establish high-risk pools – a proven approach to ensuring access to health insurance coverage for individuals who have significant medical expenses and who have not maintained continuous coverage.
And: Modernize Medicare, so that it will be ready for the challenges with the coming retirement of the Baby Boom generation – and beyond Maximize flexibility for States in administering Medicaid, to enable States to experiment with innovative methods to deliver healthcare to our low-income citizens
Hmm.
“‘Donald Trump has said he wants to repeal Obamacare, and we hope that wasn’t an empty campaign promise,’ said Twila Brase, president and co-founder of CCHF. ‘It will take more than a promise to make American health care great again and to restore health care freedom to patients and doctors. Republicans need to advance visionary ideas for health care, ideas that are bigger than buying across state lines; ideas that put patients and doctors back together again without the costly interference and intrusions of profiteering outsiders. The high cost of health care comes primarily from the middlemen, including managed care and government'” [ Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom ]. CCHF is a good conservative site on health care policy. I don’t agree with them on policy, but CCHF is relentless and above all they don’t make stuff up.
“Obamacare ‘Replacement’ Might Look Familiar” [ Kaiser Health News ]. Could be. ObamaCare was, after all, originally a Republican plan, so it should be possible to rebrand it. “‘It gets into a questions of semantics,’ said Mark Rouck, an insurance analyst for Fitch Ratings. ‘Are they really repealing the act if they replace it with new legislation that has some of the same characteristics?’… Topping the list of ACA provisions likely to survive under Trump is the requirement that employers cover workers’ children up to the age of 26, analysts said. The measure is widely popular and not especially expensive…. A health law crafted by Republicans might also retain the ACA’s protections for people with preexisting illness seeking coverage, said Glenn Melnick, a health economist at the University of Southern California… The ACA’s biggest coverage expansion came through the Medicaid program for the poor and disabled, which added more than 15 million people. Trump has suggested giving states fixed federal grants for Medicaid, which could lead to a substantial reduction in coverage or benefits.”
“Then Donald Trump was elected president, and now the tables may have turned again. Trump has on several occasions expressed his opposition to net neutrality, once calling it “another top down power grab” [ MarketWatch ].
“Who’s Advising President-elect Trump on Heatlh Care?” (PDF) [ Holland & Knight ]. Rich Bagger: Executive Director (Health care policy advisor). Was Assistant General Counsel at Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield) Eric Ueland: Budget Advisor (Entitlements) Jim Frogue: Domestic Policy (Health Care, State Policy). Was Health Care Policy Analyst for Heritage Foundation [ home of ObamaCare , interestingly enough] Ado Machida: Domestic policies (Health) Ed Meese: Executive Office of the President Lead Andrew Bremberg: Domestic Policy (Affordable Care Act repeal and replace)
“Bremberg was on Walker’s team when the candidate unveiled a healthcare proposal that included repealing the Affordable Care Act and splitting Medicaid into smaller programs with separate funding” [ Modern Health Care ]. And: “For eight years, Bremberg served in the Department of Health and Human Services. From 2005 to 2007, he was special assistant to the Immediate Office of the Secretary and from 2001 to 2005, he was special assistant to the executive secretary” [ Health Care Finance ]. And: “Names reportedly under consideration for HHS secretary include former Louisiana Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Gov. Rick Scott, R-Florida, and former Rep. Renee Ellmers R-North Carolina.” Thin bench!
“One day after his election, we polled our readership of healthcare managers and clinicians to see what they think the short and long-term effects will be of Trump’s policies on the healthcare sector, and we were flooded with responses. While most of them detail the deep concerns industry professionals have, a small few felt the businessman’s idea could improve competition and lower costs” [ Health Care FInance ]. Good article.
Realignment
“At this early stage, we can’t know with certainty exactly why Clinton lost. In a narrow sense, obviously, the electoral vote was lost because she lost Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Iowa. Exit polls (which are often unreliable, but all we have for the moment) and the vote distribution strongly suggest those states were lost because Clinton lost many of the white working-class voters that broke for Obama in 2012 . Overall exits show a 16-point swing to Trump among voters making less than $30,000 compared to the last presidential election — the biggest of any group in The New York Times crosstabs…. Also, general turnout was off from 2012″ [ The Week ]. So to fire the blame cannons at working class racism, you have to argue like this: “Trump won the racist vote because the people who voted for the black guy wouldn’t vote for the white woman.” Oh, OK. Now, you can deploy the misogyny blame cannons, but the identity politicians seem to be going with racism at the moment.
“People often talk about ‘racism/sexism/xenophobia’ vs. ‘economic suffering’ as if they are totally distinct dichotomies. Of course there are substantial elements of both in Trump’s voting base, but the two categories are inextricably linked: The more economic suffering people endure, the angrier and more bitter they get, the easier it is to direct their anger to scapegoats. Economic suffering often fuels ugly bigotry” [Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept ]. I would go further and urge that “racism/sexism/xenophobia” are forms of politics, and that they are the evil twin of identity politics, and together are the only forms of politics permitted by elites . See the next link.
“A top liberal group [The Center for American Progress] has temporarily abandoned plans for a new project designed to court white working class voters after it could not marshal the necessary financial support for the project, according to documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon” [Washington Free Beacon (2014)]. So, the Democrats abandoned the (white) working class because the squillionaires wouldn’t fund the effort to reach out to them (and here we are!) Could it be that the squillionaires had a reason for that? Like that would be against their class interests? More: “The stated need for the project suggests potential pitfalls for Democrats in its eventual delay: In a midterm election year expected to heavily favor Republicans, CAP has apparently abandoned, for the time being, an effort to reach out to a constituency that it acknowledges could determine the viability of the Democrats’ voting coalition going forward. The Bobby Kennedy Project was the brainchild of CAP senior fellow Ruy Teixeira, who for the past decade has stressed that a lasting Democratic majority will require the party to make inroads with white working class voters.” Much too little, much too late from Teixeira, who injected the identity politics virus into the Democrat bloodstream to begin with .
“The Dems need organization and focus on the young. Need a fifty State strategy and tech rehab. I am in for chairman again,” Dean said” [ Yahoo News ]. Oh, HoHo. Really? After helping Clinton rig her selection as a superdelegate and smearing Trump as a coke user on no evidence ? Yeah, the 50-state strategy was great. But that was before you lost your mind!
“The Real Lesson in Grubhub CEO Telling Trump Supporters to Resign (Plus an Earlier, Personal One) – WP Original” [ WirePoints ].
“Chelsea Clinton being groomed to run for Congress” [ New York Post ]. “Hail, Hydra! Immortal Hydra! We shall never be destroyed! Cut off a limb, and two more shall take its place!”
Stats Watch
Consumer Sentiment, November 2016 (preliminary): “Indications going into the presidential election are very positive as the consumer sentiment index is up more than 4 points in the November flash to 91.6 for the best showing since June (the data were compiled before the November 8 result). The gain is concentrated in the expectations component” [ Econoday ]. People expect Trump to do better, then? And: “While this is a very small sampling that is not always universally accurate, investors, traders and economists love to dwell on this report because it is really the first real look at live data for each month” [ MarketWatch ].
Rail: “Week 44 of 2016 shows same week total rail traffic (from same week one year ago) marginally expanded according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR) traffic data. Rolling averages remain in contraction – but are improving” [ Econintersect ]. Finally some good news!
Employment Situation: ” The good news is the prime working age group has started to grow again, and is now growing at 0.5% per year – and this should boost economic activity. And it appears the prime working age group will exceed the previous peak later this year” [ Calculated Risk ].
Honey for the Bears: “Sales aren’t falling year over year but they aren’t growing at 5% as they would do in ‘normal’ times” (charts) [ Mosler Economics ]. ” In ‘normal’ times inventories increase with sales, adding to output. But when sales slow inventory growth stops and reverses:”
Fodder for the Bulls: “Spot metallurgical coal topped $300 a metric ton for the first time since flooding in Australia curbed output from the world’s biggest seaborne exporter five years ago” [ Bloomberg ]. “China’s efforts to cut overcapacity in its coal industry have reduced domestic supply and boosted imports of both metallurgical and the variety burned in power stations.”
The Bezzle: “If a variable is normally distributed we can use standard probabilistic techniques to analyse it. If it is not then we cannot” [Phillip Pilkington, Econintersect ]. “So, what about economic variables? Are they normally distributed? Short answer: no, they are not.” Oops. If you look at income (a proxy for class) you don’t see a bell curve. You see a power law curve. And see the last link in News of hte Wired, too.
The Bezzle: “In September, with typical marketing hoopla, Fitbit Inc. rolled out two new gadgets, the Charge 2 and Flex 2. Designed to measure more detailed fitness stats, the trackers were well reviewed and seemed poised to help Fitbit retain leadership of an increasingly competitive market. But within weeks the devices were piling up in stores, according to analyst spot checks” [ Bloomberg ]. In other words, the stuff wasn’t moving. We need more spot checks everywhere.
The Bezzle: ” UberEats And UberRush Couriers Complain They Don’t Get Their Tips” [ BuzzFeed ].
The Bezzle: “Apple cuts USB-C adapter prices in response to MacBook Pro complaints” [ The Verge ]. ” Apple’s cables, unlike those you might order from a random seller online, are going to be well-made and reliable.” That’s really funny. My genuine Apple cable wore out in about a year. The mouse cable is wearing out even faster.
Co-ops: “Can you lead and manage the operational activities of Co-operatives UK, the membership organisation which works to serve Britain’s seven thousand co-operative enterprises?” [ Cooperatives UK ].
UPDATE Industrial Romance: “The Business of Being Pantone: Turning Color Into Money” [ The Fashion Law ]. “Pantone monetizes wavelengths and pigments the way Coca-Cola bottles water and Manhattan developers buy up chunks of the sky. Technically, it’s a kind of biochemical company. After developing colors in a lab, Pantone makes most of its money by selling the shades and corresponding formulas to fabric mills, printers, and designers in a range of disciplines. It’s a simple model, and business has never been better.” Reminds me of identity politics, conceptually and methodologically.
“Among facts that take a stubbornly long time to sink in, here’s one: Countries that borrow in their own currencies never have to default on their debt” [ Wall Street Journal, “Message from the Gilt Market: U.K. Can Never Run Out of Pounds”].
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 46 Neutral (previous close: 44, Fear) [ CNN ]. One week ago: 14 (Extreme Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Nov 11 at 12:52pm. It’s amazing the dire predictions that didn’t come true. The global economy did not collapse. Neither did the markets or the Internet. There wasn’t violence at the polls. Putin did not hack our electronic voting systems. Funny how when you turn the gaslights off, things stabilize. As Peggy Noonan wrote: “[I]f trendlines that have proved reliable in the past continue, the sun will come up on Wednesday” [ Wall Street Journal ].
Class Warfare
“The Elephant Chart: Divergence In Financial Sector Income” [ Econintersect ].
News of the Wired
RIP Leonard Cohen [ Rolling Stone ].
“Regex that only matches itself” [ Stack Exchange ]. Too meta!
“What Percent of the Top-Voted Comments in Reddit Threads Were Also 1st Comment?” [ Max Woolf ]. “The answer is 17.24% of all top-voted comments! That’s certainly more than what I expected! Additionally, 56% of the top-voted comments were posted within the first 5 comments, and 77% within the first 10 comments. The chart follows a power-law distribution.”
* * *
Readers, feel free to contact me with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, and (c) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi are deemed to be honorary plants! See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here . And here’s today’s plant (ChiGal):
A second hornbeam tree…
Readers, Water Cooler is a standalone entity, not supported by the very successful Naked Capitalism fundraiser just past. Now, I understand you may feel tapped out, but when and if you are able, please use the dropdown to choose your contribution, and then click the hat! Your tip will be welcome today, and indeed any day. Water Cooler will not exist without your continued help. Donate | 0 |
in: Politics , Sleuth Journal , Special Interests Will this be the most chaotic election day in modern American history? All across the nation, schools are being closed on election day due to safety fears. Traditionally, schools have been very popular as voting locations because they can accommodate a lot of people, they usually have lots of parking, and everyone in the community knows where they are and can usually get to them fairly easily. But now there is a big movement to remove voting from schools or to shut schools down on election day so that children are not present when voting takes place. According to Fox News , “voting has been removed or classes have been canceled on Election Day at schools in Illinois, Maine, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and elsewhere.” Just a couple days ago , I shared with you a survey that found that 51 percent of all Americans are concerned about violence happening on election day, and all of these schools closing is just another sign of how on edge much of the population is as we approach November 8th. Many officials are being very honest about the fact that schools are being shut down on election day because they are afraid of election violence. The following comes from Fox News … Several schools across the nation have decided to close on Election Day over fears of possible violence in the hallways stemming from the fallout from the heated rhetoric that consumed the campaign trail. The fear is the ugliness of the election season could escalate into confrontations and even violence in the school hallways, endangering students. “If anybody can sit there and say they don’t think this is a contentious election, then they aren’t paying much attention,” Ed Tolan, the Falmouth, Maine police chief, said Tuesday. His community has already called off classes on Nov. 8 and an increased police presence will be felt around town. And without a doubt, voting locations are “soft targets” that often have little or no security. We have been blessed to have had such peaceful elections in the past, but we also need to realize that times have changed. I believe that there is wisdom in what Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp told reporters … “There is a concern, just like at a concert, sporting event or other public gathering that we didn’t have 15 or 20 years ago,” said Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, co-chairman of the National Association of Secretaries of State election committee. “ What if someone walks in a polling location with a backpack bomb or something? If that happens at a school, then that’s certainly concerning.” All it is going to take is a single incident to change everything. Let us hope that it is not this election day when we see something like that. Another reason why polling locations are under increased scrutiny this election season is because of concerns about election fraud. This is something that Donald Trump has alluded to repeatedly on the campaign trail. For instance, just consider what he told a rally in Pennsylvania … “We don’t want to lose an election because you know what I’m talking about,” Trump told an overwhelmingly white crowd in Manheim, Pa., earlier this month. “Because you know what? That’s a big, big problem, and nobody wants to talk about it. Nobody has the guts to talk about it. So go and watch these polling places .” And of course reports are already pouring in from around the country of big problems with the voting machines. In Illinois this week, one candidate personally experienced a machine switching his votes from Republicans to Democrats… Early voting in Illinois got off to a rocky start Monday, as votes being cast for Republican candidates were transformed into votes for Democrats. Republican state representative candidate Jim Moynihan went to vote Monday at the Schaumburg Public Library. “I tried to cast a vote for myself and instead it cast the vote for my opponent,” Moynihan said. “You could imagine my surprise as the same thing happened with a number of races when I tried to vote for a Republican and the machine registered a vote for a Democrat.” In addition, if you keep up with my work on The Economic Collapse Blog , then you already know that a number of voters down in Texas have reported that their votes were switched from Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton . Well, it turns out that those voting machines appear to have a link to the Clinton Foundation … According to OpenSecrets, the company who provided the alleged glitching voting machines is a subsidiary of The McCarthy Group. The McCarthy group is a major donor to the Clinton Foundation – apparently donating 200,000 dollars in 2007 – when it was the largest owner of United States voting machines. Or perhaps the 200,000 dollars went to paying Bill Clinton for speeches? Either way, it doesn’t look good. After everything that we saw in 2012 , I am convinced that there is good reason to be concerned about the integrity of our voting machines. But Democrats don’t like poll observers, because they think that having too many poll observers will intimidate their voters… “It’s un-American, but at the same time we have a long history of doing things like that ,” Ari Berman, author of the 2016 book “ Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America ,” previously told The Christian Science Monitor. “Voting was very, very dangerous. I don’t think anyone’s suggesting that we’re at the same place today. I just think the loss of the [official poll observers] is going to be really problematic.” Without a doubt, this has been the craziest election season that we have seen in decades, and I have a feeling that it is about to get even crazier. But will the end result be the election of the most corrupt politician in the history of our country ? If that is the outcome after all that we have been through, it will be exceedingly depressing indeed. Submit your review | 0 |
Tweet Widget by Bryan K. Bullock
To read the foreign policy pages of the New York Times is to enter a world of whiteness. “Whites are the only ones who are presumed to have an opinion on such issues that is worth mentioning.” Although Black America is the nation’s most anti-imperial constituency, foreign policy is considered a white preserve. Blacks “serve the function we have always served: subjects of imperialism, scapegoats for repression, but not shapers of foreign policy.” Black American Anti-Imperialism: an Invisible Subject for the New York Times by Bryan K. Bullock
“From Vietnam through Iraq, African Americans have proved to be the group of Americans most opposed to U.S. military intervention.”
