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Dennis Byrd, a former Jets defensive lineman who made an inspiring recovery from paralysis after a neck injury in 1992, died on Saturday in a crash near Claremore, Okla. officials said. Byrd was 50. A boy driving a sport utility vehicle north on Oklahoma Highway 88 veered into the oncoming lane about 11:15 a. m. striking an S. U. V. driven by Byrd, who was pronounced dead at the scene, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said. The boy was taken to Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Okla. where officials said he was in stable condition. A boy was also injured in the crash. Against the Chiefs, on Nov. 29, 1992, Byrd and a teammate, Scott Mersereau, collided while chasing Kansas City quarterback Dave Krieg. Byrd broke a bone in his spine and could not move his lower body. “An eerie silence gripped the stadium as Jets doctors and trainers attended to Byrd for seven minutes,” according to a New York Times article about the game. “Hopes were raised when Byrd moved his left arm. A few of his teammates drifted over to talk to him and hold his hand, then slowly they began to realize just how seriously injured he was. ” Three days after Byrd was injured, he underwent a operation at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan to stabilize his spine. Doctors thought it could take two years to determine whether he would be able to regain use of the lower half of his body, although they were already encouraged that Byrd had been able to flex his ankles and move some toes. By the end of January 1993, Byrd had made extensive progress in a therapy program at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. Weeks later, using crutches, he appeared for an emotional news conference to mark the end of his rehabilitation program at the hospital. The story of Byrd’s recovery was told in an autobiography, “Rise and Walk: The Trial and Triumph of Dennis Byrd,” and a television movie in 1994. Byrd was born Oct. 5, 1966, in Oklahoma City, and he played for the University of Tulsa before the Jets drafted him in the second round in 1989. Derrick Gragg, the university’s vice president and director of athletics, said in a statement that Byrd “exemplified true determination, tremendous heart and humility throughout his life. ” “He overcame great personal adversity after a injury on the football field,” Gragg added. “We know that Dennis touched numerous lives and will be missed by many. ” Byrd became a motivational speaker and traveled across the country, sharing his life story, writing hundreds of letters a year and spending time with others who had neck and injuries. The Jets presented him with an award as the team’s most inspirational player of 1992, and they have given the Dennis Byrd Award to the most inspirational Jet every year since. In 2010, Byrd sent Rex Ryan, then the Jets’ head coach, the No. 90 jersey that had been ripped from his torso after he was injured. In 2012, Byrd became the fifth player in the franchise’s history to have his number retired. Byrd lived in Talala, Okla. about 40 miles northeast of Tulsa, with his wife, Angela, and their four children, according to the Jets’ website. The website quoted Byrd as having said: “Football has always been, for me, a cornerpost of strength and a way to accomplish things in life, whether it’s on the field or just in maintaining a quality of life. All those lessons — dedication, perseverance, teamwork — they all dovetail nicely into living a blessed life. ” | 1 |
A pollster who is in the field in two swing states is reporting that he is seeing no early impact from the FBI reviewing new emails in the Hillary Clinton investigation in two swing states.
Geoff Garin of Hart Research tweeted from the field: Still early, but I was in the field in two states last night and saw absolutely no impact from the reporting on the Comey letter.
— Geoff Garin (@geoffgarin) October 29, 2016
It is still early, but if this were the election shifting news that Republicans were hoping for the impact would have been immediate. The reality is that if the public opinion polls tighten in the final days of the campaign, it will be because Republicans are coming back to Trump.
There are few undecided voters in this election, and even if all the Republican base come home to Trump, it won’t be enough for Trump to win, because he is losing where the presidential election is really held. Trump is getting crushed at the state level.
Republicans have been trying to build Hillary Clinton’s emails into a story for years, and they have failed at every turn.
Hillary Clinton led the election while under Congressional investigation. Hillary Clinton led the election while under FBI investigation. Hillary Clinton is leading the election today. The message that Republicans and the media don’t want to hear is that voters are sick of the emails, and they don’t care.
Voters are smarter than Republicans and the press give them credit for. The Hillary Clinton email scandal has never broken out of the right wing bubble because there is no evidence that Clinton did anything wrong.
If the polls tighten a little, this will be the best news in the world for Hillary Clinton and Democrats, because it will destroy any potential for Democratic complacency and get their voters out and to the polls.
What Geoff Garin witnessed is probably going to end up being very accurate. James Comey’s letter to Congress is unlikely to move swing states and change the outcome of the presidential election. | 0 |
TVE
La 1 de Televisión Española repitió ayer como cadena más vista. Sin duda, el traslado de Los desayunos de La 1 a las 22:00 fue todo un éxito. El interés periodístico de ver a su primer invitado, Albert Rivera, bebiendo café y no un whisky cola a esas horas de la noche proporcionó al programa un excelente 24% de share.
El segundo puesto del podio de los dioses del olimpo televisivo lo consiguió La Sexta con la emisión del vídeo de las vacaciones en Lanzarote de Antonio García Ferreras y Ana Pastor. El minuto de oro fue la emotiva sorpresa que Pastor le dio a su marido: en el hotel había buffet libre. Sin embargo, el momento que pasará a la Historia de la televisión fue la visita al Loro Park de Lanzarote, donde la periodista interrumpía constantemente a los loros.
Telecinco obtuvo unos datos algo más discretos con una edición especial de Pasapalabra con Javier Cárdenas y Rosa de España como invitados. Ninguno de ellos consiguió el bote. O sí. La dirección del concurso aún sigue intentando descifrar las respuestas de ambas celebridades.
Peor audiencia consiguió Antena 3 con Tu Cara Me Suena . El de ayer fue un programa dedicado a las imitaciones políticas. A pesar de que Juan Muñoz ganó la gala imitando a Pedro Sánchez, la concursante Yolanda Ramos (caracterizada de Susana Díaz) impugnó las votaciones y creó una gestora con uno que cantaba en Auryn y Esther Arroyo. Mientras no se solucione el embrollo, el líder del programa será un foco del plató.
Entre las opciones menos atractivas para el público encontramos la propuesta de Cuatro, que ayer emitió la película Ñ-Men , la versión española de una conocida película de súper héroes. El protagonista de uñas afiladas, Torrezno, al que de joven picó una tapa de bar radioactiva, no consiguió la atención del espectador.
Sorprendentemente, La 2 fue la última opción para los españoles. La nueva versión de La Misa de La 2 no convenció. El formato ha sido modernizado, pero quizá el espectador habitual no está acostumbrado al formato “late”. La entrevista con El Cigala hablando de las escrituras apócrifas fue interesante. El momento más divertido fue la aparición del personaje creado por Silvia Abril, La Niña de Yahvé.
Las autonómicas no vivieron su mejor noche. TV3 emitió el documental Independence Day , en el que Will Smith recuerda los hechos de 1714, cuando las tropas españolas enviaron naves espaciales para conquistar Barcelona.
El reality de TVG Percebe busca percebeira y el informativo económico de Canal Sur Chirigota News marcaron su mínimo histórico de esta temporada. | 0 |
Ads BOMSBHELL: The Clintons’ Fixer PROVES That Hillary’s Secret Affair Ended In The MURDER Of Her Lover Oct 28, 2016 Previous post Next post
Hillary and Bill Clinton have had a sort of “fixer” for the Clinton’s that paid to make problematic issues disappear for the Clintons. He has finally decided to come forward and break silence on his experience, but for the some reason the Clinton’s have refused to deny a thing that he says. Even more shocking is when you take a closer look at Hillary’s ex-lover, it appears that he was shot in the head and Hillary’s odd behavior is having many claim murder.
Many of those paying close attention to the Clintons’ suspicious dealings and sketchy behavior over the years have long since thought that longtime ally and lawyer Vince Foster was indeed having an affair with the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Well, Clinton’s fixer, Jeff Rovin, just confirmed these suspicions.
Rovin admitted to Sean Hannity, on the record, that Hillary Clinton and Foster had indeed been having an affair for many years.
This is especially interesting when we analyze the questionable circumstances of Foster’s death that was ruled as a suicide. Foster died of a gunshot wound to the head and a great deal of people who have analyzed the facts strongly believe that it was not a suicide at all, but rather murder.
Rovin proceeded to run down this road without intending to when he described Hillary’s reaction to Foster’s death:
He [Rovin] claimed to have helped scrub the office of Vince Foster to snatch documents related to the Whitewater scandal and covered up an alleged affair between Hillary and Foster. But Rovin told Hannity he was tasked with distracting the media while Hillary’s crew rummaged through Foster’s office. He also called the Hillary-Foster affair “pretty much an open secret.”
It just seems too close to be coincidence. Miguel Rodriguez, the lead prosecutor in the case submitted a 2-page resignation | 0 |
Pinterest
It’s been a quarter-century since Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas made history by becoming only the second black judge ever to serve on the nation’s highest court.
But you won’t see celebrations, recognition, or even acknowledgement of this feat – in fact, the “Thomas-derangement,” as The Daily Caller calls it, has not abated one bit.
This despite the fact that the impact Thomas has had is unequaled. Thomas is one of the nation’s most influential lawmakers and has admirers from all legal corners.
Yet, he is ridiculed, belittled, and assaulted with the type of disgusting comments usually reserved for common criminals and deviants.
Writing in The New York Times , Maureen Dowd referred to the Justice as “the creepy guy who acted pervy toward [Anita Hill] and won.
This barrage of insults is not just among his legal and intellectual peers, either. Thomas has been completely wiped clean from any mention in the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
His accuser Anita Hill, however, is given prominent display. The exhibit features testimonies trumpeting her courage and the surge of women’s activism that ensued, while making only peripheral reference to Thomas.
Despite these slights, Thomas continues to speak out. At a speech at the Heritage Foundation, the justice warned that we are “destroying our institutions.”
“At some point, we are going to have to recognize that we are destroying our institutions,” he said, acknowledging that the Court might also partially be at fault. “What have we done to gain their confidence?” he asked. “Perhaps we should ask ourselves what we have done to not earn it or to earn it.”
The court’s lone African-American justice also defended his view that even prior Supreme Court precedents must be bent or broken to comply with the Constitution — something most of his colleagues don’t believe.
“You’ve got lots of precedents out there that have been changed,” Thomas said. “I believe we are obligated to rethink things constantly.”
Thomas ended with some positive words about former Justice Antonin Scalia, who he affectionately referred to as “Nino.”
The court has become evenly divided between liberals and conservatives, a change that could become even more pronounced if Hillary Clinton wins the presidency and controls who will replace Scalia. But Thomas chose to dwell more on his friendship with “Nino” than ponder the future without him.
“He was from the north, and I was from the south, but we wound up at the same place,” he said, referring to their views on the paramount importance of the Constitution and individual freedoms. Scalia, he said, fretted over big principles as well as smaller things such as punctuation and syntax. | 0 |
The diplomatic travails of President Trump and his past Twitter fixation with Kristen Stewart provided plenty of fodder for “Saturday Night Live” this weekend. But a sketch lampooning Sean M. Spicer, the White House press secretary, in which he was impersonated by Melissa McCarthy, the comic actress and a surprise guest star, stole the show as “S. N. L. ” continued to take swings at a president who delights in hitting back. In the show’s cold open, Alec Baldwin returned for another outing as Mr. Trump, phoning up other world leaders under the guidance of chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon (actually an “S. N. L. ” cast member dressed as the Grim Reaper). As Mr. Trump, Mr. Baldwin first called Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of Australia (Beck Bennett) who reminded him that President Barack Obama promised to receive 1, 200 refugees held in detention in Australia. “No refugees,” Mr. Baldwin said hastily. “America first, Australia sucks. Your reef is failing. Prepare to go to war. ” He went on to call President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico (“Guy who’s going to pay for the wall says what? ”) Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany (“I’m going to write a memoir about this struggle, and call it ‘My Struggle’ — what would that be in German? ”) and President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. Mr. Mugabe (Kenan Thompson) was not impressed or intimidated: “I will rip out your spine and drink from your skull,” he told Mr. Baldwin. In her opening monologue, Ms. Stewart, the show’s host, recalled a period in 2012 when Mr. Trump posted several tweets about the relationship she had with her “Twilight” Robert Pattinson. (In one tweet Mr. Trump wrote that Ms. Stewart “cheated on him like a dog will do it again,” and in another he invited Mr. Pattinson to attend the Miss Universe pageant.) “To be fair,” Ms. Stewart said, “I don’t think Donald Trump hated me. I think he’s in love with my boyfriend. ” She added, “The president is not a huge fan of me. But that is so O. K. And Donald, if you didn’t like me then, you’re really probably not going to like me now. Because I’m hosting S. N. L. and I’m, like, so gay, dude. ” Still, the night belonged to Ms. McCarthy, the star of “Bridesmaids” and “Ghostbusters,” who came out in thinning blond hair and an suit to play an aggressive, version of Mr. Spicer as he led a daily White House press briefing. “I know that myself and the press have gotten off to a rocky start,” she said, starting off the session. “When I say rocky start, I mean it in the sense of ‘Rocky,’ the movie, because I came out here to punch you in the face. And also I don’t talk so good. ” As Mr. Spicer, Ms. McCarthy then told the press corps she would be “apologizing, on behalf of you, to me, for how you have treated me these last two weeks. ” “And that apology is not accepted,” she added. Discussing Mr. Trump’s recent announcement that he would nominate Judge Neil M. Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, Ms. McCarthy said, “The crowd greeted him with a standing ovation, which lasted a full 15 minutes. And you can check the tape on that. Everyone was smiling. Everyone was happy. The men all had erections, and every single one of the women was ovulating left and right. And no one, no one was sad. Those are the facts forever. ” An addled Ms. McCarthy then read her own email password, and tangled with a New York Times reporter (played by Bobby Moynihan) who asked why Mr. Trump did or did not use the word “ban” when describing his executive order prohibiting travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. “You just said that,” she told the reporter. “He’s quoting you. It’s your words. He’s using your words, when you use the words and he uses them back, it’s circular using of the word and that’s from you. ” When a Wall Street Journal reporter simply asked, “Are you O. K.?” Ms. McCarthy charged at her with her podium and threatened, “I will put you in the corner with CNN. ” (The screen then showed a CNN reporter in a cage.) Mr. Trump has posted complaints and criticisms of “Saturday Night Live” on his Twitter account over the past several months, though he has not weighed in on the show in the weeks since his inauguration. (Nor, as of this writing, has Mr. Spicer.) Mr. Baldwin, whose impression of Mr. Trump has often been a target of the president’s ire, is scheduled to host “S. N. L. ” next Saturday, Feb. 11. | 1 |
November 5, 2016 at 1:20 am
You know….
What amazes me, is that some Australian, can put a video up on YouTube, letting the world know that a woman, the next president’s right hand, is a Jihadi Muslim, hellbent on installing Sharia and wanting to see the end of western civilization, describing her life, her connections and very dangerous people and yet, the CIA & FBI, who are paid billions each year, can’t seem to find out the same? What does this tell me? Well, for starters, it doesn’t tell me that the FBI, CIA, NSA and goodness knows how many other Acronyms, supposedly defending America, are stupid and incompetent, on the contrary, quite the opposite. It tells me that the security services, are working in tandem with those who wish to destroy western civilization and have been lying to you from day one on everything. It’s somewhat amazing, when one thinks that your average American, who steals a bar of chocolate, out of a store, can be banged up for life in prison, if it’s their third offence and yet people like Clinton and Abedin, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands and the barbaric murder of a foreign leader, not forgetting working with people who are no doubt planning the subjugation of the west, under Wahabism, are simply ignored by those, who are paid by taxpayers to not allow this to happen.
When are people going to wake up? Government IS and ALWAYS has been corrupt and nothing but a den of psychopathic prostitutes, who do the work of the highest bidder. The only way that the western people will ever rid themselves of these demons and of course their Jewish masters, it to smash the system completely and live under an anarchy, where the Jew, WILL NOT be able to build a complex security establishment to protect them. Off with their heads, the whole, damn, lot of them quite frankly. There no use to anyone and waste the oxygen they breathe. | 0 |
November 21, 2016 - Fort Russ News -
- Berliner Morgenpost , the complete interview, translated by Tom Winter -
In Merzig. Sahra Wagenknecht loves the idyllic nature of Saarland. "This is the opposite to hectic Berlin, ideal for relaxing," she says. With Oskar Lafontaine, her husband, she often gets on her bike. "When we have time, we bicycle a good 100 kilometers a day."
Merzig, a small town on the border with France, has become the new home of the 47-year-old, who was born in Jena, has her constituency in Düsseldorf, and leads the left-wing fraction in the Bundestag. In a café at the town hall, Wagenknecht sketched out her goals for the election year.
--- Ms Wagenknecht, you and your co-chairman Dietmar Bartsch were for a long time like Tom and Jerry. Could you be a successful candidate for the Bundestag election?
Sahra Wagenknecht: We have been successfully running the Bundestag campaign for more than a year now. The Left is now highr in all surveys than in 2013, despite the strength of the AfD. The climate in the faction has also improved. There is a relationship of trust between Dietmar Bartsch and myself, we work well together. This is the prerequisite for a successful election campaign.
What is the purpose of the Linkspartei?
Wagenknecht: My wish for the Bundestag election is a clear signal that the same-old same-old of the grand coalition will be voted out and the social question finally comes to the agenda. For years inequality has grown in Germany, many people can no longer live by their labor,and more and more the elderly are humiliated with poverty.
But voting AfD doesn't change this, because AfD also advocates a weak social state and privatization. A good double-digit result for the left would put the other parties, especially the SPD, under pressure to finally take care of the social interests of the majority.
You again rely on tax increases. What must happen before the Left thinks about the relief of citizens and businesses?
Wagenknecht: We demand tax reductions for the majority, namely middle-income and low-income earners. It is scandalous that an income tax rate of 24 percent will be payable from an income of 1140 Euro, while companies like Apple, Amazon or Starbucks in Europe will be hit with tax rates of 0.005 percent.
It is perfectly understandable that people feel they're over a barrel by such a policy. We want the large companies and super-rich people to pay appropriate taxes. We demand, among other things, a millionaires' tax and the regular taxation of large inheritances.
"SPD has been making policies against its own voters for years"
In the polls, even enough a red-green-green triple bundle won't go. What power perspective do you see?
Wagenknecht: It's not enough because the SPD has been doing politicies against its own voters for years. Why should workers and retirees choose a party that has created a huge low wage sector and destroyed the statutory pension. Sigmar Gabriel has recently fought like a lion for the CTE Group Protection Agreement. In the inheritance tax, he was undisturbed by Horst Seehofer. As long as the SPD does not signal that it wants something else than a more-of-the-same, the voters are running away.
Under what conditions would you be willing to co-ordinate with the SPD and Greens?
Wagenknecht: The basic direction of politics must change: the SPD and the Greens have been part of the inglorious party cartel that has destroyed the welfare state. We want to restore the welfare state. We do not need a Riester-Schwachsinn, which makes only the financial industry rich, but a sufficient legal pension. Everyone must pay for this, including self-employed persons, civil servants and politicians.
We need decent unemployment insurance again. In addition, the bargaining with temps and out-contracting has to end. In foreign policy, Germany should return to the tradition of a back-off policy ...
... by which you mean?
Wagenknecht: Balancing interests instead of escalating conflicts through rearmament and war. The so-called war against terror did not make this world more peaceful, instead it ultimately strengthened terrorism - and brought it to Germany. Taking the Bundeswehr out of Afghanistan and Syria would be the best thing we could do for our security.
It doesn't sound like you're going to govern.
Wagenknecht: What? For more than 40 years, the Federal Republic did well to keep its soldiers home. For Willy Brandt war was the "ultima irratio," thus no road for politics. If the SPD today characgerizes such positions as "non-governmental," this is a sad testimony to their own decline.
"Germany is not defended in Afghanistan"
Should the termination of all foreign operations of the Bundeswehr be agreed upon before signing a coalition agreement?
Wagenknecht: If we help poor countries after catastrophes, drill wells, or build schools, this is welcome. But it does not call for a Bundeswehr. The Technical Aid Organization, better equipped, would suffice. The Left will never support the military effort of the Bundeswehr. They are also contrary to the Basic Law. The task of the Bundeswehr is to defend Germany. Germany is not defended either in Mali, Afghanistan, or Syria.
Would Sigmar Gabriel as an SPD chancellor candidate be an argument for or rather against red-red-green?
Wagenknecht: If I were a leading SPD politician, I would give a thought to the result of the US election. The Democrats hindered the left-profiled Bernie Sanders, only to suffer with an unbelievable Hillary Clinton shipwreck. Clinton stood for arbitrariness, venality, and indifference to the social division of the country. Many have chosen Trump because they wanted to deselect this more-of-the-same. I think the SPD should take this seriously.
Who is the SPD's Bernie Sanders?
Wagenknecht: Well. If Mr. Gabriel, keep looking! In a large party like the SPD, there must be genuine Social Democrats who are credible in the eyes of voters. Sigmar Gabriel, on the other hand, stands for the politics since the turn of the millennium, that is, for the SPD aligning itself with the economically powerful - leaving its traditional voters in the lurch.
Some utterances from the Linkspartei sound as if they came from the AfD. Do you want to recapture the voters who have migrated to the right-wing populists?
Wagenknecht: Of course, we want to win every voter who is angry and angry about the growing injustices. The fact that the AfD has reached such voters at all is only because it pretends to be committed to their social interests. But if you look at the program of the AfD, it sounds more like the economic wing of the CDU / CSU or the FDP. Merkel has handed the AfD many voters through her haphazard refugee policy. It would be irresponsible to deal with it.
You yourself said after the New Year's Eve events at Cologne's main station: "Whoever abuses his rights as a guest forfeits them." That could also come from the AfD chairman Petry
...Wagenknecht: ... or from politicians of the SPD and the CDU / CSU, all of whom have also said it. I have not repeated this sentence because it's been misunderstood. But the claim, that all who live in Germany - refugees and natives - must accept the local rules and laws, is not AfD, but reason.
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Why Palestinians want to sue Britain: 99 years since the Balfour Declaration By Ramzy Baroud Posted on November 4, 2016 by Ramzy Baroud
Last July, the Palestinian Authority took the unexpected, although belated step of seeking Arab backing in suing Britain over the Balfour Declaration. That ‘declaration’ was the first ever explicit commitment made by Britain, and the West in general, to establish a Jewish homeland atop an existing Palestinian homeland.
It is too early to tell whether the Arab League would heed the Palestinian call , or if the PA would even follow through, especially considering that the latter has the habit of making too many proclamations backed by little or no action.
However, it seems that the next year will witness a significant tug of war regarding the Balfour Declaration, the 100 th anniversary of which will be commemorated on November 02, 2017.
But who is Balfour, what is the Balfour Declaration and why does all of this matters today?
Britain’s Foreign Secretary from late 1916, Arthur James Balfour, had pledged Palestine to another people. That promise was made on November 02, 1917, on behalf of the British government in the form of a letter sent to the leader of the Jewish community in Britain, Walter Rothschild.
At the time, Britain was not even in control of Palestine, which was still part of the Ottoman Empire. Either way, Palestine was never Balfour’s to so casually transfer to anyone else. His letter read:
“His Majesty’s government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”
He concluded, “I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.”
Balfour was hardly acting on his own. True, the Declaration bears his name, yet, in reality, he was a loyal agent of an Empire with massive geopolitical designs, not only concerning Palestine alone, but with Palestine as part of a larger Arab landscape.
Only a year earlier, another sinister document was introduced, albeit secretly. It was endorsed by another top British diplomat, Mark Sykes and, on behalf of France, by François Georges-Picot. The Russians were informed of the agreement, as they too had received a piece of the Ottoman cake.
The document indicated that, once the Ottomans were soundly defeated, their territories, including Palestine, would be split among the prospective victorious parties.
The Sykes-Picot Agreement , also known as the ‘Asia Minor Agreement,’ was signed in secret one hundred years ago, two years into World War I. It signified the brutal nature of colonial powers that rarely associated land and resources with people who lived upon or owned them.
The centerpiece of the agreement was a map that was marked with straight lines by a China graph pencil. The map largely determined the fate of the Arabs, dividing them in accordance with various haphazard assumptions of tribal and sectarian lines.
The improvised map consisted not only of lines but also colors , along with language that attested to the fact that the two countries viewed the Arab region purely on materialistic terms, without paying the slightest attention to the possible repercussions of slicing up entire civilizations with a multifarious history of co-operation and conflict.
Palestinians rebelled , marking a rebellion that has never ceased 99 years later, and highlighting the horrific consequences of British colonialism and the eventual complete Zionist takeover of Palestine which is still felt after all of these years.
Paltry attempts to pacify Palestinian anger were to no avail, especially after the League of Nations Council in July 1922 approved the terms of the British Mandate over Palestine—which was originally granted to Britain in April 1920—without consulting the Palestinians at all. In fact, Palestinians would disappear from the British and international radar, only to reappear as negligible rioters, troublemakers, and obstacles to the joint British-Zionist colonial concoctions.
Despite occasional assurances to the contrary, the British intention of ensuring the establishment of an exclusively Jewish state in Palestine was becoming clearer with time. The Balfour Declaration was not merely an aberration, but had, indeed, set the stage for the that followed, three decades later.
In fact, that history remains in constant replay: the Zionists claimed Palestine and renamed it ‘Israel’; the British continue to support them, although never ceasing to pay lip-service to the Arabs; and the Palestinian people remain a nation that is geographically fragmented between refugee camps, in the diaspora, militarily occupied, or treated as second class citizens in a country upon which their ancestors dwelt since time immemorial.
While Balfour cannot be blamed for all the misfortunes that have befallen Palestinians since he communicated his brief but infamous letter, the notion that his ‘promise’ embodied complete disregard of the aspirations and rights of the Palestinian Arab people—that very letter is handed from one generation of British diplomats to the next, in the same way that Palestinian resistance to colonialism has and continues to spread across generations.
That injustice continues, thus the perpetuation of the conflict. What the British, the early Zionists, the Americans and subsequent Israeli governments failed to understand, and continue to ignore at their own peril, is that there can be no peace without justice and equality in Palestine; and that Palestinians will continue to resist, as long as the reasons that inspired their rebellion nearly a century ago remain in place.
Dr. Ramzy Baroud has been writing about the Middle East for over 20 years. He is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a media consultant, an author of several books and the founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His books include “Searching Jenin,” “The Second Palestinian Intifada” and his latest “My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story.” His website is . . Bookmark the permalink . | 0 |
BEIRUT, Lebanon — A in the Syrian civil war, negotiated by Russia and the United States, officially took effect at sundown on Monday after a weekend of intensified fighting and a vow by Syria’s president to retake the entire country. Despite pessimism over how long the would last, calm was widely reported after it took effect at 7 p. m. local time, but there were a few notable exceptions. Less than an hour into the truce, residents in the divided northern city of Aleppo said via text message that a government helicopter had dropped explosive cylinders on a district. And in the southern province of Dara’a, a rebel faction said in a statement that it had killed four government soldiers. By midnight, opposition factions had reported 10 violations by government forces. There have been extensive doubts expressed among many entangled in the conflict that the timed to coincide with the start of the Muslim holiday Eid will be respected. Under the terms, if violence is significantly reduced for seven days, the United States and Russia will collaborate on new airstrikes against jihadist militants in Syria, and the Syrian Air Force will be barred from flying over areas. The United States supports an alliance of rebel groups, and Russia supports President Bashar . But both countries share an antipathy for Islamic State and Nusra Front fighters who have seized parts of Syria and made it a magnet for jihadists. Under the deal, during an initial period, all attacks are to stop except Syrian government attacks on those two jihadist groups. But the public does not know what the United States and Russia have defined as those groups’ territories — the opposition has little trust in the Syrian government or Russia, which have often applied those labels to all of Mr. Assad’s opponents. And government supporters doubt that the opposition groups will distance themselves from the extremists, as the Americans have promised. There was also new confusion in the early hours of the : Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States would be able to approve Syrian government strikes, but the State Department reversed those comments less than two hours later. Mr. Assad used the hours before the to promise victory in his country’s civil war, punctuating his pledge by visiting a Damascus suburb that rebels surrendered last month. Mr. Assad’s visit to the suburb, Daraya, which had long been held by opposition fighters who want him deposed, was prominently reported by state television and other government news media. The loss of Daraya, which once symbolized rebel defiance in the face of encirclement and relentless bombing attacks, reflected Mr. Assad’s strengthened position in the conflict since Russia intervened to help him a year ago. An agreement on the was reached late Friday in Geneva by Russian and American diplomats, who have been struggling to find a way to reduce violence in the increasingly complex conflict so that food and medicine can reach civilians. The agreement contains many caveats and unenforceable provisions. Skepticism about its effectiveness runs deepest among the array of Syrian opposition groups, which fear that Mr. Assad is now even more entrenched in power. Obama administration officials have also expressed doubts that it will work. The White House press secretary, Josh Earnest, said on Monday that the success of the agreement “places a lot of pressure on Russia to deliver. ” “Based on our collective experience here on observing the situation,” Mr. Earnest said, “I think we have some reasons to be skeptical that the Russians are able or are willing to implement the arrangement consistent with the way it’s been described. ” “But,” he added, “we’ll see. ” The is the second negotiated this year by Russia and the United States. The first, reached in February, collapsed within weeks. Mr. Kerry, who finished the negotiation in Geneva with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said some breaches would not surprise him. “For all the doubts that remain — and there will be challenges in the days to come — this plan has a chance to work,” Mr. Kerry said in Washington, describing it as possibly “the last chance that one has to save a united Syria. ” A group of 21 rebel groups issued a statement listing deep reservations about and criticisms of the deal, but stopping short of rejecting it. Even if the accord reduces the killing in Syria, where by some estimates a people have died since the conflict began in 2011, the prognosis for peace and reconciliation is unclear, Western political analysts said. “This accord may well save lives, and it’s a gain if for that reason only,” Cliff Kupchan, the chairman of the Eurasia Group, a political risk consulting firm in Washington, said in an email. “But in the end, it’s not likely to have meaningful impact for more than a limited period, or to a serious political track. ” Mr. Assad said nothing about the agreement during his appearance in Daraya reported by Syrian news media, which showed him praying at a mosque, walking with an entourage of aides past bombed buildings and driving his own silver sport utility vehicle. “The Syrian state is determined to recover every area from the terrorists,” Mr. Assad said, using his blanket terminology for all supporters of the insurgency. There was no sign that combatants were putting down their weapons before the . Nearly 100 people were reported killed in attacks on areas around the country on Saturday and Sunday, according to tallies by medical workers, rescuers and monitoring groups. | 1 |
A small town in the southwest corner in rural Missouri is forever changing due to chain migration policies and an influx in refugees who have entered the U. S. over the last decade. [In Noel, Missouri, some 500 to 600 Somali and Sudanese immigrants and refugees now live in the region of just more than 1, 800 residents, as noted by USA Today in a piece highlighting the changing face of the area. A particular Somali migrant quoted in the USA Today piece spoke about her father now trying to apply as a refugee in U. S. in order to move to Noel. On Thursday morning, inside a apartment a block from Main Street, Bedel Kayd and his brother Saadiq sat quietly while finishing a bag of cheese puffs. With Abdullahi acting as translator, their mother, Mun Omer — a Somalian who arrived in the United States in October — said she initially thought President Trump’s executive order banning immigrants or visa holders from seven countries — Somalia, Sudan, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria and Yemen — for 90 days and refugees for 120 days meant refugees like her would have to return to their home countries. Trump’s executive order bans refugees from Syria indefinitely. Omer said she was relieved, to a degree, to learn that her initial fear wasn’t true. But the reality still doesn’t bode well for her father, who is trying to come to America. Immigration expert Ira Mehlman with the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) said that while extended family chain migration is a “general bad policy,” he said the booming Somali and Sudanese populations in Noel were most likely due to Tyson Foods’ plant in the town. The Tyson factory provides about 1, 600 jobs to Noel residents. The influx in refugees to the region has, however, cramped the local labor market. “These companies undermine the union jobs,” Mehlman told Breitbart Texas. “They’ve brought in illegal aliens and refugees, but essentially, they’ve used this to replace their unionized workforce. It’s a labor subsidy for the employers. ” “There’s a myth that illegal aliens are a source of cheap labor,” Mehlman continued. “It’s cheap only to the direct employer. The rest of us have to pay for healthcare, education, and other social services. ” Mehlman told Breitbart Texas that in areas similar to Noel, where corporate plants employ the majority of small town population, it is the companies that incentivize chain migration policies which already allow for spouses and unmarried children to come to the U. S. “In other places, it has been the employers that has created this phenomenon,” Mehlman said. “They prefer these foreign workers over unionized employees. ” Immigration groups like FAIR and NumbersUSA have been pushing President Trump’s administration to reform chain migration policy, citing that it only leads to more illegal immigration. John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder. | 1 |
Human-Machine Hybrid Organs Are Being Made Now October 26, 2016
Harvard scientists have developed a 3D printed heart on a computer chip, which can be used to study heart conditions without testing medical treatments on animals. The heart-on-chip is composed of a small piece of flexible polymer with integrated sensors that contains living human heart cells , which can mimic the physiological response of a human heart.
The sensors collect data on the beating of the heart-on-chip, which can be used to study how tissue responds to drugs or toxins.
Scientists from the Wyss Institute at Harvard University believe the technology is a more accurate alternative to testing drugs on animals, and hope it can decrease the number of animals used for testing.
“We are pushing the boundaries of three-dimensional printing by developing and integrating multiple functional materials within printed devices,” Jennifer Lewis, senior co-author of the study said in a press release.
Other organs, including bones, lungs, the liver, and gut can also be made into organs on a chip.
However, it is noted that obtaining data from these chips is costly and can only be done using high-speed cameras or microscopy. Article by Doc Burkhart , Vice-President, General Manager and co-host of TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles Got a news tip? Email us at Help support the ministry of TRUNEWS with your one-time or monthly gift of financial support. DONATE NOW ! DOWNLOAD THE TRUNEWS MOBILE APP! CLICK HERE! | 0 |
BNI Store Oct 28 2016 BELGIUM: Iranian Muslim invader found guilty of drugging, repeatedly raping, and threatening to kill a 15-year-old Belgian schoolgirl, GETS NO JAIL TIME! An Iranian Muslim illegal alien migrant who threatened to kill a runaway schoolgirl if she screamed as he repeatedly raped her has been spared any jail in a shock sentencing. The 20-year-old Muslim whose identity is being protected ( why? ), was found guilty of drugging, raping, and threatening the young girl by the court in Tongeren, Belgium. But the typical Muslim pervert has been spared jail in a shock verdict – and got away with a suspended sentence. UK Express The harrowing incident happened in April 2014, after the young girl and a female friend ran away from their hometown of Bertem. When the friend decided to return home two days later, the 15-year-old carried on her journey – taking a bus from Hasselt to Genk on her own. There, after arriving at 11pm on April 20, she took up with a gang of other young people who were hanging around in the city centre, and was taken to one of their apartments where she was plied with alcohol and drugs. The young girl later fell asleep at the flat, but was woken up just hours later by the 20-year-old Iranian Muslim who repeatedly raped her. During the horrific sex attack, she was bitten by her abuser and nearly suffocated after he put his hands around her throat to stop her screaming. He threatened to kill her if she continued to call for help. The court heard that after the attack, she did not dare to ask for help any more and feared the rest of the group could burst in at any minute and rape her as well. “Rape is the most natural thing in the world,” and “women must obey men,” were just two of the defenses offered by some of the seven Muslim invaders recently arrested for a gang rape of an unconscious 17-year-old white girl in Ostend, Belgium However, despite the aggressive nature of the attack, the migrant has been spared jail. Handing him a suspended sentence, the judge also fined the Iranian £3,680 in compensation to the girl and her family. The sentencing comes just days after an Iraqi asylum seeker had his rape conviction overturned , after his defence lawyers claimed he did not know his 10-year-old victim did not want to be raped. | 0 |
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Gillian MacBeth Louthan – The 11:11 doorway will issue a time out, not for bad behavior but for examination of the new patterns of light. Like a spider’s web, messages are hidden sculpted in sacred geometries and codes. What is sacred seeks an outlet a place of shelter. As we move past the previous markers of this years limitations, we begin to dimensionally float like an island in a gust of hurricane force wind. Everything floats like ivory soap causing all of us to feel a little nauseous like altitude sickness and seasickness wrapped in one big burrito.
We truly have become almost Island like, moving ever so slightly with the changing dimensional tides, no longer attached to any outcomes. Everything tries to right itself like an upside down cake. The winds of change are dominant and push us in directions we would not choose on our own. Like a multi colored autumn leaf, we allow that ‘which is’, to buffer our shift. We are quickly learning Dimensional riff is not a place for sissies.
Learning to float is ‘a must’. The cells of your body and heart sound with glee as you bring love into your future via intent and word ‘This is the time of your life’ spend it well, with reverence for all. Find the bounty in your hearts desires. You will learn to skate the highways and byways of dimensional conversion as all of Earth enters a new hologram in 2017.This ‘mother of all holograms’ will support the smaller projections within her own body like a great sturgeon before it gives birth to millions of eggs.
Everyone will unwrap themselves before the holidays. at the time of the winter solstice you will see the true diamond light that lives inside. Reflections of realism fill the room as thick as frankincense and myrrh. Faces show the topographical map of worry as lines are crossed. Sometimes a road once traveled ends, we are all under construction.
Everything serves the Light and one should have no regrets on any level. Words will have much more punch and you who have called energy with your mutterings will see the end results. We all walk forward with our hearts in our hands on bended knee with humble thoughts. We, who wear the Codes of Light, do so throughout time, never ceasing to trust what lives in our divine blueprint. We have been cut from a blessed cloth and sewn into a holy vessel.
