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(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. Questions about Melania Trump’s speech dominated the Republican National Convention, distracting attention on a day that was supposed to be about Gov. Mike Pence, Donald Trump’s running mate. Meredith McIver, a longtime Trump employee, took responsibility for lifted passages in Ms. Trump’s speech, which originally appeared in Michelle Obama’s 2008 convention speech. “I feel terrible for the chaos I have caused,” she said. Mr. Trump’s own speech, to be delivered Thursday, is being vacuumed of any hint of borrowing. _____ 2. The convention’s organizers are confronting a range of troubles, like an ever emptier hall and schedule slippage that pushes top speakers out of the broadcast TV window. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who was booed after he did not endorse Mr. Trump, was among tonight’s speakers, who also included Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Mr. Trump’s son Eric. But all eyes were on Governor Pence, who accepted the vice presidential nomination. And Mr. Trump, on the eve of accepting the Republican nomination for president, played down the role of the U. S. in global crises, saying he wouldn’t automatically defend NATO members from a Russian attack. _____ 3. Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, declared a state of emergency as he expanded his crackdown. In the days since the government thwarted a coup attempt, nearly 60, 000 soldiers, police officers, judges, educators and other civil servants have been suspended or detained. “I don’t think we have come to the end of it yet,” Mr. Erdogan said, adding that he suspected foreign countries might have been involved. _____ 4. An advance in neuroscience: Researchers published a spectacular new map of the brain that includes 83 familiar regions and identifies 97 more that enable specific functions. A neuroscientist praised the work, calling it “a step towards understanding why we’re we. ” _____ 5. Twitter barred @Nero, a. k. a. Milo Yiannopoulos, a technology editor at the conservative news site Breitbart, after he orchestrated a trolling campaign against the “Ghostbusters” actress Leslie Jones. The social media platform, acknowledging criticism that it has been slow to curb online abuse, said it would be detailing new tools and policies within weeks. Above, Mr. Yiannopoulos outside the Republican convention in Cleveland. _____ 6. International investigators suspect that people close to the embattled prime minister of Malaysia, above, have siphoned off billions of dollars from a sovereign wealth fund since 2009. The Justice Department traced what it called a trail to the U. S. and moved to seize more than $1 billion in real estate, art and other luxury goods. _____ 7. Britain’s new prime minister, Theresa May, navigated through her first session of questions from Parliament and then flew to Berlin to meet with Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel. Ms. Merkel will play a leading role in negotiating terms of Britain’s exit from the E. U. On Thursday, Mrs. May will be in Paris for meetings with President François Hollande. _____ 8. Here’s one way to measure cultural differences: the reaction to Pokémon Go, the wildly popular smartphone game, which has expanded into 26 more countries. Saudi clerics renewed a fatwa against Pokémon, calling it “ . ” Bosnia warned players to avoid chasing the digital creatures onto land mines left from the wars of the 1990s. And Russian websites published articles claiming the game is a C. I. A. plot. _____ 9. Lifting relatively light weights can build just as much strength as heavier ones, so long as repetitions are increased. Researchers who made the findings say you must lift until you’re exhausted, meaning the effort feels like at least 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. So 10 to 12 reps with heavy weights equals 25 reps with lighter ones. _____ 10. In memoriam: Garry Marshall, a titan of Hollywood and network TV who specialized in romantic, family and buddy comedies. He was behind “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” “Happy Days,” “The Odd Couple,” “The Princess Diaries” and, biggest of all, “Pretty Woman. ” _____ 11. Finally, police departments and community groups around the nation have been hunting for ways to defuse tensions, but Wichita, Kan. may have come up with an idea that’s the most fun: a barbecue, with music and dancing. A video of one young officer, Aaron Moses, doing the “ Slide” with black and white residents has gone viral. He says he’s being called “Officer Brown With the Get Down. ” _____ Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p. m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a. m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here’s last night’s briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 1 |
23 percent of young women, or nearly 1 in 4, have stopped shaving their armpit hair, according to a report. [The percentage represents a large increase from 2013, when just 5 percent of young women admitted to not shaving under their arms. 15 percent of young women also confessed that they no longer shave their legs, compared to just 8 percent in 2013. “Clean eating is behind some of those changes. They’re worried about causing irritation from their skin because of these products,” said Roshida Khanom, an associate director at Mintel. “We can also see that they’re doing other things instead — so 29 percent say they’re adding steps to their skincare routine. ” “There’s also some pushing back against societal expectations of what women should look like,” she continued, citing feminists, who often do not shave in protest. The trend has hit the shaving and hair removal industry hard, according to The Telegraph, who wrote that “Industry figures show that sales of shaving and hair removal products fell by 5 percent between 2015 and 2016, from £598m to an estimated £567m. ” Despite this, male interest in image products has increased by a substantial amount, with 70 percent of young men opting to use conditioner, up from 44 percent in 2015. Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook. | 1 |
Iconic fashion designer Tom Ford is opening up about how Donald Trump’s election made him want to move back to America, and the “tremendous number of people” who “feel disenfranchised. ”[“Oddly, it made me want to come back even more,” Ford told Women’s Wear Daily. “We have a tremendous number of people in this country who feel disenfranchised and clearly we are not relating to or speaking to them,” the filmmaker explained. “I am at my core American, and it made me want to come back. It didn’t make me want to run away. ” Ford, a longtime Democrat who hosted a fundraiser for Obama, says Trump’s message resonated with a “big part of the country” that has felt ignored. “I think when you sense that there is a divide in your country and that there are people who perhaps you’re not relating to, and that those of us who are fortunate enough to live in a world of very liberal human rights and privilege, it’s a call that we’re not addressing a big part of the country that does feel disenfranchised,” Ford said. Echoing the sentiments behind Trump’s “America First” political agenda, Ford says the billionaire’s victory made him “feel more nationalistic. ” “It made me feel more nationalistic if anything. The whole country is not like New York and L. A. and the world that I am used to living in. ” WWD reports Fords is planning to move from London to a $39 million home in Los Angeles. Ford was among the designers, including and Marc Jacobs, who publicly declined to design clothing for Mrs. Trump. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson | 1 |
While the United States sits on the edge of its collective seat as Donald Trump gains an electoral vote majority in his bid for the White House, its neighbor to the north seems to be getting a little cheeky.
Via Unilad
Reminding America of the Great White North’s cultural acceptance and freedom, the country’s official Twitter account wrote on Tuesday evening: “In Canada, immigrants are encouraged to bring their cultural traditions with them and share them with fellow citizens.”
In Canada, immigrants are encouraged to bring their cultural traditions with them and share them with their fellow citizens. pic.twitter.com/MOuStZbSX7
— Canada (@Canada) November 9, 2016
As a Canadian, I can attest to this. It’s a stark contrast to much of what Trump has proposed in the last 16 months: A border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, a ban on Muslims entering the country, and racial profiling.
But it looks like most Americans are taking it as an invitation:
@JasonABowman Maybe they meant that as an invitation to join them, just in case?
— Jaimie Michelle (@JaimieMichelle) November 9, 2016
@Canada do you mean Americans too?
— Stephen Whyno (@SWhyno) November 9, 2016
" @Canada : In Canada, immigrants are encouraged to bring their cultural traditions with them and share them with their fellow citizens." pic.twitter.com/162lvBnKaN
— bonafiedhoe (@pettyyonceh) November 9, 2016
" @Canada : In Canada, immigrants are encouraged to bring their cultural traditions with them and share them with their fellow citizens." pic.twitter.com/162lvBnKaN
— bonafiedhoe (@pettyyonceh) November 9, 2016
The tweet comes just after Canada’a immigration site crashed in light of the now-looking-very-likely possibility of a Trump win.
This is what it used to look like:
And this is what it looked like Tuesday night, as the US election results rolled in, with Donald Trump in the lead:
Searches of ‘how to move to Canada’ surged starting at 6 p.m., according to Google Trends. And Quartz published a list of jobs in Canada that would be easy for Americans to apply for if they wished to relocate, Oregon Live reports.
Looks like Canada’s population is going to double soon…
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We Are Change
Often times we are blind to what is happening around us. Just because we cannot see the effects of pollution and over-stripping the Earth of her resources in our own backyards, doesn’t mean that it isn’t a very serious concern. Closing our eyes to these issues is not going to help the problems go away. The world used to be an absolutely beautiful place, but that beauty is slowly being pushed out by the trash of mankind. We are consuming more than what this Earth can handle and pretty soon the Earth will no longer be able to sustain mankind. Here are 27 pictures that will open your eyes to the serious danger that our very existence is in.
H/T Jill Stein & Unreal-Lists
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lukewearechange I nstagram: http://instagram.com/lukewearechange Sign up become a patron and Show your support for alternative news for Just 1$ a month you can help Grow We are change We use Bitcoin Too ! 12HdLgeeuA87t2JU8m4tbRo247Yj5u2TVP Join and Up Vote Our STEEMIT The post 27 Photos That Prove The Earth Is in Serious Danger & It’s Time To Be Worried Now appeared first on We Are Change .
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During the height of the Cold War, the CIA attempted to develop mind control techniques with the MKULTRA program. As it happens, the Communists already had a leg up on them. We’ll explore how this was done, along with some new twists.
The criticism and self-criticism technique in history This is what happens to people who joke about Chairman Mao ripping off Hillary’s wardrobe.
The technique of “ criticism and self-criticism ” (kritika i samokritika) was developed during the early days of the Soviet Union . This got results. When the early Soviet show trials and purges took place, the targets would confess to committing treason—the details stretching credulity—and beg for execution. The Maoists (Chinese Communists) used it too, typically during “ struggle sessions .” Also, forced confessions were required in Vietnam for prisoners in reeducation camps .
What happened wasn’t much different from a medieval inquisition. Those targeted would be badgered until they confessed to whatever it was they supposedly did. Of course, physical forms of coercion were also an option. These weren’t actual trials; their fates were already decided.
The lucky ones were released and got to resume their lives as before, after their memorable reminder to toe the Party line. Others faced stiffer penalties than that: from loss of Party membership (and accompanying status) all the way up to execution. No amount of compliance or abject groveling could save them if it was predetermined that they were going to be purged or killed.
After the ordeal, survivors were surely scared witless. With their egos beaten down, they were ready to do as they were told without question. It’s basically a form of brainwashing. As for those who were executed after that, the purpose of going through the motions was for benefit of the audience. It was political theater, convincing those present that they were delivering justice to wrongdoers, and serving as an example of what could happen to those who step out of line.
Other than that, the “criticism and self-criticism” technique—badgering and forcing a confession—also was picked up in the USA during the 1960s by certain cults and oddball encounter groups. Today, we might think of these strange and humiliating rituals as a thing of the past, but the truth is that they’ve merely changed form . As I’ve noted previously , cultural Marxism is a crappy and inherently destructive “for-export” variety of Communism, so it’s no great surprise that it has adapted this technique for its purposes.
Modern witch hunts This is what happens to people who say that Bruce Jenner is actually a dude.
When people are encouraged to become incensed over even tiny things , this causes a “walking on eggshells” atmosphere. In today’s politically correct climate, it’s easy to run afoul of the Thought Police. This might result in a visit to the HR Department, or a campus “speech code” investigation. However, if the thoughtcrime is serious enough—or the target is prominent enough—then this can ignite a media circus . Also, someone could end up featured on a mailing list for Social Justice Warriors . Besides just trolling and harassment, this can result in doxxing (release of your personal information) or pressure on an employer to fire the thought criminal.
We in the Western world pride ourselves on the right to free speech. That was one of the main goals of liberalism, back in the 18th Century when liberalism was still a good thing. Actually, many “free” countries criminalize politically incorrect speech. Even in places that don’t have legal penalties for speaking your mind, it carries the risk of the loss of your livelihood . This effectively makes entire policy arguments forbidden to articulate, which naturally is the whole point. Other goals, of course, are information control and thus thought control. So much for freedom of speech! It took a few centuries, but liberals now oppose what they once stood for.
The following scenario has happened time and again. Someone points out an inconvenient truth , writes something that offends someone, donates to the “wrong” cause, mocks a feminist’s First World problems , tells an off-color joke , or even wears the wrong T-shirt . Then the feeding frenzy begins, resulting in torrents of criticism. Usually the target apologizes profusely, but loses his job no matter how abject or groveling his apologies are.
It’s possible to convince a judge and twelve jurors that you’re not guilty of something, but good luck getting the media or an online SJW mob to calm down and leave you alone! The traditional Communist session was better in one way. That is, they quit after breaking the target’s will. A modern feeding frenzy, though, can drag on for months, even after the target has been begging for forgiveness. What goes on the Internet can stay there forever, including lies about you.
If you get caught in a Social Justice Weenie witch hunt , never apologize. Explain and clarify if you absolutely must. This is for the benefit of the uncommitted; the SJWs will already have made up their small minds about you and won’t stop no matter what you do. Never let them break your frame! Instead, go on the attack. You have a right to your own opinion and to express it.
If you beg for their forgiveness, then you will be allowing them to turn their criticism into your self-criticism. Remember that groveling is unlikely to save you! Apologies are for people who actually did something wrong. Having a difference of opinion isn’t wrong, despite some people’s curious notions about freedom of speech.
Here are some other particulars to remember:
You can’t reason with them ; online mobs don’t know you and have been told that you’re an evildoer. You’ll probably never know exactly what was said about you, who said it, and what email list all that was on. (If you do find out, sue for defamation of character.) However, you can be sure that you’ve already been deemed guilty. They’re not interested in the truth. SJWs have great difficulty comprehending basic logic. Many of them don’t even believe in objective reality ; only their feelings are real to them. Why would the truth matter to these idiots? Finally, Social Justice Weenies are a bunch of losers . Their opinion of you matters less than that of a snotty child cursing you out. Therefore, don’t let these oxygen-wasters mess with your self-esteem. Societal criticism and self-criticism Wallowing in guilt at its finest
The Frankfurt School , a Communist think tank that moved to the USA and began subverting the educational system, developed critical theory . One of their top classics was Eros and Civilization by Herbert Marcuse. It contained lots of Freudian arguments on how our society was too repressed and we needed to loosen up our morals. Another was The Authoritarian Personality by Theodor Adorno. That too contained Freudian mumbo-jumbo, smearing right wing politics with accusations of neurosis and homo Daddy issues. All told, they wrote dozens of books along those lines, some attacking Western civilization directly. These vaporings wouldn’t have amounted to much, if they hadn’t become trendy in academia and influenced the 1960s zeitgeist.
Meanwhile, radical feminism—the Second Wave—was starting up. This too had lots of Communist influence , another front of cultural Marxism. This also was all about criticism of our culture. This caused friction between the sexes, driving a wedge deep into the heart of society. The results included the snarky, snotty, and spoiled attitudes you’ve surely encountered. Worse, this caused untold misery from high divorce rates and broken homes .
This was one of several movements that became prominent during the 1960s and are still with us today. (Surely you can think of many others.) The methodology was the same—all angrily made overblown complaints about how bad society has been to them. The way they tell it, they’re out fighting for their rights. The goal of cultural Marxism, though, was all about attacking our morale and softening us up. The people involved in those movements were merely tools, being used by leaders who were in it for power, money, and status.
The educational system has been dumbed down . History has been rewritten too. Figures like Christopher Columbus and the US Founding Fathers are bad guys now. Even as early as the 1980s, campuses were hell-bent in purging “DWEMs” (their charming term for “dead White European males”) from the literary canon. None of this was really about inclusiveness; it’s all about robbing our people of our heritage, making us ashamed of our accomplishments, and destroying our resolve.
The propaganda is everywhere. Television is full of social and political messages, even in shows for children , and piggybacked onto advertisements too. “Sensitivity training” courses deliver politically correct indoctrination. College campuses are notorious for pushing propaganda. This even happens to elementary school kids. (My first exposure was in second grade.) Some of the indoctrination exercises require audience participation, such as forcing them to fill out “privilege” checklists (with the facts cherry-picked ) to instill a sense of “collective guilt.”
All this has worked according to plan. Many are out of touch with their roots, and don’t understand that they have a heritage worth preserving. Worse, others have been infected by guilt trips. Sometimes this leads to public spectacles of wallowing in guilt; again, there’s the self-criticism part.
The antidote to this is the truth. The fact is, every civilization has its good points and its bad points, and ours is no exception. It’s rotten hypocrisy for the bullshit merchants in academia and the media to dwell on our faults and overlook those of other parts of the world, while selectively ignoring our accomplishments and elevating those of others . The truth is that none of our shortcomings or misdeeds are solely found in Western civilization, but some of our good characteristics are indeed unique.
You can protect your children by home schooling them or sending them to a private school where they won’t be indoctrinated. You can always get rid of your TV too. Meanwhile, though, millions of other students will be putty in the hands of propagandizing professors and teachers, and of course the lying media. Those pushing this from the top down must be called out, exposed, and removed from power.
Read More: 13 Common SJW “Arguments” And How to Dismantle Them
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by Jerri-Lynn Scofield
By Jerri-Lynn Scofield, who has worked as a securities lawyer and a derivatives trader. She now spends most of her time in India and other parts of Asia researching a book about textile artisans. She also writes regularly about legal, political economy, and regulatory topics for various consulting clients and publications, as well as writes occasional travel pieces for The National .
Just in time to pander for progressive votes in the home stretch leading into the election, the Obamamometer suggested earlier this week that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers may be open to rerouting the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), currently the subject of protests organized in support of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other pipeline opponents.
The DAPL is designed to transport light sweet crude oil from the Bakken Shield in North Dakota — an area not served by existing pipelines — through South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois. DAPL would supersede the previous distribution arrangements, under which oil from this source was shipped by train.
What’s now occurring follows the playbook I suggested would be used in my September post, Dakota Pipeline Will Proceed As Feds Undertake Smoke and Mirrors Policy Reconsideration . And the administration is still promising to pay us on Tuesday.
Soft, Sibilant, Sweet Nothings
As reported DeSmogBlog’s Steven Horn, in As President Obama Hints At Dakota Access Possible Reroute, Tensions Swirl at Standing Rock — which is worth a read for the additional details and context it provides, the Obamamometer said the Corps would consider rerouting following a continued consultation process. His key weasel words:
right now the Army Corps is examining whether there are ways we can reroute this pipeline, so we’re going to let it play out for several more weeks and determine whether or not this can be resolved in a way that is properly attentive to the tradition of First Americans.
To be fair, he did genuflect in the direction of the First Amendment and call for both authorities and protestors to show restraint (as reported by the BBC ):
There is an obligation for protesters to be peaceful, and there’s an obligation for authorities to show restraint… I want to make sure that as everybody is exercising their constitutional rights to be heard, that both sides are refraining from situations that might result in people being hurt.
Standing Rock Sioux Ask for DOJ Investigation
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has asked the Department of Justice to intervene and investigate alleged civil rights abuses in pipeline policing, which has been conducted by state and local police and private security companies. North Dakota earlier this month approved an additional $4 million for policing the DAPL protest, raising total expenditures to 10 million .
Horn’s article features an embedded video showing a policing crackdown. Video: North Dakota police/military forces attack water protectors in Cannonball river with chemical weapons. #NoDAPL pic.twitter.com/gXTZ9umwLq
— Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) 2 November 2016
The Wall Street Journal also posted video footage filmed yesterday.
Faith in Vague Promises
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe issued a press release in which they chose to take the Obamamometer at his word:
We applaud President Obama’s commitment to protect our sacred lands, our water, and the water of 17 million others.
While the Army Corps of Engineers is examining this issue we call on the administration and the Corps to issue an immediate “stop work order” on the Dakota Access Pipeline. And given the flawed process that has put our drinking water in jeopardy, we also urge the Administration to call for a full environmental impact study.
The nation and the world are watching. The injustices done to Native people in North Dakota and throughout the country must be addressed.
We believe President Obama and his Administration will do the right thing.
Yet as Horn reported, Greenpeace is made of stronger stuff:
The administration seems to be buying time to maintain the status quo and profits for fossil fuel investors,” Greenpeace USA spokeswoman Lilian Molina said in a press release. “There is only one option that is truly attentive to the Native lives and lands at stake: respect the rights and sovereignty of Indigenous communities by revoking the permits immediately.”