The October 4, 2016, issue of the New York Times , which contained the article, “Syrian War Magnifies Tension in America’s Global Mission,” is a case study in white supremacy. The article is framed from a totally white “conservative” and “liberal” frame, and completely ignores the perspective of African Americans, who, traditionally, and today, are consistently and overwhelmingly, anti-imperialism and who tend to identify with other Black and Brown people across the globe, including the Palestinians and Syrians.
The article purports to give “both sides” of the argument for U.S. intervention in the affairs of sovereign nations. The authors of the article give the impression that they are being “balanced” in giving the views of those who support America’s “mission” in the world and those who are “critical” of said “mission.” This false “balance” does not include the perspectives of any African American historians or critics of U.S. foreign policy, like Professor Gerald Horne, Bill Fletcher, Anthony Monteiro, Glen Ford or African (American) scholars like Horace Campbell. In fact, “both sides” of any debate in the U.S. regarding foreign policy, are both white “sides.” This is particularly true when it comes to U.S. foreign policy, where whites are the only ones who are presumed to either have an opinion on such issues, or one that is worth mentioning.
It is true that “both sides” could include Blacks who adhere to the Eurocentric, party-line views of the dominant U.S. narrators, say, Donna Brazile or Condoleezza Rice, or Blacks on the so-called “left,” but their views (still missing from this piece) are not a Black critique. It is a Eurocentric critique coming from a Black person, which is fundamentally different than an African American critique viewed through the lens of the African American experience. The ideas, views and critiques of Black thinkers are notoriously absent in the pages of the Times when it comes to foreign policy -- which proves that the writers, the editorial staff and the paper itself does not consider those views important. And in ignoring those critiques, it also ignores the historical critical analysis of the people who are and have been the subjects of U.S. foreign policy.
“The ideas, views and critiques of Black thinkers are notoriously absent in the pages of the Times when it comes to foreign policy.”
It also completely ignores the analysis of great Black historical thinkers like W.E.B. DuBois, Walter Rodney and Paul Robeson, Malcolm X, the late stage Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as the organizations they represented such as the Council on African Affairs (the CAA), the NAACP of the 1940’s, the African Liberation Support Committee, the Black Panther Party, The African Blood Brotherhood, the Organization of Afro-American Unity, Trans Africa, the U.S. Human Rights Network, the United Negro Improvement Association or the National Council of Black Lawyers, all of whom were deeply critical of America’s so-called mission in the world, especially as it related to African and Asian peoples, like Haitians, Congolese, Syrians, Yemenis and Palestinians. The critiques of these people are irrelevant to, not only the Times , but in truth, to the Democratic and Republican parties, the current incarnation of the NAACP, the Black Congressional Caucus, President Obama and most white liberal formations. However, this is not a reason to give the Times a pass. Even the use of the word “mission,” with the European habit of sending missionaries into Africa and the Americas to soften the people up with European religion before they were subdued by hard power, does not elicit irony on the part of the Times . The “white man’s burden” of “civilizing” the darker races of the world, through enslavement, destroying their religions, cultures, languages, colonizing their lands and resource and extracting their people and whisking them away to foreign lands to toil from birth to death for free, is just as important and essential a part of the history of “America’s Global Mission” as anything else mentioned in the piece.
The hand wringing of the mostly white imperialists on the “left” and on the right, regarding the proper way to engage in imperialism, is essentially what the piece presents. No other perspectives or voices are important or valid. Thus the perspectives of African American thinkers are only relevant in American discourse when it concerns “black” issues like police brutality, but not on international issues, although many black writers and thinkers would argue the two are connected. This is so even though the very presence people of African descent in America is a direct result of the United States’ foreign policy of capturing, importing and enslaving African people. This point is lost on white foreign policy writers. However, early Black thinkers were clear on this point. People like DuBois and Robeson, in the past, and contemporaries like Glen Ford, were/are, fiercely anti-imperialist.
“The perspectives of African American thinkers are only relevant in American discourse when it concerns ‘black’ issues like police brutality, but not on international issues.”
The white, imperialist presentation in the article excludes the ideas of Syrian Americans, Indigenous populations, Mexican and Puerto Rican Americans and Hawaiians, all of whom may have a totally different idea of America’s “obligation” in Syria. Penny M. Von Eschen notes in the book, Race Against Empire, Black Americans and Anticolonialism 1937-1957 , that “Objecting to U.S. support for South African and the European colonial powers, and increasingly challenging the notion that America was the legitimate leader of the ‘free world’ and therefore above censure, black Americans both criticized new directions in American foreign policy and attempted to use the United Nations as a forum in which to gain support for civil rights struggles in the United States.” African Americans are no less critical of America’s self-serving “mission” today as was then. African Americans were highly critical of the U.S.’s violent overthrow of the African nation of Libya, its aggressions toward Cuba in the 60’s and Venezuela in the Chavez era and today. We have not forgotten America’s refusal to recognize Haiti as an independent Black nation when it defeated the French. Nor are we unmindful of the U.S. invasion of Haiti in 1915 and its support of dictators of the Duvalier family, the coup of the Aristide government and the fact that President Obama tried to prevent Aristide from returning to Haiti.
Black thinkers on international issues are highly supportive of the Palestinian cause and troubled by the continued expansion of AFRICOM, the U.S. Africa Command, on the continent. This analysis is glaringly absent from mainstream media portrayals of America’s “duty” in the world. The Times article offers the view that, “Because many Americans see their foreign policy as a grand mission to make the world a better place, they tend to divide the world into heroes who support their ideals and villains who oppose them.” But which Americans are the writers talking about and whose “ideals” are represented in U.S. foreign policy. It is certain that the views of people like George Padmore, a leader in the Pan-African movement in the 40’s and 50’s, are not represented by this view. Padmore was clear that, “Empire and peace are incompatible.” Michael C. Dawson notes, in Blacks in and Out of the Left : “from Vietnam through Iraq, African Americans have proved to be the group of Americans most opposed to U.S. military intervention.” It is also purposely “forgotten” that the Black Panther Party was, following in the footsteps of their ideological predecessor, Malcolm X, staunchly anti-imperialist. As Eldridge Cleaver noted, the U.S. was “bankrolling and arming all of the oppressive regimes around the world.” One of the agenda items contained in the National Black Political Agenda, created in Gary, Indiana, in 1972 called for an end to the Vietnam War and the immediate withdrawal of foreign troops from Asia and Africa; the withdrawal of U.S. military, corporations, and communications facilities from southern Africa and the Third World; self-determination of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands; an end to sanctions against Cuba and the closure of the American military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
“African Americans were highly critical of the U.S.’s violent overthrow of the African nation of Libya, its aggressions toward Cuba in the 60’s and Venezuela in the Chavez era and today.”
Contemporary white American analysis of U.S. foreign excludes the historical reality that, in thinking of America’s support of so-called rebels in Syria and Libya , it is clear to African Americans that America never supported a single African liberation group in Africa. It is not lost on Black Americans that the African National Congress and Nelson Mandela were considered terrorists by the U.S. No African rebel movement seeking independence from the Dutch, British, French, German, Portuguese or Italian colonizers of African lands ever received a single drop of military support from Washington. The U.S. never supported the Mau Mau in Kenya, nor Frelimo in Mozambique, nor the ANC in South Africa, or any other revolutionary movement on the continent.
In fact, the contrary is true. From the coup against Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana to the assassination of Patrice Lumuumba in the Congo, to the capture of Nelson Mandela and to the support the racist apartheid system of South African and the murderous colonial regime in the former Rhodesia, the American government has consistently and forcefully opposed revolutionary movements in Africa and in fact supported their colonial oppressors. The only country to ever militarily support African liberation was Cuba, not the U.S. Regarding Mandela, (who the U.S. considered a terrorist) we heard him clearly when, in response to a request to condemn Fidel Castro, Yassar Arafat and Mommar Ghadifi, he said, your enemies are not necessarily our enemies. Indeed, not only did Castro send troops to aid the Angolans in defeating the South Africans, he also provided refuge for many African American freedom fighters, from Robert Williams to Assata Shakur. While the U.S. was infiltrating, surveilling and murdering Black political activists in the Black Panther Party, leaders of North Vietnam, China, Algeria and Cuba welcomed them as ambassadors of the African American community.
“It is clear to African Americans that America never supported a single African liberation group.”
Understanding this historical reality, Black thinkers are justifiably critical and suspicious of U.S. intentions in places like Iraq, Iran, Syria and Libya. The greatest thinkers in African American culture explicitly made the connection between the U.S. and European colonialism abroad, in places like Syria, as an extension of the domestic policy of treating African Americans as second class citizens – or, as some African American thinkers have argued, the domestic colonization of Black people. The genocide of the Native Americans resonates with Black Americans. Leaders from MLK, who connected America’s imperialism in Vietnam, and the tax dollars used to support it, to the lack of financial resources available to be used to build cities and provide a basic wage; to Malcolm, who traveled the globe making personal connections with African heads of state, including Nasser in Egypt. It was Malcolm who saw the historic opportunity of the Bandung Conference, where 29 Asian and African, post-colonial nations, met to discuss their own fates independent of colonial powers, including the U.S.
Black American support for anti-imperialist movements did not find a space in the Times’ analysis of Syria. The writers and editorial staff at the Times are oblivious to the histories of the Third World peoples living in their midst. Therefore, for Black people who understand this history, they recognize articles like the one published in the Times as imperial propaganda pieces for global white supremacy. Yet, the Times , in that regard, is no different than any other white American newspaper, magazine or news program or politician. They all (even, or especially, the Black ones) present a Eurocentric worldview that excludes the ideas, histories and analysis of its black population. We are irrelevant. We serve the function we have always served: subjects of imperialism, scapegoats for repression, but not shapers of foreign policy. Blacks can nominally participate in the American experience, but only so long as we stay in our place and as long as we support the “manifest destiny” of the global hegemon and not get in its way. We are cannon fodder for the imperialist wars abroad and casualties in the U.S. war on drugs and on poor Black life at home.
“Malcolm traveled the globe making personal connections with African heads of state, including Nasser in Egypt.”
The presence of a black face at the head of the empire has provided cover for U.S. imperialism in Africa and Asia, but it has not diminished the anti-imperialism of the black community. It has silenced the voices of the self-appointed black “leaders” and revealed them to be supporters of empire and oppression. The Times , too, or rather again, reveals itself as a supporter of the Pentagon by publishing an article that is short on true analysis of America’s support of terrorists in Syria, as well as presenting a limited, white supremacist parameter of debate. Although the African American tradition of anti-imperialism may not be important to the Times , it is a tradition that is still alive nonetheless. And neither the Black face of the empire, nor the white press in service to it, can diminish it. Our antagonism against imperialism may not be publicized in the pages of the Times , but it lives on in our continued support for amnesty for Assata Shakur, the release of all political prisoners from Leonard Peltier to Jalil Muntiquim and Oscar Rivera Lopez, to support for Palestinian self-determination, to opposition to the re-colonization of Africa by America’s Africa Command, to the growing support by Black athletes, young and old, of Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the National Anthem, to our opposition to all U.S. wars of aggression, including the ones in Libya and Syria. African Americans’ opposition to the U.S. supported aggression in Syria, masquerading as humanitarian support, is obviously irrelevant to the Times , but Malcolm X told us plainly years ago, that the media would have us thinking the good guy was the bad guy and vice versa. So whether, or even if, Assad is a “ruthless dictator,” the term the U.S. has used against everyone from Castro to Chavez, it does not therefore mean that African Americans agree that the U.S. has the right to support insurrection in Syria. We know imperialism is Euro-American, white, capitalist venture that is carried against “the darker nations,” not for them. Malcolm, Martin and Mandela taught us well. Attorney Bryan K. Bullock practices law in Merrillville, Indiana. | 0 |
U.S.
Remember the last Super Bowl and Beyoncé’s half-time performance? Remember how it seemed reminiscent of the Black Panthers? Well, she is at her anti-cop rhetoric once again, and there have been some deleterious results.
Hours after Beyoncé called on black people to take a stand, someone got the memo and massacred police officers at a protest, as per Downtrend. Although this actually happened last July, it takes on added significance considering more police officers were ambushed over the last few days.
This seems to be a recurrent theme, and it needs to stop. Our police officers deserve respect and to be safe from targeted violence!
Don’t get me wrong, racism is still a problem in our country, but race-baiting isn’t helping. In fact, it’s hurting!
Race-baiting is, of course, old hat to individuals like Beyoncé, who gain part of their fame from their status as famous black artists, not just as famous artists.
However, liberals such as Beyoncé have yet to realize a couple of key principles. When you stoke the flames of racial tension, things invariably get worse.
You promote a double standard when you call on people to rise up. This double standard led to a San Antonio police detective getting shot and killed just a few days ago. The perpetrator of the crime even admitted a few things about the motivation for his crime, which has raised concerns across the nation.
“I lashed out at somebody who didn’t deserve it,” this perpetrator said. While most people will celebrate the holidays, the San Antonio Police Department is going to be arranging a funeral for the latest victim of violence. A family will be in mourning.
This tension has been brewing for a few decades now. This type of victim mentality has started with the liberalism that has infiltrated every institution in our country.
Nowadays, people are happy to cry racism even at the smallest slight. It has led to an inevitable conclusion: the violence against police officers has increased. However, while these men are just doing their job and getting killed for it, the true perpetrators of the crime will never be charged.
Those who incite violence against police officers deserve some serious consequences.