11:11 is a doorway or gateway into your highest potential as a human seeking complete divine memory. One is a singularity within ‘all that is’. The ‘one’ seeks itself through mirror-like reflections of the world around it. This doorway offers an opportunity to surpass any limitations you have unknowingly set for yourself. One to one to one – enter the oneness hidden deep within your being at the center point of your soul. SF Source www.thequantumawakening.com | 0 |
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So it has happened: Hillary did not win! I say that instead of saying that “Trump won” because I consider the former even more important than the latter. Why? Because I have no idea whatsoever what Trump will do next. I do, however, have an excellent idea of what Hillary would have done: war with Russia. Trump most likely won’t do that. In fact, he specifically said in his acceptance speech:
I want to tell the world community that while we will always put America’s interests first, we will deal fairly with everyone, with everyone — all people and all other nations. We will seek common ground, not hostility; partnership, not conflict .
And Putin’s reply was immediate:
We heard the statements he made as candidate for president expressing a desire to restore relations between our countries. We realise and understand that this will not be an easy road given the level to which our relations have degraded today, regrettably. But, as I have said before, it is not Russia’s fault that our relations with the United States have reached this point.
Russia is ready to and seeks a return to full-format relations with the United States. Let me say again, we know that this will not be easy, but are ready to take this road, take steps on our side and do all we can to set Russian-US relations back on a stable development track.
This would benefit both the Russian and American peoples and would have a positive impact on the general climate in international affairs, given the particular responsibility that Russia and the US share for maintaining global stability and security.
This exchange, right there, is enough of a reason for the entire planet to rejoice at the defeat of Hillary and the victory of Trump.
Will Trump now have the courage, willpower and intelligence to purge the US Executive from the Neocon cabal which has been infiltrating it for decades now? Will he have the strength to confront an extremely hostile Congress and media? Or will he try to meet them halfway and naively hope that they will not use their power, money and influence to sabotage his presidency?
I don’t know. Nobody does.
One of the first signs to look for will be the names and backgrounds of the folks he will appoint in his new administration. Especially his Chief of Staff and Secretary of State.
I have always said that the choice for the lesser evil is morally wrong and pragmatically misguided. I still believe that. In this case, however, the greater evil was thermonuclear war with Russia and the lesser evil just might turn out to be one which will gradually give up the Empire to save the USA rather than sacrifice the USA for the needs of the Empire. In the case of Hillary vs Trump the choice was simple: war or peace.
Trump can already be credited with am immense achievement: his campaign has forced the US corporate media to show its true face – the face of an evil, lying, morally corrupt propaganda machine. The American people by their vote have rewarded their media with a gigantic “f*ck you!” – a vote of no-confidence and total rejection which will forever demolish the credibility of the Empire’s propaganda machine.
I am not so naive as to not realize that billionaire Donald Trump is also one of the 1%ers, a pure product of the US oligarchy. But neither am I so ignorant of history to forget that elites do turn on each other , especially when their regime is threatened. Do I need to remind anybody that Putin also came from the Soviet elites?!
Ideally, the next step would be for Trump and Putin to meet, with all their key ministers, in a long, Camp David like week of negotiations in which everything, every outstanding dispute, should be put on the table and a compromise sought in each case. Paradoxically, this could be rather easy: the crisis in Europe is entirely artificial, the war in Syria has an absolutely obvious solution, and the international order can easily accommodate a United States which would “ deal fairly with everyone, with everyone — all people and all other nations ” and “ seek common ground, not hostility; partnership, not conflict “. The truth is that the USA and Russia have no objective reasons for conflict – only ideological issues resulting directly from the insane ideology of messianic imperialism of those who believe, or pretend to believe, that the USA is an “indispensable nation”. What the world wants – needs – is the USA as a *normal* nation.
The worst case? Trump could turn out to be a total fraud. I personally very much doubt it, but I admit that this is possible. More likely is that he just won’t have the foresight and courage to crush the Neocons and that he will try to placate them. If he does so, they will instead crush him. It is a fact that while administrations have changed every 4 or 8 years, the regime in power has not, and that US internal and foreign policies have been amazingly consistent since the end of WWII. Will Trump finally bring not just a new administration but real “regime change”? I don’t know.
Make no mistake – even if Trump does end up disappointing those who believed in him what happened today has dealt a death blow to the Empire. The “Occupy Wall Street” did not succeed in achieving anything tangible, but the notion of “rule of the 1%” did emerge from that movement and it stayed. This is a direct blow to the credibility and legitimacy of the entire socio-political order of the USA: far from being a democracy, it is a plutocracy/oligarchy – everybody pretty much accepts that today. Likewise, the election of Trump has already proved that the US media is a prostitute and that the majority of the American people hate their ruling class. Again, this is a direct blow to the credibility and legitimacy of the entire socio-political order. One by one the founding myths of the US Empire are crashing down and what remains is a system which can only rule by force. ORDER IT NOW
Alexander Solzhenitsyn used to say that regimes can be measured on a spectrum which ranges from regimes whose authority is their power and regimes whose power in in their authority. In the case of the USA we now clearly can see that the regime has no other authority than its power and that makes it both illegitimate and unsustainable.
Finally, whether the US elites can accept this or not, the US Empire is coming to an end. With Hillary, we would have had a Titanic-like denial up to the last moment which might well have come in the shape of a thermonuclear mushroom over Washington DC. Trump, however, might use the remaining power of the USA to negotiate the US global draw-down thereby getting the best possible conditions for his country. Frankly, I am pretty sure that all the key world leaders realize that it is in their interest to make as many (reasonable) concessions to Trump as possible and work with him, rather than to deal with the people whom he just removed from power.
If Trump can stick to his campaign promises he will find solid and reliable partners in Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. Neither Russia nor China have anything at all to gain from a confrontation or, even less so, a conflict with the USA. Will Trump have the wisdom to realize this and use it for the benefit of the USA? Or will he continue with his anti-Chinese and anti-Iranian rhetoric?
Only time will tell. | 0 |
By Hrafnkell Haraldsson 5:12 pm Trump sat on the stage, "looking for all the world like an honored donor to the cause," and then got up and left without leaving a donation
Not only is Donald Trump a liar and a thin-skinned crybaby, but he is selfish, never spending his own money when he can spend somebody else’s. This behavior was never more in evidence than The Washington Post ‘s David Fahrenthold’s account of a 1996 a ribbon-cutting held by the Association to Benefit Children for a nursery school, when Donald Trump showed up, sat down to appear to be a great supporter, and then left without leaving a donation:
As Sopan Deb tweeted ,
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) October 29, 2016
Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford were big donors and it is no wonder Gifford was so shocked by Trump’s presence. What had been exposed is that Trump’s life is a sham, a gigantic show put on by him in which he parades through life pretending to be something he is not.
As Fahrenthold explains ,
For as long as he has been rich and famous, Donald Trump has also wanted people to believe he is generous. He spent years constructing an image as a philanthropist by appearing at charity events and by making very public — even nationally televised — promises to give his own money away. It was, in large part, a facade. A months-long investigation by The Washington Post has not been able to verify many of Trump’s boasts about his philanthropy.
That philanthropist isn’t the real Trump. The only person Trump visibly cares about is Donald Trump. He uses his Foundation to buy himself nice things, spending other peoples’ money for luxury items and collectibles. When he does make donations, it is again, because he gives no money to his own Foundation, with other peoples’ money.
Fahrenthold says that the only donation of Trump’s own money the paper could find from the period of 2008 to today, is a $10,000 “gift to the Police Athletic League of New York City, in 2009.”
For a man as rich as Trump claims to be, $10,000 in eight years is nothing to brag about. Not that this stops the monumental, deadbeat hypocrite that is Donald Trump from bragging anyway. | 0 |
Sunday on CBS’s “Face The Nation,” radio journalist and former host of the National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered,” Michele Norris said Donald Trump’s campaign promise to “Make America Great Again,” is a “deeply encoded,” slogan meant as a “promise of white prosperity above everything else. ” Norris said, “In the phrase ‘Make America Great Again,’ there’s one word that if you are a person of color, that you sort of stumble over, and it’s the word ‘again.’ Because you’re talking about going back to a time that was not very comfortable for people of color. They did not have opportunities, they were relegated to the back of the line. ” “And this was a country that — to be honest — was built on the promise of white prosperity above everything else. And for a lot of people, when they hear that message, ‘Make America Great Again,’ deeply encoded in that message is a return to a time where white Americans can assume a certain amount of prosperity,” she added. Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 1 |
A fistfight broke out among several passengers on a Southwest Airlines flight from Dallas to Burbank on Sunday as it was taxiing to the gate at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, the Los Angeles Times reported. [FIGHT OR FLIGHT: Vicious brawl breaks out aboard Southwest Airlines airplane in Burbank https: . pic. twitter. — ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) May 10, 2017, Video of the altercation shows two men wrestling and throwing punches at each other as a woman yells, “What is wrong with you? Get off!” while she tries to break up the fight. A flight attendant tried to intervene, but the two men fell on top of her as they rolled onto the seat where she was sitting. One continued to throw punches until other passengers stepped in to break up the fight. Police arrested the suspect, Chaze Mickalo Cable, 37, of Lancaster, for misdemeanor assault and battery, KABC reported. Cable is being held on $50, 000 bail. The victim suffered a chipped tooth, a contusion to his left eye, and a cut on his nose, police said. CBS Los Angeles reported that the victim refused treatment and continued to his next destination. Whether the two knew each other before the fight and what caused it are unknown. Southwest Airlines said Flight 2530 arrived from Dallas and was making a scheduled layover in Burbank before it continued to its final destination in Oakland, adding that the fight involved three passengers as they were getting ready to deplane. “We’re grateful to our employees who quickly reacted to break up a fight involving three customers,” a Southwest Airlines spokeswoman said. “Our Employees are our everyday heroes and are trained to conflict while delivering heartfelt hospitality. ” Another brawl broke out Monday night at Fort Lauderdale International Airport after Spirit Airlines canceled nine flights due to a staff shortage caused by an issue with the airline pilots’ union. | 1 |
in: War Propaganda , World News If it’s not Islamophobia, it’s Russophobia. Tired of Western propaganda? Get Vladimir Putin’s perspective with words straight from the horse’s mouth. Vladimir Putin in particular, and Russia in general, have been the focus of an intensive high-drama propaganda campaign of late. Are you buying it? For the time being, Russophobia has replaced Islamophobia as the driving force behind the lies. Various US officials have been frantically warning Americans that the Russians are behind everything: hacking the DNC, controlling Trump, influencing the election and breaking the Syrian ceasefire agreement. They might as well add making your girlfriend break up with you, making your toast get burnt and making your car run out of fuel for all the evidence they have presented. Many of these totally unfounded allegations stem from (naturally) the Clinton campaign, home to career criminals Bill and Hillary Clinton , who are desperately seeking to find something to gain some sort of shred of popularity or advantage over Trump, who fills up arenas with 1000s of people more easily than Clinton can fill a high school gym with 50. Many US officials and war hawks are trying to get in on the action; CIA man Mike Morell indicated it would be a good idea to covertly kill Russians to make them “pay a price” ; Hillary Clinton called Vladimir Putin the “grand godfather of extreme nationalism” and blamed him for the rising popularity of right-wing leaders; and even standing VP Joe Biden came out and said that, “We’re sending a message to Putin … it will be at the time of our choosing and under the circumstances that have the greatest impact” . It seems there is no depth to which some US leaders won’t stoop in order to gain some political advantage, even it means lying, demonizing and destroying geopolitical partnerships in order to garner a few brownie points. Russophobia is in full swing before the US Presidential Election to distract American voters. Vladimir Putin: It’s All About Distraction During Election Season You would think Russian President Vladimir President would be agitated by all of this mud-slinging. At times he has been, for instance when he issued a warning a few months ago about an impending WW3 due to NATO’s constant aggression and advancement towards Russian borders. However, judging by his own words and mostly calm demeanor, he has seen through the agenda and understands what is going on. Putin spells out how it’s all inflamed rhetoric before an election season, an old trick used by politicians to distract when they have no meaningful solutions for internal and domestic problems. Here is Vladimir Putin in his own words : “You can expect anything from our American friends … the only novelty is that for the first time, on the highest level, the United States has admitted involvement in these activities, and to some extent threatened [us] – which of course does not meet the standards of international communication. As if we didn’t know that US Government bodies snoop on and wiretap anyone? Everyone knows this … Apparently, they are nervous. The question is why. I think there is a reason. You know, in an election campaign, the current government carefully crafts a pre-election strategy, and any government, especially when seeking re-election, always has unresolved issues. They need to show, to explain to the voters why they remain unresolved. In the US, there are many such problems … for example, the massive public debt is a time bomb for the US economy and global financial system … more examples can be cited in foreign policy … in these conditions, many choose to resort to the usual tactics of distracting voters from their problems … try to create an enemy and rally the nation against that enemy … Iran and the Iranian threat did not work well for that. Russia is a more interesting story.” And that’s exactly what this whole thing is: a giant story. However, as Voltaire once said, if you can make someone believe absurdities, you can make them commit atrocities. Let’s see what else Vladimir Putin has to say on other topics of interest. Russian Hacking: A Laughable Claim so the Clintons and DNC Can Try to Avoid Culpability Let’s face it: the whole Russophobia affair is about avoiding blame, dodging responsibility and evading liability. Thanks to WikiLeaks, Project Veritas and many other sources, we know the entire Hillary Clinton campaign has been rigged beyond belief. Fake primaries, fake speeches, fake images, fake videos, fake crowds, fake supporters and fake debates. There is seemingly no depth of criminality to which that woman won’t sink. She’s selling out the presidency before she even gets there, such as the stunt of trying to promise future presidential executive orders to mega donors. There is not a shred of evidence that Russia is affiliated with WikiLeaks or behind any of the DNC hacks. As this Zero Hedge article NSA Whistleblower: US Intelligence Worker Likely Behind DNC Leaks, Not Russia states: “On “Judge Napolitano Chambers,” the Judge said that while the DNC, government officials, and the Clinton campaign all accuse the Russians of hacking into the DNC servers, “the Russians had nothing to do with it.” Napolitano then mentioned Binney, arguing the NSA veteran and whistleblower who “developed the software that the NSA now uses, which allows it to capture not just metadata but content of every telephone call, text message, email in the United States of every person in [the country]” knew the NSA had hacked the DNC — not the Russians. If Judge Napolitano and Binney are right and the NSA did hack the DNC, what was the motive? According to the Judge, “members of the intelligence community simply do not want [Clinton] to be president of the United States.” “She doesn’t know how to handle state secrets,” Napolitano continued. And since “some of the state secrets that she revealed used the proper true names of American intelligence agents operating undercover in the Middle East,” some of these agents were allegedly captured and killed, prompting NSA agents to feel compelled to act. Whether NSA agents hacked the DNC or not, one thing is clear: there’s no real evidence linking the DNC and Arizona and Illinois voting system hacks to the Russian government.” The Mythical “Russian Threat” Vladimir Putin directly addressed another mythical story, that of the so-called Russian threat and Russian aggression , at the recent Valdai forum in Sochi from October 24-27, 2016: “There is another mechanism to ensure the transatlantic security, European security, the OC security and their attempt at turning this organization (NATO) into an instrument of someone’s political interests. So what the OC is doing is simply void. Mythical threats are devised like the so-called Russian military threat. Certainly this can be (used to) gain some advantage, get new budgets, make your allies comply with your demands, make NATO deploy the equipment and troops closer to our border … Russia is not trying to attack anyone. That would be ridiculous … The population of Europe is 300 million … and the population of the US is 300 million, while the population of Russia is 140 million, yet such menaces are served as a pretext. Hysteria has been fueled in the US with regard to Russia’s alleged influence with the current presidential election. Is there anyone who seriously thinks that Russia can influence the choice of the American people? Is the US a banana republic? The US is a great power. If I’m wrong please correct me.” Here’s what he had to say about who the real aggressor is when it comes to the US and Russia: “Is it known to you that Russia, in the 90s, completely halted (as did the USSR) any strategic aviation in the further afield regions of patrol, i.e. not in the closer abroad. We halted such activity completely. US geostrategic aviation however, with nuclear weapons on board. They continued to encircle us! What for? Who are you concerned about? Or why are you threatening us? We continued with the non-patrol year after year. It is only since about 3 years ago that we restarted aviation patrol further abroad. Which party is the provocateur here? Is it us? We have only 2 military bases abroad. They are known areas of terrorism dangers … US bases on the other hand are all over the world. And you are telling me that I am the aggressor? Have you any common sense? What are US forces doing in Europe, including nuclear weaponry? What business have they got there? Listen to me. Our military budget, while increased slightly from last year, in the dollar equivalent, is about US$50 billion. The military budget of the Pentagon is almost 10 times that amount. $575 billion, I think Congress singed off on. And you’re telling me I’m the aggressor here? Have you no common sense at all? Is it us putting our forces on the border of the US? Or other states? Is it NATo, or who, that is moving their bases closer to us? Military infrastructure! It’s not us. Does anyone even listen to us? Or try to have some kind of dialogue with us? The repeated answer we get is ‘mind your own business’ and ‘each country can choose its own security measures’. Very well, so will we … And finally, on the antiballistic missile defense system, who was it that exited from the treaty which was vital to the entire system of international security? Was it us? No. It was the States. In a one-sided way, they simply withdrew from the treaty. Now they are threatening us, turning their missiles towards us, not only from Alaska, but also from Europe too … We want to develop normal relations in the sphere of security, in the fight against terrorism, in the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. We want to work together with you … so long as you want that too.” US Repeatedly Broke Its Promises to Russia and Destroyed Trust The Western MSM is so one-sided in its coverage of geopolitical events like Ukraine and Syria. Anyone not toeing the line with US-UK-NATO interests is painted in a bad light. In point of fact, it has actually been the US who has been breaking agreements with Russia since the end of the Cold War. US leaders lied to Russian leaders at the time, by promising that NATO would not extend any further eastward, and possibly even hinting that Russia could join NATO. As Eric Zuesse explains in his article America Trashes NATO Founding Act; Rushes Weapons to Russia’s Borders : “The NATO Founding Act was agreed to between the US and Russia in 1997 in order to provide to Russia’s leader Boris Yeltsin some modicum of assurance that America wouldn’t invade his country. When his predecessor Mikhail Gorbachev had ended the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact military alliance in 1991, the representatives of US President GHW Bush told him that NATO wouldn’t move «one inch to the east» (toward Russia), but as soon as Gorbachev committed himself to end the Cold War, Bush told his agents, regarding what they had all promised to Gorbachev (Bush’s promise which had been conveyed through them), «To hell with that! We prevailed, they didn’t». In other words: Bush’s prior instructions to them were merely his lies to Gorbachev, his lies to say that the US wouldn’t try to conquer Russia (move its forces eastward to Russia’s borders); but, now, since Gorbachev was committed and had already agreed that East Germany was to be reunited with and an extension of West Germany (and the process for doing that had begun), Bush pulled that rug of lies out from under the end of the Cold War …” Bill Clinton carried on the great American legacy of exceptionalism (that is, excepting themselves from obeying international law) spearheaded by Daddy Bush of surrounding and dominating Russia by allowing NATO into the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. Russia got shafted by trusting the US numerous times after the fall of the Soviet Union. Here’s Vladimir Putin once again on America’s broken promises (in April 2016): “In the early 2000s, we agreed with the Americans to destroy weapons-grade plutonium, on both sides. We were talking about the excessive amounts that were manufactured by both the US and Russia. This is the enriched uranium from which nuclear weapons are made. 34000 tonnes, from both sides. We signed an agreement, and decided that this material would be destroyed in a specific manner. It would be destroyed in an industrial way – for which special plants needed to be built. We fulfilled our obligations – we built the necessary plant. Our American partners did not. Moreover, recently they announced that rather than destroy the enriched material in the manner that we agreed, and signed an international agreement on, that they would dilute it and store it in a holding capacity. This means they retain the potential to bring it back … Surely our American partners must understand that, jokes are one thing, such as creating smear campaigns against Russia, but questions of nuclear security are another thing entirely … they must learn to fulfill their promises. They once said they would close down Guantanamo. And? Is it closed? No.” Incidentally, this is the exact same plutonium agreement which made the news last month, when as reported on October 3rd, 216, Russia suspended their deal with the US on disposal of plutonium from decommissioned nuclear warheads. A decree signed by Vladimir Putin lists “ the radical change in the environment, a threat to strategic stability posed by the hostile actions of the US against Russia, and the inability of the US to deliver on the obligation to dispose of excessive weapons plutonium under international treaties, as well as the need to take swift action to defend Russian security” as the reasons for why Russia chose to suspend the deal. Conclusion: Wake up and Smell the Russophobia Expect Vladimir Putin and Russia to keep being demonized by the Clintons – and more importantly the NWO manipulators who so desperately want them in power. Although the Clintons are a powerful modern American mafia family, replete with a long body count behind them, it’s important to remember they are lackeys for far greater and more pervasive powers (check out some of Hillary’s lovey-dovey letters to Lynn Forester de Rothschild here ). There’s a lot at stake here. Right now, Vladimir Putin and Russia are being used with the sole purpose of getting Clinton elected. Although Putin is not perfect and has his own dark side, he deserves respect for standing his ground and refusing to become another US puppet. If we are to believe his own words, he has no qualm with Americans or even America itself, but rather the selfish, imperialistic and murderous agenda of the NWO agents running the USA: “We have a great deal of respect and love for the United States, and especially for the American people … [however] the expansion of jurisdiction by one nation beyond the territory of its borders, to the rest of the world, is unacceptable and destructive for international relations.” It’s up to the American public to switch off CNN (Clinton News Network) and all the other duplicitous MSM channels and get truly informed. Vladimir Putin is reaching out his hand to America, in the hope that enough Americans can reclaim their country and work together with other nations in peace. On the issue of Vladimir Putin and Russia, the MSM is not just one-sided, it’s outright lying. | 0 |
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — President Trump on Thursday used the country’s most advanced, aircraft carrier as the backdrop for his push to rebuild America’s armed forces with a $54 billion increase in military spending. Speaking in the hangar bay of the Gerald R. Ford, which this year will become the nation’s largest and most powerful warship, Mr. Trump said the Navy — and other military services — must grow and modernize. “We will make it easier for the Navy to plan for the future and thus to control costs and get the best deals for the taxpayer,” the president said. “The same boat for less money, the same ship for less money, the same airplanes for less money. ” Ever the showman, Mr. Trump arrived on the carrier in dramatic style, landing on the flight deck aboard his helicopter, Marine One. He emerged with a sharp salute and wearing his trademark red Make America Great Again baseball cap. One deck below, watching on large screens, hundreds of sailors and others let up a huge cheer for the commander in chief. After touring the ship, the president was lowered to the hangar bay on the massive elevator that carries fighter jets between the decks. To the sounds of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U. S. A. ,” Mr. Trump strode into the crowd — wearing a Gerald R. Ford baseball cap. Mr. Trump marveled at the ship’s size, calling it “4. 5 acres of combat power and sovereign U. S. territory, the likes of which there is nothing to compete. ” “It is a monument to American might that will provide the strength necessary to ensure peace,” he said. The Ford is the first of a new, more technologically advanced class of aircraft carrier, and cost about $13 billion to build after cost overruns and years of delay. But Mr. Trump did not mention those challenges, saying instead that he supports expanding to a Navy, from the current 10. He said ships like the Ford will allow him and future presidents to project American power in distant lands. “Hopefully it’s power we don’t have to use. But if we do, they are in big, big trouble,” he said to cheers from the sailors. Mr. Trump asserted, as he did during the presidential campaign, that the Navy is now the smallest it has been since World War I. The Navy swelled from 245 ships in 1916 to a peak of over 6, 000 during World War II, downsizing between conflicts and bulking up during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. From the 1970s, the Navy gradually began to shrink to a total battle force of 275 ships as of September 2016. But that fleet includes 10 aircraft carriers, 22 cruisers, 63 destroyers, 11 amphibious assault ships and 68 submarines, 14 of which are armed with nuclear warheads. These are far more powerful than the fleets of World War II. So comparing the navies of the past and today is “like comparing the telegraph to the smartphone they’re just not comparable,” Ray Mabus, the secretary of the Navy under President Barack Obama, said in 2012. Lawmakers in both parties have already expressed deep skepticism about Mr. Trump’s military spending proposal, in part because of its potential to increase the nation’s deficit and in part because of the administration’s assertion that it would deeply slash nonmilitary spending to compensate. But the president’s desire to expand the military was a core promise during his campaign for the White House. American politicians often seek to associate themselves with the country’s enormous, gleaming war machines. Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential candidate, announced his choice of Speaker Paul D. Ryan as his running mate on the retired battleship Wisconsin. But sometimes the moment goes awry. In 2003, President George W. Bush stood on the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln to declare that the military phase of the Iraq war was over. He spoke in front of a banner that proclaimed “Mission Accomplished. ” The war continued for years. Aides to Mr. Trump are hoping that the images of the president on the Ford are more positive. | 1 |
A new report released shortly after the forming of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity finds that more than 5, 000 individuals were determined to be . S. citizens registered to vote in Virginia. [Dubbed a “sequel” to a similar 2016 effort, the latest study found 5, 556 voters were “quietly removed” from the records for reasons related to “between 2011 and May 2017,” according to an advanced look at the findings provided by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF). Of the total registered, of unlawful voters managed to cast ballots — leading to a total of more than 7, 400 illegal votes cast, according to the report. The organization points out that it was unable to find any evidence that illegal registrations or votes were ever prosecuted. The report details how ineligible individuals are slowly discovered by local officials — most often, the authors allege, by accident. Applicants for voter registration are not required to prove they are actual U. S. citizens in Virginia. The vast majority of states only require that people claim to be citizens during registration, PILF notes. The report details, however, that Virginia shares information when a claimed citizen indicates otherwise to a separate state agency. At that point, removal procedures begin: In the absence of regular arrangements between federal officials and the Commonwealth, the ability of election officials to identify aliens on the voter rolls is almost nonexistent. The most that happens in Virginia is that an alien on the voter rolls will sometimes tell the state DMV they are not a citizen. Without those leads, counties and municipalities must accept false claims of citizenship on their face. The authors also shared with this reporter examples of how some ineligible noncitizens admitted their immigration statuses at the outset, but were still registered to vote. Some illegal registrants lasted on the rolls for years — risking possible deportation — until they were discovered. In order to obtain the information necessary to perform the study, the Public Interest Legal Foundation filed a total of three lawsuits across the commonwealth in 2016. The group claims that political interference from officials loyal to Governor Terry McAuliffe (D) initially stalled the research effort. “At the instruction of Governor McAuliffe’s political appointees, local election officials spent countless resources to prevent this information from spilling into the open,” J. Christian Adams, a former Department of Justice attorney and President of the Public Interest Legal Foundation said in a statement. “Virginia hid critical information that would have improved election integrity while a political vetoed numerous proposals that would’ve prevented alien registration and voting. ” A release notes that local clerks were advised to reject PILF’s requests for information, citing the federal Drivers Privacy Protection Act as a justification to prevent full disclosure, since some noncitizens outed themselves when receiving driver’s licenses. That effort reportedly failed when the organization sued some northern and central Virginia officials. The “alien voting” report arrives at an interesting time. In addition the presidential commission announced that plans to study similar problems around the country, Virginia is also due to hold statewide elections in November 2017. The nonprofit law firm credits the Virginia Voters Alliance for assisting in the research effort locally. The report adds that it is a felony on both state and federal levels for a to vote and can carry with it an order of deportation. Alien Invasion II by Public Interest Legal Foundation on Scribd, Brandon Darby is managing director and of Breitbart Texas. He the Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and Stephen K. Bannon. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart. com. | 1 |
WILTSHIRE, England — Sir James Dyson, the British designer and engineer, sporting sneakers, cobalt blue spectacles and a voluminous thatch of silvery hair, stood in his vast glass office in the depths of the English countryside one recent Tuesday afternoon. He was clutching a device that he contends could change the monotony of bathroom routines forever. “There has been zero innovation in this market for over 60 years,” said Mr. Dyson, 68, a billionaire who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2006. “Millions of people use contraptions daily that are hideously inefficient, waste their time and are causing them damage,” he said. “We realized that we could — and should — sort this situation out. ” He triumphantly held up what appeared to be a sleek black and pink plastic doughnut on a stick. “Four years, 100 odd patents and 600 prototypes later, I think we might have found the answer. ” Known as the Dyson Supersonic and unveiled in Tokyo on Wednesday, the device is his response to a question many never thought to ask: Is it possible to make a better hair dryer? This may not seem like a big deal. A few burned scalps and frizz issues aside, people have been doing just fine with the standard hair dryer for decades. But, as Dai Fujiwara, a Japanese fashion designer who collaborated with Mr. Dyson on an Issey Miyake runway presentation, wrote in an email, “Because everyday life is too common, people rarely realize there is a problem. ” About 92 percent of British women regularly use a hair dryer (according to the consultancy Mintel) while 75. 5 percent of all women and 24. 5 percent of men in the United States and 97 percent of women and 30 percent of men in Japan use one (according to Dyson) and most spend an average of 20 minutes on each session. So changing even a small percentage of that behavior could have outsize repercussions. Mr. Dyson, Britain’s living inventor, is the Steve Jobs of domestic appliances. He has built a fortune from making otherwise standard products seem aesthetically desirable, in the process persuading untold numbers of consumers that they really, really want cordless and bagless vacuum cleaners, air purifiers, bladeless fans and even household robots. “His inventions are disruptive — beautifully so,” said Terence Conran, the British restaurateur, retailer and furniture designer. “Who would have imagined that a bagless vacuum cleaner could become a highly covetable status symbol? He has made other businesses think differently about how to use design, creativity and innovation. ” Mr. Dyson studied furniture design and architecture at the Royal College of Art in London. He is currently provost there. “His advocacy for the discipline and for British manufacturing has had a profound influence on the British national psyche,” said Dr. Paul Thompson, rector of the Royal College. Now Mr. Dyson is trying to extend that influence into hitherto unchartered territory: the global beauty and grooming sector. Dyson said there were 103 engineers involved in the creation of the Supersonic, which included the taming of over 1, 010 miles of human hair tresses and 7, 000 acoustic tests as teams tackled three core issues: noise, weight and speed. Ground zero for the project was the Dyson research facility, a Willy world deep in the rolling Wiltshire hills, with a Harrier fighter jet and spliced Mini car in the visitors’ parking lot. Projects are kept firmly under lock and key from virtually all outsiders — as well as many within the walls itself (which, like those owned by Roald Dahl’s flamboyant fictional chocolate factory owner, are often painted a lurid purple). Matt Kelly was one of many young engineers milling around the plant in near identikit uniforms of hoodies, jeans and sneakers or battered brogues. “You can sit next to someone in the cafeteria here for years and not have the first idea what they are working on, and they will have no clue what you do, either,” Mr. Kelly said. “Discretion and an ability to keep secrets are essential traits if you want to work at Dyson. ” Especially when doing something so counterintuitive as moving from the practical question of what to use to clean carpets to the more question of what to use to style a personal image. Ed Shelton, a design manager for the Supersonic, said: “It was the hardest project I’ve ever worked on. Beyond having to crack the science of hair, we’ve had to tackle a highly subjective user psychology. “Trust me when I say there are many more approaches and angles to than vacuuming in the world. British women want volume. Japanese women want straightness. No one wants hair damage. And then we had to create a fleet of robots specifically to test that over and over again. ” The company says the key to the Supersonic is its motor. About the size of a quarter, the motor is small enough to fit in the base of the hair dryer handle, rather than in the conventional motor position at the top of the device, a shift that creates its unorthodox streamlined aesthetic. The smaller motor allows for high velocity flow but not pressure, the company says, which is how temperatures shoot up on traditional hair dryers and users burn themselves if the dryer is too close to the head. The company says the positioning of the motor in the hand also limits the dumbbell effect of models, where weighting can cause arms to ache. Weighing just 370 grams, the new structure allows for a longer silencer tube and smaller fan, cutting down drastically on noise. Coupled with the high motor speed, the fusion of new technologies gives rise to Dyson claims that the sound waves can operate at an ultrasonic level — in other words, at frequencies higher than the upper audible limit for humans. It also has magnetic heatproof nozzles and intelligent heat sensors to prevent hair burn. “Frankly, I’m rather terrified,” Mr. Dyson said. “We had to learn a great deal with the Supersonic, and there have been a lot of firsts on all fronts, including the fact that I had to grow my hair especially for a launch. ” “It hasn’t been this long since my ’60s student days, when I wore flowered shirts and flares,” Mr. Dyson said. Despite his newly flowing locks, both Dyson the man and Dyson the company are conscious that they may not come across as the most convincing of beauty gurus. Consequently, the company has enlisted the services of Jen Atkin, a celebrity hairstylist with a client Rolodex that includes Kim Kardashian, Jessica Alba and Katy Perry and a social media following of millions. Her job is to decode the appliance and its styling power to viewers via online tutorials following the introduction (i. e. she’s a brand ambassador) but her input was also instrumental in its creation. Jake Dyson, the oldest son of Mr. Dyson and heir apparent to the Dyson helm, said the company understood that personal care “was a radically different market from the ones we are used to competing in. Cleaning floors is much less glamorous than styling hair. ” Ms. Atkin, who can see up to 30 clients a day, said she had initially begun the relationship by “giving her two cents” to Dyson engineers on the model and what it needed. “That feeling that usually makes your arms ache completely disappears with this, whether working on your own hair or blow drying someone else,” she said. “For me, or any woman, that is a game changer. This is the ‘break the Internet’ dryer. ” As with any other Dyson device, research and development didn’t come cheap: The investment, including a hair laboratory, reached £50 million (about $72 million). As a result, the Supersonic will retail at $399 when it arrives in the United States at Sephora stores in September, a price at stark odds with the business model that has traditionally defined the competitive hair dryer market. Currently, hair dryers sold by Amazon in the United States retail for $12. 99 to $219. 98. Still, Dyson has a convincing track record in persuading fans to pay hundreds of dollars on domestic status symbols that spend most of their working lives in the cupboard under the stairs or next to the dog basket. But there have been expensive failures along the way, like its washing machine, which the company no longer makes. More recently, some of Dyson’s boldest claims, about advancing science in certain markets, have also been called into question by critics like the University of Westminster in London. This month the university released research suggesting that Dyson Airblade hand dryers spread 60 times more germs than standard air dryers, and 1, 300 times more than standard paper towels, although the assertion is one that the company emphatically and repeatedly rejects. So the hair dryer stakes are high and the market deeply fragmented, not least by the popularity of newer electrical appliances like straightening irons and curling tongs. Can Dyson really pull off another product revolution? “This all does feel a lot more personal than usual,” Mr. Dyson said. “Which I suppose makes me a little nervous. But actually, I have found everything we are learning with the Supersonic very exciting. It’s the start of a new push into this sector for us. Though I can’t tell you more than that. ” What he can say is that the company is set to spend £1. 5 billion (about $2. 2 billion) investing in future technology and recently announced the development of four new portfolio sectors. While bullish, he also knows that not all his inventions could be winners. “I actually believe that success teaches you nothing failures teach you everything,” he said, surrounded by sketches and prototypes in his meticulously cluttered office. One hundred new products are in the pipeline in the next four years around the world, he said. The hair dryer is just the beginning. “For decades, people have just accepted a subpar experience because no one was offering them anything else,” said Stephen Courtney, concepts director at Dyson and a leader on the hair project. The company wants to change that, one locker room, spa and beauty salon at a time. | 1 |
Far from weakening the Environmental Protection Agency, Donald Trump needs to beef it up. Or so says a guy in the New York Times by the name of William D. Ruckelshaus. [In a March 7 in the Times, Ruckelshaus writes: A strong and credible regulatory regime is essential to the smooth functioning of our economy. Interesting use of the word “credible” there from the worthless bureaucrat who, perhaps more than anyone, embodies what is so very wrong with the EPA and why it so urgently needs to be reformed. Ruckelshaus, let it never be forgotten, was the EPA administrator responsible for probably the blackest moment in the institution’s history: the man who banned DDT in the U. S. with consequences which resulted in millions of unnecessary deaths around the world from malaria. Sure Ruckelshaus didn’t deliberately murder all those people. But the fact remains that DDT was — still is — one of the most effective killers of the malarial mosquito and that by banning it in the U. S. Ruckelshaus helped create a regulatory effect which deprived the world of one its best defences against one of its biggest health problems. I told the story a few months back, but it’s worth repeating — and should be repeated every time this dreadful man pops up again and presumes to assume the mantle of an authority he simply hasn’t earned. As I noted then: A lawyer, by training, not a scientist, Ruckelshaus was the man responsible for instituting the ban on DDT. He did this on no scientific basis whatsoever. In fact, Judge Edmund Sweeney had presided over a EPA hearing, examining more than 9, 000 pages of expert testimony, and concluded: “DDT is not a carcinogenic hazard to man … DDT is not a mutagenic or teratogenic hazard to man … The use of DDT under the regulations involved here do not have a deleterious effect on freshwater fish, estuarine organisms, wild birds or other wildlife. ” Ruckelshaus, who had not attended the hearings or read the report, overruled him. Which probably made not much difference in the United States. But the effects of the near worldwide ban that followed meant that DDT could no longer be used to control mosquito populations, which in turn led to an explosion in malaria, causing the death of millions. Subsequently Ruckelshaus has distinguished himself by endorsing Barack Obama for U. S. president in 2008 and most recently, by heading the Washington Blue Ribbon Panel on Ocean Acidification. [Ocean Acidification, of course, being yet another scientifically dubious scare story designed mainly to prop up the lucrative global industry] I don’t doubt — as Ruckelshaus claims in his New York Times article — that the public, whatever their politics, are keen to have clean water and clean air. But the way he puts it smacks of the dishonest rhetoric of the D. C. Establishment using emotive cheap tricks to try to protect their power base and their revenue stream. Ruckelshaus writes: Voters may have supported Donald J. Trump believing his campaign rhetoric about the E. P. A. But they don’t want their kids choking on polluted air or drinking tainted water any more than Hillary Clinton voters, and as soon as the agency stops doing its job, they’re going to be up in arm. Yadda yadda, creep. No more should we take lectures from you on childcare than we would have done from King Herod. No one’s suggesting that the EPA should pull back on its good regulations. It’s just the bad regulations that we’re worried about. And no one knows more about bad regulations than you do, Mr. Ruckelshaus. Truly, with your scientifically illiterate, politically opportunist and outrageously damaging actions on DDT, you set the bar. | 1 |
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We've long had early voting - by a few days, as I recall. And this wasn't something people were prompted to do. Voting License DMCA
In most 'democratic' countries, campaigning stops twenty-four hours before an election, and during the election, exit polls are not broadcast until very late in the day.