Greenpeace USA, meanwhile, called for Obama to reverse the Army Corps permit granted for the pipeline. It opined that Obama was engaging in a stalling tactic.
“The administration seems to be buying time to maintain the status quo and profits for fossil fuel investors,” Greenpeace USA spokeswoman Lilian Molina said in a press release. “There is only one option that is truly attentive to the Native lives and lands at stake: respect the rights and sovereignty of Indigenous communities by revoking the permits immediately.”
Will Wider Audience Be Gulled?
The intended audience for the Obamamometer’s remarks is much wider than those immediately involved in the protests. The BBC report notes, “The protest has gathered widespread attention and social media support, prompting 1.4 million people to ‘check in’ to the location on Facebook in solidarity. The Democrats are clearly trying to maximize turnout among younger progressives, many of whom have shown little inclination to support Hillary Clinton’s candidacy.
Despite the need to attract these votes, Clinton hewed to her game plan of offering few positive reasons to support her candidacy and missed the chance to make this issue one on which she’d stake out a progressive position. Instead, as Horn noted, she “offered a wishy-washy statement on the project, using many words to say very little”, and which said in part:
From the beginning of this campaign, Secretary Clinton has been clear that she thinks all voices should be heard and all views considered in federal infrastructure projects…
Now, all of the parties involved—including the federal government, the pipeline company and contractors, the state of North Dakota, and the tribes—need to find a path forward that serves the broadest public interest. As that happens, it’s important that on the ground in North Dakota, everyone respects demonstrators’ rights to protest peacefully, and workers’ rights to do their jobs safely.
Ongoing Formal, Government-To-Government Consultations
As I wrote in September,
The Department of Justice, the Department of the Army, and the Department of the Interior waded into the controversy over construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline (DAPL) [yesterday], shortly after U.S. federal court judge James E. Boasberg denied a request for a preliminary injunction to halt its construction in his Standing Rock Sioux Tribe v U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ruling.
The three agencies recognized:
…[T}his case has highlighted the need for a serious discussion on whether there should be nationwide reform with respect to considering tribes’ views on these types of infrastructure projects. Therefore, this fall, we will invite tribes to formal, government-to-government consultations on two questions: (1) within the existing statutory framework, what should the federal government do to better ensure meaningful tribal input into infrastructure-related reviews and decisions and the protection of tribal lands, resources, and treaty rights; and (2) should new legislation be proposed to Congress to alter that statutory framework and promote those goals.
The three agencies continue to conduct these consultations on federal infrastructure decisions, with a key meeting scheduled for November 17 in Rapid City, South Dakota and the final session due to be completed via teleconference on November 21. Conveniently, these discussions will conclude after election day.
Pipeline Proponents Didn’t Get the Memo
Unsurprisingly, pipeline proponents opposed even the weak commitment seemingly made in the interview. Some of the parties to the pipeline have entered into long-term binding contracts with shippers in anticipation of the DAPL and its related facilities coming on stream later this year. Despite the announcement in the three agency statement that the Corps of Engineers would not authorize constructing DAPL on Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe until it conducted a further policy review– and asking that”the pipeline company voluntarily pause all construction activity within 20 miles east or west of Lake Oahu”, construction on the rest of the pipeline has proceeded, so that now it is estimated that the DAPL is now more than three-quarters completed.
The Wall Street Journal quoted a spokeswoman for Energy Transfer Partners LP, which is constructing DAPL, as saying:
the company isn’t aware of any consideration being given to rerouting the project. She said the company also expects to receive the final federal approval for a disputed portion of the pipeline in a timely fashion.
In an internal company memo on Sept. 13, Energy Transfer CEO Kelcy Warren said the pipeline was nearly 60% complete and that the company had spent more than $1.6 billion on the project.
Likely Outcome?
Despite the hopes and dreams of progressives, the administration will face heavy pressure to conclude its review process in time for those involved in the project to honour existing supply contracts. Alternatively issue may be dumped onto the incoming administration. The WSJ reported that neither the Trump nor Clinton campaign has taken a position on DAPL construction.
Despite the Obamamometer’s remarks, I’d be very surprised indeed if the Corps were to present a viable plan to reroute the pipeline at this late date. And if it does, further lawsuits would inevitably follow. 0 0 0 0 0 1 | 0 |
EXCLUSIVE #Breaking FBI Reopens Investigation! "Hillary Caught Selling Political Favors to Israel"?
Victurus Libertas Published on Oct 28, 2016
The FBI was investigating Anthony Weiner and Kim Dotcom when they found the Israeli pay to play emails on Weiner's computer. It's very serious. The FBI will be charging Hillary Clinton with planning to engage in pay to play after she had won the election. It's technically treason. Weiner was bragging that he had set up the Israeli deal. HRC was to get $100 million for the Clinton Foundation, for increasing Israeli aid by double! That's $38 billion more than today! Huma Abedin helped set the deal up.
HILLARY GOT SCHLONGED! LOOK WHAT ANTHONY WEINER JUST SHOVED RIGHT BACK IN HER FACE…
REPORT: INVESTIGATION INTO ANTHONY WEINER LED FBI TO NEW PROBE OF CLINTON'S EMAILS
Donald Trump Unloads on Hillary, Huma Abedin & Anthony Weiner
"You're a Real Scumbag, Anthony"
Related:
Rothschild Globalist Cartel Owns Healthless Hillary Clinton
Clinton Foundation's Huma Abedin Has Run "Human Trafficking in Unpaid Interns"
Billionaire Degenerate Jeffrey Epstein's Underage Sex Slave Scandal Taints Hillary and Jeb - Clinton–Bush Pedophilia Coverup - Mossad Blackmail Influence Over Leading Politicians - Robert & Ghislaine Maxwell - Jane Doe 102 - Epstein's Sweetheart Deal: Celebrity Lawyers Alan Dershowitz, Kenneth Starr, Roy Black - "Little St. James": The Name of Jeffrey Epstein's "Egg-Shaped Penis"?
The Situation Is So Intense, It Involves the Entire US Government | FBI Insider
*EXPLOSIVE* Q & A on the Clinton Foundation - FBI Insider on 4chan /pol/ : "Ask Me Anything About the Clinton Case" - George Soros Is the Kingpin - Follow the Rothschild Thread - Clinton Foundation Uses People as Currency - Jeffrey Epstein's Child Sex Trafficking Network - Bill & Hillary Clinton Get Paid in Money & Children - Hammer HRC's E-mails, Dig Into the CF: Post Everywhere You Can | 0 |
WASHINGTON — Rex W. Tillerson owns more than $50 million of Exxon Mobil stock, has earned an annual salary of $10 million and holds a range of positions — from director at the Boy Scouts of America to the managing director of a Texas horse and cattle ranch. But Mr. Tillerson is prepared to resign from all those posts, sell all his stock and put much of his money into bland investments like Treasury bonds if he becomes secretary of state, according to an “ethics undertakings” memo he filed this week with the State Department. And, if he returns to the oil industry in the next decade, he could lose as much as $180 million. The ethics letter detailing Mr. Tillerson’s commitments is the first of hundreds that will be made public in the coming weeks by members of Donald J. Trump’s cabinet and other top political appointees, presenting a historic test of the federal government’s ability to identify conflicts of interest — and figure out ways to avoid them. Mr. Trump has selected what would be the wealthiest cabinet in modern American history, filled with millionaires and billionaires with complicated financial portfolios. Mr. Tillerson is worth at least $300 million, but is hardly the richest among them: Wilbur L. Ross Jr. the commerce secretary nominee Betsy DeVos, the education secretary nominee and Steven T. Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary nominee, each hold assets estimated at more than a billion dollars. Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s wealthy is in the process of submitting his own forms as he prepares to take a formal White House position, people involved in the process said. “The Office of Government Ethics is stressed, no doubt about that,” said Robert Rizzi, a partner at Steptoe Johnson, who represents half a dozen Trump administration nominees going through the process, although he would not name them, citing confidentiality agreements. “They are having some difficulty keeping up. ” All of the cabinet appointees and hundreds of others must submit a financial disclosure report detailing all the assets they own, their approximate value and income from any source they have made in the last year. Some of the nominees are so wealthy — and their assets so varied — there are not enough boxes on the standard form for them, lawyers involved in the process said. The disclosures are then used by the agencies they are to take over, along with the Office of Government Ethics, to identify potential conflicts of interest and to negotiate ethics letters to be signed by the nominees, committing to avoid conflicts of interest. At the same time, this class of wealthy incoming officials could save hundreds of millions of dollars in income tax payments, thanks to a special tax benefit created so that affluent Americans do not avoid federal government jobs. The Trump administration, lawyers involved in the effort said, is behind where it should be in this process of disentangling conflicts of interest. This is partly a reflection of the extraordinary complexity of negotiating such conflict of interest agreements for incoming government officials worth hundreds of millions, or even billions, of dollars. “Usually, you just own a bunch of stocks and bonds, but he’s getting people that own buildings and real estate and stuff you can’t sell,” said Alan Johnson, a New compensation consultant. “He has Wilbur Ross, who is probably involved in a gazillion different things. I think it is going to be very complicated to try to disentangle all of these things. ” Mr. Ross is a billionaire investor and former banker who made a fortune in steel, coal, telecommunications and other industries. Under federal law, executive branch employees, including cabinet members, are prohibited from using their positions in the government to enrich themselves, meaning they are not allowed to participate in any particular matter that might directly financially benefit assets they own. The best way to avoid such a conflict, said Lawrence M. Noble, former general counsel at the Federal Election Commission, is to sell any assets — like Exxon Mobil stock or any individual company stock — and put proceeds into Treasury bonds or mutual funds. “We don’t want the decisions that these individuals make to be influenced — in reality, or even appearance — by their own financial interests,” Mr. Noble said. “They are working for the American people, and not to enrich themselves or their families. ” The rules do not apply to the president and vice president, although ethics experts — and even the Office of Government Ethics — have urged Mr. Trump to divest his assets voluntarily to rid himself of potential concerns as he takes over the White House. He has thus far resisted such a move, saying that he plans to let his two oldest sons and other Trump Organization executives manage the business, perhaps with an outside monitor. For appointees like Mr. Tillerson, the transition to government can have lucrative benefits: They can take advantage of measures in the tax code meant to be an incentive for wealthy people to consider public service jobs. The measure was put in place during the administration of the first President George Bush. This tax benefit, which requires approval by the Office of Government Ethics, allows government officials to defer paying capital gains taxes on certain assets that they must sell in order to clear potential conflicts as they take office — essentially providing them with loans. To gain the tax advantage, the liquidated proceeds must then be invested in Treasury bonds, mutual funds or funds, and the official must seek a certificate of divestiture. Until now, Henry M. Paulson Jr. Treasury secretary under President George W. Bush, has been the most prominent example of a public official who has taken advantage of the divestiture certificate. In 2006, Mr. Paulson left Goldman Sachs and sold an estimated $500 million in Goldman stock, deferring taxes on the sale. In his memo, Mr. Tillerson suggested that he was likely to seek such a certificate, and laid out a series of plans to divorce himself from financial engagements, board appointments and Exxon Mobil. This means he will most likely avoid capital gains taxes based on his sale of $50 million in Exxon Mobil stock he owns, as well as shares in more than 150 companies including Airbus and the Walt Disney Company, all of which he has promised to sell off within 90 days of his confirmation, his ethics documents suggest. But a more complicated task involved resolving the fate of two million shares of Exxon Mobil stock, worth about $180 million, that Mr. Tillerson was set to receive over the next decade. If he held on to this promised future payout from Exxon Mobil, he would still have a financial interest in matters that might affect the company and the oil industry. So Exxon Mobil agreed to take the unusual step of paying out the value of these sales and putting the money into an independent trust, with the money invested in neutral assets like Treasury bonds and mutual funds. Under the terms of the agreement, if Mr. Tillerson, 64, goes back into the oil industry during the next decade, he will forfeit any money left in the account. Richard W. Painter, a White House ethics lawyer during the administration of President George W. Bush, said this provision preventing Mr. Tillerson from returning to the oil industry was unusual and positive, as it removes the incentive for him to take steps while in government that might benefit an industry he planned to return to work for upon his departure. “It gives up something I had never been able to get from other government officials — a promise not to go back to an industry from which you came,” Mr. Painter said. Still, some environmental activists say such steps cannot address what they argue will be Mr. Tillerson’s inherent bias in the State Department. “It is impossible for this man to remove his career, and frankly his personality, from the oil and gas industry,” said Lena Moffitt, director of a Sierra Club campaign trying to reduce the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels. “He has been knee deep in this industry for more than four decades. ” | 1 |
The Jerusalem Post reports: The military trainer that shot and killed the terrorist who rammed his truck into a group of people killing four in Jerusalem’s Armon Hanatziv neighborhood on Sunday said that IDF soldiers on the scene were hesitant to shoot due in part to the conviction of IDF soldier Elor Azaria on manslaughter charges. [The military trainer, identifying himself as Eitan, told Army Radio that “after rolling back on the grass, I saw the truck go in reverse, and then I realized that it wasn’t an accident. ” Eitan said, “I ran toward him and emptied my whole clip. He drove backward and onto the wounded again. I saw them quiet, some wounded and some scared. It wasn’t a good scene. ” Read more here. | 1 |
A Muslim mother has shaved the head of her daughter in Bologna, Italy, on learning that the child was taking off her headscarf as soon as she would leave the house. [The girl would reportedly put her headscarf back on just before returning to the family home, but her deception was eventually caught by her mother on Wednesday, who summarily cut off all her hair. When the girl arrived to school bald on Thursday, her teachers inquired into what had happened, and when she told them, the school principal decided to inform the police, who took the girl into custody. Charges of mistreatment and abuse have been brought against the girl’s parents, who are of Bangladeshi origin, and the case has been handed over to the local prosecutor of offenses involving minors, together with the cooperation of social services. The mayor of Bologna, Virginio Merola, criticized the punishment inflicted on the girl as “unacceptable parental authoritarianism” and warned that “those who come to Italy must follow our laws and our Constitution. ” The Bologna coordinator of the Muslim community, Yassine Lafram, also took the girl’s side in the matter, stating that according to Islamic tradition “any form of coercion makes the act itself invalid. ” All the prescriptions of Islam, from the Ramadan fast to the pilgrimage to Mecca, “are part of a free choice of the person and no one can impose them, religiously speaking,” Lafram said. At the same time, Lafram said it is necessary “to help the family, including the mother herself, and to understand what motivated her to carry out this act. ” “It’s too easy to condemn her and hand her over to the mediatic slaughterhouse,” he said. Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome | 1 |
Very concerned about Islam-sanctioned persecution of gays by Muslim, gays come out in force for Trump Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump kicked off a marathon day of campaigning with a speech to over 4,000 supporters at the Jacksonville Equestrian Center on Thursday. And John LaBarbera and Craig Starling, wearing rainbow ‘Gays for Trump’ T-shirts, made sure they were there. Breitbart “We’re concerned about the possibility of Musilm terrorism and anti-gay violence such as the deadly attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando,” Starling told Breitbart News. “Trump is better on security and immigration.” LaBarbera, who drove with Starling from Savannah, Georgia, to attend the rally, agreed, adding that he also preferred Trump’s economic policies. He said that he had lost several yard signs to theft, and had endured hate on Facebook. But he added that people at Savannah’s gay pride rally had been “kind” when they set up a booth for Trump, and that Trump fans at the rally had been “supportive” as well. Other “Gays for Trump” signs have been popping up at Trump rallies elsewhere in the Sunshine State. One supporter waved a homemade sign at Trump’s rally in Orlando on Wednesday. And Trump emerged onstage in Colorado on Sunday holding a rainbow flag with the words “LGBTs for Trump” written on it. More and more gays are supporting Donald Trump. In light of the Orlando terror attack they realize that Trump is the only one who will keep them safe. Hillary helped to create ISIS with her bumbling handling of Libya and the killing of Muammar Gaddafi. In addition, Hillary Clinton supports and takes millions of dollars from Saudis, who not only abuse and execute gays, they also treat women like second-class citizens. | 0 |
Not into the zombie thing, but this movie was hilarious. | 0 |
The Pro Football Hall of Fame has done something truly great, and exclusively released rare audio from Vince Lombardi’s Super Bowl I press conference. [The incredible historical sound can be heard here: For historical perspective, the Packers crushed the Chiefs . The Packers and the Chiefs could have met again in the Super Bowl this year, had the Steelers not ruined that by beating the Chiefs over the weekend. How amazing to listen to NFL teams playing each other as, “interleague play. ” Not exactly a term anyone nowadays normally attaches to the NFL. And how about that whopping $15, 000 for the winner of the Super Bowl? Why, those Packers could go out and buy three 1967 Pontiac GTOs with all that coin! Kind of puts things in perspective, doesn’t it? Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn | 1 |
President Donald Trump signed a bill to extend the Veterans Choice Program at the Oval Office on Wednesday, inviting influential veterans groups to join him. [“The veterans have poured out their sweat and blood and tears for this country for so long, and it’s time that they’re recognized, and it’s time that we now take care of them, and take care of them properly,” Trump said. The bill allows veterans to seek private care outside of the VA system, if they live more than 40 miles away from a VA hospital or can’t get an appointment within 30 days. Trump specifically thanked Senator John McCain and Senator Johnny Isakson for their work on the bill, as well as Rep. Phil Roe, the Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. “Some people have to travel five hours, eight hours, and they’ll have to do it on a weekly basis, and even worse than that,” Trump said. “It’s not going to happen anymore. ” Trump was joined by Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin, who praised the bill. “This is a good day for veterans,” he said. “This is a great day to celebrate not only what veterans have contributed to the country, but how we’re making things better for them. ” The extension of the bill passed by Congress authorized the sharing of medical records to hospitals outside the VA and modifies the procedures for reimbursement for private hospitals. | 1 |
Princess Cruise Lines has pleaded guilty to seven felony charges and will pay $40 million after employees on a cruise ship were caught dumping oiled waste into the seas and lying to cover up their actions, officials with the Justice Department said. Federal authorities called it the “ criminal penalty” for intentional vessel pollution. In a statement released by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida on Thursday, officials said that employees of a cruise ship, the Caribbean Princess, used several tactics, including a device called a “magic pipe,” to circumvent mechanisms and digital devices monitoring oil levels. Officials said that four other Princess ships were also found to have engaged in illegal practices to discharge waste. As part of its plea agreement, ships from eight of the parent company Carnival Cruise lines will be under a court supervised environmental compliance plan for five years, and will undergo auditing, officials said. The discharged waste included gray water — water that has been contaminated with food particles, grease and fat from the ship’s galley — and water found in the ship’s bilge, the bottom part of the ship where oil waste from engines can accumulate. In one case, investigators on the Caribbean Princess found black oil in another valve that employees used to discharge waste. Officials said these practices began in 2005 and persisted until August 2013, when a newly hired engineer on the Caribbean Princess observed more than 4, 000 gallons of contaminated discharge being released into the ocean off the coast of England. He reported the practice to Britain’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency and quit when the ship reached Southampton. Princess, which is a division of the Carnival Cruise lines, the largest such company in the world, gave the Caribbean Princess its debut in 2004, and the ship has traveled the world’s seas, from ports in Texas to the coast of England. One motive for the dumping, officials said, was to save money, because the cost of removing the waste from the ship at ports is expensive. John C. Cruden, the assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, said in a statement that the cruise line’s practice was habitual. “The pollution in this case was the result of more than just bad actors on one ship,” Mr. Cruden said. “It reflects very poorly on Princess’s culture and management. This is a company that knew better and should have done better. ” In a statement, Princess Cruise Lines said it had launched its own internal investigation when the episode was first reported in 2013, and said that existing policies and procedures had not been enough to safeguard against the pollution. Princess also said that it had invested in better training, restructured operations and spent “millions of dollars” to upgrade ship equipment. In its report, the Justice Department said that Princess had no written procedures or training for handling internal gray water spills. | 1 |
Another of the strange sounds in Slovakia 31.10.2016 # Timotei Simon 0