This definitely includes the racist Beyoncé, who has contributed to violence against innocent, honorable Americans. | 0 |
Chart Of The Day: The Giant Bubble In Janet's Hometown Is Now Fixing To Crack By David Stockman. Posted On Saturday, November 19th, 2016
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STOCKHOLM (AFP) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange filed a new motion in Sweden Wednesday calling for a European arrest warrant over rape allegations to be dropped, after the United States said it was seeking to arrest him, his lawyer said. [The Australian denies the accusations in Sweden that date back to 2010, which he fears will see him extradited to the United States. He has been holed up at the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012 and risks being arrested by British police as soon as he steps out of the building. His Swedish lawyer Per Samuelsson said the new motion was filed because US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in April that arresting Assange would be “a priority”. “This implies that we can now demonstrate that the US has a will to take action … this is why we ask for the arrest warrant to be cancelled so that Julian Assange can fly to Ecuador and enjoy his political asylum,” Samuelsson told AFP. He said the motion was filed in a Stockholm court on Wednesday and that it should take two to three weeks for a ruling. Assange fears imprisonment in the United States over the leaking by WikiLeaks of hundreds of thousands of secret US military and diplomatic documents that first gained attention in 2010. He has made numerous appeals to Swedish courts, including the Supreme Court, but has lost eight bids to cancel the arrest warrant. Swedish judges have refused to take into account the opinion of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which in February 2016 said Assange “was arbitrarily detained” by Sweden and Britain and called for the warrant to be annulled. | 1 |
Donald J. Trump on Wednesday conceded for the first time that Russia had carried out cyberattacks against the two major political parties during the presidential election, but he angrily rejected unsubstantiated reports that Moscow had gathered compromising personal and financial information about him that could be used for extortion. In a chaotic news conference in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan nine days before he is to be sworn in as the nation’s 45th president, Mr. Trump compared United States intelligence officials to Nazis, sidestepped repeated questions about whether he or anyone in his presidential campaign had had contact with Russia during the campaign, and lashed out at the news media and political opponents, arguing that they were out to get him. “As far as hacking, I think it was Russia,” Mr. Trump said, his first comments accepting the conclusions of United States intelligence officials that Moscow had interfered in the election to help him win. But the expressed little outrage about that breach and seemed to cast doubt on Russia’s role moments after acknowledging it, asserting that “it could have been others also. ” He also quoted a Kremlin denial Tuesday night of reports that it had gathered damaging information to compromise Mr. Trump. “They said it totally never happened,” Mr. Trump said of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and his government. “I respected the fact that he said that. ” The news conference displayed the showmanship, combativeness and sensitivity to criticism that Mr. Trump exhibited throughout the 2016 presidential campaign and underscored his reflex to rebut any criticism or question about his conduct. In his maligning of the nation’s intelligence agencies, journalists and Hillary Clinton, the indicated that he would conduct himself the same way in the White House. Using the same boastful tone that characterized his campaign rallies, Mr. Trump asserted that his victory in November had vindicated his view that he should not release his tax returns, an issue that he said only the news media cared about, not the public. “I won,” he said. “I don’t think they care at all. ” In a Pew Research Center poll this month, 60 percent of respondents said Mr. Trump should release his returns, although just 38 percent of Republican respondents said he should. Some moments bordered on bizarre for the next president of the United States. Mr. Trump spoke of his awareness as a businessman that there were hidden cameras in hotel rooms in Moscow and other foreign capitals. He called himself “very much of a germaphobe,” apparently in an effort to discredit unsubstantiated claims about sex videos with Mr. Trump and prostitutes in a Russian hotel. “Does anyone really believe that story?” he said, calling it “phony stuff” that “never happened. ” At one point, Mr. Trump got into a confrontation with a correspondent for CNN, which was among the first to report on the allegations, saying to him, “You are fake news. ” Moments later, though, Mr. Trump called on another CNN correspondent. A person who identified himself as a correspondent for RT, the Russian news organization that American intelligence agencies deem a Russian propaganda tool, shouted repeatedly in vain attempts to draw Mr. Trump’s attention. Mr. Trump voiced only faint concern about what United States intelligence officials said was a campaign by Mr. Putin to meddle in American democracy. He reserved his sharpest condemnation for American intelligence officials who he said had failed to keep secret the accusations that could be damaging to him. On Wednesday, the director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr. said he had spoken with Mr. Trump that evening and expressed his “profound dismay” over the leaks of unsubstantiated information. He said he had emphasized that this information was “not a U. S. intelligence community product” and that the intelligence agencies had not determined that it was reliable. He said he did not believe that the leaks had come from the intelligence agencies. The asked at the news conference whether he believed that Mr. Putin had directed the hacking effort to help him win the presidency, said, “If Putin likes Donald Trump, I consider that an asset, not a liability, because we have a horrible relationship with Russia. ” “He shouldn’t be doing it,” Mr. Trump said later of the Russian president. “He won’t be doing it. Russia will have much greater respect for our country when I’m leading than when other people have led it. ” Of the intelligence officials who will soon serve him, Mr. Trump said: “I think it was disgraceful — disgraceful that the intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake out. That’s something that Nazi Germany would have done, and did do. ” He did not address whether the sanctions President Obama imposed on Moscow for the cyberattacks should stay or be strengthened as some Republicans have urged, especially as the scope of the hacking has become clearer. The hourlong news conference — Mr. Trump’s first in nearly six months — touched not only on reports of espionage and attempted blackmail, but also on potential conflicts of interest with Mr. Trump’s vast business empire and questions about domestic policy. The glut of questions for the gave him an advantage in navigating the exchange he interrupted inquiries about Russia’s hacking to introduce a lawyer, Sheri L. Dillon, who spoke at length about how Mr. Trump would organize his business affairs and explain why he was not divesting from his global business empire. “ Trump should not be expected to destroy the company he built,” Ms. Dillon said. Mr. Trump offered glimpses of his plans for his first days in office, including pledging to choose a Supreme Court nominee within two weeks of Inauguration Day to succeed Justice Antonin Scalia and to invite journalists to watch a series of “signings” at the White House, an apparent allusion to the several executive orders he has promised to sign to roll back major pieces of Mr. Obama’s agenda. Calling himself “the greatest that God ever created,” Mr. Trump pledged to continue leaning on American companies to keep jobs in the United States. He took particular aim at the pharmaceutical industry, which he said “has been disastrous” and had been “getting away with murder” on drug pricing. Taking on a powerful lobby that Republicans have long defended, Mr. Trump said he wanted the federal government to use its purchasing power to negotiate drug prices for Medicare and Medicaid — a proposal long favored by Democrats. But he broke starkly with Democrats over the Affordable Care Act as he repeated a promise to submit a plan to repeal and replace the law “essentially simultaneously,” as soon as Representative Tom Price, his choice to be secretary of health and human services, is confirmed. “Obamacare is the Democrats’ problem,” Mr. Trump said Wednesday. “We could sit back and let them hang with it. We are doing the Democrats a great service. ” He also insisted, despite repeated denials by Mexican officials, that Mexico would pay to build a wall on the southern border of the United States to block foreigners from entering illegally. Mr. Trump said Vice Mike Pence was working with federal agencies to begin construction quickly, and asserted that Mexico would ultimately reimburse the cost through a tax or other payment. Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, reiterated Wednesday that his country would not pay for the wall, but said it would invest in more border security. In front of Mr. Trump was a table stacked with manila folders that he said contained paperwork for a portion of the companies being put into a trust to be controlled and run by his eldest sons, Eric and Donald Jr. and a trustee. They stood to his side along with his daughter Ivanka Trump, who also announced on Wednesday that she would sever ties with the Trump Organization and her own company. Closing the news conference, Mr. Trump even got in a veiled plug for his former reality show, “The Apprentice” — he remains an executive producer of the current version, “Celebrity Apprentice” — by saying that if his sons did not manage his empire well while he served as president, he would tell them, “You’re fired. ” | 1 |
vault.fbi.gov (p. 44) “Early in Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, she and her staff were observed removing lamps and furniture from the State Department which were transported to her residence in Washington, DC,” After leaving the White House, Hillary was forced to return tens of thousands of dollars worth of White House furniture, china, and artwork that she had stolen. The fact that she stole State Department furniture shouldn’t shock anyone as she has a history of doing it. 63. Hillary told Tim Kaine back in July 2015 he would be VP www.wikileaks.org “…HRC has personally told Tim Kaine he’s the veep.” “Won’t stop assuring Sens Brown and Heitkamp (at dinner now) that HRC has personally told Tim Kaine he’s the veep.” Kaine claims he only knew 48 hours before the announcement. This solidifies all theories that he dropped out as the DNC chair so that Debbie Wasserman-Schultz could replace him (and help ensure she rigged the primary for Hillary against Bernie as evidenced in earlier leaks) and open door for Kaine to be VP. This is despite her saying he would be a terrible choice for Obama’s VP in her book when she was talking about the last election. But she needed Debbie in charge to ensure she was the nominee. 64. Hillary tweaks her policies based on donors’ wants wikileaks.org “Raisers are effectively salespeople selling the candidate on the donor marketplace, so their feedback is valuable to HQ in terms of tweaking policy, messaging, tone, etc … big donors usually have ideas/advice and want to feel like they are being heard.” These leaks prove that Hillary will do anything for money, regardless of morals. Her staff even comments often about how worrisome it is. She takes money from countries who (under Sharia law) kill gay people, enslave women, and persecute Christians, but turns a blind eye to it as long as she gets paid. She changes her policies based on who gives her what. She sells U.S. assets to countries who donate in pay-to-play schemes… what a mess… 65. Hillary camp admits it doesn’t support $15 minimum wage wikileaks.org “Substantively, we have not supported $15 – you will get a fair number of liberal economists who will say it will lose jobs.” Even if they flip-flop and say they will implement it, they still admit that it is bad for the economy according to liberal economists. 66. Illegally coordinating with Priorities USA, a SuperPAC funded by George Soros wikileaks.org “So afraid that NYT is going with this story on Priorities whether we like it or not. They have sources about the meetings.” They were scrambling to make sure they were within the law and really worried the donor list was about to come out. The New York Times spiked the story about the corruption to protect her, shielding the donors which OpenSecrets.org shares with us from a later disclosure . As you can see clearly there, the top contributor is none other than George Soros with $6 million in. Staff from the two groups met and coordinated efforts, which caused the concern from Hillary’s side because the Priorities USA people were talking and the media, specifically the New York Times, hid this violation of campaign election law. 67. Racist and sexist remarks: “too white and too male” wikileaks.org “Reed’s lists are still too big, too undifferentiated too white and too male.” Just because the people being referred to are white and male does not stop it from being racist. Just replace it with black and female and you can see why. Race and gender should not be the main determining factor when it comes to administrative positions, only experience and merit, but for Hillary’s staff, race and gender are the determining factors unfortunately. 68. Podesta illegally has access to top secret information wikileaks.org “Two exceptions–White House requests he can handle by email; if any other emergency request comes up, I can process. I’m holding a TS clearance. Scott, you may need to figure out what we need to do to add me to the review authority.” Why does Podesta have a top secret clearance? He’s not holding a government position… 69. Podesta connects to unsecure network where anyone could access classified files wikileaks.org “Yes inbox finally opened up. I should never connect to Amtrack wifi. Seems to always screw things up.” Holds top secret (TS) clearance, and conducts official campaign business on unsecure Amtrak WiFi… These are the people Hillary will trust to secure our secrets once in office. 70. Hillary’s speechwriters: “I don’t mind the ‘backs of dead Americans’ because we need a bit of moral outrage.” (Benghazi) wikileaks.org One prominent theme throughout the leaks is that Hillary is just a put together political head piece that is drafted, rewritten, and approved before being sent into public. They note where she should be outraged, they note where she should smile, she even sighed when they told her to sigh. All of the words coming out of her mouth go through weeks of tweaking so that she comes off as likable as possible. 71. The AP colluding with the Hillary campaign wikileaks.org “They do not plan to release anything publicly, so no posting online or anything public-facing, just to the committee. That said, they are considering placing a story with a friendly at the AP (Matt Lee or Bradley Klapper), that would lay this out before the majority on the committee has a chance to realize what they have and distort it.” And the AP is supposed to be THE NEUTRAL news source… wow… 72. Hillary’s camp says she has a “character problem” and is “arrogant” wikileaks.org “I know this email thing isn’t on the level. I’m fully aware of that. But her inability to just do a national interview and communicate genuine feelings of remorse and regret is now, I fear, becoming a character problem (more so than honesty). People hate her arrogant, like her down. It’s a sexist context, but I think it’s the truth.” Her closest confidants admitting what everyone already knows. She is not genuine. 73. Staging fake anti-Trump protest, conspiring with Univision CEO wikileaks.org “Thinking about the early 4, there is the Trump International Hotel in Vegas. Maybe there is an organizing opportunity next week. Would be good to reach out to unite here.” Previous leaks months ago proved many of the “protests” were staged and they hired people to be there with professional signs. The James O’Keefe bombshell video ( first one ) proves that all these “protests” were all staged and they paid mentally ill people to incite violence. 74. Meeting to go over Cheryl Mills’ testimony wikileaks.org “Please see below for today’s 8am meeting agenda. Also, please note that this meeting should last a full hour” Lists items to talk about “Timing of Focus Groups re Debate Prep” “8/31 Email Release” “Jake/Cheryl Testimony.” This is a memo revealing that they were discussing the testimony of Cheryl Mills in meetings. It must have been highly important to keep all of their stories straight, properly vetted and discussed. 75. Iran nuclear deal was “greatest appeasement since Chamberlain gave Czechoslovakia to Hitler” wikileaks.org “This agreement condemns the next generation to cleaning up a nuclear war in the Persian Gulf… Yup.” Top Hillary advisor agrees with that statement, indicating they know the Iran deal was terrible despite what they state publicly (another public vs private position). 76. Journalist talks strategy with Clinton staff and asks for permission to write article www.wikileaks.org “am not going to raise this publicly, but one of HRC’s opponents will soon charge that she is running an “imperial campaign.” If it is the right opponent, Democrat or Republican, the charge will resonate.” “BTW, I may doing an Elizabeth Warren column soon. If I write that my optimum scenario would be for Elizabeth to ultimately give a big endorsement to HRC and give the keynote speech at the Convention, totally off the record, would that give you a problem? It would be my personal opinion only, but if you have a problem with my suggesting this as my idea, I won’t tell anyone and I won’t include it, deferring to you” Yes. This supposed journalist is discussing strategy with the chairman of the Hillary Clinton campaign. Giving him information and warnings about things he learned from other sources most likely off the record. Extreme collusion between the media and Hillary’s staff. But wait, there is more! He is asking permission from Podesta to write parts of an article. John Podesta responds to the email, and grants permission for the journalist to write the story as originally planned. 77. Bill Clinton admits Clinton Foundation has no “real projects” “He also said he’s worried about the pensions commitment and not having real projects to announce at CGI america. I said we are concerned too…” It was also mentioned that the employees are unhappy. 78. Violating campaign finance law wikileaks.org “I’m swinging way above my weight class here. And I’m 100% sure this out of protocol. I’m trying to land the campaign a big fat whale that can give between $100,000 to maybe $1 million if their ego can be reassured that they won’t be just treated “just like any other donor. With your permission, can I CC you in an email to these guys. I’m work with Haim Saban’s political director on these same guys. If it’s 100% inappropriate I understand.” Haim Saiban is the owner of Univision, who has been working with Hillary as revealed throughout the leaks. 79. Interfering with the 2008 Republican primary process wikileaks.org “Yes, we need to move with some tactics to try to stop him. Ideas? We should take another swing at the immigration angle. I think this is a crisis. We need to ring the alarm bell. But I’m not sure how we could affect the GOP primary? Earned media play on McCain and immigration. Robocalls to suppress his vote? Turnout evangelicals for Huck?” What right do they have to interfere in another party’s primaries? 80. Proof that ‘Correct the Record’ (SuperPAC) is directly coordinating with the Hillary campaign against federal campaign law www.wikileaks.com (in attachments) “In May of 2015, CTR separated from its parent organization, American Bridge, and became its own SuperPAC. This structure allows CTR to retain its independence but coordinate directly and strategically with the Hillary campaign. This work is necessary now more than ever.” Correct the Record (CTR) is a group funded by globalist billionaire George Soros to pretend Hillary has support online. They pay “an army of nerd virgins” ( their own words ) to create memes and pretend to support Hillary. On popular internet sites like Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook, they are paid to ‘downvote’ or ‘dislike’ or delete anything pro-Trump/anti-Hillary, and fake-promote anything pro-Hillary/anti-Trump. Incredibly sad, but Hillary and her “support” is staged in every department. The same attachment describes everything. 81. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in direct contact with the Hillary campaign wikileaks.org t[He is] particularly interested in meeting people who could help him understand how to move the needle on the specific public policy issues he cares most about. He wants to meet folks who can inform his understanding about effective political operations to advance public policy goals” They are basically saying he wants to learn how to bribe people. Mark Zuckerberg has been very outspoken about Trump and his wall idea, when he himself is building a large wall around his mansion. Facebook also manipulates it’s trending stories to not show pro-Trump/anti-Hillary articles or trends, and even censors videos against Hillary . The censorship is well known and has reduced Facebook’s integrity tenfold. Pro-Trump stories with hundreds of thousands of mentions are deleted to allow room for anti-Trump articles with less than a thousand mentions. Happens literally daily. Unfortunately this is the case across Twitter , YouTube , Google , and Reddit as well (and why it seems like at times more support Hillary despite Trump getting 30,000 at his rallies and Hillary getting 200 ). They are in the tank for Hillary. 82. Hillary’s team working with hundreds of MSM news pundits www.wikileaks.com (in attachments) “IMPACTING THE DIALOGUE: CTR has identified 372 surrogates including influential and frequent pundits on broadcast and cable news for Presidential 2016 politics and provided them around 80 sets of talking points…” Once again, shows the media collusion with the Hillary campaign. 83. Katy Perry is a puppet for Hillary Clinton wikileaks.org “She said no to asking Chelsea. Would go herself before asking her daughter. So we are at plan B: Katy Perry it is.” Huma Abedin writes that they have to send Katy Perry to do an Arkansas event because Hillary is unwilling to ask her daughter to go. Katy Perry is such a puppet for them that they can use her as a replacement for Chelsea when needed. 84. Hillary tries to hide her tiny rallies | 0 |
Email
A major political leader in France, Francois-Xavier Peron, has declared that France is about to enter into a devastating war against Islam , and its going to be extremely violent. His solution to prepare? Embrace the Christian Faith and never accept the antichrist masonic religion .
