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advertisement - learn more This ordinance is a big step forwards by creating awareness about this topic, which is clearly something we need more of. It specifically requires all cellphone retailers in the area to provide consumers with a notice on radio frequency (RF) radiation exposure and the proper guidelines to help users avoid this type of exposure. Warnings may include the dangers associated with carrying a phone in a shirt, pants, tucked into a bra or anywhere else on a person that may exceed federal safety guidelines. The ordinance was created with the help of Lawrence Lessig, a Law Professor at Harvard University, and Robert Post, the Dean of Yale Law School, as well as the California Brain Tumor Association, who believes, along with hundreds of other scientists, that the research is sound. In retaliation, the wireless industry has filed an appeal against the ordinance. Notifying consumers of the harms associated with cell phone use at the point of sale would clearly hurt their profits. Some companies already have warnings in their packaging, but it’s only found in the fine print and isn’t mentioned at the point of sale. For example, here’s a statement from Apple about the issue, who already has existing safety recommendations for cellphone use; however, most people don’t know about them: “To reduce exposure to RF energy, use a hands-free option, such as the built-in speakerphone, the supplied headphones, or other similar accessories. Carry iPhone at least 10mm away from your body to ensure exposure levels remain at or below the as-tested levels. Cases with metal parts may change the RF performance of the device, including its compliance with RF exposure guidelines, in a manner that has not been tested or certified.” ( source ) advertisement - learn more A similar statement from Blackberry reads as follows: “Use hands-free operation if it is available and keep the BlackBerry device at least 0.59 in (15mm) from your body (including the abdomen of pregnant women)… ( source ) The issue here is that Berkeley citizens and most other cell-phone users are completely unaware of these guidelines and the dangers surrounding cell phone usage, which has obviously been downplayed by the industry. For example, a poll conducted by Lessig and his colleague before the ordinance was finalized found that: 74% of Berkeley residents carry their cell phones against their bodies 70% said they didn’t know that cell phones were tested assuming they would not be carried against the body 80 % said they might change their behavior if they knew knowing that “radiation tests to assure the safety of cell phones assume a cell phone would be carried away from your body” 85 % said they had never known or read any of the manufacturer’s recommendations 82% said they would want this information made available to them at the time they purchased their cell phone. The underlying purpose of this poll, and the ordinance in general, is to shed light on the apparent disconnect that exists between the current safety recommendations and customer knowledge and understanding of those recommendations. Here’s the text of the required notice, as Lessig writes in his blog : “The City of Berkeley requires that you be provided the following notice: To assure safety, the Federal Government requires that cell phones meet radio frequency (RF) exposure guidelines. If you carry or use your phone in a pants or shirt pocket or tucked into a bra when the phone is ON and connected to a wireless network, you may exceed the federal guidelines for exposure to RF radiation. This potential risk is greater for children. Refer to the instructions in your phone or user manual of information about how to use your phone safety.” This is a Very Minimal Requirement Despite the fact that informing customers of the dangers of cell phone usage is the ethical thing to do, the wireless industry has filed an appeal to stop this effort. Specifically, CTIA (wireless association) filed the appeal after a judge ruled in favor of the ordinance. However, the California Brain Tumour Association claims that: One of the members of the three-judge panel, Michelle Friedland, is married to Daniel Kelly, a DSP senior engineer with Tarana Wireless Inc. and has worked on the 5G technology for the upcoming rollout to the market. According to the California Brain Tumor Association, AT&T is a major investor in Tarana, which also has a past chief technology officer of Ericsson and Sony Mobile sitting on its board of directors. The association also assumes that Kelly is a stockholder in Tarana, giving him a vested interest in the wireless industry…. If a judge has any financial interest in a controversy before her, she should have rescued herself from the case…Just the fact that her husband is in the industry and the timeliness of this with the 5G rollout is probably enough for her to rescue herself. ( source ) Below is a picture of Tom Wheeler, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair & former Senior Lobbyist, announcing the roll out of 5G microwave technology. So, what exactly is happening here? Basically, the privatization of this rollout may remove oversight and standards. Unfortunately, big industry has paid off the scientists, bought the lawmakers, and ruled the proliferation of microwaves and other phenomena as “safe.” A powerful group of people have infiltrated these organizations along with most international health agencies. “The medical profession is being bought by the pharmaceutical industry, not only in terms of the practice of medicine, but also in terms of teaching and research. The academic institutions of this country are allowing themselves to be the paid agents of the pharmaceutical industry. I think it’s disgraceful.” – ( source )( source ) Arnold Seymour Relman (1923-2014), Harvard Professor of Medicine and Former Editor-in-Chief of the New England Medical Journal The Science Dr. Joel M. Moskowtiz, the Director and Principal Investigator at the Center for Family and Community Health at Berkeley School of Health, and Dr. Martin Blank of the Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics and Colombia University, are two out of hundreds of scientists from more than 30 countries who have produced more than 2,000 peer-reviewed articles about the hazardous effects of RF radiation. All of these scientists united together and formally signed and sent a letter to the United Nations requesting more thorough and unbiased research be performed regarding the dangers of RF radiation. Below is a video of Dr. Blank outlining the potential hazards associated with these devices: HERE is a video of him giving a lecture about the issue. Did you know that The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified radio frequency fields (including those from cell phones) as a possible carcinogen in 2011? (source) The dangers of cell phone usage gained significant mainstream credibility in 2011 when the World Health Organization (WHO) admitted that cell phone radiation may cause cancer. The statement was based off a cumulative decision made by a team of 31 scientists from 14 different countries after reviewing evidence in support of their claim. You can read more about that HERE. It’s pretty startling news, especially given the fact that a child’s brain absorbs much more radiation than that of an adult. Below is a video of Dr. Devra Davis, one of the most well-respected and credentialed researchers on the dangers of cellphones: “[A] cellphone is a two-way microwave radio…Industry has fought successfully to use the phrase ‘radiofrequency energy’ instead of microwave radiation. Because they know radiofrequency energy sounds fine. We listen to music with radios. Everybody needs more energy. What could be better than that? But radiofrequency energy is another word for microwave radiation. If people understood that they were holding a two-way microwave-radiating device next to their brain or next to their reproductive organs, they might think differently about it.” ( source ) Things You Can Do To Limit Your Exposure & Why You Shouldn’t Worry Worrying is pointless, and solves nothing. That being said, coming across such information can be scary, and that’s the last reaction you should have; after all, our thoughts feelings and emotions alone have shown to have a significant effect on our biology, and letting go of fear could possibly be the first step in helping you limit the effect that EMFs could be having on your body. That being said, here are some others measures you can take: As Dr. Mercola points out, until the industry starts taking this matter seriously, the responsibility to keep children safe falls on the parents. To minimize the risk to your brain, and that of your child, pay heed to the following advice: Don’t let your child use a cell phone . Barring a life-threatening emergency, children should not use a cell phone, or a wireless device of any type. Children are far more vulnerable to cell phone radiation than adults, because of their thinner skull bones. Keep your cell phone use to a minimum. Turn your cell phone off more often. Reserve it for emergencies or important matters. As long as your cell phone is on, it emits radiation intermittently, even when you are not actually making a call. Use a land line at home and at work. Reduce or eliminate your use of other wireless devices. Just as with cell phones, it is important to ask yourself whether or not you really need to use them every single time. If you must use a portable home phone, use the older kind that operates at 900 MHz. They are no safer during calls, but at least some of them do not broadcast constantly even when no call is being made. You can measure your exposure from your cordless phone is to measure with an electrosmog meter, and it must be one that goes up to the frequency of your portable phone. As many portable phones are 5.8 Gigahertz, we recommend you look for RF meters that go up to 8 Gigahertz. You can find RF meters at EMFSafetyStore.com . Even without an RF meter, you can be fairly certain your portable phone is problematic if the technology is labeled DECT, or digitally enhanced cordless technology. Alternatively, you can be very careful with the base station placement as that causes the bulk of the problem since it transmits signals 24/7, even when you aren’t talking. “If you can keep the base station at least three rooms away from where you spend most of your time, and especially your bedroom, they may not be as damaging to your health. Ideally it would be helpful to turn off or disconnect your base station every night before you go to bed.” – Dr Mercola Limit cell phone use to areas with excellent reception. The weaker the reception, the more power your phone must use to transmit, and the more power it uses, the more radiation it emits, and the deeper the dangerous radio waves penetrate into your body. Ideally, you should only use your phone with full bars and good reception. Avoid carrying your cell phone on your body, and do not sleep with it under your pillow or near your head. Ideally, put it in your purse or carrying bag. Placing a cell phone in your bra or in a shirt pocket over your heart is asking for trouble, as is placing it in a man’s pocket if he seeks to preserve his fertility. The most dangerous place to be, in terms of radiation exposure, is within about six inches of the emitting antenna. You do not want any part of your body within that area while the phone is on. Don’t assume one cell phone is safer than another. There’s no such thing as a “safe” cell phone. Respect others; many are highly sensitive to EMF. Some people who have become sensitive can feel the effects of others’ cell phones in the same room, even when it is on but not being used. If you are in a meeting, on public transportation, in a courtroom or other public places, such as a doctor’s office, keep your cell phone turned off out of consideration for the “secondhand radiation” effects. Children are also more vulnerable, so please avoid using your cell phone near children. Use a well-shielded wired headset: Wired headsets will certainly allow you to keep the cell phone farther away from your body. However, if a wired headset is not well-shielded — and most of them are not — the wire itself can act as an antenna attracting and transmitting radiation directly to your brain. So make sure the wire used to transmit the signal to your ear is shielded . One of the best kinds of headsets use a combination of shielded wire and air-tube. These operate like a stethoscope, transmitting the sound to your head as an actual sound wave; although there are wires that still must be shielded, there is no wire that goes all the way up to your head. Tips for Avoiding Dirty Electricity Risks Additional options to minimize your risks from dirty electricity, compiled by Paula Owens, M.S. for the Ahwatukee Foothill News, include: 13 “Avoid using laptop computers on your lap. Switch out compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs for incandescent light bulbs. Consider replacing Wi-Fi routers with Ethernet cables. Avoid electric water beds, blankets and heating pads. Remove electrical devices from your sleeping area. If you must use an electric alarm clock, keep it at least five inches from your body when sleeping. Or, opt for a battery-operated clock. Move power strips at least three inches away from your feet. Switch to flat-screen TVs and computer monitors as these emit less EMFs than the older styles. If you live in close vicinity to or underneath electrical wires, power lines or cell phone towers, you may want to consider moving. Stand three to four feet away from microwave ovens when in use [or stop using them altogether]. Consider shielding devices to reduce EMFs from cell phones, cordless phones and landline speaker phones. Ask your electric utility provider to remove wireless smart meters and replace them with a wired smart meter. Walk barefoot on the sand, grass or dirt. This common practice known as earthing or grounding allows the healing negative ions from the ground to flow into our body and have been shown to reduce stress hormones and inflammation. Use 100 percent beeswax candles and Himalayan salt lamps in your home and office to absorb EMFs from the air. Salt lamps serve as natural room ionizers, emitting negative ions into the environment that effectively bind with all the excess positive ions, reducing EMFs, killing bacteria and purifying the air.”
The Sacred Science follows eight people from around the world, with varying physical and psychological illnesses, as they embark on a one-month healing journey into the heart of the Amazon jungle.
You can watch this documentary film FREE for 10 days by clicking here.
"If “Survivor” was actually real and had stakes worth caring about, it would be what happens here, and “The Sacred Science” hopefully is merely one in a long line of exciting endeavors from this group." - Billy Okeefe, McClatchy Tribune | 0 |
Snap Inc. — formerly known as Snapchat — began selling sunglasses on Thursday, hoping its wearable technology can succeed where Google Glass failed. The Spectacles sunglasses allow people to record clips, with the videos uploaded wirelessly to the Snapchat app on the person’s phone. It’s the first move into the physical world for Snap, which was renamed in September, when it announced plans for the new sunglasses. You won’t find the Spectacles, priced at $130, behind store counters — at least, not at first. The company is selling them exclusively through bright yellow vending machines, the first of which appeared on Venice Beach in California on Thursday. The company has not announced where the vending machines will be located, saying only that an online map would reveal future locations. For Spectacles to be a hit, it would have to overcome many of the issues that dogged Google Glass, the $1, 500 gadget that never delivered on the great hopes it conjured for wearable technology. Among other problems, consumers were put off by the aesthetics and concerned about privacy — you never knew when someone wearing them might be recording you. Snap has tried to sidestep the privacy questions by having an indicator light turn on when Spectacles is recording. The Snapchat app claims 150 million daily users, including 41 percent of Americans ages 18 to 34. In October, Snap hired the investment banks Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs in possible preparation for an initial public offering. | 1 |
BATON ROUGE, La. — The protest of the fatal police shooting of a CD vendor here in Louisiana’s capital had many of the trappings of similar around the country: blaring music, young men with faces obscured by bandannas, and obscene and brutal sentiments directed toward the local police department, on angry tongues and homemade placards. But as Wednesday night’s street rally flowed into Thursday morning, it had managed to be as peaceful as it was passionate. Cars and trucks honked, stopped and skidded as they made their way up and down a few blocks of North Foster Drive, past cheering and dancing crowds in front of the Triple S Food Mart where Alton Sterling, 37, was fatally shot early Tuesday by officers responding to a call about an armed man. The Justice Department opened a civil rights investigation into Mr. Sterling’s death after a searing video of the encounter, shown repeatedly on television and social media, reignited contentious issues surrounding police killings of . Officials from Gov. John Bel Edwards to the local police and elected officials vowed a complete and transparent investigation and appealed to the city — after a numbing series of racially charged incidents elsewhere — to remain calm. “I have full confidence that this matter will be investigated thoroughly, impartially and professionally,” Mr. Edwards said in announcing the federal takeover of the case. “I have very serious concerns. The video is disturbing, to say the least. ” Urging patience while the investigation takes place, the governor said: “I know that that may be tough for some, but it’s essential that we do that. I know that there are protests going on, but it’s urgent that they remain peaceful. ” The video of the shooting propelled the case to national attention, like a string of recorded police shootings before it. The shooting has prompted protests here, including a vigil with prayers and gospel music that drew hundreds of people Wednesday night to the storefront where it happened. Over the course of 10 hours, from about 4 p. m. to 2 a. m. Wednesday, when the crowd of hundreds outside the store finally began to thin, there had been almost no visible police presence — no squad cars, no uniformed officers, no helmeted troops. Across the street from the store, scores of young men and women danced, often with hands up, through the stifling heat of a South Louisiana summer night, as Southern rap anthems boomed behind them. Teenagers draped themselves on the hoods of moving cars and poked their bodies out of sunroofs, driving over and over again up and down the block. James Woods, 22, a worker at a lumber company, was standing in front of a barbershop where a D. J. crew had set up, soaking it all in. “We’re here for a cause, and we’re not here to hurt each other,” he said. As he spoke, a scuffle, apparently between two young women, broke out by a Toyota sedan, but it was quickly broken up by others, and proved to be one of the rare such encounters of the night. When calm returned, Mr. Woods continued the conversation. He felt as if he had no choice but to come stand here and make it known that the shooting was not right. “I’m here to show that I stand up for the cause,” he said. “If I don’t stand up for something, then I’ll fall for anything. ” Kirpatrick Franklin, 46, a second cousin of Mr. Sterling’s, observed the proceedings with a stern face, but said he was pleased and proud that so many residents of Baton Rouge had turned out in force. He also made it clear that he could see no way the police might have been in the right. “The togetherness, the strength — I love it,” he said. “They need this now, because he was straight murdered. ” Local and state officials endorsed the federal takeover of the case. “We feel it is in the best interest of the Baton Rouge Police Department, the city of Baton Rouge and this community for this to happen,” said the police chief, Carl Dabadie Jr. In other cities with deaths of people in police custody, when local law enforcement agencies have kept control of the investigations and prosecution, they have often drawn intense criticism for their handling of the cases. There are multiple videos that may show the conflict with Mr. Sterling, in addition to the one recorded by a bystander that has been made public, Lt. Jonny Dunnam, a police spokesman, said at a news conference. Edmond Jordan, the family lawyer, called on the police to release the videos, but Lieutenant Dunnam said that for now, the department was providing them only to the federal authorities. “We have camera video footage, we have body camera video footage and there is video at the store,” Lieutenant Dunnam said. Of the recordings from the body cameras the officers wore, he said: “That footage may not be as good as we hoped for. During the altercation those body cameras came dislodged. ” On Tuesday, a person called the police to report that a black man in a red shirt selling music CDs outside the Triple S Food Mart had threatened him with a gun, the Police Department said. Two officers confronted Mr. Sterling about 12:35 a. m. Mr. Sterling had a long criminal history, including convictions for battery and illegal possession of a gun, but it is not clear whether the officers knew any of that as they tried to arrest him. The graphic cellphone video shot by a bystander, which was released later in the day, shows an officer pushing Mr. Sterling onto the hood of the car and then tackling him to the ground. He is held to the pavement by two officers, and one appears to hold a gun above Mr. Sterling’s chest. At one point someone on the video can be heard saying, “He’s got a gun! Gun!” and one officer can be seen pulling his weapon. After some shouting, what sounds like gunshots can be heard and the camera shifts away, and then there are more apparent gunshots. A second video, made by the owner of the store and first posted by the local newspaper, The Advocate, on Wednesday afternoon, shows the shooting from a different angle. It shows one of the officers taking something out of Mr. Sterling’s pocket after he was shot and was lying on the ground. | 1 |
With all the voter fraud, she did not win the popular vote, no way no how~ | 0 |
SYDNEY, Australia — The actress Amber Heard avoided jail time after a court appearance on Monday over allegations that she had illegally brought two dogs into Australia last year, violating the country’s quarantine laws, while visiting her husband, the actor Johnny Depp. Ms. Heard pleaded guilty in Southport Magistrates Court in Queensland to providing false information on her incoming passenger card after she and the dogs had landed on the Gold Coast on April 21, 2015, to visit Mr. Depp. He was there filming the fifth movie in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series. Prosecutors dropped more serious charges against Ms. Heard that claimed that she had illegally imported the dogs, Yorkshire terriers named Pistol and Boo, which could have resulted in a jail term and a fine of 20, 000 Australian dollars, or about $15, 350. The couple also produced a video acknowledging their transgression and urging others to obey the law, which is intended to prevent the spread of rabies and other diseases. Ms. Heard acknowledged that she had disembarked from her private jet without declaring the dogs, which arrived with her. Her lawyer, Jeremy Kirk, said Ms. Heard, 29, thought that Mr. Depp’s staff had handled the paperwork for the pets. She was and exhausted, he said. Mr. Depp and Ms. Heard appeared in the local courthouse, where hers was just one of more than 200 cases listed for the day. Fans, some with dogs dressed for the occasion, lined the sidewalk hoping to see the celebrities. In court, the couple handed over their video. “Australia is a wonderful island with a treasure trove of unique animals, plants and people,” Ms. Heard said. The dogs came to the attention of the authorities after a groomer posted photographs of them on social media in May. By then, they had been in the country for around three weeks. The agriculture minister, Barnaby Joyce, told Mr. Depp that unless the dogs were taken out of the country within 72 hours, they would be euthanized. Like many countries, Australia requires that animals be placed in quarantine upon arrival. “If we start letting movie stars — even though they have been the sexiest man alive twice — to come into our nation” with pets, said Mr. Joyce, now the deputy prime minister, “then why don’t we just break the laws for everybody?” The dogs, he said, should return to the United States. The couple returned to California but publicly criticized the Australian government as being overly zealous, setting off a controversy that the local news media called the “War on Terrier. ” | 1 |
Kelly Brennan, WTAE (Pittsburgh), November 5, 2016
{snip}
Public safety spokeswoman Sonya Toler said officers determined 47-year-old Lee Harris was inside an apartment in the 5200 block of Gertrude Street in Hazelwood early Saturday morning.
{snip}
According to the criminal complaint, Harris ordered a woman at knife-point into an abandoned building in September.
The victim, who is not being identified since she is a victim of sexual assault, told police she knew Harris from seeing him in the neighborhood before but she never knew his name and didn’t have a relationship with him.
{snip}
In the criminal complaint, police state the victim and Harris approached the intersection of Watson and Jumonville streets, and Harris “pulled out a knife from his pocket, put it to her neck and ordered Jane Doe to walk to an abandoned building.”
{snip}
Once inside, “she was forced to go to the second floor where Harris pushed her into a small room.” It’s there he allegedly assaulted, raped and threatened the woman.
When she asked why he was doing it, he told her “because you’re white.”
Harris was arrested on a series of charges including rape, sexual assault and ethnic intimidation.
{snip} | 0 |
The day after he sat in the back row of the House of Representatives chamber to hear President Donald Trump’s first address to a joint chamber of Congress, Rep. Ryan Zinke (R. .) was confirmed by the Senate as Interior Secretary with strong bipartsan vote . [Sixteen Democrats joined 51 Republicans with Sen. Angus King (I. ) who caucuses with Democrats, to vote for Zinke. Zinke told Brietbart News on Wednesday he had a good time during his last his last session of Congress as a Member of Congress, checking in with his buddies and taking in the spectacle. “I enjoyed it,” he said. “I enjoyed the camaraderie and I can’t wait to get to work. ” The president gave a great speech, he said. “Like millions of Americans, I was in the audience and I think he hit it out of the park,” he said. “For me, the tone was more important,” he said. “To me it was presidential. He did reach out, not just to Democrats and Republicans, but to Americans to find common ground on the big issues ahead of us. ” Going into the vote, Montana’s only congressman said he was not worred that he would not be confirmed. ” “I’m not particularly controversial, so I’m very confident that I will be the secretary,” he said. “There’s a lot of work to do. ” Zinke said his new boss is looking for results. “The president holds people accountable. He is a man of action and all of us understand that we are there to do a job, roll up our sleeves and get to it. ” Georgia Republican Sen. David Perdue said after the vote: “Congressman Zinke is a great choice to lead the Department of the Interior. Under his leadership, I have full confidence that America will unlock its full energy potential. Congressman Zinke’s experience and commitment to preserving our wildlife and natural resources make him uniquely qualified for the position. ” Alaska Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan said on the Senate floor Tuesday having Zinke lead Interior was good for Alaska and good for America. “Now, there’s been a lot of discussion about Congressman Zinke and he comes to this job with great qualifications,” said the Marine Reserve lieutenant colonel and combat veteran of Afghanistan. “He’s a patriotic and ethical man from a patriotic and ethical part of America: the American West. ” Sullivan said he cherished Zinke’s military service and welcomes a man of the retired Navy commander’s experience taking the helm at Interior. “He’s a Navy SEAL who’s dedicated his life to protecting our great nation,” Sullivan said. “He’s a lifelong sportsman. He’s a trained geologist. He’s a strong advocate for energy independence. He has a keen interest in protecting our environment, while not stymieing more economic growth. Sen. Mazie Hirono (D. ) took to the Senate floor Tuesday and was one of the Democrats rising to oppose Zinke. “We need a Secretary of Interior who will protect our public lands, make investments to conserve our endangered and threatened species and who will continue to confront climate change,” Hirono said. “Congressman Zinke voted to block funding for any listed endangered species on which the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to conduct a review,” she said. “It did not seem to matter to Congressman Zinke that the reason why these reviews did not take place was because Republicans and Congress failed to appropriate the necessary funding to produce these reviews,” she said. “His record and past statements demonstrate that Congressman Zinke is not the right person to lead the Department of the Interior at this juncture — at this critical stage, I urge my colleagues to oppose his nomination,” she said. In the end, Zinke’s nomination did not generate the animus among Senate Democrats and their base of Democrats still trying to process what happened to their party Nov. 8. Not only is Zinke an engaging and gregarious politician willing to work with Democrats, as he did a number of times as a congressman, his ascension to the president’s cabinet means he will not challenge Sen. Jon Tester (D. . ). Tester was considered one of the most vulnerable of the 23 Senate Democrats up in 2018. Tester won in 2012 with less than 50 percent of the vote in a state where Trump beat Hillary Clinton by more than 20 points, 56 percent to her 35 percent. All House vacancies must be filled by a special election and Montana state law prohibits the setting of a date for a special election until after the vacancy occurs. Democrat Gov. Steve Bullock is required to set the date for the special election within 100 days of Zinke’s swearing in. Shortly after Zinke’s confirmation, senators invoked cloture on the nomination of Dr. Ben Carson for Housing and Urban Development Secretary. The motion started the chamber’s 30 hours of debate on the nomination, which should be voted on by the Senate Thursday morning. | 1 |
It was the night that wasn’t supposed to happen, that had almost no chance of happening. Having relied on major media, and the overflow of polls it fed readers on a basis, the audience sat back and waited for a Democratic victory, possibly a rout. Could the Senate be reclaimed by Democrats, or even the House? On Tuesday afternoon, The New York Times told readers in its Upshot polling feature that Hillary Clinton had an 84 percent chance of winning. And for many weeks leading up to Election Day, The Times delivered a steady stream of stories. One described Clinton’s powerful and ground operation — and Trump’s frazzled counterattack. Another claimed a surge in the Latino vote that could decide the election. Others speculated on the composition and tenor of a Clinton cabinet. The picture was of a juggernaut of blue state invincibility that mostly dismissed the likelihood of a Trump White House. But sometime Tuesday night, that Clinton win Upshot figure flipped. Suddenly it was 95 percent — for Donald Trump. And when readers woke up Wednesday, they learned that the second forecast, at least, was on target. Readers are sending letters of complaint at a rapid rate. Here’s one that summed up the feelings succinctly, from Kathleen Casey of Houston: “Now, that the world has been upended and you are all, to a person, in a state of surprise and shock, you may want to consider whether you should change your focus from telling the reader what and how to think, and instead devote yourselves to finding out what the reader (and nonreaders) actually think. ” Another letter, from Nick Crawford of Plymouth, Mich. made a similar point. “Perhaps the election result would not be such a surprise if your reporting had acknowledged what ordinary Americans care about, rather than pushing the limited agenda of your editors,” he wrote. “Please come down from your New York City skyscraper and join the rest of us. ” Certainly, The Times isn’t the only news organization bewildered and perhaps a bit sheepish about its predictions coverage. The rest of media missed it too, as did the pollsters, the analysts, the Democratic Party and the Clinton campaign itself. But as The Times begins a period of I hope its editors will think hard about the half of America the paper too seldom covers. The red state America campaign coverage that rang the loudest in news coverage grew out of Trump rallies, and it often amplified the voices of the most hateful. One especially compelling video produced with footage collected over months on the campaign trail, captured the ugly vitriol like few others. That’s important coverage. But it and pieces like it drowned out the kind of deep narratives that could have taken Times readers deeper into the lives and values of the people who just elected the next president. In other words, The Times would serve readers well with fewer brief interviews, fewer snatched slogans that inevitably render a narrow caricature of those who spoke them. If you want to further educate yourself on the newly empowered, check out the work of George Packer in The New Yorker. You’ll leave wiser about what just happened. Times journalists can be masters at doing these pieces, but they do them best when describing the lives of struggling immigrants, for example, or those living on the streets. A fascinating graphic appeared on the front of the paper and home page earlier this week depicting, the powerful American working class — the less educated it called them. Many in this group make up Trump’s base, and the essential questioned posed by the graphic and to readers was this: to what degree will these voters show up at the polls? We have our answer. The next question is whether The Times is interested in crossing the red line to see what this America wants next. | 1 |
Snowden’s former employer hires ex-FBI director to review security after 2nd data... Snowden’s former employer hires ex-FBI director to review security after 2nd data breach By 0 144
Booz Allen Hamilton has hired an ex-FBI director to launch an external review of security and staffing procedures after an employee stole up to 500 million pages of data, marking the second NSA breach in just three years since the Snowden case.
Craig Veith, Booz Allen vice president for external relations, said on Thursday that Robert Mueller, who became director of the FBI one week before the 9/11 attacks and led the agency for 12 years, will conduct “a fair, objective and thorough review,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
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The announcement came after Harold Martin III, a former Booz Allen employee and US Navy veteran, was charged in what is believed to be one of the largest classified data breaches in US history.
Edward Snowden’s case is likely to pale in comparison to that of Martin’s when it comes to the number of documents stolen. Prosecutors said that Martin had taken as many as 500 million pages of top secret information, which equals 50 terabytes of data, along with six more boxes of files, many of which were reportedly left open in his house or car.
The man, already dubbed ‘the second Snowden’, had nothing to do with blowing the whistle on NSA surveillance activities, his lawyers argued. Instead, they described Martin as a “voracious reader committed to being excellent at his work,” according to the Washington Post.
Martin’s attorney, James Wyda, told a US magistrate judge last week that gathering terabytes of classified information “began as an effort to be better at his job,” adding that he is “a compulsive hoarder” rather than a “traitor.”
Prosecutors insisted, however, that Martin remain in custody, alleging they found the names of US intelligence operatives in the files stolen by the former Booz Allen employee, citing a particular threat to the safety of officers working undercover abroad.
Commenting on Mueller’s appointment, Booz Allen vice president Veith said that “we are an organization that prides itself on constant learning. If there are areas where Booz Allen can improve, we will address them.”
After leaving the FBI in 2013, Mueller became a visiting professor at Stanford University where he focused on cyber-security issues.
Questions, however, still remain about how these breaches could happen twice in just three years despite the company’s assurances of learning lessons and improving internal control after Snowden’s revelations that shed light on NSA wiretapping activities in the US and other countries.
Coleen Rowley, a former FBI agent, told RT earlier in October that the number of US citizens having top secret clearances or access to classified information “has soared” through the years.
“The last I heard it is something like five million Americans have been cleared for classified information. So, any time you get that large of a number, you are going to have all kinds of potential. And it doesn’t matter contractors or government, both of them,” she said.
Via RT . This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license. | 0 |
Presidential campaigns are complicated. Confused by the current one? Here’s a look back at some of our most insightful journalism over the last year. The New York Times analyzed Donald J. Trump’s public comments for one week last December — 95, 000 words in all — to understand his appeal to voters. There were powerful patterns, including a repetitive use of harsh language and warnings that were dark and vague, like “Something bad is happening. ” What issues have motivated supporters of Hillary Clinton and Mr. Trump? The Times tracked exit polls from the primaries and caucuses that showed the issues that voters cared about most, including immigration, national security and a desire for change. The Times built an interactive delegate calculator that let readers simulate how each state primary might unfold. Using the latest polls and delegate rules specific to each state, we mapped out how each of the candidates might win — and how Mr. Trump eventually did. The Times built a similar interactive to show the many ways the Republican and Democratic nominating contests could unfold after Super Tuesday, with a special focus on the possible paths to victory available to candidates who were not the increasingly dominant Mr. Trump or Mrs. Clinton. Senator Bernie Sanders may not have become the Democratic nominee for president, but he did cut through American pop culture, inspiring everything from Bernie Sanders costumes for infants to, of course, a slew of viral videos and social media memes. Mr. Trump has defied conventions of civility that long governed discussions of race in America, opening the door to greater assertions of white identity and resentment in the process. Experts say his campaign has mirrored — and perhaps contributed to — the rising number of Americans who say race relations are getting worse. Many analysts thought Mr. Trump’s presidential bid was a long shot because he had little support from nonwhite voters, but a Times analysis found that a campaign reliant on white voters could win. The Upshot found that 2012 exit polls did not count millions of white voters who had gone to the polls on Election Day. It also provided an interactive that allowed readers to simulate the turnout of various demographic groups. Mrs. Clinton was the first woman to win a major party’s nomination for president, 180 years after a nonwhite man was elected to a state Legislature for the first time. Here is a look back at other major electoral milestones for women, gay and transgender people, and racial minorities. Just 158 families contributed almost half of the donations used to fund the first phase of the presidential campaign. The Times found broad similarities among them: They were mostly rich, white, older men who made their fortunes in finance and energy, lived in the same handful of wealthy areas, and donated to Republican candidates. A black male Trump supporter had an outsize impact in a major national poll, shifting it to show support for Mr. Trump among black voters. It happened because polls weight the results of respondents from different demographic groups to paint a picture of the country at large. Sometimes they overemphasize particularly underrepresented voters, like black male Trump voters. Politicians stretch the truth all the time, but Mr. Trump is in a league of his own. The Times examined a week of his falsehoods and found a clear pattern: Almost all bolstered a narrative that depicted him as a heroic savior for a troubled country. A majority of New York City primary voters chose Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump. The Times published an interactive map that showed how each neighborhood and block in the city voted, from Staten Island landslides for Mr. Trump to one Upper West Side precinct where Mr. Sanders received no votes (and Mrs. Clinton got one). Polls are influential in a presidential campaign, but their results often depend as much on the pollsters as on the science of survey methodology. That’s because the results depend on the poll’s design, which depends on human decisions made behind the scenes. To demonstrate that, The Times gave the same raw data to four good pollsters, who came up with four different electoral results from the numbers. The Upshot produced, and mapped, analyses of poll results, like this deep dive into a Florida poll at the end of October. Readers can scroll through to see how each candidate fared with voters from different backgrounds and demographic groups, as well as members of their own party. When you vote in a Republican primary, you are actually voting for delegates who will then cast their ballots for the candidates you have chosen. But sometimes they are free to vote however they please. How does someone become a Republican delegate? The Times explained this process. | 1 |
President Trump hasn’t been saving jobs in the last few weeks, focusing his energy (and Twitter feed) on how to close the borders to immigrants instead. When he gets back to it, he might spend less time on the workers putting together units in Indiana and more — a lot more — on the maids and janitors who clean Trump golf resorts and hotels. This is not to accuse the president of being hypocritical by skewering companies that move production overseas while, say, selling Trump merchandise made in Bangladesh, or loudly championing the cause of the working man while refusing to recognize the rights of workers at his branded properties. Rather, it is to argue that by obsessing over how the manufacturing jobs of the 1970s were lost to globalization, Mr. Trump is missing a more critical workplace transformation: the vast outsourcing of many tasks — including running the cafeteria, building maintenance and security — to subcontractors within the United States. This reorganization of employment is playing a big role in keeping a lid on wages — and in driving income inequality — across a much broader swath of the economy than globalization can account for. David Weil, a professor of management at the Questrom School of Business at Boston University who headed the Labor Department’s wage and hour division at the end of the Obama administration, calls this process the “fissuring” of the workplace. He traces it to the 1980s, when corporations under pressure to raise quarterly profits started shedding “noncore” tasks. The trend grew as the spread of information technology made it easier for companies to standardize and monitor the quality of outsourced work. Many employers took to outsourcing to avoid the messy consequences — like unions and workplace regulations — of employing workers directly. “It’s an incredibly important part of the story that we haven’t paid attention to,” Mr. Weil told me. “Lead businesses — the firms that continue to directly employ workers who provide the goods and services in the economy recognized by consumers — remain highly profitable and may continue to provide generous pay for their work force,” he noted. “The workers whose jobs have been shed to other, subordinate businesses face far more competitive market conditions. ” The trend is hard to measure, since subcontracting can take many forms. But it is big. A study last year by Lawrence F. Katz of Harvard and Alan B. Krueger of Princeton, a former chief economic adviser to President Barack Obama, concluded that independent contractors, workers and workers provided by contracting companies or temp agencies accounted altogether for 94 percent of employment growth over the last 10 years. Nonstandard employment arrangements like these account for nearly one in six jobs today. That is 24 million jobs, nine million more than 10 years ago. Many of these jobs are poorly paid. A 2008 study by Arindrajit Dube of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Ethan Kaplan, then at the Institute for International Economic Studies at Stockholm University, found that outsourcing imposed a wage penalty of up to 7 percent for janitors and up to 24 percent for security guards. The Government Accountability Office of Congress concluded that contingent workers in the education field — substitute teachers, adjuncts and the like — earn almost 14 percent less per hour. In retailing they earn 9. 4 percent less. Contingent workers across the board are less likely to have health insurance. live in families making less than $20, 000 a year. That is three times the share of workers employed in standard jobs. The rise of outsourced work adds an important twist to the standard understanding of America’s growing wage inequality, which is based on the notion that technology has left workers behind — taking over their routine jobs while opening lucrative new possibilities for the . The sorting of workers into different classes of companies will further widen the earnings gap as the rewards of the most profitable among them “increasingly go to a more limited group of highly compensated and workers and to shareholders,” Professor Katz explained. Manufacturing has gone through this process. General Motors in its heyday employed more than 600, 000 workers in the United States, including the engineer, the man sweeping the shop floor and the woman serving coffee. Though the engineer certainly earned much more, the other two could share in G. M.’s success. Norms of fairness, Mr. Weil argues, would limit the wage gap between workers of a single company, giving a boost to those at the bottom. Outsourcing does away with such considerations. Apple is as successful as G. M. was in its time. But it employs fewer than 70, 000 people in the United States. While it keeps engineers, designers and such in house, it doesn’t bother with workers not critical to creating seductive new gadgets. Many of those work for Foxconn, in Asia, where the margins are slimmer and the pay is not as good. The trend is not unique to manufacturing nor to outsourcing overseas, though. It is happening across the nation’s workplaces and coursing through service industries, the segment of the labor market. These days the receptionist at the front desk is unlikely to work for the hotel. The truck driver may not work for the delivery company, nor the nurse for the hospital. Jobs in coal mining and hydraulic fracturing — even shipbuilding — have been siphoned off. Though the gig economy is still small — employing 0. 5 percent of contingent workers, according to Professors Katz and Krueger — the technologies powering it are likely to fissure the American workplace further. This sorting would increase the slice of national income going to shareholders and reduce workers’ share. The pattern is consistent with evidence that most of the widening of the nation’s earnings inequality can be explained by growing pay gaps between organizations rather than within them. Over all, Professor Katz estimates, the sorting of workers into and employers accounts for a quarter to a third of the increase of wage inequality in the United States since 1980. So can Mr. Trump do anything about this? When at the Labor Department, Mr. Weil argued that companies that outsource should share liability with subcontractors for wages and working conditions, so they could not simply wash their hands of responsibility. It’s not an easy problem to fix, though. As Mr. Weil puts it, “How do you reattach some of the responsibility to the engine of value of these network business systems?” Companies will continue to seek efficiencies by shunting work into these broader networks. And it would make little sense to adopt policies that forbid this kind of business organization. Encouraging unions, which many scholars have suggested as a tool to improve wage growth, could well accelerate the splintering. And yet, there may be a place for incentives to discourage the weakening of labor standards. Some employers might adopt a system like Harvard’s parity policy to ensure that those in contract positions like guards or cafeteria workers get the same pay and benefits as comparable university staff members. Whatever its difficulties, addressing the vast transformation underway in the organization of work seems more relevant than tilting at windmills in hopes of restoring American manufacturing to its 1950s state. | 1 |
The film critics of The New York Times — Manohla Dargis, A. O. Scott and Stephen Holden — share their picks for the best movies of the year. It was the best of times, it was — well, you know. “Captain America: Civil War” and “The Purge: Election Year” may sound like the zeitgeist, but if you’re looking for the defining movie of 2016, look no further than the new “Ghostbusters. ” It was hardly my favorite, but it made me laugh. And while its transformation into a target of misogynist and racist vitriol was surprising, it was not especially shocking. It was just another reminder that female power remains deeply threatening, even in the realm of the imaginary. As usual when it came to this year in movies, it was sometimes good if also hard, lean, bad and familiar times, both critically and commercially. “Box Office Meltdown,” a Variety headline shrieked in July by Nov. 25, the trade was reporting “U. S. Box Office Tops $10 Billion” — “the that it’s reached the milestone. ” It turns out that after the acrimonious presidential election, people were coming together at the movies. Then again, packed theaters could also be chalked up to the number of solid mainstream releases, including “Arrival,” “Almost Christmas,” “Doctor Strange” and “Moana. ” It’s worth noting that even the most popular movies — as I write, Pixar’s “Finding Dory” tops the yearly box office — are unlikely to show up on many lists or scoop up critics’ awards. The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (I’m a former member) for instance, recently gave Barry Jenkins’s “Moonlight” best picture, best director and best supporting actor (Mahershala Ali). Its other honorees included releases that, according to the website Box Office Mojo, opened in a limited number of theaters: “Krisha” (26 theaters) “The Handmaiden” (125) and “Certain Women” (138). The divide between what most Americans see and what critics reward is not new or surprising. Yet it seems worth repeating that this gulf remains as vast and seemingly unbridgeable as the one that characterized the electorate. This is less about taste (or elites versus Jill Popcorn) than the bottom line of today’s conglomerate cinema. As of early December, the six major studios have an 83. 4 percent market share of the domestic box office. Disney alone enjoys a staggering 24. 2 percent, a number that will increase with the release of “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. ” It’s Disney’s world, after all. Though not only: By the time the Academy Awards roll around in February, the United States will have a new president. A few critics I know are trying to name the most Trumplike release of 2016 one suggested Clint Eastwood’s “Sully,” which I see more as an exemplar of classic Hollywood’s heroic individualism. Viewing movies through the lens of today is a favorite game, never mind that most titles are in the works long before the real world catches up to them. A more fruitful game may be to weigh how this year’s releases — be they “Moonlight” or “Deadpool,” “Manchester by the Sea” or “Suicide Squad” — signify the end of the Obama era. As to my own favorites, well, they just keep on changing, depending on mood, both personal and national. 1. ‘NO HOME MOVIE’ This was the final feature from Chantal Akerman, who died of an apparent suicide in 2015. Akerman explained that “No Home Movie” was about rooms and faraway places but “above all” about her mother, Natalia, a Holocaust survivor, “but not only. ” It was also, Akerman wrote, about love and loss. She was presumably speaking about her mother, although of course she was also speaking for us, those who loved the daughter. [Read the review] 2. ‘TONI ERDMANN’ The filmmaker Maren Ade’s latest is a perfectly directed and performed movie about a father, his daughter and the ludicrous gag teeth that help close this pair’s generational, economic and social divide. It couldn’t be timelier in how it considers the consequences of neoliberalism, wherein all human interactions are reduced to market relations, but it also has a beat you can dance to. [Read a review] 3. ‘MOONLIGHT’ Bathed in blue and anguish, Mr. Jenkins’s elegiac film traces a single life across three chapters. There’s much to love and admire about this haunting movie, including its lapidary visuals. Here, every moment — light flooding a darkened room, an oceanic baptism and a halo of shampoo crowning the head of an abandoned child — speaks more eloquently than most of its dialogue, though the words are very fine, too. [Read the review] 4. ‘O. J.: MADE IN AMERICA’ There’s a tradition of documentaries that dig into their subjects episodically, sometimes at monumental length. Such is the case with Ezra Edelman’s “O. J.: Made in America,” which for close to eight hours takes up the case of O. J. Simpson — his football glory years, infamous murder trial and tawdry aftermath — to create a titanic inquiry into race, class and celebrity in the United States. Race may be a construction, but it is one that Americans continue to live and die by. [Read the review] 5. ‘MY GOLDEN DAYS’ The director Arnaud Desplechin beautifully transcends the usual romantic clichés with a deeply moving, exquisitely directed tale of young love and the lessons never learned. [Read the review] 6. ‘I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO’ In his thrilling documentary, Raoul Peck closes the divide between the personal and political through a portrait of James Baldwin. Expressively narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, the movie largely draws on Baldwin’s own writing — as well as material like his F. B. I. files — to create a portrait of a man that turns into a harrowing indictment of his country. 7. ‘ARRIVAL’ The E. T. s in Denis Villeneuve’s twisty heartbreaker don’t want to phone home, but they would really like to get someone on the horn. As she often does, Amy Adams comes to the rescue. Among the movie’s pleasures is a creature design that at last breaks with H. R. Giger’s slavering aliens. [Read the review] 8. ‘THE HANDMAIDEN’ Set in Korea in the 1930s, the latest from Park involves two women, one a Japanese heiress and prisoner, the other an impoverished Korean con artist who could pick pockets for Fagin. Their delectable relationship takes them and the movie to places you might not imagine, while advancing an argument about gender, desire, erotica and pornography that is more complex than the movie’s slickness suggests. [Read the review] 9. ‘13TH’ In her ferocious, intellectually galvanizing activist documentary, Ava DuVernay takes a hard look at race in the United States through the 13th Amendment of the Constitution. You may think you’ve heard it all before you haven’t. [Read the review] 10. ‘FROM THE NOTEBOOK OF … ’ One of the high points of this year’s New York Film Festival, this masterwork from Robert Beavers is quite a few years old but new to me. (It was apparently finished in 1971 and reworked in 1998.) Here, Mr. Beavers considers the nature of cinema using light and shadow, various mattes and apertures — including a window spilling sun on a desk — a meditation that at times has the quality of a holy confession. “Aquarius” (from Kleber Mendonça Filho) “Autumn” and “The Dreamer” (Nathaniel Dorsky) “Bagatelle II” (Jerome Hiler) “Certain Women,” especially Kristen Stewart (Kelly Reichardt) “Creepy” (Kiyoshi Kurosawa) “The Fits” (Anna Rose Holmer) “The Illinois Parables” (Deborah Stratman) “Into the Inferno” (Werner Herzog) “Jackie” and “Neruda” (Pablo Larraín) “Krisha” (Trey Edward Shults) “La La Land,” if mostly its finale (Damien Chazelle) “Loving” (Jeff Nichols) “Mountains May Depart” (Jia Zhangke) “Paterson” (Jim Jarmusch) “Sunset Song” (Terence Davies) “20th Century Women” (Mike Mills). Last spring, with #OscarsSoWhite in the rearview mirror and Donald J. Trump’s victory on the horizon, I reviewed Jeremy Saulnier’s “Green Room. ” It struck me at the time as a smart, brutal, slightly contrived thriller about members of a rock band battling a gang of punks in the Northwest. In retrospect, though, it seems possible that this scrappy little indie (which just missed making the list below) was something more than a bit of nasty fun. Maybe it was a harbinger, an unheeded political signal amid the noise, a allegory of battles to come. Am I reading too much into it now, or was I not paying close enough attention then? If so, I’m hardly the only one. Relevance is one of the great shibboleths of criticism, and after a event as dramatic and complex as this year’s election, the temptation to seek clues and answers in works of popular art is almost overwhelming. Think pieces promising to tell us “How [insert title here] Explains Trump” popped up after Nov. 8 like mushrooms after a rainstorm, and entertainment has been mined for signs and symptoms of disaffection, gullibility and every other real and imaginary affliction of the American body politic. But cinema is better at exploring than explaining, and the screen is more like a prism or a kaleidoscope than a mirror or a window. We seldom get the news from movies. Which is not to deny that they are useful tools for reckoning with reality. In a time of confusion, the best films can offer clarity, comfort and a salutary reminder of complexities that lie beyond the bluster and expedience of political discourse and conventional journalism. We go to the movies — and we still go quite a lot, by the way, in spite of the seductions of the couch and the streaming queue — in search of escape from reality. We’re also looking for alternative routes to the truth, for sparks of imagination that can ignite or illuminate our own thinking when it gets muddled or stale. The 11 releases listed below were not only my most memorable experiences of the year they were also, in ways I can’t always specify, helpful. They stirred my curiosity, troubled my sleep and increased the range of my understanding. Sometimes they just made me feel better. 1. ‘MOONLIGHT’ Much has been written about Barry Jenkins’s luminous second feature, based on a play by Tarell Alvin McCraney, which depicts three phases in the life of a young man named Chiron. And much of that writing has drawn out the film’s complicated themes — of race, place, sexuality and manhood — and the exquisite artistry Mr. Jenkins and his cast bring to them. But the most eloquent testimony comes when words fail, when I run into someone on the street or at a party and they say, “‘Moonlight,’” and I say “yeah, ‘Moonlight,’” and we take a deep breath because nothing more really needs to be said. [Read the review] 2. ‘O. J.: MADE IN AMERICA’ History, biography, sports, celebrity, race, gender, police brutality and media insanity — Ezra Edelman’s documentary touches on nearly everything horrible and fascinating in the last of American life. A triumph of archival research, it’s also a masterpiece of insight, a rare documentary with the heft and sprawl of great literature. [Read the review] 3. ‘TONI ERDMANN’ Maren Ade’s sublime and squirmy comedy will change the way you think about a lot of things, including (but hardly limited to) fatherhood, daughterhood, false teeth, Bulgarian folklore, German humor, workplace sexism, exercises, petit fours and global capitalism. [Read a review] 4. ‘CAMERAPERSON’ Kirsten Johnson, a prolific and widely traveled cinematographer, makes her living shooting other people’s films, many of them dealing with war, injustice and sexual violence. She assembled this memoir from outtakes and home video, and the result is revelatory testimony to the simple, mysterious power of the camera to bridge the chasm between personal experience and public history. [Read the review] 5. ‘AFERIM!’ Radu Jude’s Romanian western — a epic set in the mountains of Walachia in the century — was barely released in the United States, which is a shame for several reasons. For one thing, its rugged humor, high adventure and ethical seriousness pay tribute to an enduring and often misunderstood genre. For another, it takes up the moral and political problem of slavery (in its Balkan rather than its Southern manifestation) with unsparing honesty and startling nuance. [Read the review] 6. ‘AMERICAN HONEY’ The British director Andrea Arnold leads a raw and ragged adventure into the heartland, discovering it to be a strangely innocent zone of greed, lust, youthful idiocy and startling natural beauty. Sasha Lane, a fearless nonprofessional, is thrilling to watch, as is Shia LaBeouf. There is also a single shot — of Riley Keough (who happens to be Elvis Presley’s granddaughter) standing in a motel doorway, wearing a bikini with the price tag still attached — that just might say more about the state of the nation in 2016 than the words of a thousand pundits. [Read the review] 7. ‘AQUARIUS’ The United States was not the only country undergoing a wrenching political upheaval this year. In his generous and angry second feature, the Kleber Mendonça Filho tracks the changes shaking Brazil as they play out indirectly in the daily life of Clara, a retired music critic played by the great Sônia Braga. A mother, a cancer survivor and an avatar of culture, sensuality and intellectual independence, Clara is a fittingly embattled and indomitable heroine for our times. [Read the review] 8. ‘SAUSAGE PARTY’ This animated feature, with the voices of Seth Rogen and Kristen Wiig, is a profoundly religious film that explores, with devastating rigor, a stark and scary existential predicament. What if you woke up one morning and found out that everything you had always believed in was a lie? Not for kids, obviously. [Read the review] 9. ‘A BIGGER SPLASH’ Commissioned to remake a ’60s thriller, Luca Guadagnino composed a gorgeous meditation on sex, rock ’n’ roll and the enduring decadence of European art cinema. Tilda Swinton is silent, Ralph Fiennes never stops talking and the gorgeous volcanic island of Pantelleria plays host to a divine and lethal vacation from hell. [Read the review] 10. ‘ELLE’ AND ‘THINGS TO COME’ (TIE) Paul Verhoeven’s lurid thriller and Mia ’s meditative domestic drama are complementary portraits of Frenchwomen in middle age, both of them played by Isabelle Huppert. Each movie has its flaws of directorial perspective — reflexive sexism in Mr. Verhoeven’s case, generational condescension in Ms. ’s — but Ms. Huppert transcends all limitations. She’s at once the most ferociously intuitive and the most serenely intelligent actress working in movies today. [Read the reviews: ‘Elle’ | ‘Things to Come’] 1. ‘MOONLIGHT’ Kindness and tenderness, as opposed to melodrama, are traits not commonly associated with movies that aim primarily to thrill and excite. Genuine intimacy is so rarely encountered in film that when you come upon it, your tendency is to suspect that somehow you’re being played. But in Barry Jenkins’s “Moonlight,” my pick for the best movie of the year, there are moments of generosity and selflessness that take your breath away. This is an entirely human story in a medium enthralled by technology, violence and fantasy. As I watched the film, based on a play by Tarell Alvin McCraney, it held me in a state of awed recognition and remembrance of the times I was touched by transformational acts of gentleness and caring. These radiant moments soften an otherwise tough movie, about Chiron, a gay black youth played by three different actors, growing up in a Miami housing project where he acquires the armor of a street thug to survive. Along with “Brokeback Mountain” and “Boyhood,” it is one of the three finest movies of the last decade or so. Is it a coincidence that all three have male protagonists who instinctively resist patriarchal brutishness? In its brokenhearted examination of race, class, privilege and inequality in modern America, “Moonlight” is one of several excellent movies set in places beyond the country’s affluent enclaves. When I raved about “Moonlight” to several white liberal friends and described Chiron, they politely took note but behaved as if I were telling them to eat their spinach. These same people couldn’t wait to see films like “The Big Short” and “The Wolf of Wall Street,” about the financial chicanery and decadence of rich white crooks. This, then, is the America we’re living in: The haves would rather not contemplate the suffering of the . And we are shocked to discover that our indifference has consequences. [Read the review] 2. ‘O. J.: MADE IN AMERICA’ The obverse of “Moonlight” in its focus on O. J. Simpson, a rich, entitled black star athlete, the documentary directed by Ezra Edelman is an epic examination of race, class, sex, celebrity and the cult of sports heroism in America. It is an of the American psyche focused on the place where all those themes converge to create what some would call the American dream. Or is it a nightmarish orgy of bloodlust? [Read the review] 3. ‘AMERICAN HONEY’ Star (Sasha Lane) the at the center of Andrea Arnold’s pungent road movie, flees a broken home and a sexually abusive father figure to join a band of teenagers roaming the heartland selling magazine subscriptions door to door. On one level, “American Honey” is a grimy travelogue that shows you the poverty and hardship in a Middle America where the social safety net has frayed, families are ravaged by poverty and drug addiction, and young children are left unattended. The wanderers are the photonegative opposites of ’60s hippies who deserted comfortable homes in search of adventure. Most of these stragglers have no place to go back to. [Read the review] 4. ‘EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT’ Viewed largely through the eyes of an aggrieved shaman whose tribe is on the verge of extinction at the hands of Colombian rubber barons in the 19th and 20th centuries, the director Ciro Guerra’s fantastical mixture of myth and historical reality challenges lingering illusions of culture as more advanced than any other. Beautiful isn’t a strong enough word to describe scenes of the heaving waters of the Amazon and its tributaries, on which two explorers, separated by more than 30 years, navigate in canoes, accompanied by the shaman, Karamakate, the last survivor of an Amazonian tribe killed off by European invaders. Along the way they encounter Conradian horrors. [Read the review] 5. ‘MANCHESTER BY THE SEA’ In Kenneth Lonergan’s sad, powerful film, Casey Affleck plays an embittered janitor in Boston who, after the death of his older brother, reluctantly returns to the fishing village where he grew up to be the guardian of his teenage nephew. The residents of the town may not be poor, but most are struggling. There are no easy answers and pat resolutions in a movie that feels absolutely authentic. [Read the review] 6. ‘NEON BULL’ This Brazilian movie, directed by Gabriel Mascaro, immerses you in the intensely pungent world of vaquejada, a rodeo sport in which two cowboys on horseback, seek to tug a bull to the ground by the tail. Iremar (Juliano Cazarré) is a handsome cowboy who dreams of being a fashion designer. In this deep, sexy reflection on man and animal, the riders use fancy colognes to camouflage barnyard scents. The movie is a celebration of animal smells. [Read the review] 7. ‘FIRE AT SEA’ The Italian director Gianfranco Rosi’s documentary is set on the small island of Lampedusa, whose residents — fishing families that have lived there for generations — help rescue desperate African migrants arriving by sea. [Read the review] 8. ‘ELLE’ Isabelle Huppert may be the only living actress brave enough to play the heroine of a diabolical black comedy about rape and perverse desire. [Read the review] 9. ‘AQUARIUS’ In the politically pointed “Aquarius,” the great Brazilian actress Sônia Braga gives a towering portrayal of a retired movie critic who refuses to move out of her apartment when her building is sold to a developer. [Read the review] 10. “Fireworks Wednesday,” “Krisha,” “Sunset Song,” “” “The Beatles: Eight Days a Week — The Touring Years,” “Chronic,” “Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened,” “20th Century Women,” “13TH,” “Paterson” and “Things to Come. ” More highlights from the year, as chosen by our critics: Television, Pop Albums, Pop Songs, Classical Music, Dance, Theater, Art, Podcasts and Performances | 1 |
Robert Scheer and Amy Trask Discuss Gender, Race and Profit in the World of Professional Sports Posted on Oct 28, 2016 (Screen shot via YouTube )
In this week’s episode of “ Scheer Intelligence ,” Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer speaks with Amy Trask, former long-time Oakland Raiders CEO. In her new book, “ You Negotiate Like a Girl ,” Trask shares moments from her 15-year career in which she was the only woman in a room full of men. Trask tells Scheer what it was like working in a male-dominated field, and explains that she never worried about being a woman working in the NFL. She also shares stories of her time working with Al Davis , the owner and manager of the Raiders, for almost thirty years.