This year, for the first time, I believe, large numbers of people are voting weeks ahead of the election date, and what is most disturbing, is that the media is broadcasting the trends - so many democrats, so many republicans - even if they those votes have not yet been counted, and there could be any crossovers. I haven't seen anything about this on television and I presume the NYT has kept quiet about it, but it certainly doesn't look kosher to me. - Advertisement - | 0 |
Written by John W. Whitehead Tuesday November 22, 2016 We Americans are the ultimate innocents . We are forever desperate to believe that this time the government is telling us the truth.” —Former New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg Let’s talk about fake news stories, shall we? There’s the garden variety fake news that is not really “news” so much as it is titillating, tabloid-worthy material peddled by anyone with a Twitter account, a Facebook page and an active imagination. Anyone with an ounce of sense and access to the Internet should be able to ferret out the truth and lies in these stories with some basic research. That these stories flourish is largely owing to the general gullibility, laziness and media illiteracy of the general public, which through its learned compliance rarely questions, challenges or confronts. Then there’s the more devious kind of news stories circulated by one of the biggest propagators of fake news : the US government. In the midst of the media’s sudden headline-blaring apoplexy over fake news, you won’t hear much about the government’s role in producing, planting and peddling propaganda-driven fake news— often with the help of the corporate news media —because that’s not how the game works. Why? Because the powers-that-be don’t want us skeptical of the government’s message or its corporate accomplices in the mainstream media . They don’t want us to be more discerning when it comes to what information we digest online. They just want us to be leery of independent or alternative news sources while trusting them—and their corporate colleagues—to vet the news for us. Indeed, the New York Times has suggested that Facebook and Google appoint themselves the arbiters of truth on the internet in order to screen out what is blatantly false, spam or click-baity. Not only would this establish a dangerous precedent for all-out censorship but it’s also a slick sleight-of-hand maneuver that diverts attention from what we should really be talking about: the fact that the government has grown dangerously out-of-control , all the while the so-called mainstream news media, which is supposed to act as a bulwark against government propaganda, has instead become the mouthpiece of the world’s largest corporation—the US government. Veteran journalist Carl Bernstein, who along with Bob Woodward blew the lid off the Watergate scandal, exposed the media’s collusion with the government in his expansive 1977 Rolling Stone piece, “The CIA and the Media.” As part of the CIA’s Operation Mockingbird, which was started in the 1950s, intelligence reports were planted among reporters at more than 25 major newspapers and wire agencies, who would then regurgitate them for a public oblivious to the fact that they were being fed government propaganda. In some instances, as Bernstein shows , members of the media also served as extensions of the surveillance state, with reporters actually carrying out assignments for the CIA. Executives with most of the major news outlets including CBS, the New York Times and Time magazine also worked closely with the CIA to vet the news. For example, in August 1964, the nation’s leading newspapers—including the Washington Post and New York Times—echoed Lyndon Johnson’s claim that North Vietnam had launched a second round of attacks against American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. No such attacks had taken place, and yet the damage was done. As Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon report for Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting , “By reporting official claims as absolute truths, American journalism opened the floodgates for the bloody Vietnam War.” If such collusion happened in the past, you can bet it’s still happening today, only it’s been reclassified, renamed and hidden behind layers of government secrecy, obfuscation and spin . Thus, whether you’re talking about the Cold War, the Vietnam War , the Gulf War, the government’s invasion of Iraq based upon absolute fabrications , or the government’s so-called war on terror, privacy and whistleblowers, you can bet it’s being driven by propaganda churned out by one corporate machine (the corporate-controlled government) and fed to the American people by way of yet another corporate machine (the corporate-controlled media). “For the first time in human history, there is a concerted strategy to manipulate global perception. And the mass media are operating as its compliant assistants, failing both to resist it and to expose it,” writes investigative journalist Nick Davies . “The sheer ease with which this machinery has been able to do its work reflects a creeping structural weakness which now afflicts the production of our news.” This use of propaganda disguised as journalism is what journalist John Pilger refers to as “invisible government… the true ruling power of our country.” As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People , we no longer have a Fourth Estate. Not when the “news” we receive is routinely manufactured, manipulated and made-to-order by government agents. Not when six corporations control 90% of the media in America . And not when, as Davies laments , “news organizations which might otherwise have exposed the truth were themselves part of the abuse, and so they kept silent, indulging in a comic parody of misreporting, hiding the emerging scandal from their readers like a Victorian nanny covering the children’s eyes from an accident in the street.” So let’s have no more of this handwringing, heart-wrenching, morally offended talk about fake news by media outlets that have become propagandists for the false reality created by the American government. After all, as Glenn Greenwald points out , “The term propaganda rings melodramatic and exaggerated, but a press that—whether from fear, careerism, or conviction—uncritically recites false government claims and reports them as fact, or treats elected officials with a reverence reserved for royalty, cannot be accurately described as engaged in any other function.” So where does that leave us? What should—or can—we do? I’ll close with John Pilger’s words of warning and advice : Real information, subversive information, remains the most potent power of all — and I believe that we must not fall into the trap of believing that the media speaks for the public… [The public] need[s] truth, and journalists ought to be agents of truth, not the courtiers of power. I believe a fifth estate is possible, the product of a people’s movement, that monitors, deconstructs, and counters the corporate media… In the United States wonderfully free rebellious spirits populate the web... The best reporting … appears on the web … and citizen reporters. The challenge for the rest of us is to lift this subjugated knowledge from out of the underground and take it to ordinary people. We need to make haste. Liberal Democracy is moving toward a form of corporate dictatorship. This is an historic shift, and the media must not be allowed to be its façade, but itself made into a popular, burning issue, and subjected to direct action. That great whistleblower Tom Paine warned that if the majority of the people were denied the truth and the ideas of truth, it was time to storm what he called the Bastille of words. That time is now. Reprinted with permission from the Rutherford Institute . Related | 0 |
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. Top Republican leaders in Congress are setting up a stark confrontation with Donald Trump by backing an investigation into Russian hacking during the election. “The Russians are not our friends,” said Senator Mitch McConnell, above. Hillary Clinton’s campaign called for all information about the meddling to be declassified. Mr. Trump is expected to announce on Tuesday that he has chosen Exxon Mobil chief Rex. W. Tillerson as his pick for secretary of state, rejecting bipartisan concern that he has forged a relationship with Vladimir V. Putin, the president of Russia. _____ 2. China returned fire at Mr. Trump over his questioning of the U. S. policy to recognize to Taiwan as part of “one China. ” A tabloid said his grasp of foreign policy was “like a child. ” Our reporter analyzed five ways the Chinese could make life difficult for a Trump administration. _____ 3. One effect of Mr. Trump’s victory is playing out in abortion politics. In Ohio, an emboldened Republican statehouse passed two abortion bills — including one that could ban the procedure as early as six weeks, which is before many women even know they are pregnant. And people on both sides of the debate agree that there’s a possibility Roe v. Wade could be overturned during the Trump presidency. _____ 4. In Syria, Aleppo is falling. The forces of President Bashar are within days, if not hours, of capturing the last corners of the country’s largest city. The seizure would be a turning point in the civil war, cementing government rule in all major cities and forcing the opposition to reckon with whether the armed rebellion has failed. _____ 5. Some of the world’s richest men — Microsoft’s Bill Gates, above, Alibaba’s Jack Ma and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos — joined other global business leaders to launch a fund that would invest more than $1 billion in “next generation energy technologies. ” And investors who control more than $5 trillion in assets have agreed to drop some or all of their fossil fuel stocks. The divestment movement has doubled in size in 15 months. _____ 6. In courts across the U. S. offenders can get a chance to avoid the devastating consequences of a criminal record, taking classes and doing community service through a program called diversion. But our examination found that in many places, only people with money could afford the fees to secure that second chance. Above, Marcy Willis, who struggled but is now just $25 from a clean record. _____ 7. About one in six American adults reported taking psychiatric drugs, according to a new analysis. And researchers say an increasing number of infants in the rural U. S. are born largely to mothers on opioids. Some good news: a new study shows that simple lifestyle changes can have a major impact on lowering the risk of the No. 1 killer in the U. S. heart disease. _____ 8. The musical “La La Land,” above, snagged the most Golden Globe nominations this year, including best director, screenplay and lead actor and actress. Our critic said the movie could make “musicals matter again. ” Nominees for the best television drama include “This Is Us,” “The Crown,” “Game of Thrones,” “Stranger Things,” and “Westworld. ” _____ 9. It’s an auctioneer’s dream: a man walks in off the street with a jumble of drawings and mixed in is a work by Leonardo da Vinci. The dream has come true for an auction house in Paris. Among a set of sketches collected by the father of a retired doctor was one experts believe is worth $15. 8 million. “My eyes jumped out of their sockets,” the authenticator said. _____ 10. Finally, when it comes to giving gifts, it turns out that nobody really cares how much thought you put into it. Here’s more advice from scientists who studied rituals: Don’t aim for the “big reveal,” don’t be ashamed to regift, and if someone has asked for something, skip the surprise and buy it for them. And don’t give your spouse cash. Happy holidays. _____ 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 Friday’s briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 1 |
La Federación de Atletismo considerará maricón también al penúltimo UN NUEVO GESTO A FAVOR DE LA INTEGRACIÓN Real Federación Española de Atletismo
La Real Federación Española de Atletismo ha anunciado hoy que, a partir de enero, también se considerará maricón al penúltimo. Con esto la entidad pretende concienciar a la sociedad para que no se perciba como un fracaso ser homosexual.
Asimismo, la medida persigue la consolidación en el habla popular de la frase “Maricón el último y el penúltimo”, propiciando un aliciente extra para correr más rápido. Si la propuesta funciona, no se descarta implementarla por arriba y considerar al subcampeón “Maricón de plata”.
“Creemos que ‘maricón el último’ es un concepto ya anticuado y denigrante. Necesitaba urgentemente adaptarse a los nuevos tiempos para que lo de ser maricón se considerara un acicate”, ha dicho el presidente de la federación, José Joaquín “El Bala”. La decisión ha sido aplaudida por los corredores más lentos de la federación, que se habían quejado reiteradamente de la soledad que se siente al ser el único maricón reconocido de una carrera.
Pero este no es el único cambio en la normativa. Con el fin de dejar de promover el uso de armas de fuego, los jueces de pista ya no indicarán el inicio de las carreras con pistolas sino con flautines. Según la web de la federación, los atletas no podrán empezar a correr hasta que no suene la última nota de “El Himno de la Alegría”. | 0 |
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To no one’s surprise, Senator John McCain (R-Ariz) quickly backtracked on a bold statement a few days ago, when he said, “I promise you that we will, we will be united against any Supreme Court nominee that Hillary Clinton — if she were president — would put up. This is why we need a majority.”
McCain made his remarks to a Philadelphia radio station while campaigning for Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), in support of Toomey’s reelection bid.
But before pleasantly surprised constitutional conservatives could even raise their hand to pat McCain on the back, he quickly changed his tune, speaking through a spokesperson, Rachael Dean. She “clarified” McCain’s earlier remarks by saying that McCain “believes you can only judge people by their record,” pointing to Clinton’s “clear record of supporting liberal judicial nominees.”
With this in mind, she concluded, “Senator McCain will, of course, thoroughly examine the record of any Supreme Court nominee put before the Senate and vote for or against that individual based on their qualifications as he has done throughout his career.”
Even the most dedicated constitutionalist would agree that were a President Hillary Clinton to nominate a clone of Antonin Scalia, it would be wise and acceptable to confirm such a person. However, considering Clinton’s public statements, the chances of that happening are nil.
On the contrary, it is very clear that she intends to nominate judges who would implement her radical social agenda. “I do have a litmus test, I have a bunch of litmus tests, because the next president could get as many as three appointments,” Clinton has said.
In the final debate with Donald Trump, she reemphasized her position that she will nominate only judges she is sure will agree with her political viewpoint. Moderator Brett Baier of Fox News asked one of the better questions in recent debate history, when he asked both Clinton and Trump, “Where do you want to see the court take the country? And secondly, what’s your view of how the Constitution should be interpreted? Do the founders’ words mean what they say or is it a living document to be applied flexibly according to changing circumstances?”
While she did not answer Baier’s query directly, her response is nevertheless instructive. “You know, I think when we talk about the Supreme Court, it really raises the central question in this election, namely, what kind of country are we going to be? What kind of opportunities will we provide for our citizens? What kind of rights will Americans have?”
It should be noted that Clinton explicitly said that she intends for her Supreme Court picks to determine “what kind of country” we are going to have, and “What kind of rights will Americans have.” Clinton’s previous statements in which she has advocated for laws that are in conflict with the Second Amendment, indicates that she does not intend for Americans to enjoy the right to keep and bear arms. She has said that she considers gun laws in Australia as examples of the type of “common sense” gun laws she would like to see enacted in the United States. In Australia, entire classes of guns were confiscated!
Clinton continued in her response to Baier, “I feel strongly that the Supreme Court needs to stand on the side of the American people, not on the side of the powerful corporations and the wealthy.”
One would think the role of the judge is not to “side” with anyone, unless the Constitution and conforming statutes are on that person’s “side.” Here, it is clear that Clinton favors judicial bias. Judges in ancient Israel were explicitly forbidden to favor one “side” in a dispute, based on their wealth or lack thereof: “Ye shall not do unjustly in judgment: Thou shalt not favor the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty, but thou shalt judge thy neighbor justly” (Leviticus 19:5). During his confirmation hearings, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts got it right, echoing the Old Testament standard, when he said the little guy should win when the law favors him, and the big corporation should win when the law goes the other way.
Just what does Clinton mean by her support of a biased judiciary? “For me, that means that we need a Supreme Court that will stand up on behalf of women’s rights, on behalf of the rights of the LGBT community, that will stand up and say no to Citizens United.”
Clinton then becomes more specific, telling Baier that “at this point in our country’s history, it is important that we not reverse marriage equality, that we not reverse Roe v. Wade , that we stand up against Citizens United, we stand up for the rights of people in the workplace, that we stand up and basically say: The Supreme Court should represent all of us.”
Perhaps Clinton has forgotten that the federal government includes a House of Representatives , who are, along with the Senate, invested with the job of representing us. The job of the Supreme Court, on the other hand, is not to serve as some sort of super-legislature, substituting their judgment for the legislative branch, but to interpret and apply the Constitution and the laws passed “in pursuance thereof” to actual cases that arise in the federal court system.
Secondly, it is disingenuous for Clinton to say she is for a Supreme Court that represents “all of us,” when she has already said that it should take a “side” in cases that come before it. Clearly, she does not want the Court to represent unborn children, for she has already said she favors legalized abortion.
Finally, Clinton gave us a clear picture of how she sees the role of the Senate in the selection of judges to the federal courts. “I would hope that the Senate would do its job and confirm the nominee that President Obama has sent to them. That’s the way the Constitution fundamentally should operate.”
So the way the Constitution should “operate” is for the Senate to simply confirm the nominee sent to them by the president. If the Senate’s role is to simply confirm any person sent to them by the president, then why even allow the Senate to even have a vote at all?
Of course, Clinton (and Obama) had a different view when the president was a Republican and they were in the Senate. Both of them voted to filibuster the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito. This is proof that she actually believes there is a role for the Senate in the selection of federal judges, including those who sit on the Supreme Court --- when it fits her bias.
Senator McCain’s remarks actually make perfect sense — both his original comments and his clarification. Hopefully, any senator who values the Constitution of the United States would vote against a Clinton nominee because she has made it clear that she intends to send them judges who will carry out her progressive agenda. On the other hand, were she to nominate a judge who actually takes the oath to uphold the Constitution seriously, McCain and the rest of the Senate should give them due consideration.
Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) has argued that there is no real difference between Merrick Garland (whom Obama has nominated to the Supreme Court) and any judge Clinton would tap. “Not a single Democratic nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court since [Byron White in 1962, who was nominated by Democrat President John Kennedy] has voted independently.”
Even the liberal Washington Post editorialized against Clinton’s position. “As a potential president, Ms. Clinton should have more respect for the independence and dignity of the judiciary as a co-equal but non-political branch of government. Selecting judges is not just policymaking through other means — or, at least, it should not be.”
This brings us to the important question that the U.S. Senate will have to answer, should Hillary Clinton win the White House next month. Are they obligated to confirm just any nominee sent up Pennsylvania Avenue by the president? In Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution, the president is given the power to nominate “by, and with the advice and consent of the Senate … judges of the Supreme Court.”
The refreshingly blunt statement by McCain, if widely adopted by other Republicans in the Senate, would constitute “advice” to the president, that advice being quite clear. If you, Hillary Rodham Clinton, send us a candidate for the Supreme Court who does not see as his or her role as to uphold the Constitution and the laws (made in pursuance thereof) of the United States, then we will not confirm that individual.
In fact, the Obama nomination of Judge Garland, and the Senate’s response, should serve as model for proper Senate behavior. If a President Clinton sends a person who is more of a community organizer than an impartial judge, then why even bother to waste the taxpayers’ money having hearings? She has told the Senate in her public statements that her intention is to nominate judges who will implement her radical political agenda. If she were to follow through with that promise, then it would be better for the Senate to allow the ninth position on the High Court to remain vacant.
The Constitution does not mandate a certain number of judges on the Supreme Court, although it has been nine, by statute, for the past 150 years. Clinton’s desire to have a compliant Supreme Court and a compliant Senate is not unprecedented, but the Senate should not give into her lust for power.
In 1937, the U.S. Senate, overwhelmingly Democratic-controlled, overwhelmingly rejected the effort by Democrat President Franklin Roosevelt to add six more members to the Supreme Court. Roosevelt was hopeful that his “court-packing” plan would lead to a more compliant Supreme Court, which had rejected some of his programs, such as the case when they had declared, 9-0, that the National Recovery Act was unconstitutional in the famous Schecter v. United States “sick chicken” case.
But that Senate, with a strong Democrat majority, told FDR no. Hopefully, a Republican-majority Senate would do the same thing, were a President Clinton to send them a nominee who shared her disrespect for the Constitution. Please review our Comment Policy before posting a comment
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TUNIS — Tunisia has sent more fighters abroad to join the ranks of the Islamic State than any other country. And now, as the Islamic State takes a battering on the battlefields of Syria and Iraq, the country is at odds over what to do if and when they come home. Tunisians have been dealing with a frenzied polemic in recent weeks, as secularists have raised fears that a returning wave will bring further mayhem to this fragile state and Islamists have been forced to condemn the jihadists. “How can we accept those people who are professionals in war, in the use of arms and have a culture of being terrorists?” asked Badra Gaaloul, a analyst who heads the International Center of Strategic, Security and Military Studies. “We in Tunisia are in crisis, and we cannot accept these people. ” “It is a nightmare for Tunisia,” she added. “We are not ready for that. ” The concern is not academic. Ms. Gaaloul, among others, points to the experience of Algeria, which suffered through a insurgency in the 1990s when jihadists returned from Afghanistan set on establishing Islamic law, and the army led a brutal war to crush them. Already there are signs that some of the 5, 500 Tunisians who have gone abroad, according to United Nations estimates, are seeking new targets at home and in Europe, where Tunisians have been implicated in several recent terrorist cases in France and Germany. For Tunisia, there is no easy solution. The new Constitution does not allow the government to bar them. They can be locked up for joining a terrorist group, or for committing crimes abroad, but cases are hard to build and charges difficult to prove. The president proposed amnesty, only to be vigorously opposed. So the country has settled into a harsh, and potentially illegal, system of monitoring. Domestic opponents and international rights groups, including Human Rights Watch last year and Amnesty International in a report issued in February, are protesting it as counterproductive. The threat of imprisonment and torture is deterring many from returning home, in effect rendering them stateless. Some are hiding in Turkey and Europe, where they may be ticking time bombs. There is no government program to returning fighters or reintegrate them into society, said Ridha Raddaoui, a lawyer and of a new report on terrorism in Tunisia by the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights. Families of suspects and fighters who have returned are persecuted rather than supported, he said. “The methods are pushing people to terrorism,” Mr. Raddaoui said. “We think the victims of terrorism are also the families. ” Tunisian fighters still hold prominent positions in the Islamic State and the Nusra Front in Syria. But of greater threat to Tunisia are those in Libya affiliated with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which is active in a countries across North Africa and vows to bring Islamic rule to Tunisia and all of North Africa. “Their aim is still to destabilize the state,” said Col. Mokhtar Ben Nasr, who heads military analysis at the Tunisian Center for Global Security Studies. “They want to make people rise up over poverty and injustice, and they do propaganda to that effect. ” The violence the returning fighters and others who have been radicalized can sow has already been witnessed in Tunisia, which has suffered a drastic rise in instability and terrorism since the Arab Spring uprising of . After the revolution, Qaeda followers, released from prison or returned from exile, were quick to exploit the new freedoms, taking over the mosques and establishing a network of cells across the country and training camps in Libya. While many interpreted the Arab Spring as proof that people power was more potent that terrorism, Al Qaeda was faster to organize than any other political movement and became the main terrorist threat to the country, according to the report on terrorism. “The terrorist current was one of the main beneficiaries of the Tunisian revolution,” the report concludes. “From the first months it quickly profited from the release of its detained members and from the climate of freedom to rebuild itself. ” Terrorists benefited from outside support, but their growth was critically linked to Tunisia’s internal problems, the report also said. By 2013, insurgents were embedded in the mountains on the western border with Algeria, and groups in the cities began a campaign of political assassinations, ambushes on the police and army, and suicide attacks. Since then, Tunisia has been hit by more than 50 terrorist attacks, including increasingly spectacular assaults orchestrated by groups based in Libya. More than 70 people were killed in mass shootings in 2015, many of them foreign tourists at the national Bardo Museum in Tunis and at a beach resort in Sousse. A suicide attacker killed 12 members of the presidential guard in central Tunis in November the same year. In their most ambitious attack to date, hundreds of Tunisian fighters tried to seize control of the Tunisian border town of Ben Gardane in March last year and fought Tunisian security forces in the streets for several hours. Tunisian officials insist their security forces are getting a grip on terrorism inside the country. Indeed, the rate of attacks has fallen off in recent months. “There has been a lot of work by the police and army,” Colonel Ben Nasr said. “They have dismantled the logistics and recruitment networks, and there is no longer this support system that there was in 2012 and 2013. ” United States airstrikes in Libya last February targeted a major Tunisian camp, where the perpetrators of the 2015 attacks had trained, and helped push the Islamic State out of the city of Surt — both major blows to the jihadists in Libya. Up to 400 Tunisian fighters were killed in Libya in the past year, according to Libyan security forces, yet hundreds remain at large, dispersed around the country and in camps in southern Libya. Al Qaeda’s leader, Ayman called on Tunisians in a recent audio message to wage jihad to “excise tyranny” from the country. Researchers studying radicalization in Tunisia say police harassment is still pushing young people to run off and join the extremists. “Their territory is diminishing but not their numbers,” said Mohamed Iqbal Ben Rejeb, who founded the Rescue Association of Tunisians Trapped Abroad after his brother was recruited to fight in Syria. In December, President Béji Caïd Essebsi of Tunisia floated the idea of a pardon for returning fighters, saying there was no more room in the prisons. But after opposition protesters flooded the news media and television chat shows, he ruled out the idea, promising there would be no pardon and no amnesty. Islamist leaders, who have been sympathetic to young jihadists, have joined him in insisting that all returning fighters go before the courts on their return. “Those who survive will have to go before justice and pay for what they did,” Abdelfattah Mourou, a of the Ennahda party and deputy speaker of Parliament, said in an interview. “They killed people, and they have to pay. ” But human rights activists and others say that leaving the jihadists no way out allows the cycle of radicalization to continue. Mr. Ben Rejeb said he knew of dozens of Tunisians who wanted to come home, many of them trapped in jails in Syria and Libya. The government will not be able to stop fighters from returning, said Mr. Raddaoui, the lawyer, and it may well find it difficult to pin crimes on them for lack of evidence. “There are no autopsies, no police reports,” he said of the crimes committed on distant battlefields. Of greater concern, Mr. Raddaoui said, is that in reading the court papers of the 500 Tunisians who have been processed since their return, he has seen no remorse. “What they admit to, they do not regret at all,” he said. | 1 |
Massive “Hillary For Prison” sign held up at World Series game 5 infuriates liberals See what made liberals so mad By Staff Writer - October 31, 2016 ( INTELLIHUB ) — A massive “ Hillary For Prison ” sign was held up at the post games show for the World Series game number five which made liberals furious Sunday night.
During the show the “sign was displayed prominently behind the commentators,” Youtuber Mark Dice reported.
#HillaryForPrison | 0 |
The Neo-Liberal Globalist Wish List
Hunter Wallace Occidental Dissent October 29, 2016
I read all the #TruCon pundits. I even read the people like Damon Linker who write about the groupthink of #TruCon pundits :
âSome important segments of the party are quite happy with the way things were before Trump burst on the scene â with the GOPâs post-Reagan optimism, idealism, and conservative moralism; with the presumption that the country benefits when using military force to impose order around the globe; with the often unstated assumption that all Americans of every economic and cultural echelon automatically thrive when the nationâs entrepreneurial class is given everything on its wish list (massive tax cuts along with open borders and markets). Plenty of people are perfectly content with this governing vision, including most conservative pundits, much of the partyâs donor class, many senior officials and officeholders, most Mormons (including McMullin and his most passionate Utah supporters), many conservative Catholics, and some evangelical Protestants.â
I liked that image. I hope he doesnât mind me borrowing it.
Anyway, Damon Linker makes a good point here that gets to the heart of the issue: the âgoverning wingâ of the Republican Party is used to getting its way, and #NeverTrumpism is their revenge on their âbaseâ (i.e., your votes belong to them) for defying its wishes and rejecting Bush, Rubio and Kasich in the primaries.
Mario Loyola has a plan for reconciliation between #NeverTrump and Trump supporters:
âStill, the best outcome of this election, from the point of view of a traditional conservative Republican, is for Trump and the GOP to have a landslide victory and then for Trump to resign immediately in favor of Vice President Mike Pence, who is both eminently qualified to be president and a real conservative. âŚ
Pledge to impeach. Should God elect to ignore my prayer, and should President Trump prove to be as bad a president as his detractors fear, then it is my duty and the duty of my fellow Republican members of Congress to impeach him. And I will apply that same rule to any president of my own party who fails to uphold the honor of the presidency. GOP members face a painful dilemma in Trump, but thereâs another side to that coin. GOP members of Congress have a unique power that nobody else in the land possesses â namely, the ability to pull the curtain down on a Trump presidency by impeaching him.â
The plan is to elect Trump. He will be given the chance to sign off on our neo-liberal globalist agenda ⌠or else, Paul Ryan and the #TruCons in the House will impeach him for âhigh crimesâ against the establishment. Isnât it strange that Trump supporters donât seem to care much about the #NeverTrump downballot?
He continues:
âTo do that, conservatives will need Trump supporters. Indeed, they will need to prevail not just among Trump supporters, but among Democrats as well. The international consensus for low regulation, low taxation, and free trade, enshrined in the Bonn Declaration of 1985, later elaborated as the âWashington Consensus,â must be restored to its former state of acceptance among both parties.
The neo-liberal globalist consensus (Team America World Police, globalization, open borders, low-taxes, Wall Street deregulation) among both parties (read: the uniparty) has to be restored to âits former state of acceptance.â
Kevin Williamson, who you might recall is famous for his declaration that White working class communities suffering from an opioid epidemic ought to die, is mounting a defense of the #TruCons in the GOP Congress :
âThe Republican party â stupid and corrupt as it often is â has in fact provided a number of dramatic victories for conservatives in recent years: the spread of right-to-work laws and school-choice programs, lower tax rates, trade liberalization, affirmations of the First and Second Amendments, restrictions on abortion, including a national ban on partial-birth abortion, etc. (See Charles C. W. Cooke, âWhat Has Conservatism Ever Done for Us?â) Consider the state-level work that has been done in Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, Texas, and Oklahoma. These are not trivial victories â these are the small things that in the end add up to big things. âŚ
The Republican majority in Congress is like a hard and unpleasant job with long hours, but one that pays reasonably well: If you donât like it, try doing without it for a while and see how that works out for you.â
You will be sorry when we are gone!
Weâve conserved a low top marginal income tax rate and globalization. Weâve busted the unions, cut onerous regulations for hedge fund managers, kept the borders open to Third World immigration for half a century, and spread right-to-work laws. Weâve given strong rhetorical support to ending abortion and let the assault weapons ban expire when George W. Bush was president. Why arenât you rednecks satisfied?
There was so much more for you we could have done with Rubio as president. We could have had Dow 38,000! We could have had World War III over the Donbass! | 0 |
Loading Posted on November 2, 2016 This Professor Devotes Her Life to Countering Dangerous Speech. She Can’t Ignore Donald Trump’s. Colby Itkowitz, Washington Post, October 24, 2016
When Susan Benesch began looking at how speech could incite mass violence, her research took her to far-flung places like Kenya and Burma.
Lately, she’s been unable to ignore a case study at home in the United States.
The American University law professor and Harvard University faculty associate has grappled for months with whether Donald Trump’s rhetoric constitutes dangerous speech as she has come to define it. She has examined election-year speech before, but only abroad where the risks of mass atrocities were great.
But in the past week, with Trump claiming that the election system and the media are rigged against him, his messages have the type of undertone that increases the risk of violence between groups, she said.
Benesch, 52, has dedicated the past six years of her life to developing and testing a framework for identifying dangerous speech. To rise to that level, at least two of these five indicators must be true: A powerful speaker with a high degree of influence over the audience. The audience has grievances and fears that the speaker can cultivate. A speech act that is clearly understood as a call to violence. A social or historical context that is propitious for violence, for any of a variety of reasons, including long-standing competition between groups for resources, lack of efforts to solve grievances or previous episodes of violence. A means of dissemination that is influential in itself, for example because it is the sole or primary source of news for the relevan t audience.
“Trump’s speech is very difficult in the sense that he is so often slippery with it,” Benesch said in a recent interview. “The meaning is so often ambiguous.”
But when Trump said his supporters could use the Second Amendment against Hillary Clinton, “it seems to me impossible that people didn’t understand that as a reference to violence,” she said. Or when he suggested that Clinton and President Obama were founders of the Islamic State, something he alluded to again at Wednesday’s final debate, that was a “hallmark of dangerous speech to describe an in-group member as the enemy,” she said.
And now, with Trump trafficking in the conspiracy theory that if he loses the election it will be because of a rigged system against him, he’s definitely laying the groundwork for potential unrest after the balloting. Direct incitement of violence is illegal, but Trump falls short of actually calling for any kind of civil disobedience.
Because of that, it’s still a gray area that surrounds whether Trump does use dangerous speech.
“Trump may well be undermining the extent to which his supporters trust the essential institutions and practices of U.S. democracy,” Benesch said. “Some of them–those who are most susceptible to being inflamed by such messages–may therefore be more likely to commit violence. However, the United States is not in danger of mass intergroup violence, in my view. It is deeply irresponsible, though, since it can undermine some Americans’ belief in our own democratic institutions, which can make them more susceptible to dangerous speech going forward.”