Since the beginning of 2012, the Internet began to emerge records of mysterious unexplained sounds. Many people are not at that time been associated with the end of 2012, which had come under "guaranteed" reports the end of the world. Sounds But there was also this year, and even experts have not yet reached a clear explanation of where sounds originate and what causes them. Tags | 0 |
Putin Foes Caught in Malicious Fabrications about Kremlin Insider Lesin's Death
Coroner's final decision reveals all. Print
A US Senator and a Russian opposition figure are among those who have tripped themselves up with their fabrications about Mikhail Lesin's 2015 death. Lesin was a former Russian media advertising tycoon, state media minister, and later head of the Gazprom-Media holding company. He died in Washington DC amid circumstances that went unexplained fully until October 28 of this year.What did Putin's foes first have to say about Lesin's death?Russian opposition figure and Putin foe Alexei Nevalny had a lot to say. On March 13, 2016 the Independent ran the headline: "Mikhail Lesin death: Vladimir Putin's propaganda chief reportedly flew out of LA 40 days after his death. The story claims Alexei Navalny, a Putin opposition leader, said the incident 'smells of a witness protection programme.'" The Daily Mail reported that that Navalny claimed to have proof.Was Lesin's reported demise just a coverup?But a month later, Navalny seemed to have backed away from that allegation. According to the Voice of America "Navalny said he had no 'proof' or definitive evidence, but indicated that Lesin may have died because, 'as they say in detective stories, he knew too much.'"So Navalny had come to believe that Lesin was indeed dead after all. But now Navalny intimated that perhaps Putin was to blame.While making a case to VOA that Putin is corrupt, Navalny said he was convinced "that Lesin knew a lot. Not just about corruption in the highest echelons of power, but [he] was one of the organizers of a corruption scheme in which Putin himself was personally complicit. And against the backdrop of his death, against the backdrop of the strange things that were happening around him, it's a more than reasonable assumption that, in any contacts he may have had with the federal authorities in the United States, Lesin may have been asked about it."Other theories in the news claimed:--Lesin's death was connected with his alleged role as a CIA informer.--His demise was related to a secret romantic tryst gone wrong.--Lesin's body was cremated to destroy evidence of what really happened.Many of the news reports mentioned Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker who considered Lesin to be a very suspicious character. He very well may have been. Once while having lunch with Ivan Laptev, Lesin's ministerial predecessor, I joked about when I saw Lesin at a New York meeting in the early 2000s. I first mistook him for some kind of Russian mafia guy, just based on how he was dressed and the gorgeous gun-moll looking young lady that accompanied him.In July 2014 Wicker seemed to have more serious concerns. He was moved to tip off the US Attorney General. It wasn't based on Lesin's appearance. Wicker had become aware that Lesin owned expensive residential property in California. He believed that meant something sinister was afoot. Wicker said about Lesin, "He acquired multiple residences at a cost of over $28 million.""That a Russian public servant could have amassed the considerable funds required to acquire and maintain these assets in ... the United States raises serious questions," Wicker told ABC News.Wicker wasn't fond of Putin either. In March 2014 he had written an article for the Washington Examiner titled, "Hillary Clinton was right about Vladimir Putin and Adolf Hitler the first time." Clinton has been quoted many times likening Putin to Hitler.Wicker was and is a member of the Senate Armed Forces Committee. I find it very disturbing that a member of that influential committee could be espousing ideas so distant from reality as these. A simple google search could have told him that Lesin was no simple government service worker pulling down a measly salary. Lesin's Video International business had a near-monopoly grip on the media advertising business in Russia years ago. In fact when he was Putin's media minister, many critics mused that he was the "minister" of his own business sector.Was Wicker's research so lame that he knew nothing of Lesin other than his role in the Russian bureaucracy? Was he that stupid? Or is there something sinister about Wicker's interest in Lesin? I don't know whether there is or isn't. But the incongruity of his factless demonization of Putin, and his seemingly malicious letter to the Attorney General about Lesin, throw up a red flag. Maybe the Attorney General should look into Wicker's business dealings to see if something fishy is going on there.So what's the truth about Lesin's death?The final coroner's verdict is that he was dead drunk in his hotel room, fell multiple times, injuring his lower and upper torso, and inflicted a fatal blow to his head.I don't know whether that is the honest truth or not. But if we are to believe people like Navalny and Wicker it would seem that the Washington coroner is in the bag for Putin. Wow, what an accusation. | 0 |
Members of a gay group say they have been banned from participating in the Charlotte Pride Parade because of their support for President Trump. [Brian Talbert told WJZY that he and another gay Trump supporter of the group “Gays for Trump” applied to have their float featured in Charlotte’s Pride Parade this year but received an email from Charlotte Pride rejecting his application. “We wanted to show that we weren’t the racist, bigot, misogynist whatevers. We wanted to show that we are Americans, love our country and our president. We wanted to be there to celebrate gay pride,” Talbert said. “For a group of people to claim to want tolerance, acceptance, and give it to every single person you can imagine to give it to, for them to sit back and judge me for exercising my right as an American to choose my leader without judgment is hypocritical,” he added. A Charlotte Pride spokesperson said they have a right to turn away groups that “do not reflect the mission, vision, and values of our organization. ” Talbert said he plans to sue Charlotte Pride for discrimination and is already raising money for his legal fees on a GoFundMe page. The campaign has raised $3, 100 as of Thursday afternoon. He also set up a website called Deplorable Pride, which contains information on events that he is planning as alternatives to Charlotte Pride and his fundraising page. | 1 |
TEL AVIV — President Donald Trump has convinced Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to make certain concessions that will allow the peace process to move forward, World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder told Israeli lawmakers at the Jerusalem Post Annual Conference in New York. [Lauder, considered one of the closest Jewish leaders to Trump, has the president’s ear, according to the Jerusalem Post. The Lauder and Trump families have been friends for decades. Lauder, who has extensive ties in the Arab world, has advised the president on how to advance diplomatic initiatives in the Middle East, the report said. Lauder, who served as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s unofficial envoy to Syria, told Israeli ministers at the conference that he was confident Trump would succeed in his attempt to jumpstart the moribund peace process. The politicians briefed by Lauder included Minister of Education Naftali Bennett, Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked and Minister of Science and Technology Ofir Akunis, as well as opposition leader Isaac Herzog. “Trump is very optimistic that he can renew the peace process,” one of the politicians told the Post after speaking to Lauder. “Lauder understands from Trump that he believes Abbas can be convinced by him and Arab leaders to come back to the table and make concessions. ” Three of the ministers, Bennett, Shaked and Akunis, emphatically expressed their opposition to a Palestinian state in their speeches at the conference, saying that Abbas has not proved himself a viable partner for peace. Herzog, on the other hand, had harsh words for Netanyahu but praised Trump. “So far, Trump’s peace efforts have been impeccable,” Herzog said. “We know what Trump wants. What Netanyahu wants, no one knows. I have grave doubts about Bibi’s intentions. If he wants peace, he will enjoy political support even from my camp. But if he opts for what Bibi usually wants, he will find us a fierce opposition and we will replace him as soon as possible. ” Trump is scheduled to arrive in Israel on the morning of Monday, May 22 for a visit. He will be arriving from Saudi Arabia. Some reports have said he will also visit Bethlehem in the West Bank to tour the Church of the Nativity and meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for the second time this month. The first meeting was in Washington on May 3. | 1 |
Страна: Малайзия В своей новой статье постоянный обозреватель НВО Тони Карталучи отмечает, что Вашингтон продолжает попытки подорвать государственные устои в Малайзии, проведя серии массовых народных выступлений под общим названием «Берсих 5.0″. Автор указывает, что движение Берсих, которое создал прозападный малайзийский политик Анвар Ибрагим, отбывающий сейчас тюремное наказание за мужеложство, напрямую спонсируется Вашингтоном через сеть НКО. И хотя в Белом доме не предпринимают серьезных попыток замаскировать свою причастность к массовым выступлениям в Малайзии, автор отмечает, что многие малайзийцы из-за своей низкой осведомленности приняли Берсих за чистую монету, а не за попытку свергнуть неугодное Вашингтону правительство. Автор отмечает, что Вашингтон остро нуждается в послушных режимах в Юго-Восточной Азии, которые могли бы способствовать росту напряженности в регионе. Однако число таких государств стремительно уменьшается, что и привело к попытке снова раскачать ситуацию в Малайзии. С полным содержанием статьи вы можете ознакомиться здесь . Популярные статьи | 0 |
“Who the Heck Is Alexis Ohanian, and Why Would Serena Williams Want to Date Him?” Slate magazine asked in a headline last year. Mr. Ohanian is a of Reddit, and, as of Thursday, Ms. Williams not only wants to date him, but plans to marry him. Ms. Williams, the tennis superstar, announced her engagement to Mr. Ohanian on Reddit, the website that claims the label “the front page of the internet. ” The Reddit post featured a drawing of Snoo, the site’s mascot, dressed as Mr. Ohanian and kneeling with a diamond in its hand. A female Snoo, styled after Ms. Williams and wearing a tennis skirt, Nike top and headband, floated above him with a smile on her face. Above the picture was the headline, “Future Mrs. Kn0thing. ” It was a nod to the site and its community: Mr. Ohanian has long gone by the handle Kn0thing. In free verse, Ms. Williams, whose account is verified on the site, described the proposal on the “isaidyes” subreddit, which is dedicated to engagement stories. Mr. Ohanian chimed in in the comments: “And you made me the happiest man on the planet. ” A spokeswoman for Ms. Williams, Kelly Bush Novak, said that a wedding date has not been set. Ms. Williams and Mr. Ohanian had known each other for some time before they started dating last fall, she said. Ms. Williams, 35, is one of the greatest American athletes active today, and is the female athlete in the world. She won her first Grand Slam singles title at 17 in 1999, and this year won her 22nd. She has spent more than 300 weeks at No. 1 a recent run of 186 consecutive weeks in the top spot ended in September. Ms. Williams has not played a match on tour since losing in the semifinals of the United States Open in September. She plans to open her tennis season next week in Auckland, New Zealand. Though Mr. Ohanian, 33, is significantly less by the general population, he too has risen to the top of his field since starting the site that would become Reddit with his college roommate, Steve Huffman, 11 years ago. The site was pitched to the incubator Y Combinator and was acquired by Condé Nast just 16 months after it began. In 2010, Mr. Ohanian joined Mr. Huffman at another company, Hipmunk. In 2013, he wrote a book about the power of the internet called “Without Their Permission. ” Mr. Ohanian also posted the news on his Facebook page. In an interview with Vogue in July, Ms. Williams was asked to identify the most romantic thing a man had ever done for her. “It hasn’t happened yet,” she replied. On Twitter, Mr. Ohanian had called the interview “pretty great. ” A user replied to him, and to Ms. Williams: “Alexis, I think you need to get on that most romantic thing. ” | 1 |
Share This Shi’ite militiamen announced they have launched their campaign to reach Tal Afar and cut off an escape route to Syria that is being used both by Islamic State militants and refugees. Still eager to insinuate Turkish troops into the Mosul campaign, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced he would reinforce Turkish forces in the border town of Silopi. There, they will be ready to be deployed should he believe that Shi’ite militiamen are causing sectarian terror in Tal Afar , home to many Turkmen. In Mosul , witnesses say that thousands of human shields rounded up in the outskirts of the city are now clustered in central Mosul and are without food or shelter. Many of the displaced are women, children, or elderly and appear to be in poor condition after their forced marches. In other parts of the city, militants are rounding up former security personnel. Security forces say the town of Shura has been cleared of militants after a battle. A humanitarian corridor has been set up for civilians to relocate to nearby Qayara. The villages of Abu Arayis, Ayn An Nasr, Humaidiya, Jayif, Majman, Mukhalat, Mustanqa, Shruq, Tal Tayiba, and Zwirij were also liberated . Hamza, Haram, Mwaylaha,, Sajma, and San Zaban were freed as well. Several of these villages were captured by Shi’ite militia forces. At least 200 people were killed and 94 were wounded , including 10 P.K.K. guerrillas: The number of casualties in the Kirkuk assault that occurred just over a week ago was readjusted from previous estimates . The number of civilian and security personnel casualties rose by 17 dead and 65 wounded . | 0 |
Almost all owners dream of the day when they can expand nationally. This has proved to be a unique challenge for those in the marijuana industry because the products they create are illegal under federal law, and the checkerboard of states that permit marijuana sales have complex and constantly changing regulations. Dixie Brands, a company in Denver that creates drinks and other products using marijuana, is aiming to navigate those hurdles and become one of the first companies in the industry to build a national presence. Voters on Tuesday brought that dream a little closer to reality. California, Massachusetts, Maine and Nevada approved (a new term for recreational use) marijuana. Florida, Arkansas, North Dakota and Montana voted to legalize or expand medical marijuana use. states and the District of Columbia now have some sort of allowed use. The legal cannabis industry is dominated by small businesses operating in individual states, so these new laws could open significant prospects for entrepreneurs. And for the companies that can figure out how to operate in multiple states, the opportunity is tremendous. GreenWave Advisors, a financial research and advisory firm based in New York, estimates that marijuana product sales in the United States will be $6. 5 billion in 2016 and about $30 billion in 2021, if products derived from marijuana are legalized in all 50 states in some capacity. Chuck Smith and Tripp Keber, who founded Dixie Brands seven years ago, have been taking steps to be at the forefront of the growing market. The company makes Dixie Elixirs, bottled beverages infused with THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. It also makes chocolates, drops and topical lotions. All are sold at licensed recreational pot shops and medical marijuana dispensaries. “awakening” and “relaxing” mints containing five milligrams of THC (half a serving) are among the company’s top sellers. Most of the company’s revenue comes from Colorado. Because of federal laws on controlled substances, one challenge to expansion is that products cannot cross state lines, so a pot brownie baked in Oregon, for example, cannot be sold in neighboring Washington, even though the product is legal in both places. Add the complications of financing as well as unique packaging, distribution and marketing laws for each state, and establishing a national brand seems daunting and expensive. Some states require marijuana businesses to be owned by residents, further impeding multistate expansion. Also, because the industry is in its infancy, rules are changing constantly, including regulations governing packaging, food production and agriculture management. When Colorado recently required all marijuana food products to be stamped with a THC symbol, Dixie Brands had to create all new molds for its chocolates and discontinue their Dixie Roll product, which is similar to Tootsie Rolls, because it could not be stamped efficiently. The new rule requires a THC stamp on all packaging as well. “These changes are costly for small businesses,” said Joe Hodas, chief marketing officer for the company. In addition, because of federal laws, marijuana companies cannot open bank accounts, cannot use credit cards and cannot deduct business expenses from their federal taxes. Giant safes full of cash and pickups by armored cars are the norm. Many companies in the marijuana industry had been started by product aficionados with little business experience. As legalization spreads, the industry is quickly drawing more business professionals, as evidenced by Mr. Smith and Mr. Keber, who began their endeavor with experience in corporate finance, marketing and management. When recreational marijuana joined medical marijuana as a legal market in Colorado in 2014, they were poised to expand Dixie Brands by adding to their line of products. Since that time, the number of employees has expanded from 20 to 100 and sales have increased about sixfold. Expanding beyond Colorado, however, has taken creativity. Two years ago, in their first move outside of the state, the pair found a licensing partner to produce Dixie products in California. After a year, the founders decided to take a more approach. “Our partner wanted to manufacture other companies’ products as well as ours, and we wanted more focus on absolute quality and consistency,” Mr. Smith said. “To have total legal, financial and operational control, we decided we would need to control the manufacturing and distribution facilities in any state we expanded to. ” To make this happen, Mr. Smith had to find a way to work within regulations that require owners of marijuana businesses to be residents of the state. He decided that Dixie Brands would own and run anything that did not “touch the plant” and therefore was not subject to local ownership regulations. A local partner would grow and process the marijuana, but only for Dixie Brands, and only under the company’s strict instructions. Consistent product quality is critical, Mr. Smith said. “ in Denver and Seattle taste exactly the same, and we want Dixie Elixirs and our other products to have that reputation. ” Each new manufacturing site will cost about $2 million, according to Mr. Smith. The Dixie holding company will own and control a building that they will rent to the partner as well as the equipment that will be leased to them. All of the noncannabis raw materials and packaging, and the accounting, marketing and legal services, will be provided by Dixie Brands. The partner will own the marijuana itself and employ the personnel who work with the marijuana in any form: plants, concentrates, finished products and the like. This will allow Dixie to control the business while maintaining a clear separation from the federally illegal aspect of it. That separation also protects their investors and gives the company flexibility to react to changing state and federal regulations. To finance the expansion, Mr. Smith says he has tapped a handful of investors from among the 30 who have funded his efforts over the last seven years. Those sources helped to open manufacturing facilities in Arizona and Nevada last month, and one is scheduled to open early next year in Washington State. For efficiency as it enters new locations, Dixie Brands follows the most stringent state’s laws in each area of its operations. For example, Colorado has the strictest packaging requirements encompassing measures, clear dosing and packaging. The state also bans cartoon or other images, and has many other regulations. Dixie Brands uses those packaging rules for the products they make in every state. “If it is safe enough for Colorado, it will work for the other states,” Mr. Smith said. The company also uses the cleaner carbon dioxide extraction method to strip the oils from the plants instead of butane, even though it is not required everywhere. Colorado also requires multiple rounds of product testing in the manufacturing process, including testing of the raw plants, the extracted oil, batches of products and individual packages. Dixie Brands uses these guidelines everywhere it operates. “We want to have the highest level of precise consistency and quality control, so we follow Colorado’s rules, even in states that are less strict,” Mr. Smith said. Very few brands have made it to multiple states in the fragmented legal marijuana industry, so Dixie Brands is being watched closely. “We were pioneers to begin with seven years ago,” Mr. Smith said, “and I think we are well positioned to take this leap. ” | 1 |
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan praised President Donald Trump during his visit to the White House on Tuesday, promising to assist the United States in fighting terrorists in the Middle East. [Erdogan said via a translator that Trump’s election “led to the awakening of a new set of aspirations, and expectations, and hopes” in the Middle East, particularly regarding the ongoing fight against terrorism. He also warmly praised “the legendary triumph” that Trump had experienced as president of the United States. Trump praised Turkey for serving as “a pillar in the cold war against communism” and would offer similar assistance in the fight against ISIS. “Today we face a new enemy in the fight against terrorism and again we seek to face this threat together,” Trump said, specifically citing terror groups like ISIS and the PKK. Trump said that the United States would deliver military equipment to Turkey to help them combat the terrorist threat. Erdogan confirmed that he would work with Trump and the rest of the world to combat radical terrorism. “There’s no place for the terrorist organizations in the future of our region,” he said, citing violence in Iraq, Yemen, and Libya. Trump dismissed questions from reporters questioning his decision to reveal intelligence on ISIS to Russian diplomats during a meeting at the Oval Office. “We had a very very successful meeting with the foreign minister of Russia,” Trump replied. “Our fight is against ISIS. ” | 1 |
Hillary’s campaign is going down faster than submarine with screen doors. Abedin and Wiener are each trying to make their own immunity deals with the FBI. CNN just ran a piece disrespecting Clinton and said her campaign was “in crisis”.
Can she survive? Are the Democrats finally going to get what they so richly deserve, their day of justice.
America has never seen a time like this. The chaos is summarized in the following video.
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Officials Concede Plan Could Change, as Could Definition of 'Mosul' by Jason Ditz, November 03, 2016 Share This
The US has made much of its troops involved in the Mosul invasion not being “combat” troops, even though one of the troops was killed in a roadside bombing while embedded with Kurdish combat troops. As the troops near Mosul, however, Pentagon spokesman Col. John Dorrian insists there are no plans so far for troops to enter Mosul.
Col. Dorrian insisted that Iraq’s government has said “it’s just gonna be their forces.” He did, however, say he didn’t want to say US troops would “never” be involved, insisting that the plans could change at any time.
Other officials, quoted anonymously by Reuters , suggested that the definition of Mosul could also change, saying that suburbs and parts of the city’s outskirts could easily be redefined as not Mosul, allowing US troops to enter those areas without having to technically “enter Mosul.”