Listen to the full interview below: | 0 |
For sisters in the public eye, Beyoncé and Solange Knowles have managed to resist the siren call to overshare the minutiae of their personal lives. But there is one topic they are happy to gush about: their mother, Tina Knowles Lawson. In the January issue of Interview magazine, Solange is interviewed by Beyoncé and waxes lyrical about how their mother “always taught us to be in control of our voice and our bodies and our work. ” Last June, when accepting the fashion icon award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Beyoncé dedicated it to her “fabulous and beautiful” mother. And in November, when Solange appeared on “Saturday Night Live,” a backstage video posted on Instagram, showing the singer carried by Mom and Big Sis, caused the internet to let out a collective “aww. ” Ms. Lawson, 63, now finds herself in a newfound role as an artistic bridge between two of 2016’s most critically lauded albums: “Lemonade,” Beyoncé’s fiery visual album that is up for nine nods at the Grammy Awards next month, and “A Seat at the Table,” Solange’s spare and poetic RB record, which topped Pitchfork’s list last year. In October, her daughters made history when they became the first sisters to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart in the same year. The shadow of Ms. Lawson, a former Southern beautician who is a lifelong collector of black contemporary art, hovers over the artsy allusions in “Lemonade” to intergenerational motherhood, marital strife and their family’s deep Creole roots. On the agitpop single “Formation,” Beyoncé shouts out her “Momma Louisiana. ” The Beyoncé broke her silence to talk about her mother’s creative influence (though on email, coordinated through a publicist). “I think it was important to my mother to surround us with positive, powerful, strong images of African and art so that we could reflect and see ourselves in them,” Beyoncé said. “My mother has always been invested in making women feel beautiful,” she added, “whether it was through someone sitting in her hair chair or making a prom dress for one of the girls at church. And her art collection always told the stories of women wanting to do the same. ” Ms. Lawson’s appearance on “A Seat at the Table” is more explicit. In “Tina Taught Me,” a cerebral interlude, she sermonizes about black cultural pride, saying: “I’ve always been proud to be black. Never wanted to be nothing else. ” She also says it “saddens” her when people considers that to be “antiwhite. ” Solange said: “She says things in that interlude that I had been trying to say for the last four years. But my mother has a very special way of communicating, a very special channel that she speaks through that has always felt bigger than her. ” “If my sister and my project feels like an ‘awakening’ to some,” she added, “I am constantly saying that we both grew up in a home with two words: Tina Knowles. ” The matriarch of pop music’s reigning family resides (rather fittingly for a woman who once posed on the cover of Ebony wearing a gold crown) in a gated, castlelike home atop the winding Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles. On a warm evening in late November, Ms. Lawson sat in her brightly colored living room, filled with postimpressionist and abstract works, mostly by African and artists. Dressed casually in an ensemble, “Miss Tina” — as she likes to be called — is all natural warmth and poise. She may have nurtured two supernatural superstar daughters, but she comes across as a sage retiree supremely at ease in her dewy, flawless skin. She offered a tour of works by Henry Ossawa Tanner and Elizabeth Catlett that hang on her walls, saying that her children “grew up surrounded by art and feeling proud about who they are. ” She is also a goofball in person. Stepping out to her large outdoor balcony overlooking the twinkling skyline, she said her two favorite places to shop were Home Depot and Costco. “I meet people every day that are like, ‘You come here? ’” she said. “And I’m like, ‘Of course, I do. ’” Her irreverent side is familiar to her nearly one million followers on Instagram, a platform hardly known as welcoming to women in their 60s. She cracks dorky mom jokes — “I told my assistant to have a really great day, and you know what she did? She went home!” — impersonates Tina Turner and generally clowns around with her friends and family. “I want to show people the regularity of my life, and that not everything is so fancy,” she said. Her fans can’t get enough. “If you’re not following Beyoncé’s mom on Instagram, here’s what you’re missing,” declared an article from Harper’s Bazaar in August. “She’s basically everybody’s auntie who is a sweetheart, but still keeps it real when necessary,” said Crissle West, a of “The Read,” a popular podcast on and pop culture. Ms. Lawson, nee Celestine Ann Beyincé, grew up in the 1950s in “a real small town” in Galveston, Tex. The last of seven siblings, her father was a longshoreman and her mother was a seamstress. She picked up dressmaking at a young age, creating sparkly stage outfits for her singing group while in high school. At 19, she moved to California to work as a makeup artist for Shiseido Cosmetics (she learned styling tricks from drag queens, she said) but returned to Texas a year later when her parents fell ill. With help from her Matthew Knowles, a former Xerox executive, she opened a hair salon in Houston called Headliners. The salon, which had more than a run, helped the Knowles family afford an lifestyle. It was also an impromptu stage for her young brood, while women under dryers acted as judges. When Destiny’s Child, the girl group whose most famous lineup consisted of Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland (“my other daughter”) and Michelle Williams, began to break out in the late 1990s, Ms. Lawson returned to dressmaking and whipped up matching cutaway Boy Scout uniforms, camouflage hot pants and fur sheaths for the group to wear onstage. As Beyoncé put it in her Council of Fashion Designers of America speech last year, designers were reluctant to dress “black country curvy girls,” so her mother stepped in. “They looked a little crazy sometimes,” Ms. Lawson said, “but people always wondered what they were going to wear next. ” The “Bootylicious” touch helped the group stand out. Destiny’s Child went on to sell over 60 million records worldwide, and Destiny’s mother became a fashion force. In 2004, she and Beyoncé started the House of Deréon, a trendy, clothing brand named after Ms. Lawson’s mother. A juniors collection, bedding and a clothing line aimed at older women called Miss Tina soon followed. When the group disbanded in 2005, Ms. Lawson continued to create showstoppers for Beyoncé as a solo artist, including the black brocade ball gown she wore for the 2005 Academy Awards. But in 2009, just when her professional life seemed to be at its peak, Ms. Lawson said her “world completely stopped. ” After 33 years of marriage, she filed for divorce from Mr. Knowles, who had been a talent manager for their daughters. Citing a “conflict of personalities” in court papers, the divorce was made final in 2011. “I kind of lost myself,” she said. “All these things that I love — going to art shows, reading art books, going out dancing — I had stopped. That’s not really loving yourself, if you’re not taking care of yourself in terms of your needs and what makes you happy. ” The split raised existential questions. “What kind of life was I going to have now?” Ms. Lawson said. “I thought it was too late for me to try something new. You have all these doubts in your mind. ” In search of answers, she closed all her fashion businesses and, at 59, left Houston for Los Angeles for what she jokingly said was “a new house, a new car, a new man and a new life. ” In 2013, she reconnected with an old friend, Richard Lawson, a TV actor known for his roles in “Dynasty” and “All My Children. ” The couple tied the knot two years later. “I just feel so liberated now, I really do,” she said. Ms. Lawson now focuses much of her time on black female empowerment issues and philanthropy (she was honored at the Essence Festival in New Orleans last year) and she is writing an autobiography she says is a “ book. ” She and her husband plan to open in March an acting workshop for underserved youth in Los Angeles, called the WACO Theater Center (short for “Where Art Can Occur”). And after her break from fashion, she designed the gold fringe outfit that Solange wore in her music video “Cranes in the Sky,” as well as the white dress Solange wore for her performance at former President Barack Obama’s farewell party at the White House on Jan. 6. “The day I had kids, I thought, ‘I might screw everything else up, but not this,’” Ms. Lawson said, flashing a knowing smile as she sat, regally postured, on her sofa. “Now that they’re grown women, it’s like, ‘It’s my turn. ’” | 1 |
MSNBC’s Joy Reid said Saturday on “AM Joy” that President Donald Trump has an “affinity for all things Russia,” adding that he seems to “emulate Russian oligarchs. ” “One of the sort of things about Donald Trump that people learned when he ran for president is that he does have this kind of affinity for all things Russia,” Reid stated. “He’s done a lot of business there, his son bragged about a lot of their business coming from Russia, a lot of their condos were bought by either Russian LLCs or Russian humans, his $90 million sale of a house in Florida — but there is this sense in which he kind of seems to at least admire, if not emulate, Russian oligarchs. ” Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent | 1 |
A federal judge on Monday barred North Dakota from enforcing the state’s strict voter law, adding to several recent federal court rulings that such laws may disenfranchise minority voters. Judge Daniel L. Hovland of the United States District Court for North Dakota issued a preliminary injunction against the law, which he said had made it difficult and sometimes impossible for some Native Americans on rural reservations to cast ballots. Judge Hovland’s injunction did not strike down the law. But North Dakota’s secretary of state, Alvin Jaeger, indicated in an interview that the state would not appeal the decision and that November’s election would revert to using less restrictive identification rules that were in force before the 2013 law was enacted. “After the election we have a legislative session coming up, and we’ll see how we can address the issues then,” he said. Like other laws that have been challenged, the North Dakota statute was passed by a legislature that asserted stronger measures were needed to curb voter fraud. Democratic legislators said that it was intended solely to suppress voting among traditionally Democratic constituencies. The law allowed voters to present a broad range of documents or simply to take an oath affirming their identity. The new law, which some critics said was among the most restrictive in the nation, limited acceptable IDs to a valid state driver’s license, a nondriver state ID, a care certificate or a tribal identification card, each of which had to show a voter’s current address. The law also eliminated any measures, like swearing an oath, for voters who lacked a card. In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs argued that many Native Americans did not have addresses and that many tribal ID cards did not require them. The barriers to obtaining a required ID, they said, were high: There are no license offices on reservations, and a significant share of Native Americans lack either the money to obtain an ID or the proofs of identity, such as a birth certificate or Social Security card, that are necessary to get one. “The record is replete with concrete evidence of significant burdens imposed on Native American voters attempting to exercise their right to vote,” Judge Hovland wrote. Nor, he stated, was there any evidence that the state needed such a restrictive ID policy. “To the contrary,” he wrote, “the record before the court reveals that the secretary of state acknowledged in 2006 that he was unaware of any voter fraud in North Dakota. ” The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Thomas A. Dickson of Bismarck, said he believed that the state’s elections procedures, which once were nonpartisan, had become ensnarled in the ideological and political conflict that has divided the rest of the nation. “We want everyone to vote,” Mr. Dickson said, “and whoever has the most votes, they win. That’s the American way. Somehow, we’ve gotten away from that. ” | 1 |
0 комментариев 0 поделились Фото: AP
Комментировать сообщения о высланных россиянах отказался глава правительства Сербии Александр Вучич. "Не все в вашем вопросе неверно, одна часть не точна. Я не хотел вам отвечать не только по той причине, которую уже назвал, но и еще из-за одной вещи - потому, что об этих делах я говорить не имею права по закону", - сказал он белградскому телеканалу N1.
Новость о депортации российских граждан совпала с неожиданным приездом в Белград секретаря Совбеза РФ Николая Патрушева. Сербские эксперты убеждены, что главная цель визита - обсуждение ситуации в Черногории.
Прокомментировать ситуацию Pravda.Ru попросила переводчика и журналиста, члена Изборсского клуба, специалиста по внешней торговле, консультанта по вопросам экономического сотрудничества Сербии и России Слободана Стойичевича
- В Сербии и Черногории уже несколько дней раскручивают скандал об участии россиян в подготовке терактов в Черногории. Кому и зачем это понадобилось?
- Это, естественно, игра еврофанатиков, которые засели во власти в Сербии. Их не устраивает то, что народ поголовно сейчас встал перед дилеммой: а что дальше? Потому что в последнее время власти так называемой республики Косово поставили вопрос ребром о продолжении переговоров между Косово и Сербией, а еврофанатики во власти в Сербии сейчас не знаю куда дальше идти и что делать.
Их сейчас больше устраивает раскручивание афер и разных историй с участием якобы русских агентов для отвода глаз от настоящих проблем. Вернее, от тупика, в который они попали со своей ошибочной еврофанатской политикой. Можем этого ожидать и в будущем, что они так же будут действовать.
И приезд российских политиков - это еще один повод, чтобы продолжить раскручивать разные теории заговора с участием России. Все это делается для отвода глаз народа от насущных проблем, то есть, и дальше заводить все в тупик. А в этом время власти Республики Косово в переговорах с Европой выдвинули ультиматум перед сербским государством.
- Насколько далеко они готовы пойти?
- Это зависит от того, как народ среагирует на эти якобы проблемы с "российскими агентами". Это просто такой тактический прием, чтобы отвеcти глаза.
Ситуация с "российскими шпионами" зависит и от того, как среагирует Брюссель на заявку Косово. Если Брюссель одобрит политику Косово, что сильно затронет экономический потенциал Сербии, тогда будут раскручивать ситуацию и дальше, выдумывая проблемы.
Если успокоятся в отношении Косово, тогда сербские власти поубавят нападки на пророссийский электорат. Это просто тактический прием, ничего большего.
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October 26, 2016 - Fort Russ - Antifashist - translated by J. Arnoldski -
Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, is sure that the bloodshed in South-East Ukraine could be avoided if the country’s authorities apologized to the population of the DPR and LPR like Verkhovna Rada deputy Nadezhda Savchenko proposed.
The Russian diplomat said this in commenting on the statement of the Verhkovna Rada’s vice speaker, Irina Gerashchenko, made at a meeting of the UN Security council in which the Kiev representative once again accused Russia of aggression against Ukraine. In addition, the Ukrainian politician called Savchenko “the most famous prisoner of the Kremlin freed in exchange for military personnel from the Russian Army.”
“In her speech, Ukraine’s representative mentioned Nadezhda Savchenko. After being pardoned, she returned to her homeland where she stated that Kiev should apologize to the residents of Donetsk and Lugansk. It is a pity that Ukrainian authorities don’t have enough humanity or political courage to do so,” Churkin said.
According to Churkin, the inter-Ukrainian crisis would have been resolved long ago if Kiev didn’t attempt time and time again to change the Minsk Agreements. He stressed: “There would have been no conflict in Donbass if Kiev had not opted for armed suppression of the dissent that arose after a coup backed by foreign forces was carried out in the country.”
Russia’s UN representative added that for two years already “Ukrainian security forces have shelled residential areas of Donetsk and Lugansk, as a result of which civilians, including women and children, have been killed.” He referred to the UN High Commissioner for Human Right’s report on abductions and torture to which Ukrainian forces have subjected women.
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From the sophisticated Dadaism of “Atlanta” to the solemn mind games of “Westworld,” the television season just past featured shows that were good for us. Heading into 2017, the season offers a batch of shows that promise to be good fun, from the dramedy “Sneaky Pete” to the new adventures of Archie and the gang in “Riverdale” to the continued adventures of Diane Lockhart in “The Good Fight. ” (Though seriousness isn’t lacking — “The Americans” returns, and some viewers may find the bleak future of “The Handmaid’s Tale” a little too close to home.) Here’s a look at 15 shows worth keeping an eye out for. SNEAKY PETE (Amazon, Jan. 13) The most promising Amazon pilot of the last few years finally comes to fruition, a year and a half after the entertaining first episode was posted. Bryan Cranston and Graham Yost (“Justified”) are behind this series about a con man (Giovanni Ribisi) who is released from prison and stumbles into an opportunity: pretending to be his former cellmate, whose family is in the business. (David Shore, creator of “House M. D.,” wrote the pilot but was replaced as showrunner by Mr. Yost.) The cast includes Margo Martindale, Peter Gerety and Marin Ireland, and the storytelling is light but soulful. A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS (Netflix, Jan. 13) This adaptation of Daniel Handler’s “Lemony Snicket” books, written by Mr. Handler and executive produced by him and Barry Sonnenfeld, has a Wes Anderson look and feel. Patrick Warburton narrates as Lemony Snicket, and Neil Patrick Harris, in heavy prosthetic makeup, plays Count Olaf, the malevolent guardian of the Baudelaire children. HOMELAND (Showtime, Jan. 15) The setting, for the first time, is New York, where Carrie Mathison lives with her now chatty daughter and defends Muslim Americans accused of terrorism. Saul and Dar brief a liberal female (oops) and scramble to take care of spy business before the inauguration. But in the early going, at least, it’s really all about Carrie and Quinn. If you’re a Quarrie believer, prepare yourself for Week 2. RIVERDALE (CW, Jan. 26) Betty’s on Adderall, Archie’s having sex with a teacher, and Josie and the Pussycats are rehearsing down the hall. Roberto and Greg Berlanti’s adaptation of the Archie Comics characters adds a dash of “Twin Peaks” weirdness to a main course of “Gossip Girl” teenage complete with G. G. narration by Jughead. (Madchen Amick, who was in “Twin Peaks” and “Gossip Girl,” plays Betty’s mother.) THE QUAD (BET, Jan. 31) Your desire for a glossy, sprawling melodrama with a serious edge could be satisfied by this new series set at a fictional historically black college in Georgia. Anika Noni Rose plays the embattled new president and Ruben the leader of the school’s famous marching band, which eats up a disproportionate chunk of the academic budget. SANTA CLARITA DIET (Netflix, Feb. 3) Victor Fresco, creator of “Better Off Ted” and “Andy Richter Controls the Universe,” gets to take his brand of even further in this sometimes Netflix comedy that leavens sitcom formulas with copious gore. Drew Barrymore stars as a sitcom mom whose sudden zombification draws her family together and noticeably improves her sex life Timothy Olyphant plays her husband. LEGION (FX, Feb. 8) The writer and producer Noah Hawley (“Fargo” on FX) lets his inner Terry Gilliam off the leash in this series featuring a Marvel Comics mutant whose power is to absorb others’ powers. The early episodes are frenetic and hard to follow, but there’s promise in the casting: Dan Stevens (“Downton Abbey”) a more subtle and interesting actor than we usually get in superhero roles. PLANET EARTH II (BBC America, Feb. 18) A decade after the original “Planet Earth,” David Attenborough and the BBC Natural History Unit are back with another seven hours of gorgeous nature porn, shot over the course of three years in 40 countries. BIG LITTLE LIES (HBO, Feb. 19). This HBO drama looks a lot lighter than recent offerings like “The Night Of,” “Westworld” or even “The Young Pope. ” Based on a novel by Liane Moriarty, it’s about the marital and criminal misadventures of women whose children attend the same school, and the trailer promises beaches and sex. The real story here, though, is pedigree: The was created by the Gandalf of TV writers, David E. Kelley directed by Vallée (“Dallas Buyers Club”) and boasts a cast that includes Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Alexander Skarsgard and Laura Dern. THE GOOD FIGHT (CBS All Access, Feb. 19) This much anticipated spinoff of the legal drama “The Good Wife” — in which Christine Baranski reprises her role as the regal Diane Lockhart — makes its premiere on CBS’s fledgling streaming service. THE AMERICANS (FX, March) Television’s best hourlong show returns, and we trust that the plot strands introduced in the premiere will cohere into gripping and subtle drama. The Soviet embeds Elizabeth and Philip have a new target, their daughter Paige keeps maturing into a deadly problem, the F. B. I. agent Stan Beeman remains wonderfully obtuse, and before the first hour is over, someone we like dies. Spy business as usual. NATIONAL TREASURE (Hulu, March 1) This BBC — based on the police investigation that resulted, most notably, in the posthumous revelations about the television and radio personality Jimmy Savile — has a great central duo: Robbie Coltrane (“Cracker,” the Harry Potter movies) plays a revered British comedian accused of pedophilia, and Julie Walters (“Educating Rita,” “Billy Elliot”) plays his wife. TRIAL ERROR (NBC, March 7) There’s no reason to think that this series, about a young New York lawyer who travels to the South to defend a wacky poetry professor accused of murder, won’t be an entirely conventional network sitcom. But the professor is played by John Lithgow, 16 years out from “3rd Rock From the Sun,” so it might be worth a look. HARLOTS (Hulu, March 29) Among the season’s British costume dramas, this one — a satirical dramedy starring Samantha Morton and Lesley Manville as dueling brothel owners in London — is my pick over “Victoria” and “Taboo. ” THE HANDMAID’S TALE (Hulu, April 26) Elisabeth Moss (“Mad Men”) plays a handmaid, or sex slave and childbearer, in this adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel about a America (renamed Gilead) ruled by religious extremists. The pilot gives promise that the series will emphasize science fiction over philosophy, which wouldn’t be a bad thing. | 1 |
New Emails in Clinton Case Came From Devices Once Used by Anthony Weiner NY Times A new trove of emails that appear pertinent to the now-closed investigation into Hillary Clinton ’s private email server was discovered after the F.B.I. seized at least one electronic device shared by Anthony D. Weiner and his estranged wife, Huma Abedin, a top aide to Mrs. Clinton, federal law enforcement officials said Friday. The F.B.I. is investigating illicit text messages that Mr. Weiner, a former Democratic congressman from New York, sent to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina. The bureau told Congress on Friday that it had uncovered new emails related to the Clinton case — one federal official said they numbered in the tens of thousands — potentially reigniting an issue that has weighed on the presidential campaign and offering a lifeline to Donald J. Trump less than two weeks before the election. In a news conference in Des Moines, Mrs. Clinton called on the F.B.I. to release more information about what it had found “without delay,” and insisted that she was confident there would be no change to the F.B.I.’s decision to drop the case last summer. “The American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately,” she said. In a letter to Congress, the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, said that emails had surfaced in a case unrelated to the Clinton case, and that they “appear to be pertinent to the investigation.” | 0 |
WASHINGTON — As the Central Intelligence Agency was setting up its secret prisons overseas 15 years ago to interrogate terrorism suspects, a Defense Department unit was considering a proposal to establish a secret military prison abroad, according to previously undisclosed government documents. The proposal was presented in a 2002 memo written in part by Bruce Jessen, one of two psychologists who eventually helped create the C. I. A. ’s “enhanced interrogation” program. The memo, obtained by The New York Times, recommended opening at least one secret overseas site where prisoners would be subjected to “constant sensory deprivation” and develop “ a profound sense of despair. ” The military, though, did not act on the proposal for an “undisclosed . S. unsuspected, secure location” to “hold, manage and exploit detainees. ” The Department of Defense, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment on the extent to which the plan, which originated in the military’s Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, was considered. Aside from sensory deprivation, the memo suggested that additional pressure tactics be permitted against prisoners, including those that “maximize cultural undesirability,” but it did not mention the brutal physical coercion techniques, such as waterboarding, later approved for use in the C. I. A. prisons. The memo is included among several government documents provided during the discovery process in a lawsuit brought in federal court in Spokane, Wash. against Dr. Jessen and the other psychologist, James E. Mitchell, by two former C. I. A. prisoners and the representative of a third man, who died in custody. The documents, along with others previously released, are helping to fill in gaps in the historical record about the interrogation program of the George W. Bush era. Their disclosure comes soon after the Trump administration drafted an executive order calling for reviving the C. I. A. “black site” prisons, though the White House has since appeared to back off from the idea after lawmakers and cabinet officials objected. Also disclosed in the lawsuit were a series of PowerPoint training slides for American personnel apparently headed to the military detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, discussing how they could defeat efforts by terrorism suspects to resist questioning. Those slides — or a similar set — were used in a training course by Dr. Jessen and a colleague in March 2002, and excerpted in a 2008 Senate Armed Services Committee report. Among the potential methods listed are “psychological torture” through “isolation, threats against self or family” and “the use of drugs. ” When Dr. Jessen’s memo was written in April 2002, he was the chief psychologist at the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, a Defense Department unit overseeing training programs in which military personnel are subjected to simulated torture tactics and mock interrogation to prepare them for possible capture by regimes violating the laws of war. Dr. Jessen and most of his colleagues had no experience in conducting actual interrogations, but the Department of Defense legal counsel sought information from the agency on detainee “exploitation” beginning in late 2001. Dr. Jessen soon left his military position to help set up the C. I. A. interrogation program, along with Dr. Mitchell. The two men eventually created their own company, Mitchell, Jessen and Associates, which received $81 million from the C. I. A. to manage the program. The existence of the 2002 memo was mentioned in the Senate report on detainee abuse published in 2008, but the document itself had not previously been made public. The memo recommended practices similar to those later used at C. I. A. sites, such as holding only one or two “subjects” at a time and having an “operational team” that included a psychologist, interrogators, interpreters, guards, a physician, an intelligence officer and other support personnel, including video technicians. The plan called for “ feed between interrogation rooms, confinement cells and control room. ” It also described ethically conflicting roles for the physician — both advising interrogators and treating the subject. The memo was written at a time when Pentagon officials were deeply divided over the military’s role in detention and interrogation in the new war on terrorists. Many officials were already uneasy about interrogation procedures being used at the military detention center in Guantánamo Bay. The memo’s solution to the mounting internal criticism was to have a small team led by the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency run a smaller, more efficient prison. The memo also insisted that secrecy be paramount and that the International Committee of the Red Cross, which monitors prisoners of war to ensure they are treated humanely, be kept out of the proposed prison. “No press, IRC, US or foreign observers,” the memo states. “These documents reveal some of the earliest planning for the systematic torture and abuse that Jessen and others would inflict on U. S. prisoners,” said Dror Ladin, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the former detainees. The emphasis on keeping the prisons hidden showed, Mr. Ladin said, that those involved in the plans “knew that what they were doing was wrong. ” Asked about the documents, a lawyer for Dr. Jessen distanced him from them. “While Dr. Jessen was the original author of the JPRA report, the document that the government produced in discovery is the final version that was modified by other government officials for specific purposes,” said the lawyer, James Smith, who also represents Dr. Mitchell. “Dr. Jessen had no role in creating that final version,” he wrote. Mr. Smith also asserted that “every action taken by Drs. Mitchell and Jessen was approved and directed by the C. I. A. after the Department of Justice and the Office of the President advised that the contemplated action was legal. ” He said the two men had no involvement in activities alleged in the plaintiffs’ complaint, which claimed the psychologists had designed and administered the C. I. A. ’s brutal interrogation program. According to the Senate report, Dr. Jessen drafted his memo and sent it to the senior civilian leadership and commander of the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, Col. John R. Moulton, who is known as Randy. He requested that Dr. Jessen prepare a briefing to “take up for approval. ” When interviewed by the Senate committee, Colonel Moulton testified that he did not recall any subsequent briefings for United States Joint Forces Command on the proposal. Lawyers for Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Jessen have sought to depose several former C. I. A. officials in an effort to buttress the defense’s argument that the psychologists’ actions were approved by the C. I. A. Lawyers for the A. C. L. U. working with the Gibbons law firm of Newark, have said that they were trying to avoid asking the government to release classified information in the case, and instead were relying heavily on public records. Their strategy is to avoid demanding any information that might lead to the imposition of the state secrets privilege, which allows the government to prevent information from being made public in court cases by claiming it could damage national security. That could shut down the case. If it goes forward, a trial is expected to take place in June. In a filing in the case last week, Chad A. Readler, the acting United States assistant attorney general, and other government lawyers indicated that the government would seek to invoke the privilege to block testimony by James Cotsana, a former C. I. A. operations officer who Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Jessen have said supervised them at one time. The Justice Department requested additional time to invoke the state secrets privilege, it said, because the new C. I. A. director will need to assess whether to do so, and the attorney general will have to approve the plan. The multiple levels of review, the government added, “present unique challenges in this case given the recent change of administration. ” Subpoenas to depose John A. Rizzo, a former acting general counsel of the C. I. A. and Jose A. Rodriguez, a former deputy director of operations, were recently canceled by the defendants, who received statements from the two men instead. The A. C. L. U. is now seeking to depose them. | 1 |
Ударим топорами по равнодушию чиновников 21 ноября 2016 Общество
«Не рубите, мужики, не рубите!..» (из песни группы Любэ)
В прошедшую субботу в Уфе появились люди с топорами. Повсюду: на улицах, в магазинах, на стадионе. Позднеосеннее обострение у маньяков, думаете? Отнюдь, жители столицы Башкортостана могли спать и гулять совершенно спокойно, в отличие от родителей школьников небольшой деревеньки Ямаш, что расположена в той же республике.
Именно в их поддержку вышли люди 19 ноября с топорами наперевес, чтобы общим флэшмобом выказать негодование происходящему в Башкирии. Поводом для этой акции стало видео, выложенное в соцсетях родителями детворы, вынужденной пешком добираться до школы по 4 часа. А дорога — около десяти километров, да еще по лесу!
Все началось с того, что в Ямаше (официальное название — Верхний Нугуш) закрыли 5-11 классы. Такая вот оптимизированная модернизация прошла. На чем же еще сэкономить в России можно? Исключительно на детях, да-да! Вот ребятам и приходится теперь самостоятельно добираться до школы в соседней деревне Галиакберово.
Согласитесь, это звучит совершенно дико! На дворе во всю бушует XXI век, мир рвется в космос, мы развиваем нанотехнологии, создаем роботов, неотличимых от людей. А настоящие, живые дети возрастом от одиннадцати до пятнадцати лет вынуждены пробираться лесной чащей с топором наперевес. Чем не страшная сказка про Красную Шапочку и серого волка, воплощенная в реальность?
Что сказать, гром грянул, и мужик сложил пальцы в щепотку, чтобы перекреститься. Ибо следом за пришедшей интернет-популярностью в деревушку нагрянули проверки прокуратуры и явились журналисты. Выяснилось, что автобусов в районе — по самое некуда, но из Верхнего Нугуша нет дороги к новой школе. Точнее была, но дураки, строившие ее, были типичными для России, поэтому она находится в совершенно непригодном для перевозок состоянии.
Выход? Нашли, естественно: петух ведь клюнул. Администрация пообещала оплатить для этих пятерых детей частный подвоз на внедорожнике. А пока предложила детей отправить в интернат и забирать домой либо на выходные, либо на каникулы. Такое вот внесемейное воспитание получится. Ну, для наших чиновников дело привычное — расстаются со своими родными чадами надолго, отправляя на учебу за границу, бедолаги. Вот, видно, и решили, что для родителей, чьи дети будут всего лишь в каком-то десятке километров, вполне приемлемо видеться с ними раз в неделю.
Ремонт разрушенной дороги, как это обычно у нас бывает, в неопределенной перспективе. Грустное слово — «неопределенная». Но обнадеживает, что эта история прозвучала уже и в зарубежном издании Daily Mail, так что, глядишь, позорная слава станет дополнительным стимулом решить проблему в кратчайшие сроки. Хочется верить… | 0 |
We Are Change
On note of the suggestive coded messages in Podesta’s emails and suspicion of child trafficking one email in particular discusses convicted House Speaker pedophile Dennis Hastert.
Hastert was convicted and sentenced to a measly 15 months in jail for molesting four boys last April. Hastert paid someone referred to as “Individual A” $3.5 million in hush money . You can read Hasterts indictment here.
In the emails Richard L. “Jake” Siewert, Jr. the head of corporate communications for Goldman Sachs , forwards John Podesta with the subject line: “Tax Breaking News” a politico story about Dennis Hastert. Siewert then says to John Podesta, “Might be time for Denny to vanish to an undisclosed Japanese island.” Podesta never replied or his reply hasn’t been found yet.
“The Justice Department on Thursday announced an indictment against former House Speaker Dennis Hastert for allegedly structuring cash transactions to avoid financial reporting rules and lying to the FBI about his conduct. A grand jury in Illinois charged that Hastert agreed to pay an unnamed individual $3.5 million as part of an effort to conceal “his prior misconduct.”
“Might be time for Denny to vanish to an undisclosed Japanese island.”
Federal Judge Thomas Durkin the judge that sentenced Hastert is quoted calling Hastert, a “serial child molester.”
FBI translator whistle-blower Sibel Edmonds and James Corbett covered the real Dennis Hastert case back in October, 2015, that the mainstream media wouldn’t dare touch pedophilia, blackmail, Graymail and drug money.
In 2015, Sibel launched a social network campaign to expose Dennis Hastert’s real crimes.
Sibel is quoted calling the Hastert scandal “too deep, too dark” and said that it “covers too many people from both sides of the political aisle for it to ever proceed in public.”
Before that in 2009, Sibel Edmonds testified in a deposition after being gagged for years about her personal knowledge of treason, blackmail of Members of Congress, bribery, and other criminal activities, including pedophilia in the government while working as a translator. Specifically Sibel talked about Dennis Hastert years ago on June 1st, 2008. In which Sibel said that, “Hastert was caught on FBI wiretaps accepting bribes from Turkish criminal elements associated with the Turkish government, as documented in Vanity Fair in 2005 and elsewhere .” Sibels history with Dennis Hastert didn’t start there though, before that Edmond’s published a gallery which included Hastert’s picture in response to being gagged.
In her deposition, “Sibel testified that it was well known that Hastert engaged in these activities in non-secure locations and was videotaped” Cynthia McKinney, writes.
Former U.S. representative Cynthia McKinney also knew about the pedophilia within the government in 2005. She grilled Rumsfeld on DynCorp’s child trafficking business selling women and children. None of this is new see our previous article on elite pedophilia on the Franklin cover up, the finders etc. It’s the elite’s dirty little secret so it wouldn’t surprise me if Podesta’s emails really were child trafficking coded messages . Especially since internet sleuths at reddit and /pol/ have connected some shocking dots regarding Podesta and Clinton friends. Even if some of it is far fetched like the Podesta brothers kidnapping of Madeleine Beth McCann doesn’t mean this research should be ignored.
We are at war and to quote Sibel Edmonds one final time.
“Sure. They have all the mega print and TV outlets. But we have the power of numbers, resolve and persistence. And we have this website, the internet and all the social networks and forums that go with it.”
~Sibel Edmonds, writes.
Iv provided a link to Sibel Edmond’s old website, BoilingFrogsPost and several YouTube videos of her and James Corbett’s investigation into the Hastert child abuse scandal. To quote Sibel and James, “P edophiles Run the Government AND No One Gives a Damn!” Do you?
Sibel relentlessly covered the Hastert scandal and fought to tell us the truth now iv been informed that Sibel needs our help we always tell you to support real independent media and journalist. When we say that we don’t only mean us. As alternative media we must stick together to conquer the mainstream media and put the MSM where it belongs in it’s grave. Besides covering the Hastert case Sibel has done a lot over the years if you can please help out and donate to Sibel Edmonds’s www.newsbud.com project kick-starter . We are the future, the mainstream media is in it’s death throes We Are Change the peoples funded media.
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The post WIKILEAKS: Emails Discuss Disgraced House Speaker Pedophile Dennis Hastert appeared first on We Are Change .