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claims that original copies of the album featuring “Cop Killer” are so rare, even he doesn’t have one. “The only way you can get it now is on YouTube,” he said. “They’re on Amazon, and they’re pretty expensive, too. ” (Interested collectors would be advised to check out eBay.) Nearly 25 years ago, (the star born Tracy Marrow) and Body Count put out that deliberately response to police brutality, prompting outrage from President George H. W. Bush and police groups everywhere. The heat became too much for even an outspoken West Coast pioneer — “the vice president was on my bumper,” he said — and he agreed to pull the song from new copies of the album. Body Count, which releases its sixth album, “Bloodlust,” on Friday, formed when ’s Crenshaw High School friend Ernie C needed an outlet to play impossibly fast guitar. Then well known for vivid songs like “Colors” and “Lethal Weapon,” introduced the band to crowds on the 1991 Lollapalooza tour. Now 59, he has gone on to portray one of television’s police characters, Detective Fin Tutuola of “Law Order: Special Victims Unit,” a point that this “Cop Killer” singer notes with a rumbling laugh. On its first album since the 2014 LP “Manslaughter,” Body Count remains heavy and uncompromising, threatening violence on “The Ski Mask Way” and pausing for political commentary on “No Lives Matter. ” By phone from his Edgewater, N. J. home, where his daughter was cooing in the background, cheerfully reeled off expletives abundantly enough to complicate the editing of these excerpts from the conversation. Why was it important to include a discussion and defense of Black Lives Matter on the album? Because I just felt people were really confused. “You think black people, when they say Black Lives Matter, that’s a statement of power. That’s a statement of despair. ” It’s like, come on, man, stop killing us. One of my jobs in music is to try to explain stuff — “Ice, break it down. ” I tried to break it down in a way that you understood: We as black people are just trying to be treated as human beings, and our lives are valuable. Body Count has evolved from shocking to philosophical. On this album, you say, “The ability to kill is innate as our ability to love. ” Why? I’m an older guy now, and I see things. Your perspective is different. The early Body Count, I was much more angry, but I didn’t know why. Now I’m trying to explain it. One guy told me the other day: “Ice, you’re very lucky, because you’ve been able to see it from the poor man and the man, and that’s a view very few people get to see. ” Also, let’s be real, when I came out, there was no internet. You could shock people easy. There was no Eminem. Last September, you said of Donald J. Trump, then a presidential candidate: “I’m kinda scared of that dude. ” Still feel that way? I think everybody does. He’s a little too hotheaded to have that much power. When you’re basically running the biggest army, [for] the most powerful country on earth, you don’t have to be all excited and amped you can’t get aggravated like that. Obama was catching Osama bin Laden [while he was] out to dinner, giving people daps. . That’s how presidents react. You don’t get at mad at Nordstrom. Like, come on, son. N. W. A made “Straight Outta Compton,” but you did West Coast gangster rap first. Do you ever think, “Where’s my biopic?” Nah, nah, nah, nah, absolutely not. People were asking, “Was I out first? ,” and [Ice] Cube and them will tell you. Everybody knows. We used to tour together. I’m just glad the homies got their stories told. I have no desire to do a biopic. What if you do a biopic, and nobody comes to see it? Dear God. I’m good. That’s too risky for me. How quickly did you say yes to the insurance commercial in which you are sitting with adorable kids at a lemonade stand? Once I read it, I thought it was funny. I always try to let people know that the guy on the record is me, but also the guy sitting at home with his kid is me, the guy on “SVU. ” I’m all those people. I’m not a person. People look at me like, “Oh, wow, I heard your album, I figure you live in a house full of meat hooks, with people hanging. ” No, no, no, no, no. The only bad part about it is, I walk around now, people yell, “Hey, lemonade!” | 1 |
Ruben Blancovich, at age 11, knew nothing about the man who came to his family’s apartment in East Harlem on a winter day in 1980. “I remember discussing ‘The Red Badge of Courage’ with him,” Mr. Blancovich, now 48, said on Tuesday. And on a spring afternoon in 1985, there was no reason for Mark Davidson, age 18, to know the white man waiting for him in an office on Queens Boulevard. Mr. Davidson’s lawyer had instructed him to tell the man his story. So he did. The man was Jimmy Breslin, a columnist, novelist, dramatist and biographer, about halfway through a career that began in the late 1940s. “I was just a kid,” Mr. Davidson, now 50, said on Monday. “A senior at Martin Van Buren. I didn’t know how iconic a news reporter he was at the time. ” Mr. Breslin died Sunday at 88, and had been mostly out of the public eye for more than a decade he may be as much of a mystery to a young person today as he was to Mark Davidson and Ruben Blancovich in the 1980s. From the long arc of his public work and life, what remains are deep truths that he told bluntly, and that he saw because he stepped away from the crowd. Before Mark Davidson and Ruben Blancovich were born, Mr. Breslin had written about the funeral of John F. Kennedy as seen by the man who dug the grave. Along the route of a voting rights march in 1965 led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Mr. Breslin found an unheated schoolhouse for black children in “a wooden building that was a church when people in Lowndes County wore Confederate uniforms,” he wrote, noting a teacher’s remark that while it did get cold sometimes, “we hardly ever get near zero. ” At the rear of the march was Albert Turner whose pay stub showed $27. 52 in taxes withheld by a government that would not let him vote. “He is but he has a little weight on him and he grunted while he walked along,” Mr. Breslin wrote. “Sweat showed on the two creases on the back of his neck. He is just a bricklayer from Marion, in nearby Perry County, and he marches with no ceremony, and with his head down, and he was the last one in line yesterday. ” In April 1985, Mr. Davidson was arrested near his home in Ozone Park, Queens, by officers from the 106th Precinct and accused of selling two $5 bags of pot to one who was undercover. The officers demanded that he turn over the buy money. Mr. Davidson, who had 26 cents in his pocket, said he had nothing to do with it. “Davidson says when he refused to answer, the man put something on his back which gave him an electric shock,” Mr. Breslin wrote. “Davidson says he turned around and saw the tall man holding something that was black and fit in his hand and had two metal prongs about six inches long. The man then started to apply the prongs to Davidson’s body, front and back, and sent shocks through him repeatedly. ” Mr. Davidson’s lawyer, Marvyn Kornberg, had already gotten the attention of prosecutors but also contacted Mr. Breslin, then writing for The Daily News. The officers went to prison. “Jimmy Breslin was the one that broke the story, and being that it was him reporting it, it made the story more credible,” Mr. Davidson, now a schoolteacher in Atlanta, said. When he showed Mr. Breslin the spots on his stomach and his back where his skin had been fried, “you could tell he was angry,” Mr. Davidson said. The New York of the 1970s and 1980s was slumping into decay Mr. Breslin, his friend Pete Hamill, and the Times columnist Francis X. Clines were among the leading voices to insist that the people of the city should not be mistaken for its wreckage. “He went under a desk in his bedroom and brought out some of the books he has been reading,” Mr. Breslin wrote of Ruben Blancovich, then a sixth grader in Public School 206 who started in the third grade able to read some words only in Spanish and a few in English. “A paperback collection of major American poets, ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens, the novel ‘April Morning’ by Howard Fast, and a book, ‘Colonial Craftsmen,’ with drawings and text by Edwin Tunis. ” Mr. Blancovich, who now lives in Albany, went on to Yale and a career in banking and entrepreneurship. He was grateful for the attention Mr. Breslin gave to a school that worked well. He “was looking at things that the rest of the news wasn’t focusing on,” Mr. Blancovich said. He still has his copy of “The Red Badge of Courage,” he said, and the clipping of Mr. Breslin’s column. | 1 |
The Carpetbagger has spent months reporting on the awards season. Here, she predicts the Oscar winners. Make your own Oscar picks with this interactive ballot. From its premiere at the Venice Film Festival last summer, “La La Land,” the tale of strivers reaching for glory, has charmed best picture wins out of prize givers. It has it all — singing, dancing, Ryan Gosling, summer frocks that never wrinkle — along with a muted choir of dissenters who don’t understand all the fuss. One crucial win “La La” missed was the top Screen Actors Guild Award, an Oscar bellwether that went instead to “Hidden Figures,” adding a measure of frisson to a race that’s all but sewn up. That boost for “Hidden Figures” is certainly giving “La La Land” a bit of competition, as is the indie favorite, “Moonlight,” a surprise hit with an ardent fan base. The failure of “La La Land” to land even a SAG nomination is injurious but hardly fatal. (The musical is a not an ensemble.) By now, it is hard to imagine anything stopping the momentum of “La La Land. ” It is heading into the Academy Awards with 14 nominations, tying the previous record holders, “Titanic” and “All About Eve. ” Another point to remember is that when it comes to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, “best picture” really means “most popular picture. ” And “La La Land” is about something that academy voters cherish above all: themselves. You know it’s a tight race when Amy Adams and Annette Bening are shut out despite critically lauded performances in equally lauded films. But Emma Stone is the heavy favorite for her turn in “La La Land,” having snagged the Golden Globe, the Bafta and the Screen Actors Guild Award. Whether Ms. Stone really bested her fellow Oscar contenders Meryl Streep, Ruth Negga, Natalie Portman and Isabelle Huppert is a matter of opinion, but other factors work in her favor: She largely carried an enormously popular film, she’s an ingénue in Hollywood’s eyes, she’s well liked by the academy, and she has been nominated for an Oscar before. While Ms. Huppert is putting up stiff competition, it’s almost assuredly Ms. Stone’s year. Casey Affleck has been in the Oscar race before but didn’t win. His turn in “Manchester by the Sea,” along with his many triumphs all season long, pointed to Oscar gold. Then the Screen Actors Guild Award for best actor went to Denzel Washington (“Fences”) an upset that shocked everyone, even Mr. Washington. Given that the actors’ branch is the academy’s largest, and that most SAG winners go on to nab Oscars, Mr. Washington seems well poised to win. (And for Mr. Affleck, renewed attention to 2010 sexual harassment complaints that he settled didn’t help.) But Mr. Washington already has two Oscars, and only six actors in history have won more. So I’m betting on Mr. Affleck. This category was locked up from the word go. Viola Davis could have easily run for best actress for her performance in “Fences” — and arguably should have, given that she won the Tony for a lead role for the same part when “Fences” ran on Broadway. But Ms. Davis is said to have chosen to run for supporting actress, a less competitive category. Regardless, few doubt it is high time that she won an Oscar. This is her third nomination, and she has already landed more than two dozen awards this season. While her fellow competitors have all gamely shown up to support their films, Ms. Davis owns the category. While there are indications of a possible upset — Dev Patel won the Bafta for “Lion” — odds favor Mahershala Ali from “Moonlight. ” Though Mr. Ali spent far less time onscreen than some of his fellow nominees — like Jeff Bridges, who dominated much of “Hell or High Water” — his performance as the tenderhearted drug dealer Juan was one of the season’s most talked about. He also brought peerless grace and elegance to his appearances, which are crucial to any campaign. It is hard to imagine anyone topping Mr. Ali’s heartfelt “I am a Muslim” acceptance speech from the SAG Awards, except, come Sunday, Mr. Ali himself. “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” was released 21 years before Damien Chazelle was born, yet the homage he pays to it and other musicals of yore in his hit, “La La Land,” greatly endeared him to the academy. Although early chatter suggested his fellow nominees Kenneth Lonergan and Barry Jenkins were strong bets, Mr. Chazelle has mopped up big prizes: a Golden Globe, a Bafta and, crucially, the Directors Guild of America Award. The guild’s membership overlaps with the academy’s, and the D. G. A. Awards are largely predictive of Oscars. It also helps that Mr. Chazelle is a known quantity to the academy: His “Whiplash” took home three Oscars in 2015. Until a few weeks ago, Disney’s “Zootopia,” about a plucky rabbit police officer fighting prejudice and a lamb, seemed a for this prize, having collected a Golden Globe and a Producers Guild Award. But then “Kubo and the Two Strings,” about a Japanese boy on a hero’s quest to defeat an evil spirit, won the Bafta for animated feature, an accolade that usually foretells an academy win. “Kubo” is also up for best visual effects, making it a very strong contender. But “Zootopia” will probably benefit from its timing: It is a love letter to diversity and the triumph of acceptance over xenophobia, a message the film’s campaigners have been pushing all season long. And the Academy Award for best documentary feature goes to … a nearly television . Though the director Ezra Edelman and his backers at ESPN vigorously insist their virtuoso project “O. J.: Made in America” is genuinely a theatrical film rather than one made for TV, the fact is, it is both. And that has done nothing to stop Mr. Edelman from winning almost every major documentary award this season, among them a Producers Guild prize. While some believe the television lineage of “O. J. ” will undercut its chances with the academy — and note that the Bafta for best documentary went to Ava DuVernay’s “13th” (“O. J. ” wasn’t eligible) — odds are that Mr. Edelman will be collecting an Oscar. Early in the season, the momentum seemed to be behind “Toni Erdmann,” a German satire with a run time of nearly three hours that thrilled critics. But that is long to sit through for a foreign film, especially for voters watching screeners. After France’s entry, “Elle,” failed to be nominated, energy seemed to shift to Sweden’s “A Man Called Ove. ” But then came the White House travel ban, which drew attention to Iran’s much lauded entry, “The Salesman,” by Asghar Farhadi, who announced that he would boycott the ceremony in protest. Mr. Farhadi won an Oscar for his 2011 drama “A Separation. ” This time, voting for him has become political, which will probably give him the edge. “Manchester by the Sea,” a poignant and at times wry tale of a Massachusetts man gripped by grief, made history this year by becoming the first film to land a best picture Oscar nomination for a streaming service (its distributor is Amazon). Yet the film’s best picture chances are slim, thanks to the juggernaut that is “La La Land. ” But Kenneth Lonergan, the “Manchester” director, is expected to win the Oscar for best original screenplay. Few match his skills at capturing and conveying onscreen the idiosyncrasies, awkwardness and absurdities of everyday conversation and life. Also bolstering Mr. Lonergan’s chances: His script isn’t up against “Moonlight,” which was deemed an adaptation and has passionate support. Whether Barry Jenkins’s screenplay for “Moonlight,” a cinematic tone poem about growing up poor, black and gay, should be considered adapted or original is in the eye of the beholder. The Writers Guild of America and Bafta organizers deemed it original, but the academy decided it was an adaptation of an unproduced stage piece by Tarell Alvin McCraney, who receives story credit. The academy’s designation certainly helped the film’s chances in the adapted category by not pitting it against “Manchester by the Sea,” which took home the original screenplay Bafta. Still, “Moonlight” ended up besting “Manchester” for original screenplay at the Writers Guild Awards. Confusing? Sure. But in the end, it makes the movie the favorite here. | 1 |
On the Tuesday edition of Breitbart News Daily, broadcast live on SiriusXM Patriot Channel 125 from 6AM to 9AM Eastern, Breitbart Alex Marlow will continue our discussion of the Trump administration’s agenda. [Gary Miliefsky, the CEO of SnoopWall, Inc. will discuss the recent global ransomware cyberattacks. Breitbart’s Joel Pollak and Matt Boyle will discuss the latest deep state leak plaguing President Trump. Breitbart Legal Editor Ken Klukowski will discuss the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals hearing arguments on Trump’s revised travel ban. Live from London, Rome, and Jerusalem, Breitbart correspondents will provide updates on the latest international news. Breitbart News Daily is the first live, conservative radio enterprise to air seven days a week. SiriusXM Vice President for news and talk Dave Gorab called the show “the conservative news show of record. ” Follow Breitbart News on Twitter for live updates during the show. Listeners may call into the show at: . | 1 |
When the S. U. V. was recovered, two days after it was stolen, everything inside was gone, a long and bizarre list. More than 100 Brioni neckties. A fur coat that had been a gift from the Onassis family. Two bronze urns that had been in the trunk, and their precious contents. And a 1977 New York Yankees World Series ring, a personal gift from George Steinbrenner. It was inscribed, “To my friend, Bill White. ” That would be Bill White, the philanthropist and former chief executive of the Intrepid Sea, Air Space Museum. The same Bill White who hosted a with President Obama in his home in 2014. Guests included Rosie O’Donnell, Aretha Franklin and Mark Wahlberg. He spoke on Tuesday by telephone from the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, where he was attending the Clinton campaign’s events, the outcome still unknown. But amid the excitement Mr. White, 49, sounded like just another New Yorker angry at himself. “This is the tale of three idiots, and I’m all three of them,” he said. “I get it. ” On Nov. 2, Mr. White had parked the truck outside his building in Manhattan around 2 a. m. after having dinner with his husband, Bryan Eure. He had loaded a lot of property and memorabilia, like photographs of Barbara Walters with Yitzhak Rabin aboard the Intrepid, into the G. M. C. Yukon to take to his office later that day. And the vehicle contained something more precious, he said: the cremated remains of his parents, inside those bronze urns. The vehicle’s windows were tinted, and everything inside was covered, so he felt it was safe to leave his belongings there for the trip the next morning. “Like an absolute idiot,” he said. “I’ve left my car on the street for 15 years and never had it broken into. ” A familiar figure in social and political circles in the city, Mr. White guided the Intrepid through financial troubles during his five years as president. He resigned abruptly in 2010, and was under investigation by Andrew M. Cuomo, then the state attorney general, for his role in for Alan G. Hevesi, the former state comptroller. That same year, he settled and agreed to pay $1 million to the state. He knows a lot of people. When he had seen that the S. U. V. was gone that morning, Mr. White picked up the phone and called the police. Sort of. “I called Commissioner Bratton,” he said, referring to the city’s former police commissioner, William J. Bratton. “And Ray Kelly,” who was Mr. Bratton’s predecessor. “I even texted my friend Bill de Blasio. ” The vehicle was recovered on East 89th Street in Canarsie, Brooklyn. It was taken to a police lot for processing and fingerprinting. “I said, ‘You’ve got to tell me, what’s in the car? ’” Mr. White said. “They said, ‘A sock.’ That’s when I lost it. ” “I’m just trying to get my parents back,” Mr. White said. “The other stuff, you can live without. ” The police released an image from a surveillance camera of a man stepping out of the Yukon, but it showed no sign of the property. Did he stop along the way and dump it somewhere? What could he have done with the urns? “I think he thought it was gold,” Mr. White said. “He opened it and saw dust. ” Mr. White’s father, William J. White, died in 2015 and was cremated. His son, an only child, said they were very close and had spoken every day, and that it continued after the father’s death. “People will think that’s weird, and I don’t care,” Mr. White said. “I used to drive him around. ” He kept the remains in the trunk area, out of sight. His mother, Patricia White, died in September. Mr. White placed her remains beside her husband’s. “Until I think about what to do with them, I want them to be with me,” he said, “and I’m in the car a lot. ” He planned to have both urns placed under a memorial bench with his parents’ names inscribed on it, in a park in Point Lookout, N. Y. where they had lived. The thief can keep the rest, he said. Even the ring. Once, in 2008, Mr. White was talking on his phone when a stranger approached and asked, “Where the hell did you get that ring?” It was Reggie Jackson, who said, “I was on that team, my friend, and you definitely were not. ” Mr. White just wants the urns. His parents’ names are inscribed on them. “I’m in a state of depression over it,” he said. “If he’s just returning the urns, then I will not press charges, and if he wants $25, 000, I’ll give it to him,” Mr. White said. He said goodbye, and returned to the Clinton event. | 1 |
LONDON — When Nicola Thorp was sent home for refusing to wear high heels to her job as a receptionist in London’s financial district, she did not cower in her sensible flats. She got even. Ms. Thorp, an actress, helped spur a popular revolt in Britain after she started a petition calling for a law that would prevent women from having to suffer from what she considered outdated and sexist dress codes at the office. In her case, she had been told that her shoes needed to be a minimum of two inches high. On Monday, more than two years after Ms. Thorp was sent home over her shoes, members of Parliament called on the government to tighten the rules so British women would never again be forced to wear high heels at the office. “What we found shocked us,” Helen Jones, a member of Parliament for the Labour Party and chairwoman of the petitions committee dealing with the issue, told fellow lawmakers. She said British women were enduring double standards in the workplace that belonged more in the 1850s than in modern times. Britain’s 2010 Equality Act prohibits discrimination in the workplace on the basis of gender, age or sexual orientation. But Ms. Jones said at a parliamentary hearing on Monday that the law needed updating. She said that after Ms. Thorp came forward, dozens of women said they had been forced to wear high heels at work, sometimes until their feet bled or they could no longer walk. Invoking experts in podiatry and citing various studies, Ms. Jones said that women who wear high heels for long periods of time suffer from bunions, ankle sprains and a reduction of balance that lasts into old age. She said one woman who worked in retail had testified that she had been asked to unbutton her blouse over Christmas to increase sales. Others said their employers had required them to dye their hair blond, wear nail polish or constantly reapply makeup. Two parliamentary committees set up to investigate the issue concluded in January that Portico, the outsourcing firm that had insisted Ms. Thorp wear heels, had broken the law. (Portico rewrote its code almost immediately after the issue was raised by Ms. Thorp.) Ms. Thorp has become a popular hero of sorts in Britain and beyond, and dozens of professional women have posted photographs of themselves on Twitter, proudly wearing flats. This year, Samantha Power, the former United States ambassador to the United Nations, added her voice to the debate. “The next petition,” she wrote on Twitter, “should be one requiring men to wear high heels for a 9 hour shift before they insist women do. ” | 1 |
Print Email http://humansarefree.com/2016/11/red-alert-war-on-alternative-media-has.html Reports about Facebook’s and Google’s nascent battle against purported “fake news” must be considered in solemn gravity — not because there are bogus articles circulating — but because, in actuality, it constitutes a war on legitimate, factual information and dissenting opinion. Certainly, many of us grumble when an article about aliens invading New York City passes through our newsfeeds only to be taken seriously — but the so-called “problem” of “fake” news Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is referring to isn’t targeting such vapid content. What Facebook will target, however, should concern all of us. After the absurdity that was the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton supporters and establishment Democrats excoriated Zuckerberg for dereliction of duty in failing to remove sham news articles and sites from his wildly popular platform — because, in their eyes, this putative “fake” news literally swung the election toward Donald Trump .But this seemingly hapless campaign of finger-pointing — the Clinton camp also railed against FBI Director James Comey, among many others, in their search to blame anyone but themselves — has nothing at all to do with inane articles of no worth. Rather, the new war on “fake” news is simply a poorly-disguised attempt to quash legitimate information unfavorable to the liberal establishment’s agenda — for good. This perilous course of blanketing, State-sponsored censorship marks what might be the most overarching effort to kill dissenting opinion in decades — perhaps approaching or exceeding the height of the Red Scare and McCarthyism. Here’s why: Mark Zuckerberg, a known proponent of establishment narrative and supporter of liberal goals, originally responded to this criticism somewhat rationally, saying the actual percentage of imposter news items is so miniscule, it could not possibly have affected the outcome of the election. He’s right. Or at least, he was. “Of all the content on Facebook, more than 99 percent of what people see is authentic. Only a very small amount is fake news and hoaxes,” the Facebook head wrote in a post to his site on Saturday. “The hoaxes that do exist are not limited to one partisan view, or even to politics. Overall, this makes it extremely unlikely hoaxes changed the outcome of this election in one direction or the other.” After the failed Clinton campaign turned and targeted Zuckerberg and Facebook with its bitter wrath of loss, he abruptly switched his tune — and a plan is now underway for how to “cope” with this “fake” news [non] “problem.” It’s imperative to consider several points concerning Facebook’s burgeoning war — with over one billion users worldwide, no staff would be large enough to combat reports of fraudulent news that will undoubtedly be rolling in soon. So, the plan? Artificial intelligence — a self-teaching algorithm to identify and remove the supposedly counterfeit news items, and likely relegate the source as a Scarlet Letter verboten site. But an issue of grave concern has already arisen before the war on fake news even gets off the ground. Business Insider boasted in a headline “It took only 36 hours for these students to solve Facebook’s fake-news problem”— but there’s a serious problem. Their algorithm failed. Miserably. In fact, one of the two items touted by Business Insider as proof of the success of the spurious news-slaying algorithm can be proven factually true — nearly verbatim — on the government’s own website. According to Business Insider, the four students from various top universities participated in a recent hack-a-thon at Princeton University — which Facebook co-sponsored . In a mere 36 hours, they created an extension for the Chrome browser to ostensibly identify and parse out whether suspicious items constitute legitimate, truthful news, called “ FiB: Stop living a lie .” “It classifies every post, be it pictures (Twitter snapshots), adult content pictures, fake links, malware links, fake news links as verified or non-verified using artificial intelligence,” one of the students told the outlet. “For links, we take into account the website’s reputation, also query it against malware and phishing websites database and also take the content, search it on Google/Bing, retrieve searches with high confidence and summarize that link and show to the user. “For pictures like Twitter snapshots, we convert the image to text, use the usernames mentioned in the tweet, to get all tweets of the user and check if current tweet was ever posted by the user.” Appearing smug in the article’s lead picture, Nabanita De, a second-year master’s student in computer science student at UMass Amherst; Anant Goel a freshmen in Purdue University; Mark Craft, a sophomore at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and Catherine Craft, a sophomore also at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, all believe they’ve discovered the quick fix to Zuckerberg’s [now] problem. As an example, the extension identified and marked an article “not verified”; but the article, a report touting findings from the National Cancer Institute which appeared on the government’s National Institute on Drug Abuse site —“Marijuana Kills Cancer Cells, Admits the U.S. National Cancer Institute”— isn’t fake at all. From the government’s site , with emphasis added: “NIH-funded and other researchers are continuing to explore the possible uses of THC, CBD, and other cannabinoids for medical treatment. “For instance, recent animal studies have shown that marijuana extracts may help kill certain cancer cells and reduce the size of others . “Evidence from one cell culture study suggests that purified extracts from whole-plant marijuana can slow the growth of cancer cells from one of the most serious types of brain tumors. “Research in mice showed that treatment with purified extracts of THC and CBD , when used with radiation, increased the cancer-killing effects of the radiation.” Beyond this one example, and much further to the point, the Democratic establishment is leading the call to abolish “fake” news — a blaring alarm bell for anyone paying attention this election cycle. A trove of published leaked emails and documents by Wikileaks concerning the Democratic National Committee, campaign chair John Podesta, and Hillary Clinton , proved a staggering degree of corruption and collusion undertaken for years by establishment insiders and corporate media, which, for all intents and purposes, amounted to an attempt to throw the election in their favor. As the campaign came under heavy fire from all sides, Clintonites were quick to shift blame and try to discredit the mountainous evidence of wrongdoing — first by blaming Wikileaks for trying to throw the election, then by claiming the information being published was fake. Except it wasn’t. For nearly the entire duration of its existence, Wikileaks has offered a prize of several hundred thousand dollars for anyone who can prove even a single document it published isn’t authentic . And that bounty, though challenged from time to time, remains unclaimed. And now the outgoing Democratic party wants to initiate a war on fake news? Nothing to see here, folks. “Everyone has the right to say what they want, have access to sites that they want, share what they want,” Obama and Democrat Party insider , Teddy Goff, told Politico — which, incidentally, starred in several damning emails for colluding with the Clinton campaign. “But a publisher with a record of making stuff up is not likely to rank that highly on Google, and the equivalent ought to be the case on Facebook. […] “Two, three weeks ago, many of us are beginning to talk about what a big problem this is, both from the campaign and from the administration, and just sort of broader Obama orbit, and are talking about, this is one of the things we would like to take on post-election. “This is something we were very aware of, saw zero percent chance Facebook was going to be compliant or work with us during the election, but wanted to take on post-election.” Recall the aforementioned and justifiable doubt Zuckerberg originally expressed about the nonexistent “problem” of “fake” news — and consider Goff told Politico these ostensibly false news items posted to Facebook painted ‘Clinton as corrupt, criminal or otherwise beyond the political pale.’ In fact, evidence of corruption, media collusion, and highly questionable, if not explicitly criminal, activity now mar Hillary Clinton’s legacy as Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic nominee — not because of bogus reporting. There was no need for fake items, and — although a few websites certainly blew points out of proportion — the emails, themselves damned Clinton’s campaign. Thus, the liberal establishment’s war on fake news — for which the head of the largest social media platform has now been roped in — amounts to little more than a witch hunt to silence truthful, but damaging, information. Information vital to the American public, imperative for making informed choices, and indispensable if this nation is still to be characterized as maintaining even a shred of freedom. Employing failed algorithms — or even people — is a hopelessly flawed solution to a problem that simply doesn’t exist. And what will result is a war on alternative, independent media and opposing thought — in all forms. Considering the insidious, wholly one-sided nature of this plan, it would be errant not to draw parallels to a new McCarthyism. Indeed, independent media websites likely did help turn the election away from Hillary Clinton — not by posting inane, false garbage, or slanted reporting — but by having the integrity to post the truth about her dealings behind the scenes. And, where corporate media failed in journalistic integrity and due diligence, alternative sources — led by Wikileaks — excelled. Had the same vault of information surfaced about Trump, alternative media would have had the same field day — and that’s where the Clintonites have it all wrong. Fake news — dissenting opinion, opposing viewpoints, a free press — none of that tilted the election. Unless, of course, by fake news they are referring to corporate media’s submitting articles to the Clinton campaign prior to editors, or Hillary insiders collaborating on articles so ensure the ‘right’ angle was employed — or any of the examples proven in leaked documents. Nominating Hillary when a veritable revolution erupted behind Bernie Sanders, however, did. It would behoove them to turn tail, learn the lesson, and walk away, instead of imposing a blanketing and unnecessary campaign of censorship against “fake” news when the truth is a bitter pill to swallow. Meanwhile, the Mainstream Media has been caught faking news countless times, which had serious consequences worldwide: | 0 |
The San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) has been working with the Council on Relations (CAIR) on “ ” plans, including adding lessons on Islam in social studies classes and adding Muslim “safe spaces” to campuses. [The plan is to be implemented in the fall with the start of the new school year. CAIR has been declared a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates, and was named by federal prosecutors as an unindicted in a Hamas operation. The school district’s board voted recently to approve the Islamophobia plan it set in motion last summer after a November 2015 recognition of CAIR’s educational work. The April 4 vote was with one member missing from the meeting, according to the San Diego . More details are expected to be released before the end of the school year. Staff members and parents will receive letters directing them to resources to learn about Islam and fight discrimination. District executive director of Family and Community Engagement Stan Anjan stated that social studies lessons may feature more on prominent Muslims in history, and how to promote a positive image of Islam according to the Tribune. Discipline for perceived bullying of Muslims is also set to be amended. Executive Director of the San Diego chapter of CAIR, Hanif Mohebi, said upon the recent vote, “If we do this right, San Diego Unified School District would be the leading school district in the nation to come up with a robust and beautiful and program” according to the Tribune report. Last July, San Diego Unified approved creation of an and plan with urging from CAIR San Diego. More than 200 members and supporters of the Muslim community were present and cheered upon board members’ passage of the initiative, according to KPBS. Executive director Mohebi used a CAIR study that said it asked students and 55 percent claimed to have been bullied. San Diego Unified School District posted in an online QA on the forthcoming plan: Regarding all students, we work hard to protect students from bullying and discrimination. That is why we recently implemented an online bullying reporting mechanism to allow students to make their voices heard without fear. The closest model for our Islamophobia work is the work we have done within the LGBTQIA community in recent years. That program has assigned staff and serves students and other departments through trainings, curriculum review and other activities. In addition, they help students organize and maintain Alliance Clubs in many of our schools. Again, our LGBTQIA work is simply a model for the Islamophobia work, and there will obviously be unique situations to address in each community. “CAIR has been very generous with their time, providing advice and guidance to the district on ways to prevent bullying against Muslim students. They have not been paid, nor are they under contract with the district,” the school district website states. The district specifically addressed whether it is implementing Sharia Law, claiming that they are not. The district goes on to state that it is not violating separation of church and state and is not endorsing Islam. In regards to creating safe spaces for Muslim students, the district states: “Schools with large Muslim communities may choose to make areas available for prayer, if that is requested by their parents and students. ” In 2007, the reported on allegations that a school aide at Carver Elementary led Muslim students in prayer, according to an online post on Michelle Malkin’s website. (A link to the original Tribune article went to the paper’s website, but the article appears to no longer be at that web address.) The school had recently added Arabic to its curriculum to accommodate in influx of Somali Muslim students. In March 2016, San Diego Unified highlighted the creation of halal meals at Crawford High School, “according to Islamic law and traditions,” and with the input of students. The school is located in an area of San Diego heavily populated with Muslim refugees. CAIR has previously promoted plans for the halal meals. In an interview with PRI, the San Diego school district’s head of food services cited the success of halal options in Dearborn, Michigan schools, home to one of the largest Muslim populations in the U. S. The report noted that almost all of the students at the City Heights school, at least a decade ago, were recipients of free school lunch. The report added that five local elementary schools had also recently adopted similar halal meal programs. CAIR San Diego lauded SDUSD’s initiative to “combat Islamophobia” in an announcement that noted, “Some 150 members of San Diego’s Muslim community were present” during the early April passage of the initiative. The group also stated that SDUSD collaborated with Diego, in line with California’s AB 2845, the Safe Place to Learn Act. Diego Executive Director Hanif Mohebi said, “Other school districts should follow this lead, and we will be happy to work with them to provide resources and trainings. ” Photo: File, Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana | 1 |
An Imam in New Haven, Connecticut, is facing deportation after being ordered for removal out of the U. S. for allegedly defrauding a foreign national visa program. [Masjid mosque Imam Hafiz Abdul Hannan, an illegal immigrant from Pakistan, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents where they say they are enforcing a 2016 deportation order, according to the Associated Press. In 2006, Hannan was arrested by authorities for his involvement in filling out fraudulent applications in order to receive religious worker visas for foreign nationals. The investigation was a nationwide sting at the time. Now, Hannan who has been at the helm of the Connecticut mosque since 2013, is likely to be deported back to Pakistan, with mosque officials demanding attendees not to speak to the media about the case. “Community members should not contact media or give any statement regarding the current situation of Imam Hannan being detained by ICE,” the note from mosque officials states. “The majlis will make a statement if deemed necessary with more insight into the situation. ” John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder. | 1 |
Hillary Dillary Dock...
This Rat ran out the Clock
The Fix is in, but she still won't win...
Assange has depleted her Stock. | 0 |
GETTYSBURG, Pa. — Donald J. Trump came to this historic battlefield town Saturday to offer his vision for America’s future, saying he hoped to “heal the divisions” of the country as President Lincoln tried to do here seven score and 13 years ago. Yet in his own Gettysburg address, Mr. Trump, who has been sliding in the polls less than three weeks before Election Day, did not offer much in the way of oratory and did not seem to embrace Lincoln’s unifying ambition. Instead, the Republican nominee used the first third of what had been promoted as a “closing argument” speech to nurse personal grievances, grumbling about “the rigging of this election” and “the dishonest mainstream media,” and threatening to sue the women who have come forward — an 11th woman did on Saturday — to accuse him of aggressive sexual advances. “Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign — total fabrication,” Mr. Trump said. “The events never happened. Never. All of these liars will be sued after the election is over. ” And the more substantive part of the speech, intended to outline his first 100 days in office if he were elected president, did not quite live up to its billing by campaign aides, who had promised a major policy address not unlike Newt Gingrich’s 1994 “Contract with America. ” Instead, a subdued Mr. Trump — who on Friday acknowledged the possibility of electoral defeat — largely repeated his existing campaign promises, from renegotiating trade deals to enforcing tougher immigration laws. Mr. Trump’s carefully scripted presentation on Saturday was meant to project a new level of forethought and seriousness from a man not usually associated with either. His proposals had legislative titles like the “Affordable Child Care and Elder Care Act” and the “Repeal and Replace Obamacare Act. ” The speech, before a small, handpicked crowd, was also a recognition that Mr. Trump needs to establish himself as someone with the discipline and temperament to lead the nation. “Hillary Clinton is not running against me, she’s running against change,” he said. “And she’s running against all of the American people and all of the American voters. ” Mr. Trump did offer specific immigration proposals, including an “End Illegal Immigration Act” that would establish mandatory minimum prison sentences for undocumented immigrants caught illegally the country after deportation. He also said he would stop issuing visas to any country that refused to take in citizens ordered deported from the United States, a policy that would almost certainly disrupt immigration and commerce with China, which is one such country. Mr. Trump also reiterated his promise to build a border wall with Mexico and have Mexico pay for it, though he hedged a bit, saying, “the country of Mexico will be reimbursing the United States for the full cost of such a wall. ” (At a rally in Cleveland later on Saturday, his most energetic of the day, Mr. Trump was back to leading his crowd in chants calling for Mexico to pay for the wall.) Repeating earlier pledges to “drain the swamp” in Washington, Mr. Trump promised to push through a series of new ethics laws, as well as term limits for both the House and Senate. And he called for “a hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce the federal work force through attrition, exempting military, public safety and public health. ” Mr. Trump has a long history of threatening and occasionally following through on litigation, and in raising the possibility of suing his female accusers, he may have simply been trying to stop more from coming forward. At a news conference on Saturday in Los Angeles, Jessica Drake, an adult film actress, claimed that, after meeting Mr. Trump at a 2006 charity golf event in Lake Tahoe, Nev. she had accepted an invitation to meet in his hotel room. Not wanting to go alone, Ms. Drake said she was accompanied by a couple of female friends. Ms. Drake, who appeared Saturday with the women’s rights lawyer Gloria Allred, said Mr. Trump had hugged and kissed her and the other women without permission. After returning to her room, Ms. Drake said, Mr. Trump or a man phoning on his behalf offered her $10, 000 to return to his room, which she declined. In a statement, the Trump campaign called the accusation “another example of the Clinton campaign trying to rig the election. ” “Mr. Trump does not know this person, does not remember this person and would have no interest in ever knowing her,” it said. Aboard her campaign plane, Mrs. Clinton said: “I saw where our opponent, Donald Trump, went to Gettysburg, one of the most extraordinary places in American history, and basically said if he’s president he’ll spend his time suing women who have made charges against him based on his behavior. ” She added, “I’m going to keep talking about what we want to do, what we think the country deserves from the next president and vice president, and when it comes right down to it, I think that’s what people are going to vote on. ” At her rally Saturday in Pennsylvania, Mrs. Clinton devoted much of her remarks to the state’s contentious Senate race, giving an extended plug to the Democratic candidate, Katie McGinty, and attacking the Republican incumbent, Senator Patrick J. Toomey, for not denouncing Mr. Trump for his vulgar remarks about women captured in a recording. A Bloomberg News poll conducted this month after the release of the tape showed Mrs. Clinton with a nine percentage point lead over Mr. Trump in Pennsylvania. On Saturday, she tried to offer an olive branch to the white voters there who have gravitated to Mr. Trump. “You probably know people who are thinking about voting for Donald Trump,” she told the crowd of 1, 800 gathered in a high school gymnasium. “Here’s what I want you to tell them: Tell them that I understand they need a president who cares about them, will listen to them, and I want to be their president, too. ” After his appearance in Gettysburg, Mr. Trump reverted to his trusted stump speech in rallies in Virginia Beach and Cleveland, exciting large crowds by attacking Mrs. Clinton and promising to bring back jobs. “You’re going to look back at this rally and you’re going to remember it for the rest of your life because this will be the beginning,” he said in Virginia. “You’re going to remember Nov. 8 because your country is going to be a country that starts winning again. ” | 1 |
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Iran’s Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan issued a statement to Iranian state media confirming the recent test of a ballistic missile, and claiming the test did not violate the nuclear deal. [“The recent test was in line with our plans and we will not allow foreigners to interfere in our defense affairs. The test did not violate the nuclear deal or (U. N.) Resolution 2231,” Dehghan told the Tasnim news agency, as quoted by Reuters. Dehghan is most likely correct about the nuclear deal, which gave Iran tremendous latitude and major economic incentives, while requiring few concessions from Tehran. He is on shakier ground regarding U. N. resolutions, but the U. N. Security Council has decided to form a committee to study Iranian missile testing, rather than issue an immediate condemnation. As Reuters notes, “critics” of the relevant U. N. resolution (meaning primarily Iran and Russia) claim it merely discourages Iran from developing ballistic missiles, rather than outright forbidding tests. The Iranian parliament issued a statement declaring that Iran is “against weapons of mass destruction, so its missile capability is the only available deterrence against enemy hostility. ” They dismissed international condemnation of Iranian missile testing as “illogical. ” The Trump administration condemned the missile launch in strong terms. “I will tell the people across the world that is something you should be alarmed about,” said Nikki Haley, the new ambassador to the United Nations. “The United States is not naive. We are not going to stand by. You will see us call them out, as we said we would, and you are also going to see us act accordingly. ” “We are officially putting Iran on notice,” National Security Adviser Mike Flynn declared at a White House press briefing on Wednesday, citing both Iran’s ballistic missile launch and the recent attack on a Saudi frigate by insurgents in Yemen. Flynn said Iran had been “emboldened” to pursue such provocative behavior by the “weak and ineffective” response of the Obama administration. National Security Advisor Michael Flynn at White House briefing: ”As of today, we are officially putting Iran on notice.” pic. twitter. — ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) February 1, 2017, White House press secretary Sean Spicer added that the Trump administration wishes to make it clear that Iran’s actions “are both provocative and in violation” of the nuclear deal, despite Tehran’s claims to the contrary, and “we’re not going to sit by and do nothing. ” Analyst Benham Ben Taleblu of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies told Business Insider he agreed that “ ” language about missile testing in the nuclear deal gave Iran a loophole to conduct testing that “definitely violates the spirit, if not the letter” of standing U. N. resolutions. Taleblu observed that even without nuclear warheads, Iran’s focus on missiles allows it to maintain a “conventionally weak and asymmetrically strong” military. In other words, Iran uses insurgents and terrorists to destabilize its enemies across the region, and if any of those enemies decides to counterattack Iran, it will find the border lined with enough missiles to make retaliatory actions too costly to contemplate. | 1 |
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By Marco Torres A new study has confirmed what many activists and environmental researchers have been stating for years. Hydroelectric power is not clean at all. In fact, Harvard University has found... | 0 |
TEL AVIV — Hamas security forces have uncovered a rocket workshop run by a State organization in Gaza, according to a jihadist in the coastal enclave. [Abu Baker Almaqdesi, a top Palestinian jihadi who previously fought for IS in Syria and Iraq and returned to his native Gaza following an injury, said that hundreds of rockets and explosive belts have been seized by Hamas in a recent raid. Last month, Hamas unveiled a jihadi arsenal containing some 250 rockets and hundreds of rifles. “The range of some of these rockets is 140 kilometers,” Almaqdesi claimed without providing any evidence. He further stated that similar rockets have already been shipped to Waliyat Sinai, IS’s Egyptian affiliate. A Hamas Interior Ministry official declined to confirm or deny the report about the rocket workshop, but confirmed that electronic devices allegedly utilized to connect between jihadists and their Gaza counterparts have been seized. On Saturday, two rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israel, prompting the Israel Defense Forces to retaliate against Hamas positions. Meanwhile, the Aamaq news agency reported that Israeli drones raided the organization’s strongholds in Sinai. “Several people, including two children, were killed and (others) injured on Thursday in Israeli raids on outposts in Rafah and Sheikh Zwaid in the north of Sinai,” the report said. | 1 |
Posted by Lindsay Hayward | Nov 4, 2016 | Breaking News Hillary Clinton says Trump is “unstable” to be president and will start a nuclear war.
Former president, Bill Clinton, allowed rangers to die in Somalia because he wouldn’t send air support. There were actually 4,417 military deaths from 1993-1996 alone under the reign of Clinton. He obviously rubbed off on his wife for not having any respect at all for our brave men and women in uniform. How to turn $12,000 in retirement savings into $1.3 Millon over the next 5 years.... Read More
Hillary also denied air support to soldiers in Benghazi who died horrific deaths while she was Secretary of State.