I did an interview with Mr. Peron about this coming war, and why the Christian Faith must be the religion of the world:
Shoebat.com | 0 |
When we invited the columnist Thomas Friedman onto The to discuss the latest tempest surrounding Donald J. Trump, we had no idea that his column would touch off a of its own. In it, Mr. Friedman compared a remark by Donald J. Trump — widely interpreted as a call for gun owners anxious about Hillary Clinton to take the law into their own hands — to the kind of incendiary political language that Mr. Friedman said had incited the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel in 1995. “His children,” Mr. Friedman wrote of Mr. Trump, “should be ashamed of him. ” Right before we taped the show, a prominent fellow journalist, Bob Woodward of The Washington Post, scolded Mr. Friedman for engaging in “hyperbolic” and “excessive” criticism in the column by mentioning Mr. Trump’s children as he did. “That makes no sense,” said Mr. Woodward, who argued that there should be a “zone of protection” around a candidate’s children. On today’s episode, Mr. Friedman rejects that argument, saying that Mr. Trump had forfeited any such “zone of protection” when his children became top advisers to his campaign and highly public spokesmen for it. “Oh my God. I mean, who are the main speakers at Trump’s convention?” Mr. Friedman asked. “They are his kids. Who has he cited as his top advisers? His kids. ” An edited excerpt from our interview: I asked whether Mr. Friedman was trying to encourage Mr. Trump’s children to intervene and rein in their father. “If you want to change his behavior, it seems to me legitimate to call on them,” he said. In the same episode, we asked a former top employee of Mr. Trump’s, Barbara Res, once the head of construction at his company, whether the inflammatory language he is now using resembled his choice of words and his shading of the truth as a boss in the workplace. Her answer? “Absolutely. ” Ms. Res, the author of “All Alone on the 68th Floor,” a memoir about her days as a woman in the construction industry, said Mr. Trump’s inaccurate claim that Hillary Clinton was a “founder of ISIS” reminded her of how he talked in the office. “For one thing he tends to exaggerate tremendously,” she said. “Like the thing about being the founder of ISIS. ” “He used to do that all the time. He would make a tremendously exaggerated remark, or make something up that wasn’t even exaggerated, and then he would pounce on it and repeat it,” Ms. Res recalled. Please let us know what you think of the show. You can reach us at therunup@nytimes. com, or find me on Twitter, and you can leave ratings and feedback on iTunes. From a desktop or laptop, you can listen by pressing play on the button above. Or if you’re on a mobile device, the instructions below will help you find and subscribe to the series. On your iPhone or iPad: 1. Open your podcast app. It’s a app called “Podcasts” with a purple icon. 2. Search for the series. Tap on the “search” magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen, type in “The ” and select it from the list of results. 3. Subscribe. Once on the series page, tap on the “subscribe” button to have new episodes sent to your phone free. You may want to adjust your notifications to be alerted when a new episode arrives. 4. Or just sample. If you would rather listen to an episode or two before deciding to subscribe, just tap on the episode title from the list on the series page. If you have an internet connection, you’ll be able to stream the episode. On your Android phone or tablet: 1. Open your podcast app. It’s a app called “Play Music” with an icon. 2. Search for the series. Click on the magnifying glass icon at the top of the screen, search for the name of the series and select it from the list of results. You may have to scroll down to find the “Podcasts” search results. 3. Subscribe. Once on the series page, click on the word “subscribe” to have new episodes sent to your phone free. 4. Or just sample. If you would rather listen to an episode or two before deciding to subscribe, just click on the episode title from the list on the series page. If you have an internet connection, you’ll be able to stream the episode. | 1 |
A group of 200 locals expressed their displeasure during the opening prayer and Pledge of Allegiance at Sen. Bill Cassidy’s ( ) town hall in Louisiana Wednesday night, Independent Journal Review (IJR.) reported.[ Some constituents began shouting, “Pray on your own time” and “let’s get on with it” at the chaplain while others chanted, “Separation of church and state”: As a local veteran took the stage to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, the crowd continued shouting, “We want answers” and “Do your job,” National Review reported. Despite the heckling, the veteran managed to remain on stage until he was finished. By the time Sen. Cassidy arrived at the town hall 20 minutes late, he was met with a reception from the crowd. Sen. Cassidy received a tense reception from the crowd throughout the speech, especially when President Trump or Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was mentioned, the reported. “If all you want to do is vent, this will not be profitable,” Cassidy warned the audience. By the time Cassidy called an end to the meeting an hour later, the audience’s mood had not changed, and the constituents once again shouted, “Do your job. ” Townhall ends, @BillCassidy says, and crowd starts chanting ”do your job” pic. twitter. — Caitlin Owens (@caitlinnowens) February 22, 2017, After the event concluded, Cassidy sought out the pastor who gave the opening prayer, Michael Sprague. “Thanks for doing that,” Sen. Cassidy said. “Wow, they booed the name of Jesus. ” Despite the hostile reception from his constituents, the senator kept his cool and did not get discouraged. “I assume they’re Americans who care about our country, who feel differently about Trump than most folks in Louisiana do,” Sen. Cassidy said. “But they’re coming out with their constitutionally protected right to assemble and speak. And isn’t that a good thing?” | 1 |
Регион: Ближний Восток Сооружение первой иранской АЭС рядом с г. Бушер начала немецкая компания «Kraftwerk Union» в 1974 г., во время правления последнего иранского шаха Мохаммеда Реза Пехлеви. Тогда Иран сотрудничал в атомной сфере с США и европейскими странами. После Исламской революции 1979 г. и создания Исламской Республики Иран строительство было остановлено, а Европа и США стали относиться к ядерной программе Ирана с подозрением. Начались различные санкции, в том числе – запрет на ввоз в ИРИ оборудования и материалов, связанных с атомной энергетикой. Позднее в своих ядерных исследованиях ИРИ пользовалась помощью Китая (при строительстве исследовательского реактора в г. Исфахан). Однако в те времена китайские ядерные технологии еще не достигли нынешних высот. В конце концов, единственной технически развитой страной, помогающей Ирану в его ядерной программе, стала Россия. Летом 1992 г. между Российской Федерацией и Исламской Республикой Иран был подписан договор о сотрудничестве в сфере мирного атома и строительстве АЭС. Было решено завершить работу, начатую в 1974 г. Российские специалисты проделали уникальную работу, в результате которой старые конструкции немецких строителей удалось приспособить для российской техники. Для иранской АЭС был выбран тип реактора ВВЭР-1000, который доказал свою надежность на многих АЭС в России и за рубежом. Работы начались в 1995 г. Реализация проекта не раз наталкивалась на противодействие США и их союзников. Они упорно утверждали, что Иран намерен использовать проект «Бушер» для получения собственного ядерного оружия. Многие европейские компании в связи с этим отказались сотрудничать с Ираном, несмотря на имевшиеся договоренности. Тем не менее работа продолжалась. В 2011 г. первый энергоблок АЭС «Бушер» был подключен к иранской энергосети, а в 2012 г. достиг полной мощности. Тогда иранское руководство заявляло, что пуск АЭС – доказательство мощи ИРИ и ее способности выдержать борьбу с Западом. Церемония официальной передачи станции иранской стороне состоялась в сентябре 2013 г. В тот период Иран еще находился под действием множества международных санкций, принятых против него в связи с его ядерной программой. Однако для российско-иранского сотрудничества в сфере АЭ это препятствием не стало. Дело в том, что между РФ и ИРИ существует соглашение, по которому Россия получает все отработанное топливо с иранской АЭС (при этом сама же его поставляет). Таким образом, станция не может быть источником материалов, которые можно было бы использовать в военных целях. Новая АЭС произвела на заказчика положительное впечатление. В ноябре 2014 г. в Москве состоялось подписание нескольких документов, дополнивших российско-иранский договор 1992 года. Россия и Иран расширили взаимодействие в атомной сфере. Было принято решение о строительстве трех дополнительных энергоблоков к АЭС «Бушер» и еще четырех – в другом месте. Тогда же российская группа компаний «ASE», ведущая строительство АЭС за рубежом, заключила с иранской стороной договор о строительстве двух энергоблоков. Торжественное открытие работ по проекту «Бушер-2» состоялось в сентябре 2016 г. Начало запуска второго блока АЭС ожидается осенью 2024 г., третьего блока – в 2026 г. Учитывая опыт трагедии на станции «Фукусима-1», было решено оснастить новые энергоблоки улучшенными реакторами ВВЭР с самой современной системой безопасности. Создание АЭС «Бушер» стало очень важным событием как для Ирана, так и для России. Для Ирана она стала не только надежным источником энергии, но и символом сопротивления давлению западных стран. Для России, по словам многих участников, проект «Бушер» также имеет особое значение. В трудные годы, последовавшие за распадом СССР, строительство российско-иранской АЭС стало доказательством того, что РФ сохранила свой научно-технический потенциал. Заказ иранского правительства принес российской атомной отрасли немалые денежные средства, так необходимые в то тяжелое время. Многие источники утверждают, что именно с АЭС «Бушер» начался современный этап сотрудничества России с другими странами в атомной сфере. Эта станция продемонстрировала возможности российских атомщиков всему миру и привлекла множество новых клиентов. По данным на конец 2015 г., деятельность «Росатома» охватывала 40 стран, а стоимость десятилетнего пакета заказов составила почти $111 млрд долл. Еще одним важным моментом является то, что «Бушер» пока что является первой и единственной АЭС на Ближнем Востоке. То, что мирный атом в этот регион первой принесла именно Россия, имеет немалое значение. Глядя на Иран, уже многие другие ближневосточные страны заинтересовались атомной энергетикой, и каждая из них рассматривает возможность сотрудничества с «Росатомом». Осенью 2013 г. «Росатом» выиграл тендер на строительство первой АЭС в Иордании, на который претендовало совместное японско-французское предприятие «Mitsubishi Heavy Industries» – AREVA. Сейчас уже ведется разработка технико-экономического обоснования проекта и обсуждаются вопросы финансирования. По имеющимся данным, «Росатом» станет одним из инвесторов. Подписание договора о строительстве ожидается в конце 2017 г., при этом продолжается подготовка к строительству АЭС «Аккую» в Турции. Ведутся переговоры с Египтом и Саудовской Аравией. Всего в регионе планируется построить 26 АЭС, оснащенных 90 атомными реакторами к 2030 г. Многие эксперты выражают по этому поводу беспокойство, ведь Ближний Восток – весьма неспокойный регион. Существуют опасения, что строительство АЭС может помочь различным экстремистским силам получить атомное оружие. Однако пример станции «Бушер» показывает, что при должном контроле со стороны международных организаций за работой станций и утилизацией отработанного топлива этот риск сводится к минимуму. Кроме того, само сооружение АЭС требует от заинтересованных государств усилий по сохранению стабильности и грамотной международной политики. Работа АЭС способствует экономическому, научному и социальному развитию. Все это может помочь снижению напряженности в ближневосточном регионе. Таким образом, российские атомные технологии могут повлиять в будущем на судьбу всего Ближнего Востока – одного из важнейших регионов в современной политике. Дмитрий Бокарев, политический обозреватель, специально для интернет-журнала «Новое Восточное Обозрение». Популярные статьи | 0 |
shorty BY MIKE WHITNEY “Nation state as a fundamental unit of man’s organized life has ceased to be the principal creative force: International banks and multinational corporations are acting and planning in terms that are far in advance of the political concepts of the nation-state.” — Zbigniew Brzezinski, “Between Two Ages: The Technetronic Era”, 1971 “I’m going to continue to push for a no-fly zone and safe havens within Syria….not only to help protect the Syrians and prevent the constant outflow of refugees, but to gain some leverage on both the Syrian government and the Russians.” — Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Third Presidential Debate W hy is Hillary Clinton so eager to intensify US involvement in Syria when US interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya have all gone so terribly wrong? The answer to this question is simple. It’s because Clinton doesn’t think that these interventions went wrong. And neither do any of the other members of the US foreign policy establishment. (aka–The Borg). In fact, in their eyes these wars have been a rousing success. Sure, a few have been critical of the public relations backlash from the nonexistent WMD in Iraq, (or the logistical errors, like disbanding the Iraqi Army) but–for the most part– the foreign policy establishment is satisfied with its efforts to destabilize the region and remove leaders that refuse to follow Washington’s diktats. This is hard for ordinary people to understand. They can’t grasp why elite powerbrokers would want to transform functioning, stable countries into uninhabitable wastelands overrun by armed extremists, sectarian death squads and foreign-born terrorists. Nor can they understand what has been gained by Washington’s 15 year-long rampage across the Middle East and Central Asia that has turned a vast swathe of strategic territory into a terrorist breeding grounds? What is the purpose of all this? First, we have to acknowledge that the decimation and de facto balkanization of these countries is part of a plan. If it wasn’t part of a plan, than the decision-makers would change the policy. But they haven’t changed the policy. The policy is the same. The fact that the US is using foreign-born jihadists to pursue regime change in Syria as opposed to US troops in Iraq, is not a fundamental change in the policy. The ultimate goal is still the decimation of the state and the elimination of the existing government. This same rule applies to Libya and Afghanistan both of which have been plunged into chaos by Washington’s actions. But why? What is gained by destroying these countries and generating so much suffering and death? Here’s what I think: I think Washington is involved in a grand project to remake the world in a way that better meets the needs of its elite constituents, the international banks and multinational corporations. Brzezinski not only refers to this in the opening quote, he also explains what is taking place: The nation-state is being jettisoned as the foundation upon which the global order rests. Instead, Washington is erasing borders, liquidating states, and removing strong, secular leaders that can mount resistance to its machinations in order to impose an entirely new model on the region, a new world order. The people who run these elite institutions want to create an interconnected-global free trade zone overseen by the proconsuls of Big Capital, in other words, a global Eurozone that precludes the required state institutions (like a centralized treasury, mutual debt, federal transfers) that would allow the borderless entity to function properly. Deep state powerbrokers who set policy behind the smokescreen of our bought-and-paid-for congress think that one world government is an achievable goal provided they control the world’s energy supplies, the world’s reserve currency and become the dominant player in this century’s most populous and prosperous region, Asia. This is essentially what Hillary’s “pivot” to Asia is all about. The basic problem with Washington’s NWO plan is that a growing number of powerful countries are still attached to the old world order and are now prepared to defend it. This is what’s really going on in Syria, the improbable alliance of Russia, Syria, Iran and Hezbollah have stopped the US military juggernaut dead in its tracks. The unstoppable force has hit the immovable object and the immovable object has prevailed…so far. Naturally, the foreign policy establishment is upset about these new developments, and for good reason. The US has run the world for quite a while now, so the rolling back of US policy in Syria is as much a surprise as it is a threat. The Russian Airforce deployed to Syria a full year ago in September, but