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It’s an understatement to say that Republican nominee Donald Trump does not have a good record when it comes to charity and donating to good causes. But as the death knell sounds for his campaign, he still isn’t changing his miserly ways. New reports indicate that Trump graciously allowed the Palm Beach Boys & Girls Club to hold a fundraiser at the Trump International Golf Course in Florida – and then charged them $20,000 for the favor.
“This ‘free’ event is costing us $20,000 between golf and catering fees. What we had hoped for as far as a ‘net’ income for this event has been cut in half (if we are lucky)” complained Mark Casale, vice president of philanthropy for the Boys and Girls Clubs.
The course usually charges around $5,000 and leaves the county off the hook for the rest, but not this time. The annual charitable tournament goes to a different organization every year; it just so happens that this year’s choice was made by District 6 commissioner Melissa McKinlay – who is a Democrat.
“None of this was disclosed to me when given the choice to select a charity. I was under the impression the charity was able to host the event without any charges. Explain to me how this is supposed to be a benefit to the county?” demanded McKinlay in an email. “If I were the Boys & Girls Club, I would pull out. How are smaller charities supposed to be able to afford this? This has placed me and the charity in a very bad position and I am quite upset by it.”
Neither the Trump International Golf Course nor the Trump campaign have responded to requests for comment.
Washington Post reporter David Farenthold has undertaken a minutely detailed investigation into Donald Trump’s charitable past – and found that he has donated far less than he claims to have give n. Most of the money Trump has “donated” was donated to the Trump Foundation by other donors; many charities – including those belonging to veterans’ organizations – were promised donations that were never paid out . It’s been discovered that the “Trump Foundation” was never properly certified to solicit donations in the first place, and Farenthold’s research shows that Trump has been using his “charitable foundation” to launder money through to evade millions in taxes. Trump would charge a starving person for the scraps from his table; he has not a charitable bone in his body. His selfishness is legendary, and we cannot elect such a morally deficient man to the Presidency. | 0 |
“Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.” — Georgia Guidestones By Nathanial Mauka
This is one of the first of ten commandments blazoned across the Georgia Guidestones, an occult monument for which no person or organization has taken credit. Though the monument was commissioned by someone named R.C. Christian more than two decades ago, the true identity of the person who built this specter is still unidentified, and the message is but one of the many examples of a cabalistic desire to cull the population.
There are many more ‘hidden’ in plain sight.
The Georgie Guidestones state :
1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2. Guide reproduction wisely – improving fitness and diversity.
3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
4. Rule passion – faith – tradition – and all things with tempered reason.
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
9. Prize truth – beauty – love – seeking harmony with the infinite.
10.Be not a cancer on the earth – Leave room for nature – Leave room for nature.
Though some of these commandments seem harmless enough, the very first describes the supreme sentiment of the mysterious group of masons who erected the stones. If you want further narrative for what they bode, you don’t have to look far. As Stanford University Professor, Paul Ehrlich , the author of The Population Bomb states ,
“The first task is population control at home. How do we go about it? Many of my colleagues feel that some sort of compulsory birth regulation would be necessary to achieve such control. One plan often mentioned involves the addition of temporary sterilants to water supplies or staple food. Doses of the antidote would be carefully rationed by the government to produce the desired population size.”
We can see clearly that the ‘elite’ class, intent on ridding the planet of its burdensome load, has already poisoned the water of 42 out of 50 states with lead . Pesticides and fertilizers poison the remaining states’ water along with the original 42 states. Male infertility is rising due to these contaminants, and premature births along with miscarriage are more common due to others. If the water doesn’t kill you, it will simply lobotomize you, or at least start the process. Harvard medical has pronounced that fluoridated water lowered IQ scores in children who drank it, and aluminum along with fluoride is a known neurotoxin, also contributing to the rising numbers of Alzheimer’s, Parkinsons, and similar neurodegenerative diseases.
Should poisoning the water be insufficient to keep the population down, we can look to the advice of David Brower, once Executive Director of the Sierra Club and founder of the Friends of the Earth. He suggests that,
“Childbearing [should be]a punishable crime against society, unless the parents hold a government license … All potential parents [should be]required to use contraceptive chemicals, the government issuing antidotes to citizens chosen for childbearing.”
Forced and coerced sterilization at the hands of the Eugenics Board and other bodies is nothing new. Some investigators recently found that 148 female inmates in two California prisons were sterilized between 2006 to 2010 — and there may be 100 more incidents dating back to the late 1990s. One reporter wrote ,
“ The women were signed up for the surgery while they were pregnant and housed at either the California Institution for Women in Corona or Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, which is now a men’s prison.
Former inmates and prisoner advocates maintain that prison medical staff coerced the women, targeting those deemed likely to return to prison in the future.
Crystal Nguyen, a former Valley State Prison inmate who worked in the prison’s infirmary during 2007, said she often overheard medical staff asking inmates who had served multiple prison terms to agree to be sterilized.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s not right,’” Nguyen, 28, said. “ Do they think they’re animals, and they don’t want them to breed anymore? ”
Today vaccines are used in a similar manner to help cull the population against their informed consent. Eugenicist, Bill Gates tried to ‘ field test ’ his HPV vaccine in India on indigenous young girls, but the Indian government eventually brought a stop to this. The Rockefeller family also quietly funds vaccines that alter a woman’s hormones to make her less likely to become pregnant or to maintain a pregnancy. A book titled Disciplining Reproduction by Adele E. Clark explains what the elites were planning as early as the 1930s.
“ Other lines of current immunological contraceptive research continue to seek what, during the 1930s, Max Mason of the Rockefeller Foundation called “anti-hormones”: vaccines to block hormones needed for very early pregnancy and a vaccine to block the hormone needed for the surface of the egg to function properly .”
Barack Obama’s top science advisor , John P. Holdren has also said :
“ A program of sterilizing women after their second or third child, despite the relatively greater difficulty of the operation than vasectomy, might be easier to implement than trying to sterilize men .
The development of a long-term sterilizing capsule that could be implanted under the skin and removed when pregnancy is desired opens additional possibilities for coercive fertility control. The capsule could be implanted at puberty and might be removable, with official permission, for a limited number of births.”
A simple look at the peer-reviewed Plos One site offers over 7,500 additional scientific articles that connect vaccines to sterilization.
Should vaccines or forced implants be insufficient to reduce the number of ‘useless eaters’ in the world, as Henry Kissinger has implied, then there is also the revealing text of Dr. John Colemann, who outlines the aims of a Committee of 300, otherwise known as the original hierarchical organization to plan a New World Order . Among their plans are genocide, war, the installation of dictators, the legalization of drug use, and the normalizing of pornography :
“To bring about depopulation of large cities according to the trial run carried out by the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia. It is interesting to note that Pol Pot’s genocidal plans were drawn up in the US by one of the Club of Rome’s research foundations, and overseen by Thomas Enders, a high-ranking State Department official. It is also interesting that the committee is currently seeking to reinstate the Pol Pot butchers in Cambodia.
“….To cause by means of limited wars in the advanced countries, by means of starvation and diseases in the Third World countries, the death of three billion people by the year 2050, people they call ‘useless eaters.’ The Committee of 300 (Illuminati) commissioned Cyrus Vance to write a paper on this subject of how to bring about such genocide. The paper was produced under the title “Global 2000 Report” and was accepted and approved for action by former President James Earl Carter, and Edwin Muskie, then Secretary of State, for and on behalf of the US Government. Under the terms of the Global 2000 Report, the population of the US is to be reduced by 100 million by the year of 2050.
“……To encourage, and eventually legalize the use of drugs and make pornography an ‘art-form,’ which will be widely accepted and, eventually, become quite commonplace.”
Look no further than Syria , Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey, and a myriad other examples of false flag terrorism . Look no further than the top twenty pharmaceutical companies (all U.S., Illuminati based ) that control almost 99 percent of the world’s massive, ‘legalized’ drug trade. See clearly, the genocide happening around the globe , and the child sex trafficking and pornography which is silently abided in Hollywood, Washington, and in every government circle run by cabal-funded individuals.
Look at the money usurped for the task of culling the masses, as former U.S. Secretary of State and presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton has stated :
“This year, the United States renewed funding of reproductive healthcare through the United Nations Population Fund, and more funding is on the way. The U.S. Congress recently appropriated more than $648 million in foreign assistance to family planning and reproductive health programs worldwide . That’s the largest allocation in more than a decade – since we last had a Democratic president, I might add.”
Furthermore, weather modification, or geoengineering , also known as chemtrails , additionally help the slow kill , or fast degeneration of the human species. NASA has admitted to using these weather altering programs, so there is no sense denying their presence. Aside from spraying lithium, strontium , barium, nano aluminum-coated fiberglass [known as CHAFF], radioactive thorium, cadmium, chromium, nickel, desiccated blood, mold spores, yellow fungus, and more, these chemical concoctions act as a global pandemic to further population control.
Without mention of contaminated food, DARPA contrived control devices, and further attempts to make slaves of the remaining sheeple who live through these demonic efforts, know this; you are swimming in the depopulation agenda. The effects are all around you, and it is high time to put up some kind of resistance.
Nathaniel Mauka is a researcher of the dark side of government and exopolitics, and a staff writer for Waking Times .
This article ( Hidden in Plain Sight – The Global Depopulation Agenda ) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Nathaniel Mauka and WakingTimes.com . It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution and author bio.
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Russia was probably responsible for the deadly bombing of a United Nations humanitarian aid convoy in Syria, American officials said Tuesday, further shredding what remained of a severely weakened agreement between the United States and Russia aimed at halting the war. Aghast at the attack on Monday night, United Nations officials on Tuesday suspended all aid convoys in Syria, describing the bombing as a possible war crime and a cowardly act. The suspension was announced as the United Nations was convening its annual General Assembly meetings in New York, where the Syria war has become the organization’s most anguishing challenge. “Just when we think it cannot get any worse, the bar of depravity sinks lower,” Secretary General Ban said in his opening remarks to the gathering, his last as leader of the United Nations after 10 years. Mr. Ban called the attack on the convoy “sickening, savage and apparently deliberate. ” Publicly, the Obama administration said it held Russia responsible, in its role as a sponsor of the partial agreement that it reached last week with United States. But the Americans still held out the possibility of salvaging the agreement. Benjamin Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser, said Russia should have ensured a halt to air operations in an area where “humanitarian assistance is flowing. ” Privately, American officials said their intelligence information suggested Russian aircraft had actually carried out the attack. The American officials said that the Obama administration wanted to allow Moscow the time and space to investigate and announce its own conclusions about the bombing, which destroyed 18 of 31 trucks authorized to travel to a area in northern Syria. The bombing was the second disaster in three days to subvert the agreement between Russia and the United States, which had called for a weeklong humanitarian aid deliveries, collaboration by the two powers on targeting militant extremists in Syria and a buildup of trust to eventually resume peace talks. On Saturday, an errant American airstrike that was supposed to target Islamic State militants in Syria instead killed 60 people that Syria’s government and its Russian allies identified as Syrian soldiers they suggested that the assault was deliberate, despite American apologies. The United States has the ability to track warplanes and other aircraft in the region — through radar and other sensors — and the Pentagon has determined with “very high probability” that a Russian attack plane was directly over the convoy less than a minute before the airstrike was reported, a senior American official said. “We have a very good picture of the skies over Syria, as well as where there’s activity,” the official said. “We know the plane in question was Russian, not Syrian, and was directly overhead. ” American analysts are assessing photographs of the bomb damage that could be tied to the weapons the carries. They are also checking for any intercepted communications from the Russian pilot to determine why the convoy was struck. “We have no indication that anything other than Russian tactical aircraft were in the air at the time the convoy was struck, to include both strike and reconnaissance aircraft,” said another American official. “We have seen no indication that it was anything other than an airstrike. ” The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing classified intelligence information. Col. John J. Thomas, a spokesman for United States Central Command, told reporters at the Pentagon on Tuesday that warplanes of the coalition that is fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria had not carried out the attack. “We’ll look to the Syrians and the Russians to tell us what they know,” he said. The strike on the trucks, which were carrying critically needed food and medical supplies bound for areas of Syria’s western Aleppo Province, took place shortly after the Syrian military declared that it regarded the partial as over. The convoy, escorted by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, was among the first to try to deliver humanitarian aid to areas under the agreement. Members of the group said its local chief, Omar Barakat, was among at least 12 people killed in the attack, though United Nations officials in Geneva said the death toll was uncertain. The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement that about 20 civilians were killed and much of the aid destroyed. Peter Maurer, the organization’s president, called the attack a “flagrant violation” of international law. While both Syria and Russia denied responsibility for the bombing, the Russian account evolved over 24 hours. Some Russian officials suggested that artillery fire from rebels had hit the convoy. Later, some officials suggested the trucks had been set on fire. On Tuesday afternoon, Russia’s Defense Ministry said a drone video had shown that a “terrorists’ pickup truck” armed with a mortar had accompanied the convoy, the Tass news agency reported. This appeared to raise the possibility that the intended target had been a vehicle of militants. But the drone video shows the aid convoy stationary, at the side of the road, and what appears to be a truck towing a mortar passing by. The video does not appear to establish any further connection between the convoy and the mortar truck, nor anything that would make the convoy a legitimate target. The head of the United Nations agency that coordinates aid, Stephen O’Brien, said the attack would amount to a war crime if it were found to have targeted humanitarian aid workers. He called for an independent investigation. “In terms of aid worker victims, this particular incident of an aerial bombing of an aid convoy is unprecedented in scale,” said Abby Stoddard, who studies attacks on aid workers for Humanitarian Outcomes, a research and advocacy group. Witnesses said multiple strikes had hit the convoy as workers were unloading aid, and then hit rescue workers who arrived to help the injured. United Nations officials said 18 trucks — clearly marked and carrying wheat flour, nine tons of medicine and clothing for about 78, 000 people — were destroyed. Benoit Carpentier, a spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said a hospital had also been destroyed. Aid convoys have endured sniper fire and shelling during the five years of the Syrian conflict, but the attack on Monday is thought to be the first time one was hit by an airstrike. John Kirby, a spokesman for the State Department, called the attack on the convoy an “egregious violation” of the agreement with Russia. Secretary of State John Kerry said he believed the agreement was not dead. Mr. Kerry conferred with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov, and other diplomats representing the International Syria Support Group in New York on Tuesday morning as the United Nations General Assembly session got underway. The support group, a effort to halt the conflict that is led by Mr. Kerry and Mr. Lavrov, planned to hold additional meetings this week. | 1 |
November 3, 2016 @ 3:07 am
Allowing any GdM to enter or remain here is suicidal. Vetting Muslims is like vetting rattlesnakes.
@DonSpilman That Jive ngr has not changed its spots. It blamed America first as it has always done. ‘Slime’s hatred is not a function of our foreign or domestic policy, it is a function of our not being GdM. Never lose sight of Wala wal Bara and Sidi’s explanation of the Barbary Pirates to Jeffersopn, Adams & Franklin. Always bear in mind Sahih Bukhari 4.53.386 and Hedaya 2.216. Liz November 3, 2016 @ 2:41 am
He makes it sound like muslims were totally peaceful until the big, bad west agitated them and created all this blowback. To claim that is to ignore islam’s 1400 year history of war, genocide, oppression, domination, terror, and tyrannical expansionism. Western leftist/liberal politicians merely kindled the flames of jihad that were already there. | 0 |
The Dark Agenda Behind Globalism And Open Borders
by Brandon Smith
When people unfamiliar with the liberty movement stumble onto the undeniable fact of the “conspiracy” of globalism they tend to look for easy answers to understand what it is and why it exists. Most people today have been conditioned to perceive events from a misinterpreted standpoint of “Occam’s Razor” — they wrongly assume that the simplest explanation is probably the right one.
In fact, this is not what Occam’s Razor states. Instead, to summarize, it states that the simplest explanation GIVEN THE EVIDENCE at hand is probably the right explanation.
It has been well known and documented for decades that the push for globalism is a deliberate and focused effort on the part of a select “elite;” international financiers, central bankers, political leaders and the numerous members of exclusive think tanks. They often openly admit their goals for total globalization in their own publications, perhaps believing that the uneducated commoners would never read them anyway. Carroll Quigley, mentor to Bill Clinton and member of the Council on Foreign Relations, is often quoted with open admissions to the general scheme:
“The powers of financial capitalism had (a) far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences. The apex of the systems was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland; a private bank owned and controlled by the world’s central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank… sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world.” – Carroll Quigley, Tragedy And Hope
The people behind the effort to enforce globalism are tied together by a particular ideology, perhaps even a cult-like religion, in which they envision a world order as described in Plato’s Republic. They believe that they are “chosen” either by fate, destiny or genetics to rule as philosopher kings over the rest of us. They believe that they are the wisest and most capable that humanity has to offer, and that through evolutionary means, they can create chaos and order out of thin air and mold society at will.
This mentality is evident in the systems that they build and exploit. For example, central banking in general is nothing more than a mechanism for driving nations into debt, currency devaluation, and ultimately, enslavement through widespread economic extortion. The end game for central banks is, I believe, the triggering of historic financial crisis, which can then be used by the elites as leverage to promote complete global centralization as the only viable solution.
This process of destabilizing economies and societies is not directed by the heads of the various central banks. Instead, it is directed by even more central global institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the Bank for International Settlements, as outlined in revealing mainstream articles like Ruling The World Of Money published by Harpers Magazine.
We also find through the words of globalists that the campaign for a “new world order” is not meant to be voluntary.
“… When the struggle seems to be drifting definitely towards a world social democracy, there may still be very great delays and disappointments before it becomes an efficient and beneficent world system. Countless people … will hate the new world order … and will die protesting against it. When we attempt to evaluate its promise, we have to bear in mind the distress of a generation or so of malcontents, many of them quite gallant and graceful-looking people.” – HG Welles, Fabian Socialist and author of The New World Order
“In short, the ‘house of world order’ will have to be built from the bottom up rather than f rom the top down. It will look like a great ‘booming, buzzing confusion,’ to use William James’ famous description of reality, but an end run around national sovereignty, eroding it piece by piece, will accomplish much more than the old-fashioned frontal assault.” – Richard Gardner, member of the Trilateral Commission, published in the April, 1974 issue of Foreign Affairs
“The New World Order cannot happen without U.S. participation, as we are the single most significant component. Yes, there will be a New World Order, and it will force the United States to change its perceptions.” – Henry Kissinger, World Action Council, April 19, 1994
I could quote globalists all day long, but I think you get the general idea. While some people see globalism as a “natural offshoot” of free markets or the inevitable outcome of economic progress, the reality is that the simplest explanation (given the evidence at hand) is that globalism is an outright war waged against the ideal of sovereign peoples and nations. It is a guerrilla war, or fourth generation warfare, waged by a small group of elites against the rest of us.
A significant element of this war concerns the nature of borders. Borders of nations, states and even towns and villages, are not just lines on a map or invisible barriers in the dirt. This is what the elites and the mainstream media would like us to believe. Instead, borders when applied correctly represent principles; or at least, that is supposed to be their function.
Human beings are natural community builders; we are constantly seeking out others of like-mind and like-purpose because we understand subconsciously that groups of individuals working together can (often but not always) accomplish more. That said, human beings also have a natural tendency to value individual freedom and the right to voluntary association. We do not like to be forced to associate with people or groups that do not hold similar values.
Cultures erect borders because, frankly, people have the right to vet those who wish to join and participate in their endeavors. People also have a right to discriminate against anyone who does not share their core values; or, in other words, we have the right to refuse association with other groups and ideologies that are destructive to our own.
Interestingly, globalists and their mouthpieces will argue that by refusing to associate with those who might undermine our values, it is WE who are violating THEIR rights. See how that works?
Globalists exploit the word “isolationism” to shame sovereignty champions in the eyes of the public, but there is no shame in isolation when such principles as freedom of speech and expression or the right to self defense are on the line. There is also nothing wrong with isolating a prosperous economic model from unsuccessful economic models. Forcing a decentralized free market economy to adopt feudal administration through central banking and government will eventually destroy that model. Forcing a free market economy into fiscal interdependencey with socialist economies will also most likely undermine that culture. Just as importing millions of people with differing values to feed on a nation after it has had socialism thrust upon it is a recipe for collapse.
The point is, some values and social structures are mutually exclusive; no matter how hard you try, certain cultures can never be homogenized with other cultures. You can only eliminate one culture to make room for the other in a border-less world. This is what globalists seek to achieve. It is the greater purpose behind open border policies and globalization – to annihilate ideological competition so that humanity thinks it has no other option but the elitist religion. The ultimate end game of globalists is not to control governments (governments are nothing more than a tool). Rather, their end game is to obtain total psychological influence and eventually consent from the masses.
Variety and choice have to be removed from our environment in order for globalism to work, which is a nice way to say that many people will have to die and many principles will have to be erased from the public consciousness. The elites assert that their concept of a single world culture is the pinnacle principle of mankind, and that there is no longer any need for borders because no other principle is superior to theirs. As long as borders as a concept continue to exist there is always the chance of separate and different ideals rising to compete with the globalist philosophy. This is unacceptable to the elites.
This has led not so subtle propaganda meme that cultures that value sovereignty over globalism are somehow seething cauldrons of potential evil. Today, with the rising tide of anti-globalist movements, the argument in the mainstream is that “populists” (conservatives) are of a lower and uneducated class and are a dangerous element set to topple the “peace and prosperity” afforded by globalist hands. In other words, we are treated like children scrawling with our finger paints across a finely crafted Mona Lisa. Once again, Carroll Quigley promotes (or predicts) this propaganda decades in advance when he discusses the need for “working within the system” for change instead of fighting against it:
“For example, I’ve talked about the lower middle class as the backbone of fascism in the future. I think this may happen. The party members of the Nazi Party in Germany were consistently lower middle class. I think that the right-wing movements in this country are pretty generally in this group.” – Carroll Quigley, from Dissent: Do We Need It?
The problem is that these people refuse to confront the fruits of globalization that can be observed so far. Globalists have had free reign over most of the world’s governments for at least a century, if not longer. As a consequence of their influences, we have had two World Wars, the Great Depression, the Great Recession which is still ongoing, too many regional conflicts and genocides to count and the systematic oppression of free agent entrepreneurs, inventors and ideas to the point that we are now suffering from social and financial stagnation.
The globalists have long been in power, yet, the existence of borders is blamed for the storm of crises we have endured for the past hundred years? Liberty champions are called “deplorable” populists and fascists while globalists dodge blame like slimy slithering eels?
This is the best card the globalists have up their sleeve, and it is the reason why I continue to argue that they plan to allow conservative movements to gain a measure of political power in the next year, only to pull the plug on international fiscal life support and blame us for the resulting tragedy.
There is no modicum of evidence to support the notion that globalization, interdependencey and centralization actually work. One need only examine the economic and immigration nightmare present in the EU to understand this. So, the globalists will now argue that the world is actually not centralized ENOUGH. That’s right; they will claim we need more globalization, not less, to solve the world’s ailments.
In the meantime, principles of sovereignty have to be historically demonized — the concept of separate cultures built on separate beliefs has to be psychologically equated with evil by future generations. Otherwise, the globalists will never be able to successfully establish a global system without borders.
Imagine, for a moment, an era not far away in which the principle of sovereignty is considered so abhorrent, so racist, so violent and poisonous that any individual would be shamed or even punished by the collective for entertaining the notion. Imagine a world in which sovereignty and conservatism are held up to the next generation as the new “original sins;” dangerous ideas that almost brought about the extinction of man.
This mental prison is where globalists want to take us. We can break free, but this would require a complete reversal of the way in which we participate in society. Meaning, we need a rebellion of voluntary associations. A push for decentralization instead of globalization. Thousands upon thousands of voluntary groups focusing on localization, self reliance and true production. We must act to build a system that is based on redundancy instead of fragile interdependencey. We need to go back to an age of many borders, not less borders, until every individual is himself free to participate in whatever social group or endeavor he believes is best for him, as well as free to defend against people that seek to sabotage him; a voluntary tribal society devoid of forced associations.
Of course, this effort would require unimaginable sacrifice and a fight that would probably last a generation. To suggest otherwise would be a lie. I can’t possibly convince anyone that a potential future based on a hypothetical model is worth that sacrifice. I have no idea whether it is or is not. I can only point out that the globalist dominated world we live in today is clearly doomed. We can argue about what comes next after we have removed our heads from the guillotine.
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Peter Brimelow/Steve Curtis Audio Available–“Peter Brimelow–Longterm Immigrant” > November 7, 2016, 10:39 am
The audio for this morning’s interview with Steve Curtis is up–the headline says “Peter Brimelow–Longterm Immigrant”
Brimelow, who first came to the US on Fulbright Scholarship (and then left again, as required by conditions of that scholarship) has been an American citizen since 1994. Here’s his description of that process, from a debate on Dual Citizenship:
Okay, okay, I know it sounds too good to be true. But the question of dual citizenship really was hotly discussed in a crowd of my fellow Americans-to-be as we all waited patiently for the judge to arrive and administer the Oath of Allegiance one summer day back in 1994. The woman behind me reflected the consensus. “Of course!” she forcefully declared to general approval, in the event of another military draft she would send her children back to the Caribbean — which she could do precisely because they all were retaining their original citizenship. While waiting to “swear allegiance”! With court officers all around!
Then the judge arrived. He swore us in and told us we were now as good Americans as anyone whose family had been here 10 generations (translation: you don`t have to assimilate), and that the United States still had a major problem: racism (i.e., vote Democratic). Obviously my Caribbean friend knew something I didn`t.
Intimate contact with the immigration process is one reason we immigrants usually are so much less romantic about immigration than are American intellectuals and policy wonks. | 0 |
WikiLeaks has released another batch of emails from Clinton campaign chair John Podesta.
The whistleblowing site has published more than 50,000 emails in the lead up to the presidential election on Tuesday. Today’s trache contains 2074 new emails.
Saturday’s release contained transcripts from Bill Clinton’s fundraising speeches, which included the former president attacking UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and discussing the need for a tough leader to “enforce the trigger that will re-impose sanctions†should Iran violate the nuclear deal.
Also included are examples of Clinton aides worrying “there are no good answers†to questions about the Clinton Foundation.
Chelsea Clinton using Foundation money for wedding
A January 2012 email chain from longtime Clinton adviser and former Clinton Foundation fundraiser Doug Band accuses Chelsea Clinton of using Foundation money for her wedding.
“The investigation into her getting paid for campaigning, using foundation resources for her wedding and life for a decade, taxes on money from her parents….†Band says to Podesta.
Band dislikes Chelsea Clinton particularly as she was investigating his role in the Foundation and appears often in the Podesta emails.
“I hope that you will speak to her and end this once we go down this road‌†Band says.
Podesta complains about ‘f*cking psychotic†media
In an email from July 2015, Neera Tanden, Clinton aide and president of the Center for American Progress, goes on a tirade about the press being “psychotic†in reference to a Politico article by Dylan Byers, which highlighted Podesta’s concern over the “psychosis of the media.â€
“They are f*cking psychotic,†Podesta sums up, in regards to the press, at the end of the chain with Tanden.
Billionaire Saban directs campaign strategy
An email thread from July 2015 reveals the level of influence billionaire Haim Saban, one of the Clintons’ biggest donors, has on Hillary’s presidential campaign.
Unlike many donors, who have to go through intermediaries to get high up campaign access, Saban’s case appears to be different. In the email to Podesta and campaign manager Robby Mook, Saban requests a discussion, writing, “Can one of you please call me at your earliest convenience? Tx.â€
After Podesta and Mook get in touch with Saban, Podesta writes, “Haim thinks we are under reacting to Trump/Hispanics. Thinks we can get something by standing up for Latinos or attacking R’s for not condemning.â€
Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton’s Director of Communications weighs in, â€Haim is right – we should be jamming this all the time.â€
“A and X – can we think about what else we should do?” she asks Clinton staffers Amanda Renteria and Xochitl Hinojosa. “Issue a broader challenge? Do something tied to Fourth of July were we declared all equal? Get CHC to do a letter?â€
Brent Budowsky happy Supreme Court deadlock
An email from February 2012, written by Brent Budowsky, columnist for The Hill, shows how the Clinton ally is advising Podesta on how to make the most of the Supreme Court deadlock.
“I have been looking for this opportunity, which is not as easy as it sounds, but this would be a gift to de-brand the entire Republican party as a whole and mobilize the grassroots Democrats en masse for a sustained period,†Budowsky writes.
He adds, “If Republicans want to make the Supreme Court dysfunctional for a year, we can turn every Republican Senator into Ted Cruz and win a big Senate campaign victory in November. Everything the public hates about Washington is embodied by Republicans here.â€
Getting high-ranking Muslims on board for Clinton campaign
Kamran Bajwa, partner for major law firm Kirkland, sends an email to Podesta in July 2016 highlighting how he has been “reaching out†to American-Muslims who “identify as Americans first and as Muslims†to help with fundraising and volunteering for Clinton.
Bajwa asks Podesta to “please keep this confidential†in relation to the high-ranking Muslims he recommends including Anas Osman, Senior VP at Google Corp, Ahmad Nassar, President of NFL Players, Inc., and Faisal Ashraf, a healthcare entrepreneur.
“I think a good next step would be to have the key committee people I have mentioned meet with you and the leadership team as soon as possible,†Bajwa writes.
Anti-politicians
In August 2015, Tanden emails Podesta to discuss Bernie Sanders. “Is it the assumption of the campaign not to worry about Sanders? I’m having a hard time understanding that so I thought I’d check in,†she says.
“Our trust in government research shows how much people are feeling let down by politicians, which is fueling a real antipathy to the political class. In that world, I can understand the rise of Sanders and Trump -anti-politicians to say the least.†she says.
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The new immigration reforms announced Jan. 25 by President Donald Trump include a comprehensive range of measures that put the full weight of the federal government behind his campaign promise to shut down illegal immigration. [The extensive reforms of rules against illegal immigration were unpacked Wednesday afternoon by alarmed immigration lawyers, including Greg Siskind and David Leopold, a former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. The association’s members help bring roughly one million legal immigrants and roughly one million temporary contract workers into the United States each year. Here’s a list of very important measures hidden in the details. For example, immigration officers are being allowed the ability to enforce the law as they see fit. Under Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, the officers were merely robots under the slow and control of D. “civil rights” lawyers, whose first priorities were the political interests of their political bosses. Trump’s Exec Order gives low level ICE bureaucrats unchecked power to declare someone an #immigration enforcement priority. Outrageous, — David Leopold (@DavidLeopold) January 25, 2017, A Bloomberg columnist underlined the importance of the new freedom for officers. Ex Order on Sanctuaries may not budge local govts but makes every undoc immig a target for removal. Empowers agents to judge. — Francis Wilkinson (@fdwilkinson) January 25, 2017, Garance is the of Yahoo. com’s politics news service. She highlighted a report showing that the broader rules help immigration officers to send illegals home after committing common crimes, such as identity theft. Thats very different from Obama’s policies, which limited deportations to illegals who committed felonies or major violent crimes. Trump EO also dramatically expands ”criminal” category for purposes of deportation https: . pic. twitter. — Garance (@thegarance) January 25, 2017, Siskind Tweeted his analysis of Trump’s orders, section by section. Section 1 states that people who enter the US without inspection threaten ”national security and public safety” . — (((Greg Siskind))) (@gsiskind) January 25, 2017, This Tweet those that by declaring illegal immigrants to be national security threats, Trump offers immigration agencies more legal pathways to quickly return the migrants to their homelands, sometime bypassing civil lawsuits. Section 3. Definitions. ot much interesting here except ”wall” is defined as a wall or a fence. Hah! ”operational control” means zero entries, — (((Greg Siskind))) (@gsiskind) January 25, 2017, That’s an important indication of support for a fence, versus a wall. Border officers say a fence is better than a wall, because it allows them to spot approaching problems through the fence. Also, Trump’s decision to set”operational control” at zero means that zero illegal crosses is the desired and very ambitious measure of success. c. project and develop funding to build the wall including congressional budget requests (wait — I thought Mexico was paying? ). — (((Greg Siskind))) (@gsiskind) January 25, 2017, Okay, by saying Congress will fund construction and staffing of the barrier, Trump commits himself to finding other funds to offset Congress’ checks. Those funds could include taxes on money sent to Mexico by illegal immigrants, or maybe even savings from welfare funds no longer being spent on illegal migrants. Section 6. Detention for Illegal Entry. DHS will detain apprehended people until the outcome of their removal proceedings (already happens). — (((Greg Siskind))) (@gsiskind) January 25, 2017, This detention requirement is huge because it means the end of President Barack Obama’s “catch and release” policy. The Obama policy has forced officers to release many migrants once they cross the border, allowing the migrants to join their extended families throughout the United States. In contrast, Trump’s plan will deter migrants, who will know that if they are caught, they must spend days or months in U. S. detention facilities before being sent home to face unpaid and angry coyotes. Section 7. Return to Territory. DHS shall ensure people are returned 2 the place from which they came pending a formal removal proceeding if, — (((Greg Siskind))) (@gsiskind) January 25, 2017, That’s also big, because it means that Trump will return migrants home until lawyers and perhaps courts decide if they can win asylum in the United States. That initial return will also deter migration because migrants will know they can’t get a job in the United States while their legal claims are processed over months or years. Section 9. Foreign Aid Reporting Requirements. Agencies will review all sources of aid to Mexico over the last five years. — (((Greg Siskind))) (@gsiskind) January 25, 2017, Here’s where Trump’s deputies are building more leverage against Mexico. By calculating where the aid money is going, they’ll be able to nudge the Mexican government towards payments — or face the additional threat of losing aid funds. Local law enforcement officials will have authority to perform the functions of immigration officers. — (((Greg Siskind))) (@gsiskind) January 25, 2017, This is important too, because it means the Justice Department can fund state and local cops to pick up illegal immigrants for repatriation by the Department of Homeland Security. This rule means that illegals living far from the border can now expect repatriation orders when they’re arrested for minors crimes, such as fights, thefts, and other offenses that have been ignored by deputies working for Obama and Bush. Section 11. Parole, Asylum and Removal. ”It is the policy of the exec branch to end the abuse of parole and asylum provisions currently( ) — (((Greg Siskind))) (@gsiskind) January 25, 2017, This “parole” rule shuts an backdoor created by Obama’s deputies. Under Obama, many illegals were given permission to return to the United States under “parole” prior to taking a quick trip home. This early permission meant that the illegals — including many students enrolled in American colleges — could the United States legally and then start applying for various forms of residency and amnesty. DHS shall take actions to ensure asylum fear screenings conducted in manner consistent w plain language of those provisions, — (((Greg Siskind))) (@gsiskind) January 25, 2017, This “plain language” rule shuts down Obama’s program for allowing Central American migrants into the United States. So far, at least 350, 000 unskilled Central American migrants have been allowed to apply by asylum by claiming they have a “credible fear” of violence if they return home. Sec. 16. Hiring. OPM will facilitate hiring to implement the order. — (((Greg Siskind))) (@gsiskind) January 25, 2017, This hiring rule means that Trump’s top deputies will use of the White House’s Office of Personnel Management to pick the people tasked with enforcing the new policy. This direction can help bypass bureaucratic opposition within various agencies. Officials have already announced the hiring of a D. C. lobbyist to help run the Customs and Border Protection agency. “Julie Kirchner, the former executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) has been named chief of staff at U. S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) the largest federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS),” said a Jan. 23 statement from the Southern Poverty Law Center. The new rules also create a new office to help spotlight the suffering of Americans attacked by illegal immigrants. That p. r. office will provide a steady supply of news and drama to focus public attention on crimes by illegal immigrants — and it will also help defeat claims by advocates of immigration that Trump is breaking up families of illegal immigrants. Trump presented the p. r. strategy at his Wednesday speech where he talked up his new rules. He told his cheering audience at the Department of Homeland Security that: For years the media has largely ignored the stories of Americans and lawful residents victimized by open borders. To all of those hurting out there, I repeat to you these words. We hear you, we see you and you will never, ever be ignored again. As I travel the country, I had the chance to get to know mothers who have lost their children to violence spilling over the border. I want to thank the Remembrance Project — such incredible people — for giving these families a voice. They are called Angel Mom’s for good reason because they are a voice to protect all of America’s children. Their children have not died in vain, believe me. Pundits talk about how enforcing immigration laws can separate illegal immigrant families, but the families they don’t talk about are the families of Americans. Forever separated from the people they love, they don’t talk about that ever. As your president, I have no higher duty than to protect the lives of the American people. Overall, Siskind, Leopold and other advocates of diversity say Trump’s popular reforms are a disaster for their political goals. That’s it. Now go out and let your legislators know this is terrible. — (((Greg Siskind))) (@gsiskind) January 25, 2017, The President is now in violation of his oath of office. — David Leopold (@DavidLeopold) January 20, 2017, However, Trump has yet to announce many of the other labor and immigration reforms he promised during the election. Top of the list is a new law from Congress requiring companies to check that possible hires are allowed to work in the United States. The reformers also want Trump to deploy a system so that officials know when legal visitors, such as tourists or temporary workers, have left the country. The system would help reduce the number of “overstay” illegal workers. Congress has repeatedly authorized the deployment of the tracking system since the atrocity, but has not provided the needed funds. In 2015 roughly 500, 000 foreign visitors overstayed their visas, according to a government report. The reformers also want Trump to reverse Obama regulations which sharply increased the inflow of foreign professionals who compete for professional jobs sought by young American graduates. Trump is coming under criticism from immigration reformers for not immediately stopping the renewal of work permits given to roughly 750, 000 illegal immigrants by Obama’s 2012 . Throughout his term, Obama increased the inflow of legal immigrants so much that his agencies brought one migrant into the United States for every two births during the first half of 2016, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. For much of his tenure, Obama’s agencies annually imported one million new legal immigrants plus one million foreign contract workers, even as 4 million young Americans annually entered the job market. By a lopsided margin, most Americans believe companies should hire Americans before hiring additional immigrants. Trump’s policies are mostly opposed by business groups and by many GOP leaders, especially House Speaker Paul Ryan. The GOP’s leadership tend to favor a economic strategy. For example, Ryan has repeatedly argued that business needs an extra supply of foreign workers and professionals above the natural supply of four million Americans who join the labor force each year, and he argues that foreign workers are needed to prevent any wage increases for American workers. The current inflow of cheap foreign workers cuts’ Americans salaries and effectively transfers roughly $500 billion a year from pay packets into investors’ profits, according to calculations by Professor George Borjas, a Harvard researcher. | 1 |
Как отмечает в своей новой статье ветеран боевых действий США Гордон Даф, сегодня в «большой региональной игре» стороны меняют свою приверженность настолько же быстро, насколько заключают новые союзы. Так, Турция и Саудовская Аравия планируют усилить поддержку ДАИШ, пока Вашингтон занимает неопределенную позицию по этому вопросу. Тель-Авив, со своей стороны, посылает недвусмысленные сигналы о том, что все контакты с Белым домом «отныне нужно держать через него», на что уже, судя по всему, отреагировал Иран, который помнит обещания Трампа об отмене договора по иранской ядерной программе. После того, как боевики ХАМАС начали переправляться ЦРУ в лагеря подготовки ДАИШ, практически ни одна из региональных держав публично не возражает против дальнейшей оккупации Израилем палестинских территорий. В условиях, когда роль США сокращается в регионе, а Анкара и Тель-Авив значительно усиливают свои позиции, встает вопрос: не попытаются ли они ударить Москве в спину? С полной версией статьи вы можете ознакомиться здесь . Популярные статьи | 0 |
A college professor in Puerto Rico created a new mobile app to make a game out of stopping President Donald Trump’s border walls. [Professor Carlos Marcial Torres created a new mobile app game based on the classic hit Tetris. The app is titled, “Stop the Wall. ” He opens the game with a screen depicting President Trump. “The game is ‘reactionary.’ Reacting to Trump’s xenophobic, racist and hate phrases and thoughts. We use technology to combat all that,” Torres, 33, Al Dia reported. Torres added many “Trump phrases” into the game, and at one point he adds, “The wall just got 10 feet taller,” followed by, “I would build a great wall and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me. ” The game is distributed both on iTunes and Google Play. Google says the game has been downloaded to Android devices between 100 and 500 times, while Apple does not indicate the number of downloads. Apple does say the app has not received enough ratings to have a displayed average rating. The game’s description on the download page states: Finally, a game based on a classic block puzzle where you have to stop Donald Trump’s Wall of Infamy. Have fun while being socially conscious. Compete against your friends to see who can #StopTheWall longer. Share your high scores with all the people in your social networks. Invite your friends (and even Donald Trump) to try and beat your high score. Torres continues, saying, “The immigration issue is one of the most important and significant of the moment, and Trump is one of the most followed guys in the world. ” He said people from countries all over the world have been downloading his app. Those include Taiwan, Australia, the U. S. Mexico, China, Norway and the United Kingdom. The professor claims he also built the app to protest the lack of economic support of local filmmakers by the Puerto Rican government. Torres ends the game with more “Trumpisms,” and a score screen stating “#MakeAmericaMexicoAgain. ” “Build that wall, build that wall, build that wall” and “Mexico will pay for the wall, and they’re going to be happy about it,” players hear when signing out of the app. Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook. | 1 |
on November 4, 2016 12:25 pm ·
We’ve all seen pictures of the Trumps in their home surrounded by tacky gold decor, complete with their young son Barron in a suit with toys in front of him while he stares at the camera off to the side of his parents. It’s a life most of us can never imagine while we’re paying our monthly bills. So what’s it like growing up with Donald Trump as a father? According to Scott Melker, a former classmate of Donald Trump Jr.’s, at the University of Pennsylvania, being the former reality show star’s son wasn’t what one might imagine. Or, given Trump’s temperament, it might be exactly what you’d imagine.
On Facebook , Mekler told of the animosity Trump’s son had for this father.
“I was hanging out in a freshman dorm with some friends, next door to Donald Jr.’s room. I walked out of the room to find Donald Trump at his son’s door, there to pick him up for a baseball game,” he recalls. “There were quite a few students standing around watching, trying to catch a glimpse of the famed real estate magnate. Don Jr. opened the door, wearing a Yankee jersey.”
Then Mekler told of the moment Trump slapped his son in the face in front of others.
“Without saying a word, his father slapped him across the face, knocking him to the floor in front of all of his classmates. He simply said “put on a suit and meet me outside,” and closed the door,” Melker wrote.
“Donald Jr. was a drunk in college. Every memory I have of him is of him stumbling around campus falling over or passing out in public, with his arm in a sling from injuring himself while drinking,” he continued. “He absolutely despised his father, and hated the attention that his last name afforded him. His nickname was “Diaper Don,” because of his tendency to fall asleep drunk in other people’s beds and urinate.” “I always felt terrible for him,” he continued.
Mekler said part of his reason for voting for Hillary Clinton is because “in light of what I saw that day, it is clear to me that Donald Trump lacks the temperament and basic social decency to run our country.”
To be clear, we are not demonizing Trump’s son for having an alleged drinking problem during his college days. Whether Melker’s story is accurate or not, we’re not sure, but given Trump’s awful temper, it’s difficult to discount it.