Ambassador Chris Stevens was brutally beaten to death and murdered in Benghazi, his lifeless body dragged throughout streets of full-fledged violence, terrorists cheering and applauding. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and President Obama did nothing .
Except for blame the tragedy on a video at the victims’ military funeral ceremony as their coffins crossed in front of the stage, where Hillary Clinton stood.
It was a terrorist attack- the attack came in two separate waves, including suicide bombers. WikiLeaks confirms that Hillary told her daughter that she knew it was not because of ‘some video’.
So, how else does Bill influence Hillary? Does he encourage her to lie because it’s what he personally does? Or does lying simply come naturally for her?
Over the past month, WikiLeaks has poured out incriminating evidence proving corruption within our liberal government.
They’ve also released countless emails exposing the fraudulent activities tied to the Clinton Foundation, which is currently being investigated by the FBI.
What other shocking lies have been revealed about the Clintons by WikiLeaks?
“Instead of dark and divisive, it’s hopeful and inclusive. It’s big-hearted, not small-minded. It is about lifting people up, not putting them down,” Hillary Clinton stated in front of a “massive” crowd in Ohio, unveiled to be photo-shopped to include more people than were actually present by duplicating the ones that were already there. Hillary Clinton crowd in Ohio, photoshopping to make her rally look bigger
“It’s a vision that says, and I believe this with all my heart, we are stronger together.” Concludes former Secretary of State.
Words like “hopeful,””big-hearted,” and “lifting people up” are the same cliches she fed the people of Haiti. They bought what she was selling- Americans should not make this grave mistake. This will actually bring about the civil war she speaks of- instead of Haitian immigrants protesting in front of the Clinton Foundation office in NY, all Americans will be protesting in front of the White House in D.C..
Clinton warned that Trump could bring the nation to war “because of his unstable character,” which is hilarious.
According to Breitbart , “Clinton specifically referred to the Civil War, suggesting that the country faced a similar threat of divisiveness from Donald Trump.”
Breitbart continues, “Clinton warned that it would only take a few minutes of instability from Trump launching the United States into a full scale nuclear war.”
How can she make a leader of another nation so distrusting of her after she sells them 20% of American uranium, aiding them in building the very nuclear technology she claims they will use? Putin hates her and she’s not even president!
Hillary Clinton also said, “Abraham Lincoln understood a house divided against itself cannot stand, and that was over the greatest of challenges – the challenge posed by slavery – and we fought a civil war.”
Crooked Hillary Clinton doesn’t reserve the right to quote the great Abraham Lincoln. She is the one with the track record of inflicting people to slavery backed by her actions in Haiti.
She is full of hypocrisy, her lack of character is exhausting from what’s been provided by WikiLeaks via her own email correspondence. But her own words are what incriminate her the most.
“It was called Hillarycare before Obamacare!” Then she claims she never supported Obamacare.
“Chelsea was jogging at the twin towers when they were hit.” No, Hillary, Chelsea was just at home, in bed, cited by you after people called you out for lying. Hillary Clinton is a pathological liar.
She lies about everything, it’s in her nature. Hillary Clinton is a sociopath that lies for no apparent reason.
Speaking of lies, WikiLeaks also proved that the women suddenly accusing Donald Trump of sexual misconduct were paid by the Clintons.
It doesn’t take the support of deleted emails to show that women suddenly coming forward (against the only other candidate) with just weeks left until a huge election are obviously meant to shift attention away from the real issues of Hillary’s email server.
Trump has overcome lies and scandals perpetrated by Hillary Clinton, spewed by the mainstream media as well as our very own president and guess what? He has kept his cool. Donald J. Trump, American strength and integrity.
Donald Trump has overcome adversity throughout this presidential campaign and shown incredible strength in his character. He’s had to humbly address obvious lies and falsely organized scandals, media slander, biased-coverage, rape-allegations by women he met once and the list just keeps going.
Not once did President Donald Trump, I mean, republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, get enraged and act like a looney. With everything thrown at him over the past few weeks, he has handled these vicious attacks swimmingly well.
“Imagine him in the Oval Office facing a real crisis,” she told her supporters. “Imagine him plunging us into a war because somebody got under his very thin skin.”
We need a strong leader, one that is going to bring about change. We need someone who can remain calm when dealing with a crisis, not act petty or prioritize covering up corruption to saving lives. America needs Donald Trump as president.
Hillary Clinton encourages our own people to fight with one another instead of come together. Vote for Donald Trump, let’s truly stand together as one, against the corruption Americans currently face.
It’s time American citizens stopped sitting back, accepting another apology from Hillary Clinton for lying. We need to break up with her, not appoint her as leader of our nation.
Let’s truly make America great again. | 0 |
President Donald Trump will sign an executive order to begin a review process of national monuments designated by modern presidents, including former President Bill Clinton and former President Barack Obama, according to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke. [According to Zinke, the review will feature monuments of 100, 000 acres or more designated from January 1, 1996 and advise the president of possible actions. The review will feature an estimation of about national monuments and tens of millions of acres designated in the last 20 years. “It directs the Department of Interior to make recommendations to the president on whether the monument should be rescinded, resized, modified in order to better manage our federal lands,” Zinke told reporters in a White House briefing on Tuesday evening. The president will travel to the Department of the Interior offices in Washington D. C. to sign the executive order on Wednesday. The review would specifically address Obama’s Bear Ears designation within 45 days in an interim review, with a final review scheduled for 120 days, according to Zinke. The Bears Ears monument is 1. 35 million acres — part of the over 553 million acres of land and sea designated as a monument during Obama’s presidency. Zinke also mentioned a review of the Grand Staircase monument (1, 700, 000 acres) instituted by Clinton. Clinton added 5. 7 million acres of land, while George W. Bush designated 214 millions acres, which included acres of water. But Zinke specifically mentioned two controversial monuments in Utah, including the more recent designation of Bears Ears monument by Obama. Zinke said the review would give state representatives and local industry a chance to for more input, fulfilling Trump’s campaign promises. “I can tell you as a kid that grew up in Montana, who grew up in the West … this is long overdue,” Zinke said. Zinke said it was “undisputed” that a president had the authority to modify a monument, although it was untested by the courts. He acknowledged that environmental groups would try to challenge any efforts by Trump to modify any monument. “Prudent public policy should be the right policy, and I’m not in fear of getting sued, I get sued all the time,” Zinke said. “I don’t think law suits should shape public policy. I think public policy should do what’s right. ” He blamed the media for raising fears that the review would set the stage of increasing oil and gas development of public lands. “I’ve heard that many times and I think it’s the modern media that we live in today, we’re so polarized today,” Zinke said, promising that the review was not predisposed by a particular outcome. The Interior Department issued a list of monuments that would likely fall under the review ordered by the president: | 1 |
NATO Accuses Russian Warships of Targeting Syrian Civilians October 27, 2016 NATO Accuses Russian Warships of Targeting Syrian Civilians
The Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed suggestions from NATO that a Russian battle group in the Mediterranean would join the bombardment of Syria's Aleppo as absurd, the RIA news agency reported on Thursday. RIA cited the ministry as saying NATO had no reason to worry about the battle group NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned on Tuesday that the ships, headed for Syria, could be used to target civilians in the besieged city of Aleppo and to launch more air strikes.
(MOSCOW) - Andrei Kelin , a senior Russian Foreign Ministry official, told RIA Stoltenberg's statement was unhelpful.
"The concerns are not based on anything as our planes have not come near Aleppo for nine days. Our battle group is in the Mediterranean. Our ships have always had a presence there," said Kelin.
"Why make some spurious suggestions and then make some political recommendations based on them? It is of course absurd."
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has questioned Russia's statements about a moratorium on bombing Aleppo, saying the city has been hit by strikes since a lull in fighting ended on Saturday. | 0 |
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Antecedently, does it matter, period? America transcends its historical development, revealing a cumulative trend which pronounces even presidential elections a solemn farce, as a fascistic societal formation, to all indications, beckons. It is on a collision course with its own destiny, inner tendencies, ideology, and class distribution. Exceptionalism represents a tightly-coiled nation, out of maneuverability, fated to consume itself (and possibly the world) in domestic self-hatred, foreign aggression, and international confrontation as a permanent stance.
What happened along the way? Its unique attachment to capitalism from at least the late eighteenth century ensured a one-dimensional political-structural course which selectively eliminated, ruled out, or weakened non-capitalistic elements—a purist formation, then, feeding on itself, creating and maintaining boundaries to social change that ensured against alternative values and pathways to the future.
Whatever arises from such a context is then turned inward and made adaptable to the needs of a capitalist state and society. The Revolutionary War was one of independence, not transformation, so that America, no longer a colonial appendage of Britain, could exercise its own form of mercantilism, internal colonialism, subjection of indigenous resistance. Likewise, the Civil War cleared the historical slate of premodern capitalism, of which plantation slavery, was the linchpin, to the breakdown of all restrictions, ushering in a laissez-faire capitalism which offered no obstacles to a monopoly-capital consolidative framework.
In bold, by 1900, America now a certified imperial power, the Open Door policy pursued for three decades already ensuring the drive for universalized market penetration, and a prominent role in world affairs, witnessed the removal of slavery into a social vacuum to be replaced by the exploitation of industrial labor, an agricultural economy controlled by financial, transportation, and marketing interests, and, of course, racism per se as the unmistakable heritage of previous servitude.
What a start toward greatness (!), a background for the antidemocratic modernization up to today and into the future. Theodore Roosevelt would give us the interpenetration of business and government and the battleship navy, Woodrow Wilson, the federal reserve system, regularization of monopoly, and an internationalism inseparable from anticommunism, as witness the Siberian Intervention into the Bolshevik Revolution. By this point, the die is cast, so that throughout the ‘twenties we see, via trade association activity, the privatization of the economy systemically nailed down, the NAM and Chamber of Commerce illustrative of the shaping of the business system.
The New Deal, under FDR, may be viewed, alternatively, as a break in the historical process of capitalist development, or, on close inspection, a muted effort to graft a welfare state onto business foundations—as the most American society and social structure could tolerate. But in any case, once more, at a pivotal moment, unable and unwilling to undergo a fundamental transformation. For America, World War II was, by necessity, anti-fascist on the battlefield and with international alliances, yet imperialism and anticommunism had by Bretton Woods defined the postwar vision of America’s world direction, FDR’s death confirming trends he might have otherwise altered or mitigated. From that point, 1945-6, no internal obstacles remained or were present to arrest the present course: a unilateral posture of global dominance. Anticommunism abroad had its corresponding red-baiting at home, leading to a long-term ideological shrinkage and encrustation of tolerated societal boundaries.
Kennedy was America’s guiding spirit for the liberalization of fascism—intervention, regime change, nuclear preparedness, made acceptable and plausible through policies and rhetoric of the US as a humanitarian beacon to the world’s oppressed (meanwhile enlarging global market shares, financial hegemony, and armed conflict), so that with Johnson and Vietnam America revealed its true identity, which has not changed. In this light, the present campaign and election, filled as it is with copious warnings to the world of America’s greatness (coded for military supremacy), extends the past into the future, lacking only the sophistication, ideological and political, of former times able to cement the image of capitalism and democracy.
America now is nakedly belligerent, on the war path while drastically streamlining its own political economy, as, e.g., through outsourcing, industrial division of labor, and extreme emphasis on the financialization of capitalism itself, combining internal-external processes to hold its position in a world political economy and power system where unilateral prestige and military prowess no long hold, reducing America to one among equals, an intolerable state to a nation habituated to international success. The strain is showing. Clinton and Trump are both playing to an American public coddled by decades of patriotism, antiradicalism, and, treatment of the environment is here instructive, nihilism, whether through the depredation of nature or ignorance with respect to climate change.
Clinton and Trump, and the political parties and party system that stand behind them, epitomize the logical outcome, viz., moral bankruptcy, of advanced capitalism in America, in which war, militarism, and defense budgets and production all become necessary to avoid economic stagnation or poor growth, while the ideological reproduction of exceptionalism through its various historical stages ensures a blindness to the human costs of impending war. The election is rendered meaningless because continuity has been preserved with an antiradical heritage now transposed into a setting so whipped up with neurotic frustration at having lost undisputed world supremacy and at home increasing wealth and income differentiation that a paralysis of will is setting in, making the militarization of policy (and, via massive surveillance, regimentation or stringent conformity in the political realm) not only thinkable but operable. | 0 |
WASHINGTON — There are few relationships between President Obama and another world leader more unlikely than the one he has with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India. The two have a public warmth — or “chemistry,” as the Indian news media like to describe it — and that is likely to be on display Tuesday when Mr. Modi visits the White House for the second time in two years. It will be the seventh time the two leaders have met. There are compelling reasons the leaders of the world’s largest democracies would find common cause. The United States is encouraging the rise of India as a giant Asian partner to balance China, and India is trying to accelerate its economy with an injection of investment from American companies. “It is true that Obama and I have a special friendship, a special wavelength,” Mr. Modi said last month in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. Benjamin J. Rhodes, the president’s deputy national security adviser for strategic communication, said on Saturday that the two leaders “have each invested in developing a close relationship. ” It is worth recounting just how unlikely such a friendship is. The nation’s first black president, Mr. Obama has made the protection of minorities a central pillar of his life. And he has argued that criticism and dissent are core tenets of democracy. Mr. Modi, by contrast, spent much of his life rising through the ranks of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a paramilitary organization that campaigns forcefully for India’s Hindu majority. Mr. Modi was in charge of the state of Gujarat when rioting in 2002 cost the lives of more than 1, 000 people, most of them Muslims. Just last week, 24 people were convicted of massacring Muslims during the riots, and pending cases are attempting to prove that Mr. Modi, who has so far escaped judicial censure, was part of a conspiracy to encourage the killings. Generally poorer and less educated than India’s Hindus, Muslims are about 14 percent of the population, about the same proportion as in the United States. In India, Mr. Modi’s reputation among Muslims could broadly be compared to that of a Southern segregationist from the 1950s. Perhaps just as troubling, Mr. Modi’s government has increasingly used the country’s broad and vague laws restricting free speech to stifle dissent, according to a recent report by Human Rights Watch. Other laws have been used to intimidate and even shut down nongovernmental organizations, such as Greenpeace. Neither Mr. Obama nor Mr. Modi is given to displaying affection. Both avoid the socializing common in their capitals. And while Mr. Obama is a doting father and dutiful husband who maintains close bonds with his childhood friends, Mr. Modi abandoned his arranged marriage decades ago and has no children or any public friendships. Some political analysts have expressed deep skepticism that the two leaders have any real fondness for each other. Mr. Modi is part of a class of “populist, electable, narcissistic autocrats whose appeal is that they pander to majoritarian anger,” said Kanti Prasad Bajpai, a professor of Asian studies at the National University of Singapore. “Obama is the opposite of that, so it is hard to see how close they can be,” Mr. Bajpai said. Others see similarities that extend beyond political beliefs. Both men rose from modest circumstances, had difficult relationships with their fathers and were widely considered transformational figures when elected. (Mr. Modi’s humble origins, largely government and intense focus on winning foreign investment are sharp breaks from his predecessor.) And parts of Mr. Modi’s political operation, in particular its effective use of social media, were based on Mr. Obama’s model. Ashley J. Tellis, a senior associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said both men “are remarkably warm and have a personal graciousness about them that is very evident in personal encounters. ” Raymond E. Vickery, a former United States assistant secretary of commerce who has met Mr. Modi, said both had grown up as outsiders and valued frankness. “Modi is a really guy who tries to answer your questions and doesn’t just go to talking points,” Mr. Vickery said. Mr. Obama made the first significant gesture in the relationship when, during Mr. Modi’s first official visit to Washington in 2014, the president left his White House staff behind to give a personal tour of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. Mr. Modi responded by inviting Mr. Obama to be his guest at the annual Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi in January 2015. When Mr. Obama arrived, Mr. Modi broke with protocol to greet the president at the airport with a hug. And at a later appearance, Mr. Modi referred to the president as Barack and thanked him for his “deep personal commitment” to their friendship. In a toast at a state dinner, Mr. Obama called Mr. Modi “my partner and friend. ” “The hours they’ve spent together,” Mr. Rhodes said Saturday, “have allowed them to have a good understanding of their respective worldviews and domestic circumstances, and made it possible to deepen defense ties, advance our civil nuclear cooperation and achieve a breakthrough on climate change. ” He added, “It’s also an indication of how important President Obama thinks our relationship is with India, as the world’s largest democracy and an increasingly important partner. ” On Tuesday, White House officials said, the two leaders are expected to discuss climate change and clean energy partnerships, security cooperation, and economic growth. Analysts said the leaders might announce a new defense logistics agreement, further progress on India’s efforts to phase out hydrofluorocarbons and perhaps a deal for Westinghouse Electric Corporation to build nuclear power plants in India in a fulfillment of a pact first struck in 2006. A shared interest in clean power and climate change is central to their personal bond, some analysts said. “These two guys get very little political traction at home for being climate champions, but they are anyway, and I think they respect each other for that,” said Andrew Light, a former senior adviser to the United States special envoy on climate change. Tavleen Singh, an Indian commentator and admirer of Mr. Modi, said the prime minister’s sanitation campaign and his efforts to improve the status of women would also endear him to Mr. Obama. Still, she said she doubted that the two men were truly affectionate. Zia Haq, an assistant editor at The Hindustan Times in India, was also skeptical. “I refuse to believe the two men could be very good personal friends deep down, because Modi is all things Obama can’t possibly be,” Mr. Haq wrote in an email. | 1 |
Bellwether? Trump kippas outselling Hillary yarmulkes Company sees preference as 'early exit poll of Orthodox Jews' Published: 9 mins ago Print
WASHINGTON – The campaigns of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are looking for signs anywhere and everywhere that might suggest who will move into the White House in January.
A company that makes Trump and Hillary kippas or yarmulkes has some good news for one of the presidential hopefuls – Trump head coverings are winning in a landslide among the Orthodox Jewish clientele.
So far, the company, Pic-A-Kippa, has sold 331 Trump yarmulkes to 65 for Clinton.
“My kippa (yarmulke) company sells Trump and Hillary kippas and are keeping track of who is selling more,” Uri Turk, founder and “chief kippa officer,” told WND. “We see it as an early exit poll of the Orthodox Jews, a type of bellwether of where this important community is leaning. Once the first debate came around, the orders started flying in, with much more interest in the Trump kippas.”
Pic-A-Kippa is the brainstorm of two former elite red beret IDF soldiers from Miami. Turk says the company is the leader in the kippa market and has been selling Trump and Hillary custom kippas on its site since August, all the while keeping a running tally of which one has sold more.
“Our mission is to help Jews everywhere show and wear their Jewish pride, with our beautifully unique and completely customizable picture kippas,” the company says on its website.
It donates 10 percent of every kippa sale to the Lone Soldier Center in Israel, assisting young lone soldiers during difficult times.
Turk said while American Jews have leaned heavily Democratic for decades, the past few presidential races have seen Orthodox Jews, who make up over 10 percent of American Jewry, vote Republican in ever increasing numbers. He attributes that fact to the Democrats putting “daylight between America and Israel.”
A number of influential Jewish pro-Trump organizations have emerged, chief among them “Jews Choose Trump” and “Jewish Democrats For Trump.” A recent poll of Florida Jews showed Orthodox voters are leaning toward Trump by a 3-1 margin.
According to Turk, Pic-A-Kippa has sold many Trump kippas to a congregant of Ivanka Trump’s synagogue on the liberal Upper East Side of Manhattan and has gotten orders for Trump kippas from Israel, Australia, Britain and even Mexico. Pic-A-Kippa has also gotten hate mail from Jews unhappy they are selling the Trump designs, he says. | 0 |
I was dead wrong about this election.
I was wrong that Donald Trump would not win in the primaries.
I was wrong that Donald Trump would not beat Hillary Clinton in the general election. Comment on this Article Via Your Facebook Account Comment on this Article Via Your Disqus Account Follow Us on Facebook! | 0 |
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 ) 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 |
The Russian factor in Georgia-Ukraine relations After a brief period in which both Ukraine and Georgia appeared to be united against Russia, it now appears that the two nations are moving along very different paths After a brief period in which both Ukraine and Georgia appeared to be united against Russia, it now appears that the two nations are moving along very different paths.
Former Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili makes a speech during Yulia Tymoshenko's party congress in Kiev, Ukraine, March 29, 2014. Photo: AP
In October, Georgia didn’t support any of Ukraine’s resolutions denouncing the Kremlin’s foreign policy within the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). That is surprising, given how many analysts had by now assumed that Georgia and Ukraine were on the same page when it came to Russia.
The two resolutions deal with “the political implications of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine” and human rights abuses “on the occupied Ukrainian territories.” By supporting them, PACE recognized the military conflict in Ukraine as “Russian aggression” for the first time and called on the Kremlin to withdraw its forces from the eastern part of Ukraine. Moreover, it denounced the parliamentary elections , recently conducted by Russia in Crimea .
Also read: " The victory of the Georgian Dream is beneficial for Russia and the West " When the Georgian delegation in PACE didn’t support these resolutions, the nation’s pro-Western parties reacted strongly. For example, the United National Movement lambasted the Georgian government and accused the country’s former Prime Minister, Bidzina Ivanishvili, of supporting Russia. Moreover, Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian president and now the governor of the Odessa region in Ukraine, described such a stance as a “disgraceful” move.
However, an immediate response came from one of the members of the Georgian delegation in PACE, Eka Beselia. She retorted that Tbilisi needed to defend its own national interests. Even though this statement seems to have alleviated the increasing conflict, the video of Russian-Georgian journalist Matwey Ganapolsky, who accuses Georgia of betraying Ukraine in favor of Russia, fuelled the tensions. In contrast, Russian pundits see the unwillingness of Georgia to vote for the PACE resolution as a sign of improvement in Tbilisi-Moscow relations.
In reality, the reluctance of the Georgian Dream, the ruling party in Georgia, to approve these resolutions is just the logical conclusion of complicated relations with Kiev. Since the start of the color revolutions in the post-Soviet space , Georgia and Ukraine were largely in the same boat .
After the success of the Rose Revolution in Tbilisi and the Orange Revolution in Kiev, the newly elected governments were closely connected with each other and teamed up against Russia. This resulted from friendly relations between Ukraine’s former prime minister Yulia Timoshenko and former president Viktor Yushchenko on the one hand, and Georgia’s Saakashvili on the other hand.
However, their relationship was rather pragmatic in its nature, although officially Tbilisi recognized Ukraine as one of its closest allies. Since 2007 the democratic processes in the two countries have started moving in a reverse direction. Saakashvili’s penchant for conducting an aggressive policy as well as his authoritarian inclinations was increasing, while Ukraine faced the corruption and the political rivalry between Timoshenko and Yushchenko.
The more impact this had on the countries’ stability and development, the more obvious became the fact that the ruling elites from both sides did not support democratic reforms, but only the regimes that were friendly to them. Thus, Georgian-Ukrainian relations could be seen as a form of cooperation between governments, not between the people. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
And this trend became relevant until the 2010 presidential elections, when Georgia’s civil society and population called on the government to support democratic processes and regime change in its “brother” country. From then on, Georgia has been shying away from supporting the political regime in Ukraine and focusing more on the support of the country’s own population.
Recommended: " The tragic roots of the Five-Day War between Russia and Georgia " However, Ukraine refused to consider such tactics, with its official representatives criticizing the Georgian Dream coalition for supporting Russia during the 2012 parliamentary elections. Moreover, Kiev cooperated with Georgia’s United National Movement, which was openly accused of building an authoritarian regime and egregious human rights abuses.
Logically, the new Georgian government under Ivanishvili cannot help paying attention to this fact. But it was relatively reticent and didn’t respond, even when Georgian volunteers came to fight in Eastern Ukraine to support Kiev and accused Tbilisi of supporting Russia. That had some implications for the Georgian Dream: It was seen as a political force that is capable of defending the country’s national interests.
Moreover, Georgian voters also saw the fact that Saakashvili was appointed as the governor of the Odessa region as an unfriendly move from Ukraine, as a slap in the face, because the former Georgian president was legally prosecuted in his home country, which meant that Ivanishvili couldn’t fulfill his pledges and restore justice [During the election campaign he promised to put Saakashvili in jail for corruption and the abuse of power — Editor’s note]. The problem was exacerbated when Kiev granted Saakashvili Ukrainian citizenship, which made it impossible to imprison the former Georgian president.
Saakashvili crossed the red line during the latest parliamentary elections in Georgia during the campaign. First, his colleagues from the United National Movement visited Ukraine. Second, he openly called for a coup d’état against the Georgian government, which he sees as pro-Russian. In fact, he threatened to conduct a new revolution in Georgia. This was the last straw for the Georgian Dream. ; ;
It is safe to say that ; the current Georgian political elites started seeing Ukraine as a real headache and the shelter for dubious and controversial Georgian politicians from the United National Movement accused of different wrongdoings and legal violations.
However, with the victory of the Georgian Dream in the 2016 parliamentary elections, a lot has changed. Moreover, the odds of the party of winning the constitutional majority are really high. It means that the influence of the party is growing in the Georgian parliament and even more could change.
As a result, the government won’t necessarily have to take into account the views of other political forces to take decisions. It can be pretty outspoken now that it won’t put up with anti-government moves and initiatives like the ones promoted by Saakashvili. Moreover, the Georgian voters, who are seeking to have those involved in the violations during Saakashvili’s tenure prosecuted. So, in this regard, the electorate supports the Georgian Dream.
Also read: " What do Georgian elections mean for Moscow-Tbilisi relations? " Thus, all this indicates that Georgian-Ukrainian relations have always been more complex and nuanced than they seemed to be at first glance. ; During Saakashvili’s tenure, there was cooperation between his government and the ones of Timoshenko and Yushchenko. However, eventually, Tbilisi shifted its priority from supporting top political officials to supporting society and people.
Ukrainian politicians should keep in mind that the Russian factor is not the only one that determines the Ukrainian-Georgian agenda. Providing shelter to Saakashvili also does matter. So, to improve the relations with Tbilisi, Kiev should take into account its national interest and support the Georgian people instead of the country’s politicians.
The opinion of the author may not necessarily reflect the position of Russia Direct or its staff. | 0 |
By Claire Bernish A massive explosion of a gas pipeline in Shelby County, Alabama — near the site where the same pipeline leaked some 336,000... | 0 |
Surveillance video from a home in Alamogordo, New Mexico, shows three armed suspects fleeing the front of a residence after a foiled home invasion. [The incident occurred Thursday night around 9 pm. According to KOB 4, Alamogordo Police says “three armed men and a woman [tried] to break into a home. ” The woman knocked on the door and the three men approached with weapons once the resident opened it. The homeowner closed the door when the men approached and the men tried to open it, only to look through the glass and see something that set them to flight. In the video, one of the suspects can be seen holding a handgun and another can be seen holding an style rifle. Alamogordo Deputy Chief Roger Schoolcraft said the suspects “headed south on foot” and are currently being sought. AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart. com. | 1 |
American Express disowns Pink Floyd singer Roger Waters because of pro-Palestinian views 11/03/2016
MONDOWEISS When it comes to aiding Israeli Apartheid, American Express is just another brick in The Wall, according to a new report. Roger Waters, lead singer behind Pink Floyd, lost a multimillion dollar American Express sponsorship for his 2017 US+Them tour after expressing solidarity this month with Palestinian students trying to end Israel’s apartheid system of military occupation using the same protest tactic that helped dismantle South African Apartheid (and, earlier, America’s Jim Crow): Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS. “I’m going to send out all of my most heartfelt love and support to all those young people on the campuses of the universities of California who are standing up for their brothers and sisters in Palestine and supporting the BDS movement,” Rogers said, according to CBS News , “in the hope that we may encourage the government of Israel to end the occupation.” American Express decided it would be a good idea to leak the cancellation of the contract to the New York Post , where Page Six’s Emily Smith has the exclusive story . “Roger is putting on a huge show. The company was asked to sponsor his tour for $4 million, but pulled out because it did not want to be part of his anti-Israel rhetoric,” an American Express spokesman told the paper. “We never committed to sponsoring Roger Waters’ upcoming tour. When we were approached with the options, we passed on making a bid.” American Express had helped sponsor Waters’ Oldchella Desert Trip festival (Coachella for the senior set featuring Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, and the Rolling Stones) where he made the comments expressing support for human rights. But without anybody even asking them, American Express decided it had to go out of its way to bash Waters for “putting on a huge show.” Noteworthy about American Express’s decision is that it comes even as Waters included more mainstream political views, like featuring in the performance a line of children wearing shirts that said “Derriba el muro,” (Tear down the wall). He also showed Trump in a Klan outfit, and the show featured a floating pig balloon that calls the Republican candidate an “Ignorant, lying, racist, sexist pig,” CBS reported. Waters more mainstream kinds of leftist protest didn’t make up for his audacious display of solidarity with his fellow human beings living and dying under a ceaseless occupation. American Express has also sponsored Beyonce’s performances, where she has used art to make reference to police oppression of communities of color . But AmEx lost its nerve when Waters brought up Palestinian rights. According to the New York Post , Waters has known that there are consequences for standing up against the occupation, and that keeps others silent. “I have been accused of being a Nazi and an anti-Semite for the past 10 years. My industry has been particularly recalcitrant in even raising a voice [against Israel] . . . I’ve talked to a lot of them, and they are scared s – – tless. If they say something in public, they will no longer have a career. They will be destroyed,” he said, according to the Post. But Waters is already famous, and 75, so the stakes aren’t the same as for young artists. Update (11/1/16) This article originally quoted the New York Post as saying that Citi had assumed sponsorship of the tour after American Express dropped out, but after publication a representative of Citi contacted us with this clarification: In your article “ American Express disowns Pink Floyd singer Roger Waters because of pro-Palestinian views ”, it mentions that “Citibank grabbed the opportunity to sponsor one of the biggest and best acts of the 20th century.” However, Citi is not a sponsor of Roger Waters’ upcoming tour. Two weeks ago, Citi offered a limited time pre-sale of tickets for cardmembers for select shows, as we do for thousands of concerts by different artists every year. The pre-sale has ended and we have no plans to work with this artist in the future.
– See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2016/10/american-express-palestinian/#sthash.cGAw7DW9.dpuf | 0 |
On Tuesday’s broadcast of “Fox Friends,” author Dr. Qanta Ahmed argued that while “a lot of Muslims around the world” are scared of President Trump’s extreme vetting, “many of us, especially opposed to radical Islam, are welcoming it. ” When asked about the feelings of Muslims about extreme vetting, Ahmed said it was “complex. I think a lot of Muslims around the world are afraid. But many of us, especially opposed to radical Islam, are welcoming it. We don’t want to prohibit refugees here forever. We, as Americans, want to help those in need, but we do think we have to make assessments based on the regions that are identified. Libya, the third front of ISIS. Somalia, beyond failed. It’s own government cannot travel outside its capital, let alone govern it. Iraq, we’re fighting ISIS, but special exception must be made for Iraqis helping US forces. So, we see it as very pragmatic. Muslim minorities that are persecuted badly in Pakistan and other places were thrilled that this draft wording includes penalizing those that commit honor violence or persecution of minorities. A lot of Muslims are subject to that. So, I think there is a positive feeling. ” She added that Trump’s proposal to build safe zones in Syria is a “fantastic move, and one the last administration failed for years, when Muslim leaders asked President Obama to do the same. I think any Syrian that’s been displaced from their country would rather prefer to live there, if it was safe for them to do. That’s a strong move. Look at what’s happened, these people protesting in our city and around the world. Where were those protests when those babies were washed up? Nobody was carrying about the neglect of Syria for this — for the last six years. So these tears are rather hollow, in my opinion. It is a powerful move to argue for zone. ” Ahmed concluded that she didn’t think Saudi Arabia should be on the list of countries that are under travel restrictions, because while the country is “complicated,” the US “needs it geopolitically. ” She further stated that since Saudi Arabia is where Mecca is, if the US “prohibits American Muslims from visiting Mecca coming backwould be appalling. ” Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett | 1 |
No more sticking fingers into cake batter or cookie dough. On Tuesday, General Mills announced that it was voluntarily recalling various batches of its Gold Medal, Gold Medal Wondra and Signature flours that federal officials have potentially linked to illnesses in 38 people in 20 states caused by a strain of E. coli. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that about half of those people became ill after making something at home with flour, according to a news release from General Mills. Some of those who were sickened may have eaten raw dough or batter, the company said. “In general, C. D. C. recommends that people not eat raw dough or batter intended for cooking or baking, and children not be provided raw dough to play with,” an agency statement said. “People should use safe practices when preparing such products, including following package directions for cooking at proper temperatures washing hands, surfaces and utensils after contact with these types of products avoiding and refrigerating products properly. ” Most strains of E. coli are harmless, but E. coli O121, the one found in the 38 sick people, is a potentially deadly bacteria that can cause bloody diarrhea and dehydration. Seniors, children and people with compromised immune systems are most at risk. General Mills said the pathogen had not been found in any of its flour products or in its flour manufacturing plant. “Flour is an ingredient that comes from milling wheat, something grown outdoors that carries with it risks of bacteria, which are rendered harmless by baking, frying or boiling,” the company said. Its website has information on the flour batches affected by the recall. In 2009, Nestlé recalled some of Nestlé Toll House cookie dough after more than 70 people in 30 states became sick from E. coli 157: H7, another deadly variety. While no one ingredient was ever identified as the culprit, one hypothesis was that the E. coli in the product was passed by the flour to consumers who ate raw dough. The announcement on Tuesday was the latest of several voluntary food recalls. In May, the C. D. C. announced a recall of frozen vegetables that had been processed by CRF Frozen Foods but ended up in products under a variety of brand names. The foods had been linked to a listeria outbreak. Also in May the agency announced a voluntary recall of pistachios produced by Wonderful Pistachios, a division of the Wonderful Company, after it tied the nuts to 11 cases of Salmonella Montevideo and Salmonella Senftenberg. It linked 26 cases of poisoning in 12 states to a third strain of Salmonella found in sprouts produced by several companies from one lot of contaminated seeds that probably were the culprit, according to the agency. “Contamination of food is an ongoing issue,” said Sandra Eskin, who directs work on food safety at the Pew Charitable Trusts. “The good news is that we’ve got technology like whole genome sequencing that’s helping identify outbreaks more quickly than in the past. ” Ms. Eskin also said that new food safety regulations that will take effect this September will make food manufacturers responsible for preventing contamination and give the Food and Drug Administration the ability to take action against a company if it is not taking steps to prevent food safety problems. | 1 |
Report Copyright Violation If the Christian evangelicals believe Trump will save America then that means he will destroy it instead. These people are always wrong. They supported bush. The patriot act. Torture. The war in Iraq. They demonized anybody who didn't support the war. Called them unpatriotic. These also are the same people who want to bomb Iran because it would bring about the rapture. They told us Obama was the antichrist and would take away your guns but then nothing happened. And they think Putin(Mr. KGB)is a great man. They control hellholes like Mississippi and Alabama(two of the sorriest states in the country).If Trump is Pat Robertson's man you better hope he doesn't get elected. It will be a disaster. No doubt about it. Page 1 | 0 |
It wasn’t until she was 3 years old that Shatiana Vanterpool received a diagnosis. Unable to walk or talk, she was taken by her mother, Shayntte Johnson, to three different doctors, and finally it was discovered that she had cerebral palsy, which affected her muscle tone and motor skills. She didn’t learn to walk until she was about 5. And doctors said she would never be able to speak. Now, at 21, Ms. Vanterpool rides the subway on her own. Her mother said this makes her a little nervous sometimes, but “you have to let her grow and see what the other side is like. ” After years of hard work, including physical, occupational and speech therapy, Ms. Vanterpool is enrolled in a rehabilitation program for adults with intellectual disabilities that helps prepare them for the work world. But for Ms. Johnson, being a single parent to Ms. Vanterpool and her sister has been a struggle. Last February, they moved into a family shelter and stayed until Ms. Johnson could find affordable housing, which she finally did in October. Brooklyn Community Services, one of the eight agencies supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, used $500 from the fund to provide a new bed and dresser for Ms. Vanterpool’s room. Ms. Johnson became concerned for her family’s safety after a recent shooting by the police in the Brooklyn public housing complex where they now live. She has considered requesting a transfer to other housing. In the meantime, Ms. Vanterpool will continue with her therapy and says she is determined to find a job and live independently. A child with multiple disabilities “may look a little different, but they are no different,” her mother said. “People need to have patience. ” All donations made to the Neediest Cases Fund go to one of eight charities: Brooklyn Community Services Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New York Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens The Children’s Aid Society Community Service Society of New York Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies of New York and the International Rescue Committee. To help, please make checks payable to The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund and send them to P. O. Box 5193, New York, N. Y. 10087. Donations may be made with a credit card at or online at nytimes. . | 1 |
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The AP has uncovered concrete evidence that Melania Trump worked illegally in the United States, before obtaining an H-1B Visa as a fashion model:
Melania Trump was paid for 10 modeling jobs in the United States worth $20,056 that occurred in the seven weeks before she had legal permission to work in the country, according to detailed accounting ledgers, contracts and related documents from 20 years ago provided to The Associated Press.
Melania Trump’s immigration status was first questioned in early August after the New York Post released nude photos of the prospective First Lady.
That led the Washington Post to fact check the story and concluded that the photos were taken the year before she claimed to have arrived in America. The facts are that she definitely worked in the United States before getting her first visa in 1996 :
Mrs. Trump, who received a green card in March 2001 and became a U.S. citizen in 2006, has always maintained that she arrived in the country legally and never violated the terms of her immigration status. During the presidential campaign, she has cited her story to defend her husband’s hard line on immigration.
The wife of the GOP presidential nominee, who sometimes worked as a model under just her first name, has said through an attorney that she first came to the U.S. from Slovenia on Aug. 27, 1996, on a B1/B2 visitor visa and then obtained an H-1B work visa on Oct. 18, 1996.