only recently has Washington shown that it’s prepared to respond by increasing its support of its jihadists agents on the ground and by mounting an attack on ISIS in the eastern part of the country, Raqqa. But the real escalation is expected to take place when Hillary Clinton becomes president in 2017. That’s when the US will directly engage Russia militarily, assuming that their tit-for-tat encounters will be contained within Syria’s borders. It’s a risky plan, but it’s the next logical step in this bloody fiasco. Neither party wants a nuclear war, but Washington believes that doing nothing is tantamount to backing down, therefore, Hillary and her neocon advisors can be counted on to up the ante. “No-fly zone”, anyone? The assumption is that eventually, and with enough pressure, Putin will throw in the towel. But this is another miscalculation. Putin is not in Syria because he wants to be nor is he there because he values his friendship with Syrian President Bashar al Assad. That’s not it at all. Putin is in Syria because he has no choice. Russia’s national security is at stake. If Washington’s strategy of deploying terrorists to topple Assad succeeds, then the same ploy will be attempted in Iran and Russia. Putin knows this, just like he knows that the scourge of foreign-backed terrorism can decimate entire regions like Chechnya. He knows that it’s better for him to kill these extremists in Aleppo than it will be in Moscow. So he can’t back down, that’s not an option. But, by the same token, he can compromise, in other words, his goals and the goals of Assad do not perfectly coincide. For example, he could very well make territorial concessions to the US for the sake of peace that Assad might not support. But why would he do that? Why wouldn’t he continue to fight until every inch of Syria’s sovereign territory is recovered? Because it’s not in Russia’s national interest to do so, that’s why. Putin has never tried to conceal the fact that he’s in Syria to protect Russia’s national security. That’s his main objective. But he’s not an idealist, he’s a pragmatist who’ll do whatever he has to to end the war ASAP. That means compromise. This doesn’t matter to the Washington warlords….yet. But it will eventually. Eventually there will be an accommodation of some sort. No one is going to get everything they want, that much is certain. For example, it’s impossible to imagine that Putin would launch a war on Turkey to recover the territory that Turkish troops now occupy in N Syria. In fact, Putin may have already conceded as much to Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan in their recent meetings. But that doesn’t mean that Putin doesn’t have his red lines. He does. Aleppo is a red line. Turkish troops will not be allowed to enter Aleppo. The western corridor, the industrial and population centers are all red lines. On these, there will be no compromise. Putin will help Assad remain in power and keep the country largely intact. But will Turkey control sections in the north, and will the US control sections in the east? Probably. This will have to be worked out in negotiations, but its unlikely that the country’s borders will be the same as they were before the war broke out. Putin will undoubtedly settle for a halfloaf provided the fighting ends and security is restored. In any event, he’s not going to hang around until the last dog is hung. Unfortunately, we’re a long way from any settlement in Syria, mainly because Washington is nowhere near accepting the fact that its project to rule the world has been derailed. That’s the crux of the matter, isn’t it? The bigshots who run the country are still in denial. It hasn’t sunk in yet that the war is lost and that their nutty jihadist-militia plan has failed. It’s going to take a long time before Washington gets the message that the world is no longer its oyster. The sooner they figure it out, the better it’ll be for everyone. NOTE: ALL IMAGE CAPTIONS, PULL QUOTES AND COMMENTARY BY THE EDITORS, NOT THE AUTHORS PLEASE COMMENT AND DEBATE DIRECTLY ON OUR FACEBOOK GROUP CLICK HERE ABOUT THE AUTHOR MIKE WHITNEY lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition . He can be reached at [email protected] . 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What will it take to bring America to live according to its own propaganda? =SUBSCRIBE TODAY! NOTHING TO LOSE, EVERYTHING TO GAIN.= free • safe • invaluable If you appreciate our articles, do the right thing and let us know by subscribing. It’s free and it implies no obligation to you— ever. We just want to have a way to reach our most loyal readers on important occasions when their input is necessary. In return you get our email newsletter compiling the best of The Greanville Post several times a week. | 0 |
Donnerstag, 24. November 2016 Vorbild Trump: AfD fordert ebenfalls Mauer an Grenze zu Mexiko Berlin (dpo) - Haben sie sich da etwa Donald Trump zum Vorbild genommen? Die AfD hat heute ebenfalls den Bau einer Mauer an der Grenze zu Mexiko gefordert. Offenbar hofft die Partei im Hinblick auf die Bundestagswahl im nächsten Jahr, bei einwanderungskritischen Wählern noch stärker zu punkten, indem sie antimexikanische Ressentiments bedient. "Die Mexikaner senden uns nicht ihre besten Leute", heißt es in einem AfD-Positionspapier unter dem Titel "Deutschland wieder großartig machen", das vorsieht, die Kosten für den Mauerbau an der deutsch-mexikanischen Grenze vollständig von Mexiko tragen zu lassen. "Sie bringen Drogen. Sie bringen Kriminalität. Sie sind Vergewaltiger. Und manche, nehmen wir an, sind gute Leute." Hat sich die AfD von ihm inspirieren lassen? Zwar betont die Partei in dem Schreiben, dass es sich bei dem Plan, eine Mauer zwischen Deutschland und Mexiko zu errichten, um ein völlig eigenständig entwickeltes Konzept handelt. Doch viele Beobachter hegen den Verdacht, dass die AfD vor allem deshalb mexikanische Einwanderer ins Visier nimmt, weil Donald Trump im US-Wahlkampf damit so beachtliche Erfolge erzielte. Auch wenn die AfD es offiziell abstreitet: Insidern zufolge ist die Forderung nach einer Mauer an der deutsch-mexikanischen Grenze nur ein erster Test, um herauszufinden, ob die Partei mit Trumps Methoden erfolgreich um Wählerstimmen werben kann. Im Optimalfall stünden dann bald weitere Wahlversprechen zur Diskussion wie etwa die Abschaffung von Obamacare, eine strafrechtliche Verfolgung von Hillary Clinton oder die Neuverhandlung des Atom-Deals mit dem Iran. ssi, dan; Foto [M]: Shutterstock, Foto unten: Gage Skidmore , CC BY-SA 2.0 Artikel teilen: | 0 |
WE NEED A REVOLUTION: Overcoming Fascism with a Movement of Love Sabine Lichtenfels negotiating with a general, “Grace Pilgrimage” in Colombia, 2008 By Martin Winiecki / terranovavoice.tamera.org
November 9th, the day after the U.S. election, will be a peculiar anniversary. On this day in 1938 more than 1000 synagogues and 7000 Jewish businesses were burning all over Germany, set ablaze by the Nazis. Going down in history as “Kristallnacht” or the “Night of Broken Glass,” this dreadful event marked the beginning of the Holocaust, resulting in six million Jews killed in less than seven years.
History reverberates in an eerie manner these days. In the United States, the anger and hatred that has long been boiling in millions of people has now found its political outlet.
No matter whether or not he will be elected president, Trump’s success has been unprecedented and overwhelming. His simple message resonates in large parts of the American society, in people who have long felt betrayed, abused and disenfranchised by an alienated “establishment.” Trump wins against all reasoning of decency because he recklessly breaks what his supporters most despise: “political correctness.” He understands how to play the emotional piano of the masses; he’s the ultimate caricature of a society teeming with universal corruption and sexual perversion.
The rise of fascism always seems to hit the world by surprise. Yet what we are now witnessing has not begun with Trump, just as German fascism had not begun with Hitler. Wherever people are prohibited to express their basic emotional and energetic drives, wherever they grow up and live in conditions of fear, mistrust and violence, the danger of fascism looms. Suppressed life energy dams up and turns into constant aggression. When the container of the bourgeois order crumbles, when people lose their jobs, voices and prospects – as it has gradually happened in this era of expanding corporate dominance – and the state no longer succeeds in controlling violence, the monstrous force of bottled-up emotions breaks free. Once they have a strong paternal authority telling them whom to blame, declaring them to be a collective that will now exact revenge, people get together in wild exaltation. Finally they have a channel and they develop a threatening force.i We must not despise or ridicule these people, but understand how they have gotten into the desperate state they are in. Thereby fascism is no longer a thing of “the others”; it’s something that concerns us all. The psychoanalyst Dieter Duhm writes, “Latent fascism is present everywhere; it is the cancer of humanity… It develops in the subconscious of our human relationships. In the emotional substrata of a misguided civilization lie the horrible powers that led to Nazi Germany and which currently lead to very similar atrocities in many countries on Earth.”ii
On the eve of the election, armed militias across the United States are preparing themselves to, as they say, “take back their country” in case their opponent will “rig” the elections. People call for boycotting companies who employ refugees from Muslim countries and threaten the people running them. Attacks on people of color, other religions and political ideologies have steeply increased in the time leading up to the election. People no longer see any prospect for the future. They no longer have anything in this world they can believe in. Unable of loving, retaliation is what gives them strength. Similar explosions of hatred are occurring all over the world. When we witness what political prisoners in Turkey (neglected by our Western leaders) or the civilians trapped inside the besieged cities of Aleppo and Mosul are now facing, we know that this global culture has come to a turning point.
Yet the aggression now explicitly exploding among white lower-class Americans is only a miniature version of the ruthless warfare systematically orchestrated by this country’s elites for many decades. War is an essential component of our entire economic system – one without which this system would instantaneously collapse. While “decent” Americans show themselves outraged about Trump, their candidate for President has her blueprints ready for expanding military interventionism around the world. Democratic President Obama has already bombed seven Islamic countries and ordered the drone assassination of thousands of innocent children and women abroad, but he is considered “moderate” in terms of warfare compared to Hillary Clinton. In the current escalation with Russia and China there no longer seems to be any limit. We mustn’t be surprised by what is now erupting inside America. Similar to how it was in the late Roman Empire, the American Empire is entering a phase of self-destruction as it is being eaten up by the very violence it has used to establish itself in the first place. And with it goes the entire capitalist world order this country has essentially shaped.
Trump is nothing other than a mirror for the world to look into, a call to awaken before it’s too late. It is silly to blame the mirror for what you see in it. Trump is not the enemy; he is merely the symptom of a culture worshipping power, violence and greed. If you are afraid of Trump, what you are actually afraid of is this culture. Stopping fascism isn’t achieved through ideological battles; it is rather a matter of building a new and humane culture. This is nothing short of a global revolution. A revolution from bottom up, on all levels of society.
We need a revolution that establishes new foundations for human life on Earth, new foundations for our coexistence with each other and nature. A revolution that allows us to remember the sacredness of life and of all living beings. We need a revolution for solidarity and trust; “a revolution,” as Dieter Duhm says, “whose victory will create no losers because it will achieve a state that benefits all.”iii
On November 9th 2005, Sabine Lichtenfels initiated the “Global Grace Day” at the separation wall in Israel-Palestine. At the time, the peace activist and co-founder of the Tamera peace research center in Portugal led a group of 50 Israelis, Palestinians and internationals on a “Grace Pilgrimage” through the Middle East – a form of political activism rooted in reclaiming the depth of our humaneness. The activists committed themselves to overcoming hatred and divide by addressing the human being trapped behind the masks of world views and traumatization.iv This allowed for “miracles” to happen – encounters between former enemies invoking the vision of a reunited land. No matter whether it is a dispossessed farmer, a soldier, a fanatic resistance fighter or ourselves, whether it is a fascist, a banker, a liberal or an anarchist – there is something identical in all of humanity running far deeper than our ideological denominations: a universal longing to be accepted and seen, a longing to love and be loved, to belong to a community and to express oneself in trust and freedom; and there is a similarly universal trauma stemming from the suppression of these essential human needs. What we need is a revolution that acknowledges and follows human longing and establishes societal conditions where they can finally be met.
This new revolution will not be achieved by shifting political power from one party to another, but by establishing forms of coexistence which allow the human being to liberate himself from all disguises and reconnect in trust. Every fascist will transform into a loving person, every terrorist into a caretaker for life, if he or she can find home in a community that allows closed hearts to open again. This is not a matter of therapy, but of the social, sexual, ethical we live in. Building a movement based on communities of trust would not only be a genuine alternative to the fascist threat emerging everywhere; it may also set the foundations for the new global culture we as humanity need in order to have a future worth living on this planet. November 9th is a day of both despair and hope. In 1989 it was the day the Berlin Wall was opened. This year it can be a day for opening the wall of despair—exercised by people who find their determination to collaborate for a world of solidarity and trust.
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Former US President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary, the current Democratic Party presidential nominee, have attracted billions of dollars to their own foundation to trade power and influence, Wall Street investor and analyst Charles Ortel told Sputnik.
Charles Ortel is a veteran Wall Street investment analyst who has carried out major studies into the operation of the Clinton Foundation and its legal status, and runs a blog monitoring its activities. Ortel was the whistleblower that blew the lid off the General Electric financial discrepancies in 2008.
“The Clinton Foundation has been a gigantic slush fund,” Ortel said. “People can donate relatively small sums to the Clinton regime and get gigantic concessions worth hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars back.” During the four years that Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, hundreds of millions of dollars flowed into the Clinton Foundation from governments around the world, many of which then enjoyed favored treatment from the US State Department, Ortel noted. “To the world at large, the Clintons are open for business,” he stated. The US corporate media always refused to subject the Clinton Foundation to any kind of serious or skeptical coverage, in part because of fear of alienating the Clintons, Ortel explained. “This is such a big story that the US press is not doing its job. What we have in ‘Clinton Incorporated,’ is Tammany Hall on steroids,” he said.
Read more: Clinton Foundation Operates as Giant Slush Fund for Buying Influence Delivered by The Daily Sheeple
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Más de 10 países de la OTAN, dispuestos a reforzar su presencia cerca de Rusia Publicado: 26 oct 2016 17:26 GMT | Última actualización: 26 oct 2016 17:59 GMT
El secretario general de la alianza, Jens Stoltenberg, ha afirmado también que hay varios países que están dispuestos a contribuir al reforzamiento de la OTAN en el mar Negro. Francois Lenoir Reuters Síguenos en Facebook
Más de 10 países de la OTAN están dispuestos a contribuir a la formación de cuatro batallones multinacionales en Polonia y los países bálticos, ha señalado el secretario general de la alianza, Jens Stoltenberg, en una reunión de ministros de Defensa en Bruselas.