Photo by Saul Loeb-Pool via Getty. Share this Article! Share on Facebook Author: Conover Kennard Conover makes tea partiers cry as a hobby. She was Commander of Jade Helm15 during the failed takeover of the South. She's also one of the biggest arseholes on Twitter. At night, she can be found drinking Conservative tears while pulling off the wings of flies just because she can. She is the founder of a Marxist, Commie, Maoist, Socialist site and has contributed to several other sites, blah blah blah. She is an awful person but she doesn't like to brag about that. Search | 0 |
Faced with the demoralizing prospect of a third consecutive loss in a presidential race, conservative Republicans are girding for an extended clash on two fronts in the months ahead: one with a Hillary Clinton administration that could look like a reprise of the partisan battles of the 1990s, and another with Republican leaders on Capitol Hill who rejected Donald J. Trump. Though a victory by Mrs. Clinton is far from a foregone conclusion, what does seem clear is that the frustrations and anxieties that fueled Mr. Trump’s rise will not be fleeting. And a defeat of Mr. Trump — which he has already darkly alluded to as part of a plot to disenfranchise his supporters — could further inflame those on the right whose goal all along has been to disrupt the country’s political system. Some of the loudest voices on the right seem poised to channel that anger into one of their favorite and most frequent pursuits: eating their own. Some in the deeply factionalized Republican Party, including Mr. Trump and some of his senior aides, are already fanning the flames for a revolt against the House speaker, Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, once Congress reconvenes after the election. Mr. Trump, who has lashed out at the speaker for being critical of him, has privately said that Mr. Ryan should pay a price for his disloyalty, according to two people close to Mr. Trump who insisted on anonymity to describe internal campaign discussions. Mr. Trump made his frustrations plain on Tuesday. “The people are very angry with the leadership of this party, because this is an election that we will win, 100 percent, if we had support from the top,” he said in an interview with Reuters. (He hastened to add, “I think we’re going to win it anyway. ”) Mr. Trump’s role in a postelection Republican Party is far from clear. Though some of his senior advisers have discussed the possibility that he would continue to be a vocal and visible antagonist to Mrs. Clinton — much as Sarah Palin was to President Obama — it is unclear that he would have any interest in doing so. Mr. Trump’s campaign chairman, Stephen K. Bannon, the provocative chairman of Breitbart News, made Mr. Ryan a frequent target of its coverage while he ran the website and is said to be particularly intent on forcing Mr. Ryan out. And Mr. Bannon, who declined to be interviewed for this article, would be able to pick up at Breitbart where he left off: as a persistent irritant to the Republican establishment. In interviews, Mr. Trump’s supporters said they were determined to harness the energy that Mr. Trump had catalyzed and to refocus it on the Republican leadership in Congress — a target many of them seem just as eager to take down as they are to bring down Mrs. Clinton. “There’s a huge chunk of people who want to see a fight taken to D. C.,” said Representative Dave Brat, Republican of Virginia and a member of the House Freedom Caucus, which has pressed Mr. Ryan on several issues since he became speaker last year. Mr. Brat said many conservatives remained perplexed as to why Mr. Ryan and Republican leaders would choose to criticize Mr. Trump rather than focus their energy on Mrs. Clinton. “Leadership comes and smacks our guy?” Mr. Brat said. “That’s where you’re going to put down a marker? Really? And the American people are just scratching their head saying, ‘Really? That’s rich. ’” Mr. Brat’s advice for Mr. Ryan: “He’d better pivot. He’d better pivot hard. ” Representative Warren Davidson of Ohio, another Freedom Caucus member, warned Republican leaders to proceed cautiously on the issues most central to Mr. Trump’s candidacy: trade and immigration. “You can’t ignore what millions and millions of people have expressed in this election cycle,” Mr. Davidson said. A spokeswoman for Mr. Ryan, AshLee Strong, reiterated his plans to focus his efforts on House races, and not on the presidential campaign. “Speaker Ryan is fighting to ensure we hold a strong majority next Congress, and he is always working to earn the respect and support of his colleagues,” Ms. Strong said. Waiting to assume the role of the dogged opposition are news media and political entities that thrive on and profit from challenging Republican leaders. There is Breitbart, which over the weekend ran a article, headlined “He’s With Her,” excoriating Mr. Ryan as complicit in an increasingly likely Clinton victory. There is Citizens United, the group that Mr. Trump’s deputy campaign manager, David N. Bossie, ran until August. A tenacious critic of Mrs. Clinton’s that has aggressively pursued the release of her private emails, Citizens United was one of several groups that put pressure on former Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio to resign as speaker. It has cautioned Mr. Ryan not to follow in Mr. Boehner’s footsteps in cutting deals considered anathema to the Republican base. And there is Roger Stone, a political provocateur and longtime adviser to Mr. Trump who has worked to pressure the Republican establishment for years. Also seeking greater influence are groups like Heritage Action for America and FreedomWorks, which push Republican lawmakers to adopt a more fiscally conservative, approach. In recent days, leaders of both groups have joined other conservatives in calling for the House to delay a vote on picking a candidate to be the next speaker, which usually takes place right after the November elections. “If the party doesn’t learn lessons and change based on what’s gone on for the last year and a half, I think it’s going to be just catastrophe,” said Michael Needham, the chief executive of Heritage Action. Still, Mr. Ryan has a bulwark of support, even among members whose districts are rife with Trump supporters. Representative Peter T. King of New York said he did not think Mr. Ryan’s opponents had the votes to block his . But he added that they could make life miserable for Mr. Ryan if Republicans lose enough seats to leave them with a very thin majority. “I think you’d find a real backlash, and a real reaction to that, I’d say, from a solid majority of the Republican conference,” Mr. King said of efforts to remove Mr. Ryan. “You can’t take people who are going to use their veto power and put them in charge. ” Newt Gingrich, a former speaker who has advised Mr. Trump throughout the campaign, also warned that damaging Mr. Ryan would be much more difficult than it might seem from afar. “I think it is a dead end, and I would not advise any of my friends to waste a lot of energy on it,” he said. Few are as eager to challenge their own party as Mr. Bannon, a former naval officer who is given to saying that the Marquess of Queensberry rules, the code of conduct for fisticuffs, do not apply to politics. Mr. Bannon will leave the Trump campaign having blended its brand of populism with Breitbart’s, while stirring up millions of voters who might not have visited the website before — giving him an outlet that could become even more powerful in his battles against the Republican Party. Mr. Gingrich agreed that the divisions the election has exposed were not likely to heal quickly, especially on Capitol Hill. “Read ‘The Jungle Book,’” he said. “The oldest wolf is ultimately defeated as leader — great lesson for young politicians. ” | 1 |
A Queens woman admitted pushing another woman to her death in front of a subway train in Times Square, prosecutors said in court on Tuesday, but the woman denied that she had confessed. At her arraignment in Criminal Court in Manhattan, the woman, Melanie 30, pleaded not guilty to a murder charge. The police said Ms. pushed Connie Watton, 49, of Queens, in front of a southbound No. 1 train at the busy Times Street station around 1:20 p. m. on Monday. Prosecutors said in a statement read by Justice Gerald Lebovits of State Supreme Court that two witnesses saw Ms. push Ms. Watton. “This is a strong case with multiple eyewitnesses, and the defendant has admitted to the crime,” Matthew Thiman, an assistant district attorney, said in court. Ms. standing next to her lawyer, seemed surprised. “What?” she said. “I did not admit to nothing. ” Her lawyer, Mathew Mari, said his client maintained her innocence. “She was adamant that she did not confess,” he said, “and she is not guilty. ” The police described Ms. as emotionally disturbed, but Mr. Mari said he was unaware of her medical history and had not spoken to any of her relatives. “She told me that she had some kind of medical history, but she wouldn’t go into it,” Mr. Mari said. He said that he spent about 15 minutes with Ms. before her appearance on Tuesday, and that she had been calm but not very talkative. “She didn’t have very much to say other than, quote, she is not guilty,” he said. “And she didn’t want to discuss anything else. ” Ms. has no criminal convictions and has lived at the same address in Queens for three years, he said. She worked as a home aide until about two or three weeks ago, he said, but did not say why she was no longer employed. Justice Lebovits, filling in at the lower court on Election Day, granted the district attorney’s request that Ms. be held without bail. He set her next appearance for Thursday. No relatives of Ms. Watton or Ms. were in court. At Ms. Watton’s apartment building in Astoria, Queens, a friend of the family said her husband, Robert, did not want to talk. | 1 |
ISTANBUL — The Turkish government on Tuesday expanded its crackdown on political opponents, dismissing an additional 15, 000 civil servants from their jobs and shutting down 375 organizations, including nine more news outlets. More than 100, 000 public workers, including police officers, teachers, soldiers and others, had already been fired for what the authorities said were connections to a failed coup on July 15 or to terrorists. The new wave of dismissals came on a morning when the European Parliament was scheduled to debate freezing accession talks for Turkey to join the European Union. It was one of several recent indicators that the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was abandoning hope of success in that process, which has dragged on for 11 years. Mr. Erdogan has been defiant, saying it was time that the European Union made up its mind on Turkey’s membership, and threatening to hold a nationwide referendum on whether to continue the talks. A recent European Commission report expressed concern that Turkey’s worsening record on human rights and press freedom was making accession increasingly difficult. The Turkish president has advocated bringing back the death penalty, which is banned in European Union countries as a condition of membership, and he has ordered a thorough crackdown on the country’s news media, with 129 outlets now closed. Human rights advocates have also been alarmed by a measure, favored by Mr. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, to declare an amnesty for an estimated 3, 000 to 4, 000 men convicted of child abuse and rape, provided they have married their victims. The measure, which applies to what it calls “consensual” cases of child marriage, was scheduled to be debated on Tuesday in the Turkish Parliament, but it was instead returned to committee, forestalling an immediate vote. The legislation has infuriated women’s groups in Turkey and has drawn criticism from United Nations agencies. On Monday, a delegation of socialist members of the European Parliament was rebuffed in its attempt to visit Selahattin Demirtas, the jailed leader of Turkey’s leading opposition party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party, at the prison where he has been held in Edirne, in the country’s northwest. Mr. Demirtas is among 10 members of Parliament from that party who have been detained this month over alleged connections with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known by the initials P. K. K. which the government considers a terrorist organization. The government has also deemed followers of the exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen to be terrorists, blaming them for the attempted coup. A government decree on Tuesday said that 375 groups from various cities had been ordered shut down for what it said were links with terrorists, along with nine news outlets. All the financial assets and property of those organizations were to be seized by the Treasury. The decree said that more than 15, 000 public employees were to be dismissed, including 338 soldiers, 404 military police officers and more than 7, 500 police officers. All of their passports were canceled, it added. The decree stated that all of them were “related, belonging to or in contact with terror organizations and structures that are considered by the National Security Council as acting against national security. ” The decree was issued under emergency powers granted to Mr. Erdogan’s government by Parliament after the failed coup. Parliament extended those powers on Oct. 11 for an additional three months. Members of the European Parliament have been strongly critical of Turkey’s crackdown on opponents and on the news media. After debating the issue in Strasbourg, France, on Tuesday, they are expected to vote on Thursday to put a temporary halt to accession talks with Turkey. The vote is designed to ratchet up pressure on Turkey to curtail its repressive tactics. Although the resolution already has the backing of the main political groups in the European Parliament, the vote will not be binding because of the European Union’s complicated procedures. Any decision to freeze the talks must be made by other branches of the union. The European Commission, the bloc’s executive body, or of European Union member states would first need to make a formal proposal to do so, and a majority of the member states would have to vote in favor of the move for it to pass. Many of the Turkish organizations shut down on Tuesday were charities or professional bodies, such as a nationwide group called Our Agenda Is Kids, based in the capital, Ankara the Endoscopy and Laparoscopy Training Association and the Pancreatic Islet Cell Research Association. Some of the organizations had connections to leftist groups or to followers of Mr. Gulen, but others seemed to have no political links at all. | 1 |
MONESSEN, Pa. — Thirty years have passed, almost to the day, since the last blasts of the steel furnaces that were the reason for this city’s existence. The steel mill is gone — used to film “RoboCop,” then demolished. Most of the people are gone, too, and those who remain are struggling to find a new purpose for this place. Last week, Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, came here to declare that as president, he would revive the fortunes of the American steel industry — and, by implication, Monessen. “We are going to put steel back into the backbone of our country,” Mr. Trump told 200 invited guests at an aluminum recycling facility that occupies part of the old mill complex. “This alone will create massive numbers of jobs. ” In fact, about 71 percent of the steel used last year in the United States was made in the United States, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. The mills in Monessen and other cities along the Monongahela River were not replaced by Chinese factories but by smaller, more efficient factories in other parts of the country. Having lived through that transition, the people here surrendered hope of a revival long ago. They are focused on smaller dreams, like scraping together a few million dollars to knock down hundreds of abandoned buildings, which might clear the way for the city to start over. “Our government spent $10 to $12 million looking for that Malaysian airliner,” said Louis Mavrakis, the city’s Democratic mayor, who said that he had written two unanswered letters to President Obama before extending an invitation to Mr. Trump. “Act like I’m a foreign country. Give me $5 million and I can get rid of this blight. ” Monessen’s bolder visions are of something postindustrial and modern, like in Pittsburgh, 35 miles north. “We’re dying rather than letting something new grow and move forward,” said Charles Mrlack, 42, who owns a plumbing and contracting business. The problem, he said, is that older residents know that steel is not coming back, but they cannot imagine anything else. “Everybody is just defeated,” he said. Monessen was created by steel magnates who built factories in a stretch of flatlands along the Monongahela. By 1930, more than 20, 000 people lived in the long, narrow downtown, or on the steep slopes behind. Workers here rolled steel for Chrysler cars and cables for the Golden Gate Bridge. The city’s golden age lasted into the 1960s. Older residents — and they are mostly older — still remember a downtown so crowded that people had to walk in the streets. The Pittsburgh region’s steelmaking capacity fell to 7. 1 million tons in 2008, from 25. 4 million tons in 1978, according to Frank Giarratani, an economist at the University of Pittsburgh who studies the industry. During that same period, the number of area steelworkers fell to 15, 500 from 85, 000. What are the chances that steel will again be made in Monessen? “There is no possibility of that under any circumstances,” Mr. Giarratani said. Monessen’s largest factory, the massive Wheeling Pittsburgh steel mill, closed in 1986. The city’s population continues to fall, dropping below 7, 500 last year. The sewer system is collapsing, and erosion is undermining streets and sidewalks. It is getting harder for the high school football team to fill its roster. For years, residents dreamed that a new company would take over the old factory. But in the a county redevelopment authority decided to demolish the core of the old mill complex and to make the other buildings available to smaller companies. All four of Matt Shorraw’s grandparents worked at the Monessen steel mill, but his parents did not. They had seen the writing on the wall. For Mr. Shorraw, 25, the giant mill that once dominated the city is barely a memory. “I remember when they tore the blast furnaces down,” he said. “It was a big deal. My dad took me. I was 5. ” A few hundred people now work for other businesses on the site, including at the aluminum recycling facility where Mr. Trump spoke last week. One former tenant, a glassmaking company, was feted as a success story by the Obama administration in 2011. It closed the next year, a victim of the collapse in the industry. Josh Turkovich, 33, said he would have liked a steady job at the local mill. “You could see the guys who worked there had a good life,” he said, “the car, the house. ” Instead, after graduating from a nearby college, Mr. Turkovich took a job at a Pittsburgh hospital, an hour’s drive each way. Mr. Turkovich is now trying to build a business in Monessen. He repairs cellphones and is renovating a downtown building he bought in April. He became a father in January, and said he would like to remain closer to home. “I never thought about leaving,” he said. But staying is not so easy. Last week, the roof on the building across the street collapsed. He worries that building could fall into his store. The city’s younger residents are frustrated that the older generation still dreams of factories. They want to replace some of the old mills with waterfront homes and restaurants. They would like to see the city and the river meet, instead of being almost entirely separated by the old industrial strip. A few years ago, the city was approached by a developer who wanted to create an indoor sports park in one of the old warehouses. The idea was rejected as unindustrial. The city does not lack for other ideas. Some residents think it should try to attract artists. Mr. Shorraw, who has a job as an assistant band director at the town’s high school, wants to create a music center in a downtown building that once housed a grocery store. A local businesswoman recently pitched to the City Council the idea of using part of the old factory site as a medical marijuana farm. Mr. Mavrakis, the mayor, has little patience for these dreams. A blunt and forceful man who spent much of his life as a union organizer, he would like to demolish much of the remaining downtown and offer the land for new development. “I understand that we can’t get all the way back,” he said. “I’d like to get halfway. ” Possibly the town’s greatest success story has come from a company almost as old as Monessen itself, and without any public planning or help. The Douglas Education Center was founded in 1904 as a finishing school for high school graduates headed into corporate jobs. The school has become a primary training ground for people who create monsters for movies, thanks to a program created by Tom Savini, a Pittsburgh native, an actor and a renowned makeup artist for horror movies. The school now has offices in an old church, classrooms in a former hospital and workshops in a former convent now stuffed with models and masks of monsters, ghouls and aliens. A soundstage with a green screen occupies what was once a furniture showroom. The education center employs more than 70 people, and there are 200 to 300 students enrolled in a variety of training programs. “I tell people, ‘If you want to look at pretty trees and a beautiful city, go to Miami,’” said Tony Baez Milan, the school’s director of admissions. “‘You want to get a job? Come to Monessen. ’” For students who like monsters, he adds, the crumbling city has its own charm. Kayla Eversole, 19, came all the way from Japan, where she grew up. She found the school online and was surprised by the city. Five months later, she said she was glad to be here. No, she said, she had no idea there was once a giant steel mill down the street. | 1 |
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — When Alison Boteler opened the property tax bill last summer on the home that she shares with her mother here, she was stunned. The mayor had campaigned on a pledge of no new taxes. Instead, her taxes had shot up $5, 000, to $24, 000 a year. The Botelers are among many homeowners here who felt blindsided by one of the highest property tax rate increases any community in the nation has imposed in recent years — 29 percent. “It’s a nightmare,” said Ms. Boteler, a writer, who has not put her home on the market but has shown it informally. “People have come and fallen in love with the house. But then they look at the tax bill and can’t do it. ” The enormous tax rate increase is symptomatic of Bridgeport’s unenviable status as a poor city in a rich state. It also reflects a broader and sobering national picture: The economic revival across much of the country has bypassed many communities, including industrial hubs like this one that are grappling with dwindling resources. In a citywide reassessment last year, the value of Bridgeport’s taxable property fell by a staggering $1 billion, to $6 billion. “The story of Bridgeport, unfortunately, as with so many old towns, is that they lose their tax base,” said Richard D. Pomp, a professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law and an expert on state and local taxation. “It’s one of the poorest cities in the country,” he added. “You are now taking the same amount of spending and spreading it out over a smaller base and your tax rate has to increase. ” The jump in the tax rate, and a frustration with Bridgeport’s chronically chaotic governing, prompted Peter Spain to apply for a Guinness World Record: “highest increase in property tax rate in the world. ” “The Guinness World Book is a zany thing that you scare your babysitter with, by flipping to the page with the longest mustache,” said Mr. Spain, 46, who owns a graphic design firm with his wife. “It’s kooky and outrageous, and I feel like that sums up the situation here. ” A fitting description, perhaps, for a city where P. T. Barnum once lived and was mayor, and where he brought his circus to rest during the winter. The of Bridgeport’s mayor, Joseph P. Ganim, reflects some of that chaos. The city’s voters catapulted him back into office in 2015, 12 years after he was convicted of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks and bribes from people who wanted to do business with the city. Between his last term and his current one, Mr. Ganim served nearly seven years in federal prison. Mr. Ganim’s triumph last year was quickly tempered by the city’s financial reality. Within weeks of taking office, he learned that the previous administration had left the city with a $20 million budget deficit. And just as things started settling down after Mr. Ganim returned to City Hall, news emerged that the city’s property values had plummeted. State law requires municipalities to reassess the value of taxable property every five years. Bridgeport had managed to avoid a reassessment, staving off a reckoning after the financial crisis of 2008, which depressed property values across much of the region. “The longer you delay a reassessment, the worse the sticker shock,” said Joan Youngman, a senior fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, a research center in Cambridge, Mass. “It’s politically and economically hard for everybody. ” Mr. Ganim had been largely on campaign promises to hold the line on taxes. Faced with a big budget hole, the city raised the effective tax rate on properties by nearly 29 percent. “We had a double whammy — a $20 million deficit, plus the revaluation,” said Av Harris, who is a policy adviser and spokesman for the mayor. “This was not an easy decision. It was not an easy budget to figure out. But we have to make the best decisions we can. ” Still, the lower property values have actually been good for many taxpayers — their tax bills decreased because the assessed value of many properties had dropped so precipitously. Indeed, more than half of the city’s homeowners paid less in property taxes this year than last year, said Ken Flatto, who is Bridgeport’s finance director. Mr. Ganim did not own a home in Bridgeport when he was he rented a condominium on Cartright Street. After the reassessment was announced last winter, Mr. Ganim bought two condos, according to city records. Condo values took a particularly hard hit in the revaluation, and Mr. Ganim was able to buy both properties at prices well below what the sellers had paid when they bought the homes. The taxes due on one of the mayor’s condos is 40 percent less than last year’s tax bill. But others saw big tax increases, especially residents in Black Rock, an affluent neighborhood. The appraised value on Ms. Boteler’s 1948 brick Georgian Colonial climbed to $690, 000 from $650, 000, an increase she successfully challenged last spring. The value is now $645, 000, but her taxes still went up. “It’s crazy,” Ms. Boteler said. “I’d love to live here until I die, but that’s not going to happen. ” Aida said the tax increase was pushing her out of her house. At 78, she is still working full time to help pay for her husband’s nursing home care and her property taxes, which this year rose $2, 391, to $16, 072, on her Cape. “I’m getting my home ready to sell,” Ms. said, noting that her taxes had gone up 400 percent since she bought the house 20 years ago. “I can’t stay here. This last increase did it. ” But, she added, “Who’s going to buy it once they see the taxes?” The Spains knew they would pay higher taxes in Bridgeport than in Fairfield, which is a town with fewer residents and a bigger tax base. Its tax base is $10. 8 billion for the current budget of $294 million Bridgeport’s is $6 billion for its budget of $552 million. But the Spains also knew the city’s lower real estate prices meant they could afford a house that would have been out of reach in Fairfield, Mr. Spain said. The couple has lived in a American cities, Mr. Spain said. “We’ve never lived in a place where you wake up and go, ‘Oh my God, what the hell are they doing?’ Even the street sweeper does circles around the neighborhood for two days in a row,” he said. Now Mr. Spain is active in Citizens Working for a Better Bridgeport, a group pushing for changes in the way the city is run. Mr. Spain and another Black Rock homeowner, David M. Walker, are among the residents who want a financial oversight board to take hold of the city’s purse strings. “We see a lack of standards in Bridgeport,” Mr. Spain said. Mr. Walker has experience in government, having served as the comptroller general of the United States until 2008. He now divides his time between Northern Virginia and Bridgeport. His tax bill rose 22. 5 percent this year, while the value of his house fell. “You’re supposed to grow the tax base faster than the budget,” Mr. Walker said. “This city is doing exactly the opposite. ” They and several hundred other homeowners showed up at the first City Council meeting after the tax bills arrived in residents’ mailboxes. Exasperated by what he had heard from neighbors, and wanting to do something that would garner attention, Mr. Spain landed upon an idea to officially declare Bridgeport guilty of municipal lunacy. He registered with the Guinness website, paid the $5 fee and applied on behalf of the taxpayers of Bridgeport for the world record. Guinness receives nearly 1, 000 new applications every week, a spokeswoman said. It typically takes about three months to review requests before rendering a decision. Mr. Spain’s application was denied. Guinness said it could not fairly compare local tax rates, given the variations in jurisdictions and tax formulas around the world. Mr. Spain said he was not too disappointed by the ruling. His Guinness bid was designed to bring attention to the city’s plight. “It reminded me of the underlying criticism of Bridgeport,” Mr. Spain said. “It’s the phantom circus element that never really left town. ” | 1 |
WASHINGTON — The candidate he was advising last fall was running on a platform of America First. The client he was working for last fall was paying him more than $500, 000 to put Turkey first. Michael T. Flynn, who went from the campaign trail to the White House as President Trump’s first national security adviser, filed papers this week acknowledging that he worked as a foreign agent last year representing the interests of the Turkish government in a dispute with the United States. His surprising admission, coming more than four months after the election, raised further questions about the rise and fall of a presidential confidant who was forced to resign after 24 days in office for withholding the full story of his communications with Russia’s ambassador. Even now, out of government and out of favor, Mr. Flynn and his contact with foreign figures presented a new headache for a White House eager to move on. Mr. Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general, registered as a lobbyist last year but did not file papers with the Justice Department registering as a foreign agent, providing a fuller understanding of his role, until Tuesday. While he did not work directly for the Turkish government, the firm that hired him, Inovo, is owned by a businessman with links to leaders in Ankara and asked him to work on an issue important to the government. The White House said that Mr. Trump did not know that Mr. Flynn was acting as a foreign agent when Mr. Trump appointed him national security adviser, a position that gave him access to classified meetings and materials. But a person briefed on the matter, who insisted on anonymity to describe private conversations, said Mr. Flynn’s lawyer contacted a lawyer for Mr. Trump’s transition team before the inauguration to ask whether Mr. Flynn should register given his work for Inovo. The transition lawyer offered no advice, saying it was up to Mr. Flynn. After the inauguration, the person said, Mr. Flynn and his lawyer each raised it again with a White House lawyer, only to be told once more it was up to him. Mr. Flynn had no comment on Friday. His lawyer wrote the Justice Department that Mr. Flynn decided to register retroactively “to eliminate any potential doubt. ” The White House said its lawyer considered it a private decision and saw no reason to intervene. “It’s not a question of raising a red flag,” said Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary. “It’s a question of whether or not they gave him the advice that they are supposed to, which is it is not up to them to make decisions as to what you need to do or not do. ” Vice President Mike Pence, who was upset that Mr. Flynn had misled him about the conversation with the Russian ambassador that got him dismissed, seemed less forgiving. News reports on the matter were “the first I heard of it,” the vice president said during an interview on Fox News Thursday night, “and I think it is an affirmation of the president’s decision to ask General Flynn to resign. ” Throughout the campaign, Mr. Flynn positioned himself as someone willing to call out a national security establishment that was too corrupt to keep America safe. When former colleagues criticized him for becoming overtly partisan, he shot back by castigating them for using their titles to enrich themselves by joining corporate boards. In an interview in October, Mr. Flynn insisted that he had eschewed financial rewards to follow his political convictions and join the Trump campaign. “I would love to be making some money,” he said. “I wish I could stop what I’m doing. ” On behalf of his firm, the Flynn Intel Group, Mr. Flynn signed a contract on Aug. 9 with Inovo, a Dutch firm owned by Ekim Alptekin, the chairman of the Business Council. Mr. Flynn’s firm was to receive $600, 000 for 90 days of work. His initial registration as a lobbyist last year indicated he would receive less than $5, 000 for lobbying, although that presumably indicates that he did not define most of the services he would provide Mr. Alptekin as lobbying under the law. Mr. Alptekin has links to the government of Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which has engaged in a political crackdown after surviving a military coup attempt in July. In documents disclosed by the group WikiLeaks, Mr. Alptekin emailed frequently with Egemen Bagis, the former Turkish minister for European Union affairs. In one email in 2013, Mr. Alptekin sent an article from The Wall Street Journal to Mr. Bagis, who then forwarded it to Berat Albayrak, Mr. Erdogan’s and now the country’s energy minister. Mr. Flynn was assigned to investigate Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric who lives in Pennsylvania and was blamed by Mr. Erdogan for helping instigate the failed coup. Mr. Erdogan has demanded the United States extradite Mr. Gulen, which the Obama administration refused to do. The forms filed this week indicate that Mr. Flynn’s firm was “to perform investigative research” on Mr. Gulen and “develop a short film piece on the results of its investigation. ” In the end, the video was never completed, and Mr. Flynn’s firm received $530, 000 before the contract terminated in November. But on Election Day, Mr. Flynn published an article in The Hill, a newspaper serving Congress, calling Mr. Gulen “a shady Islamic mullah” and “radical Islamist. ” “To professionals in the intelligence community, the stamp of terror is all over Mullah Gulen’s statements,” he wrote. “Gulen’s vast global network has all the right markings to fit the description of a dangerous sleeper terror network. From Turkey’s point of view, Washington is harboring Turkey’s Osama bin Laden. ” The forms said Mr. Flynn decided to write the piece “on his own initiative” and not at Inovo’s request, although they said that he shared a draft of it with Inovo before it was published. The Hill appended a note to the online version of the piece after this week’s filing: “Neither General Flynn nor his representatives disclosed this information when the essay was submitted. ” During the course of the work, Mr. Alptekin introduced Mr. Flynn to Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and Mr. Albayrak, the president’s in New York on Sept. 19, the forms said. In a letter to the Justice Department this week, Mr. Flynn’s lawyer said that he did not initially register as a foreign agent because the firm that hired him was not a foreign government. But the lawyer, Robert K. Kelner, said Mr. Flynn had decided to register after the fact because “the engagement could be construed to have principally benefited the Republic of Turkey. ” This week, Mr. Alptekin disputed the notion that he hired Mr. Flynn to influence the next president. “When I engaged Flynn Co. polls showed 85% likelihood of Hillary winning,” he wrote on Twitter after the filings. “If intention was to lobby USG I would have hired Podesta like Gulen,” he added, referring to the United States government and Tony Podesta, a prominent Washington lobbyist and brother of John D. Podesta, who was Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman. But the filings this week contradict past assertions by Mr. Alptekin, who told The New York Times in an interview after the November election that the contract with Mr. Flynn was worth “tens of thousands of dollars, not hundreds of thousands of dollars. ” In the same interview, he said that Mr. Flynn “never consulted with me” about the article in The Hill and that he “would have advised against it. ” Mr. Alptekin repeated the latter assertion even after the filings this week. “For the record: nobody remotely linked to the Gov. of Turkey knew about Gen. Flynn’s article in advance and I wasn’t consulted either,” he wrote on Twitter. Mr. Flynn opened the Flynn Intel Group in October 2014, two months after he was forced out as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. The business was opaque, making little public, not even an address. When a reporter went looking for it last fall, he tracked it down to an Alexandria, Va. office building operating out of the nondescript headquarters of another firm, called the White Canvas Group. In the interview in October, Mr. Flynn offered only a vague description of the firm. He said he had clients in Japan and the Middle East and that he worked on cybertraining, aviation operations and energy business. The firm was shuttered after the election when Mr. Flynn was headed for the White House. | 1 |
Russia This photo taken from a Norwegian surveillance aircraft shows Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov in international waters off the coast of Northern Norway on October 17, 2016. (Via Reuters)
Russia says it has cancelled plans for a fleet of its warships to refuel at a Spanish port on their way to Syria.
Vasily Nioradze, a spokesman at the Russian embassy in Madrid, said on Wednesday that the request was canceled, without giving further details, the Associated Press reported.
The Spanish Foreign Ministry also confirmed that Russia had withdrawn its request for the warships to refuel in the Spanish port of Ceuta.
"The Russian embassy in Madrid has just told us that it is withdrawing its demand for permission to stop over for the boats, which means that the stopovers have been cancelled," the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
The development came after Spain, a NATO member state, said it was reviewing Russia's request to refuel its naval fleet at Ceuta after passing through the Straits of Gibraltar en route to Syria, where Russian forces are engaged in an anti-terror campaign in support of the Syrian government.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the Spanish Foreign Ministry said that Spain had been allowing Russian navy ships to dock in Spanish ports for years, but that it treated such requests on a case by case basis.
The naval group, which passed through the English Channel on Friday, is made up of Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, as well as a nuclear-powered battle cruiser, two anti-submarine warships and four support vessels, escorted by submarines.
The fleet will join around 10 other Russian vessels already off the Syrian coast.
Ceuta sits on the tip of Africa’s north coast, across the Straits of Gibraltar from mainland Spain, and bordering Morocco. The port is part of the EU, but its NATO status is unclear. Since 2011, at least 60 Russian warships have docked in Ceuta.
NATO irked by Spain’s announcement
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg claimed that the Western military alliance was "concerned" by the deployment of the Russian warships.
"It is each up to each nation to decide, as has been NATO policy for many years, but we are concerned about the potential use of this carrier group to increase attacks… in Aleppo," Stoltenberg said, adding, "All allies are aware of our concerns."
Britain echoes NATO’s stance
British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon also said on Wednesday that London would be "extremely concerned" if Spain refueled the Russian carrier group heading through the Mediterranean towards Syria.
"NATO should be standing together,” he added.
Since March 2011, Syria has been hit by militancy it blames on some Western states and their regional allies. Russia has been conducting air raids against Daesh and other terrorist groups in the Middle Eastern country at the Damascus government’s request for more than a year now.
Russia boosts Baltic Fleet
In another development on Wednesday, a report said that Russia was reinforcing its Baltic Fleet in Kaliningrad with two small warships armed with long-range cruise missiles to counter a worrying NATO build-up in the region.
The report by Russia's daily Izvestia quoted an unidentified military source as saying that the vessels, the Serpukhov and the Zeleny Dol, had already entered the Baltic Sea and would soon become part of a newly formed division.
Kaliningrad shares land borders with Poland and Lithuania.
The deployment comes at a time when NATO is planning its biggest military buildup on Russia's borders since the Cold War. Loading ... | 0 |
Kellyanne Conway said Democratic Party leaders should put a stop to the violent, demonstrations that happened over the course of the weekend. [In an appearance on Fox Friends, Conway said the protests against President Trump over the weekend, some of them violent, are attempts by liberals to rehash the 2016 election and called upon Democratic leadership to tell the protesters to stop. “Six months after Donald Trump won 306 electoral votes, you have people still trying to make it go away, and this is the president. This is the people’s house. This is their government,” Conway said. She went on: I would love to hear the new DNC chairman, Tom Perez, Bernie Sanders, the Democratic senator from Vermont, who are going out on the road starting today, and I would love to hear Hillary Clinton, who lost to Donald Trump handily. I would love to hear them come forward as leaders of the Democratic Party and tell the people to stop. They have a right to express their First Amendment beliefs but at the same time, violence is not going to get us anywhere. Protesters demonstrated around the country last Saturday on Tax Day, April 15, to demand that the president release his tax returns to the public. In Berkeley, California, those protests turned violent when protesters clashed with Trump supporters, leading to 21 arrests. Conway has previously called for Democratic leaders to calm down their supporters who protested against Trump after the 2016 election in November, citing the need for a peaceful transition of power. Conway also said Democratic leaders should focus on finding common ground with Trump to push a bipartisan agenda forward. “I would love to hear Democratic leaders of the party, instead of still talking about the election, move forward and help us negotiate,” she said. “Help us get some Democratic votes on tax reform and health care reform and infrastructure. ” | 1 |
ISTANBUL — Thousands of soldiers and officers purged from the military. A helicopter shot down over the capital. Hundreds of people lying dead on city streets. As dawn broke Saturday, the citizens of Turkey emerged and after a night of violence that felt more like life in neighbors like Syria or Iraq. And trying to assert control was President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, targeting plotters in the previous night’s coup and other perceived enemies of the state. The embattled president, after a confusing absence in the early hours of the coup, appeared to speak to the nation early Saturday. He exhorted his followers with the FaceTime app from his cellphone, resorting to the kind of medium he has long sought to suppress. That stunning scene, televised nationwide, at first seemed an embarrassment for a leader who presents himself as and suggested his end. But it was actually the turning point, as Mr. Erdogan called on his followers to take to the streets and gather at the airport in Istanbul, which the military had shut down, to resist the coup. By the afternoon, after a standoff in Ankara, the capital, the government had wrested back an army headquarters building held by coup plotters. Mr. Erdogan, who had frequently talked of conspiracies afoot to undermine his power, was back in control, seemingly as powerful as ever, and perhaps even more paranoid. The attempted coup, as it unfolded, suggested an alarming unraveling for a country that is seen in the West as a crucial partner in the fight against terrorism and an anchor of stability in a region full of trouble. The United States has sought close cooperation with Turkey in the fight against the Islamic State, while Europe has relied on Turkey to help stem the flow of refugees from countries of the Middle East to the Continent. “The whole night felt like doomsday,” said Sibel Samli, an independent film producer in Istanbul. “People flocked to the markets to get bread, eggs and water. People were going to cash machines to draw out cash. ” A steamy Friday was just getting going when the first hint came that something was not right: The military sealed off two bridges across the Bosporus. Then, fighter jets and helicopters began flying low over Istanbul and Ankara, rattling residents enjoying a night on the town, and sporadic gunshots rang out. Suddenly, Turks were transfixed by their cellphones, or the televisions in bars and restaurants, trying to figure out what was going on. No one seemed to know where the president was. As rumors swirled that the military was maneuvering to thwart a terror plot, or that a hijacked airliner was in the sky, many Turks, given their nation’s history of military meddling in politics, began to wonder if a coup was afoot. Soon enough, they had their answer: The prime minister, Binali Yildirm, spoke on television and said a renegade faction within the military was trying to mount a coup. And a military group, later calling itself the Peace at Home Council — a reference to a mantra of Turkey’s secular founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk — issued a statement saying it had seized control of the country. And so began a surreal evening that stretched until daybreak, punctuated by violence that killed at least 265 people, most of them members of the security forces, as various factions fought each other for control of the country. The night seemed to encapsulate the many dramas and conflicts that have roiled Turkey in recent years: street protests the bitter fight between Mr. Erdogan, an Islamist, and a onetime ally, the Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the president late in the night blamed for the coup attempt and rising political violence and terrorism. Ms. Samli had been sitting with friends at a rooftop bar of a chic hotel on the European side of Istanbul when a helicopter passed low over their heads. “We didn’t think anything of it at first because we knew the city was on high terror alerts following recent attacks,” she said. “Then we started getting the calls and WhatsApp notifications about the start of a military coup. People were calling one another telling them go home. ” The first signs that the coup might not succeed came as it become clear that the military failed to secure important government buildings, or to seize elected officials, normally the first actions of a putsch. Later it was learned that the conspirators had sought out Mr. Erdogan at the seaside town of Marmaris, where he was apparently vacationing, but were too late. And then Mr. Erdogan himself appeared, from an undisclosed location, and spoke to the nation on FaceTime. Once again — as he did when he faced down a widespread street revolt in 2013 and to win elections, for himself as president and in Parliament for his Islamist Justice and Development Party — Mr. Erdogan relied on his power base of Turkey’s religious conservatives. Mosque preachers joined Mr. Erdogan’s call to resist. “We will not let Turkey fall!” men shouted in the conservative Istanbul neighborhood of Istinye on Saturday morning, firing guns in to the air. “God is greatest!” The scariest hour was the one just before Mr. Erdogan’s jet landed in Istanbul after 3 a. m. Fighter jets flew low over Istanbul, setting off sonic booms that felt like airstrikes. Gunfire crackled throughout the city and in Ankara, where soldiers seized civilian cars to use as barricades. Several explosions were reported at Parliament, and a helicopter used by the plotters was blown from the sky, officials said. A helicopter landed at the offices of CNN Turk, and soldiers, apparently coup plotters, tried to seize the station during a live broadcast. “Around 3 a. m. we heard loud fighter jets and explosions,” said Ms. Samli, the film producer in Istanbul. “That’s when I felt scared. And this morning, everyone is in shock. Everyone is trying to work out what happened. ” Late in the night, as the sounds of war mixed with muezzins at mosques exhorting people to go into the streets and people chanting “Allahu akbar,” or “God is greatest,” Turkey’s cities felt like besieged cities in Iraq or Syria. When Mr. Erdogan landed in Istanbul, chaos was still gripping Istanbul and Ankara, with more explosions and gunshots, but his very appearance seemed to signify that the conspiracy was reaching its end. In characteristic fashion, as he has when confronted with street protests and a corruption investigation, he vowed to root out the conspirators. “This attempt, this move, is a great favor from God to us,” he said. “Why? Because this move will allow us to clean up the armed forces, which needs to be completely clean. ” It was becoming clear, by the time Mr. Erdogan landed in Istanbul, that those behind the coup did not have enough support within the military, even as the whole episode exposed deep divisions within the military that had not been so apparent. While the Turkish military has a history of intervening in politics — it carried out three coups in the past five decades — Mr. Erdogan and his allies had systematically sought to the army through a series of sensational trials, and it was thought not able to mount a takeover of the government. Officials said the main plotters were from the gendarmerie, a police force the air force and some elements of the land forces. Several generals and colonels were arrested — none figures recognizable to the public — and thousands of officers and soldiers were rounded up Saturday in a purge that is likely to go one for some time. “All of these guys will go to prison for life,” said Ilnur Cevik, an aide to Mr. Erdogan, in a telephone interview Saturday afternoon. As the night wore on, some Turks, underscoring the hold that conspiracy theories have on Turkish society, believed the whole thing was a hoax or something staged by Mr. Erdogan so he could ride to the rescue. That would give himself a pretext to crack down even further on his perceived enemies and pursue more power by establishing an executive presidency. “We didn’t know if it was real or a hoax,” Ms. Samli said. “People around us were saying that it was a staged coup orchestrated by President Erdogan to help him obtain more power over the country. ” Younger Turks panicked after seeing older Turks, who have lived through coups and the street violence that has come with them, react with horror. “We had barely recovered from the Istanbul airport terrorist attack and now everyone has started talking about a civil war,” said Esra Goksu, 32, an artist who lives in Istanbul. “Hundreds of people died for what? One man’s ego? It breaks my heart. I don’t recognize my country anymore. I want to leave. ” After daybreak on Saturday, when it was apparent that the coup attempt had failed, central Istanbul was eerily quiet. There was little sign of security forces, which are usually out in force at any sign of trouble, sealing streets and lining up at intersections while backed by armored vehicles. But there were signs of life, as workers hauled trash, shops and cafes began opening, and a group of religious men on mopeds motored down Istiklal Avenue, the city’s main pedestrian street, waving the Turkish flag and chanting, “Allahu akbar!” Across the city, the police began rounding up suspected plotters, and soldiers who had taken control of the Bosporus Bridge the night before began surrendering, leaving equipment and clothing strewn about. “When I was waking up, I was thinking, ‘Was this a nightmare, or did we really witness these things? ’” said Sinan Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat who is the chairman of the Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies, a research organization in Istanbul. Mr. Ulgen said of the intrigue Friday night and Saturday morning: “It was clearly a junta within the military that staged a botched coup attempt. ” But, he said, given that those arrested so far did not appear to be of the highest rank in the military, “it shows how little support the coup had within the top brass of the military. ” With Turkish society so deeply polarized, with about half the country supporting Mr. Erdogan and the other half bitterly opposed, a refusal to return to the dark days of military coups seemed to be one thing that united them as the episode unfurled over night. While the military factions clearly did not have enough support within the military to finish the job, they also appeared to miscalculate how the plot would be received by those who have long wished to see the end of Mr. Erdogan and his government. The coup plotters, Mr. Ulgen said, appeared to “grossly misjudge the sentiments of the Turkish people, which over time, despite Turkey’s own democratic shortcomings, have turned very intervention. ” Under Mr. Erdogan, Turkey has cracked down severely on journalists, sending many to jail and charging others with insulting Mr. Erdogan, a crime in Turkey. But ultimately, in many ways, it was modern media that helped Mr. Erdogan fend off the coup. As the coup unfolded, he was able to communicate with the country over FaceTime, and it was coverage of a number of Turkish outlets that, analysts said, helped sway the tide of public opinion and allow government officials a platform to communicate with the public. Among those outlets was CNN Turk, which has faced the wrath of the government over coverage officials believe to be . The coup plotters seemed stuck in the 1970s, having seized, for a time, the state broadcaster TRT, while other news channels continued coverage, opposing the coup. Turks were able to communicate over social media, sometimes using a VPN when Twitter or Facebook seemed to be inaccessible. “It’s a total media story,” said Asli Aydintasbas, a Turkish journalist and writer. “This was about not being able to control the message. ” Ms. Aydintasbas was attending a dinner party Friday when guests were alerted to messages on Twitter about the intrigue unfolding. Someone joked that it might be a coup. “We all laughed, because it’s not an option in Turkey these days,” she said. “The idea of a coup is so retro. ” | 1 |
Leading women from politics, the arts and other fields urged Donald Trump on Monday to support a new national women’s museum in Washington that would be affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution. At a meeting in New York to give momentum to the idea, the group cited the report of a bipartisan Congressional commission in November that urged construction of the museum. “It’s tremendously important,” said Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York, who first proposed the project in the late 1990s. “How can you empower women if they are not even recognized?” The commission recommended “a national museum dedicated to showcasing the historical experiences and impact of women in this country. ” The commission did not specify a site but said its preference was for the museum, to be called the American Museum of Women’s History, to be located prominently in the capital, on or close to the National Mall. The museum will require legislation to become a reality. Emily K. Rafferty, former president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and one of the commissioners who produced the congressional report, said, “The women’s tale has not been revealed, has not been properly identified or properly articulated. ” The commission proposed that the government provide the land or an existing building for the museum. Private of about $150 million to $180 million would pay for construction costs, it said. A spokeswoman for the Smithsonian, Linda St. Thomas, said its secretary does not believe the institution is in a position to establish a new museum at this time, but was committed to representing the contributions of women in all the Smithsonian’s museums. Last year on the Mall, the Smithsonian opened the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the 19th museum or gallery in the Smithsonian portfolio. | 1 |
The president of Colombia was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for pursuing a deal to end 52 years of conflict with a leftist rebel group, the war in the Americas, just five days after Colombians rejected the agreement in a shocking referendum result. The decision to give the prize to President Juan Manuel Santos may revive hopes for the agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, with whom the country has been waging the last major guerrilla struggle in Latin America. Mr. Santos said he was told of the Nobel committee’s decision by his son Martín, who woke him before dawn on Friday. The winner dedicated the prize to his fellow Colombians, especially the victims of the long conflict, and called on the opponents of the peace deal to join him in securing an end to hostilities. “I invite everyone to join our strength, our minds and our hearts in this great national endeavor so that we can win the most important prize of all: peace in Colombia,” he said alongside his wife during his first public appearance since the Nobel announcement. But Colombians are so deeply polarized over the issue, it was not clear the prize would do much to shift public opinion. If anything, voters seemed to dig into their positions after the announcement. “They rushed in giving him this prize,” said Marianella Suárez, 36, who works at a shoe warehouse in Bogotá and voted against the peace deal. “This didn’t seem the right moment. He hasn’t achieved peace, and we don’t know if the FARC will accept jail time for their crimes. ” Jairo Rodríguez, a driver who supported the deal, said he hoped the prize would ease the renegotiation and soften the stances of like Álvaro Uribe, Mr. Santos’s predecessor as president, who led the campaign against the deal. “We all want peace,” he said. Colombian voters threw out the peace deal just days after the government invited world leaders to a celebratory signing ceremony, leaving the fate of the agreement — along with Mr. Santos’s legacy — in limbo. Despite the setback, the Norwegian Nobel Committee recognized Mr. Santos “for his resolute efforts to bring the country’s more than civil war to an end. ” In announcing the award, Kaci Kullmann Five, the chairwoman of the committee, commended Mr. Santos for starting the process, even as she acknowledged that the people of Colombia had rejected the outcome. She said she hoped that awarding the prize to Mr. Santos would act as a spur for a future agreement. “The committee hopes that the peace prize will give him strength to succeed in this demanding task,” she said. “Further, it is the committee’s hope that in the years to come, the Colombian people will reap the fruits of the reconciliation process. ” While it remains hard to say what effect it will have, Juan Cristóbal, who researches public opinion and political campaigns at Javeriana University in Bogotá, the Colombian capital, said the main outcome would be to lift morale among the deal’s supporters and the government negotiators. “It gives more legitimacy to continue this process whose results have left the government exhausted,” he said. “It says to the government: ‘Yes, continue your work. ’” News of the award stirred excitement on Friday in Colombia, where Mr. Santos is the second man from his country to win a Nobel Prize, after the novelist Gabriel García Márquez, who won the literature prize in 1982. Even some who had opposed Mr. Santos in the peace deal offered him well wishes, though they quickly spun the news to their own ends. “I congratulate President Santos for the Nobel,” Mr. Uribe said . “I want him to lead to change these peace accords that are damaging to democracy. ” Others saw the prize as a blow to opponents like Mr. Uribe. “It’s a call to all those who have, through deception, wanted to throw this process to the ground — that they stop this and that they join this national reconciliation,” said Ivan Cépeda, a senator who was involved in the negotiations. The prize appeared to breathe life into hopes among supporters that a deal could yet be clinched. “This has given us a boost to push us to keep working for peace,” Silvia Berrocal, the leader of a group backing the deal, said on a radio station Friday morning. The committee members, whose deliberations are conducted in strict secrecy, have a reputation for surprises, and this year was no exception. While Mr. Santos had been mentioned as a possibility, to many the leading candidate was the White Helmets volunteer group in Syria. On Friday, its proponents expressed their disappointment on Twitter, even as the group itself sent a note of congratulations to Mr. Santos. A United economist from a wealthy family in Bogotá, Mr. Santos rose to power as the defense minister under Mr. Uribe. In that capacity, he organized an intense counterinsurgency campaign that diminished the FARC and wiped out many of its commanders. As president, Mr. Santos staked his legacy on ending the war. The peace accord, announced in August, was the culmination of four years of negotiations in Havana, as the Colombian government and the rebels worked their way through a series of impasses. It outlined a timetable for the rebels to abandon their arms and set out a pathway for former fighters to civilian life — and, in some cases, run for office. The war has claimed about 220, 000 lives and displaced more than five million people. The peace talks brought back old scars, from kidnappings, to the rape of women in rebel camps, to decades of drug trafficking as the FARC muscled its way into the cocaine trade. Mr. Santos resisted calls for tough prison sentences for the FARC, saying that would push them away from the table and back to the war. The first signs of resistance to the accord emerged this spring, when Mr. Uribe mounted rallies against it and portrayed the president as a “traitor” willing to excuse the FARC’s crimes just to get a deal. Apparently, many Colombians agreed, although they were unwilling to admit as much to pollsters, who had predicted the referendum would win by a wide margin. In the end, it failed narrowly, with 50. 2 percent voting against it. In an interview last month, Mr. Santos said he had struck the right balance in the agreement. “We need to achieve the maximum justice possible, but that would allow us peace,” he said. “I think we struck that equilibrium. ” But he acknowledged lingering concerns about the deal. “Making peace is much more difficult than making war because you need to change sentiments of people, people who have suffered, to try to persuade them to forgive,” he said. This week, Mr. Santos searched for ways to save the pact, meeting with Mr. Uribe and other opponents. Experts say the two sides may either seek quick changes to the agreement — probably including jail time for some rebel leaders — or engage in a protracted renegotiation. Mr. Santos has warned that a with the rebels will expire on Oct. 31. Asked why the committee had not extended the award to other parties to the negotiation, notably the FARC commander in chief, Rodrigo Londoño, known by his nom de guerre, Timoleón Jiménez, Ms. Kullmann Five said the committee never commented on those who did not receive the award. But she said that there “are strong reasons to put a light on the president himself,” and that “his role as president” and “the keeper of the process” had been instrumental in securing a deal. Mr. Londoño, who has pledged to pursue a political solution to the conflict despite the referendum setback, congratulated Mr. Santos and thanked other Latin American countries for aiding the talks. The committee made its selection from 376 candidates, a record. Of the candidates, 228 were individuals and 148 were organizations. Candidates can be nominated by heads of state, top government officials and lawmakers certain judges and professors past winners of the prize and former and current members of the committee, among others. The prize amount this year is 8 million Swedish kronor, or about $930, 000. | 1 |
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple penalized CEO Tim Cook for the iPhone maker’s first sales slump in 15 years with a 15 percent pay cut. [advertisement | 1 |
Posted by Chris Menahan “Trump Supporter gets what she’s been asking for… A Beatdown from a Latina.”