The Obama Administration initially promised “no boots on the ground” in Iraq, but with some 6,000 such troops in Iraq, they’ve seen been trying desperately to claim they are in “non-combat” roles. This too has been difficult to sell, with a number of those troops embedded in combat units. Those troops are nominally “advisers,” but are regularly being put into combat areas. Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz | 0 |
Libertarian Party VP insults Trump, practically endorses Clinton Published time: 26 Oct, 2016 21:09 Get short URL Libertarian vice presidential candidate Bill Weld (L) and Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump. © Reuters Calling Trump “unhinged” and “not stable” and accusing him of stirring up “envy, resentment, and group hatred,” the Libertarian Party VP nominee Bill Weld said he would continue through the election but practically endorsed Clinton without naming her.
Weld, Gary Johnson’s running mate, said he would remain on the Libertarian Party ticket through the election but emphasized that “Trump should not, cannot, and must not be elected President of the United States.”
“A President of the United States operates every day under a great deal of pressure — from all sides, and in furtherance of many different agendas. With that pressure comes constant criticism,” Weld said in a statement issued Wednesday in Boston.
“After careful observation and reflection, I have come to believe that Donald Trump, if elected President of the United States, would not be able to stand up to this pressure and this criticism without becoming unhinged and unable to perform competently the duties of his office.” Libertarian VP nominee Bill Weld on MSNBC wishes Clinton a happy birthday, as he discusses issuing his statement against Trump pic.twitter.com/uOrqCpwDyy — Eli Watkins (@EliBWatkins) October 26, 2016
Weld said the Libertarian Party had made strides “t oward breaking the two party monopoly,” and that America would be stronger when it did, but “given the Commission on Presidential Debates, the deck is stacked against a credible third party ticket.”
The Libertarian Party, led by former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson, was polling under 10 percent nationally, not enough for the party to be included in the presidential debates. 2+2= #ImWithHer . Weld praises Clinton: https://t.co/EHCRZfmBu8 + Weld denegrates Trump: https://t.co/nUCBhYwSQj — Jeff Jarvis (@jeffjarvis) October 26, 2016
A former Republican governor of Massachusetts, Weld said he “stepped out of the swirl of the campaign” to alert voters to Trump’s failings as a potential presidential nominee. He stopped short of endorsing Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton by name.
“Mr. Trump has some charisma and panache, and intellectual quickness. These qualities can be entertaining. Yet more than charisma, more even than intellectual ability, is required of a serious candidate for this country’s highest office. A serious candidate for the Presidency of the United States must be stable, and Donald Trump is not stable.” — RT America (@RT_America) September 27, 2016
Weld said Trump had demonstrated his inability to handle criticism or blame and that his first instinct was to lash out and when challenged “he often responds as a child might.”
“He makes a sour face, he calls people by insulting names, he waves his arms, he impatiently interrupts. Most families would not allow their children to remain at the dinner table if they behaved as Mr. Trump does. He has not exhibited self-control, the discipline, or the emotional depth necessary to function credibly as a President of the United States,” Weld said. Gary Johnson secures #Libertarian Party nomination - FishTank [VIDEO] @LindsayFrance https://t.co/Uu9ev2dBa1 — RT America (@RT_America) June 1, 2016
Weld said Trump “conjured up enemies” from 11 million immigrants to America’s trading partners and that “his ideas of America’s enemies includes almost anyone who talks or looks different from him.”
“This is not the time to cast a jocular or feel-good vote for a man whom you may have briefly found entertaining. Donald Trump should not, cannot, and must not be elected President of the United States,” the Libertarian VP candidate concluded. | 0 |
WASHINGTON — Russian warplanes have carried out airstrikes to support Turkey’s offensive in northern Syria against the Islamic State, an important evolution in a budding partnership. The deepening ties threaten to marginalize the United States in the struggle to shape Syria’s ultimate fate. The air missions, which took place for about a week near the strategically important town of Al Bab, represent the Kremlin’s first use of its military might to help the Turks in their fight against the militant group. The Russians seized an opening to try to build a military relationship with Turkey, a NATO member, as the United States has sought to keep the emphasis on taking Raqqa, the Islamic State’s capital. The Russian bombing is a remarkable turnabout from November 2015, when a Turkish fighter jet shot down a Russian attack plane that had violated Turkey’s airspace. Russia and Turkey had already been involved in a joint effort to establish a in Syria — one that does not involve the United States. At the same time, ties between the United States and Turkey have come under growing strain as the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has become increasingly alarmed about the Kurdish forces known as the Y. P. G. The United States has aligned itself with those forces to combat the Islamic State in Syria. Some analysts say Russia appears to have arrived at an accommodation in which the Turks are moving to establish a security zone in northern Syria to preclude Syrian Kurds from setting up an autonomous region. In return, the Turks appear to be backing off their efforts to unseat President Bashar of Syria, who, with Russian help, is strengthening his hold on the country’s major cities to the south. “The rapprochement is largely tactical,” said James F. Jeffrey, a former United States ambassador to Turkey. “Russia can live for now with a Turkish enclave in northern Syria if it does not threaten the Assad regime. And it allows Russia to exploit the U. S. shift to Turkey’s rival, the Y. P. G. by providing air support to the Turks against the Islamic State, which the U. S. inexplicably is not providing. ” Donald J. Trump has spoken positively, though in vague terms, about the possibility of cooperating with Russia in the fight against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. But the Obama administration’s efforts to forge a common political and military strategy with the Kremlin on Syria collapsed after Russia supported Syrian forces and fighters with its air power in the brutal retaking of Aleppo. Turkey began the operation at Al Bab, east of Aleppo, without coordinating with the United States and without the benefit of American airstrikes. “This is something that they’ve decided to do independently,” Col. John Dorrian, the spokesman for the operation against the Islamic State, said in November. Turkey appeared to have assumed that it would make short work of the Islamic State fighters there. But the fighting has been stiff. In late November, the Turkish military’s problems were compounded when three of its soldiers were killed in what Turkish forces said was a Syrian airstrike. Mr. Erdogan later spoke by phone with Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian president, who assured him that Russia had not been involved in the air attack, according to Turkish news reports. The improving ties between the two autocratic leaders opened the door to greater cooperation. The Turkish military spoke publicly about the Russian role in a Jan. 2 statement that noted that Russian warplanes had struck targets the previous day about five miles south of Al Bab. American officials, who asked not to be identified because they were discussing intelligence, said that Russian airstrikes in the Al Bab area began at the end of December, and that Russian aircraft were flying near Al Bab as recently as Friday. The effectiveness of the Russian air operations, which have mainly involved dropping “dumb,” or unguided, bombs, is unclear. As Turkey’s casualties have mounted in the Al Bab operation, Turkish officials have complained about the lack of American air support and have even made veiled threats that Turkey might suspend allied combat flights against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria from its major base at Incirlik, which would be a major blow to the air campaign. American officials suggested that the holdup in carrying out allied airstrikes in recent weeks was related to a Turkish decision to ban the Americans from flying reconnaissance drones in and around Al Bab to help identify and confirm targets, as well as bad weather. The Turkish military said that measure was needed to ensure that no potentially hostile aircraft flew over its troops, but it has hampered the United States’ ability to carry out airstrikes without endangering civilians. Operating without the benefit of precise intelligence, the United States recently engaged in what officials called a “show of force” operation in which American aircraft flew low over Al Bab and dropped flares. But last week, the Turks agreed that the United States could fly drones and other aircraft to gather intelligence, which paves the way for the coalition to carry out airstrikes against the Islamic State in Al Bab, American officials said. The United States regards the Kurdish forces as some of the most effective fighters in the campaign against the Islamic State in Syria. But in deference to Turkish sensitivities, the Americans have declined to arm them directly. The Turks, however, regard them as nothing more than an arm of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, an insurgent Kurdish group in Turkey and Iraq. The Turks have blamed the group for killing dozens of Turkish security forces in recent weeks. By any measure, the nascent cooperation between Russia and Turkey is a striking development. The situation was far different when Russian warplanes arrived at Latakia, Syria, in September 2015 to help the Assad government take on rebel groups, including some backed by the United States and Turkey. Relations were thrown into a crisis after a Turkish fighter jet shot down a Russian attack plane and the Russian pilot was fatally shot by Syrian rebels as he was parachuting down. Mr. Putin denounced the as a “stab in the back. ” Russia responded by deploying the an advanced system, at Latakia, and imposed economic sanctions against Turkey. But over the past year, the calculations of the two countries have changed. While President Obama warned that Syria would become a Russian military “quagmire,” the Russians, working with Iran, forces and the Syrian military, helped Mr. Assad take back Aleppo in the waning months of the Obama administration without substantial Russian casualties. Still, Russia has to reckon with the fact that the Syrian military lacks the troops to control all of the country. At the same time, Turkey’s immediate objectives have shifted. Worried about the possibility that Kurdish fighters might link up separate cantons to establish an autonomous enclave across northern Syria, as well as about the presence of Islamic State fighters near its borders, Turkey sent its own forces into northern Syria in August. The Turkish offensive, which has enlisted the support of Syrian opposition groups that Turkey has backed, succeeded in taking the town of Jarabulus. But it has become bogged down near Al Bab, the last major town west of Raqqa still held by the Islamic State. The Russians notified the United States about the flights using a special hotline between Russian forces in Syria and the American air war command at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. The hotline’s goal is to “deconflict” air missions carried out by the Russians and the coalition. | 1 |
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17 0 0 1 (Donald Trump speaking at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. Credit: Gage Skidmore / flickr)
Trump's victory was a shock to most, especially given the broad support Hillary Clinton received from the forces of Wall Street. Although Trump is a billionaire himself, his criticism of free trade agreements and US policy toward Russia angered a broad section of the ruling class. It is the ruling class in control of the banks, military institutions, and corporate boardrooms that usually determine elections in the United States. Trump's victory is a product of the ruling system's decline and crisis more than anything else. The question is, now what?
What is urgently needed is a deep investigation of all aspects and contradictions of the Trump moment. First, Trump won because the capitalist system is in crisis. The laws of the system have inevitably led to such a level of concentration that profit accumulation has turned into its opposite. Technological innovation has permanently replaced a large section of labor in the US, creating the deindustrialized terrain Trump spoke so much about in his campaign. At the end of the day, the profits that Wall Street speculated into the ground ultimately came from the compulsion to increase buying power with large debt schemes that could never be paid back by a working class whose wages have been in decline for over three decades .
So when Hillary Clinton decided to campaign as some sort of united front against fascism, few listened. Many people in the US saw Clinton as an extension of the ruling establishment that had pummeled working class people into the ground. The Black Lives Matter movement exposed her complicity in the crime legislation that led to the vast expansion of the Black prisoner population during her husband's rule. Hillary Clinton then made the mistake of coalescing with the ruling establishments of both parties in hopes of isolating Trump when in fact she merely exposed her role as a loyal servant of power.
Some have claimed that since Clinton won the popular vote, she was the rightful winner regardless of her flaws. Others have argued that the Republican Party right-wing elites rigged the election . However true, there will be no recall this time around. Why? The DNC and the Clinton campaign rigged the primaries in order to defeat Sanders. In a stunning shift of political legitimacy, the Democratic Party has eviscerated all difference between itself and its Republican Party counterparts.
Numerous pieces have been written about the dangers of the cabinet Trump will select. Indeed, Trump’s possibilities do not deviate from the standard Republican Party makeup. His potential choices for top positions include "tough on crime" Rudy Giuliani, austerity magnate Chris Christie, and privatization enthusiast Newt Gingrich. However, for the first time in a long time, the President of the United States is accountable to something other than the ruling class. In the past, Republican Party and Democratic Party Presidents dutifully served its paymasters while using manipulation to ensure that their respective bases were effectively neutralized.
MORE... Defeating White Liberalism in the Age of Trump Brian Cloughley: “The Greatest Achievement of Mr. Trump would be Engage in Positive Discussions with Russia and China” Arise President Trump (or Why it's not the End of the World as We Know it) This is not the case with Trump. Just a month ago, Trump was the least desired choice of the ruling class . It was Trump's petty bourgeois and working class base of white America that propelled him to victory. It is clear that the need to politically survive in hostile waters will compel Trump to choose a neo-con Administration. But a neo-con agenda is exactly what his supporters voted against. Even those who directly or indirectly ascribe to white American nationalism are sick of endless war and austerity. However, nothing less can be expected from the likes of Chris Christie and Newt Gingrich.
The contradictions of the Trump era will breed a social confrontation between classes not seen since the Great Depression. White liberals and white nationalists will battle for the soul of the two-party system. The neo-con establishment will have to confront Trump's foreign and economic policy campaign rhetoric, much of which is in direct antagonism with the GOP's record. And the Democratic Party will attempt to use the age of Trump as a time to regroup and steer the forces of resistance back into its camp.
How should the forces of resistance position themselves under this new set of conditions? First, the anti-war left needs to confront Trump's foreign policy head on and place pressure on him to make good on his promises to scale back NATO and its escalation toward Russia. The left needs to resist any and all attempts by Trump to make good on some of his less savory proposals, such as a the deportation of the million immigrants and the expansion of the US nuclear arsenal. Of course, Trump’s rhetoric must be placed in its proper context. It was the Obama Administration that signed a one trillion dollar agreement to "modernize" the US nuclear arsenal and deported nearly three million immigrants in eight years, a number unseen in US history. This means resistance to the Trump Administration's use of the apparatus that Obama and the Democrats built should be directed at the entire ruling class, not just one of the two parties that represent it.
The vast majority of people simply cannot afford the resurrection of the two-party system. As Don Debar of CPR News has made clear, the check of white supremacy simply doesn't pay the same dividends anymore. While the wealth gap between White America and Black American would take over two centuries to even out , it is also true that merely ten percent White America owns almost all wealth in the US . Capitalism's crisis has forced a large segment of the population to live under working class conditions. A unique opportunity exists to build and strengthen a radical left agenda in the US and a start a discussion of what it will take to implement it.
What is meant by “opportunity” is that a narrow outlook on this moment will breed narrow results. It should be imperative that the left force Trump's hand on foreign policy. It should demand that Trump use his executive powers to force through a 21st century Glass-Steagall Act and create a federal jobs program to rebuild infrastructure in the US. The left should not hesitate to condemn and protest whatever white supremacist and repressive policies come out of his Administration, with full recognition that it was Democratic and Republican Party consensus that got us here. As emotions run high and fear captures a number of people completely disenchanted with the current political climate in the United States, the time has come to spend the time and effort necessary to prepare the people for the war that existed long before Trump: class war. | 0 |
BRUSSELS — The European Union and Canada signed a trade agreement on Sunday that commits them to opening their markets to greater competition, after overcoming a political obstacle that reflected the growing skepticism toward globalization in much of the developed world. Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, had been forced to call off an earlier trip to sign the deal after Wallonia, the region of Belgium, used its veto to withhold Belgium’s approval of the deal. The pact required the support of all 28 European Union countries. On Friday, Wallonia, which has been hit hard by deindustrialization and feared greater agricultural competition, withdrew its veto after concessions were made by the Belgian government, including promises to protect farmers. Hours later, the European Union announced that the deal was back on track. Mr. Trudeau signed the pact on Sunday, joined by Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, which represents the leaders of the member states Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia, which holds the rotating presidency of the body that runs the bloc’s ministerial meetings and Juncker, the president of the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm. The deal will help to demonstrate that “trade is good for the middle class and those working hard to join it,” Mr. Trudeau said at a news conference in Brussels. Mr. Trudeau said he wanted to “make sure that everyone gets that this is a good thing for our economies but it’s also a good example to the world. ” But the Walloon intransigence has underlined the extent to which trade has become politically radioactive as citizens increasingly blame globalization for growing disparities in wealth and living standards. Across Europe and the United States, opposition to trade has become a rallying point for populist movements on the left and the right, threatening to upend the established political order. A compromise among the regions of Belgium, which persuaded Wallonia to drop its veto, called for language to clarify the handling of trade complaints brought by Canadian or European companies. Belgium pledged to refer the arbitration system to the Court of Justice of the European Union, where judges can assess its legality. Nonetheless, several dozen activists held a rowdy protest on Sunday outside the building where Mr. Trudeau signed the pact, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement. The protesters splashed red paint on the forecourt of the building and condemned a planned Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between Europe and the United States. That much larger deal, known as T. T. I. P. has already stalled amid opposition from large numbers of Europeans, including many Germans and Austrians. The protesters see the Canadian deal as a for a much larger battle. The spectacle of tiny Wallonia, with just 3. 6 million people, holding up a deal that affects more than 500 million Europeans and 35 million Canadians and prompting European Union leaders to delay a summit meeting has rattled Western leaders. “In the end, people who favor free trade survived to fight another day,” said Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “Now that we see the Canadian deal has made it over the finish line, the Atlantic trade deal still has a fighting chance,” he said. “But it won’t be easy. T. T. I. P. could similarly threaten traditional farming interests and arouse European suspicions about common health and environmental standards. ” As a legal matter, the member states’ legislatures still need to ratify the Canadian agreement. That could mean more hiccups before it goes into effect. Mr. Tusk, of the European Council, said he was cautiously optimistic that the deal would survive the ratification process and could send a positive message about globalization. “Today’s decisions demonstrate that the disintegration of the Western community does not need to become a lasting trend,” Mr. Tusk said. “Free trade and globalization have protected hundreds of millions of people from poverty and hunger. The problem is that few people believe this. ” “The European Union is not yet in the group of hard protectionist and economies like China or Russia,” said Hosuk the director of the European Center for International Political Economy, a research organization in Brussels. “Instead, the E. U. is carving out a new middle ground between those two countries and the United States. ” Europe, Mr. said, is pivoting to a position as “neither an ally of East nor West. ” Once ratified, the Canadian deal would cut many tariffs on industrial goods and on farm and food items, according to the European Commission. The deal also would open up the services sector in areas like cargo shipping, maritime services and finance to European firms, the commission said. The Canadian deal is also regarded by trade advocates as a template for advanced, industrial economies by making it easier for their regulators to recognize one another’s rules, and by updating the rules on how companies can make sure governments protect their investments. If the Obama administration has its way, the next major regional trade accord to make it over the finish line will be the Partnership, which includes the United States, Canada, Japan and Vietnam. The Pacific deal — largely because it involves a number of emerging economies — is a more traditional trade accord aimed mainly at cutting tariffs and knocking down impediments to trade. But like the Europeans, many Americans do not want to make concessions that would lower wages or threaten jobs at home. The deal has become a hot issue in the United States presidential election both nominees, Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump, oppose it. Mr. Funk Kirkegaard, the senior fellow at the Peterson Institute, said he gave the Pacific deal about a 30 percent chance of being concluded while President Obama is still in office. “Beyond January,” he said, “it’s all dependent on the results of the election and who’s the next president. ” | 1 |
Регион: Внимание В своей новой статье французский обозреватель по странам Ближнего и Среднего Востока Жан Перье затрагивает тему особого внимания Великобритании к Ближнему Востоку и использования ею различных «рычагов влияния» для вмешательства в дела региона. Одним из таких рычагов, по мнению автора, в последние годы стала значительно увеличившаяся продажа оружия Британией в регион, в котором постоянно идут военные действия. К чему ведет такая политика королевства и как мирные жители Ближнего Востока расплачиваются своими жизнями от использования британского оружия недавно рассматривалось на страницах НВО . Однако мирные жители продолжают гибнуть, несмотря на активные попытки международной общественности спросить с виновников на Западе за невинно пролитую кровь. Публичная ближневосточная риторика Великобритании в ООН всегда отличалась довольно высокой степенью активности. Поэтому не удивительно, что Лондон, после ухода Тони Блэра в отставку с поста премьера королевства в 2007 году, стал активно продвигать его на роль спецпосланника «ближневосточного квартета» на Ближнем Востоке. Несмотря на отнюдь не миротворческую предыдущую деятельность этого политика, «забыв», в частности, о его решающей роли в развязывании вооруженной агрессии в Ираке. Аналогичная ситуация с использованием Великобританией возможностей ООН не для разрешения вооруженного кризиса в Йемене, а для наращивания оружия в эту зону конфликта происходит и сейчас. Так, курируя в Совете Безопасности ООН йеменское досье, с марта 2015 года Лондоном было продано в регион вооружений на сумму более 3 млрд фунтов. От этих вооружений гибнут гражданские лица, а официальный Лондон, прикрываясь «кураторством йеменского досье», продолжает наживаться на жизнях многострадальных мирных граждан в этой арабской стране. С учетом этого автор ставит естественный вопрос: как Великобритании, имеющей явный материальный интерес в продолжении вооруженных конфликтов в Йемене и других странах Ближнего Востока, может поручаться роль спецпосланника на Ближнем Востоке или куратора йеменское досье в СБ ООН? С полным содержанием статьи вы можете ознакомиться здесь . Популярные статьи | 0 |
21st Century Wire says…
Mexico’s billionaire tycoon Carlos Slim saw a large chuck of his wealth evaporate – literally overnight, after news of a Donald Trump election victory hit the currency and stock markets on Wednesday morning.