The documents obtained by the AP show she was paid for 10 modeling assignments between Sept. 10 and Oct. 15, during a time when her visa allowed her generally to be in the U.S. and look for work but not perform paid work in the country. The documents examined by the AP indicate that the modeling assignments would have been outside the bounds of her visa.
Later reports from the Trump organization about her immigration status appeared to show that under the Republican nominee’s own policies , Melania Trump probably would not be allowed in the country.
Immigration violations can be re-litigated at any later date, if they are fraud or misrepresentation on any of the documents used to gain entry or US citizenship, although this almost never happens.
The AP reports that the United States government only seeks to revoke citizenship in the “most egregious cases, such as instances involving terrorism or war crimes.”
However, it’s likely that Melania Trump’s immigration status and her Republican nominee husband’s hypocritical stances towards immigration may be thrust into the maelstrom of the waning days of this year’s presidential campaign.
The big question is: Using the Trump standard for deportation – which would send his wife home to Slovenia – will the Republican candidate petition to send his wife out of the United States? | 0 |
We Are Change
In this video Luke Rudkowski breaks down the real reason that Hillary Clinton isn’t facing charges in the FBI’s renewed investigation into her private server as secretary of state.
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Daughter of Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra, accused CNN of deliberately twisting a comment she made in reference to President Trump, before congratulating the 45th President of the United States on his inauguration. [Responding to an article published by CNN originally entitled, “Nancy Sinatra not happy Trump using father’s song at inauguration,” the singer and actress replied, “That’s not true. I never said that. Why do you lie, CNN?” CNN’s story was based on a tweet from Sinatra that has since been deleted that said, “Just remember the first line of the song,” in reference to the planned use of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” for Donald and Melania Trump’s first dance at the Liberty Ball on Inauguration Day. CNN has since amended the story, changing the headline to “Sinatra on Trump picking ‘My Way’: Remember the first line,” and adding a note that “This story has been updated to reflect Sinatra’s reaction. ” Sinatra appears to have deleted the tweet accusing CNN of lying after they updated their story’s headline and text. She also congratulated the 45th president, tweeting, “Good luck to you. ” Congratulations, Mr. President. Good luck to you. 🇺🇸 — Nancy Sinatra (@NancySinatra) January 20, 2017, Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook. | 1 |
COVINGTON, La. — “Sour grapes,” explained Bob Marino, 79, weighing in on the recent spycraft bombshell from the corner table of a local McDonald’s. “Sour grapes,” agreed Roger Noel, 65, sitting next to him. “Bunch of crybabies,” Reed Guidry, 64, offered from across the table. The subject of conversation was the report released by United States intelligence chiefs on Friday informing Donald J. Trump of their unanimous conclusion that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia ordered an extensive, but covert, cyberoperation to help Mr. Trump win the election. The Russians had hacked and leaked emails, unleashed “trolls” on social media and used their “ propaganda machine” to spread stories harmful to Hillary Clinton. In Washington, the report was viewed as extraordinary, both for its timing, raising sharp questions about the ’s legitimacy on the verge of his taking office, and for its assertions, describing the operation as Russia’s boldest effort yet to meddle with American elections, to spread discontent and to “undermine the U. S. democratic order. ” But interviews with Trump supporters here in Louisiana, a state the won by 20 points, and in Indiana, a state he won by nearly the same margin, found opinions about the report that ranged from general indifference to outright derision. “From the parts of the report I’ve seen,” said Rob Maness, a retired Air Force colonel who twice ran for Senate here as Tea Party favorite, “it seems silly. ” There are genuine concerns about Russia’s cyberoperations, he said, but the notion that they changed the outcome of the election was absurd. (The report made no determination on how they affected the election.) Of the comments he had seen from fellow Trump supporters on Facebook and in emails, he added, “90 percent of them are like, ‘What’s the big deal? ’” The Russians may have very well gotten involved, several people said. They added that kind of interference should be combated. But many assumed that foreign actors had long tried to play favorites in American elections, and that the United States had done the same in other countries’ elections. Even if the Russians did do it — which some were more willing to concede than others — what difference did it make? People did not need the Russians to make up their minds about Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Trump’s election opponent. Blaming her loss on the Russians was, as one Trump supporter here said, “just being sore losers. ” “I don’t think the Russians posed as big a problem to the Clintons as the Clintons posed to themselves,” said Paul Emenes, 49, while he sold ribs, shoulders and chops at a frigid outdoor farmers’ market in Covington. Russian hacking was concerning, sure, Mr. Emenes said. He added that, as long as Mr. Trump was not involved himself, “it doesn’t change the way I view him. ” Tina Gunaldo, 44, taking blankets off the citrus trees in her Mandeville, La. front yard after the previous night’s frost, had a similar attitude. “Trump is Trump,” she said. “Do I think he’s going to become more of a friend to Russia because of this? No I don’t. I think — I hope — his focus will be on making America great again. ” Ms. Gunaldo would not reveal whom she voted for, but she did say Mr. Trump’s slogan resonated with her. It apparently resonated quite widely in this parish, which he won by more than 50 points. But it was a quiet support, she said. She knew of only one yard in the whole subdivision with a sign. That yard belonged to Thurston Yates Sr. “I don’t believe it,” Mr. Yates, 78, said flatly of the intelligence report. He was standing in the yard under his “Make America Great Again” flag, which he bought at a gun show several months ago. “Why would Putin even want Trump?” Mr. Yates, who is retired from a career in pharmaceutical sales, was not concerned about what Mr. Trump might do in office, but said he was deeply alarmed about what President Obama might do before he leaves office. It was Mr. Obama who was too soft on Russia, who let Mr. Putin get away with things, Mr. Yates continued. Mr. Trump would be much tougher. But Mr. Yates then added: “Why is everybody so afraid of Russia? I’m not against Putin. ” This last sentiment was not uncommon. Even among those who were troubled by the hacks, few felt that Russia was a serious threat. The country was “a basket case,” and not the powerful foe it once was, said Mr. Marino, from his seat at McDonald’s. Others said that North Korea, the Islamic State and China were the real threats. Russia could even be a potential ally in some fights, suggested Valarie Kubacki, 54, a real estate broker in Valparaiso, Ind. Ms. Kubacki said she perceived Russia as “somewhere in the middle” between friend and enemy, but agreed with Mr. Trump that the United States could work with them to defeat the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. “We may have to line up with people who may not be our ‘friend’ to make that happen,” she said. That those on the right seemed to be warming to Russia was not seen as a particularly unusual development, though some joked about the incongruity of the left putting such faith in the Central Intelligence Agency. As they watched their son skate with his Boy Scout group at the public ice rink in downtown Valparaiso, Monty and Mary Willis, both registered Republicans, considered the ramifications of the intelligence report. “The idea of a fair election” had been placed in doubt, Ms. Willis said. “We were concerned about money being involved in the election. Now you’re talking about espionage. ” The Willises, who both work in real estate, might be Republicans, but they were not Trump voters. In fact, they had last voted for a Republican presidential candidate in 2008, when Senator John McCain of Arizona ran. The party seemed to have changed in recent years, they said. And the incoming administration had them deeply worried. “Our president being in cahoots with the Russian government?” Mr. Willis said. “Yes, I’m very concerned about that. ” In Louisiana, David Gubert, 56, Eagle 20 cigarettes in the cab of his pickup, with stacks of firewood for sale behind him in the bed. Like the Willises, he ruminated on what it would mean if the Russians had gotten involved, and possibly even swung the election. But Mr. Gubert came to a different conclusion. “If that’s what it took,” he said, “I’m glad they did it. ” | 1 |
Actress Jodie Foster condemned President Donald Trump’s policies Friday during United Talent Agency’s “United Voices” rally outside the company’s Beverly Hills headquarters. [Foster, famous for avoiding the spotlight and politics, took the stage in front of hundreds of protesters and delivered a blistering critique of Trump’s immigration and national security agenda. “We know that the first attack on democracy is an assault on free expression, civil liberties, and this relentless war on the truth, ” Foster said. “And sadly, it’s too familiar because history repeats itself. ” “So you’re going to remember where you were today and what you did,” the aded. “It doesn’t matter where you were born, who you voted for. All the colors in the identity rainbow — this is our time to resist. It is the time to show up and demand answers. It’s all of us trying to tell our elected officials to do their job. ” “We will not tolerate chaos, ineptitude, and warmongering,” Foster told the crowd. “This is our time to resist”: Jodie Foster has led a Hollywood protest against Donald Trump pic. twitter. — The Telegraph (@Telegraph) February 25, 2017, United Talent Agency canceled its usual bash and organized the rally after the president signed an executive order that temporarily halted the admission into the United States of refugees from seven countries. Actor Michael J. Fox also addressed the crowd, calling Trump’s immigration and national security policies an “assault on human dignity. ” Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson. | 1 |
Putin's New Promise: 'I Will Defeat The Illuminati' Please scroll down for video
The Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown that he has never been afraid of fighting several opponents on different fronts. Now, it appears that he has a new target in his sights – the Illuminati. Vladimir Putin swears to take on the Illuminati
It has been previously alleged that Putin, who was born and raised in the shadow of important political influence and who previously served in the notorious Russian intelligence agency, the KGB is himself a bona fide member of the New World Order. However, it seems unlikely that Putin ever became a fully-fledged member of the Illuminati. From the outset of his rise to power, Putin has made it clear that he is a Russian patriot and that his first duty will always be to his country.
To this end, Putin has been seen to actively act against the interests of those within the Illuminati if their activities conflict with the health and prosperity of the Russian nation. This has allegedly led to Jacob Rothschild calling Putin ‘a traitor to the New World Order.' In response, it has been claimed that Putin said that he would destroy the shadowy organization. It is believed that Putin has now established himself as the most dangerous opponent of the Illuminati alive today .
Over the years, Putin has forced out some oligarchs in the pay of the Khazarian Mafia out of the country and into areas such as the City of London. It is claimed that he has done this to loosen the stranglehold that the Illuminati have held over the Russian economy and major industries since the end of the Cold War. He has also expelled all businesses operating under the Rothschild Banking Group in recent months as he believed that they were playing a positive role in the Russian financial system.
It has also been alleged that Putin is moving outside of the realm of domestic concerns and is also thwarting Illuminati operations on the global scale. It has been said that the Russian military’s intervention in Syria and commitment to protecting the ruling party headed by President Al-Assad has torpedoed Illuminati plans to lay a pipeline through the country which would have been operated by their agents.
This article (Putin's New Promise: 'I Will Defeat The Illuminati') is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with full attribution and a link to the original source on Disclose.tv Related Articles | 0 |
On Monday, a Google security researcher announced the discovery of code in the “WannaCry” ransomware virus that suggests a notorious North Korean hacking group is behind the major global cybercrime. [Researcher Neel Mehta revealed the discovery in a puzzling Twitter message: 9c7c7149387a1c79679a87dd1ba755bc @ 0x402560, 0x40F598ac21c8ad899727137c4b94458d7aa8d8 @ 0x10004ba0, 0x10012AA4#WannaCryptAttribution, — Neel Mehta (@neelmehta) May 15, 2017, As security firm Kaspersky explains, the message refers to a block of code found in both an early version of the WannaCry virus — the far less harmful version that was turbocharged into a global menace with the addition of stolen National Security Agency hacking tools — and code obtained from a hacking group called Lazarus in 2015. In other words, this code snippet is a “fingerprint” that suggests WannaCry was developed by the Lazarus group. Lazarus is associated with North Korea and has a long history of wantonly destructive behavior — most notoriously including the attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment over the movie The Interview, which was seen as insulting to North Korean dictator Kim . “The scale of the Lazarus operations is shocking,” Kaspersky’s Global Research Analysis Team notes. “The group has been very active since 2011 and was originally disclosed when Novetta published the results of its Operation Blockbuster research. During that research, which we also participated in, hundreds of samples were collected and show that Lazarus is operating a malware factory that produces new samples via multiple independent conveyors. ” Kaspersky’s report considers the possibility that this code is a “false flag,” planted deliberately by other hackers looking to frame Lazarus for the WannaCry attack, but concludes that scenario is “improbable. ” Other possibilities are that Lazarus code was inadvertently copied into the early versions of WannaCry or that Lazarus created WannaCry but was not directly involved in weaponizing it with NSA software and unleashing it on the world last weekend. However, Kaspersky researchers are confident, based on other forensic details, that the WannaCry code analyzed by Neel Mehta is the precursor to the virus that attacked systems around the world on Friday. The New York Times reports that U. S. government officials have seen the similarities between WannaCry and the weapons employed in previous cyber attacks linked to North Korea, including the Sony hack, an assault on the central bank of Bangladesh last year, and an attack on Polish banks in February. The NYT notes that this code has only been seen in malware used by hackers linked to North Korea. “Attribution can be difficult. I don’t want to say we have no clues. But I stand assured that the best and brightest are working on this hack,” Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert said on Monday. Reuters reports that South Korea’s Hauri Labs confirmed the similarity between WannaCry and “North Korea’s backdoor malicious codes,” as senior researcher Simon Choi put it. Choi is highly experienced with North Korean and is an adviser to South Korean intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Reuters notes that the Chinese Foreign Ministry had no comment on the record about North Korea’s possible involvement in the attack, which has done considerable damage in Asian countries, including China. All researchers and officials quoted on the possible North Korean link point out that the evidence is not “smoking gun” conclusive. Also, there are questions about whether the WannaCry attack is consistent with the strategy employed by North hacker gangs. They have been interested in stealing large sums of money in the past and have used Bitcoin to collect ransoms, as WannaCry does, but they also tend to be more careful about collecting payments. WannaCry has been characterized as a sloppy attack with poor money handling on the ransom end, putting an almost absurdly small sum in the hackers’ Bitcoin account compared to the scale of global havoc they have inflicted. estimates of the hackers’ take say they collected less than $70, 000 by Monday afternoon, although Bitcoin experts say the actual profits could be even lower because some of the transactions hitting the criminals’ Bitcoin account appear to be test transactions and fluctuations in the notoriously volatile Bitcoin currency must be considered. That is a paltry amount of profit given that a ransomware attack of this magnitude could have been expected to pull in at least $60 million for the crooks, and analysts believe the costs from the attack could reach $4 billion worldwide. That would be a remarkable degree of ineptitude from the same crew that stole $81 million from the central bank of Bangladesh, allegedly to feed isolated North Korea’s hunger for hard currency. It could also suggest that if the same hackers are responsible, the objective this time around was to cause damage and sow chaos rather than collect ransoms. The $4 billion in damage could be far more important to the perpetrators than the $70, 000 or less in ransom payments collected. That could also explain why the gang’s handling of ransom payments seems so diffident, almost like an afterthought. One more disturbing theory to consider: the attack that swept the globe last weekend could be just a dry run for something much worse. It is possible WannaCry was a hastily test of what the stolen NSA worm technology can do, possibly succeeding far beyond the hackers’ imaginations because they thought more potential victims would have long ago patched the Microsoft Windows security vulnerability that allows WannaCry to spread so aggressively. The small test transactions detected on the hackers’ Bitcoin account could support the theory of a test run that was supposed to be fairly small but quickly got out of hand. Along those lines, reports of even more dangerous WannaCry variants continue to trickle in. Reuters noted one such report from the Check Point Software Technologies, Ltd. cyber security firm on Monday, which was infecting a new computer roughly once per second before it was stopped. As with WannaCry, the new variant was thwarted with a kill switch server — a website that tells the virus to stop reproducing, created as a safety valve to give the hackers a way to shut down their creation if they desired. The kill switch for this new variant was evidently different from the one discovered over the weekend, which greatly mitigated the damage from the initial WannaCry attack. | 1 |
By Tom Leonard with pictures, captions, and comments by Lasha Darkmoon
Hillary Clinton faced an upset in her run for the White House two days ago after the FBI announced a fresh probe into her emails. Investigators will examine new messages to see whether she sent classified information on a private server. Just ten days before Americans go to the polls, the Democrat candidate’s bid to become the first woman US president may be derailed if it is decided she should face criminal charges. ‘I AM INNOCENT!’ Recent Polls suggest Mrs Clinton will trounce Republican rival Donald Trump, who has been struggling to fight allegations about groping women. But Mrs Clinton will now be forced on the defensive herself in the final days of their vicious election battle. LD : The latest news is that Hillary’s 12-point lead has been “ wiped out ” within the last 24 hours, with Hillary now just one point ahead of Trump. This could of course change at any moment, with rapid fluctuations, depending on the volatility of the situation. FBI director James Comey had recommended earlier this year that the Department of Justice not press charges over emails sent by Mrs Clinton when she was secretary of state under Barack Obama. But he said ‘recent developments’ had prompted him to take another look. The agency has obtained new emails from an unrelated case that ‘appear pertinent’ to the investigation, said Mr Comey. A jubilant Mr Trump hailed the dramatic development of a re-opened investigation as ‘bigger than Watergate’, a reference to the corruption scandal that brought down Richard Nixon. ‘Bigger than Watergate’ The controversy has weighed heavily on the campaign, challenging Mrs Clinton’s key contention that – unlike her opponent – she would be a safe pair of hands in the White House. Mr Comey announced in July that the FBI’s 12-month investigation into Mrs Clinton’s controversial email traffic while secretary of state was over. She was criticised for using a private email server rather than the official system to transmit classified information, but escaped prosecution. In a harshly-worded criticism of her ‘extreme carelessness’ and ‘gross negligence’, Mr Comey said it was possible that hostile foreign governments had gained access to her poorly-protected account. He also flatly contradicted various Clinton claims although – in explaining why he had not recommended prosecuting her – he accepted there was no evidence she had intentionally jeopardised state secrets. The scandal has been brandished by Republicans as evidence of Mrs Clinton’s dishonesty and incompetence. Mr Comey informed Congress by letter that his agency had obtained new emails. They will be reviewed to see if they are significant and if new action against Mrs Clinton is required. Mr Comey did not give a timeframe for how long this investigation will take. The original FBI probe found that of 30,000 emails Mrs Clinton handed over to the State Department, 110 contained information that was classified at the time she sent or received them. However, another 33,000 emails went missing. They were presumed to have been permanently deleted but newly released FBI notes suggested they still exist in several locations and could be recovered. It is unclear whether any of these are involved in the new FBI inquiry. Law enforcement officials said the newly discovered emails were taken from the electronic devices of senior Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her disgraced husband Anthony Weiner during an investigation in the latter’s ‘sexting’ of girls. ANTHONY WEINER AND HUMA ABEDIN
Note by LD : Huma Abedin is an American Muslim of Indo-Pakistani descent. Weiner is a disgraced Jewish politician who has been involved in a series of sex scandals. When Huma found out about her husband’s sleazy sexual activities, she was forced to divorce him. This was in August 2016. The unlikely couple had been married for just over six years.
As for Huma, her relationship with Hillary Clinton has been an extraordinarily close one for almost 20 years, so much so that there have been sensational rumors of a lesbian liaison . The view for popular consumption is that Hillary is Huma’s “mentor” and “mother figure”. Hillary once compared Huma to her own daughter Chelsea. “I have one daughter,” she said. “But if I had a second daughter, it would be Huma.” Huma’s real mother, noting that Hillary had now replaced her in her daughter’s affections, once told Hillary jokingly, “I’m jealous of you!” (See here )
John Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono ( pictured ), claims to have had a lesbian affair with Hillary in the 1970s. “We met many times,” Yoko boasts, “and became very intimate !” (LD)
TOM LEONARD continues :
Weiner, a former Democrat congressman for New York, became embroiled in a series of scandals over exchanging sexually explicit text messages with a string of women.
He separated from Miss Abedin, vice chairman of the Clinton campaign, in August.
It is understood the FBI is investigating Weiner after it was revealed that he had been sexting a high school student who was 15 at the time. Mr Trump reacted with delight to Mrs Clinton’s 11th-hour election nightmare.
Addressing a jubilant crowd in New Hampshire, Trump said:
‘ Hillary Clinton’s corruption is on a scale we’ve never seen before. We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office.’ Mr Trump had previously criticised the FBI and Department of Justice for not bringing charges against his election opponent. His running mate, Mike Pence, called on the FBI to immediately release all the emails pertinent to the investigation, adding: ‘The American people have a right to know.’ The Republican vice presidential candidate told a rally in Pennsylvania, that he and Donald Trump ‘commend the FBI for having the courage to reopen the case’. Chants of ‘Lock her up!’ came even before Mr Pence referenced the FBI investigation. Mrs Clinton ignored shouted questions from reporters about the new FBI investigation as she walked off her plane in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. House Speaker Paul Ryan, the most senior Republican in Congress, said she had betrayed Americans’ trust for handling ‘the nation’s most important secrets. HOT NEWS! (just sent in by our Far Eastern correspondent ‘FM’) LATEST! . . . 4-minute VIDEO | 0 |
Madelyn Rubinstein moved to New York City from Long Island in 1985 with big dreams of making it as a professional pianist. She had a head start: a very cheap apartment, recently vacated by her grandmother, on Central Park South. When Ms. Rubinstein took possession of it, her rent was $93. 08 a month — the same price that her grandmother had been paying since 1967. Several months later, Ms. Rubinstein came home one evening to find an eviction notice on her door. The building’s new owner, Donald J. Trump, wanted her out. Mr. Trump’s plan was to knock down the building and the one next door, which he also owned, and replace them with a luxury condominium complex facing Central Park. What he got instead was a New York brawl with a group of tenants fighting to save their homes and clinging with white knuckles to some of the city’s legendary rent deals. The battle played out for years in courtrooms and the New York news media, becoming a kind of parable of the limits of 1980s capitalist ambition in the social democratic city. Looking back on the fight, on the eve of Tuesday’s New York Republican primary, one can see Mr. Trump waging a much different sort of campaign, but with many of the same tactics — the threats, the theatrics, the penchant for hyperbole — that he has deployed in his quest for the Republican presidential nomination. As far as the tenants are concerned, Mr. Trump lost that contest. “Oh, absolutely, we won,” said Ms. Rubinstein, sitting in the apartment where she still lives. “He wanted this whole corner to be one big Trump building. ” But Mr. Trump refuses to admit defeat. “A great deal,” he said, without hesitation, when describing 100 Central Park South — now known as Trump Parc East — during a phone interview last week. “It was a long battle, but it was a successful battle. As usual, I came out on top. ” Mr. Trump paid just $13 million for 100 Central Park South and the building adjoining it, the Barbizon Plaza Hotel, in 1981. At the time, he was 35 and making bold strides to emerge from his father’s shadow. In recent years, he had built the Trump Tower and overhauled the building near Grand Central Terminal that became the Grand Hyatt New York. This would be a no less audacious project, and on one of the city’s most desirable blocks. To realize his dream, he had to first clear out the residents of the building, a tower with 80 apartments, some overlooking Central Park, nearly all inhabited by tenants paying well below market rates. and apartments occupy a kind of mythic place in New York City history. Rent protections were created to guard families from the whims of landlords and the market they still cover about one million apartments in the city. State laws limit their rent increases and guarantee tenants, and often their children and grandchildren, the right to stay. But in expensive neighborhoods, the deals can become skewed. At 100 Central Park South, for instance, there were apartments overlooking the park with rents as low as $436 per month. Mr. Trump wanted all of the tenants out. But rather than buying them out, a common tactic, he and the management company he hired tried to get the job done free. So the battle — captured in numerous lawsuits, court documents and news media accounts from that time — began. Leaks went unfixed, tenants alleged, and broken appliances went unrepaired. Aluminum foil was placed over windows in empty apartments, giving the building a appearance. (Mr. Trump defended the action as standard procedure for vacant units.) More dramatic were the eviction notices from Mr. Trump’s lawyers, on a variety of grounds. One tenant was told that he had not paid his rent on time. (He presented a canceled check in court to prove that he had.) Others who had done construction on their apartments, with the approval of prior landlords, were told that they had 10 days to restore them to their original conditions. Suzanne Blackmer, a actress and one of the original Rockettes, was ordered to vacate her unit, for which she paid $203. 59 a month, because it was not her primary residence, meaning she was not entitled to rent protections. Ms. Blackmer insisted that it was after a legal battle that lasted more than a decade, she prevailed. Mr. Trump made his opponents out to be millionaire plutocrats, “people of great wealth. ” And also whiners. “Let me tell you something about the rich,” he said in one interview in the midst of the battle. “They have a very low threshold for pain. ” Recounting the story later in his memoir “The Art of the Deal,” Mr. Trump acknowledged that he had deliberately tried to drive out tenants, but he said that most of them were exploiting an undeserved government subsidy. He recalled getting rid of a free telephone in the building’s lobby that he claimed tenants were using “to call their friends in Gstaad and St. Moritz. ” Ms. Rubinstein and two other residents from the time said they remembered only a pay phone in the building. And while its roll of renters included a successful fashion designer and an architect, it also included a number of older people living on fixed incomes. As Mr. Trump’s frustration with the tenants grew, he offered the building’s dozen or so empty units as shelters for the homeless, promising free apartments with “beautiful views. ” The city declined, questioning the wisdom of moving people into a building headed for demolition. “I actually thought it was a very generous offer,” Mr. Trump said last week. “I don’t want to see people out on the streets. ” The tenants eventually hired a lawyer, David Rozenholc, to represent them. Now a familiar nemesis to New York City developers — last year, he negotiated a $25 million total payout for three clients whom Tishman Speyer was trying to eject from a small apartment building in Hudson Yards — Mr. Rozenholc took advantage of a legal flaw in Mr. Trump’s plans to block his application to begin construction. He also sued Mr. Trump, accusing him of harassing Mr. Rozenholc’s clients. The lawsuit claimed, among other things, that the building’s superintendent had been instructed by the management to spy on tenants. Mr. Trump brought his own action against Mr. Rozenholc, a federal racketeering suit that sought $105 million in damages and found its way to The New York Post before it was filed. Mr. Rozenholc said the suit, which was dismissed, was entirely frivolous. But he offered some words for Mr. Trump that were relatively kind, given the men’s contentious history. “He knows how to negotiate, he knows how to use leverage and he’s very perceptive about his opponent’s vulnerabilities,” Mr. Rozenholc said. “It didn’t work against me, but when you deal with Putin and Iran, these could be useful qualities. ” The tenants were waging their own campaign in the news media, casting Mr. Trump as a slumlord and a bully. In 1986, after five years of fighting, Mr. Trump abandoned his plans to knock down the building. The tenants could stay in their apartments, paying their existing rents. Mr. Trump would never realize his vision for the project. But in a sense, his defeat had been a victory, as he claimed. Even as the tenants were refusing to budge, preventing any demolition or construction, the value of the property was soaring along with the rest of New York City’s real estate market in the 1980s. In the late 1990s, Mr. Trump finally converted the building into condominiums, but renters were allowed to remain. Today, some continue to rent units for under $1, 000 a month, less than a third of what similar apartments cost. Ms. Rubinstein, who was guaranteed rent for life, chose instead to buy at a steep discount, paying just $150, 000 for an apartment that is now worth at least $700, 000. She is also a member of the condo board, along with one of her more noteworthy neighbors, who lives on the building’s 13th floor: Mr. Trump’s son Eric. | 1 |
The United States Is Pre-Positioning “Enemy Assets” In Preparation For A Rigged Election Posted on Tweet The United States Is Pre-Positioning “Enemy Assets” In Preparation For A Rigged Election
With civil rest or a world war, the administration will be handed the country on a platter – indefinitely – and the election will be a moot point, whether it happened or not.
From Jeremiah Johnson, SHTFPlan :
There are a number of excellent pieces circulating that hypothesize on what will happen before, during, and after the election. Mike Adams of Natural News and Dave Hodges of The Common Sense Show have both dug deeply, examining the overall situation with outstanding insights as to the possibilities. Mike’s piece listed the scenarios that can happen regarding either outcome, and government actions that can be triggered by the result. Dave’s videos and telephone conversations expose the fact that the government is indeed preparing to have plans ready and in place with drills and exercises that can turn into an actual operation immediately.
You can watch Dave Hodge’s full report with Paul Martin below:
That being mentioned, an article came out the other day written by Deb Riechmann of the Associated Press, October 26 entitled US Official: Russia Might Shoot Down US Aircraft in Syria . The article highlights dialogue from a Charlie Rose interview via CBS at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York that was conducted with National Intelligence Director James Clapper . The answers that Clapper gave to the questions gives two “insights” into the Obama administration’s mindset. This comment came regarding the potential for the US and Russia engaging one another militarily:
“I wouldn’t put it past them to shoot down an American aircraft if they felt that [it] was threatening to their forces on the ground. Russia has deployed a very advanced and capable air defense system in Syria and would not have done that if it [Russia] wouldn’t use it.”
James Clapper
Then Clapper was questioned about North Korea, and he had this to say:
“…the U.S. policy of trying to persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons is probably futile. Perhaps the only thing the U.S. could get would be limitations on North Korea’s nuclear capabilities. I think the notion of getting the North Koreans to denuclearize is probably a lost cause. They are under siege and they are very paranoid, so the notion of giving up their nuclear capability, whatever it is, is a nonstarter with them.”
All of this sounds very lackadaisical, coming from the Director of National Intelligence. That is because it is: Obama is pursuing a laissez-faire policy regarding “threats,” either from Russia or North Korea. The reason? He created them to use later. Clapper’s next responses are very interesting regarding the questions of whether or not Russia has been tampering with the election process and the recent threat by Vice President Joe Biden that the U.S. will respond to the (alleged) tampering with a Cyberattack designed “to embarrass and humiliate” the Kremlin. Here is an excerpt of that interview:
“Clapper also was asked about the Obama administration’s claim that recent hacking of political sites was orchestrated by top Russian officials. The U.S. response might not come in the form of a reciprocal cyberattack on Russia, Clapper said.
Pressed on the subject, Rose, the interviewer, noted that there is a sense that the Russians were not paying any price for the hacking.
“Maybe not yet,” Clapper replied.
“Maybe after the election?” Rose asked.
“I’m not going to pre-empt,” Clapper said.”
There we have it, in the absence of verbal commitment, no matter how nebulous the answer may seem. Just because it is nebulous, however, does not belie the nefarious nature of the answer, and it is obvious: The Obama administration is setting the Russians up for the time of the election to blame any deviance or hacks on them.
It is no secret that election fraud is being committed now, even with the early voting that is occurring in several states. The Cyberattacks conducted on Friday, October 21st were a Beta-test for what is to come: full-blown election fraud and an attack on the infrastructure of the U.S. , to be blamed on Russia or North Korea and used as justification to either suspend the elections or declare them null and void.
On October 25 , an article was released entitled DMV Computer Outage Raises Fear of Election-Day Cyber Attacks , as presented on losangeles.cbslocal.com . Apparently 100 DMV offices in California had a gigantic computer malfunction that was not attributed to hacking. The article interviewed a USC professor who had the following to say:
“Election day may be a different story. Government computer systems are vulnerable to cyber attacks. I think there will certainly be some sort of cyber security issue in some location.”
Clifford Neuman, Director, USC Center for Computer Systems Security
From a standpoint of greater simplicity, the government can simply collapse the power grid, and this can be blamed on an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) weapon from North Korea or Russia. If this is not done, the government can use the Soros-provided voting machines and other nefarious measures (such as dead people’s names being used to vote, illegal aliens casting a ballot, or people voting in numerous states, to name a few) to steal the votes. Then blame can be shifted to the Russians.
Keep in mind that the Cyberattack on October 21 was found to “not be done by a government’s actions through state actors,” as the Mainstream media termed it. How true. Not one concrete shred of justification that Russia has been conducting any Cyberattacks has been provided. Certainly the Russian government has taken the time to investigate the source of the hacking on the U.S. systems. They will certainly monitor the elections in some manner to protect themselves from any accusations of hacking and prove they do not hold any culpability when the Democrats skew the numbers of the election and steal it themselves.
This is why the federal government has warned Russia that simply to monitor the elections may warrant criminal charges being brought against the Russian government.
But it’s OK to have UN election monitors, which in itself is a violation of the 10 th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, right?
The law doesn’t apply to the Democrats; the law only matters as long as they can inflict it upon you. Soros just came out recently and cursed democracy in general: though toad like in appearance and mannerisms, this communist foreigner is responsible for the collapse and/or debilitation of almost a dozen governments. In a previous article we covered how the voting machines in the early voting in Illinois did not register the original choice of the voter and “chose” the Democratic candidates. This was labeled as a “calibration error,” so simply and innocently. The communists masquerading as Democrats know the truth of the matter, that it is those who count the votes and not the voters who decide the elections.
In summary, the U.S. is pre-positioning its “enemy-assets” to blame – on what the administration does – for a collapsed election labeled as “rigged” or the suspension of the election for any number of reasons, real or illusory, such as a genuine attack the U.S. provokes or an attack the U.S. carries out on itself .
Civil unrest and/or war are the escape hatches to bail out of the Constitution and to take control of the country…not letting either crisis go to waste. With civil rest or a world war, the administration will be handed the country on a platter – indefinitely – and the election will be a moot point, whether it happened or not.
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Bundy brothers, 5 other Malheur wildlife refuge occupiers not guilty of conspiracy,... Bundy brothers, 5 other Malheur wildlife refuge occupiers not guilty of conspiracy, firearm charges By 0 39
Seven people involved in the anti-federal government occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge have been found not guilty of conspiring to impede federal workers from doing their jobs, including Ammon and Ryan Bundy.
A jury found all seven remaining occupiers not-guilty of all charges except for one charge that has yet to be disclosed, KBOI reported .
Ryan and Ammon Bundy, leaders of the six-week-long standoff in Oregon, along with several other members were also found not guilty of possessing a firearm in a federal facility. Posted by John Lamb on Thursday, October 27, 2016
A live video from the Bundy Ranch’s Facebook showed some supporters claiming that Ammon Bundy’s attorney Marcus Mumford was tased in court by federal marshals. KATU reported that Mumford was in US Marshal custody after being allegedly tackled for yelling that Bundy was free to go following the announcement of the verdict.
The Bundy brothers have yet to be released due to a federal hold over their standoff in Bunkerville, Nevada. Mumford’s insistence that they were to be released in Oregon is what led to the fight between him and federal marshals, according to KATU.
“None of their conduct was directed at employees,” one defendant’s lawyer explained to KATU. He reiterated that there were no employees at the Malheur Reserve during the occupation and no threats were made towards employees.
Defendant Neil Wampler told KATU, “the verdict came back a clean sweep for all of us.”
“This shows the absolute folly that has been committed by the federal government,” he said and called the trial “political prosecution.”
Wampler added that he had been worried about the results, but said “the government boys were so mismanaged and so incompetent” that the jury was offered no incriminating evidence.
Wampler said his next steps would be to support the Bundy brothers in Nevada, but in the meantime he’d like to “go home, see my son, walk around my town, walk my dog.” BREAKING: Ammon and Ryan Bundy not guilty for conspiracy and firearms charge, per OPB.
— KATU News (@KATUNews) October 27, 2016 Jury finds 7 Malheur occupiers not guilty of conspiring to impede federal workers from doing their jobs at refuge. #OregonStandoff
— Hannah Button (@hbuttonnews) October 27, 2016
Via RT . This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license. | 0 |
Home » Headlines » World News » Elite Turn On Hillary Campaign: Only the Deep State Could Be So Precise
Back in August, I asked Could the Deep State Be Sabotaging Hillary? I think we now have a definitive answer:
From Charles Hugh Smit h:
The Deep State’s most prescient elements must derail Hillary’s campaign to clear a path to Trump’s executive team.
Back in August, I asked Could the Deep State Be Sabotaging Hillary? I think we now have a definitive answer: “These blast points on Hillary’s campaign… too accurate for the Mainstream Media. Only the forces of the Imperial Deep State are so precise.”
The Mainstream Media is presenting the FBI investigation as a “lose-lose” situation for embattled FBI Director Comey. If Comey remained quiet until after the election, he would be accused of colluding with the Clinton campaign and its allies in the Department of Justice (sic).
But in going public, he stands accused by Democrats of “intervening in an election,” i.e. raising doubts about Hillary’s judgement and veracity days before Americans go to the polls.
Another narrative has Comey’s hand forced by the threat of disgusted FBI agents leaking information that would show the FBI caved into political pressure from the Democratic Party and Clinton campaign to keep relevant material out of the public eye until after the election.
I submit another much more powerful dynamic is in play: the upper ranks of the Deep State now view Hillary as an unacceptable liability .
The word came down to Comey to act whether he wanted to or not, i.e. take one for the good of the nation/Deep State/Imperial Project.
As a refresher: the Deep State is the unelected government (also called the invisible or shadow government) that is not as monolithic as generally assumed.
The neo-conservative globalists who want Hillary to continue pushing their agenda are the more visible camp, but another less visible but highly motivated camp realizes Hillary and her neo-con agenda would severely damage the nation’s security and its global influence. It is this camp that is arranging for Hillary to lose.
The consensus view seems to be that the Establishment and the Deep State see Trump as a loose cannon who might upset the neo-con apple cart by refusing to toe the neo-con line.
This view overlooks the reality that significant segments of the Deep State view the neo-con strategy as an irredeemable failure . To these elements of the Deep State, Hillary is a threat precisely because she embraces the failed neo-con strategy and those who cling to it. From this point of view, Hillary as president would be an unmitigated disaster for the Deep State and the nation/Imperial Project it governs.
Whatever else emerges from the emails being leaked or officially released, one conclusion is inescapable: Hillary’s judgement is hopelessly flawed.
Combine her lack of judgement with her 24 years of accumulated baggage and her potential to push the neo-con agenda to the point of global disaster, and you get a potent need for the Deep State’s most prescient elements to derail her campaign and clear a path to Trump’s executive team.
Once this path is clear, the management of Trump’s executive team can begin in earnest, a management process aimed at disengaging the nation and its global Empire from neo-con overreach.