Shocking video out of California shows Hillary Clinton supporters violently attack a homeless woman who was doing all she could to defend Donald Trump’s Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Friday, newly surfaced video shared by one of Hillary Clinton’s Hillbullies shows an Hispanic thug lay his hands on the brave woman and steal her signs, all while shouting “GET YOUR ASS OUTTA HERE, B*TCH!”
Other Hillbullies are then seen spitting on her signs and stomping them with their feet.
As the innocent woman is seen frantically trying to protect herself from the terrorist thug, he violently trips her to the ground.
Hillary supporting onlookers are then seen chastising her and as she lay motionless.
“Didn’t I tell you, about five minutes ago, that somebody was going to walk by here — and no I won’t defend you — because you spewed hate, and you got hate,” one Hillbully says. “You got exactly what you were dishing out, I told, I warned you on that, didn’t I?”
The YouTube video, which was shared by user “Koali Fikator,” has this sickening description: “After Bullying Everyone, Trump Supporter gets what she’s been asking for… A Beatdown from a Latina.”
All the woman did was hold up signs saying she wants to put Americans first:
She didn’t assault anyone, she merely exercised her right to free speech as an American!
These left-wing terrorists used violence to suppress her free speech simply because she supports Donald Trump for president! That’s the definition of terrorism!
Get this story out to everyone so they can see how these Hillbullies operate! . @ScottAdamsSays : "I can't vote for a bully." So he endorses Trump. The #Hillbullies have made violence against Trump supporters legitimate. pic.twitter.com/4nVscp6mki
Courtesy of Information Liberation Don't forget to follow the D.C. Clothesline on Facebook and Twitter. PLEASE help spread the word by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks. Share this: | 0 |
Lisa Tanner November 8, 2016 How To Make Bannock For Survival
Do you need a quick bread that’s easy to cook over a campfire? Your very own instant baking mix of sorts that just needs water added?
Then you need some bannock!
Like hardtack , bannock has a long history. It’s believed to have been brought to North America by Scottish explorers. In Scotland, bannock was cooked over an open fire on a bannock stone.
Once in North America, the love of bannock spread quickly. Indigenous tribes from coast to coast adapted the method and created their own versions of this survival food.
Today, many outdoor enthusiasts rely on bannock to accompany their meals. It’s easy to prepare before heading out, and simple to cook over a campfire. This portability makes bannock a wonderful addition to your survival stores.
The ingredients of bannock are very similar to those of hardtack. Like hardtack, you can make a simple bannock out of just flour and water. However, to get the best tasting bannock, you’ll want to add a few additional ingredients.
A Variety of Bannock Recipes
There are bannock recipes with just two ingredients, and others with a lot more. At the heart of every bannock batch is flour .
The Scotts traditionally used oat flour. As the recipe grew in popularity in North America, corn meal and wheat flour were used. Obliviously, bannock works with a variety of flours. So use what your body can tolerate, and what you can easily store .
Besides water and flour, you can add some additional items to improve the taste of your bannock. Here are a few common additions, and how much to use of each.
To keep your bannock light instead of dense, add baking powder to your flour. A teaspoon for every cup of flour is an appropriate amount. Adding salt improves the flavor of the final product. Use ½ teaspoon of salt for every cup of flour.
Cutting a tablespoon of fat for every cup of flour into the dry ingredients helps improve the taste and texture of your bannock. If you use a shelf-stable fat like lard or shortening, you’ll still be able to store your dry mix for several months at a time.
You can adapt the recipe to use what you have on hand, which makes this bread an ideal survival food. Here’s how I tweaked the recipe. It created a flavorful bread when baked, pan-fried, or cooked over an open fire.
For each batch, you’ll need: 1 cup of white wheat flour 1 tsp. baking powder 1 TSB. unrefined coconut oil
You’ll also need some water when you’re ready to cook the bannock.
Begin by preparing the dry ingredients. I mixed them in a small bowl, and used a fork to incorporate the oil. My end mixture looked a lot like commercial Bisquick or other baking mixes.
Once you’ve prepared your bannock mix, you can store each batch in a sealable bag. Throw a couple of these bags into your bug out bag , along with a bottle of water, so you can always be ready to make bread.
Here’s a picture of a bag of bannock mix I made, along with a bottle of water and a green stick. All I need is a fire and I can have freshly made bread! Since each batch doesn’t take much water, that single water bottle is enough to make a couple of bags.
How to Cook Bannock
The ingredients aren’t the only thing you can vary when making bannock. This bread can be cooked in several ways.
No matter how you cook it, you’ll need to add water to your mix. Just pour in a little water into the bag, and start gently squeezing the bag. You’ll distribute the water throughout the mix.
The dough will begin to form a soft ball. If your mix is too dry, add a tiny bit more water. It’s much better to add the water slowly than to add too much. Once your dough is a soft sticky ball, stop working it. You’ll make the bannock tough if you handle it too much.
Here’s a picture of what my dough looked like when it was ready to go.
There’s many ways to cook your bannock. Here are three popular methods:
Pan Fry
Heat a little bit of oil in a cast iron skillet. Once water droplets dance, it’s time to add your bannock. You can just squeeze it directly from the bag to the pan. Or you can break it into smaller pieces to speed up the cooking. That’s what I did.
Let it cook a couple of minutes, shaking the pan gently. Once the bannock comes loose from the bottom of your pan, it’s time to flip.
You can either grab a spatula like I did, or grab the frying pan tightly and toss your bannock in the air. It’ll flip over and you can catch it. Then cook the other side.
Bake in an Oven
In a survival situation, you probably won’t have a traditional oven. But if you have a solar oven set up, or are just making bannock for supper, you can bake it.
Before putting it in the oven, dump your prepared bag out onto a greased pan. Then flatten it out a bit with your hands.
I baked my bannock at 400 degrees for about 12 minutes. It came out nicely browned, and cooked all the way through. Here’s a picture showing pan fried bannock (the small ones) and baked bannock.
Over an Open Fire
If you’re in the wilderness, find yourself a green stick from a tree. You’ll want to strip the bark from the end you’ll cook the bannock on.
You’ll also need a fire . Similarly to roasting marshmallows, you’ll want a fire that has plenty of hot coals. That way the bannock cooks all the way without burning on the outside.
To prep your stick, hold the peeled end of the stick over the coals for a couple of minutes. This will heat the stick and help the dough to cook on the inside.
When you’re stick is hot, it’s time to wrap your dough around it. Just pretend the dough is playdough and make it into a long snake. Then, wrap the snake around the peeled portion of the stick. Remember it’s hot, so be careful! You want the dough to be thin on your stick so it can cook.
Here’s what my wrapped stick looked like. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just as long as it’s on tight enough not to fall off while over the fire.
It took me a couple of tries to get my bannock cooked correctly, and not burn it. Then I discovered it was very similar to roasting a marshmallow, and adjusted the distance from the coals accordingly.
It should take a couple minutes to cook. When I thought it was done, I pulled my bannock away from the fire and broke off a little piece to test the center. After the center was no longer doughy, it was ready to eat.
Here’s my finished fire roasted bannock on a stick. The kids thought it’d make a fun hot dog bun substitute the next time we have a cookout. I agree.
Add-In Ideas
We just tore this bannock into pieces to eat. But, you don’t have to eat your bannock plain. You can doctor up the final product with butter, jam, cheese, or some meat.
You can also stir many different ingredients into your dough to mix it up a bit. If you’d like a sweeter bannock, consider adding a teaspoon of sugar into your dry ingredient mix. Honey would also be a good sweetener, added at the same time as the water.
You can also add some shelf-stable ingredients to your dry mix that’ll add some texture and flavor to your bread. Here are some ideas to try. You can either use a single add-in, or make up your own favorite combination. Chopped, dried fruit Spices (such as cinnamon or nutmeg) Seeds Mini chocolate chips
Storing Your Bannock
The shelf life of your bannock mix will depend on what ingredients you include, and how you store it. A basic mix with flour, baking powder, salt, and oil will last at least a couple of months when stored in a sealed plastic baggie. If you remove the oil, the mix would have a longer shelf-life.
Mixing up a batch of bannock mix takes just a couple of minutes. You won’t have a large time-commitment ensuring you always have a fresh batch on hand.
If you’re storing plastic baggies in your bug out bag, or even just for a camping trip, be sure that they aren’t going to get punctured. You might consider keeping the smaller bags inside a stronger, larger freezer bag to offer more protection.
Once your bannock is cooked, you can keep it for several days. That means you can cook up a big batch and use it to help give you strength if you’re on the move to another bug out location . You’ll notice the texture will change a bit as the bannock dries out, but it’ll still taste fine.
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Britain’s Jewish population has been warned there is a “significant” threat to their communities from Islamic State terrorists as Home Secretary Amber Rudd revealed Jews had been identified as a “legitimate and desirable target”by jihadists. [Speaking at the annual fundraising dinner for the Community Security Trust (CST) a Jewish charity that works with police to counter hate crimes, Rudd described as a “deplorable form of hatred” and said the government is making a £13. 4 million contribution to protect threatened Jewish sites. She said: “There have been terrorist attacks on our doorstep, in France, Germany and Belgium and attacks on British people overseas. We’ve seen terrorists target Jews specifically in recent years including in Paris, Brussels, Toulouse and Copenhagen. “Just last month a girl was charged with terrorism offences in Denmark after she was caught planning to blow up a Jewish school. And Daesh literature continues to identify the Jewish community as a ‘desirable and legitimate target’. ” She added: “It is vital we ensure the safety and security of our Jewish community and this Government will continue to do all we can to stamp out these vile attacks and encourage those who experience them to come forward. ” Prime Minister Theresa May provided a video message welcoming guests to the dinner. She thanked CST for its work and pledged: As Breitbart News has reported, the warning to UK’s Jewish community comes as a recent study shows hate incidents are surging to record highs in Britain. The CST said last month there were on average more than three incidents per day in 2016. It said there were 1, 309 incidents last year, a 36 percent increase over the year before. It is the highest total since the group started keeping records in 1984. Most of the incidents involved verbal abuse, hate mail and graffiti. There were also 81 cases of vandalism and damage to Jewish property. The charity said there is no single explanation for the rise in incidents. | 1 |
Jay-Z and Beyonce are Members of Aleister Crowley’s Satanic Cult OTO Celebrities linked to OTO include the rapper Jay-Z, who has repeatedly purloined imagery and quotati... Print Email http://humansarefree.com/2016/11/jay-z-and-beyonce-are-members-of.html Celebrities linked to OTO include the rapper Jay-Z, who has repeatedly purloined imagery and quotations from Crowley’s work. Whether wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with ‘Do what thou wilt’ or hiring Rihanna to hold aloft a flaming torch in his music videos (a reference to the Illuminati , an outlawed secret society whose name supposedly derives from Lucifer , or ‘light bringer’), he has given the sect priceless publicity. Aleister Crowley , who was born into an upper-class British family in 1875, styled himself as ‘the Great Beast 666’. He was an unabashed occultist who, prior to his death in 1947, reveled in his infamy as ‘the wickedest man in the world’.“ And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. ” Luke 22:41,42 (KJV)His form of worship involved sadomasochistic sex rituals with men and women, spells which he claimed could raise malevolent gods and the use of hard drugs, including opium, cocaine, heroin and mescaline. Crowley’s motto — perpetuated by OTO (i.e. Ordo Templi Orientis ), — was ‘ do what thou wilt ’ (i.e. Do whatever you want). And it is this individualistic approach that has led to a lasting fascination among artists and celebrities. Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, for example, routinely took part in occult magical rituals and was so intrigued by Crowley he bought his former home, Boleskine House, on the shores of Loch Ness in Scotland. And there are now OTO lodges scattered around the country, practising the same ceremonial rituals and spreading the word of Crowley. Sinister: Peaches Geldof has an 'OTO' tattoo (left) which is an acronym for the creepy Ordo Templi Orientis ( DailyMail ) Jay-Z and Beyonce are leading the way Other celebrities linked to OTO include the rapper Jay-Z, who has repeatedly purloined imagery and quotations from Crowley’s work. Whether wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with ‘Do what thou wilt’ or hiring Rihanna to hold aloft a flaming torch in his music videos (a reference to the Illuminati , an outlawed secret society whose name supposedly derives from Lucifer, or ‘light bringer’), he has given the sect priceless publicity. Bombshell: Obama, Clinton, Podesta, Soros, Epstein, Alefantis — All Connected to Pedophilia Claims by 'Podesta Emails' His clothing line, Rocawear , is shot through with OTO imagery such as the ‘all seeing eye’ in a triangle, the ‘eye of Horus’ (an ancient Egyptian symbol frequently referenced in occult texts) and the head of Baphomet (the horned, androgynous idol ofWestern occultism). Beyoncé Knowles admits demon possession by Sasha Fierce: Some conspiracy theorists have seized on this as evidence that he is a member of a secret Masonic movement which they believe permeates the highest levels of business and government. Others take a more pragmatic view: that it is commercial opportunism, cashing in on impressionable teens’ attraction to the ‘edginess’ of occult symbolism. Yet OTO is much more than a marketing opportunity for attention-seeking celebs. It is a living religion, with adherents still practicing occult rituals set out by Crowley in his books. This week I tracked down John Bonner, 62, the head of OTO in the UK, to his home in East Sussex. He told me: ‘We are not a mass-appeal sort of organization — in the UK we number in our hundreds. Worldwide it’s thousands. Hillary Clinton gets in formation with Jay Z and Beyonce: Celebrities are not always a boon or a benefit. ‘We are used to being misunderstood. Many stories about Crowley, like people saying he filed his teeth down into fangs, are nonsense. ‘YOU COULD CALL US A SEX CULT IN A WAY, BECAUSE WE RECOGNISE, ACCEPT AND ADORE THE WHOLE PROCESS WHICH GOES TOWARDS MAKING TANGIBLE THE PREVIOUSLY INTANGIBLE.’ According to adherents of OTO it takes years of study before you can begin to understand what the religion is about — much like the equally controversial Church of Scientology. The former FBI head, Ted Gunderson, who investigated Satanic circles in LA, found that Crowley’s teachings about ‘raising demons to do one’s bidding’ suggested human sacrifice, preferably of ‘an intelligent young boy’. You can read more about Ted Gunderson's investigations into Satanic cults HERE . References: Nowtheendbegins.com ; Dailymail.co.uk Dear Friends, HumansAreFree is and will always be free to access and use. If you appreciate my work, please help me continue.
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Scientists digging in the Liang Bua cave on the Indonesian island of Flores years ago found a tiny humanlike skull, then a pelvis, jaw and other bones, all between 60, 000 and 100, 000 years old. The fossils, the scientists concluded, belonged to individuals who stood just three feet tall — an unknown species, related to modern humans, that they called Homo floresiensis or, more casually, the hobbits. On Wednesday, researchers reported that they had discovered still older remains on the island, including teeth, a piece of a jaw and 149 stone tools dating back 700, 000 years. The finding suggests that the ancestors of the hobbits arrived on Flores about a million years ago, the scientists said, and evolved into their own distinct branch of the hominin tree. But without other parts of a skeleton, such as the skull, hands or feet, they can’t be sure whether the newly discovered fossils also belong to Homo floresiensis or instead to some other ancient relative of humans (known generally as hominins). “We have to be careful,” said Gert van den Bergh, a paleontologist at the University of Wollongong in Australia and a of the new study. “Until we find those elements, we cannot really say much more about it. ” Dr. van den Bergh and his colleagues found the new fossils at Mata Menge, an archaeological site on Flores that had already yielded stone tools dating back 800, 000 years — a clue that hominins of some sort had once lived there. Starting in 2004, the researchers chiseled fossils out of the cementlike rock. For years, they found only animal fossils, including dwarf elephants. In 2014, Dr. van den Bergh and his colleagues got their first stroke of good luck: six feet below the surface, they found a cracked molar. Very quickly they discovered six other teeth, as well as a piece of a jaw. The fossils come from three hominins. The researchers were intrigued to find a wisdom tooth erupting from the jaw. “That means that it was an adult,” said Dr. van den Bergh. Yet this adult must have been very small. The researchers estimate the jawbone was 23 percent smaller than the Homo floresiensis jaw found at Liang Bua. “They were truly little people, smaller even than the Liang Bua hobbits,” said Richard Roberts of the University of Wollongong, who was part of the team that originally discovered Homo floresiensis but was not involved in the new study. Critics have argued that the Liang Bua bones might have come from a member of our own species who suffered some kind of growth disorder, such as Down syndrome. Several experts agreed that the Mata Menge fossils put to rest any doubts that Homo floresiensis is its own distinct species. In another study published on Wednesday in the journal PLOS One, Karen L. Baab, a paleoanthropologist at Midwestern University in Glendale, Ariz. and her colleagues compared skeletons of people with Down syndrome with the Liang Bua fossils. The researchers concluded that any resemblance was superficial, and that the fossils belonged to a separate species. “There continues to be no very good evidence that this is a pathological modern human,” Dr. Baab said. In their new study, Dr. van den Bergh and his colleagues propose that the hobbits evolved from a tall, relatively hominin called Homo erectus that lived in Indonesia at least 1. 5 million years ago. Dr. van den Bergh said it was unlikely that Homo erectus could have built boats that could have taken them to Flores. “Personally, I think it was some freak event like a tsunami,” he said. By 700, 000 years ago, the Mata Menge fossils suggest, the descendants of these castaways had shrunk to three feet in height. It’s possible that their brains shrank as well, as an adaptation to life on a small, harsh island. Dr. Baab said the scenario was plausible, but not airtight. The hobbits have some anatomical similarities to Homo erectus in Indonesia, but they’re not just versions. For example, the fossils from the Liang Bua cave show that they had longer arms and shorter legs than Homo erectus. It’s possible that they evolved from a smaller, more primitive Asian population of Homo that scientists haven’t yet discovered. A few critics of Homo floresiensis still aren’t convinced, saying the debate over whether this really was a species couldn’t be settled by the new finding. “Isolated teeth and jaw fragments have nothing to contribute to that issue,” said Robert D. Martin, an emeritus curator at the Field Museum in Chicago, who has argued that the Liang Bua fossils belonged to a human with microcephaly. Dr. van den Bergh is optimistic that he and his colleagues will find a skull and other bones at Mata Menge that may satisfy such critics. The layer of rock where they found the hominin teeth and jaw is of fossils from other species. The geology of the rock indicates that the fossils come from a streambed that was suddenly buried in mudslides from a nearby volcanic eruption. The disaster seems to have claimed a number of victims at once — including, possibly, more hobbits. “I’m sure we will find more stuff,” said Dr. van den Bergh. | 1 |
Jamie Oliver wearily wanks out yet another f**king cookbook 27-10-16
JAMIE Oliver has wearily dumped yet another book of recipes, photographs and shit onto the market for Christmas.
The celebrity chef, who has been stuck in this fucking rut longer than he can remember, tiredly admitted the new book is the same old bollocks with a sprig of holly on top.
He continued: “I was going to skip this year because I just cannot stand it anymore.
“But then the publisher says I’ve never done a Christmas one, and I say ‘surely I have,’ and he’s like ‘amazingly no’ and I’m like ‘well whatever’ so, once again, I’ve crapped something out.
“It’s all about boshing the old bird in the oven while you have a couple of ales and I dunno, bacon sandwiches with a bit of maple syrup on for breakfast on Boxing Day.
“Near 20 years these have been coming out now. Remember when I was the Naked Chef? A lifetime ago.
“Anyway, new fucking book, buy it or don’t. You’ll never make anything in it anyway.”
Jamie Oliver’s Christmas Cookbook is out now from Michael Joseph, priced at £26.
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For this Sunday’s Arts and Leisure section, I profiled John Mayer, the singer, songwriter and guitar virtuoso, who also happens to be a prodigious talker — for better or worse. In 2010, a run of interviews changed the course of his career as both a musician and a celebrity. “Only recently do I make decisions about putting a record or a video out that aren’t saddled with guilt,” he said this month in Los Angeles. “I feel like I have a) done the work and b) been out long enough so that people can believe I’ve done the work. ” He added: “It took me five years to go, ‘O. K. come on, let’s go back to the party. You’re not going to make a fool of yourself. ’” As Mr. Mayer prepped for the release next month of his new album, “The Search for Everything,” which he hopes will be return to the pop mainstream, I trailed him between the recording studio and a shoot for a music video, a frenetic four days capped by an additional interview over dinner. Below are some additional edited excerpts from our hours of conversation. (You can read the full story here.) “Your No. 1 Google result is a certain thing, but you’ve got to do something bigger than that to knock it off of first place. For me, when I was at my most popular, I maligned myself. It’s a very interesting thing because if, when you mellow out in your life, it’s the wrong time . .. I think a lot of people’s last impression of me is outdated. “As I autopsy that part of my life, it turns out that I was under the impression that I was a bigger star than I was. I appreciate that there was a market correction. I actually really do. There was a market correction and I’m probably about as big as I should be. ” [He quickly revised this statement.] “I’d like to be a little bigger. ” “My brother just had a baby. That’ll rattle you, man. I’m looking at these pictures of him giving her a bath when I’m lying in a hotel penthouse in Hollywood and it’s almost a cliché. The oxytocin flows freely in my brain when I see that stuff. “[For me,] everything anatomically and chemically is healthy. It works. All the mechanisms are in place. It’s just the life that I have, which is fabulous — it’s just a bit more time on the International Space Station. Don’t ever let me give you the sense that I don’t love being on the International Space Station. It’s a pretty cool reason why you haven’t settled down — because you’re an astronaut. I’ve never hated it. Sometimes I get upset at the way that it is, but the real question is: Will the appearance of this job prevent what I’m absolutely entitled to psychologically? That’s the scary part. “I’m still always going to be a kid from Fairfield, Conn. They don’t make rock stars in Fairfield, Conn. They don’t. They make good people who get a job, get married, they watch TV together, they start a life together and make other good people. ” “I live for FedEx tracking numbers. I have a FedEx tracking number that’s so hot right now I’ll be watching it all night like Norad tracking Santa Claus. It’s from Japan, it’s getting here tomorrow. But [my stuff] gets held up in customs a lot because it’s so much Japanese clothing that customs is like, ‘What store is this going to?’ Like, no, it’s a person. ‘It can’t be going to a person, this is too much commercial value. ’” “‘Your Body Is a Wonderland’ lives so much in its own atmosphere that it’s like it’s been handed to me by some other person. There was a time where I didn’t want to play it, where I took it very personally that people were making jokes about it. Now I go: ‘It’s kind of cool to have one.’ I don’t know if you’ve made it if you don’t have the one [thing] that the least initiated person can yell at you when they see you. Dave Chappelle has Rick James, you know?” “We live in a time right now where the message will be judged against the messenger. There are times when I say to myself, ‘I don’t have the right to.’ Because I haven’t introduced myself to the world or placed myself as a mouthpiece in that way, I guess I shied away from it. ” “I had the most incredible time there and I learned a lot about who I used to be, because I used to have my heart out in front of me to every person I met. It didn’t matter who you were. I didn’t have time to make a value judgment. Everybody would get to look at it and touch it and put their gum out on it. And I would leave sad because I would go in with this huge, heavy beating heart for somebody to come put their arms around me and think I was great. And they just wouldn’t because you don’t do that at a party. “But I go through the therapy and I grow up and I dig out the things that were stuck in the fibers. [At the party,] I didn’t put my heart out to anybody that I didn’t know. I didn’t even bother going up to people that I didn’t know. The thing I told myself, which is so healthy — so please don’t tell me that I’m wrong — was: ‘She doesn’t care about me.’ It’s not my job to win them all over. ” “You are not included in something if you are a solo artist. You cannot feel inclusion. You cannot feel being under a wing. I had never before been out of that role where you are in the saddle and everything is your call and all eyes are on you. Since I was a teenager! I was just there as a piece of their puzzle. ” “Here’s what’ll happen: Some people will write, ‘I can’t front, John Mayer’s got moves, though.’ And some people are going to write, ‘John Mayer looks hideously dumb dancing.’ Here’s my prediction: The people who say that I have moves aren’t fans of mine and the people who say that I was hideous and made a fool of myself are John Mayer fans. Because they just don’t see me that way. ” | 1 |
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Prominent Democratic figure James Carville is not letting Republicans get away with their overt attempt to hijack our democracy. Carville voiced his anger on MSNBC this Monday at the way FBI Director James Comey has reignited the investigation into candidate Clinton’s emails.
“American democracy is really under attack here,” he said, pointing the finger at Comey and House Republicans.
“We do know our that democracy is under assault, ” adding, “People have to decide, do we want our country for ourselves and the people in charge or do we want the KGB and the House Republicans to decide this election?”
Anchor Thomas Roberts brought up the praising of Comey by Democrats back in July, but Comey stood firm in his stance, strongly urging Roberts, “Why are you defending this?”
He continued, “Why are you sitting here when our democracy is under assault, when the FBI is acting at the behest of Jason Chaffetz, and sitting here acting like this is legit, it’s not. It’s an effort to effect this election. Democrats and people across this country have to know that,” he noted resoundingly.
“When the facts change you change your mind,” he continued, regarding the change in the FBI from July to now.
“You’re defending an assault on the American Democracy,” Carville fumed, adding that this is, “ An unprecedented event.” Carville again cautioned that our government is at risk at the hands of Comey, the GOP.
As Carville so passionately advocated, we will not let the election and our democracy be squandered at the hands of these perpetrators.
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Thousands of people are joining protestors at Standing Rock today… Or so it seems. Though not appearing physically, thousands of supporters are checking in at the Indian reservation on... | 0 |
Putin Rejects Russian Army’s Calls to Resume Aleppo Airstrikes
Putin believes resumption of Aleppo air strikes unnecessary for now Antiwar.com
Russian President Vladimir Putin has officially rejected a request from his nation’s Defense Ministry to endorse a resumption of Russian airstrikes against the Syrian city of Aleppo, after 10 straight days of no Russian airstrikes being conducted.
Russia launched a brief ceasefire in Aleppo last week, and extended it for four days. Even after it officially expired, they have not resumed strikes against the city, with officials saying they want to convince Western nations to separate the moderate rebel factions within East Aleppo from the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.
So far that’s not been working so well, as indeed separating the two was the primary goal of a weeklong ceasefire a month ago, and a public US call to separate never amounted to anything. After that, the idea appears to have been given up on by the US, and Russia has also sought Turkey and Saudi Arabia’s influence on the more moderate factions.
As the rebel factions are launching a new offensive trying to brief the Aleppo siege, the Russian defense ministry has gone to the unusual step of publicly announcing their request to Putin, and Putin’s very public rejection may suggest there is some debate within the Russian leadership on how to proceed. | 0 |
Top 10 shocking animals fighting video # www.youtube.com 0
List Top 10 presents 10 most amazing fights between animals in front of you. You will be amazed while watching this.
from lion to snake & crocodile & many more animals fighting.
Hope after watching this you can't stop searching us on youtube & subscribe instantly. Tags | 0 |
A leading Egyptian cleric irked his Christian compatriots when he said on television that the Islamic figure Muhammed would marry the Virgin Mary in heaven. [Dr Salem Abdel Galil, a theologian at Cairo’s prestigious Al Azhar academy and a former of the Ministry of Religions, said on his television program that “Allah, hallowed be his name, chose Mary of all the women, alongside Asiya, Pharaoh’s wife, Aisha and Khadijea, Prophet Muhammed’s wives, and Fatima, the Prophet’s daughter. There are verses in the Quran that suggest that in heaven Muhammed will marry the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus peace be upon him, as well as Asiya, Pharaoh’s wife and Kultum, the sister of Moses peace be upon him. ” “The Quran said: ‘Allah will give [the Prophet] women preferable to his wives, Muslim, pious, pure women. ’” One, he said, referred to Asiya and the other to Mary. Egypt’s Christian community was enraged by Galil’s remarks. The community’s youth movement issued a statement demanding an apology. The movement’s chairman, Nader Soubhi, said: “We Christians don’t recognize any aspect of the Virgin Mary except her sanctity, her purity and her virginity. The Virgin Mary will never lose any of these. ” In 2010, an Al Azhar cleric caused controversy with a similar ruling, which also raised the church’s ire. Then too, church representatives said they rejected the ruling “which contradicts our religion and holy book. It’s offensive to the Virgin Mary. ” Reverend Abdel Masih Basit said that “the Virgin became pregnant while a virgin, and will forever remain so. And according to Jesus, in heaven you don’t marry but become angels. ” “The Christian faith relies on the belief that a man’s soul turns into a spirit after his death and his body turns into light, and therefore there’s no need for partnership or sexual intercourse,” he said. | 1 |
Thu, 27 Oct 2016 17:02 UTC © Daniel Acker-Bloomberg/Getty Images With their candidate lagging in most of the major polls, Donald Trump's supporters are hoping the election holds a surprise akin to June's Brexit vote. Goldman Sachs, though, believes the chances of a Nov. 8 surprise in the U.S. are remote. The two races differ in several key ways , Goldman economist Alec Phillips said, diminishing the possibility of a repeat where polling incorrectly suggested that Britons would vote to stay in the European Union. "We think the situation is different for two reasons. First, and most importantly, while both situations represented an opportunity for voters to endorse a change in the status quo, voters in the U.K. were asked to decide on an idea whereas in the U.S. they are being asked to decide on a person ," Phillips said in a note to clients Wednesday. "Second, the polls are simply not as close in the current presidential contest as they were ahead of the U.K. referendum." On the first point, Phillips obviously is correct. The second, though, isn't as clear. True, some polls have showed a yawning gap between the two candidates. The latest NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll put the Hillary Clinton lead at 11 points , the last ABC tracking poll had the Democrat ahead by 8 and CNN has the advantage at 6 points. However, the Real Clear Politics average of all major polls gives Clinton just a 4.4-point edge, and the Los Angeles Times ' tracker even sees Trump with a 1-point lead. By comparison, the final London Telegraph poll heading into the June 23 vote had the "remain" vote with a comfortable 4-point lead . Betting odds in the U.K. had given "remain" an 88 percent chance of prevailing, against the "leave" victory of 4 points. In his analysis, Phillips noted that The Economist magazine published an average of polls that showed the referendum tied, with a large percentage of undecided voters. He also said polls showing Trump ahead, like the LA Times and Rasmussen, use methodology different from many of the other mainstream outlets (though he concedes that polls showing Clinton with outsize leads also could be outliers). Comment: Translation: the other MSM polls are rigged, e.g., with their tendency to oversample Democrats. Phillips mostly dismisses the importance of third-party voters, whom he said often break toward a major-party candidate as Election Day approaches. "In theory, if undecided voters broke entirely in favor of Mr. Trump on Election Day, this could change the election outcome ," he wrote. "However, the views of undecided and third-party voters suggest that they are more likely to vote for Sec. Clinton than Mr. Trump, if they vote at all." Specifically, he cites a Washington Post poll showing that 46 percent of voters not supporting either Clinton or Trump had a "strongly unfavorable" view of Clinton, against 71 percent for Trump . Finally, he believes Trump won't be aided significantly by stronger-than-expected turnout, while early voting trends don't appear to favor the Republican either. However, Phillips does not address recent polls showing Trump with a solid chance of winning critical swing states Florida and Ohio, or narrowing gaps in Pennsylvania and North Carolina . "Overall, while one cannot rule out the possibility of an electoral surprise, most of the theories as to how this might occur are not borne out by the recently available data," Phillips said. "The declining share of undecided and third-party voters is shrinking, leaving fewer voters left to persuade, and while a shift in turnout could upend the models most pollsters use, there are no signs thus far in early voting that such a shift is occurring and, if anything, recent data suggest a slight Democratic turnout advantage." Wall Street is heavily invested in a Clinton victory. Securities and investment firms have poured nearly $65 million into her campaign coffers, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Goldman Sachs employees have donated $284,816 to Clinton and just $3,641 to Trump, who has received $716,407 from Wall Street. Comment: Two possibilities stand out: 1) The puppet masters have learned their lesson from Brexit. In other words, when rigging an election, don't underestimate the number of people who will actually vote the 'wrong' way. If you think you can swing 10% of the vote in your favor when you need 20-30%, you're going to fail, leading to an unexpected and undesired outbreak of actual democracy. 2) Goldman Sachs is just as myopic as their anti-Brexit peers. U.S. voters are not just voting for a person. For many, voting for Trump really is voting for an idea (rightly or wrongly). Even though he's a moron, Michael Moore captured this sentiment quite well: In other words, it's possible Goldman Sachs have started believing their own propaganda and the data from their media partners' fake polls. If so, they may be in for a bigger surprise than they expected. | 0 |
Doomsday Election
By Mike Whitney November 09, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Counterpunch " - This is what it must feel like to be on Death Row, to be waiting for the moment when the iron door clangs open for the last time and four burly guards escort you arm-in-arm to the room where your life will be extinguished. That same sense of dread hangs over the presidential election of 2016.
No one is happy about the election and no one anticipates better days ahead. Americas glory days appear to be in the rearview mirror while the steady downward slide seems to be gaining pace. This years presidential campaign has brought all the anger, anxiety and frustration bubbling to the surface. Nerves are raw, people are on edge, and the trepidation is so thick you could cut it with a knife. All the recent surveys tell the same story: Americans are sick of the mudslinging, sick of the scandals, sick of the recriminations, sick of the two party duopoly, and sick of the two candidates, the two most distrusted and reviled candidates in the countrys 230 year history. This is from the New York Times:
An overwhelming majority of voters are disgusted by the state of American politics, and many harbor doubts that either major-party nominee can unite the country after a historically ugly presidential campaign, according to the final pre-election New York Times/CBS News Poll
With more than eight in 10 voters saying the campaign has left them repulsed rather than excited, the rising toxicity threatens the ultimate victor. Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic candidate, and Mr. Trump, the Republican nominee, are seen as dishonest and viewed unfavorably by a majority of voters
After weeks of Mr. Trumps accusations that the election is rigged, a little more than six in 10 of his supporters say they will accept the results as legitimate if he loses. More than a quarter of Mr. Trumps supporters say they will probably not accept the outcome if Mrs. Clinton is declared the winner, and nearly 40 percent of them say they have little or no confidence that Americans votes will be counted properly.
( Voters Express Disgust Over U.S. Politics in New Times /CBS Poll, New York Times)
The growing sense of desperation in America today is palpable and it goes far beyond this one, isolated election cycle. The steady erosion of confidence in the nations main institutions is evident in Congresss public approval ratings which seem to be stuck in single-digit territory. The public probably feels equal contempt for the Loretta Lynch Justice Department which is loaded with Clinton toadies that have done their best to quash any investigation into the illicit pay-to-play machinations at the Clinton Foundation. And, lets not forget the media which has lost whatever shred of credibility it managed to salvage after its myriad of war-promoting lies about WMD, mobile weapons labs, aluminum tubes and Assads imaginary chemical weapons attacks, attacks that were invented from whole cloth at one of Washingtons many neocon think tanks where these fake ideas are typically hatched. The Forth Estates latest gambit is an idiotic attempt to prove that Vladimir Putin is trying to hack our thoroughly-corrupted Third World voting system to achieve some nebulous political gain. What a joke.
No, Hillary, Putin is not gaming the system like you did in the primaries with Bernie Sanders, nor did he put a gun to your head and force you to delete the 33,000 missing emails from your private server. That was your handiwork Ms. Clinton, although you have a done a masterful job in deflecting attention from yourself and passing the buck for your own sleazy, criminal activities onto Moscow.
But, back to the media. This from Gallup:
Americans trust and confidence in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately and fairly has dropped to its lowest level in Gallup polling history, with 32% saying they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media. This is down eight percentage points from last year.
Gallup began asking this question in 1972, and on a yearly basis since 1997. Over the history of the entire trend, Americans trust and confidence hit its highest point in 1976, at 72%, in the wake of widely lauded examples of investigative journalism regarding Vietnam and the Watergate scandal. After staying in the low to mid-50s through the late 1990s and into the early years of the new century, Americans trust in the media has fallen slowly and steadily. It has consistently been below a majority level since 2007
Bottom Line: the slide in media trust has been happening for the past decade. Before 2004, it was common for a majority of Americans to profess at least some trust in the mass media, but since then, less than half of Americans feel that way. Now, only about a third of the U.S. has any trust in the Fourth Estate, a stunning development for an institution designed to inform the public. ( Americans Trust in Mass Media Sinks to New Low , Gallup)
Designed to inform the public???
You gotta be kidding? Droopy confidence in the media is a triumph for ordinary working people who have begun to see through the charade of unbiased coverage and realize that the corporate owners of the press manipulate the news to shape perceptions and maintain their stranglehold on power. Thats whats really going on, and thats why a growing number of people have swarmed to Donald Trumps campaign. They see Trumps lack of political correctness as a sign that he is not owned by the Washington oligarchy of racketeers who invent teleprompter candidates like Obama and Clinton who are never certain what they actually believe until they see it printed in bold letters on the screen in front of them.
To large extent, Trump owes his shocking rise to the top of the GOP ticket to the fact that he shoots from the hip and that the media hates him. What was once a liability, has become an asset as trust for the despised media has plunged to depths never seen before.
But that doesnt explain whats really driving this election and why are the American people so overcome by desperation?
Its all about economic insecurity. Its all about the fact that standards of living are slipping, that an entire generation is bogged down with student debt, that all the good-paying jobs have been shipped to other countries, that family incomes are shriveling, that a good portion of the population feel threatened by immigration, that health care costs have skyrocketed, that retirement plans have been postponed, and that the great bulk of the nations wealth has been transferred to the 1 percent plutocrats and Wall Street landsharks who dictate policy through their Congressional lackeys and their allies at the Federal Reserve. Thats what the election is really all about.
People are waking up to the fact that the American dream is dead, that the US is no longer the land of opportunity, and that the lives of their children are going to be worse than their own, far worse. This is why everyone is so upset, so frustrated, so hopeless. They are looking for a political ally who will address their needs, and instead they get bromides on transgender bathrooms or glass ceilings or any of the other soothing slogans the Democrats use to pacify the masses and to keep them in the flock. Only now its not working as well. Now a sizable portion of the blue collar vote has shifted into Trumps camp mainly because they see through the phony Democrat rhetoric and all the job-eviscerating free trade deals theyve pushed for years. Trump has skillfully tapped into the collective psyche of millions of working people who feel the Democratic Party tossed them under the track-hoe 30 years ago and never looked back. And, hes right, too. The Dems have sold out their supporters, and its only going to get worse under Clinton, or should we say, Madame TPP. Heres how Nile Bowie summed it up in a recent article at CounterPunch:
Economic disempowerment and political disenfranchisement have accelerated under President Obama, to the detriment of the American middle class. White, blue-collar Americans have witnessed the offshoring of their jobs and the erosion of their status in society, and Trump has masterfully stroked their resentment and discontent by playing on their fears of Muslims, immigrants and minorities
Trumps real problem with the Washington establishment is that he isnt part of it. His campaign represents an insurgent faction of the oligarchical class that aims to displace and replace the standing political elites. Bipartisan opposition to Trump is grounded in the belief that he would be an unreliable proxy and a liability, someone too narrow and unpredictable to manage the common affairs of the ruling class and the US deep state.
Moreover, the US establishment is not interested in being led by such a contentious figure, who would draw protest and public opposition in a way that more conventional establishment candidates largely do not. For example, Trumps rhetoric on immigration seems to engender more public outrage than the immigration policy under Obama, who has deported more people than any other president in history. ( Election 2016: A Political System In Crisis , Nile Bowie, CounterPunch)
The big money guys dont like Trump, and they make no bones about it. But Trump isnt going away and neither are his followers, a vast number of whom will not respect the results of the election if Hillary wins. Thats a big problem for elites who like to manage the population through the popular election sham. Now all thats at risk.
And its not like Trump hasnt bent over backwards to ingratiate himself with the deep-state powerbrokers either. He has. His first olive branch to the elites was the selection of Mike Pence as his running mate. Pence is a died-in-the-wool establishment Republican neocon who can be trusted to pursue the same extremist agenda the GOP has followed since the Gingrich revolution. But there was another big move that Trump made that escaped the notice of the media and which really underscores his willingness to play by to the rules. Heres the story from Zero Hedge:
Six months ago, Steven Mnuchin became finance chair for the Trump campaign. Having successfully helped to raise 10s of millions of dollars for the campaign, the former Goldman Sachs partner and Soros Fund management employee is now positioned for something much larger as Donald Trump reportedly told his aides today that he wants Mnuchin to serve as his Treasury Secretary.
Ironically, Trump has often criticized Clinton (and his former competitor Ted Cruz) for their links to the big banks:
I know the guys at Goldman Sachs. They have total, total control over him. Just like they have total control over Hillary Clinton, Trump said in one debate.
But as we noted previously, he had no qualms, however, in hiring one of the most prominent Goldman alums to raise money for him.
for Trump, a self-professed anti-establishment candidate, who has repeatedly stated he is not for sale to special interest groups, his sudden call for the seemingly most Wall Street of Wall-Streeters to become Treasury Secretary may come as a big surprise to some and will leave many of his supporters demanding an explanation. ( Trump Wants Former Goldman Partner And Soros Employee To Serve As Treasury Secretary , Zero Hedge)
Another head of Treasury from G-Sax?
That figures.
Trump is great with the rabble-rousing take back your country tirades and all the gibberish about the rigged system. But he also knows how to cave in when it suits his interests. He knows hes not going to be president without Wall Streets nod, so hes enlisted a trusted insider to take care of business at Treasury. Its a signal to the bigwigs that they dont have to worry about the Donald going off the reservation. (wink, wink) So much for Trumps independence, eh?