According to Bloomberg financial analysts, Slim, Mexico’s wealthiest person and rated fifth on the global rich list, took a stinging $5.1 billion haircut after the Mexican Peso went into a 12% free fall after Trump’s stunning upset over Democratic Hillary Clinton.
Slim’s loss amounted to a staggering 9.2 percent of his total fortune.
In the week before, polls showed Hillary Clinton as the odds on favorite, netting the billionaires a staggering $57 billion in total wealth increase across world markets. However, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, oligarchs lost a total of $41 billion during Wednesday’s epic slide – with Slim being the biggest loser. | 0 |
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Breaking: the Clinton Foundation set to investigate the FBI
Obama captures rare Pokémon while visiting Hiroshima
Movie news: 'The Big Friendly Giant Government' flops at box office; audiences say "It's creepy"
Barack Obama: "If I had a son, he'd look like Micah Johnson"
White House edits Orlando 911 transcript to say shooter pledged allegiance to NRA and Republican Party
President George Washington: 'Redcoats do not represent British Empire; King George promotes a distorted version of British colonialism'
Following Obama's 'Okie-Doke' speech , stock of Okie-Doke soars; NASDAQ: 'Obama best Okie-Doke salesman'
Weaponized baby formula threatens Planned Parenthood office; ACLU demands federal investigation of Gerber
Experts: melting Antarctic glacier could cause sale levels to rise up to 80% off select items by this weekend
Travel advisory: airlines now offering flights to front of TSA line
As Obama instructs his administration to get ready for presidential transition, Trump preemptively purchases 'T' keys for White House keyboards
John Kasich self-identifies as GOP primary winner, demands access to White House bathroom
Upcoming Trump/Kelly interview on FoxNews sponsored by 'Let's Make a Deal' and 'The Price is Right'
News from 2017: once the evacuation of Lena Dunham and 90% of other Hollywood celebrities to Canada is confirmed, Trump resigns from presidency: "My work here is done"
Non-presidential candidate Paul Ryan pledges not to run for president in new non-presidential non-ad campaign
Trump suggests creating 'Muslim database'; Obama symbolically protests by shredding White House guest logs beginning 2009
National Enquirer: John Kasich's real dad was the milkman, not mailman
National Enquirer: Bound delegates from Colorado, Wyoming found in Ted Cruz’s basement
Iran breaks its pinky-swear promise not to support terrorism; US State Department vows rock-paper-scissors strategic response
Women across the country cheer as racist Democrat president on $20 bill is replaced by black pro-gun Republican
Federal Reserve solves budget crisis by writing itself a 20-trillion-dollar check
Widows, orphans claim responsibility for Brussels airport bombing
Che Guevara's son hopes Cuba's communism will rub off on US, proposes a long list of people the government should execute first
Susan Sarandon: "I don't vote with my vagina." Voters in line behind her still suspicious, use hand sanitizer
Campaign memo typo causes Hillary to court 'New Black Panties' vote
New Hampshire votes for socialist Sanders, changes state motto to "Live FOR Free or Die"
Martin O'Malley drops out of race after Iowa Caucus; nation shocked with revelation he has been running for president
Statisticians: one out of three Bernie Sanders supporters is just as dumb as the other two
Hillary campaign denies accusations of smoking-gun evidence in her emails, claims they contain only smoking-circumstantial-gun evidence
Obama stops short of firing US Congress upon realizing the difficulty of assembling another group of such tractable yes-men
In effort to contol wild passions for violent jihad, White House urges gun owners to keep their firearms covered in gun burkas
TV horror live: A Charlie Brown Christmas gets shot up on air by Mohammed cartoons
Democrats vow to burn the country down over Ted Cruz statement, 'The overwhelming majority of violent criminals are Democrats'
Russia's trend to sign bombs dropped on ISIS with "This is for Paris" found response in Obama administration's trend to sign American bombs with "Return to sender"
University researchers of cultural appropriation quit upon discovery that their research is appropriation from a culture that created universities
Archeologists discover remains of what Barack Obama has described as unprecedented, un-American, and not-who-we-are immigration screening process in Ellis Island
Mizzou protests lead to declaring entire state a "safe space," changing Missouri motto to "The don't show me state"
Green energy fact: if we put all green energy subsidies together in one-dollar bills and burn them, we could generate more electricity than has been produced by subsidized green energy
State officials improve chances of healthcare payouts by replacing ObamaCare with state lottery
NASA's new mission to search for racism, sexism, and economic inequality in deep space suffers from race, gender, and class power struggles over multibillion-dollar budget
College progress enforcement squads issue schematic humor charts so students know if a joke may be spontaneously laughed at or if regulations require other action
ISIS opens suicide hotline for US teens depressed by climate change and other progressive doomsday scenarios
Virginia county to close schools after teacher asks students to write 'death to America' in Arabic
'Wear hijab to school day' ends with spontaneous female circumcision and stoning of a classmate during lunch break
ISIS releases new, even more barbaric video in an effort to regain mantle from Planned Parenthood
Impressed by Fox News stellar rating during GOP debates, CNN to use same formula on Democrat candidates asking tough, pointed questions about Republicans
Shocking new book explores pros and cons of socialism, discovers they are same people
Pope outraged by Planned Parenthood's "unfettered capitalism," demands equal redistribution of baby parts to each according to his need
John Kerry accepts Iran's "Golden Taquiyya" award, requests jalapenos on the side
Citizens of Pluto protest US government's surveillance of their planetoid and its moons with New Horizons space drone
John Kerry proposes 3-day waiting period for all terrorist nations trying to acquire nuclear weapons
Chicago Police trying to identify flag that caused nine murders and 53 injuries in the city this past weekend
Cuba opens to affordable medical tourism for Americans who can't afford Obamacare deductibles
State-funded research proves existence of Quantum Aggression Particles (Heterons) in Large Hadron Collider
Student job opportunities: make big bucks this summer as Hillary’s Ordinary-American; all expenses paid, travel, free acting lessons
Experts debate whether Iranian negotiators broke John Kerry's leg or he did it himself to get out of negotiations
Junior Varsity takes Ramadi, advances to quarterfinals
US media to GOP pool of candidates: 'Knowing what we know now, would you have had anything to do with the founding of the United States?'
NY Mayor to hold peace talks with rats, apologize for previous Mayor's cowboy diplomacy
China launches cube-shaped space object with a message to aliens: "The inhabitants of Earth will steal your intellectual property, copy it, manufacture it in sweatshops with slave labor, and sell it back to you at ridiculously low prices"
Progressive scientists: Truth is a variable deduced by subtracting 'what is' from 'what ought to be'
Experts agree: Hillary Clinton best candidate to lessen percentage of Americans in top 1%
America's attempts at peace talks with the White House continue to be met with lies, stalling tactics, and bad faith
Starbucks new policy to talk race with customers prompts new hashtag #DontHoldUpTheLine
Hillary: DELETE is the new RESET
Charlie Hebdo receives Islamophobe 2015 award ; the cartoonists could not be reached for comment due to their inexplicable, illogical deaths
Russia sends 'reset' button back to Hillary: 'You need it now more than we do'
Barack Obama finds out from CNN that Hillary Clinton spent four years being his Secretary of State
President Obama honors Leonard Nimoy by taking selfie in front of Starship Enterprise
Police: If Obama had a convenience store, it would look like Obama Express Food Market
Study finds stunning lack of racial, gender, and economic diversity among middle-class white males
NASA: We're 80% sure about being 20% sure about being 17% sure about being 38% sure about 2014 being the hottest year on record
People holding '$15 an Hour Now' posters sue Democratic party demanding raise to $15 an hour for rendered professional protesting services
Cuba-US normalization: US tourists flock to see Cuba before it looks like the US and Cubans flock to see the US before it looks like Cuba
White House describes attacks on Sony Pictures as 'spontaneous hacking in response to offensive video mocking Juche and its prophet'
CIA responds to Democrat calls for transparency by releasing the director's cut of The Making Of Obama's Birth Certificate
Obama: 'If I had a city, it would look like Ferguson'
Biden: 'If I had a Ferguson (hic), it would look like a city'
Obama signs executive order renaming 'looters' to 'undocumented shoppers'
Ethicists agree: two wrongs do make a right so long as Bush did it first
The aftermath of the 'War on Women 2014' finds a new 'Lost Generation' of disillusioned Democrat politicians, unable to cope with life out of office
White House: Republican takeover of the Senate is a clear mandate from the American people for President Obama to rule by executive orders
Nurse Kaci Hickox angrily tells reporters that she won't change her clocks for daylight savings time
Democratic Party leaders in panic after recent poll shows most Democratic voters think 'midterm' is when to end pregnancy
Desperate Democratic candidates plead with Obama to stop backing them and instead support their GOP opponents
Ebola Czar issues five-year plan with mandatory quotas of Ebola infections per each state based on voting preferences
Study: crony capitalism is to the free market what the Westboro Baptist Church is to Christianity
Fun facts about world languages: the Left has more words for statism than the Eskimos have for snow
African countries to ban all flights from the United States because "Obama is incompetent, it scares us"
Nobel Peace Prize controversy: Hillary not nominated despite having done even less than Obama to deserve it
Obama: 'Ebola is the JV of viruses'
BREAKING: Secret Service foils Secret Service plot to protect Obama
Revised 1st Amendment: buy one speech, get the second free
Sharpton calls on white NFL players to beat their women in the interests of racial fairness
President Obama appoints his weekly approval poll as new national security adviser
Obama wags pen and phone at Putin; Europe offers support with powerful pens and phones from NATO members
White House pledges to embarrass ISIS back to the Stone Age with a barrage of fearsome Twitter messages and fatally ironic Instagram photos
Obama to fight ISIS with new federal Terrorist Regulatory Agency
Obama vows ISIS will never raise their flag over the eighteenth hole
Harry Reid: "Sometimes I say the wong thing"
Elian Gonzalez wishes he had come to the U.S. on a bus from Central America like all the other kids
Obama visits US-Mexican border, calls for a two-state solution
Obama draws "blue line" in Iraq after Putin took away his red crayon
"Hard Choices," a porno flick loosely based on Hillary Clinton's memoir and starring Hillary Hellfire as a drinking, whoring Secretary of State, wildly outsells the flabby, sagging original
Accusations of siding with the enemy leave Sgt. Bergdahl with only two options: pursue a doctorate at Berkley or become a Senator from Massachusetts
Jay Carney stuck in line behind Eric Shinseki to leave the White House; estimated wait time from 15 min to 6 weeks
100% of scientists agree that if man-made global warming were real, "the last people we'd want to help us is the Obama administration"
Jay Carney says he found out that Obama found out that he found out that Obama found out that he found out about the latest Obama administration scandal on the news
"Anarchy Now!" meeting turns into riot over points of order, bylaws, and whether or not 'kicking the #^@&*! ass' of the person trying to speak is or is not violence
Obama retaliates against Putin by prohibiting unionized federal employees from dating hot Russian girls online during work hours
Russian separatists in Ukraine riot over an offensive YouTube video showing the toppling of Lenin statues
"Free Speech Zones" confuse Obamaphone owners who roam streets in search of additional air minutes
Obamacare bolsters employment for professionals with skills to convert meth back into sudafed
Gloves finally off: Obama uses pen and phone to cancel Putin's Netflix account
Joe Biden to Russia: "We will bury you by turning more of Eastern Europe over to your control!"
In last-ditch effort to help Ukraine, Obama deploys Rev. Sharpton and Rev. Jackson's Rainbow Coalition to Crimea
Al Sharpton: "Not even Putin can withstand our signature chanting, 'racist, sexist, anti-gay, Russian army go away'!"
Mardi Gras in North Korea: " Throw me some food! "
Obama's foreign policy works: "War, invasion, and conquest are signs of weakness; we've got Putin right where we want him"
US offers military solution to Ukraine crisis: "We will only fight countries that have LGBT military"
Putin annexes Brighton Beach to protect ethnic Russians in Brooklyn, Obama appeals to UN and EU for help
The 1980s: "Mr. Obama, we're just calling to ask if you want our foreign policy back . The 1970s are right here with us, and they're wondering, too."
In a stunning act of defiance, Obama courageously unfriends Putin on Facebook
MSNBC: Obama secures alliance with Austro-Hungarian Empire against Russia’s aggression in Ukraine
Study: springbreak is to STDs what April 15th is to accountants
Efforts to achieve moisture justice for California thwarted by unfair redistribution of snow in America
North Korean voters unanimous: "We are the 100%"
Leader of authoritarian gulag-site, The People's Cube, unanimously 're-elected' with 100% voter turnout
Super Bowl: Obama blames Fox News for Broncos' loss
Feminist author slams gay marriage: "a man needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle"
Beverly Hills campaign heats up between Henry Waxman and Marianne Williamson over the widening income gap between millionaires and billionaires in their district
Biden to lower $10,000-a-plate Dinner For The Homeless to $5,000 so more homeless can attend
Kim becomes world leader, feeds uncle to dogs; Obama eats dogs, becomes world leader, America cries uncle
North Korean leader executes own uncle for talking about Obamacare at family Christmas party
White House hires part-time schizophrenic Mandela sign interpreter to help sell Obamacare
Kim Jong Un executes own " crazy uncle " to keep him from ruining another family Christmas
OFA admits its advice for area activists to give Obamacare Talk at shooting ranges was a bad idea
President resolves Obamacare debacle with executive order declaring all Americans equally healthy
Obama to Iran: "If you like your nuclear program, you can keep your nuclear program"
Bovine community outraged by flatulence coming from Washington DC
Obama: "I'm not particularly ideological; I believe in a good pragmatic five-year plan"
Shocker: Obama had no knowledge he'd been reelected until he read about it in the local newspaper last week
Server problems at HealthCare.gov so bad, it now flashes 'Error 808' message
NSA marks National Best Friend Day with official announcement: "Government is your best friend; we know you like no one else, we're always there, we're always willing to listen"
Al Qaeda cancels attack on USA citing launch of Obamacare as devastating enough
The President's latest talking point on Obamacare: "I didn't build that"
Dizzy with success, Obama renames his wildly popular healthcare mandate to HillaryCare
Carney: huge ObamaCare deductibles won't look as bad come hyperinflation
Washington Redskins drop 'Washington' from their name as offensive to most Americans
Poll: 83% of Americans favor cowboy diplomacy over rodeo clown diplomacy
GOVERNMENT WARNING: If you were able to complete ObamaCare form online, it wasn't a legitimate gov't website; you should report online fraud and change all your passwords
Obama administration gets serious, threatens Syria with ObamaCare
Obama authorizes the use of Vice President Joe Biden's double-barrel shotgun to fire a couple of blasts at Syria
Sharpton: "British royals should have named baby 'Trayvon.' By choosing 'George' they sided with white Hispanic racist Zimmerman"
DNC launches 'Carlos Danger' action figure; proceeds to fund a charity helping survivors of the Republican War on Women
Nancy Pelosi extends abortion rights to the birds and the bees
Hubble discovers planetary drift to the left
Obama: 'If I had a daughter-in-law, she would look like Rachael Jeantel'
FISA court rubberstamps statement denying its portrayal as government's rubber stamp
Every time ObamaCare gets delayed, a Julia somewhere dies
GOP to Schumer: 'Force full implementation of ObamaCare before 2014 or Dems will never win another election'
Obama: 'If I had a son... no, wait, my daughter can now marry a woman!'
Janet Napolitano: TSA findings reveal that since none of the hijackers were babies, elderly, or Tea Partiers, 9/11 was not an act of terrorism
News Flash: Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) can see Canada from South Dakota
Susan Rice: IRS actions against tea parties caused by anti-tax YouTube video that was insulting to their faith
Drudge Report reduces font to fit all White House scandals onto one page
Obama: the IRS is a constitutional right, just like the Second Amendment
White House: top Obama officials using secret email accounts a result of bad IT advice to avoid spam mail from Nigeria
Jay Carney to critics: 'Pinocchio never said anything inconsistent'
Obama: If I had a gay son, he'd look like Jason Collins
Gosnell's office in Benghazi raided by the IRS: mainstream media's worst cover-up challenge to date
IRS targeting pro-gay-marriage LGBT groups leads to gayest tax revolt in U.S. history
After Arlington Cemetery rejects offer to bury Boston bomber, Westboro Babtist Church steps up with premium front lawn plot
Boston: Obama Administration to reclassify marathon bombing as 'sportsplace violence'
Study: Success has many fathers but failure becomes a government program
US Media: Can Pope Francis possibly clear up Vatican bureaucracy and banking without blaming the previous administration?
Michelle Obama praises weekend rampage by Chicago teens as good way to burn calories and stay healthy
This Passover, Obama urges his subjects to paint lamb's blood above doors in order to avoid the Sequester
White House to American children: Sequester causes layoffs among hens that lay Easter eggs; union-wage Easter Bunnies to be replaced by Mexican Chupacabras
Time Mag names Hugo Chavez world's sexiest corpse
Boy, 8, pretends banana is gun, makes daring escape from school
Study: Free lunches overpriced, lack nutrition
Oscars 2013: Michelle Obama announces long-awaited merger of Hollywood and the State
Joe Salazar defends the right of women to be raped in gun-free environment: 'rapists and rapees should work together to prevent gun violence for the common good'
Dept. of Health and Human Services eliminates rape by reclassifying assailants as 'undocumented sex partners'
Kremlin puts out warning not to photoshop Putin riding meteor unless bare-chested
Deeming football too violent, Obama moves to introduce Super Drone Sundays instead
Japan offers to extend nuclear umbrella to cover U.S. should America suffer devastating attack on its own defense spending
Feminists organize one billion women to protest male oppression with one billion lap dances
Urban community protests Mayor Bloomberg's ban on extra-large pop singers owning assault weapons
Concerned with mounting death toll, Taliban offers to send peacekeeping advisers to Chicago
Karl Rove puts an end to Tea Party with new 'Republicans For Democrats' strategy aimed at losing elections
Answering public skepticism, President Obama authorizes unlimited drone attacks on all skeet targets throughout the country
Skeet Ulrich denies claims he had been shot by President but considers changing his name to 'Traps'
White House releases new exciting photos of Obama standing, sitting, looking thoughtful, and even breathing in and out
New York Times hacked by Chinese government, Paul Krugman's economic policies stolen
White House: when President shoots skeet, he donates the meat to food banks that feed the middle class
To prove he is serious, Obama eliminates armed guard protection for President, Vice-President, and their families; establishes Gun-Free Zones around them instead
State Dept to send 100,000 American college students to China as security for US debt obligations
Jay Carney: Al Qaeda is on the run, they're just running forward
President issues executive orders banning cliffs, ceilings, obstructions, statistics, and other notions that prevent us from moving forwards and upward
Fearing the worst, Obama Administration outlaws the fan to prevent it from being hit by certain objects
World ends; S&P soars
Riddle of universe solved; answer not understood
Meek inherit Earth, can't afford estate taxes
Greece abandons Euro; accountants find Greece has no Euros anyway
Wheel finally reinvented; axles to be gradually reinvented in 3rd quarter of 2013
Bigfoot found in Ohio, mysteriously not voting for Obama
As Santa's workshop files for bankruptcy, Fed offers bailout in exchange for control of 'naughty and nice' list
Freak flying pig accident causes bacon to fly off shelves
Obama: green economy likely to transform America into a leading third world country of the new millennium
Report: President Obama to visit the United States in the near future
Obama promises to create thousands more economically neutral jobs
Modernizing Islam: New York imam proposes to canonize Saul Alinsky as religion's latter day prophet
Imam Rauf's peaceful solution: 'Move Ground Zero a few blocks away from the mosque and no one gets hurt'
Study: Obama's threat to burn tax money in Washington 'recruitment bonanza' for Tea Parties
Study: no Social Security reform will be needed if gov't raises retirement age to at least 814 years
Obama attends church service, worships self
Obama proposes national 'Win The Future' lottery; proceeds of new WTF Powerball to finance more gov't spending
Historical revisionists: "Hey, you never know"
Vice President Biden: criticizing Egypt is un-pharaoh
Israelis to Egyptian rioters: "don't damage the pyramids, we will not rebuild"
Lake Superior renamed Lake Inferior in spirit of tolerance and inclusiveness
Al Gore: It's a shame that a family can be torn apart by something as simple as a pack of polar bears
Michael Moore: As long as there is anyone with money to shake down, this country is not broke
Obama's teleprompters unionize, demand collective bargaining rights
Obama calls new taxes 'spending reductions in tax code.' Elsewhere rapists tout 'consent reductions in sexual intercourse'
Obama's teleprompter unhappy with White House Twitter: "Too few words"
Obama's Regulation Reduction committee finds US Constitution to be expensive outdated framework inefficiently regulating federal gov't
Taking a page from the Reagan years, Obama announces new era of Perestroika and Glasnost
Responding to Oslo shootings, Obama declares Christianity "Religion of Peace," praises "moderate Christians," promises to send one into space
Republicans block Obama's $420 billion program to give American families free charms that ward off economic bad luck
White House to impose Chimney tax on Santa Claus
Obama decrees the economy is not soaring as much as previously decreeed
Conservative think tank introduces children to capitalism with pop-up picture book "The Road to Smurfdom"
Al Gore proposes to combat Global Warming by extracting silver linings from clouds in Earth's atmosphere
Obama refutes charges of him being unresponsive to people's suffering: "When you pray to God, do you always hear a response?"