"Albania, Italia, Polonia, Eslovenia se unirán a un batallón dirigido por Canadá en Letonia. Bélgica, Croacia, Francia, Luxemburgo, Países Bajos y Noruega, a un batallón encabezado por Alemania en Lituania. Dinamarca y Francia, a un batallón bajo la dirección del Reino Unido en Estonia. Y Rumanía y el Reino Unido se unirán a un batallón liderado por Estados Unidos en Polonia", ha detallado.
Además, Stoltenberg ha mencionado que seis países del bloque militar —Estados Unidos, Alemania, Canadá, Turquía, Países Bajos y Polonia, Turquía— "han indicado su deseo" de "estar presentes" en la región del mar Negro "por tierra, mar y aire". Reforzamiento de la OTAN en su flanco oriental
La creación de cuatro batallones multinacionales en los países bálticos (Estonia, Letonia y Lituania) y Polonia sobre una base rotatoria fue acordado en la cumbre de Varsovia a principios de julio. La reacción de Moscú no se había hecho esperar. Desde el Kremlin señalaron que estas medidas "han cimentado el segundo muro de Europa, después del de Berlín".
Más detalles, en breve. | 0 |
Influence Peddling Scheme Hits President Park in Korea November 07, 2016 Influence Peddling Scheme Hits President Park in Korea
A South Korean court said on Sunday it had issued arrest warrants for two former presidential aides under investigation in an influence peddling scandal that has sent President Park Geun-hye's approval rating to a record low. Tens of thousands of South Koreans demonstrated at a rally on Saturday evening in central Seoul demanding that Park resign over the scandal involving an old friend, Choi Soon-sil, who is alleged to have used her closeness to the president to meddle in state affairs. Park's approval rating has fallen to just 5 percent, the lowest since such polling began in 1988, according to a Gallup Korea survey released on Friday. The Seoul Central District Court said in a statement that it granted a warrant to prosecutors to arrest An Chong-bum, a former senior advisor for Park, who faces charges of abuse of power and attempted extortion. An was already in custody under an emergency detention order.
Prosecutors are looking into allegations that An and Choi forced South Korean conglomerates to donate funds to non-profit foundations.
The court said it also issued an arrest warrant for a second former presidential aide, Jeong Ho-seong, who also had already been held in temporary custody.
Prosecutors apprehended Jeong late on Thursday on suspicion of leaking classified information.
An and Jeong both stepped down late last month amid the deepening crisis. Article by Doc Burkhart , Vice-President, General Manager and co-host of TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles Got a news tip? Email us at Help support the ministry of TRUNEWS with your one-time or monthly gift of financial support. DONATE NOW ! DOWNLOAD THE TRUNEWS MOBILE APP! CLICK HERE! | 0 |
It’s no secret that Obama and his puppets are doing everything they possibly can to rig the election against Trump. Positive Trump polls are coming all the time, so it’s all hands on deck from the Democrats to do whatever it takes to hand the election to Hillary.
Obama’s latest move involves registering immigrant voters who will most likely be voting for Hillary in November and he’s spent TONS of your taxpayer money doing it.
From Judicial Watch :
Months after the Obama administration spent $19 million to register new immigrant voters that will likely support Democrats in November, it’s dedicating an additional $10 million in a final push as the presidential election approaches. The money is distributed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the Homeland Security agency that oversees lawful immigration, to organizations that help enhance pathways to naturalization by offering immigrants free citizenship instruction, English, U.S. history and civics courses. Officially, they’re known as “citizenship integration grants.”[…]
Judicial Watch went on to say… The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been aggressive in promoting its citizen integration grant program this year, offering large sums to recruit new groups that can offer immigrants the services they need to become citizens. Clearly, the ultimate goal is qualifying as many immigrants as possible to vote since they tend to cast ballots for Democrats. “We intend to award about $1 million to first-time recipients in the Citizenship and Integration Grant Program for fiscal year 2016,” the agency’s grant announcement states. “If you represent one of these organizations, or know of an interested organization, we strongly encourage that organization to consider applying. Additionally, another $9 million will fund programs that provide both citizenship instruction and instruction and naturalization application services.” Some might consider this a cash giveaway.[…]
Practically every federal agency is participating in the effort by contributing resources and creating programs to help immigrants. For example the Department of Labor (DOL) is implementing “new workforce programs” for the “new Americans” and the Department of Education is promoting “funding opportunities” to assure that the immigrants “are provided the tools they need to succeed.” The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is collaborating with other agencies to release a career and credentialing toolkit on “immigrant-focused career-pathways programs.” The Department of Justice (DOJ) and USCIS are making sure the new Americans have worker rights and protections and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is launching a two-year pilot to assure that non English speakers have “meaningful access to housing programs” subsidized by American taxpayers.
Obama likes to pretend that he’s doing this for the greater good of America, but the truth is it’s just part of the overall agenda to do whatever it takes to make sure Democrats run Washington and continue to drive our country into the ground.
Source: End the Fed
More from Breitbart… Schweizer: Obama’s DOJ ‘Transferring Money to Left-wing Groups’ ‘to Influence This Election’ By John Hayward
On Wednesday’s edition of Breitbart News Daily on SiriusXM , Clinton Cash author and Government Accountability Institute (GAI) President Peter Schweizer discussed the latest GAI report about the Obama Justice Department’s funneling of money to left-wing groups using fines levied against financial institutions. Breitbart Editor-in-Chief and SiriusXM host Alex Marlow described the report as exposing the Justice Department of “quite literally extorting companies to fund left-wing activists.”
“When I first joined Breitbart,” Schweizer recalled, “There was a scandal called Pigford where the federal government was basically taking taxpayer money and giving it to people who were claiming to be victims who were not victims and giving them billions of dollars. This is in that tradition.”
He explained:
What’s really happening here is simple. You’ve got large financial institutions on Wall Street, you’ve got banks like Bank of America, who have in some cases committed financial crimes. I think some of them are real, some of them may not be, but set that aside for a minute. The Department of Justice has gone after them and basically said, ‘You committed these offenses, you’ve got to pay restitution in the form of billions of dollars.’ Okay, they committed the crime, they ought to pay that.
Now, ostensibly that money, those billions of dollars, are supposed to go to the victims of their financial crimes. If your Wall Street broker committed fraud, you’re supposed to be made whole with this money, and the rest of it is supposed to go to taxpayers.
The problem is the Obama Justice Department has been diverting literally more than $650 million to left-wing groups. They do it under the guise of, “Well, you know, if this bank discriminated against lenders racially, we’re going to give this money to these left-wing quote-unquote housing groups to help deal with the problem.”
But that’s not what’s going on. These housing groups are advocacy groups. They’re left-wing organizations. They are registering voters and getting voters out to the voting booth. And they specifically target what they call quote-unquote progressive voters.
So this is taking the Department of Justice, which we’ve experienced so much in recent years has been politicized by this Administration, even further to where now the Department of Justice is transferring money to left-wing groups — in an effort, frankly I think, to influence this election.
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A Canadian pilot was arrested Saturday after he was found drunk in a plane he was about to fly out of Calgary Airport in western Canada. [The crew and other airline staff found the man intoxicated shortly after 7 a. m. in the cockpit of a plane he was supposed to fly to Cancun, Mexico, AFP reported. The flight crew noticed the pilot’s erratic behavior before he passed out in the cockpit, and then called the authorities. Police said the pilot was escorted out of the plane and put in jail. Authorities say the pilot had more than three times the legal limit of alcohol allowed (0. 08 percent in Canada) in his system two hours after his arrest. Miroslav Gronych of Slovakia was charged with one count of operating an aircraft while impaired, and one count of operating an aircraft with a blood alcohol level over 0. 08, the Huffington Post Canada reported. “It had all the potential for a disaster but I’ll tell you this much — the likelihood of a pilot on a major airline like this actually being able to take off when they’re impaired like that is pretty slim, because there’s a lot of checks and balances,” police spokesman Paul Stacey said to BBC News. A spokeswoman for Sunwing Airlines thanked the crew for dealing with this “very unfortunate matter,” according to local media. Transport Canada spokesman Dan Dugas said that it is a crime for flight crew to work within eight hours of drinking alcohol or while under the influence. He added that Transport Canada is investigating the incident. The flight took off with another pilot in control of the Boeing 737 plane with 99 passengers and six crew members, including the pilot who was charged. | 1 |
David Shepard, a film preservationist who restored hundreds of discarded, hidden or forgotten films by masters like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and F. W. Murnau and packaged rarities for the consumer market, died on Jan. 31 in Medford, Ore. He was 76. The cause was cancer, said his brother, Donald. The era of Valentino and Fairbanks had been over for decades when Mr. Shepard, barely in his teens, began buying old films, reel by reel, with money earned from his paper route. He had been bitten by the bug when his uncle Myron, a photographer in the Signal Corps, brought home a projector and a boxful of films from France after World War II — abridged versions of Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” and Georges Méliès’s experimental “A Trip to the Moon,” among others. They kindled an enthusiasm that only grew with time. Working for the American Film Institute and later for Blackhawk Films, which reproduced old films for the collectors’ market, Mr. Shepard began searching out movies that had been languishing in studio vaults or private collections and bringing them in for restoration. By trial and error, he developed techniques now used widely in commercial preservation laboratories. In 1989, after acquiring Blackhawk’s library, he created his own company, Film Preservation Associates. Over the years, he restored or made available many of the silent films now found in DVD and video libraries, including the 12 shorts that Charlie Chaplin made for the Mutual Film Corporation in 1916 and 1917, Murnau’s 1927 masterpiece “Sunrise,” all of Buster Keaton’s independent films of the 1920s, and Soviet silent films from the same decade. For many films, he commissioned new musical scores. One of his most stunning efforts was the restoration of the French filmmaker Abel Gance’s “La Roue” (“The Wheel”). Originally shown in 1923 over three days, it was cut down to two and half hours for commercial distribution, and the original was subsequently lost. Mr. Shepard, with the archivist Eric Lange, reassembled a version from five different prints, released in 2008 by Flicker Alley. “If you’ve seen a superior print of a film by Chaplin or Keaton, Griffith or Murnau, chances are David had a hand in restoring it,” the film critic Leonard Maltin recently wrote on his blog. Just as important, Mr. Shepard brought films out of the archives and to the general public, building on the work of the pioneer revivalist Kevin Brownlow. “He was able to build an audience for silent film and keep it going,” Jeffrey Vance, a film historian who has written books on Chaplin, Keaton and Harold Lloyd, said in an interview. “He made silent films available to everyone. ” David Haspel Shepard was born on Oct. 22, 1940, in Manhattan and grew up, from the age of 11, in Tenafly, N. J. His father, Bertram, was an executive with the Grand Union grocery chain his mother, the former Marjorie Markley, was a homemaker.’ ”He was film crazy from his earliest years, with a connoisseur’s bent that his father indulged by taking him to the film programs at the Museum of Modern Art. After buying a projector at 12, he discovered that film rental companies, hard hit by television, were selling off their stocks, and he began acquiring films for $1 a reel.” ’In junior high and high school, he filmed football games for the coaches to study. In the he used the camera to make his own films with student actors. Mr. Shepard earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and religion from Hamilton College in Clinton, N. Y. in 1962 and a master’s in American studies from the University of Pennsylvania a year later. He was teaching theater and film at Pennsylvania State University in 1968 when the fledgling American Film Institute hired him to seek out historically significant films from studios and collectors, with the aim of having them donated to the institute for preservation and archiving. In an early coup, he persuaded Paramount Pictures to turn over the 200 silent features it had in storage in Fort Lee, N. J. After five years, he went to work for Blackhawk, in Davenport, Iowa, as head of product development. It was there that he led the project to acquire and restore Chaplin’s Mutual shorts, in which Chaplin’s Little Tramp character evolved from a purely slapstick figure to a rich, comedic personality. Mr. Shepard was hired by the Directors Guild of America in 1976 to oversee special projects, notably a series of oral histories with directors like King Vidor and Henry King. In the 1980s, he began teaching film history at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the School of Cinema and Television at the University of Southern California. In 1977, he married Kimberly Fetter, who had worked with him at Blackhawk. The marriage ended in divorce. In addition to his brother, he is survived by a son, Ben Baker. Pinched by competition from the video market, Blackhawk Films closed in 1987 and offered Mr. Shepard its equipment for scrap value. He bought an industrial building to house it, and to pay off the building he began doing commercial preservation and restoration work. Soon after, he acquired Blackhawk’s film library, which became the basis for Film Preservation Associates. The company worked with distributors like Kino International and Flicker Alley. Many of the titles were released in box sets, including “Masterworks of D. W. Griffith,” “The Art of Buster Keaton,” “The Golden Age of German Cinema,” “Cecil B. De Mille: The Visionary Years,” “Douglas Fairbanks: King of Hollywood” and “Georges Méliès: First Wizard of the Cinema. ” In 2006, the National Society of Film Critics gave its Film Heritage Award to Mr. Shepard and his collaborators — Anthology Film Archives and the film restorer Bruce Posner — for the collection “Unseen Cinema: American Films. ” Mr. Shepard, who lived in Hat Creek, Calif. had his fair share of serendipity along the way. Raoul Walsh’s first film, “Regeneration” (1915) sometimes credited as the first gangster feature, simply fell into his lap when a meter reader from Missoula, Mont. contacted him about some films he had stumbled across in a building scheduled for demolition. “When he went to read the meters for the last time, the tenants were gone but the films were still there, so he took them,” Mr. Shepard told The Los Angeles Times in 1995. “He called me looking for someone to preserve them. ” Better yet, he told the newspaper in 1999, while he was visiting a colleague in France in the early 1970s, a boy rode up on a bicycle balancing a box of films on the handlebars. He had recently retrieved them from the family farm in Normandy. Among the films was an original print of “The Tramp,” which Chaplin had made at Essanay Studios in 1915. “You couldn’t stage this in a bad play,” Mr. Shepard said. | 1 |
Trump Supporter Screams At Press, Uses Anti-Semitic Slurs, Brands Them ‘The Enemy’ (VIDEO)
Even though the Trump campaign tries desperately to deny that many of their supporters are racist jackasses, the actions of some acolytes who support the GOP nominee continue to prove otherwise.
Take for example a man at a Trump campaign rally held in Phoenix on Saturday. This enraged man began taunting members of the media with chants of “Jew S. A.” in place of USA. This same rabid moron also accused members of the press who were simply doing their jobs of being “the enemy” and “working for the devil.” So this just happened near the press pen at Trump's Phoenix rally. Man chanting "Jew.S.A.!" pic.twitter.com/DpG9G6BtqO
— Ashley Killough (@KilloughCNN) October 29, 2016 Guy chants "Jew-S-A" in front of press pen pic.twitter.com/2yqgA6dD4k
— Nick Corasaniti (@NYTnickc) October 29, 2016
For his part, Trump riled up his rally filled with deplorables by telling them : “When the outcome is fixed, when the system is rigged, people lose hope. They stop dreaming. They stop trying. Hillary Clinton’s corruption is corrosive to the soul of our nation and it must be stopped.”
What is both maddening and simultaneously pathetic is that many of these enraged Trump voters are losers who need someone to blame their own inadequacies on. They are often poorly educated and have low-paying jobs. But then again, if you fail to educate yourself or prepare for the job market by learning a trade or getting a degree, that is at least in part your own fault. But to try and direct your anger at others–be they African-Americans, Hispanics, or women–only proves your own impotence. Rather than facing their failures and trying to better themselves, these narcissistic simpletons choose to hate those who set goals and accomplish them.