And what can we say about Hillary Clinton that hasnt been said a million times before?
Clinton, who still holds a slim lead in most of the polls, is clearly the establishment candidate in a year when hatred for the corrupt Washington oligarchy, has reached levels not seen in the last hundred years. The fact that Hillary can run for the nations highest office while being investigated by the FBI, while being savaged by the daily releases of new, incriminating emails (from WikiLeaks), and while promoting a hawkish, neocon-driven foreign policy that portends a direct military confrontation with Russia, speaks to the fact that traditional liberal Democrats are either still hoodwinked by the Democratic Partys manipulation of identity politics or simply terrified of the alternative, Donald Trump.
And thats why everyone is so utterly dejected and depressed about the election, because instead of voting for a candidate they really want or admire, most people are simply voting for the candidate that either disgusts or scares the hell out of them the least. What kind of choice is that?
In less than 24 hours, the most agonizingly-wretched campaign of all times will be over, the ballots will be counted, and the new president will be named. The only thing that is certain is that, whoever wins, we lose. 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] . | 0 |
A Guatemalan national accused of raping a minor has disappeared after being allowed to post bail. [Gabino a legal resident whose parents live in Guatemala, allegedly raped a girl whom he was dating after stalking her for months at Central High School, according to KETV News. The victim’s aunt told KETV that the teen reported the stalking to school officials but nothing was done. The administration says they have no records of the reports. After and the victim began dating, he took the teen to his home to meet his family. The girl alleges that took her upstairs and raped her after she repeatedly told him she did not want to have sex. When charges were filed against in December 2016, he was allowed to post a $5, 000 bail from jail. paid the bond and then disappeared. “I’m really frustrated, I’m really mad at the situation, at the law,” the aunt of the victim told KETV News in an interview. “Her emotion, personal emotion, she’s doing really bad,” she continued. Meanwhile, a family member of told KETV anonymously that “He’s not in the country anymore. ” Nebraska Judge Jeffrey Marcuzzo, who set ’s bail at only $5, 000, has a history of setting low bonds for illegal immigrants accused of heinous crimes. Eswin Mejia, a illegal immigrant from Honduras, was handed a bond of $5, 000 after allegedly killing Sarah Root while he was street racing, Breitbart News reported. After posting bond, Mejia disappeared and has not been found. Just a day before being killed in the car accident, Root had graduated from Bellevue University with a 4. 0 GPA. has a warrant out for his arrest. John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder. | 1 |
A Pennsylvania appeals court on Monday blocked Bill Cosby’s effort to have criminal sexual assault charges against him thrown out, opening the way for the case to proceed. Court officials on Tuesday scheduled a preliminary hearing in the criminal case for May 24th. Though Mr. Cosby has been sued in civil courts by several women, the Pennsylvania case is the only criminal case to arise from the many sexual assault accusations leveled against him in recent years. The case involves a former Temple University staff member, Andrea Constand, who says the entertainer drugged and molested her at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. Mr. Cosby, 78, has denied all wrongdoing. Andrew Wyatt, a spokesman for Mr. Cosby, could not immediately say whether Mr. Cosby would appeal. Kevin R. Steele, the district attorney for Montgomery County, whose office is prosecuting the case, said in a statement that the court agreed with him that Mr. Cosby had no right to appeal at this stage, and that he looked forward to putting forth his case at a preliminary hearing. The ruling by the Superior Court of Pennsylvania came in response to a motion by Mr. Steele to quash Mr. Cosby’s appeal. The court also denied Mr. Cosby’s attempt to win an automatic right of appeal. Since Mr. Cosby was charged in December, his legal team has been working to have the charges dismissed. It has argued that one of Mr. Steele’s predecessors as district attorney had made a binding commitment in 2005 never to prosecute Mr. Cosby in connection with his encounter with Ms. Constand. The district attorney at the time of the initial investigation, Bruce L. Castor Jr. said in a February hearing that he had made a pledge not to prosecute Mr. Cosby so that Mr. Cosby would testify in Ms. Constand’s subsequent civil suit without fear of prosecution based on what he said. Mr. Cosby ultimately did testify, and that suit ended in 2006 with his paying Ms. Constand a financial settlement. But a judge who oversaw the February proceeding rejected Mr. Cosby’s petition, which led to Mr. Cosby’s appeal. In denying the appeal Monday, the court did not release a written explanation, nor did it indicate whether the decision had been made by a single judge or a panel of judges. Mr. Steele said he was “gratified” by the court’s decision. “We are ready for that hearing and look forward to the court setting a date so we can present our case,” he said. Even if Mr. Cosby did appeal, his efforts would not necessarily stop a preliminary hearing from going ahead unless the higher court again suspended proceedings while Mr. Cosby made his arguments. In addition to his criminal case, Mr. Cosby is involved in a number of separate civil cases brought by other women who say he assaulted them years ago. But those have been slowed, with judges determining that further questioning of Mr. Cosby in these cases should be delayed while the criminal case is outstanding in Pennsylvania, citing the potential conflict Mr. Cosby might face if compelled to testify in the civil matters now. | 1 |
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— Good Ideas Vs Bad (@BadIdeasVs) October 30, 2016
Since the story broke on Friday that the FBI is renewing the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails, Huma Abedin suddenly became strangely absent from Hillary’s campaign. In fact, it seems she has vanished. The next tweet features another “missing person” style meme and notes, “ According to the Clinton Foundation, she was recently believed to be suicidal, however, Huma has no history of depression. ” Clearly, the creator was taking a sarcastic jab at the impossible coincidence that so many people close to the Clintons have committed suicide.
— Ben Dihya (@bendyhya) October 30, 2016
Some reports assume that she’s dropped out of the public eye and is holed up with lawyers, trying to come up with a plan to save her own ass. Others wonder if she’s fled the country or is otherwise in hiding in fear of Hillary’s retaliation. Meme created for the #SaveHuma internet campaign. (Source: Facebook)
While the former is most likely the truth, the internet is exploding with memes and tweets, which have been created by users who were obviously inspired by the rumored “Clinton Body Count” list and have added in a good amount of sarcastic humor too. Meme created for the #SaveHuma internet campaign. (Source: Facebook)
The tongue-in-cheek memes and the #SaveHuma and #PrayForHuma hashtag campaigns are spreading like crazy, likely because of their underlying “karma’s a b*tch”  kind of tone. The idea of poetic justice being served up to Hillary Clinton and any person who aided and abetted her criminal acts is a very popular notion these days.
Now that the FBI has what is most likely the missing 33,000 emails, we can be reasonably sure that actual, lawful justice is on the horizon as well, and there isn’t a hashtag on Earth that will be able to save Crooked Hillary or her favorite minion, Huma, from facing the consequences of their actions. | 0 |
WASHINGTON — Minutes before President Trump was to take the stage in Nashville last week to make his case for the health care overhaul he had promised, he received some unwelcome news that shifted his script. A Federal District Court judge in Hawaii had just placed another stay on his ban on travelers from six predominantly Muslim countries, dealing his order a second legal setback in two months. As a country music duo crooned in an auditorium still filling with adoring supporters of Mr. Trump, the president fumed backstage and huddled with his staff for a hasty redrafting of the speech. When Mr. Trump emerged, he decided to relegate the health care overhaul, which he has identified as a top domestic priority, to a brief mention more than halfway through the speech. He instead replaced its prime billing with an angry diatribe against the travel ban ruling and the judge who had issued it. “I have to be nice, otherwise I’ll get criticized for speaking poorly about our courts,” he said. But he could not help himself: The president soon suggested that the court that had just ruled against him should be destroyed. “People are screaming, ‘Break up the Ninth Circuit!’ ” Once again, Mr. Trump’s agenda was subsumed by problems of his own making, his message undercut by a seemingly endless stream of controversy he cannot seem to stop himself from feeding. The health care measure appears on track for a House vote this week, and the president, who planned a weekend of relaxation at his Palm Beach, Fla. club, is likely to receive a large measure of the credit. But it has also become clear that Mr. Trump, an agitator incapable of responding proportionately to any slight, appears hellbent on squandering his honeymoon. Instead, he has sowed chaos in his own West Wing, and talked or tweeted his way into trouble, over and over again. That was never more apparent than over the last week, when fresh questions about his refusal to release his tax returns and the blocking of his executive order sapped the spotlight from his efforts to build support for the health measure and even the unveiling of his first budget. Even more : his insistence that President Barack Obama had authorized surveillance on his 2016 campaign, a claim that continued unabated despite rebukes from Republicans, denials by the congressional intelligence committees and complaints from the British government after Mr. Trump’s spokesman suggested that one of its intelligence agencies had aided in the spying. “It’s a pattern with him — he sometimes counterpunches so hard he hits himself,” said Ari Fleischer, who served as White House press secretary for George W. Bush. The public outbursts are mirrored by internal tensions. With the embers of the old rivalry extinguished between his chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, and chief of staff, Reince Priebus, a new realignment has emerged in a West Wing already rived by suspicion and intrigue. Gary Cohn, the former Goldman Sachs executive who serves as the president’s top economic policy adviser and who is decidedly more liberal than the rest of Mr. Trump’s inner circle, is on the rise, and has the ear of the president’s powerful Jared Kushner. Mr. Kushner also gained an ally on the National Security Council with the appointment of Dina Powell, a Republican and another former Goldman official who worked with Mr. Cohn, as a deputy for strategy. In the newness of the administration, the constant need to tend to internal dynamics has been a distraction. The aides have watched each other warily and tried tending to the president’s base of supporters amid a sea of appointments of people who worked on Wall Street. Mr. Trump is not bothered by turf battles in his administration. He believes they foster competition and keep any one aide from accumulating too much power. He is even more enthusiastic about waging war publicly, believing that it fires up his white base. Indeed, in Nashville on Wednesday night, Mr. Trump spoke to a rapturous crowd of almost 10, 000 people and his embattled spokesman, Sean Spicer, was greeted as a star by supporters, who spent several minutes crowding around him to take pictures and pat him on the back. But in Washington, some Republican lawmakers and officials have watched in dismay and frustration, they say privately, because the president they are looking to for cover and salesmanship of the health care overhaul keeps getting sidetracked. One of those diversions came after the judge’s ruling on the travel ban. In Nashville, the president said he would prefer to go back to his first, more restrictive ban and pursue it to the Supreme Court. “That’s what I wanted to do in the first place,” Mr. Trump said, a statement that seems destined to be used against his own lawyers in upcoming court cases on the executive order. For Mr. Trump, this was supposed to be a week of pivoting and message discipline. The president read from a script during public appearances and posted on Twitter less often. He invited lawmakers from both parties to the White House for strategy sessions on the health measure. He scheduled policy speeches, like one near Detroit, where he announced that he was halting fuel economy standards imposed by Mr. Obama, and the rally in Nashville, where he visited the grave of Andrew Jackson, the populist patron selected by his political impresario, Mr. Bannon, as Mr. Trump’s presidential analog. But by Friday, as Mr. Trump worked to call attention to his powers of persuasion in securing commitments from a dozen wavering Republicans to back the health measure, the White House was left frantically trying to explain why Mr. Spicer had repeated allegations that the Government Communications Headquarters, the British spy agency, had helped to eavesdrop on the president during the campaign. Rather than expressing regret for a slight of one of the United States’ strongest allies, Mr. Trump was unapologetic. “We said nothing,” he said at a news conference with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany. “All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind who was the one responsible for saying that on television,” he added, referring to Andrew Napolitano, the commentator who first leveled the charge about the involvement of the British intelligence service on Fox News. That did not seem to be enough for the irate British, who had called the charge “nonsense” and “utterly ridiculous. ” Shepard Smith, a Fox News anchor, later disavowed it as well, saying his network could not back up Mr. Napolitano’s claims. The episode left little time for talk of Mr. Trump’s “America First” budget released on Thursday, filled with domestic spending cuts so deep that even his budget director conceded they would be unpopular, or the health care measure that would affect more than 20 percent of the economy. “This White House is on two tracks,” Mr. Fleischer said. “The legislative one, which has been surprisingly and pleasantly productive, and the other one full of error. ” The problem for Mr. Trump, he added, is that the behavior, if it continues, threatens to overshadow everything else. “He has a tremendous number of ingredients at his disposal to be a very successful president,” Mr. Fleischer added, “but he might not even get credit for it if he is so controversial. ” | 1 |
North Korea Ready for New Missile Launch Within Days November 04, 2016 North Korea Ready for New Missile Launch Within Days
North Korea is preparing to launch an intermediate-range ballistic missile in the next three days, Fox Business Network reported, citing two unidentified U.S. officials. The communist nation planned the launch for between 24 and 72 hours, the cable network reported. It would be the latest in a series of launches by the isolated country this year in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, supported by China, that ban all ballistic missile-related activities by the North. North Korea, which is under U.N. and other international sanctions for its nuclear and missile programs, has conducted repeated missile tests this year, the most recent on Oct. 20. That latest test, believed to be an intermediate-range Musudan, failed immediately after launch, the U.S. and South Korean militaries said. It came in spite of the threat of further U.N. sanctions under discussion. The failed launch was the eighth attempt in seven months by North Korea to launch a weapon with a design range of 3,000 km (1,800 miles) that can be fired from road mobile launchers, the U.S. and South Korean militaries said.
News of that launch came during the third and final debate for the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election.
A study published last month by a U.S.-based North Korea research project said North Korean missile and nuclear tests and other major "provocations" had clustered increasingly closer to U.S. elections.
READ MORE: COALITION NATIONS SEEK TO PUT NORTH KOREA IN A VISE
Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies said the trend also suggested the possibility of an act during the December transition period for the next U.S. administration.
North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006 and has since defied U.N. sanctions to press ahead with the development of the weapons and missiles to carry them, which it says it needs for defense.
It carried out its fourth nuclear test in January and fifth and largest on Sept. 9. 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! Donate Today! Support TRUNEWS to help build a global news network that provides a credible source for world news
We believe Christians need and deserve their own global news network to keep the worldwide Church informed, and to offer Christians a positive alternative to the anti-Christian bigotry of the mainstream news media Top Stories | 0 |
Wed, 26 Oct 2016 21:38 UTC One of the academic professionals in my vast network includes Anne Steinemann, Professor of Civil Engineering, Chair of Sustainable Cities, Melbourne School of Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Australia, who just published the research paper, Fragranced consumer products: exposures and effects from emissions , October 7, 2016. Dr Steinemann was kind enough to email a copy of her exciting work, which I'd like to bring to consumers' attention since gas out fumes from fragranced products definitely have negative impacts upon human health. Back in the 1970s, I tried bringing attention to gas out from formaldehyde fumes that were saturating everything from carpeting to fabric stores, with fragrances in almost anything from toilet tissue to you name it—scented candles being the most offensive. How employees worked in those stores that took away one's breath, was totally incomprehensible to me. Didn't they know those fumes were not friendly to their nasal sinuses, throat, bronchi and lungs? Professor Steinemann's article needs to be studied seriously, especially by parents with young children who are more prone to developing respiratory problems and allergies. Probably two of the more offensive gas-off consumer products are cologne and perfume, which women over-use plus men's after shave. Both affect young children who are carried close to their parents' bodies and must breathe in those irritating fumes. Please consider that those scents can cause respiratory problems for baby. Comment: Hidden Chemicals in Perfume and Cologne The average fragrance product tested contained 14 secret chemicals not listed on the label. Among them are chemicals associated with hormone disruption and allergic reactions, and many substances that have not been assessed for safety in personal care products. Also in the ranks of undisclosed ingredients are chemicals with troubling hazardous properties or with a propensity to accumulate in human tissues. These include diethyl phthalate, a chemical found in 97 percent of Americans (Silva 2004) and linked to sperm damage in human epidemiological studies (Swan 2008), and musk ketone, a synthetic fragrance ingredient that concentrates in human fat tissue and breast milk (Hutter 2009; Reiner 2007). The above article Abstract states, Results from this study provide strong evidence that fragranced products can trigger adverse health effects in the general population. The study also indicates that reducing exposure to fragranced products, such as through fragrance-free policies, can provide cost-effective and relatively simple ways to reduce risks and improve air quality and health. Furthermore, I'd like to call readers' attention to the statistics cited regarding HEALTH EFFECTS. Here's what Professor Steinemann's research confirmed: Overall, 34.7 % of the population reported one or more types of adverse health effects from exposure to one or more types of fragranced products. The most common types of adverse effects were as follows: 18.6 % respiratory problems; 16.2 % mucosal symptoms; 15.7 % migraine headaches; 10.6 % skin problems; 8.0%asthma attacks; 7.2%neurological problems; 5.8 % cognitive problems; 5.5 % gastrointestinal problems; 4.4 % cardiovascular problems; 4.0 % immune system problems; 3.8 % musculoskeletal problems; and 1.7 % other. Personally, I think the above stats could meet the 'criteria' for those affected and who experience what's called "Multiple Chemical Sensitivities" (MCS), a condition exacerbated by environmental pollutants, e.g., smog, chemtrails, odors, chemical gas out fumes, and fragrances, relieved only by total avoidance and undertaking a supervised detoxification program, in my opinion. Because of the "super-saturation aggregate" of chemicals in air, food, water and environment, the human immune system is being compromised constantly, whether we know it or not. Therefore, it ought to be incumbent upon everyone, I think, to avoid any chemical gas out fumes like scented candles, dryer sheets, cleaning products, automobile and room air fresheners, scented personal beauty products, e.g., soaps, lotions, perfumes, after shave, hair sprays, etc. Let's not ignore "flame retardants." In my opinion, one of the most irritating scents is found in room air freshener products, which are caustic to mucous membranes of the nose, mouth, throat and bronchi. Many public restrooms gas out deodorizing chemicals toxic fumes, which ought to be outlawed, in my opinion, as people are forced to breathe them in order to use public restrooms. Complain to managers in stores, theaters and other public places when you encounter such chemical assaults on your lungs. Laundry products leave scents in bed linens that infants, toddlers and adults must sleep on seven or more hours a day, which is not conducive to a healthy respiratory system and weakens the immune system, in my opinion. Toxic chemical fume exposure is a stress on the body! Have pity on your poor liver, the main detoxifying organ in the body, and give it a chance to recoup as much as possible. Wearing perfumes and breathing in room air fresheners are constant chemical stresses to the body. However, one of the most egregious out gassing of toxic scents is found in all new clothing. The odor smells like perfume, but contains many chemicals to keep the fabric 'sized'. I can smell someone wearing new clothing several feet away from me. If I can smell it, I question whether it's harming the person wearing it, as most people don't realize what's going on with new clothing. I heartily suggest laundering every new piece of clothing before wearing it or putting it on a baby or toddler—especially! If there's something that can't be laundered, place it in a clothes dryer on a high heat setting for as long as it takes to 'cook off' the fumes. I discuss a lot about chemical reactions in my 2009 book, Our Chemical Lives And The Hijacking Of Our DNA, A Probe Into What's Probably Making Us Sick. Personally, I don't buy anything that cannot be laundered before wearing! Sometimes I 'cook' new clothing in my dryer for several hours before it's gassed out. Wetting two clean wash clothes that are wrung out as dry as possible and placed into the dryer with new clothing, I found, helps the gas out go faster and reduces dryer time. Would you like to know what some of those sizing chemicals are? According to our friends at Organic Consumers Association, Chemicals often used for finishing include formaldehyde , caustic soda, sulfuric acid, bromines, urea resins, sulfonamides, halogens, and bromines. Some imported clothes are now impregnated with long-lasting disinfectants which are very hard to remove, and whose smell gives them away. [1] Professor Steinemann found that Fragranced product manufacturers are not required to disclose all ingredients in their formulations. This lack of disclosure can impede efforts to understand and reduce adverse effects associated with potentially harmful compounds, such as certain volatile organic compounds and semi-volatile organic compounds. Further, we lack knowledge on which specific chemicals or mixtures of chemicals are associated with the adverse effects, and this is an important area for research. In my opinion, there ought to be a law prohibiting any non-disclosure policies of all ingredients used in business and industry manufacturing! Where are FDA, EPA and OSHA regulations regarding those loopholes in manufacturing and merchandising? I mention OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) because the workplace can be very problematic for many reasons: chemical gas out fumes from carpeting and other construction materials; perfumes, which can be compared to tobacco smoking fumes; and unrealized particulates given off from heat production by electronic equipment—often the source of eye irritation, I think. Indoor air pollution can originate from many sources. Thanks, Professor Steinemann, for your timely and exceptional study. Fragranced consumer products: exposures and effects from emissions | 0 |
WIMBLEDON, England — A drought can surely not generate the same sort of anxiety as a drought. But Andy Murray’s second Wimbledon victory — (3) (2) over Milos Raonic on Sunday — evinced great emotion just the same as Murray sat in his chair on Centre Court sobbing into his towel with the customary pomp and circumstance of the awards ceremony getting underway all around him. Murray, now 29, is no Downton Abbey Briton, raised to handle the vagaries of the game of life with a stiff upper lip in the public eye. He is a rawboned, sometimes rumpled Scotsman with gravel in his voice. He is from a modest background and a childhood colored by the tragic Dunblane school shootings, and he has always worn his ambitions and perfectionist streak on his short sleeves, shouting, cursing and hungering for more from himself at a tournament better accustomed to subtler local heroes (see Tim Henman). But Murray’s deep and undisguised internal drive has been as important to his success as his foot speed and phenomenal talent. Seeded No. 2 this year, he already was the most successful British men’s tennis player since Fred Perry. He is now the first British man since Perry to win Wimbledon more than once. Perry, whose statue is on the grounds here at the All England Club, won three straight singles titles from 1934 to 1936. Murray won his first in 2013 but was also reduced to tears of a different provenance during the ceremony after losing the final to Roger Federer in 2012. “I’ve had some great moments here and also some tough losses,” Murray said Sunday, holding the trophy close. “And obviously the wins feel extra special because of the tough losses. ” The tough losses have not come only at Wimbledon. Murray has had the rotten timing to come of age in one of the most eras at the top in men’s tennis history. For all his achievement, he has yet to reach No. 1, and his record in Grand Slam finals coming into Sunday was an unprecedented with all of those finals being played against either Novak Djokovic or Federer. Djokovic, the world’s dominant player, beat Murray in the first two major finals of the season, at the Australian Open and the French Open. Djokovic had won four straight Grand Slam tournaments and was a favorite to defend his title here as well until he was upset in the third round by the American Sam Querrey. For Murray, that meant a final against Raonic, who upset Federer in a semifinal to become the first Canadian man to reach a Grand Slam singles final. It also meant that for the first time in his career, Murray was a clear favorite to win a major title. He did not crack, making just 12 unforced errors over the three sets, limiting Raonic to just eight aces with his returning and routinely producing decisive passing shot combinations — particularly off the backhand wing — as Raonic rightly tried to force the issue, knowing he had little chance of winning from the baseline. Murray also took surprisingly quick command of the two tiebreakers, normally Raonic’s domain. “I think it’s phenomenal for him, to back up his win from three years ago,” said Raonic, the No. 6 seed. “He’s been in many finals since then that he wasn’t able to make the most of. So for him it’s a big step forward. The next move is up to him. He’s got to go for it. There’s many other guys who will be trying to go for it as well. I know I will. ” Since Wimbledon in 2013, Murray has gone through back surgery and two different coaches before reuniting with his mentor Ivan Lendl last month. Murray was married to his longtime girlfriend, Kim Sears, last year, and she gave birth to their daughter, Sophia, in February. Murray’s life changes were clearly on his mind in the moments after victory. “I’m playing for something a bit different now,” he said of Sophia in a postmatch interview with ESPN. “Hopefully she’ll be proud of this one day. ” But he also clearly viewed this as a more personal achievement than his 2013 victory. “I’m not suggesting this was only for me,” he said Sunday after showing off his trophy from the Centre Court balcony to thousands of fans gathered below. “I know it’s something bigger than that. But the last time it was such a big thing for a British man to win Wimbledon. It had been so long. I was so relieved that I’d done that. ” This time, he intends to truly savor the moment. “I’m going to make sure I enjoy this one more than the others,” he said. There may not be much time, however, with the Davis Cup still a possibility next week followed by the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and the United States Open in August. It is a grueling, global game, and Raonic is determined to keep climbing. Born in the former Yugoslavia in what is now Montenegro, Raonic immigrated to Canada with his family in 1994 and has long had his sights on the sort of success he achieved here. To maximize his chances at Wimbledon this year, he even hired John McEnroe, the Wimbledon champion, to offer coaching advice. But Murray, more experienced and very adept at absorbing power, was too much to handle in the end. He has now beaten Raonic in their last six matches, four of which have come this season. “With a server like Milos, you can’t let up for one second,” Lendl said. “Just imagine if Milos breaks early in the third and wins the tiebreak in the fourth. We’re still out there. There was just one break of serve the entire match. The focus Andy had today was fantastic. ” Murray now has three Grand Slam singles titles, still quite a contrast with the other members of the Big Four. Federer has a career men’s record of 17. Rafael Nadal has won 14, Djokovic 12. Murray, at 29, is unlikely to catch them, but he can certainly close the gap, and it will be intriguing to see what he can achieve going forward with Lendl back in his corner. “Everyone’s time comes at different stages,” he said. “Some come in their early 20s, some . Hopefully mine is still to come. ” Murray has now won both tournaments he has played since Lendl, the former world No. 1, rejoined him. Murray also beat Raonic to win at the Queen’s Club last month. The last time they teamed up, Murray won the gold medal at the 2012 Olympics, which was staged at the All England Club, along with the 2012 United States Open and that first Wimbledon title. “He’s just lucky,” Murray said in his postmatch remarks of Lendl as the crowd laughed along. Murray got more laughs when he came to the rescue of the departing British prime minister, David Cameron, who was sitting in the Royal Box on Sunday near the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and who received a mixture of boos and cheers. “I think playing a Wimbledon final is tough, but I certainly wouldn’t like to be the prime minister,” Murray said. “It’s an impossible job. ” Getting the ball past the great wall of Murray seemed well nigh impossible, too, on Sunday, but for all the good cheer in victory, this was hardly a lighthearted afternoon in general on Centre Court. Murray had made that clear only a few moments before as he sat in his chair with his face buried in his towel and then buried in his hands. Three years is a long time to wait for a player with his kind of talent, his kind of desire. | 1 |
LINCOLN IN THE BARDOBy George Saunders343 pages. Random House. $28. George Saunders’s first novel, “Lincoln in the Bardo,” is like a weird folk art diorama of a cemetery come to life. Picture, as a backdrop, one of those primitively drawn mourning paintings with rickety white gravestones and monuments standing under the faded green canopy of a couple of delicately sketched trees. Add a tall, sad mourner, grieving over his recently deceased son. And then, to make things stranger, populate the rest of the scene with some Edward ghosts, skittering across the landscape — at once menacing, comical and slightly . “Lincoln in the Bardo” takes, as its point, the death of Abraham Lincoln’s beloved son, Willie, who succumbed to typhoid fever on Feb. 20, 1862, and the president’s visits to the crypt where his son was interred at the Oak Hill Cemetery in nearby Georgetown. Saunders intercuts facts and (culled from books and news accounts) in a narrative with some ghost stories of his own imagining, allowing a chorus of disembodied spirits to describe Lincoln’s visits, while babbling on about their own regrets and misplaced dreams. “Bardo” is the Tibetan Buddhist name for a transition period between death and rebirth and seems to indicate, in this case, the bizarre purgatory inhabited by these ghosts. The supernatural chatter can grow tedious at times — the novel would have benefited immensely from some judicious pruning — but their voices gain emotional momentum as the book progresses. And they lend the story a choral dimension that turns Lincoln’s personal grief into a meditation on the losses suffered by the nation during the Civil War, and the more universal heartbreak that is part of the human condition. The ghosts are a motley lot, reminiscent of the dispossessed and disenfranchised characters in Saunders’s short stories. They include a soldier, a murderer, a disgraced clerk, a rape victim, a hunter who’s killed more than 30 bears and hundreds of deer, an aggrieved scholar, a mother of three girls, a young man who tried to kill himself after the man he loved spurned his affections, and an older man who was struck in the head by a falling ceiling beam and died before he could consummate his marriage to his pretty young wife. Together, these voices create a kind of portrait of an American community — not unlike the one in Edgar Lee Masters’s 1915 classic, “Spoon River Anthology,” which was set in a fictionalized version of a small Illinois town. The poems in “Spoon River” were narrated from beyond the grave by the dozens of souls “sleeping on the hill” in the local cemetery. One of those characters was Anne Rutledge, rumored to have been Lincoln’s first love, and whose untimely death — reportedly of typhoid at the age of 22 — was said to be a source of his often melancholy outlook on the world. The similarities between “Spoon River” and Saunders’s new novel extend well beyond the Lincoln association and the graveyard confessions. Like Sherwood Anderson’s “Winesburg, Ohio” (1919) — itself a notable influence on Saunders’s early short stories — and Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” (1938) “Lincoln in the Bardo” appropriates Masters’s multivoiced approach, using it to create a story that unfolds into a meditation on the dreams and disappointments of ordinary people, longing for connection but often left feeling isolated and alone. Saunders’s short stories — “CivilWarLand in Bad Decline,” “Pastoralia,” “In Persuasion Nation” and “Tenth of December” — tend to vacillate between two impulses: satire and black comedy, reminiscent of Nathanael West and Kurt Vonnegut and a more empathetic mode, closer to Anderson and William Trevor. Though there are moments of dark humor in some of the ghost stories here, “Bardo” definitely falls into the more introspective part of that spectrum. In these pages, Saunders’s extraordinary verbal energy is harnessed, for the most part, in the service of capturing the pathos of everyday life — as experienced by the spirits of the dead, remembering missed opportunities by Willie, as his life slips away and he enters the limbo of the bardo and by Lincoln, as he struggles to come to terms with his son’s death and the devastation of a war that is ripping the country apart. Saunders’s novel is at its most potent and compelling when it is focused on Lincoln: a grave, deeply compassionate figure, burdened by both personal grief and the weight of the war, and captured here in the full depth of his humanity. In fact, it is Saunders’s beautifully realized portrait of Lincoln — caught at this hinge moment in time, in his own personal bardo, as it were — that powers this book over its more static sections and attests to the author’s own fruitful transition from the short story to the form of the novel. “His mind was freshly inclined toward sorrow,” Saunders writes of Lincoln, “toward the fact that the world was full of sorrow, that everyone labored under some burden of sorrow that all were suffering that whatever way one took in this world, one must try to remember that all were suffering (none content all wronged, neglected, overlooked, misunderstood) and therefore one must do what one could to lighten the load of those with whom one came into contact that his current state of sorrow was not uniquely his, not at all, but, rather, its like had been felt, would yet be felt, by scores of others, in all times, in every time, and must not be prolonged or exaggerated, because, in this state, he could be of no help to anyone and, given that his position in the world situated him to be either of great help or great harm, it would not do to stay low, if he could help it. ” | 1 |
Ready Nutrition October 31, 2016
Did you know that the White House is currently coordinating with Homeland Security to make preparations for a possible solar storm that could bring an end to civilization as we know it? An Executive Order published on October 13, by the Obama administration shows an increasing concern among White House officials about “solar flares, solar energetic particles and geomagnetic disturbances,” following a solar event which generated a Category G2 geomagnetic storm on October 8. This action could likely mean that we have an imminent solar threat in our near future. A solar discharge of great magnitude could mean entire countries could be without electricity, civil unrest and countless lives lost. If federal officials are preparing for this sort of disaster, we have enough reason to arm ourselves with the knowledge of what we might face.
Prepare for any disaster step-by-step
What are CMEs?
Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are violent explosions of plasma originating from the Sun’s corona, out of which energized particles and powerful magnetic domains emerge as fast as 3,000 kilometers per second. A CME has an associated shock wave and electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that can travel toward the Earth and interrupt satellites and power grids around the planet. There are currently no public disclosures of CMEs being detected, but there is a significant geomagnetic storm event beginning, combined with the Executive Order previously mentioned, gives cause for concern about the possibility of a CME striking our planet in the near future.
A recent report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center predicts a Category G2 geomagnetic storm from October 24 – 26. An aurora borealis is projected to be seen in the skies above New York to Wisconsin to Washington state, and interruption to satellites and power lines are expected.
It is possible that this particular storm is not the result of a CME, but in order to be prepared, one must first know what disasters may lie ahead and plan accordingly.
Here are 5 catastrophic consequences of a major CME hitting the Earth and changing life as we know it:
Satellite Disruption
If there was a high-magnitude impact of solar energy and particles, we would see an immediate response on low-Earth orbiting weather, communications, and military satellites. Some satellites could be crippled for up to a decade . The first sign that a major CME is about to strike will be a loss of connection with or permanent failure of a portion of low-Earth orbiting satellites and their associated infrastructure. The shock wave, in combination with an EMP, would likely cause significant disruption of GPS signals, possibly creating long-term failures across the global navigation satellite system. This would have disastrous implications for commercial airplanes and ships, many of which rely on GPS guidance systems for landing and docking, and a failure of timing on either of these systems could put countless lives at risk. Seismic stations, computer network synchronization and many electric power grids across the world rely on GPS clocks. Geomagnetic disturbances associated with CMEs are known to disrupt GPS clocks through interference of high frequency radio signals in both air and ground transmission. Here is some more information on EMPs. | 0 |
The catastrophe struck Wanda Wickizer on Christmas Day 2013. A generally healthy, energetic she suddenly found herself vomiting all day, racked with debilitating headaches. When her alarmed teenage son called an ambulance, the paramedics thought that she had food poisoning and didn’t take her to the emergency room. Later, when she became confused and groggy at 3 a. m. her boyfriend raced her to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in coastal Virginia, where a scan showed she was suffering from a subarachnoid hemorrhage. A vessel had burst, and blood was leaking into the narrow space between the skull and the brain. During a subarachnoid hemorrhage, if the pressure in the head isn’t relieved, blood accumulates in that narrow space and can push the brain down toward the neck. Vital nerves that control breathing and vision are compressed. Death is imminent. Wickizer was whisked by helicopter ambulance to the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, 160 miles away, for an emergency procedure to halt the bleeding. After spending days in a state, Wickizer slowly recovered and left the hospital three weeks after the hemorrhage, grateful to be alive. But soon after she returned home to her two teenage children, she found herself confronted with a different kind of catastrophe. Wickizer had had health insurance for most of her adult life: Her husband, who died in 2006, worked for the city of Norfolk, which insured their family while he was alive and for three years beyond. After his death, Wickizer worked in a series of jobs, but none provided health insurance. A minor condition — she was taking Lexapro, a common medicine for depression — meant that her only insurance option was to be funneled into the “ pool” (a type of costly insurance option that was essentially rendered obsolete by the Affordable Care Act and now figures in some of the G. O. P. plans to replace it). She would need to pay more than $800 per month for a policy with a $5, 000 deductible, and her medical procedures would then be reimbursed at 80 percent. She felt she couldn’t afford that. In 2011, she decided to temporarily stop working to tend to her children, which qualified them for Medicaid with trepidation, she left herself uninsured. And so in early 2014, without an insurer or employer or government agency to run interference between her and the hospital, she began receiving bills: $16, 000 from Sentara Norfolk (not including the scan or the E. R. doctor) $50, 000 for the air ambulance. By the end of January, there was also one for $24, 000 from the University of Virginia Physicians’ Group: charges for some of the doctors at the medical center. “I thought, O. K. that’s not so bad,” Wickizer recalls. A month later, a bill for $54, 000 arrived from the same physicians’ group, which included further charges and late fees. Then a separate bill came just for the hospital’s charges, containing a demand for $356, 884. 42 but little in the way of comprehensible explanation. In other countries, when patients recover from a terrifying brain bleed — or, for that matter, when they battle cancer, or heal from a serious accident, or face down any other health condition — they are allowed to spend their days focusing on getting better. Only in America do medical treatment and recovery coexist with a peculiar national dread: the struggle to figure out from the mounting pile of bills what portion of the fantastical charges you actually must pay. It is the sickness that eventually afflicts most every American. What’s less understood is the extent to which our current system itself is responsible for the high prices patients are charged. There are, of course, many factors that have led to the United States’ $3 trillion health care bill: runaway drug prices, excessive testing and charges for even the most basic medical interventions. But all of those individual price increases have been enabled — indeed, aided and abetted — by the complex system of billing and coding that underlies bills like those sent to Wickizer. That system, with its lines of alphanumeric codes and arcane medical abbreviations, has given birth to a gigantic new industry of consultants, armies of experts whom medical providers and insurance companies deploy against each other in an endless war over which medical procedures were undertaken and how much to pay for them. Caught in the crossfire are Americans like Wanda Wickizer, left with huge bills and indecipherable explanations in languages they cannot possibly understand. systems originated during an outbreak of the bubonic plague in London — epidemiologic constructs to classify and track causes of death and prevent the spread of infections among populations that spoke different languages. In the 1890s, the French physician and statistician Jacques Bertillon further systematized death reporting by introducing the Bertillon Classification of Causes of Death, the first system, which was adopted and modified in many countries. It became an official global effort, which was periodically revised by an international commission. During the first half of the 20th century, the number of entries naturally increased with improved understanding of science, and many countries began tabulating not just causes of deaths but also the incidence of diseases. In the 1940s, the World Health Organization took over stewardship of Bertillon’s system and renamed it to reflect a new, broader focus: the International Statistical Classification of Diseases, Injuries and Causes of Death (ICD). The codes became an invaluable tool, a common language for epidemiologists and statisticians to track the world’s afflictions. But over the last several decades in the United States, codes gradually took on a bedrock financial function as the basis for medical billing. In 1979, the government decided to use what by then were called codes — which specify the patient’s diagnosis — in adjudicating Medicare and Medicaid claims, with some modifications added specifically for that purpose the United States version was called . (The country has recently moved to a new iteration, .) For its beneficiaries, Medicare pays a fixed fee for inpatient hospitalization based primarily on the code, which is translated into a DRG ( group) code — which is the immediate basis for reimbursement. Other insurers followed in making codes the basis for billing. Coding systems begot new coding systems, because few hospitals wanted to be paid according to Medicare’s relatively low DRG standards. And because strategic coding meant increased payment, that begot coding specialists and coding courses and coding degrees. There are now different increasingly complex coding languages that define payment for different kinds of services: CPT codes, for office visits delivered by doctors, as well as HCPCS, and DRG, for charges that are incurred in the hospital. There are tens of thousands of codes in each lexicon that have become increasingly specific. For example, there are different codes for earwax removal depending on the method used (irrigation or instruments) different codes for delivering different vaccinations and a code for each injection delivered in the hospital. Different insurers also use different coding systems. While Medicare would have most likely considered Wickizer’s brain bleed as DRG 021, if billed to a commercial insurer, it could result in more than a dozen ICD codes and hundreds of HCPCS entries. Seemingly subtle choices about which code to use can have large financial consequences. If after reviewing a hospital chart of, say, a patient who has just had a problem with his heart, a hospital coder indicates the diagnosis code for “heart failure” ( Code 428) instead of the one for “acute systolic heart failure” (Code 428. 21) the difference could mean thousands of dollars. “In order to code for the more lucrative code, you have to know how it is defined and make sure the care described in the chart meets the criterion, the definition, for that higher number,” says one experienced coder in Florida, who helped with Wickizer’s case and declined to be identified because she works for another major hospital. In order to code for “acute systolic heart failure,” the patient’s chart ought to include supporting documentation, for example, that the heart was pumping out less than 25 percent of its blood with each beat and that he was given an echocardiogram and a diuretic to lower blood pressure. Submitting a bill using the higher code without meeting criteria could constitute fraud. Each billing decision, then, can be seen as a battle of coder versus coder. The coders who work for hospitals and doctors strive to bring in as much revenue as possible from each service, while coders employed by insurers try to deny claims as overreaching. Coders who audit Medicare charts look for abuse to reclaim money or fraud that needs to be punished with fines. Hospital coders teach doctors — and doctors pay to take courses — to learn how they can “upcode” their charts to a more lucrative level with minimal effort. In a doctor’s office, a Level 3 visit (paid, say, at $175) might be legally transformed into a Level 4 (say, $225) by performing one extra maneuver, like weighing the patient or listening to the lungs, whether the patient’s illness required that or not. While most hospitals and insurers set their own rates for each level of care, adding a step when interacting with a patient can also bring windfalls. E. R. doctors, for example, learned that insurers might accept a code for the examination and treatment of a patient with a finger fracture (usually 99282) if — in addition to needed interventions — a narcotic painkiller was also prescribed (a plausible bump up to 99283) indicating a more serious condition. Toward the end of the 20th century and into the next, as strategic coding increased, a new industry thrived. colleges offered degrees, and internships soon followed. Because alphanumeric coding languages are as distinct from one another as Chinese is from Russian, different degree tracks are necessary, along with distinct professional organizations that offer their own particular professional exams, certifications and licensing. Hospital systems and insurers — which have become huge, enterprises — now all employ roomfuls of graduates to perform these tasks. Membership in the American Academy of Professional Coders has risen to more than 170, 000 today from roughly 70, 000 in 2008. Individual doctors have complained bitterly about the increasing complexity of coding and the expensive necessity of hiring their own professional coders and billers — or paying a billing consultant. But they have received little support from the medical establishment, which has largely ignored the protests. And perhaps for good reason: The American Medical Association owns the copyright to CPT, the code used by doctors. It publishes coding books and dictionaries. It also creates new codes when doctors want to charge for a new procedure. It levies a licensing fee on billing companies for using CPT codes on bills. Royalties for CPT codes, along with revenues from other products, are the association’s biggest single source of income. Patients with good health insurance are often blissfully unaware and mostly unaffected by the jockeying that goes on over how to code their bills. But uninsured patients like Wickizer, or (increasingly) those with high deductibles, are stuck with no insurer to argue on their behalf. Her experience with the University of Virginia Medical Center is not unique: Studies have shown that hospitals charge patients who are uninsured or 2. 5 times more than they charge those covered by health insurance (who are billed negotiated rates) and three times more than the amount allowed by Medicare. That gap has grown considerably since the 1980s. When Wickizer arrived home from the hospital in January 2014, she had trouble concentrating and finding words she spoke deliberately, slowly. She remembers nothing before February, she says, but relied on help from her parents, who live nearby, and her boyfriend, who is retired from the Navy. She did her best to address the onslaught of bills that began appearing in her mailbox. First, she took stock of her finances. She paid the rent for the Norfolk apartment that she and her children lived in by renting out a townhouse that she and her deceased husband had bought in Virginia Beach after paying property tax, insurance and maintenance on the townhouse, she just broke even. She also received about $2, 000 a month in Social Security survivor benefits because of her husband’s death. In addition, she had about $100, 000 from her husband’s life insurance in a retirement account, which she was also hoping would help pay for her children’s college. With medical bills totaling nearly $500, 000 and no health insurance, the numbers didn’t add up. “My dad said: ‘They’ll never expect you to pay that,’’u2009” Wickizer told me. “But they did. ” As a sign of good faith, she quickly paid $1, 500 to the hospital and $1, 000 to the doctors and sought to make sense of the bills. Patients today are told to be good medical consumers, but they are asked to write checks for thousands of dollars — in this case hundreds of thousands — with little explanation of what they’re for. Wickizer did what she would have done with a statement: She contacted the hospital and requested an itemized bill. Her idea was that if she could understand how much she was being charged for each procedure, she could compare the fees with the reimbursements that Medicare or another insurer would pay for those services and begin some kind of negotiation. A month later, on March 19, the hospital finally sent a list of charges, using medical abbreviations and terminology but not revealing the alphanumeric codes. Despite being 60 pages long, the tally seemed incomplete, leaving out doctor’s charges and including other fees that seemed incidental, like charges for catheters, wires and oxygen. Room charges were vastly different on different days. Nearly simultaneously, she received a bill for the hospital portion of her care, broken down only into the broadest categories, including $111, 162 in room charges, $34, 755. 75 for pharmacy, $19, 653 for labs, $8, 640 for the operating room, $8, 325 for anesthesia, $1, 143 for the recovery room, $44, 524 for medical supplies and $40, 489 for radiology services, totaling $356, 884. 42. The bill informed her that the medical center was prepared to offer her its standard 20 percent discount for patients who are uninsured, leaving a “what you owe now” fee of $285, 507. 58. It noted that the hospital could offer some additional financial assistance, but only if her household of three had assets of less than $3, 100 (“such as bank or retirement accounts”) which disqualified Wickizer and very likely most Americans who have ever held a job. Next, she did her best to find out what Medicare or another insurer would have paid for her hospitalization, hoping to offer the hospital that amount from her retirement account. To understand the Medicare codes, she had to learn a bit of coding language. Would her hospitalization count as Medicare DRG 020 or 021? She estimated that in 2013, her subarachnoid hemorrhage (most likely coded, she determined, as “intracranial hemorrhage or cerebral infarction disorders, DRG 021, with procedures and major comorbidities or complications”) would have been reimbursed by Medicare for about $80, 000. Had a member of the armed services experienced the same condition, Tricare, the military insurer, might have paid closer to $70, 000. But to know how much a commercial insurer would have paid, she would have to figure out what HCPCS codes the hospital used to calculate her bill, and the hospital did not send those. Hospitals tend to treat their billing strategies — codes and their master price list, called a charge master — as trade secrets vital to their business. State laws and judges tend to respect that as proprietary information. When the billers called insisting on payment of the full $285, 507. 58, Wickizer explained, “I don’t have this kind of money. ” She offered the hospital and its doctors the $100, 000 in her retirement account. They declined and suggested that she sign up for a payment plan of $5, 000 a month to the hospital — and a second $5, 000 plan for the physicians’ group. It was an untenable amount. In October 2014, a sheriff affixed a summons to Wickizer’s front door, saying that the university was suing her for nonpayment. Eric Swensen, a spokesman for the University of Virginia, declined to answer questions about the case, citing patient privacy, as governed by HIPAA rules. But he noted that the university provides $270 million worth of free care to patients who meet its criterion for assistance and sets up payment plans for those who don’t. After receiving the summons, Wickizer resorted to a technique followed by many a frustrated customer: She went on Facebook, posted her story and solicited advice. (The Facebook group Paying Till It Hurts, where she posted her story, was created in 2014 in connection with a New York Times series that I wrote with the same name.) A handful of experts — patient advocates, billing professionals, lawyers and a coder — volunteered their help pro bono to try to get more information from the medical center and translate the coding that yielded the unaffordable figure. (One notable aspect of our commercialized health system is that for every person who is pushing to profit, there is another who is doing his or her best to protect patients.) In vetting Wickizer’s bill, the experts encountered roadblocks from the medical center at every turn in a contentious battle that lasted for over a year. Multiple legal requests to review Wickizer’s chart and complete bill — with its coding elucidated — were refused. Nora Johnson, a retired hospital auditor from West Virginia who volunteered to help Wickizer, noted that not revealing the billing codes constituted a violation of federal law. No insurer would have paid the bills without seeing them, allowing at least a rational attempt at negotiation. As Wickizer’s team wrote to the University of Virginia in one of their letters: “No Codes = No Pay. ” The University of Virginia Physicians’ Group, which independently charged Wickizer $54, 000, eventually turned over its billing codes. Wickizer’s experts were able to use the bill fragments they had received in discovery, supplemented by those codes, to get a better idea of what medical procedures Wickizer received during her hospitalization. From there, they tried to extrapolate how the hospital had, perhaps, coded her case. By examining the cost reports the University of Virginia hospital must file with Medicare, which indicate the amount it spends delivering certain types of care, Christine Kraft, another expert, estimated that even by its own calculations, the medical center spent less than $60, 000 treating Wickizer. The stealth battle between hospitals and insurers over bills for each hospitalization, office visit, test, piece of equipment and procedure is costly for us all. percent of United States hospital spending — the single most expensive sector in our health care system — is related to administrative costs, “including salaries for staff who handle coding and billing,” according to a study by the Commonwealth Fund. That compares with 16 percent in England and 12 percent in Canada. That discrepancy comes, in part, from the prolonged negotiations over payment and the huge number of coders, billers and collectors who have to be compensated: Their salaries and loans from those years of training in obscure languages are folded into those high charges and rising premiums. In addition, as is often the case in warfare, the big conventional army can be at a disadvantage: The insurance companies and government seem to be always one step behind the latest guerrilla tactics of providers’ coders. For years, creative coding has been winning over what the government calls “correct coding,” meaning coding that gives providers their due, but without exaggeration. Indeed, each attempt by the government to control questionable coding to enhance providers’ revenue has seemed to only fuel more attempts. In 1996, for example, Medicare’s National Correct Coding Initiative made it clear that certain codes couldn’t appear on the same bill because they were inherently part of the same procedure. As a rule, an anesthesiologist could not, for example, separately bill for anesthesia and checking your oxygen level during your surgery. But the government created Modifier 59 — a code that could be appended to other codes to allow doctors to take exceptions to that rule in unusual cases. Modifier 59 could be used to allow for two payments in certain situations, such as when an oncology nurse needed to insert two separate IVs for two different purposes — one to administer chemotherapy, say, and another hours later because the patient seemed dehydrated. Such cases were expected to be exceedingly rare. But just as entrepreneurial corporate tax lawyers search each new tax code for economic advantage, entrepreneurial coders and billers find loopholes to exploit at the edge of the law. An investigation by the Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General in 2005 found many instances of Modifier 59 abuse. Forty percent of code pairs billed with Modifier 59 in 2003 were not legitimate, resulting in $59 million in overpayment. Similarly, when Medicare announced that it would pay only a set fee for the first hour and a half of a chemotherapy infusion — and a bonus for time thereafter — a raft of infusions clocked in at 91 minutes. Like nearly every area of medicine, coding science has advanced — though not to the patient’s benefit. Commercial computer “encoder” programs maximize income from coding and make helpful suggestions (“That could be billed for Level 3,” or “Did you forget Code 54150,” indicating a circumcision on a bill for a male newborn). Today many medical centers have coders specializing in particular disciplines — joint replacement or ophthalmology or interventional radiology, for example. Advanced coding consultants advise lesser coders. The Business of Spine, a consulting firm with a partner office in Long Island, advises spine surgeons’ billers about what coding Medicare and commercial insurers will tolerate, what’s legal and not, to maximize revenue. The evolution of this mammoth growth enterprise means bigger bills for everyone — whether through increasing premiums and deductibles on insurance policies or, as in Wickizer’s situation, depleting the savings earmarked for children’s college. Like many medical centers, the University of Virginia Health System has turned at least some of its billing and debt collection over to professionals, contractors who have no pretense of the charitable mission espoused by the University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819 to educate leaders in public service. The collectors are often paid a percentage of the money they recover. They tend not to care whether a procedure was coded well or poorly. Their task is usually to go after the total sum the hospital says it is owed. In Wickizer’s case, the hospital brought in a law firm that specialized in debt collection, then called Daniel Hetzel and based in Winchester, Va. For a year and a half, Wickizer’s team of experts dissected the bills and negotiated with the hospital and its representatives at the law firm over its charges and coding strategies — just as insurers do behind the scenes on patients’ behalf. The experts laid out their logic for what might constitute reasonable payment in a detailed report based on what they could discover about Wickizer’s care: how it could be coded and what other hospitals and insurers would have paid. They helped her local lawyer, Kelly Roberts, write motions for discovery and legal letters and made offers of payment between $65, 000 and $80, 000, which they calculated should provide the hospital a profit on the services rendered to Wickizer. But the hospital did not accept any of the offers. In a letter, Peter Hetzel, an attorney at the firm, said his client would accept only just over $225, 000, saying the University of Virginia Medical Center was “the victim here. ” He noted, too, that the small rental property that Wickizer owned — appraised at $90, 200 in 2014 — was considered fair game for the hospital to seize as payment. Swensen, the spokesman for the university, said that it decides on a basis whether or not to report nonpayment to credit agencies or to pursue civil cases against patients in court. He added: “If we obtain a lien on real estate, we do not seek to sell the property if it is the patient’s primary residence. ” In February 2016, Wickizer received a letter from the state of Virginia saying that the medical center would be dunning money from any tax refund she might get. At one point, in exasperation, Wickizer wrote to her group of experts: “More than likely I am going to have to declare bankruptcy by the time this is all said and done, and I just would like to have everything settled. I want to pay them what I have and what is fair. ” By then, Wickizer was recovering physically and had married her boyfriend. But she was still struggling with stress from the uncertainty of the mammoth bills hanging over her. With court dates scheduled and postponed, motions filed and denied, she and her pro bono lawyer from Chicago, Tom Osran, along with her local lawyer were finally scheduled to face off in court with the University of Virginia Medical Center on April 29, 2016. The day before trial, after Osran was preparing to book his plane ticket to Virginia, and after I called the hospital inquiring about attending the court session, the case was dismissed. The terms of the settlement are sealed. Nearly a year later, Wickizer remains exhausted by the ordeal. Her speech, which was hesitant when I first spoke with her more than two years ago, sounds fluid now, and she is funny and thoughtful, though she says she still occasionally needs to search to find the right word, a form of a condition known as aphasia. Now working as a clerk in a small store, she would like to go back to her previous work as a bookkeeper, she told me when we spoke in March. But she has failed to secure a job she worries that her barely noticeable speech problems make her job interviews less than optimal. Or perhaps, she frets, the problem is her credit rating, which (unknown to her at the time) dropped more than 200 points after the doctors who cared for her reported her unpaid bills to credit agencies. That black mark will remain until 2021, even though her legal case is resolved and she now has military health insurance through her husband. And, she notes with a sigh of resignation, “I’m the kind of person who’s always tried to do everything right. ” | 1 |
Good morning. Welcome to California Today. Is there such a thing as a child prostitute? Campaigners have for years tried to erase the phrase from the law, arguing that if a juvenile cannot legally consent to sex with an adult, neither can she willingly sell her body. She is a victim of rape, they say, not a prostitute. Last week, the movement won perhaps its biggest victory as Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation that bans law enforcement from arresting minors involved in the sex trade, except when their safety may be at risk. Instead, they will be treated as victims, and directed toward social services. “This is a really big deal,” said Kim Biddle, the executive director of Saving Innocence, a group that counsels sexually exploited youth. The governor also signed a law that allows adult victims to have charges against them dropped if they can show they were coerced into selling sex. Together, the measures represent a shift in prosecutions away from children and young women and toward the pimps and criminal enterprises running the industry. Fifteen other states have passed similar laws that shield sexually exploited boys and girls from being charged with prostitution, according to Rights4Girls, a human rights organization that has fought for the changes. The police and outreach groups say sex trafficking in California has grown rapidly in recent years — concentrated mostly in San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco — as websites like Backpage and Craigslist have made transactions simpler than ever. Detective Lina Teague, a coordinator of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Human Trafficking Unit, said that many people, falsely, tend to view the sale of sex as a voluntary exchange. “But the reality of street prostitution today is that minors and young women are being sexually exploited out of some type of duress, fear or some type of coercion,” she said. Ms. Biddle, of Saving Innocence, cited a case in North Hollywood that involved a girl, 13, who was caught with a man. She was handcuffed and charged with prostitution he got a citation, Ms. Biddle said. “Now, we’re able to view these children correctly under the law,” she added, “as victims. ” See reporting in The New York Times on the Nov. 8 ballot initiatives: Proposition 51 (a new school bond) | Proposition 56 (cigarette tax) | Propositions 62 and 66 (death penalty questions) | Propositions 65 and 67 (on banning plastic bags). And dig into analyses of all 17 statewide measures by the Legislative Analyst’s Office, CALmatters and Ballotpedia. • Residents of a logging town are battling a timber company for the rights to water that has been piped to houses for more than a century, writes Thomas Fuller, our San Francisco bureau chief. [The New York Times] • Even as water restrictions have eased for the rest of California, Catalina Island is being hammered by drought. [Orange County Register] • Tensions flared in a South Los Angeles neighborhood after the police fatally shot an armed teenager on Saturday. [Los Angeles Times] • Fox Searchlight wants its film “The Birth of a Nation” to inspire but not incite. [The New York Times] • Anxious about the earthquake alert? What you can do to be prepared. [Los Angeles Times] • California regulators have opened a pathway for the public to get cars that have no steering wheels or pedals. [The Associated Press] • Tech conferences in San Francisco are apparently a good way for checking out what’s new in corporate paranoia. [The New York Times] • As San Diego’s zoo turns 100, it faces a swirling public debate about the treatment of animals in captivity. [San Diego Tribune] • The Farallon Islands are only 26 miles off San Francisco but feel remote. A boat trip offers views of seals and whales. [The New York Times] • The Federal Trade Commission’s chairwoman has brought hints of her West Coast background to an office in Washington with views of the Capitol. [The New York Times] • On Tuesday in San Francisco, Google is expected to unveil its answer to the Echo, Amazon’s artificially intelligent assistant, alongside new smartphones and tablets. • During San Francisco Fleet Week, now through Oct. 10, visitors can tour Navy ships. The Blue Angels put on shows Saturday and Sunday. • Carpinteria hosts the California Avocado Festival starting Friday. The free event will host more than 75 bands and the “world largest vat of Guacamole. ” • Desert Trip, a music festival in the Coachella Valley featuring the likes of Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and Neil Young, starts on Friday. Vin Scully, the Dodgers broadcasting great, called his final game before a sellout crowd in San Francisco on Sunday. The Giants clinched a berth with a victory. (Next up: a showdown against the Mets.) After 67 seasons behind the microphone, Mr. Scully signed off by telling the fans, “I have said enough for a lifetime, and for the last time, I wish you all a very pleasant good afternoon. ” What’s next for Mr. Scully? More time with his wife, Sandi, who has been by the broadcaster’s side for much of his career. Richard Sandomir, a sports columnist for The Times, writes about the couple’s marriage. As Scully heads into retirement, admirers in recent days and weeks have offered tributes to his legacy. Check out a short selection. Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times sportswriter: George Will, Washington Post columnist: Bob Costas of NBC Sports: Kevin Costner, actor: California Today goes live at 6 a. m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes. com. The California Today columnist, Mike McPhate, is a Californian — born outside Sacramento and raised in San Juan Capistrano. He lives in Davis. Follow him on Twitter. California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and attended U. C. Berkeley. | 1 |
“It’s no secret the dollar is on its way out” as China is accumulating MASSIVE amounts of gold …for one very specific reason. How will a competing gold-backed currency impact the value of the dollar?