Obama regrets the US government didn't provide his mother with free contraceptives when she was in college
Fluke to Congress: drill, baby, drill!
Planned Parenthood introduces Frequent Flucker reward card: 'Come again soon!'
Obama to tornado victims: 'We inherited this weather from the previous administration'
Obama congratulates Putin on Chicago-style election outcome
People's Cube gives itself Hero of Socialist Labor medal in recognition of continued expert advice provided to the Obama Administration helping to shape its foreign and domestic policies
Hamas: Israeli air defense unfair to 99% of our missiles, "only 1% allowed to reach Israel"
Democrat strategist: without government supervision, women would have never evolved into humans
Voters Without Borders oppose Texas new voter ID law
Enraged by accusation that they are doing Obama's bidding, media leaders demand instructions from White House on how to respond
Obama blames previous Olympics for failure to win at this Olympics
Official: China plans to land on Moon or at least on cheap knockoff thereof
Koran-Contra: Obama secretly arms Syrian rebels
Poll: Progressive slogan 'We should be more like Europe' most popular with members of American Nazi Party
Obama to Evangelicals: Jesus saves, I just spend
May Day: Anarchists plan, schedule, synchronize, and execute a coordinated campaign against all of the above
Midwestern farmers hooked on new erotic novel "50 Shades of Hay"
Study: 99% of Liberals give the rest a bad name
Obama meets with Jewish leaders, proposes deeper circumcisions for the rich
Historians: Before HOPE & CHANGE there was HEMP & CHOOM at ten bucks a bag
Cancer once again fails to cure Venezuela of its "President for Life"
Tragic spelling error causes Muslim protesters to burn local boob-tube factory
Secretary of Energy Steven Chu: due to energy conservation, the light at the end of the tunnel will be switched off
Obama Administration running food stamps across the border with Mexico in an operation code-named "Fat And Furious"
Pakistan explodes in protest over new Adobe Acrobat update; 17 local acrobats killed
White House: "Let them eat statistics"
Special Ops: if Benedict Arnold had a son, he would look like Barack Obama | 0 |
Days after several of his colleagues were awakened in their hotel rooms by the police and arrested on corruption charges last year, Sepp Blatter, the longtime president of FIFA, made an important decision. He decided he deserved a raise. With soccer in crisis and an unprecedented scandal beginning to boil, Mr. Blatter — who had just won to a record fifth term — signed a new employment contract that increased his salary to $3 million a year and guaranteed him a $12 million bonus if he completed his mandate. That arrangement, completed just as FIFA was plunging into organizational chaos, was one of many instances in which three of FIFA’s top officials arranged over five years to pay themselves more than $80 million, according to an internal investigation of world soccer’s governing body by the American law firm Quinn Emanuel. It was the latest in a series of accusations about a culture of corruption pervading FIFA. For years, top soccer officials have been accused of using bribes and payoffs to profit from their roles overseeing the billions of dollars FIFA and other governing bodies generate through tournaments like the World Cup. But in the past year, dozens of soccer officials — though not the three accused Friday — have been charged with fraud, racketeering and money laundering in a broad corruption investigation led by the United States Justice Department. On Friday, lawyers from Quinn Emanuel, which was hired by FIFA in the wake of last year’s arrests, published a synopsis of some of the findings of their own investigation. In it, they identified three former FIFA officials — Mr. Blatter and his former deputies Jérôme Valcke and Markus Kattner — as having mounted a “coordinated effort” to enrich themselves through a series of raises, bonuses and other payments. The three were also accused of modifying the termination clauses in their employment contracts to ensure that they would receive payouts even if they were fired for cause. “They had the authority they needed,” Quinn Emanuel investigators wrote of Mr. Blatter, Mr. Valcke and Mr. Kattner, “and they simply told payroll and HR, the department generally in charge for employment contracts at FIFA and which reported to Mr. Kattner, how much should be paid out and to whom. ” In a statement responding to the accusations, Mr. Blatter’s lawyer, Richard Cullen, said Friday, “We look forward to showing FIFA that Mr. Blatter’s compensation payments were proper, fair and in line with the heads of major professional sports leagues around the world. ” Mr. Valcke and Mr. Kattner did not immediately respond to FIFA’s statement. None of the three men currently work for FIFA. Mr. Blatter was barred from soccer by FIFA in December and replaced by a new president, Gianni Infantino, in an election in February. FIFA suspended Mr. Valcke, Mr. Blatter’s longtime deputy, last fall and fired him in January amid accusations of corruption. Mr. Valcke was replaced temporarily as secretary general by FIFA’s finance director, Mr. Kattner. That effectively placed Mr. Kattner in control of FIFA’s finances in the months leading to this year’s presidential election, but he, too, was fired, in May, after FIFA said it had discovered he had breached his fiduciary duty to the organization. The accusations by FIFA and its lawyers seemed intended to paint a picture of a leadership group operating outside FIFA financial controls: ■ In 2010, Mr. Blatter, Mr. Valcke and Mr. Kattner were awarded $23 million in retroactive bonuses for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa that FIFA said were not called for under their employment agreements. ■ In 2011, with Mr. Blatter in a contested election for the FIFA presidency, Mr. Valcke and Mr. Kattner were given contract extensions that included guarantees that they would receive full payment of their salaries if they lost their jobs, a likely outcome under a new president. ■ That same year, Mr. Blatter received a bonus of 12 million Swiss francs (about $12 million) for overseeing the 2014 World Cup. ■ In May 2015, only days after the arrests of several of their colleagues in Zurich, Mr. Blatter, who signed a contract in 2008 that paid him 2 million Swiss francs (about $2 million) a year, executed a new contract that increased his salary to about $3 million and included the prospect of another performance bonus of $12 million if he completed his term. A day after that, Mr. Kattner’s contract was extended four years — through December 2023 — and modified to include a clause that he be paid in full even if he was fired. In its statement, FIFA dryly labeled the timing of that contract extension “noteworthy. ” The details of Quinn Emanuel’s investigation deflected attention — at least momentarily — away from two other FIFA stories this week: the news that the Swiss attorney general’s office had conducted a new raid on FIFA headquarters in Zurich on Friday as part of a continuing investigation into possible corruption, and recent issues regarding transparency that have plagued Mr. Infantino. Earlier this week, a German newspaper reported that Mr. Infantino had worked behind the scenes to marginalize FIFA’s independent auditor in a leadership power struggle. That situation came to light when the auditor, Domenico Scala, abruptly resigned at FIFA’s recent Congress in Mexico, saying that Mr. Infantino and others had orchestrated a change in FIFA’s bylaws that shifted the power to hire and fire the independent ethics officials with FIFA’s new governing council — a body led by Mr. Infantino. FIFA has defended Mr. Infantino by saying the shift was done to protect the organization against the possibility it might be unable to separate itself from individuals who come under investigation, but the assertion seemed to run counter to Mr. Infantino’s professed support for reform and his stated goal of greater separation of powers at FIFA. Then this week came the German report, which said that Mr. Infantino had instructed FIFA staff members to delete recordings of an executive session in which removing Mr. Scala had been discussed. Mr. Scala, as part of his role leading the audit and compliance committee, also was responsible for setting Mr. Infantino’s salary — a process that reportedly had gone poorly, with Mr. Infantino describing Mr. Scala’s initial proposal of a $2 million salary as “insulting. ” All of this comes as FIFA tries to emerge from the worst corruption scandal in its history, a period which began just over a year ago when more than a dozen soccer and sports marketing officials with ties to soccer’s global governing body were arrested in predawn raids before a FIFA meeting in Zurich. Several have pleaded guilty to corruption charges in the United States, including more FIFA executives arrested in a second Zurich raid in December. Many of those executives held top posts in the FIFA led by Mr. Blatter, Mr. Valcke and Mr. Kattner, so it was not surprising that more detailed allegations against the three men might emerge. In its news release on Friday, FIFA and its lawyers accused Mr. Blatter, Mr. Valcke and Mr. Kattner of working together to bulk up their compensation in agreements as far back as 2007. The evidence, the lawyers said, revealed breaches of fiduciary duty and also raised questions about FIFA’s internal financial controls, especially the role of its compensation subcommittee. It was unclear whether all the salary and bonuses were paid and if FIFA would seek to recover any of it. FIFA said that all of the contracts would face further investigation, and that it had shared its findings with the Swiss attorney general’s office and would do the same with the Justice Department. | 1 |
By Kurt Nimmo, Blacklisted News
In the video below the “folk hero” of the Iraqi Counter-Terror Services and regular Iraqi army takes a direct hit in the battle for Mosul.
The destruction of an Abrams tank by a Russian ATGM Kornet missile is good news if you’re a stockholder in General Dynamics Land Systems, formerly Chrysler Defense.
General Dynamics makes the Abrams battle tank.
Each one costs $9 million.
The US will simply ship another tank to replace the one destroyed along with its presumed Iraqi crew. Iraqi lives are a cheap commodity, so it will not be a problem to find another expendable tank crew.
Back in 2012 former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno testified to Congress that the Army has more than enough tanks. He suggested the line at General Dynamics be shut down temporarily. “Our tank fleet is two and a half years old on average now. We’re in good shape and these are additional tanks that we don’t need,” he said.
Congress budgeted more money for new tanks anyway. Rep. Mac Thornberry, a Texas Republican and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said more tanks were needed in Europe to confront Vladimir Putin.
Military readiness is a “consumable,” said Maj. Gen. Thomas A. Horlander, the Army’s budget director. Military hardware is “cumulative,” according to the Pentagon.
On Tuesday General Dynamics stock opened at $151.21 and closed at $152.59. Last week the corporation was awarded a $170 million contract for an air-to-ground rocket system. Earlier this month General Dynamics was awarded a $900 million contract over five years to provide engineering and technical services for major weapon systems, program technical assistance, support systems requirements and assist with production decision-making and program controls, according to MarketWatch .
The United States is the largest producer and exporter of weapons in the world. The US armed forces budget topped out over $600 billion in 2015.
U.S. Military Budgets 1948-2015
Obama FY2010-15 $663.4 billion per year Bush Jr FY2002-09* $634.9 | 0 |
Students from Cornell University hosted a protest to demand that the college provide funding to illegal immigrants. [About 250 students and faculty members attended the protest, which was organized by the Cornell Coalition for Inclusive Democracy, Heat Street reported. “No ban, no wall. Sanctuary for all,” protesters chanted. The protesters want the upstate New York school to provide illegal immigrants, including those not protected by DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) with special funding. “Our endangered community members still lack explicit assurance that the institution that took them in will protect them,” Professor Russell Rickford told the Cornell Sun. “That’s shameful. ” The group also wants Cornell to provide housing for immigrant students who have been warned not to travel overseas, and fight for legislation that protects illegal immigrants. They also want campus police not to release information about illegal immigrant students to immigration agents unless it is absolutely necessary. “State explicitly that CUPD will join the Tompkins County Sheriff and Ithaca Police Department in declining to honor civil immigration detainer requests (which is not legally required!) from a federal agent unless accompanied by a judicial warrant,” the demand read. One illegal immigrant student spoke about her struggle to obtain financial aid. “I had to sacrifice meals. I had to sacrifice having the right books. I had to do everything to thrive at this school,” Julia Montejo said. “Now that Cornell’s caught up, which is a little late for many people, Cornell is refusing to explicitly state that CUPD will not cooperate with ICE. ” Another professor told the crowd that the students would “always be in a minority” in terms of what they were fighting for. “You will always be in a minority. But, the truth is, we look back on those periods now as periods of grave injustice, where time has turned against what was done. And you don’t need the majority what you need is a very dedicated, involved minority,” Professor Joe Margulies said. | 1 |
posted by Eddie A new study revealed that consistent small lies could alter the way on how a certain part of the brain associated to negative emotions respond to lie, desensitizing our brain in the process and encourages bigger lies in the future. The study, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience , is the first to provide empirical evidence that telling small lies could gradually lead to larger lies. Additionally, the study is also the first to have a deeper look on the brain’s responses to repeated and increasing acts of dishonesty. “When we lie for personal gain, our amygdala produces a negative feeling that limits the extent to which we are prepared to lie,” explained senior author Dr Tali Sharot, from University College London Experimental Psychology, in a statement . “However, this response fades as we continue to lie, and the more it falls the bigger our lies become. This may lead to a ‘slippery slope’ where small acts of dishonesty escalate into more significant lies.” For the study, the researchers recruited 80 volunteers. The participants took part in a team estimation task that involved guessing the number of pennies in the jar and sending their estimates to unseen partners using computers. The researchers introduced the participants in different scenarios that may affect their estimation. As the baseline scenario, the participants were told that aiming for the most accurate estimate would benefit them and their partners. Other scenarios include over- or under-estimating the amount of pennies would either benefit them both, benefit them at their partner’s expense, benefit their partners at their expense and benefit one of them without any effect on the other one. The researchers observed that participants started exaggerating their estimates in the scenario in which over-estimating would benefit them at the expense of their partner. The exaggeration of the estimates elicited a strong response from the amygdala. However, as the Due exaggerations of the estimate continue to escalate throughout the study, the response from the amygdala declined. These findings show that the amygdala signals aversion to acts that considered to wrong or immoral. However, repeated acts of dishonesty can solicit a blunt response from the brain, reducing the emotional response to dishonest acts. Source: | 0 |
In the moments before a Piper Seneca plane plunged into a street in a suburban Connecticut town, tearing through power lines and narrowly avoiding people on the ground, the two men on board had a heated exchange, law enforcement officials said on Wednesday. Only one of the men, Arian Prevalla, a flight instructor, survived the crash on Tuesday, crawling from the wreckage, badly burned and bruised, just before the aircraft burst into flames on Main Street in East Hartford. His account of what took place in those final moments has led investigators to believe that the aircraft was intentionally driven into the ground — although the motive remains unclear. The crash took place near the gates of one of the world’s largest manufacturers of jet engines, Pratt Whitney, so federal agents were called to the scene as a matter of course. When Mr. Prevalla told investigators the crash was not an accident, the Federal Bureau of Investigation took over the case. A federal law enforcement official briefed on the case said that there was no evidence of international terrorism, or that the crash was politically motivated. Given the nature of the argument in the cockpit, investigators are looking into whether the instructor’s student had mental health problems and was trying to commit suicide, law enforcement officials said. The student, Fera M. Freitekh, 28, was a Jordanian national of Palestinian descent who came to the United States several years ago to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a pilot, according to his cousin Freitekh. A Facebook page that appears to belong to Mr. Freitekh features several videos of him flying over Niagara Falls and making landings. In one picture, he is kissing the nose of a plane. It also includes a video display of a July 4 fireworks celebration, with Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U. S. A. ” playing in the background. Mr. Prevalla, speaking to investigators from his hospital bed, where he was recovering on Wednesday, outlined an argument the two had had in the cockpit in the moments before the crash. The details of that confrontation are what led law enforcement officials to believe it was a suicide and not something more sinister. The plane, used for training, was equipped with two sets of controls, one for the instructor and one for the student. In his statement to investigators, Mr. Prevalla said the arguing occurred as they made a final approach to Runway 20 at Airport. Mr. Freitekh was coming in for a landing when he told the instructor that “something’s a little off here,” a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation said. Mr. Prevalla, according to the official, “says, ‘Let me take over.’ And the kid comes in for a second time for a landing, or he doesn’t let him take over. ” Mr. Prevalla was becoming increasingly anxious, and as they made a second approach, he told Mr. Freitekh, “I’m taking over,” according to the official. But apparently before the instructor could get control, Mr. Freitekh sent the plane into a onto Main Street. Looking at the wreckage, which remained scattered on the street on Wednesday, it was hard to see how anyone was able to escape. The plane crashed around 3:30 p. m. on Tuesday, tearing through telephone wires and power lines as it barreled toward the busy street. It burst into flames only yards from a minivan with several passengers, narrowly missing the vehicle and people on the ground. Lt. Josh Litwin of the East Hartford Police Department, speaking to reporters on Wednesday, said, “The fact that there were not more casualties is pretty amazing. ” Mr. Freitekh’s cousin, who was interviewed in Jordan, said Mr. Freitekh first came to the United States three years ago to study flying. When he was not able to take his final exam for financial reasons, he returned to Jordan to make money selling video games online and working at a clothing store, according to the cousin. After six or seven months, Mr. Freitekh was able to save enough money to return to the United States and resume his pilot lessons, eventually enrolling at the American Flight Academy in Hartford. Records with the Federal Aviation Administration show he was issued a private pilot certificate on May 29, 2015, and was certified to fly a plane. His cousin said he aspired to fly planes. Mr. Freitekh’s mother lives in a neighborhood in the Jordanian capital, Amman. His father, who remains married to his mother, came to the United States about a decade ago for financial reasons. His cousin said that Mr. Freitekh “was not religious at all. ” “He did not pray,” the cousin continued. “Religion was not an issue. ” Investigators said Mr. Freitekh was most recently living with several roommates in an East Hartford apartment building. A neighbor, Wanda Sanchez, said Mr. Freitekh had shared with her in casual conversation that all five residents of the apartment were studying at the flight school. “They were quiet, peaceful,” Ms. Sanchez said. “They were always home. They told us they were trying to be pilots. ” | 1 |
Fans of the “Resistance” received a subtle piece of good news on Friday. MSNBC, the furthest left of the cable news outlets, won the battle for prime time ratings on Thursday evening, and came a close second to Fox in overall viewers. (CNN was third in both categories. )[That is just one data point, but it is one more piece of evidence that the Democratic base is more active, more engaged, and more willing to sit through agitprop than Republicans. Democrats defend some of their tactics — such as disrupting town hall meetings — by claiming that they are simply doing what the Tea Party did in . That is hardly an accurate parallel. It would have been hard to find a Tea Partier who was paid to leave work to protest, or who attacked innocent people in a riot. But they do share one thing with the Tea Party: the “Resistance” is a political force somewhat outside the party structure, and hence more effective. Still, Democrats have a tough hill to climb. They must defend 25 Senate seats (including the two “independent” Senators) ten of which are in states that Donald Trump won. Republicans will only have to defend eight seats. In the House, Democrats need 24 seats to bring Nancy Pelosi the Speaker’s gavel. But they are still competing on a map that was drawn after the 2010 Republican sweep, which included state legislators and governor’s mansions. In 2010, Republicans were largely competing on home turf. Many of the Democrats they unseated were moderates, some of whom had been handpicked to run in 2006 by Rahm Emanuel. Unlike the Democrats’ present leadership, Emanuel understood that winning the House meant winning in conservative districts, which meant choosing more conservative Democratic candidates. But forcing them to vote for Obamacare left them vulnerable to the Tea Party. In 2018, Democrats are not very competitive outside traditionally liberal districts. Their hysteria, and profanity, is alienating the moderate voters they need to reach. The one place where Democrats may do well is in California, because it was one of the few states to draw its new, districts in ways that benefited Democrats. (California used a supposedly commission to draw its map, but Democrats found ways to game it.) Democrats are targeting seven out of the state’s 14 Republican representatives, in districts won by Hillary Clinton. And they have momentum: the Los Angeles Times reports that 800 activists turned out this week for a “town hall” for Rep. Mimi Walters ( ) which was held in her absence. There is no unifying theme to the “Resistance” yet, other than opposition to all things Trump. But that may be enough, unless Republicans can muster enough enthusiasm among their own base. That may prove to be a challenge. Trump voters still support him, but many are decidedly less enthusiastic about supporting Republicans in Congress who have clashed with the White House, or who seem to be too eager to make “swamp” deals with the Democrats. Rep Darrell Issa ( ) illustrates the general dilemma: he is seen as shifting left to counter a Democratic challenge, but may lose the core conservative voters he needs in the process. They may simply stay home. Democrats are targeting 61 districts nationwide. They have not won a single special election since November, but they are moving closer. To hold the House, Republicans will need to do more than remind voters of the danger of Pelosi returning to power. They will need to pass major bills on health care and tax cuts. And they will need President Trump to be in fighting form. Joel B. Pollak is Senior at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak. | 1 |
On Wednesday’s Breitbart News Daily, Dr. Sebastian Gorka, Deputy Assistant to President Trump, said the firing of FBI Director James Comey was an example of how “incredibly decisive” the president is. [“The recent testimony of the director added that last straw to the camel’s back and proved that he’s unfit to serve, and that he’s lost the confidence not only of the president but of the agents that serve under him,” Gorka said of Comey. “Before I came into the White House, I spent many years training and educating FBI agents, so I have lots of connections with them,” he said. “When they tell you from one of the field offices that when the director gave that infamous press conference, where for 13 minutes he built a watertight case for the prosecution of Hillary Clinton, and then in the last minute punted and said ‘no, I’ve decided not to recommend prosecution’ — when half of the agents in that field office stood up, as I was told by a reliable source, put on their jackets and left the office for the next four days, then you know your situation is untenable. You’ve lost the institution, Raheem,” he told SiriusXM host Raheem Kassam. Kassam asked if it was wise for the Trump White House to get into a “war of words with somebody who will be testifying in front of committees, probably for the foreseeable future, who will become a face on the national media, who will write his memoirs now about his time there and his experiences with the new president. ” “As I’ve said before, I am a lowly deputy assistant. I’m not going to give Donald J. Trump advice on strategic communications,” Gorka responded. “Remember, on the day of the election the Huffington Post said Hillary Clinton has a 98 percent chance of victory. The New York Times said Hillary Clinton is going to win. I don’t think anybody has anything to teach the president about communications, what to tweet, what to say in a press conference. He’s broken the whole mold of strategic communications, and he’s done so despite the old ways of doing business. So I think he’s pretty secure in what he does, and he will weather any consequences admirably. ” Kassam asked for Gorka’s response to those who imply there is a “whiff of fascism,” as MSNBC’s Chris Matthews put it, around the Comey firing. “I think they should go and live in a real fascist state like Venezuela,” Gorka suggested. “Go live there for a few weeks and check that out. It’s an insult to people like my parents who lived under fascism, and then under communism. It’s just outrageous, absolutely outrageous. ” “This is a man who, in every speech he’s given since January the 20th, has made it patently obvious that he is a president for all Americans, whether or not you voted for him,” Gorka said of Trump. “What he’s doing with regards to national security, the economy, revitalizing our international relations — they’re not partisan political. They’re really about the bumper sticker that was the election campaign platform: MAGA, Make America Great Again. If you see any whiff of anything totalitarian or fascist in that, you need to look in the mirror yourself first, and look at how fascist your tendencies may be. ” Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. | 1 |
Last Wednesday, many Americans were shocked when they woke up to the news that Donald Trump was elected president the day before. Some of that surprise was undoubtedly the result of trusting that the mainstream media was providing fair and accurate coverage of Trump and Clinton’s election prospects. As it turns out, that trust was seriously misplaced.
The Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, and all the network news stations had repeatedly asserted that Clinton was almost certainly going to win, but it was The New York Times, the country’s paper of record, that openly declared it would not provide fair coverage to Trump.
In a now infamous piece, New York Times media reporter Jim Rutenberg explained that Donald Trump was such an “abnormal and potentially dangerous candidate” that the normal standards of journalism at the Times could not be applied.
Dean Baquet, executive editor of The New York Times, agreed with Rutenberg’s assessment, saying the Times changed its journalistic standards and ended the paper’s internal-struggle over outright attacking candidates as liars thanks to Trump.
While it was nice to see the Times finally acknowledge it is not an objective source of information, the Times’ pro-Clinton bias made it (and the rest of the mainstream media) completely ignore the evidence around the depth of Trump’s support. Now, the paper of record looks completely out of touch and incapable of understanding the country it is the paper of record for.
In the wake of the Times’ embarrassing failure, the paper’s publisher and Baquet wrote a letter to their readers. Calling the election “erratic and unpredictable,” they admitted they blew it and said that they will “rededicate ourselves to the fundamental mission of Times journalism.”
Rutenberg had his own mea culpa, where he recognized mainstream media journalists were out of touch with reality and that the results of the election proved “something was fundamentally broken in journalism.”
While it is true that polling played a large role in the mainstream media failure—one disgraced pollster even ate a bug live on CNN as penance—some of the polling was not that far off. Plenty of polling firms like those working with the LA Times and International Business Times had the race within the margin of error (sometimes with Trump ahead) and even the much maligned Nate Silver gave Trump a 30% chance.
The real reason the mainstream media face-planted on the election coverage is because they were trying to have it both ways, supporting their preferred candidate through their coverage, while also claiming to have the one true understanding of the race (which, surprise, helped their preferred candidate). They are the establishment, with all its flaws and purported virtues, but are unwilling to face that truth or allow it to permeate their awareness.
Or, they were simply running a gaslighting campaign on their readers and viewers to goad them into thinking supporting Trump was hopeless, which failed because fewer and fewer people trust them.
Either way, if the Times and the mainstream media have any hope of regaining their credibility, they have to come clean about their own agenda. Transparency, not the false promise of objectivity, is the real standard for journalism.
The post New York Times To ‘Rededicate’ Itself To Journalism After Election Fail appeared first on Shadowproof .
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The President of Pennsylvania State University, Eric Barron, claimed that Breitbart’s MILO is creating an “ speech movement,” adding that the university “dodged a serious bullet” when they canceled his talk. [Discussing the riots that took place at UC Berkeley in protest of MILO’s event, Barron said that Penn State had “dodged a serious bullet” in that MILO’s event was canceled. after both parties failed to reach a contractual agreement. “He’s creating his own speech movement wherever he goes because his message really is, tear down the university, they’re just a bunch of liberals that don’t want to listen to anybody,” Barron continued. He went on to claim that protesters are generally not students, but organized by “ anarchist groups” who follow “white supremacists speakers and the MILO’s of the world. ” One of the key objectives of MILO’s tour was the promotion of free speech on typically censorious American college campuses. This week, legislators announced a Tennessee bill to protect freedom of speech on college campuses, known as “The Milo Bill” in recognition of his contribution to promoting the First Amendment. Barron’s speech was part of the university’s ‘All In’ campaign, designed to promote diversity and inclusion on campus, suggesting ideas such as “ courses” to increase “understanding of social justice and equity in the U. S,” as well as diversity training for the university’s police force. You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart. com | 1 |
An NBC News report citing “military sources” claims Donald Trump and senior military officials are prepared to launch a preemptive conventional strike against North Korea if the country carries out another nuclear weapons test. [Military sources told NBC News that the U. S. has positioned two Tomahawk missiles in the Korean peninsula approximately 300 miles from where North Korea will carry out its next nuclear test. The preparations come amid rising tensions in the region, with North Korea this week promising a “big event” as the country prepares to celebrate the “Day of the Sun,” the birthday of communist dictator and “eternal leader” Kim . Analysts believe that the country is “primed and ready” to carry out a nuclear test based on satellite images but that they would not be capable of enacting a nuclear attack. Nevertheless, the country’s state broadcasters declared the country “would hit the U. S. first” with nuclear weapons at any sign of aggression or provocation. Speaking on Wednesday, Donald Trump remained secretive about his plans to handle North Korea, although he declared he was sending “an armada” into the region. Trump has repeatedly argued that China is failing to meet its responsibilities in neutralizing the North Korean threat. He does not appear to consider Chinese cooperation indispensable, however, adding that America would “solve the problem without them. ” North Korea is looking for trouble. If China decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them! U. S. A. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 11, 2017, On Tuesday, China turned back North Korean cargo ships and deployed 150, 000 troops to the North Korean border in a bid to control tensions. Reports from South Korean media also claimed that Seal Team 6, the Navy Seal squad who assassinated Osama were simulating drills in which they would take out the North Korean leader Kim . Although the Pentagon would not confirm the reports, they said that “ground, air, naval and special operations” are carrying out “several joint and combined field training operations” with up to 17, 000 troops. You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart. com. | 1 |
. This is Why Your Vote for President in the U.S. Doesn’t Count Do you think your vote for president in the United States counts? Think again… Ultimately, the Ele... Do you think your vote for president in the United States counts? Think again… Ultimately, the Electoral College votes determine who becomes president, not the majority or popular vote. So, what is the Electoral College? The Electoral College process consists of the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress. The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. (1) The popular vote, on the other hand, is to appease the masses in thinking that they actually have a say in who gets elected. The above image is from NBC affiliate WRCB TV in Chattanooga, TN who apparently already have the results from the election that hasn’t occurred yet. (2) So, how is this possible? In 2012, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) legalized the use of PROPAGANDA on the American public. (3) This includes ANYTHING the mainstream media “reports” including the election results before they happened. This is reminiscent of the BBC announcing that World Trade Center building 7 collapsed before it actually collapsed on 9/11. (4) Related: British Man Won Law Suit Against BBC for 9/11 Cover Up As reported by Top Right News and other outlets, during a recent interview with Bloomberg News, Soros – a Democrat mega-donor – openly admitted that Trump will win the popular vote in a “landslide.” However, he said that none of that would matter, because a president Hillary Clinton is already a “done deal .” In the interview, which is now going viral, Soros says with certainty that Trump will take the popular vote , despite what the polls say now (which are completely rigged to oversample Democrats), but not the Electoral College, which will go to Clinton . When the reporter asks if that is already a “done deal”– that Clinton will be our next president no matter what – Soros says “yes,” and nods his head. (5) George Soros is most likely one of the main cogs in the shadow government . Look no further than all of the money his “Open Society Institute” donated to “ Black Lives Matter ” (6). His main agenda is to keep America living in the premise of “Divide and Conquer”. As long as America is divided, we cannot come together under a united cause. A George Soros company, Smartmatic, has provided voting machine technology in 16 states including battleground zones like Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Virginia. You can read more about George Soros and his dark allegiance here . Other jurisdictions affected are California, District of Columbia, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin. Its website includes a flow-chart that describes how the company has contributed to elections in the U.S. from 2006-2015 with “57,000 voting and counting machines deployed” and “35 million voters assisted.” After this report’s publication, Smartmatic updated its website to remove the flow chart and declare that “Smartmatic will not be deploying its technology in any U.S. county for the upcoming 2016 U.S. Presidential elections.” (7) I’m not buying it. Are you? My “vote” is for a council of elders to replace ALL governments and politicians . The current system is corrupt, broken, and outdated. It's time to evolve! (8) Source & References: | 0 |
Italian banks struggling to stay afloat Thu Oct 27, 2016 10:41PM This file photo taken on January 19, 2016 shows People walking past an office of the Italian bank "Banca Popolare di Milano" in Milan. © AFP
Max CiviliPress TV, Rome
Italy’s banking system is plagued by an enormous surfeit of non-performing loans. As a result, banks are trying to survive by cutting several thousands of jobs across the country. Our correspondent Max Civili has investigated the reasons behind the crisis in Italy's banking system. Loading ... | 0 |
About 16 police officers in Charlotte, N. C. were injured when a standoff between law enforcement and demonstrators turned ugly overnight after an officer fatally shot a black man on Tuesday afternoon. Protesters clashed with police officers in riot gear and blocked a stretch of Interstate 85. Video from local television early Wednesday showed some demonstrators looting trucks that had been stopped on the highway and setting fire to the cargo. Police Chief Kerr Putney said during a news conference on Wednesday morning that the officers had sustained minor injuries and that one person had been arrested during the protests, which began in the University City neighborhood in northeast Charlotte, near the campus of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. reported that looters later moved off the highway and tried to break into a Walmart before officers arrived in force to keep them out, and at least one family driving on Interstate 85 reported that their windshield had been shattered by demonstrators throwing rocks. Mayor Jennifer Roberts urged calm in a series of Twitter messages and promised a thorough investigation into the shooting death of Keith L. Scott, 43. “The community deserves answers and full investigation will ensue,” Ms. Roberts said. “Will be reaching out to community leaders to work together. ” The shooting occurred just before 4 p. m. on Tuesday as officers were trying to serve an arrest warrant for another person in an apartment complex. Police officials said the officer opened fire because Mr. Scott, who they said was armed with a gun, “posed an imminent deadly threat. ” Although their accounts sometimes diverged, members of Mr. Scott’s family generally told local news outlets that he had not had a weapon. Instead, they said, he had been clutching a book while waiting to pick up a child after school. The shooting revived scrutiny of a police department that drew national attention about three years ago when a white officer was quickly charged with voluntary manslaughter after he killed Jonathan Ferrell, an unarmed black man. The shooting in Charlotte this week was the latest in a string of deaths of black people at the hands of the police that have stoked outrage around the country. It came just a few days after a white police officer in Tulsa, Okla. fatally shot Terence Crutcher, an unarmed black man, who could be seen on video raising his hands above his head. The encounters, many of them at least partly caught on video, have led to intense debate about race relations and law enforcement. In Charlotte, dozens of chanting demonstrators, some of them holding signs, began gathering near the site of the shooting on Tuesday evening. Around 10 p. m. the Police Department said on Twitter that it had sent its civil emergency unit to the scene “to safely remove our officers. ” “Demonstrators surrounded our officers who were attempting to leave scene,” the department said. It identified the officer who fired his weapon as Brentley Vinson, an employee since July 2014. Officer Vinson is black, according to local reports. According to the department, officers saw Mr. Scott leave a vehicle with a weapon soon after they arrived at the apartment complex. “Officers observed the subject get back into the vehicle, at which time they began to approach the subject,” the department said in its first statement about the shooting. “The subject got back out of the vehicle armed with a firearm and posed an imminent deadly threat to the officers, who subsequently fired their weapon, striking the subject. ” A police spokesman did not respond to an inquiry about whether a dashboard or body camera had recorded the shooting. Chief Putney had acknowledged that Mr. Scott had not been the subject of the outstanding warrant. On Facebook, a woman who identified herself as Mr. Scott’s daughter said that the police had fired without provocation. “The police just shot my daddy four times for being black,” the woman said moments into a Facebook Live broadcast that lasted about an hour. Later in the broadcast, she learned that her father had died and speculated that the police were planting evidence. (The police said that investigators had recovered a weapon.) In September 2013, officials charged a Charlotte police officer with voluntary manslaughter after he fired a dozen rounds at an unarmed black man, killing him. The criminal case against the officer, Randall Kerrick, ended in a mistrial, and the authorities did not seek to try him again. The department, which said on Tuesday that Officer Vinson had been placed on administrative leave, said it was conducting “an active and ongoing investigation” into the killing of Mr. Scott. | 1 |
Tilikum, the captive orca who killed a trainer at SeaWorld in Orlando, Fla. in 2010 and later became the subject of the documentary “Blackfish,” died on Friday. The whale had been suffering from a persistent infection from a bacteria found in wild habitats and natural settings, but the exact cause of death will be determined by a necropsy, SeaWorld Parks Entertainment said in a statement. The orca, a male estimated to be about 36 years old, had been kept by the organization for 25 years. “While today is a difficult day for the SeaWorld family, it’s important to remember that Tilikum lived a long and enriching life while at SeaWorld and inspired millions of people to care about this amazing species,” the statement said. “Tilikum had, and will continue to have, a special place in the hearts of the SeaWorld family, as well as the millions of people all over the world that he inspired,” said the president of SeaWorld, Joel Manby. Tilikum’s caretakers had said in March that the whale was afflicted with the infection that was likely to lead to his death. The whale was at the center of an orca breeding program that SeaWorld ended last year. The company also ended its killer whale performances in San Diego, where state lawmakers had brought intense pressure on the company after the documentary’s release. With the death of Tilikum, SeaWorld now holds 22 orcas at its three facilities in Orlando, San Antonio and San Diego. SeaWorld also noted that Tilikum was “inextricably connected” with the death of his trainer, Dawn Brancheau, in 2010. “While we all experienced profound sadness about that loss, we continued to offer Tilikum the best care possible, each and every day, from the country’s leading experts in marine mammals,” the SeaWorld statement said. Tilikum bit down on the ponytail of Ms. Brancheau, his trainer, before dragging her underwater and killing her. After her death, SeaWorld conducted an extensive review that resulted in trainers further isolating themselves from the animals for safety. In 2013, the documentary “Blackfish” examined Ms. Brancheau’s death by looking at the mental state of whales that are taken from their pods in the wild and raised at marine parks. But SeaWorld pushed back against the film’s claims that the whales in captivity suffer physical and mental distress because of confinement. Tilikum has also been connected with the deaths of two other people: Keltie Byrne, a student and trainer who slipped into a pool containing Tilikum and two other orcas in 1991, and Daniel P. Dukes, a man who slipped into SeaWorld after hours in 1999. Mr. Dukes was found dead, draped over Tilikum’s back. Tilikum came to SeaWorld in 1991 from Sealand of the Pacific in Canada, and the organization said it had not collected a whale from the wild in nearly 40 years. | 1 |
For years, the New York hedge fund Platinum Partners stood out for investment returns that rivaled some of the biggest names in the industry. It turned out that those returns were too good to be true, according to federal prosecutors. Federal agents on Monday arrested Mark Nordlicht, a founder and the chief investment officer of Platinum, and six others on charges related to a $1 billion fraud that led the firm to be operated “like a Ponzi scheme,” prosecutors said. It is one of the largest such fraud cases since Bernard L. Madoff’s investment firm unraveled in 2008. David Levy, the firm’s investment officer, was also among those arrested in the morning by agents in Texas, Manhattan and New Rochelle, a suburb of New York City. The men were charged with securities fraud and investment adviser fraud, according to an unsealed indictment filed in Federal District Court in Brooklyn. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a parallel civil case. Platinum tapped prominent families and foundations within the Orthodox Jewish community in New York to fuel bets on payday lenders, oil companies and even the terminally ill. But prosecutors said these investments and the firm’s performance were misrepresented by its executives. Ultimately, Platinum took in new money in order to pay longtime investors who wanted their money back, something the firm’s executives called among themselves “Hail Mary time. ” “As investors sought redemptions, the defendants engaged in numerous improper measures in an attempt to meet redemption requests, including taking out rate loans, commingling monies among funds and raising money from new investors through fraudulent misrepresentations,” said Andrew J. Ceresney, the director of the S. E. C. ’s enforcement division. Located a few blocks from Central Park, Platinum, founded in 2003, made a splash early on with some of its investments. In one bet, the firm sought to profit from the death of terminally ill patients by investing in variable insurance payouts. As part of the scheme, a rabbi in Los Angeles sought out hospice patients to get their personal details that could be used to buy insurance payouts in their names. A company that Platinum set up to make the investments was fined by the S. E. C. in January 2015. “We definitely were exploiting a loophole, but it was fully vetted by legal counsel,” Mr. Nordlicht said in an interview with Bloomberg later that year. In other bets, Platinum misled both investors and auditors — sometimes brazenly. In December 2012, for example, executives misrepresented to auditors the value of Black Elk Energy, an oil and gas company controlled by Platinum, valuing it at $283 million, prosecutors said. In fact, there had been an explosion on a Black Elk platform in the Gulf of Mexico the month before that had caused the deaths of three workers, injuries to other employees and an oil spill. Black Elk no longer exists. Jeffrey Shulse, who worked at Black Elk and is named in the government’s indictment, denied the charges. “Mr. Shulse’s indictment is a clear case of overreaching,” said F. Andino Reynal, Mr. Shulse’s lawyer, adding that his client was “confident that once a jury has had a chance to hear all the facts, it will exonerate him of any wrongdoing. ” Lawyers for the defendants Mr. Nordlicht, Daniel Small, Uri Landesman, Joseph Mann and Joseph San Filippo did not respond to a request for comment. Michael Sommer, a lawyer for Mr. Levy, said he looked forward to “clearing David Levy’s good name. ” As recently as March, Platinum had $1. 7 billion of investor money, as of a March regulatory filing. For years it reported a strong performance — with annual average returns of 17 percent. As recent as last year, Platinum said it made gains of 8 percent, a strong performance in a year when the average hedge fund lost 0. 85 percent, according to the Hedge Fund Research Composite Index, a gauge of industry performance. Platinum began to have trouble extracting investor money when some of its obscure investments started to sour, according to prosecutors. From 2013 to 2016, the firm could not stanch the losses in certain funds and the investor requests to withdraw money, so it began to move money between funds in what Mr. Nordlicht called a “big stew,” the indictment said. Things seemed to reach a crisis point in June 2014, prosecutors said. “It can’t go on like this or practically we will need to wind down. ...this is code red,” Mr. Nordlicht wrote to Mr. Landesman, a managing director at Platinum, at the time. Yet investors remained in the dark about the firm’s precarious liquidity position. A month later, when an investor emailed to ask about the reliability of Platinum’s reported performance figures, Mr. Landesman replied, “The numbers are all kosher, they have had verbal input every month. ” Investors grew restless. By March 2015, the total amount they requested to withdraw from the firm exceeded $83 million. Eventually, executives decided to pay some ahead of others, prosecutors said. “Platinum Partners purported to be a in the hedge fund industry,” said Robert L. Capers, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “In reality, their returns were the result of the overvaluation of their largest assets. ” This inflation led to Mr. Nordlicht and others “operating Platinum like a Ponzi scheme, where they used loans and new investor funds to pay off existing investors,” Mr. Capers added. The arrests on Monday were part of an investigation among several government agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Postal Inspection Service. In June, Murray Huberfeld, a former Platinum executive, was arrested. He has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud. Soon after Mr. Huberfeld’s arrest, agents from the F. B. I. and the Postal Inspection Service raided Platinum’s New York offices. Faced with mounting pressure from federal investigators, as well as an investigation by the S. E. C. Platinum liquidated its main hedge fund. For some at Platinum, there was already a sense late last year that government investigators were closing in on the firm. In an email exchange, Mr. Nordlicht, Mr. Landesman and an unnamed principal partner in Platinum discussed fleeing to Israel, according to prosecutors. “Don’t forget the books,” the unnamed partner wrote. “Assume we are not coming back to ny. ” | 1 |
Written by Daniel McAdams Is there a silver lining in the recent presidential election for those who value liberty, peace, and prosperity? The answer is a surprising "yes" - but only if we play our cards right. Mises Institute president Jeff Deist joins the Liberty Report to discuss the pros and cons of the current political landscape: Copyright © 2016 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given. | 0 |
Get short URL 0 8 0 0 US defense contractor Lockheed Martin has not yet settled with the F-35 Joint Program Office on three main contractual points regarding two low-rate initial production (LRIP) lots for the F-35 jet, and has been lagging on the schedule for roughly a year.