The type of Trump supporter who shouted at members of the media in Phoenix cannot face one simple fact: He or she has a made a mess of their life and the pain is too much to take. Therefore they lash out at others with hatred and bile. They cannot face one simple fact: Their time has passed and the future has caught up with them, just as it will catch up with Donald Trump on November 8.
Featured Image Via NBC News Screengrab | 0 |
Keywords: Cardiovascular , diabetes , dietary fat , heart disease , sugar , sugar industry
Sugar “does not have a unique role in heart disease.” When it comes to dietary claims made by the sugar industry, we need to take them with a grain of salt.
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco have uncovered documents and communications dating back as far as the 1960s, revealing that the SRF (Sugar Research Foundation, now known as the Sugar Association) funded research to serve its own interest: to create a sweet image of sugar.
At the time, heart disease was on the rise as was the consumption of dietary fat and sugar. Instead of trying to determine the true cause for the higher occurrence of the disease, the biased research focused everyone’s attention on fat.
UCSF’s finding, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, shows researchers at leading universities, including Harvard, were paid by the SRF in an effort to portray dietary fat as the major cause of heart disease. In the process, sugar’s role in the fatal disease has been ignored. Singing the Praises of Low-Fat Foods
As a result of the biased research published in many esteemed publications, life in the second half of the 20th century was filled with misleading dietary recommendations and scary headlines.
Warnings regarding the dangers of dietary fat ran rampant. Eating fat, especially the saturated variety, was equivalent to clogging your arteries. Even eating an egg, containing 5 grams of the forbidden macro-nutrient, was considered a luxury not to be indulged in more than once per week.
Low-fat diets became the craze. In fact, “low-fat” labels decorated food packaging throughout groceries stores, from yoghurt aisles to frozen sections. Consumers felt good whenever they chose low-fat varieties over standard options.
Yet this sense of well-being generated by the low-fat fad was unfounded. To add flavour to low-fat foods, sugar was the usual substitute. And the truth that has been uncovered is that sugar is a secret killer. It contributes not only to obesity and diabetes, but also to the leading cause of death worldwide: cardiovascular disease (CVD). A Time for Change
Recently the sugar industry’s funded research has been challenged by unbiased studies which reveal sugar to possess the unwelcome property previously, and falsely, attributed to fat: it leads to atherosclerosis.
JAMA Internal Medicine has published a study by a team of UCSF researchers showing that sugar, aside from causing diabetes and tooth decay, sets into motion several changes that bring on heart disease. In this study, the diets of 43 children were changed to replace added sugar with starch while maintaining the same amounts of protein, fat, complex carbohydrates, and total caloric intake. The results showed beneficial effects on LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels as well as diastolic blood pressure.
Another study, undertaken by researchers from Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute and Albert Einstein College of Medicine and published in Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases, showed that consuming diets high in added sugar caused an increase in LDL (bad) cholesterol, total cholesterol, and triglycerides while lowering HDL (good) cholesterol.
The new research results have brought about a change in worldwide dietary guidelines. From governmental associations to medical organisations and private practitioners are warning consumers and patients about sugar’s toxicity.
The U.S. Dietary Guidelines for 2015 to 2020 recommend that added sugars make up less than 10 percent of a person’s daily calorie consumption. While the main reason for this recommendation is that added sugar constitutes empty calories and leads to a nutrient-deficient diet, the Guidelines also acknowledge that there is “strong evidence…lower intake of sources of added sugars are associated with reduced risk of CVD in adults.”
The American Heart Association warns that “too much added sugar in your diet could significantly increase your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.” It recommends lowering dietary sugar intake even further to a maximum of 6 teaspoons and 9 teaspoons for women and men, respectively. How Can Something Sweet Be So Bad?
According to one cardiologist, Dr Stephen Sinatra, sugar delivers its damage to the cardiovascular system via a surge in insulin. High levels of insulin wreak havoc on blood vessels’ endothelial linings. An inflammatory response ensues, causing the walls of the blood vessels to become clogged. In this way, the stage is set for heart disease.
Add to that the well-known fact that sugar leads to diabetes, which raises the risk of heart disease, and the overall danger is compounded. Addictive Properties Exacerbate the Problem
It seems that the sugar industry pushed us toward a secret killer just like the tobacco industry did. This notion seems even more valid in light of medical claims that sugar, like nicotine, is an addictive substance.
In medical circles, addiction is an altered state of the brain which causes repetitive behaviour despite negative consequences. Experts state that studies on rats prove sugar to be more addictive than cocaine.
When our bodies digest sugar, they release dopamine and opioids. These neurotransmitters play a key role in the brain’s reward centre, which in turn causes addiction to the same substance that set off too much activity in this pleasure circuit. So What Do We Do Now?
We need to gather public funding to carry out unbiased research on consumer goods, including foods.
Food labels should allow consumers to identify easily how much added sugar is present in every food item.
Every processed food item should not be allowed to contain more than 10 percent of its total calories from added sugars.
Widespread education regarding sugar’s toxicity should reach from the classroom to our doctors’ offices.
Everyone deserves the chance to break the cycle of sugar addiction.
Sources: | 0 |
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Email ‘The Social Network’ is an award-winning film about Facebook written by Aaron Sorkin. It is the story of how the gorgeous Mark Zuckerberg stole the incredible website Facebook.com from the incredible, wonderful, and intelligent and horrendous Winklevoss twins. When you are done watching ‘The Social Network,’ you will be curious about many things from the movie, and zero seconds after the end credits roll, you will begin using Google to find answers to your ‘Social Network’-related questions. How many of these things did you Google immediately after watching ‘The Social Network’? Take this quiz to find out! 1. Please check off all of the phrases you Googled immediately after you finished watching The Social Network : did mark zuckerberg teach aaron sorkin to swim as a reward for making the social network? Should Winklevoss Twins actors eat Winklevoss Twins real? is it legal to sue Mark Zuckerberg if my cousin bit my thumb off while the social network was playing in a different room of the house? mark zuckerberg hair for sale (donkey food) feed mark zuckerberg hair to donkey Will Mark Zuckerberg’s hair kill my donkey or make my donkey louder? foods that will make jesse eisenberg a baby again Jesse Eisenberg (infant at last once more) again baby Jesse Eisenberg Facebook Aaron Sorkin + yelling (jail for sorkin) did aaron sorkin call the sun his wife? Aaron Sorkin says “the sun is my wife” (video) aaron sorkin pointing to the sun and saying “there goes my wife the sun, she bit me” What is the name of the left Winklevoss twin? are the winklevoss twins allowed to hide from each other? if the winklevoss twins hide from each other are the police legally required to go to aaron sorkin’s house and cut him in half with a sword and then say, “we did this because the winklevoss twins hid from each other?” did my wife switch religions while I was watching the social network? wife religion different after the social network? new god for wife after Facebook movie? wife neglects CHRIST because of aaron sorkin windowless church of unknown purpose becomes my wife’s home after Zuckerberg flick? jesse eisenberg on a ladder EYES OPEN Mark Zuckerberg + Edward Snowden are father and son? does peter thiel have a Jackal noise inside of him? peter thiel haunted by jackals? Jackal God chases Peter Thiel through the grocery store? peter thiel calling Terminex to rid house of immortal jackals (audio only) Jesse Eisenberg gold chain allergy sequel to the social network is coming out during which Olympics? Pics of Winklevoss twins breaking a wishbone Winklevoss twins buying huge bag of wishbones no meat (video + commentary) Mark Zuckerberg ultimate roller rink disappearance 2 guyz tiny eyez Winklevoss twins switch brains every time they shake hands? which Winklevoss man is going to heaven How Good Are You At Using Google To Find Out About Gorgeous Zuckerberg And His Movie? Results for How Many Of These Things Did You Google Immediately After Watching ‘The Social Network’? Via Columbia Pictures You’ve Never Google Anything After Watching 'The Social Network'! I have news that will make Grief your emperor: You do not ever Google even one thing after you watch 'The Social Network.' When the movie is finished you think, “I have solved all of the riddles of this film, and there are no further mysteries about gorgeous Zuckerberg that I need to solve.” Then you go to sleep and dream the indecipherable nightmares of the willfully ignorant. When the universe starts over again and you are born for the seventh time, please try to Google more things after you watch 'The Social Network.' Share Your Results | 0 |
The nationwide effort to disrupt town hall meetings of members of Congress continued earlier this week when Rep. Tim Walberg ( ) attempted to conduct a Q and A with his constituents in Jackson, Mich. [Walberg was continually interrupted when he tried to answer questions, with people shouting slogans in unison, many of those reflecting the sentiment expressed on townhallproject. com, a website sponsored by moveon. org, the Center for American Progress, and Indivisible. The website includes instructions for sign making and provides specific questions that should be asked at the town halls, all of them opposing the policies of President Donald Trump and the Congress. Many of the people at Walberg’s town hall stood for much of the meeting, even after they were asked to remain seated, and held up signs that read “24 million,” the Democrats’ talking point on how many people will lose their insurance if the American Health Care Act replaces the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. People chanted “single payer,” “tell the truth,” “shame” and “people will die” and asked Walberg questions promoted by the left, including questions about President Donald Trump’s tax returns and whether Walberg supports calling for a special prosecutor to investigate Trump’s alleged ties to the Russians and the firing of James Comey as FBI director. Walberg attempted to answer all of the questions posed, even after it became clear that, as Walberg put it, “community organizers” had infiltrated the town hall. The media covering Walberg’s town hall offered a different perspective, including the Detroit Metro News, which ran a story with the headline “U. S. Rep. Tim Walberg’s town hall meeting in Jackson was a hot mess. ” “This isn’t the first time a Republicans’ town hall meeting did not go smoothly, and it most certainly won’t be the last,” the article said. “At the end of the video you can hear the crowd shouting “shame” over and over and many boos as well,” the article said. “Walberg did tell MLive that he feels optimistic about the town halls, though, and has done one in every county he represents in 2017. ” VIDEO: 50:30 — 58:00 — relevant chants, | 1 |
ATLANTA — Gasoline prices increased again across the Deep South on Monday, 10 days after the discovery in Alabama of a pipeline rupture that threatened fuel supplies and prompted worries about environmental contamination. The AAA motor club said that Monday’s average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in Georgia was nearly $2. 32, up from $2. 26 on Sunday and about $2. 10 the previous Monday. Prices also increased in Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, even as state officials asked drivers to conserve supplies and avoid topping off their tanks. “I urge the public to maintain regular consumption levels and travel schedules in order to reduce further interruption in fuel supply,” Gov. Nathan Deal of Georgia said in a statement. The rising prices and sporadic uncertainty here followed the rupture of a pipeline that ordinarily carries about 1. 3 million barrels of refined gasoline a day. Colonial Pipeline, which operates the system and shut down the line soon after the discovery of the leak on Sept. 9, said up to 336, 000 gallons might have been spilled in Shelby County, Ala. south of Birmingham. Colonial said that it was installing a bypass and that the line could resume normal operations this week. Industry observers said the effects of the disruption would fade once gas was again flowing freely. “Prices are likely to rise even further until the pipeline is fully restored,” said Mark Jenkins, a spokesman for AAA. “Once repaired, prices should quickly begin to decline. ” But over the weekend and into Monday, people across the South used social media to document scattered shortages. Service station operators posted notices of how they had been forced to bring in gas from distant areas, and the authorities warned against price gouging. Despite the increases, most Southern states still posted lower average gasoline prices than other parts of the country. In South Carolina on Monday, drivers typically paid $2. 04 a gallon, well below the national average of $2. 21. In Alabama, officials said they were working to restore service and measure the damage from the leak. On Friday, the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration issued a corrective action order, noting the “unknown probable cause of the failure” and barring Colonial from reopening the pipeline without the government’s approval. The agency, which used the order to outline its preliminary findings, also said high benzene and gasoline vapor levels had at one point kept emergency responders from the “assumed failure site” for about 83 hours. But officials appeared cautiously optimistic that the leak had not led to an environmental calamity. Although the federal government’s order said officials found dead vegetation and wildlife after the spill was detected, the gasoline was not expected to reach the nearby Cahaba River. “There has been no indication that any material has made it to the river,” the Cahaba Riverkeeper, a nonprofit organization in Birmingham, said in a statement on Facebook. “We remain confident that there has been no impact to area drinking water. ” Gov. Robert Bentley of Alabama, who repeatedly praised Colonial’s response after he visited a command center on Monday, expressed concern about the spill and its effects, but he also acknowledged the frailty of pipelines like the one that leaked in his state. “We don’t know that won’t happen again,” Mr. Bentley said. “That’s like saying is there a tornado going to happen again. ” | 1 |
Says Iraq Will Deal With Turkey 'As an Enemy' by Jason Ditz, November 03, 2016 Share This
In comments broadcast on Iraqi state television, Prime Minister Hayder Abadi confirmed that his nation is “ready” for a full-scale military confrontation with neighboring Turkey, insisting Iraq doesn’t necessarily want war, but is prepared to deal with Turkey “as an enemy.”
The comments come just over a day after Turkey began massing tanks and artillery along the Iraqi border, which Turkish defense officials insisted were simply aimed to prepare for potential “ developments in the region .”
The two nations have had testy relations for over a year, however, related to a number of Turkish ground troops deployed in Iraq without Abadi’s permission, and their refusal to leave. Turkish President Erdogan has claimed Turkey retains an interest in Mosul, whose loss to a League of Nations ruling in the 1920s they don’t recognize, and Erdogan has also warned that Abadi and the Iraqi government are not “at his level” where they can speak to him as an equal on the matter.
The US has been trying to keep the two nations at least civil for the sake of the Mosul invasion, but claims by Pentagon officials that the two had an agreement in principle to work together clearly never panned out, and tensions are still on the rise. Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz | 0 |
NEW DETAILS: Trump’s Gaffe With Khan Family Was Even Worse Than We Thought (VIDEO) By Natalie Dailey on October 29, 2016 Subscribe
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump made a fool out of himself at and after the Democratic National Convention. Trump got into a feud with the Khan family, a Gold Star family who spoke about him.
Trump apparently didn’t know what a Gold Star family is. This term is generally used to describe families who have lost a loved one in the military.
Paul Manafort, former advisor to George H.W. Bush’s, Gerald Ford’s, and Bob Dole’s presidential campaigns, became an advisor for the Donald Trump campaign during the general election season. His plan was for Trump to go low profile, so the media would then focus on his rival, Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton.
Manafort was mad when Trump went after the Khan family instead of focusing on the issues. He said: “The election is about the American people, it’s not about you.”
Now that we have less than two weeks until the election, Trump wants to rehash some of his craziest feuds. Trump said that if he were president Humayun Khan would still be alive. Khizr said : “This is the most cruel thing you can say to grieving parents, that if I was there this would not have happened. There’s no sincerity in those remarks … This is one character that a leader must have to be the leader of a great country, to be the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the United States: empathy. And this person totally lacks that.”
Khan is now joining Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail.