If you think this scenario is “impossible,” let’s see how the election plays out before deciding what’s “impossible” and what’s inevitable.
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Complaining about Western “hysteria” surrounding repeated predictions of Russian military attacks on NATO member nations, Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to resolve two solid years of predictions to that effect with a straightforward assurance that “Russia is not going to attack anyone.”
Via AntiMedia
Putin accused Western nations of having “mythical, dreamt-up problems,” and insisted the idea that Russia was going to attack the West was “simply stupid and unrealistic.” He added that he believes the idea is being played up to justify bigger military spending.
The Russian president also sought to dismiss allegations that he is plotting to rig the US elections to his own benefit, noting that the US is a great power and not some banana republic with an easily manipulated political system. Russia has repeatedly denied involvement in such plots.
NATO has played up the Russian threat to justify sending over 40,000 ground troops to the Russian border, with ever-growing numbers announced all the time. Such predictions started after the ouster of a pro-Russian government in Ukraine led to a civil war in that country’s east, with NATO military leaders repeatedly predicting Russian tanks rolling across Ukraine into NATO countries.
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On an October day, Anne Davis, 76, wheeled into her Midtown Manhattan cubicle wearing a bright red coat, with her hair cut short, and took a turn at a sharp angle to reach her desk. Ms. Davis has not walked in 30 years, about a decade after she was told she had multiple sclerosis. And then in 2003, Ms. Davis, a former lawyer for CBS, learned she had invasive cancer. And so her weeks filled with chemotherapy and physical therapy appointments, in addition to her work in a second career — this time as a volunteer financial counselor. On this day, she prepared for a hectic afternoon, reviewing scheduled appointments with clients over the next month. As a Financial Coaching Corps volunteer, Ms. Davis is among 2, 500 volunteers in the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program, sponsored by Community Service Society, one of the eight organizations supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. R. S. V. P. matches volunteers — often retirees, and all of whom are at least 55 years old — with more than 350 nonprofits across New York City. It also has several signature programs, including the Financial Coaching Corps and a mentoring program for children who have a parent in prison. Founded in 2007, the Financial Coaching Corps has 34 volunteers who, in the past five years, have advised almost 4, 000 New Yorkers on their finances, helping them hone their money management skills. The goal is to give them control over their personal finances and allow them to work toward economic security. And for the past decade, despite health scares and cancer treatments, Ms. Davis has spent every Friday working with people in dire financial straits. Her desk is neat, with a rack of organized colored folders, each with its own label: “Dispute Letters,” “Credit Report Requests” and “Budget Forms. ” She has helped clients with debt management, improving their credit scores, and those recovering from identity theft. Along the way, she has forged relationships with the people she has helped. In August 2013, a retired woman with $10, 000 in arrears and credit card debt came to Ms. Davis for guidance. Over two years, Ms. Davis helped her pay off her debt. She also suggested that the woman sell her apartment and downsize to a apartment in the same building. The move provided her with a $50, 000 savings nest egg and some financial security. They still meet — not to discuss finances, but for lunch and afternoons spent at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And the first client to sit at her desk, in spring 2007, still visits often, Ms. Davis said. The former client, who is legally blind and lives in public housing, receives Social Security and insists that she still needs Ms. Davis’s financial expertise. “But, really, we just chat,” Ms. Davis said with a smile. For Ms. Davis, who also takes French lessons and volunteers her legal services at the New York City chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, her work with the Financial Coaching Corps is more than having something to do on Fridays. “The most rewarding part is knowing that you really helped get someone on the right path,” she said. That same motivation pushed Gloria Perez to start volunteering shortly after she retired. She worked for more than 30 years with the city’s Human Resources Administration, helping people in need of public assistance. “And then my husband died, and I retired, and I wondered what in the world I was going to do with my life,” Ms. Perez said. That was in 1995, and the answer came later that year in the form of an advertisement. Another program through R. S. V. P. the Advocacy, Counseling and Entitlement Services Project, needed volunteers to work alongside the agency where she had dedicated her entire career. “When I saw it,” she recalled, “I thought, ‘This is what I’ve been doing all along, so I ought to be able to manage this, too. ’” Founded in 1984, the ACES Project trains volunteers to work as benefit counselors in neighborhoods. It has served more than 28, 000 people in the past five years, helping those eligible to sign up for public benefits. Volunteers like Ms. Perez check whether people qualify for benefits, assist them in the application process and make referrals. More than two decades after joining the program, Ms. Perez, 84, still volunteers for six hours every Wednesday at Queens Hospital Center, in Jamaica. She sets up a table in the lobby for people to inquire about possible benefits. Many people approach her table to ask how to receive food stamps. Many others simply are not aware of the programs they qualify for, Ms. Perez said. Signing up for public benefits can involve a lot of red tape and a lot of waiting. But using her insider’s understanding of the system, she said, she once got someone placed in public housing through the city’s Department for the Aging within two weeks. The new tenant returned to the hospital to thank Ms. Perez for her help. Another woman received cash assistance the same day she turned in her application. “This has become my second career,” Ms. Perez said with a laugh, adding that she had no intention of retiring again anytime soon. | 1 |
America has a new pharmaceutical villain. Her name is Heather Bresch. As the chief executive of Mylan, the owner of the severe allergy treatment EpiPen, Ms. Bresch is at the center of the latest public outrage over high drug prices, excoriated for overseeing a fourfold price increase on EpiPen while taking a huge pay raise. From talk shows to Twitter, her name is being mentioned alongside Martin Shkreli, the Pharma Bro who ignited anger last fall over raising the price of the drug Daraprim, and J. Michael Pearson, the onetime McKinsey consultant who took over Valeant Pharmaceuticals International and sharply raised prices on lifesaving drugs. But Mr. Shkreli and Mr. Pearson were outliers trying to upend the industry. At one point, the pharmaceutical industry’s main lobbying group disavowed them. Not so with Ms. Bresch. In many ways, she is an ultimate insider. Her father is a United States senator. She runs one of the largest generic drug companies in the world. She also oversees the Generic Pharmaceutical Association — the generic industry’s lobbying group. Now the question is whether her different position will give her a different result. Both Mr. Shkreli and Mr. Pearson were forced out of their companies. Already, Ms. Bresch, 47, has moved more quickly than they did to quell public furor over prices. On Thursday, she announced that the company was increasing financial assistance to patients to reduce their costs. But the company did not say it would lower the list price — which has risen to about $600 for a pack of two EpiPens, from about $100 when Mylan acquired the product in 2007. In an interview, Ms. Bresch said the price increases on EpiPen weren’t even in the “same hemisphere” as what Mr. Shkreli did when he raised the price of Daraprim by 50 times overnight. Over the years, her brash leadership style has bruised egos but also, some say, improved access to drugs and raised quality standards. Her company, Mylan, also has a reputation for tactics that have angered competitors and investors alike. “I think we mean what we say: You can do good and do well, and I think we strike that balance around the globe,” Ms. Bresch said. Still, she was unapologetic that Mylan’s actions were driven by profit. “I am running a business. I am a business. I am not hiding from that. ” How the company, and Ms. Bresch, strikes that balance seems to be quickly changing. Generic drug companies once dealt almost exclusively in making cheap copies of pills and railed passionately against the anticompetitive tactics of competitors. Now, through a series of acquisitions and mergers, the handful of large generic companies that are left are increasingly investing in expensive drugs, and in doing so, are embracing many of the tactics they once scorned. “It’s like talking out of both sides of your mouth,” said Dinesh Thakur, an advocate for generic drug quality. “To me, I think, it’s opportunistic. ” In the interview, Ms. Bresch said the company’s latest actions would do the most to help patients where it mattered, by reducing their costs. And she said that the $600 list price was necessary for the company to recoup its investment in the EpiPen, which includes raising awareness for severe allergic reaction and making improvements to the way the product works. But she also sought to shift blame away from Mylan, saying that patients are feeling the pain in part because insurers have increased the amount that customers must pay in recent years. “What else do you shop for that when you walk up to the counter, you have no idea what it’s going to cost you?” she said. “Tell me where that happens anywhere else in the system. It’s unconscionable. ” To some, the company’s response seemed to ring hollow. “It’s a real challenge to understand how a management team sits around a board table and makes a decision to raise the price of a lifesaving medication over and over and over, and when the P. R. storm hits, decides to blame someone else for that price increase,” said David Maris, an analyst for Wells Fargo. He had warned investors in June that Mylan’s price increases on EpiPen and other drugs could soon draw unwanted media scrutiny. The company is not a stranger to controversy. Robert J. Coury, Mylan’s chairman who served as chief executive until 2011, came under scrutiny in 2012 for using the company’s corporate jet to travel to his son’s music concerts. And last year, The Wall Street Journal reported that one of the board members had undisclosed ties to the land where the company built its new Pittsburgh offices. Ms. Bresch has also weathered her share of controversy, like when it was discovered that West Virginia University awarded her a business degree 10 years after she had attended the school, even though she had completed only about half of the coursework. A report by the university later concluded that officials wrongly awarded her the degree because she was the daughter of the Joe Manchin, now a Democratic senator representing West Virginia. Mr. Manchin and Ms. Bresch have said they did nothing wrong. The company also angered shareholders when it switched its headquarters to the Netherlands, and then used a provision in Dutch law to block a takeover by the pharmaceutical giant Teva, which many investors had favored. The move to the Netherlands in 2014, called an inversion, also reduced the company’s tax rate. Mylan is one of a string of pharmaceutical companies that have done inversions in recent years, prompting outcry in Washington and calls to limit the practice. Ms. Bresch’s rising salary has also fueled anger over the EpiPen price increase. Since 2007, when EpiPen was acquired and she was the company’s chief operating officer, she earned about $2. 5 million in total compensation. In 2015, her compensation was nearly $19 million. Mylan’s board has said in company filings that it believes her pay is justified because she has contributed significantly to the company’s growth in recent years. Ms. Bresch, who has worked at Mylan for 25 years, said her West Virginia upbringing had informed her approach to serving as chief executive. “There is a work ethic and grit about that that allows me to help make a difference,” she said. Some of the chafing at her style, she said, is because people are resistant to change. Her top accomplishments, she said, include getting a federal law passed that required more inspections of overseas drug manufacturers, and improving access to AIDS drugs for patients overseas. “To make change happen, to make a difference, mediocrity doesn’t get you there,” she said. Even as they have ruffled feathers within the industry, Ms. Bresch and Mylan have earned measured praise from consumer advocates, who said she wielded her influence in ways that helped consumers. James Love, director of the consumers group Knowledge Ecology International, said Ms. Bresch opened doors at the Office of the United States Trade Representative when his group and others were working to change provisions in the proposed Partnership that they said would have limited access to drugs by people overseas. Mylan, as a seller of generic drugs, shared their interest, he said. “They came in with some very talented people in the negotiations, and they knew what was going on politically,” Mr. Love said. Still, he said, he opposes their position on the EpiPen and said his group was composing a letter of complaint to the Federal Trade Commission. “I’m appalled at the price increase,” he said. “I don’t want to sugarcoat that. ” | 1 |
Non-mainstream poll shows Trump poised to win with 76% chance Alternative media poll shows Trump leaving Clinton in the dust November 6, 2016 Momma Loves The Donald/Flickr ( INTELLIHUB ) — An independent, non-mainstream poll shows Trump is favored to win the presidential election against Hillary 76 — 24, which is quite the contrast to so-called mainline polling data.
An open poll taken by Intellihub News via Twitter shows Hillary with 24%, compared to Trumps 76%, at the time this article was published. Who will win the #election2016 and become our next President?
— Intellihub (@intellihubnews) November 6, 2016
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal has reported that Hillary “holds a 4-point lead over Donald Trump.”
There are still some 16 hours left on the poll until it expires, so cast your vote now. ©2016. INTELLLIHUB.COM. All Rights Reserved. | 0 |
6 Reasons Why You’re Not Happy 6 Reasons Why You’re Not Happy
Corey is an aspiring iconoclast. He believes that the key to life is for men to honour their primal nature.
Learn more about his views at theprimalmale.com You can also follow him on Twitter . November 7, 2016 Mind
Happiness: it’s what we all want as human beings no matter the differences in where we seek them. We are motivated to do things to be happy and we avoid things that may detract from it. Even those who claim that they don’t care about happiness or that they’re living for a higher purpose is doing what they do because it makes them happy. In that way, happiness is beyond a state of feeling; it is a state of being.
Now, although you don’t want to be obsessive about happiness and make your life revolve around attaining it, there are few things you can do to live a more fulfilling life and improve the quality of your being. And as it’s often the case with self-improvement, I believe that addressing the bad habits will lead to a healthier life than trying to gain the positives.
Here are some ways you may be sabotaging your own happiness. 1. You are chasing it “I’ll be happy once I finally…”
The more you chase happiness, the less you have of it. And not only are people today chasing happiness, they’re chasing all the wrong things in hopes that it will bring them everlasting joy. Money, women, and status may elevate your life, but they can’t be the source of happiness alone. They will especially fail as being compensation for some void in your life that you’re trying to fill.
Also, know that your mood will naturally fluctuate over time. Constantly obsessing over how you feel and getting stressed over your emotional state will not help you. So, rather than jumping from one thing to another in hopes that it will boost your mood or dull your pain, focus on things that matter to you. It’s far better to work on self-improvement and enhancing the overall quality of your life than be wavered by feelings. 2. You don’t have the basics taken care of Good sleep is extremely underrated in our busy society. It affects your mood, testosterone level, mental capacity, and more. Prioritize sleep as much as you do with healthy diet and working out.
It’s often the basics that are overlooked. Ask yourself: Are you sleeping well (it’s harder to tell than you think)? Are you eating healthy? Are you keeping yourself fit? Are you getting enough sunlight? Do you ever take the time to connect with nature? Do you have a stable life? Do you have a purpose or a meaning? I doubt most people have all of these basic needs checked off. But I’m willing to bet that an improvement in even one area will significantly improve a person’s mood and well being. 3. You concern yourself with things you can’t control “No! Something bad is happening in the world and I can’t do jack shit about it! Time to complain about it on the internet.”
The more you sweat over issues which you can take no practical action over, the more helpless you feel and the more unhappy you will be. Of course, being able to tell the difference between what you can control and what you can’t is an art in itself that you need to master through experience. One thing I’m personally doing to lower stress is to reduce my news consumption and be less concerned with events around the world that are irrelevant to my personal life. I’ll read enough to get a general awareness of what’s happening around the world, but I refuse to be emotionally invested in things I have no control over. 4. You lack intimacy and deep human connection If you don’t have any friends to be vulnerable with, you didn’t have any to begin with.
I would argue that this is one of the biggest, if not the biggest factor in causing anxiety, depression, and general unhappiness in the modern world. Humans are social creatures and we need to bond with others. And beyond simply spending time with people to chat and drink, deeper connection needs to be made with people. The quality matters much more than the quantity.
In today’s society—especially in North America—it seems people have all become superficial and afraid of intimacy whether it be for friendship or romance. Without opening up your true self due to the fear of being rejected or ridiculed, all the relationships you have with others will not be genuine and it will not be fulfilling. 5. You are not living in the present reality You may be conscious, but are you aware?
If you live in the past or the future, you lose touch with the present reality. That disconnection will cause longing which can only lead to dissatisfaction and loss of joy.
The lure of nostalgia and daydreaming of a better life or an improved world is actually quite insidious because of how intoxicating it is. When your mind drifts to imagining a pleasurable experience or a more exciting life, you are tricked into thinking that the longing is happiness itself, sort of like how mirages work. On the contrary, studies have actually shown that you are actually happier (and more productive) when you focus on what you’re doing right now even if the task is boring. So, stick to the reality and forget about your fantasies. Either make things happen or accept that you’re just wasting your time and energy on wishful thinking. 6. You engage in junk activities “I’m happy, I’m happy, I’m happy…”
Just as there are junk foods, there are junk activities that may feel pleasurable at the time but dissatisfying and even harmful in the long-run.
Ask yourself: do you really need entertainment? I’ve squandered my youth by immersing myself in long hours of digital entertainment day after day. I barely even noticed that I was unhappy the whole time because I was so sedated. And what did I even get out of them? Those were several hours everyday that I could have spent reading, working out, learning new skills, meeting new people, and experiencing the world.
The fact is, giving up on entertainment has no negative impact on your level of happiness. Sure, you might miss them when they’re suddenly gone, but overall, as long as you find more valuable things to do, your life can only get better when you ditch them. Learn to enjoy things that give you value rather than seeking enjoyment in things without value. Conclusion
Unlike what many people today say, no one deserves happiness; that’s something you’ll have to earn. I’ll go as far as to say that “happiness”—as defined by modern standards—isn’t even necessary and hard to come by for certain individuals. Everyone has their own path towards living life to his unique potential and there is no universal rule that applies to all. So while I haven’t really listed anything specific for the reader to strive towards, I hope I laid out some pitfalls that you can avoid in your journey. Nov 7, 2016 Corey Savage | 0 |
In less than a day, the American populace will cast their votes for the next Commander-in-Chief. While many are anxiously awaiting the results of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, it’s accurate to... | 0 |
By BAR executive editor Glen Ford A n architect of regime-change, coups, no-fly zones, rule of the rich and mass incarceration is about to become Commander-in-Chief, yet the bulk of what passes for the Left is “engaged in a 1930s-style ‘united front’ against a ‘fascism’ that was never a threat in 21st century America.” Donald Trump, the orange menace, didn’t have a chance of becoming president. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, is a 21st century fascist and threat to life on Earth. “Trump’s anti-“free trade” stance and opposition to regime change and military confrontation with Russia and China drove most of the Republican-allied section of the ruling class straight into Hillary Clinton’s imperial Big Tent.” Hillary Clinton’s impending — and totally predictable — landslide victory on November 8 will prove only that there never was any danger of a “fascist” white nationalist takeover of the U.S. executive branch of government in 2016. That was always a red (or “orange”) herring, a phony “barbarians at the gate” threat that — as Wikileaks documents [3] confirmed — John Podesta and Hillary’s other handlers fervently hoped would convey “lesser evil” status to their manifestly unpopular candidate. There was nothing particularly devious or out of the ordinary in the Hillary camp’s favoring Donald Trump or, alternatively, Ted Cruz. It is standard Democratic Party practice to position themselves just to the left of the Republicans. In a duopoly electoral system, victory lies in where the cake is cut. By hugging close to the GOP’s flanks, national Democratic candidates can lay claim to a “center-left” spectrum of political space that encompasses a clear majority of U.S. public opinion on most issues. By this calculus, Democrats are supposed to win, unless they are tripped up on the closely related issues of race (failure to “stand up” to the Blacks) and foreign policy (failure to “stand up” to whoever is the designated foreign enemy). There was nothing particularly devious or out of the ordinary in the Hillary camp’s favoring Donald Trump or, alternatively, Ted Cruz. It is standard Democratic Party practice to position themselves just to the left of the Republicans. In a duopoly electoral system, victory lies in where the cake is cut. Race is the trickiest part of the equation, since white supremacy is embedded in the American political conversation, hiding just beneath the surface of most discourse on social and economic policy. “His overt racism probably weakened his appeal to whites.” Trump thought he could win by combining an overt white racist appeal with an anti-corporate message that laid the blame on Wall Street for (white) American job losses and falling living standards. He also calculated — correctly, it turns out — that in the wake of the 2008 economic meltdown, many white Americans were more upset about their own economic and social status than they were angry at Russians; that they wanted regime change at home more than abroad. Both of Trump’s central policies backfired, dooming his campaign. His overt racism probably weakened his appeal to whites, who have given majorities to national Republicans since 1968 but whose self-image is that they are not, as individuals, racist. (Certainly, white women found further reason to reject his candidacy.) Much more spectacularly, Trump’s anti-“free trade” stance and opposition to regime change and military confrontation with Russia and China drove most of the Republican-allied section of the ruling class straight into Hillary Clinton’s imperial Big Tent. At the national level, the duopoly system, as we had known it, virtually ceased to exist – a fact dramatically driven home by the near-universal corporate media rejection of Donald Trump, the candidacy they had done so much to create. The near-collapse of the duopoly system was the great fracture of the 2016 election, a potential historic opening to a far wider space of progressive political struggle, including on the moribund electoral level. With the ruling class gathered in one Big Tent, and the overt racists occupying the imploded shell of the GOP, the system itself was in disarray. What was once two vibrant parties of the ruling class, with a virtual monopoly on the totality of the electorate, had become one ruling class party plus a hollowed-out husk, at least temporarily occupied by white nationalists under the leadership of a narcissistic and incoherent billionaire, yet without enough funds to mount a competitive general election campaign. “The near-collapse of the duopoly system was the great fracture of the 2016 election.” I n these pages, we had been saying since last year that Donald Trump could not win; that Bernie Sanders’ fate would be sealed in the southern primaries; and that, although ruling class money would insure Clinton an election by landslide, it could not buy her legitimacy among a significant section of the Democratic “base,” who would now be pushed to the latrine area of her Big Tent. As we wrote on May 18 [4] of this year: “Outsized fear of Trump is hysteria. These days, the ‘brown shirts’ wear blue. Hillary is the candidate of Wall Street, War and Austerity – not Trump, the racist America Firster. And, he can’t win, anyway – not with tens of millions of ‘moderate’ Republicans and most of the party’s funders rushing into Hillary’s welcoming embrace.” But sadly, hysteria does reign in most of the “left” precincts of America. Those who did not hesitate to kick Hillary when she appeared to be “down” — in those heady days when they imagined it was possible she could lose to Sanders — are terrified to kick her when she is “up” and primed to take the helm of the hyper-power. They are engaged in a 1930s-style “united front” against a “fascism” that was never a threat in 21 st century America, where a different kind of dictatorship of the rich (but also a fascism) has made brown-shirts (and Klansmen) utterly superfluous. These trembling leftists refuse to oppose the modern manifestation of fascism, which is now firmly entrenched in power with Hillary as its champion, in favor of a crusade against an “orange” menace that did not have a ghost of a chance of seizing national power. They have made themselves perfectly irrelevant and useless — except, of course, to the fascists-in-charge. Source URL: http://blackagendareport.com/ghost_fascists_vs_real_ones | 0 |
Savers were encouraged last year when the Federal Reserve began raising rates. But interest paid on the federally insured accounts remains lackluster. Consumers willing to jump through some hoops, however, can get much better returns on their savings. In its annual review of checking accounts, the financial website Bankrate found that the average yield at banks and credit unions was 1. 65 percent, while nearly a dozen yielded 2 percent or more. By contrast, the average money market account yields just 0. 11 percent. Bankrate’s analysis looked at a sample of 56 banks and credit unions in to late February. But only about half of the accounts are available to consumers nationally, and all come with lots of strings attached. Most, for instance, require direct deposit and at least 10 debit transactions a month to earn the highest rate. Other requirements may include agreeing to receive monthly statements electronically and paying bills online. And a few banks say they offer the accounts nationally but still require an visit to a branch to open the account. “This is not something that’s going to work for everybody,” said Greg McBride, Bankrate’s chief financial analyst. For consumers who have direct deposit and use debit cards a lot, however, opening one of the accounts could be worthwhile since interest rates on savings accounts and certificates of deposit remain pedestrian. “All the more reason to be proactive,” he said, “ to make sure you’re getting the best return on your money. ” One example of a nationally available account is offered by Main Street Bank in Bingham Farms, Mich. The account offers 2. 25 percent on balances up to $25, 000 (the rate on balances over the cap is 0. 25 percent). In addition to a direct deposit or one automatic payment, the requirements include 12 debit transactions a month. Ken Tumin, founder of DepositAccounts. com, a website that tracks deposit rates, said many of his readers are older people looking to maximize returns on accounts, and some have multiple checking accounts. (He calls them reward checking accounts because they typically offer a “reward” like reimbursement of A. T. M. fees in addition to the higher rate.) One reader, he said, has at least 10 of these accounts. While managing them and making sure all the various requirements are met is a challenge for consumers, he said, “They’re serious in terms of maximizing their savings in a safe way. ” To get the most from the accounts, it’s best to think of them as a savings account, rather than a checking account, Mr. McBride said. The required debits should probably be for smaller amounts, he said, so the higher rate is applied to the largest balance possible. (A few banks require that the debit transactions hit a minimum purchase level, so be sure to check the details.) Here are some questions and answers about checking accounts: ■ What if I don’t make the required number of debit transactions? You won’t get the highest rate on your deposit for that month but will instead get a much lower, default interest rate. The average default rate is 0. 06 percent. The default rate isn’t permanent, however you can regain it by meeting the required debits the next month. And, Mr. Tumin said, the accounts typically have no monthly fee, so while you won’t earn the higher rate if you fail to meet the account’s criteria, you won’t be penalized with an additional charge. ■ Is there a limit on the balance that earns the higher rate? Usually, yes — and that can limit the money you earn on your funds. Consumers must weigh the rate along with the balance cap to determine which account would generate the most interest for them, Mr. McBride said. The caps range from a low of $500 to a high of $25, 000, with an average of about $16, 000, Bankrate found. Earning 2 percent on the average would earn more than $300 for the account holder. But of the 15 accounts, just one had a balance cap higher than $15, 000. Northpointe Bank in Grand Rapids, Mich. for instance, offers a yield of 5 percent, but it caps the balance eligible for the rate at $5, 000. Funds over the limit earn just 0. 1 percent. Mr. Tumin suggested that consumers with a relatively small amount of money to deposit choose the account with the highest rate, while those with a larger pot select an account with the highest cap. ■ What if I already have my paycheck deposited into another account? Some employers allow you to have your direct paycheck deposit split among multiple accounts, Mr. McBride said. So you could have a portion deposited into a main checking account, which you use to pay monthly bills, and have the rest deposited into the account to meet the criteria for the higher interest rate. In addition, some accounts allow deposits that use an automated clearing house electronic network for clearing financial transactions — A. C. H. transactions — to meet the criteria, Mr. Tumin said. So you could set up a recurring automatic transfer from an online savings account — say, one offered by the Ally Bank or Capital One 360 — to meet that requirement. | 1 |
LONDON — Bernie Ecclestone’s longstanding leadership of Formula One ended when Liberty Media officially completed its takeover of the series on Monday and named Chase Carey, the vice chairman of 21st Century Fox, as Formula One’s new chief executive. The takeover came five days after the International Automobile Federation, the sport’s governing body, approved the sale of Formula One to Liberty Media, an American company that invests in entertainment and sports. Liberty said in a statement on Monday that the transaction price represented an enterprise value for Formula One of $8 billion and an equity value of $4. 4 billion. The Ecclestone, who has been in charge of the series for nearly 40 years, will remain as an honorary chairman and will be an adviser to the circuit, according to Liberty. “I’m very pleased that the business has been acquired by Liberty,” Ecclestone said. “I am sure that Chase will execute his role in a way that will benefit the sport. ” Last September, Liberty Media Corp. which is controlled by the tycoon John Malone, ended years of uncertainty about the ownership of Formula One when it announced plans for a takeover. Last week, the World Motor Sport Council of the F. I. A. as the governing body is known, approved the change of control of Delta Topco, the series’s holding company, from the private equity firm CVC Capital Partners to Liberty Media Group. With Liberty’s shareholders having approved the move, an F. I. A. green light was the last regulatory step before the sale. Although Carey had been expected to replace Ecclestone, the buyout came sooner than expected and some time ahead of the new Formula One season, which starts on March 26 with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. | 1 |
NEW DELHI — The Indian government is struggling to support thousands of its citizens who have lost their jobs in Saudi Arabia, India’s minister of external affairs said on Monday, a new indication of how the drop in global oil prices has affected the Arab world’s largest economy and those who rely on it for their livelihoods. More than 10, 000 Indians have recently lost their jobs in the kingdom, and many are stuck there, some unable to feed themselves after not having been paid in months, the minister, Sushma Swaraj, told the upper house of India’s Parliament. “The government has taken this issue very seriously,” Ms. Swaraj said. “If they are getting work, it is fine. But if they are not getting work and want to come back home, I assure you that we will bring them home safe. ” Saudi Arabia and its wealthy Persian Gulf neighbors have long been top destinations for millions of poor laborers, most of whom work in construction, transport and other sectors. But the drop in oil prices to around $40 a barrel from more than $100 a barrel in June 2014 has undermined Persian Gulf economies, leaving countries like Saudi Arabia with large budget deficits and delaying payments to government contractors. Ms. Swaraj said that many of the unemployed workers were awaiting back wages after their work sites had closed down. There are more than three million Indian workers in Saudi Arabia, she said. Indian diplomats had managed to get food to workers living in five camps in Saudi Arabia as of Monday morning, Ms. Swaraj said. India is also trying to help those with no job prospects get home, a process complicated by Saudi restrictions on foreign labor. Human rights groups have accused Saudi Arabia and its neighbors of denying workers’ rights by allowing employers to confiscate foreign workers’ passports and not allowing them to leave the country without their employer’s permission. Ms. Swaraj said the struggle to obtain documents from employers that would free workers to return to India was frequently made more difficult by the worsening economic situation. “When the employer is no longer around, then where will we get the ‘no objection’ certificate?” she asked. The Saudi government’s budget difficulties have been felt most strongly in the construction sector, where contractors employ large work forces for huge infrastructure projects. In April, foreign laborers at Saudi Binladin Group, another construction giant, burned company buses during protests after not being paid for months. Ms. Swaraj said the Indian authorities were coordinating with Saudi Arabia to repatriate Indians who want to leave and trying to help unpaid workers to get their back wages. India’s junior foreign minister, V. K. Singh, will fly to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to coordinate the Indian effort, she added. Many Indian workers have also lost their jobs in Kuwait, but the situation is worse in Saudi Arabia, Ms. Swaraj said in a Twitter post on Saturday. Millions of Indians have migrated to the Middle East and Gulf countries for work over the years. Many of them work in conflict zones, and in the past the Indian government has arranged large air and sea operations to evacuate them. Last year, the government evacuated more than 4, 000 Indians from Yemen, where a coalition is fighting a war against Houthi rebels. | 1 |
Videos Green Party Senate Candidate Margaret Flowers Crashes Two-Party Debate Both of Flowers’ opponents agreed to debate the Green Party candidate, but she was still excluded from the debate televised by CBS Baltimore. | October 28, 2016 Be Sociable, Share! Margaret Flowers, center, the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate in Maryland, is escorted off stage after interrupting a televised Senate debate between Rep. Kathy Szeliga, R-Baltimore County, left, and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., in Baltimore, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2016
BALTIMORE — Dr. Margaret Flowers, a Green Party candidate for Senate from Maryland, interrupted a televised debate to protest her exclusion from the forum on Wednesday.
“I’m a candidate on the ballot. I have a statewide campaign. I don’t understand why I’m not up here,” Flowers declared as she briefly occupied the debate stage. This is NOT what democracy looks like #MDSen only televised debate excludes candidate #OpenDebates #LetFlowersDebate https://t.co/vOCInhwdvN pic.twitter.com/0sdvzJgofQ
— Dr. Margaret Flowers (@flowers4senate) October 26, 2016
Flowers is running for the seat long occupied by Democratic incumbent Barbara Mikulski, who announced her retirement earlier this year.
During the direct action, Flowers took the stage amid loud applause from the audience and shook hands with her opponents, Democratic nominee Chris Van Hollen and Republican nominee Kathy Szeliga, both of whom agreed to debate Flowers.
Despite being welcomed by her opponents, the organizers of the debate, CBS Baltimore and the University of Baltimore, refused to allow Flowers to participate . Watch ‘ Green Party Nominee Margaret Flowers Interrupt Senate Debate ‘:
After briefly holding forth on the stage, police escorted her from the premises. As she was being led away, Flowers loudly declared that the way alternative candidates like her are treated is “why our Democracy is a sham.”
After Flowers was led from the room, an audience member asserted his own support for open debates. He said: “We need to have open debates at the national level, at the state level, at all levels. If we’re supposed to be a democracy, why in God’s name are we excluding people from democracy? America is supposed to be the model for democracy, and the corporate media telling us that we can’t have more people at these debates — when is it going to end?”
Other members of the audience also voiced support for Flowers’ inclusion in the debate, including Kevin Zeese, who runs Popular Resistance alongside Flowers and who filmed the incident, shouting: “Let her on the stage!” Police escorted both men out of the building.
After the debate, the Flowers campaign issued a brief statement voicing her support for health care reform, for an end to foreign wars, and for the United States to invest heavily into renewable energy and fighting climate change. In part, the statement reads: “My exclusion means the voters will not know what I stand for and how I compare to the other candidates. While I have obvious differences with Republican views, I also have significant differences with Van Hollen. I am one of only twelve congressional candidates in the nation certified as a clean money candidate while Van Hollen has raised millions of dollars from big business lobbyists on K Street including from the fracking industry, weapons makers and big banks.”
According to a press release issued on Thursday by the campaign, the Sinclair Broadcast Group has offered to host a three-way debate on one of its stations. Of the three candidates, Van Hollen is the only one who refuses to participate. In the statement, Flowers said: “Chris Van Hollen knows that if I am included in the debate his phony politics will be exposed. I will tell voters that Van Hollen has raised millions of campaign donations from wealthy lobbyists and industries such as natural gas, telecoms and weapons makers as well as how the policies he urges favor Wall Street investors and war. He is avoiding vigorous open debates because he has the funds to buy advertising and not risk being exposed.”
Flowers, who is a pediatrician, became involved in politics and activism after she realized many of her patients and their families could not afford medical care. No stranger to direct action, Flowers was arrested in 2012 for protesting the Trans-Pacific Partnership , and again in 2014 for protesting a natural gas terminal in Cove Point, Maryland . In January 2015 , police escorted her out of the Senate as she interrupted TPP negotiations.
She also serves as co-director of Popular Resistance , which organizes and reports on protests throughout the United States, and occasionally contributes reporting and analysis to MintPress News.
In May, she told MintPress that she saw her candidacy as an opportunity to work with a political party “that can work hand in hand with social movements to get the change we need.”