Rory Hall from The Daily Coin joined Silver Doctors for an exclusive interview. . Hall believes price manipulators are losing control of the gold and silver markets.
When it comes to investing in precious metals, Hall says “stay away from paper…If you don’t hold it you don’t own it.”
Hall also discusses how China is accumulating massive amounts of gold. What do they plan to do with the shiny metal? Hall predicts China will issue a gold-backed currency or bond .
How will a competing gold-backed currency impact the value of the dollar? “It’s no secret the dollar is on its way out,” he says.
The economy is not on the road to recovery, Hall says. The Fed, European Central Bank, and Bank of Japan are holding together a failed system by papering over the cracks in the system without fixing the fundamental problems. Hall believes the Powers that Be cannot hold the system together much longer.
Stay tuned to hear Hall’s opinion on how to prepare for the coming collapse! | 0 |
What do households on food stamps buy at the grocery store? The answer was largely a mystery until now. The United States Department of Agriculture, which oversees the $74 billion food stamp program called SNAP, has published a detailed report that provides a glimpse into the shopping cart of the typical household that receives food stamps. The findings show that the No. 1 purchases by SNAP households are soft drinks, which accounted for 5 percent of the dollars they spent on food. The category of ‘sweetened beverages,’ which includes soft drinks, fruit juices, energy drinks and sweetened teas, accounted for almost 10 percent of the dollars they spent on food. “In this sense, SNAP is a taxpayer subsidy of the soda industry,” said Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University. “It’s pretty shocking. ” For years, dozens of cities, states and medical groups have urged changes to SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, to help improve nutrition among the 43 million poorest Americans who receive food stamps. Specifically, they have called for restrictions so that food stamps cannot be used to buy junk food or sugary soft drinks. But the food and beverage industries have spent millions opposing such measures, and the U. S. D. A. has denied every request, saying that selectively banning certain foods would be unfair to food stamp users and create too much red tape. While the report, published recently, suggests that a disproportionate amount of food stamp money is going toward unhealthful foods, the U. S. D. A. said it was unfair to single out food stamp recipients for their soft drink consumption. The report compared SNAP households and households. While those who used food stamps bought slightly more junk food and fewer vegetables, both SNAP and households bought ample amounts of sweetened drinks, candy, ice cream and potato chips. Among households, for example, soft drinks ranked second on the list of food purchases, behind milk. “Sweetened beverages are a common purchase in all households across America,” Kevin Concannon, the U. S. D. A. under secretary for food, nutrition and consumer services, said in an interview. “This report raises a question for all households: Are we consuming too many sweetened beverages, period?” The report was based on data from an unnamed, nationwide grocery chain, which provided the U. S. D. A. with monthly records of food items bought in 2011 by more than 26 million households, about three million of them food stamp recipients. The grocery chain identified and tracked SNAP households by their use of SNAP benefit cards at the checkout aisle. One limitation of the report was that it could not always distinguish when SNAP households used their benefits, other money or a combination of the two to pay for transactions. Nonetheless, the report provides a striking look at the foods American households typically buy. Across all households, the report found, “more money was spent on soft drinks than any other item” — a finding that reflects the fact that, while consumption of sugary drinks is lower today than it was a decade ago, the United States still consumes more sugary drinks than almost any other developed country, studies show. The U. S. D. A. report found that milk, cheese, potato chips, beef, cold cereal and baked bread were among the top purchases for all households. It indicated that all Americans bought ample amounts of desserts, salty snacks, candy and other junk foods. But the SNAP households spent slightly less money on nutritious foods, including fruits and vegetables, beans, eggs, nuts and seeds. Over all, the report found, SNAP households spent about 40 cents of every dollar at the grocery store on “basic items” like meat, fruits, vegetables, milk, eggs and bread. Another 40 cents of every dollar was spent on “cereal, prepared foods, dairy products, rice and beans. ” Lastly, 20 cents of each dollar was spent on a broad category of junk foods that included “sweetened beverages, desserts, salty snacks, candy and sugar. ” SNAP households spent 9. 3 percent of their grocery budgets on sweetened beverages. That was slightly higher than the 7. 1 percent figure for households that do not receive food stamps. The U. S. D. A. concluded that both food stamp recipients and other households generally made similar purchases. But several public health experts said the findings were deeply troubling. David Ludwig, the director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children’s Hospital, said the purpose of SNAP was to protect the health and of the nation, not to ensure that poor households had ample access to sugary drinks. “We have more evidence for the harms of sugary beverages than for any other category of food,” he said, “and yet it tops the list of reimbursed products in SNAP. ” Dr. Ludwig said other government programs had restrictions. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, better known as WIC, and the national school lunch program have strict nutrition standards. Medicare pays for necessary medical procedures but does not reimburse for ones it considers harmful, ineffective or unnecessary. SNAP, Dr. Ludwig said, should be structured similarly. “No one is suggesting poor people can’t choose what they want to eat,” he said. “But we’re saying let’s not use government benefits to pay for foods that are demonstrably going to undermine public health. ” The federal government provides SNAP benefits to roughly 23 million households each month, many of them homes at or below the poverty line. The average household receives about $256 in monthly benefits. That means a household that spent 10 percent of its SNAP money on sweetened beverages could buy at least 20 bottles of orange Crush soda at a Fine Fare supermarket in New York City, or about 50 cans of Sprite at a Walmart near Oakland, Calif. Since 2004, a number of cities and states have sought to restrict sugary drinks from their SNAP programs, including Maine, Minnesota and New York City under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in 2011. But doing so requires permission from the U. S. D. A. and the agency has denied every official request. Mr. Concannon at the U. S. D. A. said the agency had “intermittent dialogue” with municipalities across the country about prohibiting the purchase of sugary drinks through SNAP. But he said the agency would grant a state or city permission to do so only on the condition that it first conducted “a rigorous pilot study” and offered food stamp recipients the ability to opt out of the soda restrictions. “We’d want rigorous evaluation to see what is the impact of such a policy,” he said. PepsiCo lobbied the federal government to prevent restrictions on food stamp purchases in 2011, 2012 and 2013, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit that tracks money in politics. Kraft Foods and the sugar industry lobbied against a Florida bill in 2012 that would have banned using food stamps to buy soda and junk food. And in 2011, the Snack Food Association teamed up with beverage industry lobbyists and the National Confectioners Association, which represents candy companies, to defeat New York City’s proposed ban on using food stamps to buy beverages. Mr. Concannon said the U. S. D. A. rather than restricting junk foods, had made incentive programs that encourage nutritious foods a priority. The federal farm bill that designates money for the SNAP program, for example, set aside $100 million for programs that increase the value of food stamps that are used to buy fruits and vegetables at retail stores or farmers’ markets. “Our goal has been to nudge people in the right direction,” he said. While there is evidence that people do buy more fruits and vegetables when given incentives, research suggests that banning sugary drinks would have a far more powerful impact on health. In 2014, a group of Stanford researchers studied 19, 000 SNAP participants and compared whether banning sugary drinks or incentivizing fruits and vegetables would affect obesity rates. The researchers found that the incentive program would not. But banning sugary drinks from SNAP, they said, “would be expected to significantly reduce obesity prevalence and Type 2 diabetes incidence, particularly among ages 18 to 65 and some racial and ethnic minorities. ” Michele Simon, a public health lawyer who published a critical 2012 report on the food stamp program, said the new report showed that the federal government was subsidizing many foods that its own dietary guidelines explicitly told Americans to consume less of. “This is the first time we’ve had confirmation that this massive taxpayer program is promoting all the wrong kinds of foods,” she said. “I think we now have the data to back up the policy argument that this program needs to be improved. ” | 1 |
BERN (AP) — Swiss voters are supporting a referendum to withdraw the country from nuclear power in favour of renewable energy. [A projection from Sunday’s referendum shows a majority of cantons (states) voted for the plan. Under Switzerland’s direct democracy system, initiatives need a majority of both cantons and votes to pass. The projection for SRF public television showed 58 percent of voters in favor and 42 percent against the proposal. The Swiss government wants to ban the construction of new nuclear power plants and decommission the country’s five existing ones at the end of their technically safe operating lives. The plan would also boost renewable energies such as solar and wind and make cars and electronic devices more energy efficient. Opponents warned the initiative would significantly increase electricity bills. | 1 |
I actually think you guys have done good work. Here is the problem! You say you have the tape? Where is it? Release it already! You know we can never trust government! I hope that we can trust you! Your credibility is on the line here! I hope you are just not another source that can’t be trusted. Because we do really want to trust you! If you have it release it! What are you waiting on? Are you scared? WTF?
You said you had it and nothing! If it does not come out soon I for one will not believe you guys anymore! I doubt anyone will! Man up! Release it or tell the world you don’t have it! | 0 |
As Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States, leftists were freaking out on Twitter, causing topics such as “Donald the Unready” and “Mourning in America” to trend early in the day.[ Even conservative commentator and ardent Bill Kristol got in on the act: I’ll be unembarrassedly here: It is profoundly depressing and vulgar to hear an American president proclaim ”America First.” — Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) January 20, 2017, I’m sorry but where in this speech sounds like he wants to unify the country? #justsaying #notimpressed A divisive speech. #Inauguration pic. twitter. — gray denníse ruiz (@graydennise23) January 20, 2017, All this talk about God and the Bible is ironic considering Satan is now the president. #Inauguration #TrumpInauguration #PresidentTrump, — John Wood (@woodywoods12345) January 20, 2017, ”You will never be ignored again … unless you are black, brown, Asian, woman, Muslim, poor, immigrant, LGBT.” #Inauguration, — Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) January 20, 2017, `When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice’ OK Don. If you say so. pic. twitter. — Michael Moran (@TheMichaelMoran) January 20, 2017, Alright, this side show is over. Now to see some broken promises n Trump supporters deny it n push a race war. #DisruptJ20 #Inauguration, — jesse abundis (@jessenovels) January 20, 2017, This morning, #Climate activists in DC opposed hate, misogyny, Islamophobia, and environmental destruction. #UnitedResistance #DisruptJ20 pic. twitter. — RAN (@RAN) January 20, 2017, Rain is a perfect day for Inaguration, a day of mourning in America, now AmeriKKKa #TrumpInauguration AmeriKKKa, — Nichole Clay (@templeclay) January 20, 2017, I mourn for what our country could of been. For the country I want my daughters to live in. Mourning in America pic. twitter. — Koeper (@KarenKoeper) January 20, 2017, Good stuff trending already, ”Donald the unready” ”Mourning in America” We are definitely the majority#TheResistance #ImpeachmentSoon pic. twitter. — CaptainsLog2017 🖖🏽 (@CaptainsLog2017) January 20, 2017, if ihear the word tr*mp one more time im gonna cr y, — m💙JIMIN (@mentiramv) January 20, 2017, We say goodbye to the 44th President Of The United States Barack Obama and welcome the 1st Buffoon Of The United States Donald The Unready. — Ricky Davila (@TheRickyDavila) January 20, 2017, Now that conservative PC patrol got their ”radical islamic terrorism” out of mouth of prez, they can be snug as ISIS uses video 2 recruit. — Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) January 20, 2017, Well, in a world with a terrifyingly uncertain future, there’s one thing that’s certain: that’s the stupidest inaugration speech ever given. — Caitlin Moran (@caitlinmoran) January 20, 2017, tr*mp is president i truly want to kill myself, — michelle (@paulsmicheIle) January 20, 2017, Jack Hadfield is a student at the University of Warwick and a regular contributor to Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @ToryBastard_, on Gab @JH or email him at jack@yiannopoulos. net. | 1 |
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. The battle to retake Iraq’s city from the Islamic State has begun. We have two reporters and a photographer near the front lines as Kurdish pesh merga troops advance on villages east of Mosul. The fight could take weeks or months and involve up to 30, 000 Iraqi and Kurdish troops with American air support. Next door in Syria, the Islamic State lost a small town, Dabiq, with huge symbolic import. An Islamic prophecy identifies Dabiq as the site of an apocalyptic battle. The Islamic State has used that message in its propaganda, even naming its magazine after the town. ____ 2. Hillary Clinton, brimming with confidence and boosted by poll numbers across the United States, is beginning an ambitious assault on traditionally Republican states to further diminish support for Donald Trump. But her critics seized on newly released documents that include discussion of a possible “quid pro quo” to settle a dispute between the State Department and the F. B. I. over the classification of one of her emails. Spontaneous and relatively silent protests against Mr. Trump are emerging across the country as some voters take aim at perhaps his most prized possession: his brand name. His wife, Melania, broke her long, silence, calling his behavior toward women “inappropriate” but insisting, “We are moving on. ” ____ 3. More than 170 countries signed a sweeping deal on Saturday to cut hydrofluorocarbons, used in and refrigerators, which could be even more than the Paris climate accord. And it might not have happened without the active backing of the world’s chemical companies, who are disrupting their own businesses to fight climate change. ____ 4. Rolling Stone went to court in an $8 million defamation trial. It’s the first of two lawsuits the magazine faces over a discredited 2014 article that described a brutal gang rape at the University of Virginia. The magazine, which retracted the article, is facing an associate dean who says she was smeared. The second case, filed by the fraternity whose house, above, was portrayed as the setting for the rape, seeks $25 million in damages. ____ 5. Tales of survival are emerging from Haiti, where a hurricane killed hundreds this month. In one ravaged area, villagers said they took shelter in caves — and will have to keep doing so until they can rebuild their homes. Until then, they’ll continue to flee to the caves when it rains. “It is our house that God created when we most needed it,” one resident said. ____ 6. To the first lady, with love. We published essays in praise of Michelle Obama from four boldfaced names: the authors Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Jon Meacham, the actress Rashida Jones and the activist Gloria Steinem. “Michelle Obama may have changed history in the most powerful way — by example,” Ms. Steinem wrote. ____ 7. The Museum of Modern Art is expanding its collection of Latin American art thanks to a donation of 102 works, including “Visible Idea,” above, by Waldemar Cordeiro. “This is a transformative gift,” the museum’s director said. ____ 8. Is there no joy in football? Penalties for ostentatious celebration of scores are up sharply this season. The New York Jets, meanwhile, had little reason to celebrate on Monday night as the Arizona Cardinals defeated them in Phoenix. (ESPN) ____ 9. Hundreds gathered at Carnegie Hall to remember Bill Cunningham, the beloved Times street fashion photographer, who died in June at age 87. The speakers included the Vogue editor Anna Wintour and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. It was not hard to imagine what Mr. Cunningham’s reaction would have been to the scene. He would have been on the sidewalk outside, his bike parked nearby, snapping photos of guests as they arrived. ____ 10. Finally, some Canadians, fearing the American election was depressing their neighbors to the south, took to social media to share reassuring messages about how great the United States is. They praised Americans’ contributions to music, technology, philanthropy and … the list goes on. The project was started by a creative agency that says it is not trying to sell anything. “Some people have tweeted that they think Justin Trudeau would win the election as a candidate,” the agency’s head said. “But we are not giving him up. ” Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p. m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a. m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here’s Friday night’s briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 1 |
Monday on CNN’s “Newsroom,” network Sunday morning host Fareed Zakaria said the speech President Donald Trump gave this weekend in Riyadh could have been given by former President Barack Obama. Zakaria said, “It’s going very well in terms of the symbolism and one important respect the substance, which was the speech that President Trump gave in Riyadh on Islam was very carefully done it was nuanced. It was frankly the kind of speech President Obama could have given. He never used the word radical Islamic terrorism, which he kept insisting that Obama use. He tweeted once Obama should resign because he was unwilling to use that phrase. Trump refused to use the phrase as well. He pointed out that 95 percent of the victims of Islamic terrorism are Muslims. It had the kind of nuance and empathy that people look for because ultimately what you’re trying to do is convince these Muslim countries to in some way take on, battle, expel as President Trump said, the scourge of Islamic terrorism. ” ( The Hill) Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 1 |
Just like all other types of phones out there, your beloved iPhone comes with some neat “code tricks” hidden within it. A hidden code on a mobile device allows the uncovering of hidden menus, or maybe even acts like a direct command, such as you would use in a terminal based on the Apple OS. Some of the codes may also reveal more information about your specific device.
Via AnonHQ
Below, I have provided a list of the top 9 best codes you can use on your iPhone. However, not all of these codes may work. If they don’t, it’s most likely an issue with your carrier, not your Apple device.
For those who are new to “phreaking,” secret codes for mobile devices are often combinations of numbers, the asterisk key (*), and the hash-tag sign (#). These codes are typed directly into your phones ‘call’ or ‘dial’ feature. Just simply open the Phone App and type in the random codes that you see below.
Once you have finished typing the code, the respective operation will automatically start. Don’t try to push the call button, as it will not be able to call the number. If the respective operation does not start right away, double check the code here with the code you typed in. If it still fails, Google-search the code to see if your carrier actually supports it.
IMEI Number This is the International Mobile Equipment Identity. Typically, your IMEI number is 15 digits long, and uniquely identifies your phone. You can also find your IMEI number by going to Settings > General > About to find this number, or alternatively use the short cut by opening the phone app and typing in *#06# .
Field Testing Our Calling This is a hidden feature that allows you to find out any information about live updating your device’s network. With this, you will be able to not only uncover the numerical value of your device, but also read the data transmitting from local cell phone carrier towers. To help you understand these results, those around -50 and less are considered optimized. For the results around -120 and more, they are considered to be extremely poor signals. To access this network feature, simply open your phone app and type in *3001#12345#* + ‘Call’ .
The Call Barring Feature This feature allows you to check any restriction status you may have on any and all outgoing calls, data use and text messages. The call barring feature is often utilized when protecting yourself from ‘accidentally’ calling, while you have the little one playing with your device. You can check the status of your call barring by typing in *#33# . You can turn on the service by typing in *33*pin# , and to turn the service off, type in *33*pin #. Just replace the “pin” with your SIM card pin – not your iPhone’s lock pin.
Call Waiting With a simple short code, you can check the status of your call waiting (provided you have it), as well as enable and disable call waiting. For those who don’t know what call waiting is, this services allows you to (while you are already on a phone call) either hang up with your current call and answer whoever is calling you, or allow them to sit in line while you finish your conversation with the current person. If you would like to check the status of your call waiting feature, simply type in *#43#. If you would like to enable it, type *43# or to disable the function, #43#.
The Call Forwarding Feature With call forwarding you can direct phone calls to another phone number while you are busy at a meeting. Outside of voice, you can also utilize the forwarding feature for data and faxes. You can access the call forwarding feature by going to your iOS Settings > Phone > Call Forwarding . If you would like to view all status’, type in *#21# . To make it unreachable, type in *#62# and for when you are busy, use *#67# . If you want to disable all forwarding services use ##002#.
Anonymity Often, people ask how to make an anonymous phone call. Anonymity calling is setting an outgoing call to make your phone number hidden from the receiver. In order to set the anonymity of phone calling, we can use Settings > Phone > Show My Caller ID . Alternatively, type in *#31# to check the status, and then use #31#phone number + ‘Call’ . This will send the receiving phone the anonymous “Unknown Caller” display.
Incoming Calls You can view the number of incoming calls by typing in *#30# + ‘Call’ .
Viewing the Carrier’s Text Messaging Center Number We can also obtain our carrier’s text messaging center number by typing in *#5005*7672# + ‘Call’ . This is helpful if you have issues with your text messaging service.
The Enhanced Full Rate (EFR Mode) This is a speech coding standard that improves the overall quality of GSM-based conversations. However, this service also eats into your battery life. However, if you want to enhance your overall voice quality, simply type in *3370# + ‘Call’ to see if your phone qualifies for this service. Note, however, that not all carriers support this enhancement.
Here are some more codes:
*#5005*7672# : SMS centre number
*#31# : Hide your number on calls option
*646# : Check minutes left on contract
*225# : Find out your current mobile account balance
*777# : Find out prepaid account balance
*#61# : Number of missed calls
*#33# : Find out what mobile services are disabled on your phone
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Recently published information reveals that Erik Olin Wright, a professor who teaches a course bashing capitalism at the University of Wisconsin, earns an annual salary of $170, 000. [A syllabus for Professor Wright’s class, entitled “Class, State, and Ideology: An Introduction to Social Science in the Marxist Tradition,” was published only by the free MacIver Institute. The syllabus claims that the course covers the Marxist tradition and its “radical critics of capitalism as an economic system and social order. ” Wright argues that a study of the Marxist tradition gives students the tools to understand the “radical egalitarian project of social change. ” Wright, a tenured professor at the University of Wisconsin’s Sociology Department, makes $116, 111 more than the average household income in Wisconsin. His $170, 000 annually salary also places him in the top two percent of all Americans. Wright has written extensively on “radical democratic egalitarianism,” and believes that the inequities by a capitalist economic and social order “perpetuates eliminable forms of human suffering. ” It is unclear if Wright believes his membership in the top two percent of American income earners makes him a willing participant in the nation’s capitalistic economic order that causes “human suffering. ” Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about economics and higher education for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart. com | 1 |
Jared Grusd, the CEO of The Huffington Post, spoke at the Dublin Tech summit this week discussing the future of digital content and technology. [Appearing alongside former CNN anchor Gina London, Grusd discussed the development of HuffPo as a brand, how digital content creators develop, and the future of technology. Discussing the Huffington Post brand development, Grusd said, “I think one thing to think about is the human experience. All of us are people, but when you run a company or run product you start ascribing labels: audience, consumers, customers. And all of a sudden you start referring to actual living, breathing human beings in these generic terms, and the truth is all of us as people have multiple interests. ” “I can be serious and I can have fun I can be funny, my wife says not enough, but my daughters think enough,” he elaborated. “I think it’s really important to have that balance, and one of the things that I think the best digital publishers have done over the past ten years has been to think about the way in which they publish content differently than historically. ” “What we’ve heard all day in many forms,” continued Grusd, “is the power of data, to understand your audiences, and I think the best publishers really look at the data of what their people, their audience, their consumers are actually doing on their properties and are learning from that, adapting from that. What you realize is that if you’re serious all the time, at some point it’s too much if you’re funny all the time then you’re not serious, and so getting that blend is really part of the magic and math that’s required to be successful. ” When asked about the Huffington Post’s success, Grusd said, “I think in every era in the history of media there have been giant waves that have formed, and I think that like all good surfers you have to sort of understand the break, get your board, paddle, and surf it just at the right time. And to Arianna Huffington’s credit, who is the founder and obviously the namesake of the Huffington Post, what she realized is there were few trends that were all converging at the same time. ” “The first is that there was a huge change in media landscape that was really produced by Google, because Google search essentially opened up the Internet, the world wide web, to all of us to then go discover stuff and in that process of discovery, very sophisticated content producers could actually create content that Google’s algorithms and spiders would crawl to serve us that content,” he noted. “And one of the things that I think we did really well was create content that was very Google friendly. ” Watch the full event with Grusd and London below: https: . facebook. | 1 |
. Electromagnetic Control Grids, Division Mindsets, Healing Timeline I said it before, the way people are controlled is through setting them in opposition with each othe... Print Email http://humansarefree.com/2016/11/electromagnetic-control-grids-division.html I said it before, the way people are controlled is through setting them in opposition with each other. The only way people regain control is if they work with each other for a beneficial future. The only way this falls apart is if people are fighting each other over petty things.It’s all so much deeper than we are told. They didn’t just invent petty products’ for this “world” this “universe,” they introduced a whole spiritual soul-trading system by the use of electromagnetic frequency nets. The state of the original human is eternal, but with this system the population is recycled over and over in time.Active DNA is a physical thing that pulls information from what is called the “aether” (other realities) and manifests it physically in this reality. If DNA is targeted , i.e. by the system just mentioned, then other realities can also be manipulated in instances where the DNA is active. That is what this is all about: The Universe, time, and the Earth are naturally a multi-dimensional existence of which those other realities, times and planes were influenced because of the manipulation that took place here.To say it another way, the divisive control grid has had access to higher dimensions and therefore the soul-energy of Humanity, and the non-physical realms we are connected with.This is out of balance and cannot remain this way forever. It is leading up to a fulcrum of experience in which the forces at play must reach a completion of cycles.The way we can fix this is by becoming aware of the hidden knowledge which is literally the invisible energy of the mental and emotional bodies. We must see how Humanity is being manipulated, or blocked from our higher awareness.The off-the-wall explanation is that physical reality manifests out of the collective unconscious.Which also means that when each person on Earth clears their unconscious of all the debris and toxins stuck in their ‘fields’ then we all will experience life on Earth at a frequency which reflects that healing.To get to this healed “timeline” we have to go through a healing process. This process is cathartic and involves expelling the toxins of mind and body and is painful in and of itself.In previous times this has been a “washing machine” cycle where people get tossed in and every so many thousand years some people get out while the rest are recycled.This time may be the fulfillment of those cycles where the entire bunch gets released at once.The idea is that if people are not prepared for this they will experience the chaos of a simultaneous clearing and healing.Instead of painful healing spread out over months or years, it would all occur in a matter of days or weeks.This is the time to take steps to represent ourselves. The follow the herd mindset is how people are manipulated and controlled mentally and physically.We have to connect and work together, really work together, not just messaging and posting meme pictures which is just another way of control.To the credit of this process it can be said that truth is spreading so fast because of that ability to convert the topics and knowledge into meme images and other quick bits of information that can be shared and understood within seconds. Instead of minutes to hours of discussion or documentary, condensed images with captions can describe a complex situation to the fullest of its true exaggeration without having to explain hours of backstory and research.However, few people own it all. Fewer people still have advanced technology that allows for a “futuristic” existence without the problems people are challenged by today. And even fewer people than that have the knowledge of the true human history.What is not realized is that the shock of Humanity finding out about the origins of time and space is going to be far greater than figuring out that they were manipulated this entire time by people with greater knowledge.The real truth under all the supposition is a complete disconnection from every school of thought which is currently accepted. It’s completely beyond normal into the realm of paranormal, time loops, altered consciousness and DNA, soul-knowledge, eternity, quantum superimposition guided by imagination and attitude, and that it all happens right here… but is invisible to the 5-senses .Currently the development of that which interprets energy from beyond the 5-senses has been purposely ridiculed and categorized to push people away from finding the truth so easily. One could say this is for control as much as it is protection of the current system as much as it is for a challenge of their own spiritual values.To take this a step further, imagine we are in a simulator of sorts, designed by the intelligence behind the “Multiverse” (or even something more personal).If so, then what does it mean when people fight and hurt each other for material things? Do we say, they were just doing what they needed to or they are just in a simulator?Or is this is a way of seeing who would do what, in what kind of situations, in a way that cannot be repeated, or in a way that cannot be falsified without dumping self-responsibility?Or it may be a test, a manipulation, a challenge or a learning process all at once using confusion and fear to control Humanity.In truth we have the capabilities and tools to remove this mental confusion and fear. In reality the mind is naturally beyond polarity as it is capable of abstracting from eternity.Right now or minds are polarity based and this is the source of disturbance in our world. By doing so we are trading that transcendence, our true heritage, for a polarized world by being disconnected from that eternal source which is the emanation of the soul and spirit through our body.That is also why people say there are souled beings and non souled here because the other beings came from a Universe that is not connected with the source of this Universe. It is as if they cut across timelines to get to us.Our completion out of polarity, our expansion out of paradox and into eternal meaning, would not be the same as the non-souled. Actually one would cancel out the other, for if we reached completion and they did not then their occurrence of interjection would be experienced as a time loop which does not complete.If they reached completion and ours did not, we would experience the completion cycle of another Universe’s being which would not resonate or return “soul-knowledge” to the source people are connected with.This is in part why people are saying “ascension” is the way out. Because if the time loops are severed then it would be a planck time fractal repetition into infinite and those without the ability to navigate “hyperspace” would become one of with the void. If this is to happen or either way, one must learn to navigate the spiritual world because that is the real playing field.The big issue is not that we have stuff happening on Earth.The issue is that the real playing field, the spiritual planes, have been targeted and infiltrated as far as this imbalance goes. When we become aware of the knowledge of experience on the soul level we can bring harmony back to the overall system and when enough people do this “the grid” (or spiritual soul-trading system) cannot work with the harmonious energy.There is no way to use harmonious energy and manipulate it to serve a personal need, it always serves the whole. By Augtellez | 0 |
You may consider yourself the kind of person who is unflappable when those around you are losing their cool. But all that goes out the window when you call tech support. Then you fume. Your face turns red. You shout things into the phone that would appall your mother. It’s called tech support rage. And you are not alone. Getting caught in a tech support loop — waiting on hold, interacting with automated systems, talking to people reading from unhelpful scripts and then finding yourself on hold yet again — is a peculiar kind of aggravation that mental health experts say can provoke rage in even the most person. Worse, just as you suspected, companies are aware of the torture they are putting you through. According to a survey conducted last year by the industry group International Customer Management Institute, or ICMI, 92 percent of customer service managers said their agents could be more effective and 74 percent said their company procedures prevented agents from providing satisfactory experiences. Moreover, 73 percent said the complexity of tech support calls is increasing as customers have become more technologically sophisticated and can resolve simpler issues on their own. Many organizations are running a model, which limits the time agents can be on the phone with you, hence the agony of transfers and continually being placed on hold, said Justin Robbins, who was once a tech support agent himself and now oversees research and editorial at ICMI. “Don’t think companies haven’t studied how far they can take things in providing the minimal level of service,” Mr. Robbins said. “Some organizations have even monetized it by intentionally engineering it so you have to wait an hour at least to speak to someone in support, and while you are on hold, you’re hearing messages like, ‘If you’d like premium support, call this number and for a fee, we will get to you immediately. ’” The most egregious offenders are companies like cable and mobile service providers, which typically have little competition and whose customers are bound by contracts or would be considerably inconvenienced if they canceled their service. Not surprisingly, cable and mobile service providers are consistently ranked by consumers as providing the worst customer support. ATT, Comcast and Verizon Communications did not respond to requests for comment. Especially frustrating when talking to tech support is not being understood because you are trying to communicate with machines or people who have been trained to talk like machines, either for perceived quality control or because they don’t speak English well enough to go . “It’s utterly maddening because the thing about conversations is that when I say something to you, I believe I’m having influence on the conversation,” said Art Markman, professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and of the podcast “Two Guys on Your Head. ” “And when you say something back to me that makes no sense, now I see that all these words I spoke have had no effect whatsoever on what’s happening here. ” When things don’t make sense and feel out of control, mental health experts say, humans instinctively feel threatened. Though you would like to think you can employ reason in this situation, you’re really just a mass of neural impulses and primal reactions. Think fight or flight, but you can’t do either because you are stuck on the phone, which provokes rage. Of course, companies rated best for tech support often charge more for their products or they may charge a subscription fee for enhanced customer care so the cost of helping you is baked in, as with Apple’s customer support service, AppleCare, and the Amazon Prime subscription service. You can also find excellent tech support in competitive markets like domain name providers, where operators such as Hover and GoDaddy receive high marks. Also a good bet are hungry upstarts trying to break into markets traditionally dominated by large national companies. Take regional internet and phone service providers like Logix and WOW, which rank near the top in customer support surveys. But tech support veterans and mental health experts said there were other ways to get better tech support or maybe just make it more bearable. First, do whatever it takes to control your temper. Take a deep breath. Count to 10. Losing your stack at a consumer support agent is not going to get your problem resolved any faster. Probably just the opposite. “I definitely remember seeing parts of myself I didn’t know were there as far as getting irritated with people and using behaviors,” said John Valenti, a video producer in Rochester, who worked as a tech support agent at an internet phone company from 2007 to 2012 to put himself through graduate school. He made an absurdist film about it for his master’s thesis at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Mr. Valenti, like several other tech support workers who have posted confessions online, said rudeness generally gets customers placed on hold for long periods or “accidentally” disconnected. It also may result in the agent fixing the immediate problem but not the root cause. So you’re only going to have call back when it happens again. Don’t bother demanding to speak to a supervisor, either. You’re just going to get transferred to another agent who has been alerted ahead of time that you have come unhinged, Mr. Robbins said. Also, be aware that your words are being recorded and might be printed on posters in the call center. “I’ve seen companies make with the cruel, awful things people say,” Mr. Robbins said. He added the shirts might provide an impetus to improve because customers have been driven to such extremes, “but then it also may just show some people are truly from crazy town. ” Customer support experts recommended using social media, like tweeting or sending a Facebook message, to contact a company instead of calling. You are likely to get a quicker response, not only because fewer people try that channel but also because your use of social media shows that you know how to vent your frustration to a wider audience if your needs are not met, as well as to praise them publicly when you are treated well, they said. To get better service by phone, dial the prompt designated for “sales” or “to place an order,” which almost always gets you an onshore agent, while tech support is usually offshore with the associated language difficulties. You can also consult websites like DialAHuman. com and GetHuman. com for phone numbers and directions on what digits to press to bypass the automated system and get a live person. Failing that, apps like Lucy Phone and Fast Customer will wait on hold for you and call you when an actual person picks up. No need to stoke your rage listening to grating hold music. | 1 |
Clinton's election night party will be at a Manhattan venue with a glass ceiling They seem extremely confident in victory on Nov 8th. Jacob Javit Center in Manhattan Related Threads 1 09/23/16 2 Mail with questions or comments about this site. "Godlike Productions" & "GLP" are registered trademarks of Zero Point Ltd. Godlike™ Website Design Copyright © 1999 - 2015 Godlikeproductions.com Page generated in 0.053s (11 queries) | 0 |
Регион: Юго-Восточная Азия Как отмечает в своей новой статье обозреватель НВО Урсан Гуннар, Юго-Восточная Азия как регион всегда отличалась высоким уровнем политической стабильности, ввиду того, что спорные вопросы здесь решаются не с помощью силы оружия, а в ходе переговоров. Однако, отмечает автор, вмешательство любой «внешней силы» ведет к росту напряженности в регионе, поскольку двухсторонние встречи теряют всякий смысл, а на их место приходит гонка вооружений и военные учения. Автор отмечает, что благодаря желанию нового президента Филиппин Родриго Дутерте дистанцироваться от Вашингтона, последний виток напряженности в Южно-Китайском море начал постепенно спадать. Манила уже ведет переговоры с Пекином по всем спорным вопросам в расширенном формате, что вызывает сильное огорчение западных СМИ. Однако, пока Вашингтон сохраняет свое присутствие в регионе, вероятность возникновения новых «точек напряженности» не исчезает. Именно поэтому, уверен автор, региональные игроки должны Вашингтон из региона «выдавить» путем принятия экономических санкций против скрытого агрессора. С полной версией статьи вы можете ознакомиться здесь . Популярные статьи | 0 |
October 26, 2016 Another UNESCO vote to disregard Jewish connection to Jerusalem
In recent days, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has acted to achieve the support of the 21 countries to vote against the expected condemnations, but sources in Jerusalem say that the results are already clear, and the committee will almost certainly pass the draft resolution against Israel.