Check out the campaign ad he made for the Clinton campaign:
And watch Khan’s entire speech from the convention :
Featured image via YouTube screenshot . About Natalie Dailey
Hi, I'm from Huntsville, AL. I'm a Liberal living in the Bible Belt, which can be quite challenging at times. I'm passionate about many issues including mental health, women's rights, gay rights, and many others. Check out my blog abravealabamaatheist.com. Check out my other blog weneedtotalkaboutmentalhealth.com Connect | 0 |
AMMAN, Jordan — On a busy thoroughfare in Amman, Jordan’s capital, a coffee seller named Mohammed Al Mulki no longer shivers when he sees a police car pull up. At a nearby sweet shop, the counterman, Zuheir Taleb, no longer slips out of the back when a uniformed official walks in. And in the country’s north, on scorching fields a few miles from the Syrian border, Badra Hadahed, a diabetic grandmother doing backbreaking work, no longer worries that she will be plucked from the cucumber fields and sent back to her home. Like many Syrians who fled their country’s civil war, all three had been working illegally in Jordan. But under a shrewd, delicate experiment that grew out of Europe’s desire to contain the influx of foreigners to its shores, Jordan has been persuaded to let these Syrians make an honest living — in return for potentially big financial rewards. Jordan, which has 650, 000 Syrian refugees registered with the United Nations inside its borders, has long made it nearly impossible for them to work legally, citing concerns about high unemployment among its citizens. But under the new experiment, the government has given out 13, 000 work permits to Syrians, and is promising to issue up to 50, 000 by year’s end — and tens of thousands more in the future. In exchange, the World Bank is giving Jordan a $300 million loan, the likes of which are traditionally reserved for extremely poor countries in Africa. Western nations, including the United States, have offered roughly $60 million to build schools to accommodate Syrian children. And Jordan is close to clinching what it wants most: exports to the European Union, especially garments stitched in its industrial export zones. In short, Western leaders are using their financial and political leverage to convince Jordan that it is worthwhile to help refugees improve their lot in this country so they do not cross the Mediterranean Sea in flimsy rafts in search of a better life in Europe. It is a stark shift for both donor countries and Jordan, which, after absorbing generations of refugees from wars across the Middle East, had tried to keep Syrians from establishing a permanent foothold. “Some may say this is the one shot that the government has to extract a lot of money,” Stefan Dercon, a professor at Oxford University and the chief economist at the British government’s development aid agency, which supports the effort in Jordan. “I would say it is also the only shot that it will have to really reform its economy and create jobs, with substantial international funding. ” Jordan is not the only country trying to leverage Europe’s anxiety about refugees and migrants. Turkey has negotiated a deal that involves taking back most of those who traveled across the Aegean Sea into Greece in exchange for $6. 6 billion in European aid and a proposed waiver of visas for Turks entering Europe. Europe is also promising over $4 billion in aid to several African countries in exchange for their help in stemming the exodus out of the continent. Even Sudan, long under European and American sanctions for its human rights record, is reaping money as part of the package. Libya is getting assistance from Europe to keep migrant boats from crossing the Mediterranean, an approach that Human Rights Watch describes as outsourcing “the dirty work to Libyan forces. ” The shifts in refugee aid policies come as war and persecution drive numbers from their home countries and into poor and countries like Jordan, where they are blamed for straining public services and driving down wages by working for less. The Jordan deal, announced in February as part of the Jordan Compact, is described optimistically by its framers as “turning the Syrian refugee crisis into a development opportunity. ” Its goal is to draw new foreign investment and create jobs for both Jordanians and Syrians. The risk, its proponents privately point out, is that no new investments will pour in, Jordan’s economy will continue to languish and local resentment will grow. Until recently, barely 5, 000 Syrian refugees had work permits. The International Labor Organization, a United Nations agency that supports and devises work policies, estimated that 50, 000 people in Jordan worked off the books — roughly the number that the government is promising to legalize this year alone. For Jordan’s leaders, grappling with debt and an economy growing at an anemic 2. 4 percent, access to the European market is a critical incentive. But antipathy to Syrian refugees runs high among the Jordanian public, so much so that Bassam Badareen, a Jordanian political columnist, recently suggested that the government had “anesthetized” the citizenry before agreeing to let refugees work here. Jordanian officials have taken pains to point out that Syrians are allowed to work mainly in jobs in construction and agriculture that are unattractive to most Jordanians. They also point out that those holding work permits must be paid the minimum wage of about $270 a month, which helps blunt criticism that refugees drive down wages. The challenge for Jordan is to demonstrate that the new deal will revive its economy and create jobs that its citizens want. “This is a good opportunity for Jordan to attract new investment,” said Raed Nimri, a Jordanian engineer turned aid worker with Mercy Corps, a group based in Oregon that assists people during crises. “In five years, 10 years, the Syrians are going to go home. The investment is going to stay. ” There are still many uncertainties. Jordanian officials point out that they are waiting for much of the aid that has been promised and for the European Council to approve the trade concessions that Jordan hopes will draw foreign businesses. Refugees are often nervous that signing up for work permits may imperil other aid they get from the United Nations. One industry being targeted is garment manufacturing in factories in special export zones. One of those, the Al Hassan Industrial Zone, sits barely a drive from the Syrian border, near the city of Irbid in northern Jordan, now home to an estimated 300, 000 Syrians. The factories there employ barely any Syrians or Jordanians. Instead, they employ thousands of women from poor countries under temporary contracts. Among them: Baby Hawladar, a mother of two from Bangladesh who defied her husband’s orders to travel halfway around the world to hunch over a sewing machine 10 hours a day, six days a week. On a recent afternoon, Ms. Hawladar, 27, was stitching Under Armour yoga pants for export to the United States. She has been in the job two years, working for about $155 a month, plus overtime, and a room and meals. Her goal is to stay a bit longer to save enough money to build a house in her home village. Every week, her children call and ask when she is coming home. Every week, she says, “Soon. ” Western Union sends agents directly to the factory floor. Bangladeshi migrants around the world sent $15 billion in remittances back home last year. Replacing workers like her with Syrian refugees, some economists say, would be like robbing Peter to pay Paul — rewarding those fleeing war to the detriment of others fleeing poverty. Not far from the industrial zone, leaning over rows of cucumbers on a vast farm close to the Syrian border, were migrant workers from Egypt, Pakistan and Syria, plus a few Jordanians. In May, after the loosening of work rules, the farm’s owner, Jamal Muhammad Zoabi, obtained permits for the 100 or so Syrians who used to work for him illegally. Ms. Hadahed, the grandmother, was one of them, having taken over the job from her son after he was picked up in a police raid last year for working without a permit. He was deported back to Hama, the Syrian province now partly controlled by the Islamic State. Exhausted, ailing, her head spinning some days in the heat, Ms. Hadahed supports herself, her and two grandchildren on her $270 monthly wage. She does not have much of a choice. Every time she speaks to her son on the phone, he warns her: “Whatever you do, don’t come back. ” Mr. Zoabi, the farmer, knows something about the perils of life on the other side. Before the war, he grew watermelon in Syria. He went back last year to collect some money he was owed, only to be detained, he said, by Islamic State fighters at a checkpoint. Mr. Zoabi said they had held him for six hours. They made him watch as they beheaded an entire family and then threw the heads into an icebox. Mr. Zoabi said he had paid the fighters close to $3, 000, before being allowed to leave. “It was the worst trip of my life,” he recalled. “Imagine living there. ” | 1 |
The majority of Hungarians support the government’s legislation which would force foreign universities, such as the George Central European University (CEU) to adhere to new regulations. [According to MTI, a poll conducted by think tank the Századvég Foundation found 70 per cent of Hungarians support amendments to the higher education act which would see foreign universities issuing degrees in Hungary be obliged to observe Hungarian regulations. Over 1, 000 adults were surveyed by telephone between Friday and Tuesday last week. Of those polled, 86 per cent of respondents were aware of the legislation and related protests. The survey also showed 72 per cent of people do not consider it necessary to hold a referendum on the changes that affect CEU and other foreign universities operating in Hungary. MPs in the unicameral parliament, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s conservative Fidesz party, voted 123 in favour and 38 against the legislation. The bill was then signed into law by President János Áder on Monday. The new amendments will ban institutions from outside the European Union from awarding degree certificates without an agreement between national governments. Foreign universities will also be required to have a campus and faculties in their home country — conditions not currently met by the American CEU. The university, founded by progressive open borders financier and Hungarian native George Soros, alleges Orbán’s government is deliberating targeting CEU. The government maintains the law ensures transparency, prevents foreign universities from having an unfair advantage over Hungarian universities, and does not target CEU specifically. Government officials have said that CEU is capable of fulfilling its conditions within the timeframe and that the institution does not face immediate closure. The law was written following a review of 28 universities in the country 27 were found to have problems with operational licences, course accreditation, and state cooperation. Only one university, the liberal, American McDaniel College, was cleared. János Lázár, the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office, has called reactions to the domestic law by international press and foreign governments as “hysterical, political hype”. Mr. Lázár also said that lobbyists are agitating against the government, putting pressure on the governments in Brussels, Washington, D. C. and Berlin. “There is ongoing lobbying against Hungary” the minister said, adding the “Soros network will most probably continue to apply pressure” to interfere in Hungary’s “right of sovereignty [to] regulate the foundation and operation of universities”. The U. S. State Department has expressed concerns over the legislation, and the executive branch of the EU has launched an investigation. On Sunday, a protest in Budapest saw a reported 70, 000 people protest in support of Soros’s university. Media attention on Hungary’s education law has been given intense focus by establishment and left wing newspapers such as The Guardian, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and the Financial Times. | 1 |
An ABC Post poll released on Sunday found that President Donald Trump only had 42% approval from Americans, the lowest since 1945 — but that 96% of Trump supporters say that they would vote for him again. Moreover, the poll indicates that Trump could win the popular vote if the 2016 electorate were to vote a second time. [The poll comes as Trump looks to finish his first 100 days later this week on a high note, with new legislative initiatives on tax reform and health care. Unlike his predecessors, Trump had no “honeymoon,” with the media and the Demcoratic opposition — a. k. a. “Resistance” — determined to maintain a bitter antagonism from the very first day. But the “resistance” has its own major problems. (67%) of Americans say that Democrats are out of touch with their concerns, while 62% say the same about Republicans and 58% say that about President Trump himself. Americans also support Trump’s approach to foreign policy, with a plurality saying that he is dealing with North Korea correctly and a majority approving of the recent missile strikes in Syria. But it is with his own supporters that Trump is strongest: As noted, this poll finds no evidence of buyer’s remorse among Trump supporters. Among those who report having voted for him in November, 96 percent today say it was the right thing to do a mere 2 percent regret it. And if a rerun of the election were held today, the poll indicates even the possibility of a Trump victory in the popular vote among 2016 voters. Trump might win a second version of the 2016 election because while 96% of Trump supporters would vote for him again, only 85% of Hillary Clinton voters say they would do so, “producing a percent result in this hypothetical among 2016 voters,” the poll says. Other former Clinton voters would support a third party instead. The poll was conducted by land and cellular phone among 1, 004 adults, with a margin of error of 3. 5%. Another poll, conducted by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal, found that 54% of American adults disapprove of the job President Trump is doing, while only 40% approve, a gap that has increased by 4 points since February. Joel B. Pollak is Senior at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak. | 1 |
(Before It's News)
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office denied CEI’s May 5, 2016 request for any Common Interest Agreements, which was made under New York’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). His office claimed the records are exempt from disclosure.
CEI is seeking all Common Interest Agreements entered into by the Office of the Attorney General and which are signed by, mention or otherwise include the AGs for other states or territories, as well as certain environmental activists. CEI suspects that these agreements may be a pretext for simply shielding documents from public disclosure.
After supplying a Common Interest Agreement to CEI, AG Schneiderman moved to dismiss our FOIL case against his office. Our October 26, 2016 filing opposes that motion to dismiss on the grounds that there could be more relevant documents yet to be produced, and we also want the common interest agreement ruled invalid, so that it stops functioning as a shield against disclosure of information by AGs.
Case Status: Open Court Level: High Proceedings, Orders, and Opinions Timeline: Date: Wednesday, August 31, 2016 PDF: Notice of Petition – Albany.PDF Title: Notice of Petition Date: Thursday, May 5, 2016 PDF: CEI NY AG FOIL Common Interest Agreements typo corrected.pdf Title: Request Under New York FOIL Date: Tuesday, June 21, 2016 PDF: FOIL appeal by CEI of NY AG's denial of CEI's FOIL request about common ….pdf Title: CEI Appeal of NY FOIL Denial Date: Wednesday, June 15, 2016 PDF: FOIL rejection of our FOIL request 6.15.2016.pdf Title: NY FOIL Request Rejection Date: Thursday, July 7, 2016 PDF: Rejection by NY of our FOIL administrative appeal.pdf Title: Administrative Appeal of NY FOIL Request Rejection Date: Wednesday, August 31, 2016 PDF: Request for Judicial Intervention.PDF Title: Request for Judicial Intervention Date: Wednesday, August 31, 2016 PDF: Verified Petition – Final Version.PDF Title: Verified Petition Date: Friday, August 26, 2016 PDF: Affidavit of Hans Bader & Exhibits.PDF Title: Affidavit of Hans Bader and Exhibits Date: Wednesday, October 26, 2016 PDF: NY FOIL.St_. John affirmation signed.pdf Title: Oposition To Motion to Dismiss Date: Friday, September 30, 2016 PDF: NY Motion to Dismiss.pdf Title: New York Motion to Dismiss News Releases : CEI Sues NY AG Schneiderman for Common Interest Agreement on Climate Change Subpoena Campaign Date: Wednesday, August 31, 2016 | 0 |
Citing public safety concerns, federal officials plan to close access to a campsite where demonstrators have protested the construction of a crude oil pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota and create a “free speech zone. ” The Army Corps of Engineers, in a letter Friday to the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Dave Archambault II, said the decision had been made to “protect the general public from the violent confrontations between protesters and law enforcement officials that have occurred in this area. ” Mr. Archambault said in a statement that the tribe was “deeply disappointed” by the decision. “It is both unfortunate and disrespectful that this announcement comes the day after this country celebrates Thanksgiving — a historic exchange between Native Americans and the first immigrants from Europe,” he said. “Although the news is saddening, it is not all surprising given the last 500 years of mistreatment of our people. ” The authorities will close the area north of the Cannonball River, including the Oceti Sakowin camp, about 40 miles south of Bismarck, where opponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline have gathered for months. Native American tribes, led by the Standing Rock Sioux, have been protesting the pipeline project. They fear it would pollute the Missouri River and harm sacred cultural lands and tribal burial grounds. There have been large protests at the Lake Oahe crossing the Missouri River is the tribe’s primary source of drinking water. Mr. Archambault said the best way to protect demonstrators during the winter and to reduce conflicts with the police “is to deny the easement for the Oahe crossing and deny it now. ” The letter from the district commander of the Army Corps, Col. John W. Henderson, said the emergency services and facilities needed to protect demonstrators camped north of the Cannonball River during the harsh North Dakota winters could not be provided. “I do not take this action lightly but have decided that it is required due to the concern for public safety and the fact that much of this land is leased to private persons for grazing haying purposes as part of the corps’ land management practices,” he wrote. He said anyone found on the land after Dec. 5 could be charged with trespassing. The project has spurred months of clashes between the police and demonstrators. The most serious injury happened early Monday. An explosion during a protest badly damaged the left arm and hand of woman who grew up in the Bronx, Sophia Wilansky, 21. Her father, Wayne Wilansky, said that someone from the police lines had thrown a device he described as a grenade the police suggested that fellow demonstrators had caused the explosion, and said officers did not use concussion or flash grenades at any time. On Monday, the police confronted hundreds of protesters. Nearly 300 people were treated for injuries resulting from the use of police force, according to the Standing Rock Medic and Healer Council. The pipeline project was delayed in September when the Obama administration temporarily blocked it from crossing under the Missouri River. President Obama called on both sides to show restraint and revealed that the Army Corps of Engineers was considering an alternative route for the project. But Kelcy Warren, chief executive of the pipeline company, Energy Transfer Partners, told The Associated Press it would not consider a different route. Though the project has been delayed by legal disputes, the pipeline is nearly complete. | 1 |
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