“We have to build up a party that is the alternative we want to see, that really is dedicated to social justice and grassroots democracy,” Flowers said. | 0 |
Better than Bob Dylan, says Gary North . 12:52 am on October 28, 2016 | 0 |
Michiko Kakutani, the chief book critic for The New York Times, interviewed President Obama about literature on Friday at the White House. Here are excerpts from the conversation, which have been edited and condensed. These books that you gave to your daughter Malia on the Kindle, what were they? Some of your favorites? I think some of them were sort of the usual suspects, so “The Naked and the Dead” or “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” I think she hadn’t read yet. Then there were some books I think that are not on everybody’s reading list these days, but I remembered as being interesting, like “The Golden Notebook” by Doris Lessing, for example. Or “The Woman Warrior,” by Maxine [Hong Kingston]. Part of what was interesting was me pulling back books that I thought were really powerful, but that might not surface when she goes to college. Have you had a chance to discuss them with her? I’ve had the chance to discuss some. And she’s interested in being a filmmaker, so storytelling is of great interest to her. She had just read “A Moveable Feast. ” I hadn’t included that, and she was just captivated by the idea that Hemingway described his goal of writing one true thing every day. What made you want to become a writer? I loved reading when I was a kid, partly because I was traveling so much, and there were times where I’d be displaced, I’d be the outsider. When I first moved to Indonesia, I’m this big, kid that kind of stood out. And then when I moved back from Indonesia to Hawaii, I had the manners and habits probably of an Indonesian kid. And so the idea of having these worlds that were portable, that were yours, that you could enter into, was appealing to me. And then I became a teenager and wasn’t reading that much other than what was assigned in school, and playing basketball and chasing girls, and imbibing things that weren’t very healthy. I think all of us did. Yeah. And then I think rediscovered writing and reading and thinking in my first or second year of college and used that as a way to rebuild myself, a process I write about in “Dreams From My Father. ” That period in New York, where you were intensely reading. I was hermetic — it really is true. I had one plate, one towel, and I’d buy clothes from thrift shops. And I was very intense, and sort of humorless. But it reintroduced me to the power of words as a way to figure out who you are and what you think, and what you believe, and what’s important, and to sort through and interpret this swirl of events that is happening around you every minute. And so even though by the time I graduated I knew I wanted to be involved in public policy, or I had these vague notions of organizing, the idea of continuing to write and tell stories as part of that was valuable to me. And so I would come home from work, and I would write in my journal or write a story or two. The great thing was that it was useful in my organizing work. Because when I got there, the guy who had hired me said that the thing that brings people together to have the courage to take action on behalf of their lives is not just that they care about the same issue, it’s that they have shared stories. And he told me that if you learn how to listen to people’s stories and can find what’s sacred in other people’s stories, then you’ll be able to forge a relationship that lasts. But my interest in public service and politics then merged with the idea of storytelling. What were your short stories like? It’s interesting, when I read them, a lot of them had to do with older people. I think part of the reason was because I was working in communities with people who were significantly older than me. We were going into churches, and probably the average age of these folks was 55, 60. A lot of them had scratched and clawed their way into the middle class, but just barely. They were seeing the communities in which they had invested their hopes and dreams and raised their kids starting to decay — steel mills had closed, and there had been a lot of racial turnover in these communities. And so there was also this sense of loss and disappointment. And so a bunch of the short stories I wrote had to do with that sense, that atmosphere. One story is about an old black pastor who seems to be about to lose his church, his lease is running out and he’s got this loyal woman deacon who is trying to buck him up. Another is about an elderly couple — a white couple in L. A. — and he’s like in advertising, wrote jingles. And he’s just retired and has gotten cranky. And his wife is trying to convince him that his life is not over. So when I think back on what’s interesting to me, there is not a lot of Jack Kerouac, young kid on the make discovering stuff. It’s more melancholy and reflective. Was writing partly a way to figure out your identity? Yes, I think so. For me, particularly at that time, writing was the way I sorted through a lot of crosscurrents in my life — race, class, family. And I genuinely believe that it was part of the way in which I was able to integrate all these pieces of myself into something relatively whole. People now remark on this notion of me being very cool, or composed. And what is true is that I generally have a pretty good sense of place and who I am, and what’s important to me. And I trace a lot of that back to that process of writing. Has that continued to be so in the presidency? Not as much as I would have liked. I just didn’t have time. But you keep some form of a journal? I’ve kept some, but not with the sort of discipline that I would have hoped for. The main writing that I’ve done during the presidency has been my speeches, the ones at least that were important to me. How has the speechwriting and being at the center of history and dealing with crises affected you as a writer? I’m not sure yet. I’ll have to see when I start writing the next book. Some of the craft of writing a good speech is identical to any other good writing: Is that word necessary? Is it the right word? Is there a rhythm to it that feels good? How does it sound aloud? I actually think that one of the useful things about speechwriting is reminding yourself that the original words are spoken, and that there is a sound, a feel to words that, even if you’re reading silently, transmits itself. So in that sense, I think there will be some consistency. But this is part of why it was important to pick up the occasional novel during the presidency, because most of my reading every day was briefing books and memos and proposals. And so working that very analytical side of the brain all the time sometimes meant you lost track of not just the poetry of fiction, but also the depth of fiction. Fiction was useful as a reminder of the truths under the surface of what we argue about every day and was a way of seeing and hearing the voices, the multitudes of this country. Are there examples of specific novels or writers? Well, the last novel I read was Colson Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad. ” And the reminder of the ways in which the pain of slavery transmits itself across generations, not just in overt ways, but how it changes minds and hearts. It’s what you said in your farewell address about Atticus Finch, where you said people are so isolated in their little bubbles. Fiction can leap — It bridges them. I struck up a friendship with [the novelist] Marilynne Robinson, who has become a good friend. And we’ve become sort of pen pals. I started reading her in Iowa, where “Gilead” and some of her best novels are set. And I loved her writing in part because I saw those people every day. And the interior life she was describing that connected them — the people I was shaking hands with and making speeches to — it connected them with my grandparents, who were from Kansas and ended up journeying all the way to Hawaii, but whose foundation had been set in a very similar setting. And so I think that I found myself better able to imagine what’s going on in the lives of people throughout my presidency because of not just a specific novel but the act of reading fiction. It exercises those muscles, and I think that has been helpful. And then there’s been the occasion where I just want to get out of my own head. [Laughter] Sometimes you read fiction just because you want to be someplace else. What are some of those books? It’s interesting, the stuff I read just to escape ends up being a mix of things — some science fiction. For a while, there was a novel, the “ Problem” series — Oh, Liu Cixin, who won the Hugo Award. — which was just wildly imaginative, really interesting. It wasn’t so much sort of character studies as it was just this sweeping — It’s really about the fate of the universe. Exactly. The scope of it was immense. So that was fun to read, partly because my problems with Congress seem fairly petty — not something to worry about. Aliens are about to invade. [Laughter] There were books that would blend, I think, really good writing with thriller genres. I mean, I thought “Gone Girl” was a book. I loved that structure. Yeah, and it was really well executed. And a similar structure, that I thought was a really powerful novel: “Fates and Furies,” by Lauren Groff. I like those structures where you actually see different points of view. Which I have to do for this job, too. [Laughter] Have there been certain books that have been touchstones for you in these eight years? I would say Shakespeare continues to be a touchstone. Like most teenagers in high school, when we were assigned, I don’t know, “The Tempest” or something, I thought, ‘My God, this is boring.’ And I took this wonderful Shakespeare class in college where I just started to read the tragedies and dig into them. And that, I think, is foundational for me in understanding how certain patterns repeat themselves and play themselves out between human beings. Is that sort of comforting? It gives me a sense of perspective. I think Toni Morrison’s writings — particularly “Song of Solomon” is a book I think of when I imagine people going through hardship. That it’s not just pain, but there’s joy and glory and mystery. I think that there are writers who I don’t necessarily agree with in terms of their politics, but whose writings are sort of a baseline for how to think about certain things — V. S. Naipaul, for example. His “A Bend in the River,” which starts with the line, “The world is what it is men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it. ” And I always think about that line, and I think about his novels when I’m thinking about the hardness of the world sometimes, particularly in foreign policy, and I resist and fight against sometimes that very cynical, more realistic view of the world. And yet, there are times where it feels as if that may be true. So in that sense, I’m using writing like that as a foil or something to debate against. I’ve read that Lincoln loved Shakespeare his whole life, but when he was dealing with the Civil War, reading the history plays helped give him solace and perspective. Lincoln’s own writings do that. He is a very fine writer. I’d put the Second Inaugural up against any piece of American writing — as good as anything. One of the great treats of being president is, in the Lincoln Bedroom, there’s a copy of the Gettysburg Address handwritten by him, one of five copies he did for charity. And there have been times in the evening when I’d just walk over, because it’s right next to my office, my home office, and I just read it. And perspective is exactly what is wanted. At a time when events move so quickly and so much information is transmitted, the ability to slow down and get perspective, along with the ability to get in somebody else’s shoes — those two things have been invaluable to me. Whether they’ve made me a better president, I can’t say. But what I can say is that they have allowed me to sort of maintain my balance during the course of eight years, because this is a place that comes at you hard and fast and doesn’t let up. Is there some poem or any writing or author that you would turn to, say, after the mass killings in Newtown, Conn. or during the financial crisis? I think that during those periods, Lincoln’s writings, King’s writings, Gandhi’s writings, Mandela’s writings — I found those particularly helpful, because what you wanted was a sense of solidarity. During very difficult moments, this job can be very isolating. So sometimes you have to hop across history to find folks who have been similarly feeling isolated. Churchill’s a good writer. And I loved reading Teddy Roosevelt’s writing. He’s this big, outsize character. Have you read a lot of presidential biographies? The biographies have been useful, because I do think that there’s a tendency, understandable, to think that whatever’s going on right now is uniquely disastrous or amazing or difficult. And it just serves you well to think about Roosevelt trying to navigate World War II or Lincoln trying to figure out whether he’s going to fire [George B.] McClellan when Rebel troops are 20, 30, 40 miles away. I watched some of the documentary “Eyes on the Prize” after the election. It was useful. You do see how far we’ve come, and in the space of my lifetime. And that’s why seeing my daughters now picking up books that I read 30 years ago or 40 years ago is gratifying, because I want them to have perspective — not for purposes of complacency, but rather to give them confidence that people with a sense of determination and courage and pluck can reshape things. It’s empowering for them. What books would you recommend at this moment in time, that captures this sense of turmoil? I should probably ask you or some people who have had time to catch up on reading. I’ll confess that since the election, I’ve been busier than I expected. So one of the things I’m really looking forward to is to dig into a whole bunch of literature. But one of the things I’m confident about is that, out of this moment, there are a whole bunch of writers, a lot of them young, who are probably writing the book I need to read. [Laughter] They’re ahead of me right now. And so in my in addition to training the next generation of leaders to work on issues like climate change or gun violence or criminal justice reform, my hope is to link them up with their peers who see fiction or nonfiction as an important part of that process. When so much of our politics is trying to manage this clash of cultures brought about by globalization and technology and migration, the role of stories to unify — as opposed to divide, to engage rather than to marginalize — is more important than ever. There’s something particular about quieting yourself and having a sustained stretch of time that is different from music or television or even the greatest movies. And part of what we’re all having to deal with right now is just a lot of information overload and a lack of time to process things. So we make quick judgments and assign stereotypes to things, block certain things out, because our brain is just trying to get through the day. We’re bombarded with information. Technology is moving so rapidly. Look, I don’t worry about the survival of the novel. We’re a storytelling species. I think that what one of the jobs of political leaders going forward is, is to tell a better story about what binds us together as a people. And America is unique in having to stitch together all these disparate elements — we’re not one race, we’re not one tribe, folks didn’t all arrive here at the same time. What holds us together is an idea, and it’s a story about who we are and what’s important to us. And I want to make sure that we continue that. I know you like Junot Díaz’s and Jhumpa Lahiri’s books, and they speak to immigration or the American Dream. I think Lahiri’s books, I think Díaz’s books, do speak to a very particular contemporary immigration experience. But also this combination of — that I think is universal — longing for this better place, but also feeling displaced and looking backwards at the same time. I think in that sense, their novels are directly connected to a lot of American literature. Some of the great books by Jewish authors like Philip Roth or Saul Bellow, they are steeped with this sense of being an outsider, longing to get in, not sure what you’re giving up — what you’re willing to give up and what you’re not willing to give up. So that particular aspect of American fiction I think is still of great relevance today. | 1 |
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[Ed. – Lawmakers are saying she’s basically “pleading the Fifth.” But it appears to be more than that, if her deputy is warning members of Congress about publicly disclosing what they know about the payments. There cannot be any justification for that.]
Attorney General Loretta Lynch is declining to comply with an investigation by [mis]leading members of Congress about the Obama administration’s secret efforts to send Iran $1.7 billion in cash earlier this year, prompting accusations that Lynch has “pleaded the Fifth” Amendment to avoid incriminating herself over these payments, according to lawmakers and communications exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon .
Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.) initially presented Lynch in October with a series of questions about how the cash payment to Iran was approved and delivered.
In an Oct. 24 response , Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik responded on Lynch’s behalf, refusing to answer the questions and informing the lawmakers that they are barred from publicly disclosing any details about the cash payment, which was bound up in a ransom deal aimed at freeing several American hostages from Iran.
The response from the attorney general’s office is “unacceptable” and provides evidence that Lynch has chosen to “essentially plead the fifth and refuse to respond to inquiries regarding [her] role in providing cash to the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism,” Rubio and Pompeo wrote on Friday in a follow-up letter to Lynch, according to a copy obtained by the Free Beacon . | 0 |
Actor and performance artist Shia LaBeouf has taken down his Trump “He Will Not Divide Us” live stream project after gunshots were reported in the area near the exhibit. [“We have taken the stream down after shots were reported in the area. The safety of everybody participating in our project is paramount,” LaBeouf tweeted to his Twitter followers early Thursday morning. We have taken the stream down after shots were reported in the area. The safety of everybody participating in our project is paramount. — Shia LaBeouf (@thecampaignbook) February 23, 2017, LaBeouf initially launched his live stream at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York, hours before Trump was sworn in as America’s 45th President. The concept of the project was to have museum patrons stand in front of a camera placed on a wall, which had the phrase “He Will Not Divide Us” written on it. The camera was initially intended to record participants — and the Transformers star — shouting the phrase into the camera 24 hours a day for the remainder of Trump’s term in office. But less than a month after it was established, LaBeouf’s live stream was over as he was taken away in handcuffs by police following an alleged physical altercation between him and a Trump supporter. The museum promptly shut down the project and LaBeouf and collaborators Nastja Sade Ronkko and Luke Turner blasted the decision in a blog post. Earlier this month, the actor moved the art exhibit to the El Rey Theatre in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico. “We are anti the normalization of division. That’s it,” LaBeouf told the Albuquerque Journal on Saturday, the first day at its new location. “The rest of the info is right there, chief, I got nothing else to say to you. ” Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson | 1 |
As the Oscar for best picture was being presented at the 89th Academy Awards on Sunday night, Tim Ryan, the United States chairman of PwC, was sitting in a plush seat in the Dolby Theater, watching with satisfaction. PwC, an accounting firm based in London, has tabulated the votes for the Academy Awards for 83 years. And the Oscars, while not its most lucrative client, is perhaps its most important. The firm leans on its long history as Hollywood’s chief to enhance its appeal in efforts like business development and recruiting. So when “La La Land” was named the winner and the producers began delivering their acceptance speeches, it appeared Mr. Ryan’s work for the night was done. Then chaos erupted on the stage. A PwC partner had handed Warren Beatty, a presenter of the award, the wrong envelope. Faye Dunaway, presenting the award with Mr. Beatty, erroneously announced that “La La Land” had won. Moments later, after the two PwC partners who oversee the voting came onstage, the “La La Land” producers announced that “Moonlight” was in fact the winner. Mr. Ryan watched in horror as the bizarre scene played out before Hollywood’s biggest stars and tens of millions of people watching around the globe. In a dizzying turn of events, his firm, which normally occupies a back seat at the glamorous event, was suddenly at the center of one of the most sensational stories in Oscars history. “I knew something was up,” he said in a telephone interview on Monday, zeroing in on the discordant moment when he noticed two of his employees interrupting the best picture acceptance speeches. “It’s not their job to come out on stage. ” As the magnitude of the gaffe set in, Mr. Ryan went into mode. “What was going though my head at the time was, ‘We have to get to the bottom of this, and if we made a mistake, we’ll own up to it,’” Mr. Ryan said. “My philosophy in life is, bad news doesn’t age well. ” Reaction to the mistake has been swift and harsh. “The accountants have one job to do — that’s to give Warren Beatty the right envelope,” Leslie Moonves, the chief executive of CBS, said in a videotaped interview after the show, which was broadcast on ABC. “That’s what these people are paid a lot of money to do. If they were my accountant, I would fire them. ” On Monday, the hashtags #envelopegate and #Oscarfail were trending on Twitter, and PwC, a business that markets its services to other businesses, was newly on the tip of many consumers’ tongues in an unforgiving fashion. “You had one job!” several people remarked, tagging the company’s username and the two partners who oversaw the ballots, who were the public faces of PwC’s efforts before and during the show. Some criticized PwC, formerly known as PricewaterhouseCoopers, on an unofficial Facebook page for the business, with one person remarking its acronym could stand for “probably wrong card. ” Just as quickly as the fortunes of “La La Land” and “Moonlight” changed, PwC, one of the Big Four accounting firms, had a major brand crisis on its hands. “Not since Janet Jackson and her wardrobe malfunction on the Super Bowl have we seen something quite as glaring as this snafu,” said Andrew D. Gilman, the chief executive of the crisis communications firm CommCore Consulting Group, referring to the 2004 episode. Although most of PwC’s clients are aware that mistakes can happen, “the name of the firm has unfortunately been a little sullied,” he added. PwC was quick to accept responsibility for the mistake. According to Mr. Ryan and others briefed on the process, a PwC partner, Brian Cullinan, handed Mr. Beatty the wrong envelope. Instead of the envelope containing the winner for best picture, Mr. Cullinan accidentally handed Mr. Beatty a duplicate of the envelope for best actress — an award Emma Stone had accepted for her role in “La La Land” just moments before. For the Oscars, PwC uses two complete sets of the envelopes, with one placed on each side of the stage. Mr. Cullinan was handling one side, and the other partner overseeing the voting process, Martha L. Ruiz, was handling the other. It isn’t clear what led Mr. Cullinan to hand Mr. Beatty the wrong envelope. Mr. Cullinan posted on Twitter a photograph of Ms. Stone backstage shortly after she won the award for best actress, and minutes before the according to The Wall Street Journal. The post, which has been deleted, said “Best Actress Emma Stone backstage! #PWC. ” The design of the envelopes could have been a factor. The envelopes were redesigned this year to feature red paper with gold lettering that specified the award enclosed, rather than gold paper with dark lettering. That could have made the lettering harder to read. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, not PwC, is responsible for the design and procurement of the envelopes. Whatever the reason, PwC was left searching for answers. As celebrities and guests hit the town for celebrations, Mr. Ryan spent the hours after the awards show speaking with Mr. Cullinan, Ms. Ruiz, members of the Academy and the show’s producers. “I spent the bulk of the night with Brian trying to understand what happened,” Mr. Ryan said. “There wasn’t much in terms of parties last night. ” Mr. Ryan and others at PwC were scrambling to contain the damage all night. The firm released a statement early Monday apologizing and taking responsibility for the mistake. Later in the day, Mr. Ryan wrote an email to PwC employees. It is too early to tell how the error will affect the PwC brand. A privately held partnership, PwC provides accounting, tax advisory and consulting services to most of the world’s largest corporations. It reported sales of $36 billion during its last fiscal year, up 7 percent from the previous year. The entertainment and media sector accounted for just 4. 2 percent of sales. PwC would not comment on its financial arrangement with the Academy, and Mr. Ryan said that there had not been any discussions about whether its longstanding contract was in jeopardy. PwC, which said earlier this month that it planned to hire an advertising agency to help promote some of its services, recently selected for those efforts. That marketing work will be separate from any ad campaign the company may plan in the wake of the Oscars . The company promotes the firm’s longstanding relationship with the Academy Awards on its website. One video posted there, introducing Mr. Cullinan and Ms. Ruiz, began with the line, “The reason we were even first asked to take on this role was because of the reputation PwC has in the marketplace for being a firm of integrity, of accuracy and confidentiality. ” It went on to note that the relationship was “symbolic of how we’re thought of beyond this role and how our clients think of us. ” But how clients think of PwC may change. Mr. Gilman, the crisis communications specialist, said he was curious to see if PwC kept the Oscars contract. “They have branded themselves around this event saying, ‘We’re trusted’ — that’s the implication. Now I think that will take a hit. ” | 1 |
ENID, Okla. — One Sunday after church, Jeff Mullin and his wife were in line at the Western Sizzlin steakhouse here when a man, fists clenched, threatened to beat the hell out of him. “My first thought was just to kind of try to keep things calm. Otherwise, it was going to be two old guys rolling around on the floor of the steakhouse, and that would be pretty unseemly,” recalled Mr. Mullin, 64, the mustachioed senior writer for Enid’s daily newspaper, The Enid News Eagle. The dispute was not personal. It was, of all things, editorial. Mr. Mullin’s red newspaper in a red county in what is arguably the reddest of states went blue this campaign season and endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. The editorial board, in a column on Page A4 on Oct. 9, wrote that Donald J. Trump lacked “the skills, experience or temperament to hold office. ” The headline and subhead read: “For U. S. president: Hillary Clinton is our choice for commander in chief. ” It was the first Democratic endorsement for president in the modern history of the newspaper, which was founded in 1893. As the man’s reaction at the steakhouse suggested, Enid was stunned, and this agricultural town of 52, 000 near the Kansas state line has not been the same since. The News Eagle, with a circulation of 10, 000, lost 162 subscribers who canceled the paper. Eleven advertisers pulled their ads, including a funeral home that had a sizable account. Someone stuck a “Crooked Hillary” bumper sticker on the glass doors of the paper’s downtown office. A man left a message on the publisher’s voice mail, expressing his hope that readers would deliver, to put it delicately, a burning sack of steaming excrement to the paper. Around the country, as newspapers big and small are struggling to keep subscribers, a handful of papers with conservative editorial boards made news by either endorsing Mrs. Clinton or urging readers to back anybody but Mr. Trump. Among them were The Dallas Morning News and The Fort Worth . The Arizona Republic in Phoenix received death threats after it endorsed a Democrat for president for the first time in its history. Yet for the most part, the fallout at those large metropolitan newspapers was and barely noticed. The ’s editorial in October, “Say No to Trump,” led to more than 100 canceled subscriptions, less than of 1 percent of its circulation. In Enid, however, sentiment about the endorsement lingers weeks after the election. A former mayor, Doug Frantz, 72, withdrew his participation in this year’s Pillar of the Plains events, which are sponsored by the paper and honor community leaders and volunteers. Emails, letters, phone calls and comments denouncing the endorsement have poured into the paper’s website and Facebook page, and online, the editorial logged more than 20, 000 page views the week it was published, making it one of the most viewed articles to ever run on Enidnews. com. Days after the editorial, Paul Allen, 81, one of Enid’s most prominent residents — he financed construction of the ballpark downtown — stepped into the paper’s offices on Broadway. He walked past the statue of an eagle in the lobby and canceled his subscription at the front desk. He might have done it sooner, but hesitated because he knows the publisher, Jeff L. Funk, whom he sees at weekly Rotary Club meetings. “I like Jeff a lot,” said Mr. Allen, a of a meat processing company that is the largest private employer in town. “That was one reason I debated it, because I didn’t want to offend him. “I wasn’t gloating over it,” he continued. “I just felt like it was kind of my duty almost. When I saw that headline, I was shocked. It was sickening to me. ” The News Eagle’s editorial showed the raw power of partisanship in America, the extraordinary divisions exposed in this election and the surprising ways in today’s digital media age that newspaper endorsements still have the power to generate a reaction, even if they don’t necessarily change people’s votes. “There used to be a saying that the editorial page was the soul of a newspaper, and if that’s the case, we’ve got a lot of newspapers in the country because they’re afraid to offend anybody,” said Terry M. Clark, the director of the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame and a professor of journalism at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond. “This is an excellent example of the way American journalism ought to be — standing for something — and, man, it takes guts to do that in Enid, Okla. ” The News Eagle, which urged readers in the Republican primary to support Senator Marco Rubio for president, stands by its endorsement of Mrs. Clinton. But it has also been busy doing damage control. One reader who stopped taking the paper said it was still trying to woo him back by delivering an occasional copy to his doorstep. The executive editor, Rob Collins, has worked the phones, talking to subscribers who had canceled or threatened to do so. “I talked a lot of people off the ledge,” said Mr. Collins, who grew up in Enid and whose father was a respected car salesman. “People knew my dad or know my mom and know my family here. A lot of people who were angry called expecting me to argue right back with them. Really, the only time I would raise my voice is when I would get cursed at or yelled at, which I don’t really like. “I hope people can respect that we’re entitled to our opinion, too, and that that can be different from news,” he added. The editorial took shape from notes that Mr. Funk, the publisher, supplied to Mr. Collins. Mr. Collins refined the notes and was the primary author of the endorsement, which was debated and approved by the paper’s editorial board. The paper’s corporate parent, Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. which is based in Alabama and owns newspapers and websites in 23 states, also played a role. “It was our decision at the corporate level, which of course was made known to all of our papers, that Donald Trump did not meet our company and journalism values, particularly as they related to the First Amendment,” said Bill Ketter, the senior vice president for news. Asked if the Enid editorial board had the freedom to endorse Mr. Trump, he replied: “Let me put it this way. We would have been disappointed. Did we demand that they do something? No, we didn’t do that. We set out our principles and our standards. ” Enid is roughly 100 miles north of Oklahoma City, and people here still like to debate whether the town gets its name from a character in a Tennyson poem or, according to urban legend, from a joke played on an old chuck wagon sign. (Enid is, after all, “Dine” spelled backward.) The jets from Vance Air Force Base fly so low that residents like to say they can read the markings on the bottoms of the aircraft. Several residents said they now depended on the newspaper’s competitor, The Enid Buzz — an online and social media hub for community news and activities — for their local news, and they disputed any suggestion that canceling subscriptions was too strong a reaction. “I’m unhappy with the whole media,” said Jody Traynor, 67, a subscriber who stopped taking the paper after the endorsement. “All of them. They lean too much. They’re supposed to just tell me the news and let me decide. ” All 77 counties in Oklahoma went for Mr. Trump. The last Democrat to carry the state was Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, while the last one to carry an Oklahoma county in a presidential election was Al Gore in 2000. Still, there are Democrats in Enid, at least one of whom was pleased with the situation. “We gained one subscriber out of the endorsement editorial,” Mr. Funk said. “We lost 162, but we gained one. ” At Western Sizzlin that Sunday, Mr. Mullin ended up ordering a steak and a baked potato without further incident, but the confrontation disturbed and puzzled him. He and his wife attend Willow View United Methodist Church, as do members of the man’s family. “Looking back on it, I think it was all talk, but at the time I thought there was a possibility that he might take a swing at me,” said Mr. Mullin, a member of the editorial board. “And I thought this is crazy. This is a newspaper endorsement. Some of the people almost seemed hurt. Like, ‘How can my newspaper’ — in a small town like this, it’s their newspaper — ‘do this to me?’ I think there was almost a sense of betrayal. ” | 1 |
Elton John and his longtime boyfriend, David Furnish, entered a civil partnership on Dec. 21, 2005, in England under a law the country had just enacted granting recognition to couples. The congratulations poured in as the two men appeared at a joyous ceremony at Windsor Guildhall, amid a crush of paparazzi. Donald J. Trump, who had known the couple for years, took to his blog to express his excitement. “I know both of them, and they get along wonderfully. It’s a marriage that’s going to work,” Mr. Trump wrote, adding: “I’m very happy for them. If two people dig each other, they dig each other. ” Mr. Trump is now the leading candidate for president in the Republican primary, which has traditionally been dominated by hopefuls eager to show how deeply conservative they are on social issues like gay rights and marriage. But Mr. Trump is far more accepting of sexual minorities than his party’s leaders have been. On Thursday, he startled some Republicans by saying on NBC’s “Today” show that he opposed a recently passed North Carolina law that prohibits people from using public bathrooms that do not correspond to the gender they were born with, striking down a Charlotte ordinance. Transgender people should “use the bathroom they feel is appropriate,” Mr. Trump said, putting him at odds with a majority of Republicans in North Carolina. But it is his views on gay rights and gay people that most distinguish Mr. Trump from previous Republican . He has nurtured long friendships with gay people, employed gay workers in prominent positions, and moved with ease in industries where gays have long exerted influence, like entertainment. “He will be the most Republican nominee for president ever,” said Gregory T. Angelo, the president of the Log Cabin Republicans, a group that supports gay rights. Of course, Mr. Trump is not as embracing of gay rights as the Democratic candidates are he said during this campaign that he believes that marriage is between a man and a woman, a position he has held since at least 2000, when he briefly flirted with a bid for the presidency. But he does not emphasize marriage as an issue, and he makes no mention of it, for example, on his campaign website, which focuses on issues like immigration and trade. And Mr. Trump, who has inflamed tensions with almost every group, from Hispanics to women to has avoided attacking or offending gay men and lesbians during the campaign. His history with the gay community is a long one. He donated to charities focused on the AIDS crisis in the late 1980s and early ’90s. In 2000, when he briefly considered running for president, he gave an interview to The Advocate, a gay magazine, in which he supported amending the 1964 Civil Rights Act to “include a ban of discrimination based on sexual orientation. ” “It would be simple. It would be straightforward,” Mr. Trump said in the interview, adding, “It’s only fair. ” Sixteen years later, gay rights advocates are still trying to persuade Congress to pass a similar measure, but they have struggled to win support, especially from Republicans. The last Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, opposed similar legislation in 2012. Mr. Trump declined to be interviewed for this article. His ease with gay people does not seem to be the result of deep soul searching, but, rather, the product of the Manhattan social and political world he has inhabited the past five decades. “I live in New York. I know many, many gay people. Tremendous people,” Mr. Trump said in an interview in 2011. He has been playful at times, such as in 2000, when he and Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani appeared in a skit for a political roast, during which Mr. Trump nuzzled and caressed the mayor, who was dressed in drag. Friends say he also views gay rights through the lens of a bottom businessman. “His key concern is, Are you capable and able to do the job I hired you for? And if you are, very little else matters,” said Abe Wallach, an openly gay executive at the Trump Organization in the 1990s. “Very little on a social level will make Donald excited — if it was money or something else, he might get excited. ” Mr. Trump was believed to be the first private club owner in Palm Beach, Fla. to admit an openly gay couple, according to Laurence Leamer, the author of “Madness Under the Royal Palms,” a book about Palm Beach society. Mr. Trump made his club, more open partly out of disdain for the restrictions that barred Jews and from joining exclusive clubs in Palm Beach. “It’s one of the best things he’s done in my view in his life,” Mr. Leamer said. “He really changed the nature of Palm Beach. ” Rand Hoch, a gay activist who founded the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council in 1988, recalled bringing dates to on two occasions. Both times, he said, Mr. Trump, who loves to play the role of greeter as guests arrive at his club, was pleasant and approached the two for chitchat. “He treated us no differently than everyone else who was going through that door,” Mr. Hoch said, adding that it was not possible that Mr. Trump was unaware they were gay. “He’s perceptive, so I’m pretty sure he didn’t think we were brothers. ” Mr. Wallach said that he and his husband would fly on Mr. Trump’s jet to Florida or Atlantic City on weekends. “I found him to be very friendly to my spouse,” he said. “He would often ask about my spouse, how his dental practice was doing. ” Mr. Trump’s foundation has given over the years to groups like the AIDS Service Center and the Elton John AIDS Foundation. Some of those donations came more recently in connection with his reality television show “The Celebrity Apprentice,” whose winners got to select the recipient charities. But as early as 1987, Mr. Trump made a $25, 000 contribution to the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, from profits generated by his company’s operation of the Wollman Memorial Rink in Central Park. And in 1992, the Trump Taj Mahal held an event that raised $60, 000 for AIDS research. Mr. Trump’s recent alliances with social conservatives such as Jerry Falwell Jr. and Pat Robertson have alarmed people like Mr. Angelo, whose group, the Log Cabin Republicans, is eager to meet with the real estate mogul to discuss his positions in detail. And some gay acquaintances of Mr. Trump find it puzzling that he cannot support marriage, given his comfort with gay relationships. In 2012, Mr. Trump attended the wedding of Jordan Roth, a Broadway producer, and Richie Jackson, in a ceremony at the Al Hirschfeld Theater. Months later, Mr. Trump went to lunch with the actor George Takei, who is openly gay and was fired by Mr. Trump from “The Celebrity Apprentice. ” Mr. Takei approached Mr. Trump at a news conference for the show, saying he would like to try to change his views on letting gay people marry. “He said, ‘George, maybe I could learn something from you,’ ” Mr. Takei said in a telephone interview this week from his home in California. The lunch, at Trump Tower, opened with Mr. Trump mentioning the wedding he had attended, which Mr. Takei later learned was that of Mr. Roth and Mr. Jackson. Mr. Takei walked Mr. Trump through the benefits of supporting marriage, particularly for a business owner. Gay couples would celebrate in his hotels, and their guests would dine in his restaurants, Mr. Takei said. Mr. Trump agreed with that view, Mr. Takei said, but he would not budge, saying he supported “traditional marriage. ” “I was tempted to say, marrying multiple times is not traditional marriage,” Mr. Takei said of Mr. Trump, who has been married three times. | 1 |
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s recent speech on immigration really missed the point. I understand Trump’s frustration over the US government’s inability to control the US borders and keep out those who would come to this country illegally. Trump was right that the media ignore legitimate questions we have on our immigration policy and he is right that special interests have a great interest in maintaining the status quo.
However when it comes to really solving the immigration problem he gets it all wrong. And instead of making us more free and prosperous, his solutions will accelerate our downward slide toward authoritarianism.
First let’s consider his idea of building a big wall between the US and Mexico. It is said that all one needs to get over an eight foot fence is a nine foot ladder. Or perhaps a shovel. So walls are never very good at keeping people out. But they are very good at keeping people in. Just ask the East Germans. The communist government claimed in 1961 that it had to build a wall around the portion of Berlin it controlled to keep the population safe from the evil capitalist wreckers and saboteurs. It didn’t take long for the world to realize that the real threat to the East German leaders was that the people trapped in East Berlin would try to get out. We have all seen the horrific videos of East German civilians risking – and losing – their lives to escape that prison of razor wire and cinder block.
Is this really what we want for our own future?
What a wild conspiracy theory, some may claim. The wall would never be meant to keep us from leaving. Well ask the IRS. Under a tax enforcement provision passed in 2015, the US government claimed the right to cancel any American citizen’s passport if Washington claims it is owed money.
Trump also made E-Verify the center of his immigration speech. He said, “We will ensure that E-Verify is used to the fullest extent possible under existing law, and we will work with Congress to strengthen and expand its use across the country.”
While preventing those here illegally from being able to gain employment may appeal to many who would like to protect American jobs, E-Verify is the worst possible solution. It is a police state non-solution, as it would require the rest of us legal American citizens to carry a biometric national ID card connected to a government database to prove that the government allows us to work. A false positive would result in financial disaster for millions of American families, as one would be forced to fight a faceless government bureaucracy to correct the mistake. Want to put TSA in charge of deciding if you are eligible to work?
The battle against illegal immigration is a ploy to gain more control over our lives. We are supposed to be terrified of the hoards of Mexicans streaming into our country and thus grant the government new authority over the rest of us. But in fact a Pew study found that between 2009 and 2014 there was a net loss of 140,000 Mexican immigrants from the United States. Yes, this is a government “solution” in search of a real problem.
How to tackle the real immigration problem? Eliminate incentives for those who would come here to live off the rest of us, and make it easier and more rational for those who wish to come here legally to contribute to our economy. No walls, no government databases, no biometric national ID cards. But not a penny in welfare for immigrants. It’s really that simple. | 0 |
On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher stated that MSNBC host Rachel Maddow’s Trump tax return story was “worse than a nothingburger, it was a help Trump burger. ” Maher said, “I’m a big fan of Rachel Maddow. I want her on the air. ” He added that the tax return story “turned out to be a big nothingburger, worse than a nothingburger, it was a help Trump burger. ” Maher further stated that the amount of taxes Trump paid is “well within respectful. This is probably the best tax return he’s ever filed, which makes me think this came from Donald Trump. … This is getting played. ” Maher concluded, “[L]et’s not weaponize Rachel Maddow. ” Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett | 1 |
Posted on October 27, 2016 by Ryan Banister
Project Hemisphere, a secretive program developed by AT&T, searches trillions of call records in order to analyze cell phone data, spying on the activity of private individuals in order to identify who they are speaking with and why, as well as GPS tracking on the location of each individual connected to the call, and it transmits this information to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
In 2013, Project Hemisphere was shown in a Powerpoint presentation produced by the Drug Enforcement Administration. The New York Times reported this as a partnership between AT&T and the DOJ, primarily deployed for drug-enforcement task-forces. All information collected in this program is accessible to the federal agencies authorized by the DOJ.
AT&T specifically developed and marketed this product for use by the DOJ, who would promise hundreds of millions in funds on behalf of taxpayers, using the taxpayers’ own money to spy on their every move. This is an invasion of privacy without a warrant. This is a federal spy program by proxy, working through corporations.
AT&T promises law enforcement that it will not disclose Project Hemisphere’s involvement in active investigations that are made public. AT&T is is attempting to lower liability for their customer and limit scrutiny to information transmitted to federal agencies through their network.
While it should not be surprising that your cell phone company is working with bureaucrats to collect incriminating evidence on you, there is a staggering number of people who still carelessly use their cell phone as if the information being transmitted through the device will be kept private.
News flash! It’s never been private. They have always wanted to use your information as a product to sell to the highest bidder. Your data is their product, and you are paying them to take it from you.
Video Report:
Contributed by Ryan Banister of The Daily Sheeple . 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 |
‹ › Arnaldo Rodgers is a trained and educated Psychologist. He has worked as a community organizer and activist. Employee Emailed Veterans’ Personal Data to Himself By Arnaldo Rodgers on November 11, 2016 VA
By dan elliott
The Department of Veterans Affairs has warned more than 2,100 veterans in Eastern Colorado and parts of Kansas that their personal information may have been compromised when an employee emailed documents to himself.
An agency employee told The Associated Press that he is the person who emailed the information to himself, describing it as unauthorized wait lists used by VA health care facilities in Colorado. The employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he fears retaliation, said he wanted to document the lists because they could have been used to conceal lengthy delays in providing care.
In Wednesday’s warning to veterans, the VA said the potentially compromised information included veterans’ full names, the last four digits of their Social Security numbers and medical diagnoses. The agency said the employee emailed it to himself in unencrypted form.
Read the Full Article at abcnews.go.com >>>> Related Posts: No Related Posts The views expressed herein are the views of the author exclusively and not necessarily the views of VNN, VNN authors, affiliates, advertisers, sponsors, partners, technicians or the Veterans Today Network and its assigns. Notices Posted by Arnaldo Rodgers on November 11, 2016, With 0 Reads, Filed under Veterans , Veterans Affairs . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 . You can leave a response or trackback to this entry FaceBook Comments
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Iowa Berniecrat Chris Schwartz Claims That His House Was Vandalized By Christians Iowa Berniecrat Chris Schwartz Claims That His House Was Vandalized By Christians October 29, 2016, 8:38 am by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton Leave a Comment 0
By: Renee Nal | New Zeal Vandalized sign posted by Chris Schwartz on Facebook
Iowan Chris Schwartz has alleged that vandalism found at his property on Thursday is the work of citizens influenced by “hateful rhetoric” of a Christian patriot group who vocally opposes his run for a seat on the Black Hawk County Board of Supervisors.
Chris Schwartz is a socialist running as a democrat in Black Hawk County, Iowa. He is endorsed by Bernie Sanders’ organization “ Our Revolution ” and is the state director of Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), an organization revealed as being used by communists to influence Democratic policy by former communist Marvin Treiger in Trevor Loudon’s film, the “ Enemies Within .”
Chris Schwartz was described at The Nation in 2007 as “a recent graduate of the University of Northern Iowa and one of CAN’s vocal leaders.” CAN is the Campus Antiwar Network , which is “widely perceived to have been dominated by students from the ISO.”
ISO stands for the International Socialist Organization , a Trotskyist, communist group. ISO is notorious for supporting the Palestinian and Arab causes in the Middle East and led many militant protests against America’s war effort in Iraq. Additionally, virtually all leaders of the now-defunct CAN were members of ISO. In line with ISO policy, Schwartz was involved in anti-Israel activities and led an anti-Iraq war rally in support of Cindy Sheehan, who became a vocal critic of the Iraq war after her son was killed during his service in Iraq.
ISO’s website, SocialistWorker.org has quoted Chris Schwartz here and here .
An insight into Chris Schwartz’s anti-business, pro-government mentality is revealed in this 2011 blog post by Paul Deaton at the self-described “online information resource for Iowa’s progressive community:”
“To wrap up the speakers, Chris Schwartz of Working Families Win, Iowa spoke, with a list of grievances about the government. He touched on the South Korea, Columbia and Panama free trade agreements and on building an “infrastructure bank.” He opined that GMAC, a major employer in Waterloo, “is a corrupt company,” and that the electrical grid “can’t handle new technologies.” He asserted many opinions, the most evident of which was that “government should put people back to work.” Not once did he mention private companies in a favorable light. Some in the audience believe that government should not be the primary driver in putting people back to work. Schwartz had a different opinion.” | 0 |
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