According to those same sources, the reason for this is that “troublesome” composition of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee. Countries like Germany, Colombia and Japan, who were part of the committee last year, left and have been replaced by notoriously anti-Israeli countries like Kuwait, Lebanon and Indonesia.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the scheduled vote and said, “This is the continuation of the theatre of the absurd. Who’s really deserving of condemnation is UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, not Israel.” | 0 |
MIGHT USE DRUGS BUT DON'T BAR THEM FROM OPEN CARRY
31 states in the U.S. allow citizens to openly carry their firearms. In 10 of these states , someone who applies for welfare cash assistance through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) has to be screened and tested for substance abuse. And if she tests positive, she won't receive benefits.
But in these 10 states democrats in the state legislatures have introduced bills that provide that before one can get a permit to openly carry firearms they too must be drug tested.
GOP legislators are pushing back saying that needy families who need money to help buy medicine and food are not the equivalent of people who want to display firearms.
Said Peter J. Smirch, (R) of the North Carolina assembly, "Many welfare women are probably on drugs and don't deserve welfare, even if their kids are hungry at night because that will teach kids a lesson. But men who need to show a gun to compensate for their emotional insecurities aren't the same as hungry kids. That's a false equivalency, see? You betcha."
Other Republican legislators are retreating from their former support of drug testing for welfare recipients.
Pete "Bull" Johnson of the Texas Senate is one. "Hell, I don't know, it just stands to reason that we'd better not drug test anyone to be consistent in drug testing applications."
"But the major point I think is that a lot of guys who want to open carry smoke weed. And, of course, thousands die every year of overdose on hard drugs showing that drug use is widespread in the Lone Star state. A lot of Texans will fail a drug text. They're mostly good folks. I think they should open carry assault rifles if they want," said Bull. Make Keith Shirey's day - give this story five thumbs-up (there's no need to register , the thumbs are just down there!) | 0 |
Yeah, we should just risk our tech because some congresscowards might f l uncomfortable. Gub'mint IS the enemy. China we can handle. | 0 |
It has become something of an online custom in the social media age to react to tragic news stories — like Wednesday’s attack in London — with if sometimes rote messages like “thoughts and prayers. ” But that does not appear to be Donald Trump Jr. ’s style. “You have to be kidding me? !” Mr. Trump said Wednesday afternoon on Twitter, as details of the episode — which left at least five dead, including the assailant, and 40 injured — continued to unfold. The message continued, “Terror attacks are part of living in big city, says London Mayor Sadiq Khan. ” Mr. Trump, the oldest son of President Trump, was calling attention to an article from September in The Independent, a British newspaper, that described Mr. Khan’s reaction to a bombing then in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. Mr. Trump mischaracterized the London mayor’s remarks. Mr. Khan did not describe terrorism as “part of living in a big city,” as if bombings and shootings were an inescapable fact of life. He said that terrorism preparedness, including providing sufficient support to the police, was “part and parcel of living in a great global city. ” “That means being vigilant, having a police force that is in touch with communities it means the security services being ready, but it also means exchanging ideas and best practice,” Mr. Khan said in a video interview published by The Evening Standard, another British paper. (For the record, Mr. Khan did say the victims of the Chelsea bombing were in his “thoughts and prayers. ”) “Nothing is more important to me than keeping Londoners safe,” Mr. Khan added. “I want to be reassured that every single agency and individual involved in protecting our city has the resources and expertise they need to respond in the event that London is attacked. ” On Thursday morning, Mr. Khan said in an interview on CNN that he would not respond to Mr. Trump’s tweet because he had “been doing far more important things over the last 24 hours. ” “What I do know is that the threat level in London and across the country is severe,” he said. “That means an attack is highly likely. I was in New York last year when there was an attack in New York. And terrorists hate the fact that whether it’s New York, whether it’s London, whether it’s Paris, whether its Brussels, whether it’s Istanbul, whether it’s Madrid, we have diverse communities living together peacefully. ” Mr. Trump’s tweet was not well received by Britons, who were still learning details of the attack when he weighed in. On Twitter, Wes Streeting, a member of Parliament from the Labour Party, accused Mr. Trump of capitalizing on the attack in London and called him “a disgrace. ” Ciaran Jenkins, a correspondent for Britain’s Channel 4, asked the president’s son on Twitter if he thought his remarks were “helpful. ” “Did you even read the article before goading London’s Mayor during a live incident?” he wrote. He added, “Headline is based on very first sentence, which if you’d bothered to read it could apply to any major city in the world. Key word: ‘threat.’ ” Mr. Trump declined to elaborate later on Wednesday. “I’m not going to comment on every tweet I send,” he said in an email. Political violence in the United Kingdom is relatively rare. Decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland often spilled over, but there had not been a attack in Britain since 2005, when more than 50 people died in subway and bus attacks. | 1 |
He called a news conference ostensibly to answer questions about his for charities that benefit military veterans. But Donald J. Trump instead spent most of his time on live television Tuesday berating the journalists covering his presidential campaign in unusually vitriolic and personal terms. “You’re a sleaze,” he told a reporter for ABC. “You’re a real beauty,” he told a reporter for CNN, snidely denigrating the man’s competence. For 40 minutes, Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, assailed those reporting on his candidacy with a level of venom rarely seen at all, let alone in public, from the of a major political party. Then he warned that a Trump White House would feature more of the same. Historians reached back to the Nixon administration, with its enemies list, for a fair comparison. Other scholars and political analysts suggested that Mr. Trump failed to appreciate the role journalists play in scrutinizing candidates as surrogates for the public, or drew connections to his denunciations of other adversaries and critics — like a federal judge in a case where Mr. Trump is being sued, or the Republican governor of New Mexico, whom Mr. Trump denigrated while campaigning in her state last week. Mr. Trump’s broadside was especially provocative given that concerns have been raised throughout the campaign about whether the news media collectively have failed to subject his candidacy to enough scrutiny and skepticism. The particular knot in which Mr. Trump entangled himself on Tuesday had come to light through simple . In January, fuming at Fox News, he skipped the final Republican debate before the Iowa caucuses because that network was hosting it. He held his own competing event, a televised that he said would benefit military veterans, and announced from the stage that he had raised more than $6 million, including $1 million he was donating himself. But the full amount did not materialize quickly, and The Washington Post reported a week ago that Mr. Trump had yet to make his own donation. In his news conference, Mr. Trump produced and read aloud a list of charitable groups and the exact amounts he said each had received, interrupting himself frequently to condemn individual journalists, the news media in general, or political reporters as an exceptionally odious class. “Unbelievably dishonest,” he called them. To show that he had finally made his own donation, Mr. Trump produced a photocopy of a check. (His litany of recipients glossed over an admission that his January boast had indeed been an exaggeration: All told, he said, $5. 6 million has been provided to or earmarked for charities so far.) “The press should be ashamed of themselves,” Mr. Trump said. Veterans are “calling me, and they are furious,” he said, adding, “You make me look very bad. ” Kathleen Hall Jamieson, an expert on the presidency and director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, said Mr. Trump appeared to be making assumptions about journalism that were “so faulty as to be bizarre. ” “The notion that the press would be writing stories praising him for keeping a promise he made in public to veterans, months after he made the promise, suggests he simply does not understand the function of the press,” she said. And the president of the National Press Club, Thomas Burr, issued a blistering statement suggesting that Mr. Trump “misunderstands — or, more likely, simply opposes — the role a free press plays in a democratic society. ” “Any American political candidate who attacks the press for doing its job is campaigning in the wrong country,” Mr. Burr said. Mr. Trump has routinely treated journalists as foils, and those covering his campaign appearances as unwitting, unspeaking extras good for a joke or two. On Tuesday, however, reporters played a sharply different role, repeatedly pressing him for answers. Why had he waited so long to make his own donation? Several times, Mr. Trump said that it had taken time to scrutinize charities to make sure they were legitimate, though the recipient of his $1 million check was a group well known to him: Its vice chairman is the managing director of the Trump SoHo hotel, and the group gave Mr. Trump an award last year. Strangely, Mr. Trump also suggested that the delays somehow owed to a desire to keep a low profile. “I didn’t want the credit for it,” he said, adding moments later, “I’m not looking for credit. ” Yet Mr. Trump had announced his for veterans on national television in January and had trumpeted it several times since, a reporter countered. Wasn’t that taking credit? “I don’t think so,” Mr. Trump replied tersely, quickly taking another question. In the past, Mr. Trump has used evasive maneuvers to sidestep difficult questions and made statements that often went unchallenged at the time. But even after a query about the shooting of a gorilla at an Ohio zoo over the weekend, reporters brought Mr. Trump back to the matter at hand. If he had intended to deliver a cogent attack on his likely Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, or to promote his plans for how to improve veterans’ assistance as president, his performance squashed it. The group Correct the Record responded by saying the performance raised new questions about Mr. Trump’s temperament. “Under pressure for lying about his monetary support for our veterans, Trump threw a tantrum — hurling insults at reporters instead of owning up to his broken promise to veterans,” the group said in a statement. “Trump’s failure to face even the tiniest amount of media scrutiny about his supposed support for America’s veterans exposes just how unqualified he is to be our country’s commander in chief. ” But Mr. Trump, in the moment at least, seemed unconcerned. A reporter asked if Mr. Trump’s demeanor was an indication of what White House news conferences would be like if he were elected. “Yes, it is,” he said. “It is going to be like this. ” | 1 |
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. President Trump stood by his wiretapping claim at a news conference with Angela Merkel. The background: On Thursday, his top spokesman, Sean Spicer, had repeated an unverified claim that Britain’s spy agency monitored Mr. Trump during the campaign at the behest of President Barack Obama. The British were furious, but Mr. Trump made clear that he saw no reason to apologize. During the Obama years, Ms. Merkel, the German leader, had been angered by reports that the U. S. had tapped her phone. Turning to her at the White House on Friday, Mr. Trump said, “At least we have something in common, perhaps. ” _____ 2. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said for the first time that the Trump administration might take action if North Korea’s nuclear threat reached an unacceptable level. During a visit to South Korea, Mr. Tillerson ruled out negotiations with the North over its nuclear and missile programs. Whether he takes a hard line with China — where he is headed next — over its support for North Korea will be closely watched, as will be the response of China. _____ 3. More grim developments in Syria and Yemen: In Syria, the country’s armed forces fired missiles at Israeli warplanes near Palmyra, in what appeared to be the most serious clash between the two militaries in years. The U. S. military denied reports that it had bombed a Syrian mosque, but confirmed that a nearby building was struck. A human rights group said 42 people were killed. Above, the volunteer rescue group the White Helmets dug through the rubble. Off the coast of Yemen, more than 30 Somali migrants were killed when a military helicopter opened fire on their boat. Yemeni officials blamed a military coalition for the attack. _____ 4. As a Marine sergeant, James LaPorta once led an intelligence team in Afghanistan. Now, as a private citizen, he is tracking the moves of a Facebook group that has been secretly compiling and sharing nude photos of hundreds of women in the Marine Corps. “The Marine Corps can’t do this alone. The internet is too huge,” Mr. LaPorta said. “We need to police ourselves. ” _____ 5. The Nobel laureate Derek Walcott died at 87. His poetry captured the beauty of the Caribbean and the harsh legacy of colonialism. Here are some lines from his work: _____ 6. A new heart drug could be a but it comes with a high price: $14, 523 a year. Those who took the drug Repatha were significantly less likely to have heart attacks or strokes, researchers found in a new study. The drug, manufactured by Amgen, has the potential to help millions of Americans with heart disease, which is the nation’s leading killer. Robert Johnson, above with his daughters, says he feels “much safer” taking the drug. His father died of a heart attack at 42. _____ 7. Our personal finance writer delves into our nation’s maddeningly complex system of financial aid for higher education. His conclusion: “If you have a child who is already walking and talking and you will not be able to write a check to pay tuition, it’s best to start studying up on it now or finding a political candidate to support who will blow it all up. ” _____ 8. We explored the beautiful, eerie world beneath the ice in northern Quebec to hunt for fresh mussels. In the coldest months of the year, when the ice is thickest and unusually large tides empty the bay under it, some Inuit people venture into the luminous ice caves. The mussels, a welcome winter treat these days, were at one time a lifesaving source of food. _____ 9. Happy St. Patrick’s Day. We assembled a collection of recipes you might want to explore this weekend, including traditional fare like corned beef, Guinness pie and soda bread. And then there are some green dishes that don’t require food coloring, like the Green Goddess dressing of herbs, garlic and anchovies above. _____ 10. Finally, what to watch this weekend? Here are some ideas: the movies that influenced “Get Out” new original content on Amazon and the N. C. A. A. tournament. “Beauty and the Beast” also opens in theaters. Jimmy Kimmel used his for the new movie to take another swipe at the president. Have a great weekend. _____ Photographs may appear out of order for some readers. Viewing this version of the briefing should help. Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p. m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a. m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here’s last night’s briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 1 |
BIRKENFELD, Ore. — Eve Lonnquist’s family has owned a forest in the mountains of northwest Oregon since her grandmother bought the land in 1919. Her father still lives on the property. And she and her wife often drive up from their home just outside Portland. But lately, Ms. Lonnquist, 59 and recently retired, has been thinking about the future of her family’s land. Like many owners, they draw some income from logging and would like to keep doing so. But they would also like to see the forest, with its stands of Douglas fir, alder and cherry, protected from or being sold off to developers. “For us, the property is our family’s history,” she said. More than half of the 751 million acres of forestland in the United States are privately owned, most by people like Ms. Lonnquist, with holdings of 1, 000 acres or less. These family forests, environmental groups argue, represent a large, untapped resource for combating the effects of climate change. Conserving the trees and profiting from them might seem incompatible. But Ms. Lonnquist is hoping to do both by capitalizing on the forest’s ability to clean the air, turning the carbon stored in the forest into credits that can then be sold to polluters who want or need to offset their carbon footprints. “Trees are the No. 1 way in which carbon can be removed from the atmosphere and stored in vegetation over the long term,” said Brian Kittler, the western regional office director for the Pinchot Institute for Conservation, which has a program in Oregon to help the owners of family forests develop potentially profitable carbon projects. Larger forests around the world have already been enlisted as carbon storehouses, through programs like the United Nations initiative for Reducing Emissions From Deforestation and Forest Degradation, or REDD, that encourage forest conservation worldwide in exchange for credits that can be sold on the global carbon markets. Some large timber companies, including Potlatch, have also entered the markets, reducing their logging to levels below legal limits in order to receive millions of dollars in credits. But so far, owners, even ones like Ms. Lonnquist, have not rushed to embrace carbon storage. Many do not even know it exists, and those who do often find the complexities bewildering. Some owners believe, wrongly, that to enter the carbon markets they must forgo all income from logging. And some, reluctant to forfeit the ability to quickly turn their trees into cash, have balked at signing a contract to keep a forest standing for 15 to 125 years. Even more daunting, the expense of bringing a forest to the carbon market — a process that involves taking an inventory of the trees, assessing the forest’s carbon content, estimating future growth, and submitting to several levels of auditing — has been so high that it would eliminate any profit for most small landholders. Environmental organizations like the Pinchot Institute and the Nature Conservancy have for years been searching for a way around these hurdles by educating landowners about the markets’ potential for generating income and finding ways to decrease the costs. “Traditionally, your only tool to generate revenues has been periodic timber harvest,” said Josh Parrish, director of the Nature Conservancy’s Working Woodlands program, which is working with the owners of private forests in Pennsylvania and Tennessee. “The nice thing about carbon is essentially people are being paid to improve forest management. ” In fact, if owners can get past the barriers, the carbon markets can be profitable, providing an initial flush of money and then regular yearly payments in much smaller amounts. The carbon credits from Ms. Lonnquist’s forest could bring an estimated $235, 000 over the first six years, and about $6, 000 a year after that, said Kyle Holland, the managing director of Ecological Carbon Offset Partners, a California firm that helps owners enter the carbon markets. Ms. Lonnquist and her family could still log on a limited basis, as long as they stuck to a plan for managing the forest and maintained a steady level of carbon storage through the forest’s continued growth. The economic case for private owners entering the carbon markets is likely to get stronger. Forests, especially in areas like the Northwest, where trees grow tall and thick, tend to draw higher prices than many other conservation measures. And with last year’s Paris climate pact, some analysts expect carbon prices, now about $3 to $12 per ton in the United States, to rise. Mr. Kittler said the conservation institute, which is subsidizing the preparation of Ms. Lonnquist’s forest with the help of a grant from the Department of Agriculture and has partnered with Mr. Holland’s firm for the Oregon project, hoped it would encourage more private owners to enter the markets. Ms. Lonnquist and other owners will be given a choice of selling credits on the global market or on California’s market, created under the state’s 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act. Recent developments in forestry may help make the prospect more appealing by lowering the initial costs to landholders. Mr. Holland’s company, for example, has developed a digital tool — a smartphone equipped with a laser to measure distance and an inclinometer to measure height — that he believes will greatly reduce the expense of conducting a forest inventory, which typically costs $40, 000 to $100, 000 or more, depending about the amount of land. With the specialized smartphone, landholders can take an inventory themselves, photographing and measuring the diameters and heights of their trees. The photos and data are sent to the company’s office in California, where an expert forester goes through the images, identifying the species and checking for damage to the branches or crowns, among other things. Probability models are used to calculate the amount of carbon stored in the forest. The mathematical proofs developed by the company have been submitted to a scientific journal, Mr. Holland said. Using traditional methods, a forester conducting an inventory averages three or four forest plots per day and can spend months completing an assessment at a cost of $350 a plot, he said. But Logan Sander, a forester who used the smartphone to inventory Ms. Lonnquist’s forest and recently demonstrated it for two visitors, said he was averaging 30 to 35 plots a day, with the entire job taking only a week to complete. Individual forest owners who sign up for Mr. Holland’s service pay a $75 application fee and receive the smartphone. If, after conducting an inventory, they choose to move forward with the carbon project, they pay the company $1, 350 to complete the process. Some small properties do not store enough carbon to make even that effort worthwhile. The price of carbon, Mr. Holland said, has to be $10 or more per ton “to make it pencil out” for the owner. And novel methods like Mr. Holland’s still need approval from the companies that verify forest inventories or serve as official market registries. But Jessica Orrego, the director of forestry for the American Carbon Registry, said such advances might be the key to bringing in owners. “We’re fully supportive,” she said. “We’re advocates of innovation. We think it’s extremely important in the carbon market. ” Ms. Lonnquist, who owns the forest here with two brothers and her wife, Lynn Baker, is still considering whether entering the carbon markets would make sense for her family. The commitment — 125 years if the credits are sold in the California market — gives her some pause, she said. “That’s well beyond our lifetime, and that’s a commitment that goes with the property,” she said. She can imagine, though, what she might be doing 20 years from now. “Maybe I’d just be at home growing carbon,” she said. “And maybe that’s the best thing. ” | 1 |
RIO DE JANEIRO — Two American swimmers were pulled off their flight to the United States by the Brazilian authorities and detained for several hours on Wednesday night, Olympic officials said. It was the latest indication that the police were skeptical of the swimmers’ claims that they had been held up at gunpoint during the Rio Games. “We can confirm that Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz were removed from their flight to the United States by Brazilian authorities,” a spokesman for the United States Olympic Committee said. “We are gathering further information. ” The men were released after agreeing to remain in the country and to speak with investigators about the episode on Thursday, according to officials with the United States Olympic team. In a case that has made headlines around the world, the gold medalist Ryan Lochte said that after leaving a party early Sunday, he, Mr. Conger, Mr. Bentz and one other American swimmer were robbed by men claiming to be police officers. The idea that such prominent athletes could be robbed by officers during the Olympics was a huge embarrassment for Brazil, underscoring longstanding concerns about holding the Games in a city like Rio de Janeiro. But questions about the Americans’ testimony to the police turned that embarrassment into anger, with many Brazilians wondering whether the athletes had lied about the episode and smeared their country’s reputation. In a conversation on Wednesday with NBC’s Matt Lauer, Mr. Lochte — who has already returned to the United States — changed certain details of his account. After previously saying that an assailant had put a gun against his forehead, he said that the gun had been aimed in his “general direction. ” Mr. Lochte had also previously said that the swimmers had been robbed after the men identifying themselves as police officers pulled over their taxi. On Wednesday, however, he told NBC that the taxi had stopped at a gas station so they could use the bathroom. Mr. Lochte went on to say that the swimmers had been robbed upon returning to the taxi. He ascribed the inconsistencies to “traumatic mischaracterization” caused by stress. Mr. Lochte emphasized to Mr. Lauer that he considered himself as a victim. The episode has created a significant test for the newly collaborative relationship between American and Brazilian law enforcement officials. In the months leading up to the Olympics, the countries worked closely as they tried to improve Brazil’s ability to thwart a terrorist attack. But on Wednesday night, American officials seemed to be in the dark over the detention of Mr. Conger and Mr. Bentz. “We have seen media reports that two U. S. citizen athletes were detained,” said John Kirby, a State Department spokesman. “We stand ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance. ” Hours after the swimmers were removed from the plane, it was unclear where they were being held. When asked if United States Olympic officials knew where the American swimmers were, the U. S. O. C. spokesman, Patrick Sandusky, said, “At this point we are gathering details and have no further comment. ” Brazilian law enforcement officials have kept American diplomatic and law enforcement officials at arm’s length as they have moved forward with their investigation, according to senior American officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a continuing Brazilian investigation. Earlier Wednesday, a Brazilian judge issued an order to prevent Mr. Lochte, a Olympic medalist, and Jimmy Feigen, the fourth swimmer involved, from leaving the country as doubts emerged about their statements. Mr. Sandusky declined to comment when asked why United States Olympics officials had allowed Mr. Conger and Mr. Bentz to board a plane leaving Brazil despite the continuing investigation. Agents from Brazil’s Federal Police, an investigative force that oversees the country’s borders, detained Mr. Conger and Mr. Bentz at Rio de Janeiro’s main international airport, according to local news reports. Investigators from Rio’s Tourism Police had asked for their passports to be seized so they could be questioned. Shortly after they were removed from the plane, the two men were shown on the Globo television network being escorted to a police station in the airport. They declined to talk to a television reporter at the entrance to the station. Investigators have not found evidence corroborating the swimmers’ account, according to local news reports, prompting the judge’s order to seize their passports. “You can see the supposed victims arriving without signs of being physically or psychologically shaken, even joking amongst themselves,” Judge Keyla Blanc de Cnop said in a statement, referring to video of the swimmers returning to the Olympic Village after the party. The Brazilian authorities have come under scrutiny after a number of armed assaults during the Games, despite the deployment of an security force to ease fears about violent crime. Mr. Sandusky said that the police had looked for the two swimmers on Wednesday, but that the athletes were no longer at the Olympic Village. “The swim team moved out of the village after their competition ended, so we were not able to make the athletes available,” Mr. Sandusky said. He added that the Olympic Committee’s security protocol prevented him from confirming the athletes’ current locations. Mr. Lochte’s lawyer, Jeff Ostrow, denied assertions that his client and the other swimmers might have fabricated details of their accounts, describing such claims as efforts by Brazilian officials to deflect criticism of problems in Rio. “The country has a dark cloud over it for a million and one reasons, from their economy to their crime to their management of the Olympics,” said Mr. Ostrow, who is based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “My client has cooperated thoroughly with the Brazilian authorities and stands behind his statement. ” Still, there was growing speculation in Brazil that the episode might not have unfolded as the swimmers described it. Mr. Lochte told NBC’s “Today” show that men had drawn guns and that one of them had taken his money and wallet, but left his cellphone and credentials. He also told USA Today that the swimmers did not initially tell the United States Olympic Committee about what had happened “because we were afraid we’d get into trouble. ” Mr. Lochte and Mr. Feigen told Brazilian investigators that they left the party at Club France, which was set up to promote the country during the Games, around 4 a. m. Sunday, according to local news reports. But video cameras showed the swimmers leaving the club at 5:50 a. m. about an hour before they arrived at the Olympic Village at 6:56 a. m. according to Extra, a Rio newspaper. There are other points of confusion in the accounts by Mr. Lochte and Mr. Feigen, the only swimmers who provided testimony to Brazilian investigators. The men, who said they had been intoxicated upon leaving the party, said they could not remember the color of the taxi they took, or where exactly the assault had taken place. Investigators have been unable to find the taxi driver who delivered the swimmers back to the village. A prosecutor in Rio, André Buonora, said in a statement that the swimmers could face charges of providing false testimony if they had lied to investigators. Despite the controversy, it is not uncommon for the police in Rio to be implicated in armed assaults. Shortly before the Olympics, Jason Lee, a jujitsu champion from New Zealand, said that he had been briefly kidnapped by police officers and forced to withdraw about $800 from his bank account. Despite a history of such episodes in Rio, many Brazilians have grown defensive over criticism of the city. Some lashed out at the American swimmers, contending that they were hiding something. “So the American swimmer lied about the robbery?” Mariana Godoy, a television news announcer, asked in a Twitter post. She implied that Lochte was trying to cover up something untoward. “He left one party and went to ‘another party’ and didn’t want to tell Mommy about it?” Ms. Godoy wrote. | 1 |
Singer and DJ Kaya Jones took to social media this week to show off a Donald Trump she was “never able to wear” before for fear of being attacked, and thanked fellow singer Joy Villa for giving her the strength to openly share her support for the president. [In an Instagram post, the singer expressed her gratitude to Villa, who made headlines this week when she wore a dress emblazoned with Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan to the Grammys. The shirt I never was able to wear in fear of being attacked. My friends @joyvilla @officialandresoriano changed that for me and 60 million other Americans at the #Grammys. Thank you! Stand up for what you believe in! In the name of love ❤🇺🇸❤#happyvalentinesday In honor of your strength you’ve given me the strength to say let’s change the narrative! #unitedwestand #bringjoytothewhitehouse #trump #maga #makeamericagreatagain #andresoriano #joyvilla #kaya #wearemorethenone, A post shared by KAYA — THE EDM PRINCESS (@kayajones) on Feb 14, 2017 at 9:32am PST, “In honor of your strength, you’ve given me the strength to say let’s change the narrative!” Jones captioned the photo. Jones, a former member of the pop group The Pussycat Dolls, later posted a photograph of her smiling alongside Villa at the Grammys. “There’s many of us in Hollywood that voted for @realDonaldTrump,” she wrote. “I’m just proud to stand by my friend and have her stand by me. ” There’s many of us in Hollywood that voted for @realDonaldTrump I’m just proud to stand by my friend have her stand by me. @Joy_Villa ❤🇺🇸❤ pic. twitter. — KAYA (@KayaJones) February 16, 2017, Jones’s initial photograph went viral on Reddit and supporters quickly flooded the singer’s Twitter account with positive messages, including to say they had purchased her latest album, The Chrystal Neria Album. Others expressed hope that more conservative artists might be inspired to share their beliefs. @KayaJones Hopefully what you and Joy bravely did will cause more Hollywood Conservatives to come out of the cloest. God Bless and Good luck, — Proud Conservative (@BeardyMcJ) February 18, 2017, @KayaJones purchased! !! ❤️ pic. twitter. — Kyra Reyer (@ReyerKyra) February 18, 2017, More of this bravery please. It’s obviously not easy in their climate, but the country needs it badly. @KayaJones @Joy_Villa https: . — Kevin D Jones (@Kevin_D_Jones) February 18, 2017, @KayaJones @iTunes @KayaJones @iTunes we gonna shoot u to the top of iTunes. Be patient 😉 — ՏLіӍ ӉѦԀЄՏ (@BoominTm) February 18, 2017, After her appearance this week, Joy Villa’s 2014 album I Make the Static shot up the Amazon and iTunes sales charts, overtaking albums from artists like Lady Gaga and Beyoncé. In an interview with Breitbart News after the show, Villa said she wore the dress in an attempt to “bring us together and start a dialogue. ” “Like hey, maybe if she is proud of what she believes in maybe I can leave her alone. Maybe I can leave my friend alone. Maybe I can leave my brother alone. Maybe I can actually still love them even though they disagree with my politics. That’s what we need. A little bit of tolerance,” Villa said. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum | 1 |
From the “it ain’t gonna happen” department, Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti wants the league to diminish the number of commercials shown on NFL TV broadcasts. [The billionaire believes that the excessive number of commercials displayed during NFL games alienates fans. Reducing them, Bisciotti argues, will enhance viewer pleasure and bring fans back to their living room couches come game time. Bisciotti said in a Ravens season review press conference, “It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that nobody wants to see two minutes of commercials, come back, kick the ball and then go to a of commercials. ” The likelihood that Commissioner Roger Goodell and other owners might not be on taking in less revenue isn’t really addressed by Bisciotti. He does admit, however, that the players might be hit the hardest, saying, “It could mean a reduction in income, but that’s going to hit the players more significantly than it’s going to hit the owners. ” Obviously, as a result of franchises suffering revenue loss, player contracts would be impacted. Michael David Smith at NBC’s Pro Football Talk, suggests that if fewer commercials would bring in more viewership, sponsors could charge more per commercial, compensating for the lower quantity. Declining NFL ratings this year proves to be a hot topic. Some blame the 2016 presidential elections for diminished viewership, while others blame protests by players refusing to stand for the national anthem. Other factors for ratings decline, Smith suggests, include “the referees, players’ issues, the crackdown on player celebrations, the big hits (and lack of big hits). ” Whatever the cause, Bisciotti says, “We’ve got to figure that out … . Everything is on the table, and if we have to go to ABC and NBC and say that we’ve got to cut some commercials out and give some money back and half of that money doesn’t go into the player pool, maybe that’s what we’re going to have to do. But our expenses would be adjusted accordingly too. ” | 1 |
The Times of Israel reports: WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told senators on Tuesday that the Palestinian leadership had changed its policy and intends to stop paying the families of terrorists jailed for attacking or killing Israelis. [“They have changed that policy and their intent is to cease the payments to the families of those who have committed murder or violence against others,” Tillerson said. “We have been very clear with them that this [practice of paying terrorists] is simply not acceptable to us. ” Tillerson’s comments were made during a public hearing on Capitol Hill with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the US State Department’s budget. US President Donald Trump has proposed cutting the State Department funding levels by 28. 7 percent. Asked about US foreign policy going forward, specifically pertaining to the Palestinian Authority’s policy of paying terrorists, Tillerson said that both he and Trump discussed the issue with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during their recent meetings in Washington and Bethlehem. Read more here. | 1 |
انسخ الرابط http://ar.rt.com/i5gh أكد الكرملين أن الرئيس الروسي، فلاديمير بوتين، مستعد للتفاوض مع أي رئيس أمريكي جديد، شريطة أن تصب هذه المفاوضات في مصالح روسيا القومية.
وقال دميتري بيسكوف، الناطق الصحفي باسم الرئيس الروسي، الأربعاء 26 أكتوبر/تشرين الأول: "الأهم بالنسبة للرئيس الروسي ليس ترامب وليست كلينتون، إنما الشيء الأهم بالنسبة له هو مصالح روسيا. ومن أجل مصالح روسيا، كما قال الرئيس مرارا، فهو مستعد لإجراء مفاوضات مع أي زعيم دولة أجنبية، ولا سيما مع رئيس الولايات المتحدة، من أجل تطوير علاقات ثنائية متبادلة المنفعة تساهم في ازدهار الدولتين".
وجاء تصريح بيسكوف، في معرض تعليقه على ما قاله المرشح الجمهوري في الانتخابات الأمريكية، دونالد ترامب، حين رجح أن بوتين لن يريد التعامل مع الديمقراطية هيلاري كلينتون في حال فوزها بالانتخابات.
وشدد بيسكوف، قائلا: "سؤال من سيترأس الولايات المتحدة، ليس مسألة تخص بوتين أو روسيا، إنما هي مسألة تخص الناخب الأمريكي".
الخارجية الروسية: ننتظر أن تتهمنا واشنطن بتدبير "ثورة ملونة"
بدوره، أعرب سيرغي ريباكوف، نائب وزير الخارجية الروسي، عن دهشته مما وصلت إليه واشنطن في اتهاماتها السخيفة الموجهة إلى روسيا بالتدخل في العمليات الانتخابية بالولايات المتحدة.
وتابع، في معرض تعليقه على الاتهامات الموجهة إلى روسيا بمهاجمة الشبكات الإلكترونية للحزب الديمقراطي في الولايات المتحدة: "فيما يخص الاتهامات بشن هجمات إلكترونية، فهي أمر مثير للأسف أن نرى انحدار السياسيين الامريكيين إلى مثل هذا المستوى من كره روسيا".
وتابع بسخرية، أنه ينتظر أن يصل الأمريكيون لحد اتهام روسيا بتدبير "ثورة ملونة" في الولايات المتحدة، على غرار "الثورات" التي دعمتها واشنطن في عدد من دول الاتحاد السوفيتي السابق.
وسبق لـ كلينتون أن اتهمت روسيا بالتدخل في الحملة الانتخابية بالولايات المتحدة، من أجل دعم خصمها دونالد ترمب، في الوقت الذي يعتبر فيه المرشح الجمهوري هذه المزاعم مثيرة للسخرية.
وتعود هذه القضية إلى اختراق البريد الإلكتروني التابع للجنة الوطنية للحزب الديمقراطي الأمريكي، إذ بدأ موقع "ويكيليكس" بنشر رسائل مسربة لموظفي الحزب تتعلق بملابسات الحملة الانتخابية الأخيرة، وتثير شكوكا حول انحياز قيادة الحزب في سياق الانتخابات التمهيدية داخله، والتي فازت فيها كلينتون.
وفي الخريف الحالي، بدأ الموقع بنشر رسائل لرئيس حملة كلينتون الانتخابية، جون بوديستا، تتضمن العديد من المعلومات والتصريحات الحساسة لوزيرة الخارجية السابقة، بما في ذلك تصريحاتها في مناسبات خاصة.
وبغض النظر عن الاتهامات بشن الهجمات الإلكترونية، يبقى موضوع روسيا ورئيسها حاضرا بقوة خلال المراحل النهائية للسباق بين ترامب وكلينتون، قبيل الانتخابات التي ستجري في 8 نوفمبر/تشرين الثاني. وفي الوقت الذي لا تضيع فيه كلينتون أي فرصة لمهاجمة بوتين وسياسته حول سوريا، يؤكد ترامب استعداده لبناء علاقات جيدة مع روسيا. والبحث عن حل وسط حول سوريا.
وفي آخر تصريح له، اعتبر ترامب أن خطة منافسته الديمقراطية حول سوريا "ستؤدي إلى حرب عالمية ثالثة" بسبب احتمال نشوب صراع عسكري مع روسيا.
وقال ترامب، في مقابلة مع وكالة "رويترز"، إن هزيمة تنظيم "داعش" تحظى بالأولوية على إقناع الرئيس السوري بشار الأسد بالتنحي.
المصدر: وكالات
أوكسانا شفانديوك تعليمات استخدام خدمة التعليقات على صفحات موقع قناة "RT Arabic" (اضغط هنا) العناوين | 0 |
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International diplomacy is a world of careful rituals, hierarchy and credentials. But when the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, wanted to communicate with Donald J. Trump, he ended up on two occasions in the Manhattan office of a young man with no government experience, no political background and no official title in the Trump campaign: Jared Kushner. Mr. Kushner held court at length with Mr. Dermer, doing his best to engage in the same sort of conversation that the ambassador conducted with career diplomats and policy experts from Hillary Clinton’s campaign. A real estate developer, investor and newspaper publisher, Mr. Kushner derives his authority in the campaign not from a traditional résumé but from a marital vow. He is Mr. Trump’s . Yet in a gradual but unmistakable fashion, Mr. Kushner has become involved in virtually every facet of the Trump presidential operation, so much so that many inside and out of it increasingly see him as a de facto campaign manager. Mr. Kushner, who is married to Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka, helped recruit a sorely needed director of communications, oversaw the creation of an online system and has had a hand in drafting Mr. Trump’s few policy speeches. And now that Mr. Trump has secured the Republican nomination, Mr. Kushner is counseling his on the selection of a running mate. It is a new and unlikely role for Mr. Kushner, a conspicuously polite Harvard graduate whose prominent New Jersey family bankrolled Democrats for decades and whose father’s reputation was destroyed, in a highly public and humiliating manner, by his involvement in electoral politics. Now, in a Shakespearean turn, Mr. Kushner is working side by side with the former federal prosecutor who put his father, Charles Kushner, in prison just over 10 years ago: Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, whom Mr. Trump named as a top adviser. Mr. Kushner originally voiced objections to Mr. Trump about the appointment, but Mr. Kushner and Mr. Christie have since become wary allies in seeking to impose greater discipline on Mr. Trump’s unconventional campaign. Much about the Trump candidacy seems at odds with Mr. Kushner’s personality and biography: An Orthodox Jew and grandson of Holocaust survivors, Mr. Kushner is now at the center of a campaign that has been embraced by white nationalists and . Mr. Kushner’s friends say he has expressed no concern to them about his ’s behavior. On Saturday, Mr. Trump created a firestorm after posting an image on Twitter featuring a picture of Mrs. Clinton with a star and a pile of cash, which had previously appeared on a website known for . (On Monday, Mr. Trump said on Twitter that it was not a Star of David, but a sheriff’s or a plain star.) Mr. Kushner believes that his ’s respect for his Jewish faith is sincere, his friends said, and that the issue is not worth addressing. Mr. Kushner’s role was described in more than two dozen interviews with friends, colleagues and campaign staff members, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity so they could disclose interactions that were supposed to remain private. Mr. Kushner declined to be interviewed. In many ways, he has filled a vacuum in a startlingly small organization that has had no official manager since the June ouster of Corey Lewandowski, which Mr. Kushner advocated, and that has fallen far behind in building a campaign. But his real power, his friends said, stems from his close relationship with Mr. Trump, who has long preferred the advice of family over political professionals and who sees in Mr. Kushner a younger version of himself. “Jared is an amazing and we are very close,” Mr. Trump said in a statement, describing him as “a big and bold thinker. ” For both men — the privileged sons of and domineering real estate tycoons — the legacies of their fathers loom large. More than 30 years after Mr. Trump took command of the Trump Organization and built the Grand Hyatt Hotel and Trump Tower, Mr. Kushner tapped his own family empire, Kushner Companies, to buy a Fifth Avenue skyscraper and become part owner of a giant office complex near the Brooklyn waterfront. “My father looked at the deals Jared was doing and saw himself in those deals,” Ms. Trump said. But the parallels end there. Mr. Trump came to Manhattan to outstrip his father’s success Mr. Kushner was seeking to redeem his family’s tarnished name. The elder Mr. Kushner built the family’s real estate business into a empire of apartments and land until he was sent to federal prison in 2005 for tax evasion, witness tampering and illegal campaign donations, many of them to Democratic candidates. The case involved a traumatic and tawdry family feud: At one point, Charles Kushner sought to retaliate against his who was cooperating with the federal authorities, by hiring a woman to seduce him and videotape the encounter. “Vile and heinous” was how Mr. Christie, then the United States attorney for New Jersey, described the conduct. Almost overnight, Mr. Kushner, 24 years old and still a student at law school, became the public face of the family business. On weekdays, he toured construction sites on weekends, he flew to Alabama to visit his father in prison. The two remain exceedingly close: For years, Mr. Kushner used a wallet that his father had made in prison. Mr. Kushner does not like to talk about his father’s travails, but they plainly left a mark on him. At his son’s recent bris, he spoke of his wish for the newborn: “May life be hard enough that you grow, but not so hard that you break. ” In 2006, with the family’s wounds from the scandal still fresh, Mr. Kushner bought The New York Observer, a small newspaper aimed at the city’s social, political and real estate elite. A stranger to the culture of a publication that delighted in needling the rich and powerful, he initially floundered as a publisher, alienating reporters and cycling through a series of editors before landing on an old friend of the Kushner family, Ken Kurson. In April, the newspaper, which under its previous ownership made a sport of mocking Mr. Trump, enthusiastically endorsed his presidential bid. Mr. Kushner has described his time on the campaign trail with the wonder of a political neophyte. “You have to see this,” he told his wife after returning from a Trump rally last year in Springfield, Ill. For months, he was more loyal than campaign operative, his role mainly confined to standing alongside the candidate and making calls to potential advisers and donors. It was in March, after Mr. Trump inflamed Jewish leaders with an improvised vow to remain “neutral” in dealings with Israel and Palestinians, that Mr. Kushner emerged as an unchallenged force in the campaign. He worked the phones to placate angry Republicans and urged Mr. Trump to deliver a unequivocally speech in front of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the influential lobbying group known as Aipac. Mr. Kushner even solicited advice from Mr. Kurson, the Observer editor. Mr. Kushner’s first major foray into foreign policy did not go off without a hitch. At one point in the speech, Mr. Trump mocked President Obama, prompting Aipac to condemn those remarks. Mr. Kushner was furious at the group, but in the eyes of Mr. Trump, it had been a success. Mr. Kushner seems to relish the privileges that his status as Mr. Trump’s carries. In May, when Mr. Trump met with Henry A. Kissinger, the former secretary of state, Mr. Kushner tagged along. No detail seems too small. Mr. Kushner has become involved in curating videos on Mr. Trump’s Facebook page, reviewing programming for the Republican convention and retooling the online store where Trump hats, and mugs are sold. Donors, policy experts and Republican leaders regularly reach out to him as a gatekeeper to the candidate. And with increasing frequency, Mr. Trump turns to Mr. Kushner throughout the day for feedback. “I’ve been with Jared and the phone will ring, and it will be Trump soliciting Jared’s opinion,” Mr. Kurson said. Mr. Kushner does not always wait for Mr. Trump to call. He pushed behind the scenes, along with Mr. Trump’s three oldest children, for the dismissal of Mr. Lewandowski, a polarizing figure who had overseen Mr. Trump’s primary campaign and begun to see Mr. Kushner as an internal rival. Unlike his with his seemingly bottomless appetite for conflict, Mr. Kushner is, by all accounts, and restrained. In the midst of a difficult real estate negotiation a few years ago, the Mr. Kushner playfully proposed an unconventional solution to a standoff: an match. “It was such a simple way to resolve a conflict when the conflict didn’t need to be there in the first place,” said his counterpart in the negotiation, Adam Neumann, a founder of WeWork, which provides shared work spaces to entrepreneurs. Mr. Kushner lost. He is, Mr. Neumann said, “the opposite of a traditional New York developer. ” But not entirely. Mr. Kushner, whose dimpled cheeks and baby face are a fixture of society pages, has embraced the trappings of a mogul. He moved with his wife into a penthouse of a tower on Park Avenue and courted the friendship of Rupert Murdoch, the founder of Fox News, whose young daughters were flower girls at Mr. Kushner’s wedding to Ms. Trump. But for Mr. Kushner, an awkward reality remains: Many of his friends and are socially liberal Democrats who are horrified by the Trump campaign. The topic is more or less off limits at Mr. Kushner’s company, people who have spent time there said, and old friends said they avoided it in Mr. Kushner’s presence. “There is no purpose in discussing it,” said Joel I. Klein, the former New York City Schools chancellor who socializes with Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump. As a Hillary Clinton supporter, Mr. Klein said, “We leave this piece alone. ” The skepticism and disapproval from his peers appear to have hardened Mr. Kushner’s resolve. Friends who have spoken with him said he felt vindicated by Mr. Trump’s improbable electoral success, playing down doubts about his strategy and expressing admiration for his political acumen. Now, between flights with Mr. Trump and the flurry of campaign calls and meetings, Mr. Kushner is devoting far less time to his real estate empire. His whose own eyes have been known to drift away from real estate, seems to approve. “Despite his great business success,” Mr. Trump said in a statement, “he has the right priorities — family first. ” | 1 |
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