The deal on the F-35 program’s LRIP 9 and 10, originally intended to be inked in November 2015, is still in negotiations, Defense News reported. The More You Spend the More You Save?! US Lawmakers Fight to Increase F-35 Budget Lockheed’s chief financial officer, Bruce Tanner, explained during a Tuesday earnings conference call that the sides are yet to agree on the cost of fulfilling the contract obligations, terms, and conditions regarding jet construction, and the amount of money to be paid to the manufacturer.
“I'd say we haven't really reached closure on any of those three [points],” Tanner was quoted by Defense News as saying.
Lockheed CEO Marillyn Hewson stated that the delay is normal, as the contract is “very large” and that there is “a lot of work that has to happen.”
During the negotiation process, Lockheed spent some $900 million of its own capital to keep the beleaguered project afloat. However, the Defense Department reimbursed the aircraft manufacturer’s expenses in a $1 billion transaction in August. Earlier this month, an additional $743 million was allocated for LRIP 9.
Still, Lockheed says it lacks funding to maintain the pace of production process for both LRIPs. “Despite not yet receiving funding sufficient to cover its costs, the corporation continued work in an effort to meet the customer’s desired aircraft delivery dates,” the Lockheed's news release stated. “Currently, the corporation has approximately $950 million of potential cash exposure and $2.3 billion in termination liability exposure related to the F-35 LRIP 9 and 10 contracts.” © Flickr/ Times Asi Can’t Fix the F-35? US Navy, Air Force Look Towards 6th Generation Fighter Instead Meanwhile, Northrop Grumman, a principal member of the F-35 production team, stated on Tuesday that they had settled with Lockheed on the pricing of LRIP 9 and 10, Flight Global reported.
“We have completed our negotiations on lots 9 and 10 with Lockheed, which is typical for a prime contractor to want to lock down its supply chain as it finishes off negotiations with a customer,” Northrop chief executive Wes Bush said Tuesday.
The LRIP 9 and 10 effort, costing some $14 billion, suggests the production of about 150 of the jets. The troubled contract is now expected to be finalized December 2016, according to F-35 Joint Program Executive Officer Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan. ... | 0 |
Musing in his Captain’s Log as his birthday approaches, James Tiberius Kirk, his eyes as blue as the lens flare that accompanies the first shot of the Starship Enterprise, finds himself in a funk. “Things are starting to feel a little … episodic,” he confesses, in what even a sympathetic viewer might interpret as a a confession of franchise fatigue. Chris Pine, who has played Kirk since the reboot in 2009, is on his third voyage. This character, originated by William Shatner, has endured a lot more. The larger “Star Trek” enterprise has been boldly going on for a and more hours of television and cinema than I possess the Googling acumen to tally. So you can understand why James T. a good soldier and also a bit of a loose cannon, might want to break out of the rut, and the title of the latest movie, “Star Trek Beyond,” teases the audience with the promise of novelty and risk. It’s not necessarily a criticism to note that not much materializes. Directed by the action maven Justin Lin from a script by Simon Pegg and Doug Jung, the film answers the question “Beyond what?” with a diffident “Well, nothing, really. Don’t worry!” It should have been called “Star Trek Within” in honor of its determination to color inside the lines, obeying the ironclad conventions of brand and genre. Which is not, in itself, a bad thing. Not every wheel needs reinventing, and one of the abiding pleasures of “Star Trek,” in its old and newer iterations, lies in its balance of stubborn consistency and canny inventiveness. The characters never change, but the stakes can shift wildly from one adventure to the next. Fans love “Star Trek” precisely because of its episodic nature, which allows for a certain amount of variation in theme and tone. Sometimes the future of the universe hangs in the balance. Sometimes Kirk and his crew have to deal with local disputes and personnel issues. Or weird random stuff, like tribbles or Joan time travel. Unfortunately, action movies are made according to a more rigid template, and “Beyond” follows its immediate predecessors, “Star Trek” and “Into Darkness” (both directed by J. J. Abrams) in sacrificing some of the old spirit to blockbuster imperatives. The Hollywood rule book stipulates that the climactic sequence should involve the noisy destruction of a lot of buildings and an extended fight between the good guy and the main villain. The villain should be motivated by the usual villainous grudge. Millions of lives should be in danger, and the actual casualties should be numerous and filmed bloodlessly enough to preserve the rating. Up until the tedious and bombastic finish, though, you can have a pretty good time. In his work on the “Fast and Furious” movies, Mr. Lin has shown a playful willingness to extend — and, if necessary, suspend — the laws of physics, and his visual brashness can be a refreshing antidote to Mr. Abrams’s fussy tries to combine digital spectacle with cinematic discipline. Most important, the gang’s all here, and Mr. Lin proves once again to be an adept ensemble wrangler. Kirk grins and grimaces his way through yet another existential career crisis (and also does some motorcycle stunt driving). Spock (Zachary Quinto) and Uhura (Zoe Saldana) experience some love trouble. Spock and Bones (Karl Urban) take their vaudeville double act on the road once again. Sulu (John Cho) Chekov (Anton Yelchin) and Scotty (Mr. Pegg) provide technical support and comic relief, as necessary. Mr. Yelchin’s sweet, mischievous performance seems especially poignant after his death in an accident this year. The film is dedicated to his memory and to the memory of Leonard Nimoy, the original Mr. Spock, who died in 2015. On the surface of a distant planet, the crew encounters a new nemesis and a new ally. The big baddie is a murderous warlord named Krall (Idris Elba, masked). The scrappy sidekick is a stranded fighter named Jaylah (Sofia Boutella, in makeup). Things go more or less as you expect, with enough surprises and “reveals” to make you mad at me if I say too much more. The crew hops into, and out of, danger. Machinery fails and is repaired in the nick of time. Highly complicated imaginary science is explained with breathless urgency. Sometimes, I have to say, the scientific breakthroughs feel a little too convenient. Jaylah has some kind of technology that makes giant spaceships invisible, and another kind that shoots resin (or something). And there is some business at the end on an enormous space station that I did not buy for a minute. The nerd in me wants a bit more rigor, a bit more plausibility underneath the exuberant fakery. Maybe in the next episode. “Star Trek Beyond” is rated (Parents strongly cautioned). Nothing out of the ordinary. Running time: 2 hours. | 1 |
He is the most successful and influential investor you have probably never heard of. His writings are so coveted and followed by Wall Street that a used copy of a book he wrote several decades ago about investing starts at $795 on Amazon, and a new copy sells for as much as $3, 500. Perhaps that’s why a private letter he wrote to his investors a little over two weeks ago about investing during the age of President Trump — and offering his thoughts on the current state of the hedge fund industry — has quietly become the most reading material on Wall Street. He is Seth A. Klarman, the value investor who runs Baupost Group, which manages some $30 billion. While Mr. Klarman has long kept a low public profile, he is considered a giant within investment circles. He is often compared to Warren Buffett, and The Economist magazine once described him as “The Oracle of Boston,” where Baupost is based. For good measure, he is one of the very few hedge managers Mr. Buffett has publicly praised. In his letter, Mr. Klarman sets forth a countervailing view to the euphoria that has buoyed the stock market since Mr. Trump took office, describing “perilously high valuations. ” “Exuberant investors have focused on the potential benefits of stimulative tax cuts, while mostly ignoring the risks from protectionism and the erection of new trade barriers,” he wrote. “President Trump may be able to temporarily hold off the sweep of automation and globalization by cajoling companies to keep jobs at home, but bolstering inefficient and uncompetitive enterprises is likely to only temporarily stave off market forces,” he continued. “While they might be popular, the reason the U. S. long ago abandoned protectionist trade policies is because they not only don’t work, they actually leave society worse off. ” In particular, Mr. Klarman appears to believe that investors have become hypnotized by all the talk of policies, without considering the full ramifications. He worries, for example, that Mr. Trump’s stimulus efforts “could prove quite inflationary, which would likely shock investors. ” And he appears deeply concerned about a swelling national debt that he suggests could undermine the economy’s growth over the long term. “The Trump tax cuts could drive government deficits considerably higher,” Mr. Klarman wrote. “The large 2001 Bush tax cuts, for example, fueled income inequality while triggering huge federal budget deficits. Rising interest rates alone would balloon the federal deficit, because interest payments on the massive outstanding government debt would skyrocket from today’s artificially low levels. ” Much of Mr. Klarman’s anxiety seems to emanate from Mr. Trump’s leadership style. He described it this way: “The erratic tendencies and overconfidence in his own wisdom and judgment that Donald Trump has demonstrated to date are inconsistent with strong leadership and sound . ” He also linked this point — which is a fair one — to what “Trump style” means for Mr. Klarman’s constituency and others. “The big picture for investors is this: Trump is high volatility, and investors generally abhor volatility and shun uncertainty,” he wrote. “Not only is Trump shockingly unpredictable, he’s apparently deliberately so he says it’s part of his plan. ” While Mr. Klarman clearly is hoping for the best, he warned, “If things go wrong, we could find ourselves at the beginning of a lengthy decline in dollar hegemony, a rapid rise in interest rates and inflation, and global angst. ” Mr. Klarman is a registered independent and has given money to politicians from both parties. He has donated to Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, John McCain and Rudolph W. Giuliani as well as Hillary Clinton, Cory Booker and Mark Warner. While he has remained largely outside the public eye, Mr. Klarman surprised some of his friends and peers over the summer when he issued a statement after Mr. Trump criticized a judge over his Mexican heritage, saying he planned to support Mrs. Clinton: “His words and actions over the last several days are so shockingly unacceptable in our diverse and democratic society that it is simply unthinkable that Donald Trump could become our president. ” In his recent letter, he explained for the first time his decision to say something publicly. “Despite my preference to stay out of the media,” he wrote, “I’ve taken the view that each of us can be bystanders, or we can be upstanders. I choose upstander. ” From the letter, it is hard to divine exactly how Mr. Klarman is investing his fund’s money. His office declined to comment on the letter, which I obtained from a source. His fund currently has more than 30 percent of its funds in cash. He has lost money in only three of the past 34 years. What investors say publicly and what they do in the markets can be different things. Mr. Buffett campaigned publicly against Mr. Trump, but he has nevertheless invested in the market since his election — about $12 billion, according to a recent disclosure. George Soros, who also actively campaigned against Mr. Trump, bet — wrongly so far — that the stock market would fall he lost about $1 billion. Most hedge funds have found themselves on the losing side of trades over the past several years, a point Mr. Klarman addressed in his letter. Noting that hedge fund returns have underperformed the indexes — he mentioned that hedge funds had returned only 23 percent from 2010 to 2015, compared with 108 percent for the Standard Poor’s index — he blamed the influx of money into the industry. “With any asset class, when substantial new money flows in, the returns go down,” Mr. Klarman wrote. “No surprise, then, that as money poured into hedge funds, overall returns have soured. ” He continued, “To many, hedge funds have come to seem like a failed product. ” The lousy performance among hedge funds and the potential for them to go out of business or consolidate, he suggests, may become an opportunity. Perhaps the most distinctive point he makes — at least that finance geeks will appreciate — is what he says is the irony that investors now “have gotten excited about index funds and exchange traded funds (E. T. F. s) that mimic various market or sector indices. ” He says he sees big trouble ahead in this area — or at least the potential for investors in individual stocks to profit. “One of the perverse effects of increased indexing and E. T. F. activity is that it will tend to ‘lock in’ today’s relative valuations between securities,” Mr. Klarman wrote. “When money flows into an index fund or E. T. F. the manager generally buys into the securities in an index in proportion to their current market capitalization (often to the capitalization of only their public float, which interestingly adds a layer of distortion, disfavoring companies with large insider, strategic, or state ownership),” he wrote. “Thus today’s companies are likely to also be tomorrow’s, regardless of merit, with less capital in the hands of active managers to potentially correct any mispricings. ” To Mr. Klarman, “stocks outside the indices may be cast adrift, no longer attached to the valuation grid but increasingly off of it. ” “This should give value investors a distinct advantage,” he wrote. “The inherent irony of the efficient market theory is that the more people believe in it and correspondingly shun active management, the more inefficient the market is likely to become. ” How Mr. Klarman wants investors to behave in the age of Trump remains an open question. But here’s a hint: At the top of his letter, he included three quotations. One was attributed to Thomas Jefferson: “In matters of style, swim with the current in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ” | 1 |
A Twitter page known as Black Women for Trump shared pictures of the result of the ingenious trap, and it is simply hilarious. Guys, we got one! pic.twitter.com/2hZUVxyP8K
— Black Women 4 Trump (@TallahForTrump) October 28, 2016
The pictures showed the row of downed Trump signs as well as a closeup of the specially designed trap on the first sign in the line.
The final picture was of the likely suspects pulled over a short distance away, car jacked up for a tire change.
This is probably not the wisest thing an American voter could do to show support for Donald Trump, but it’s hard to argue that the woman who chose to drive over the signs in an effort to destroy them didn’t get exactly what she deserved.
Hopefully this will teach a valuable lesson to this woman and other Trump haters out there that other people’s property is best left alone. | 0 |
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Republican nominee Donald Trump is an admitted serial sexual predator. His own recorded words confirm as much, as do the dozen or so women who have come forward to accuse him of sexual misconduct. His campaign is desperately fighting to put a lid on the growing awareness that Trump will be testifying under oath during a trial in federal court under the accusation of raping a thirteen-year-old girl and a previously undisclosed second girl, who was even younger .
The case was thrown out in May due to a clerical error, but re-filed in June with two new witnesses –“Joan Doe” and “Tiffany Doe” who both say they worked as “party planners” for convicted child rapist and billionaire Jeffery Epstein. Part of that “planning” appears to have been procuring girls for the party, as “Joan Doe” revealed in her deposition that she convinced victim “Jane Doe” to attend four different parties with promises of money and “meeting contacts” in the modelling industry – a story that matches the account of another person who would arrange for underage women to attend Trump’s parties.
At one of these parties, “Jane Doe” was forced to perform oral sex on Trump with a twelve-year old named “Maria.” At the fourth and final encounter, Tiffany Doe says “ I personally witnessed Defendant Trump telling the Plaintiff that she shouldn’t ever say anything if she didn’t want to disappear like the 12-year-old female Maria, and that he was capable of having her whole family killed.”
“Maria” hadn’t been seen since the previous encounter. Trump then forcibly raped “Jane Doe,” who was then raped and sodomized again by Jeffery Epstein, who was apparently furious tha t Trump had ta ken her virginity and not him, beating her in his fury .
Donald Trump told New York magazine in 2002 that “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”
Epstein’s brother, Mark, also testified that “Trump flew on Jeffrey’s private jet at least once and records indicate that Trump called Epstein twice in November of 2004.”
Epstein eventually recieved a slap on the wrist – 13 months in prison and registration as a sex offender – for decades of abuse :
“according to law-enforcement officials and alleged victims, between the years 1998 and 2007—and possibly even earlier—he ran a particularly vile pyramid scheme that involved paying minors around $200 at a time to perform sexual massages nearly every day and then recruit even younger girls to do the same. (“The more you do, the more you are paid,” one said.) During these massages, girls as young as 13 told police they were instructed to get undressed. Epstein would masturbate or penetrate them, they said—with his finger, or a vibrator, or his allegedly egg-shaped penis.”
The details keep coming, and the picture they paint grows darker and more horrifying by they day. How much more evidence does America need? How many more stories need to be told before the word of one rich man is outweighed by literally dozens of contrasting accounts? Donald Trump is a sexual predator and a possible pedophile; he deserves a jail cell on Riker’s Island, not the White House. | 0 |
CHICAGO — This city, reeling from a rising toll of gun violence, may soon hire hundreds of additional police officers — more than 500 of them. Superintendent Eddie Johnson of the Chicago police is expected to announce plans for a significant increase in officers during a news conference on Wednesday afternoon at Police Headquarters, a spokesman said late Tuesday. Officials would not provide specific numbers or details, but said that the new hires would be over and above the current force, not a replacement for retiring officers or unfilled positions. Chicago’s Police Department is the municipal force in the nation, with more than 12, 000 officers, but Mayor Rahm Emanuel has faced intensifying criticism over the city’s handling of violence as the death toll has mounted. New York, which has more police officers, has seen homicides decrease in recent years. Mr. Emanuel is scheduled to present an address on Thursday regarding his plans for public safety here. Already this year, more than 500 people have been killed in Chicago — more than in all of last year in this city and more than Los Angeles and New York combined have experienced this year. The uptick in violence, particularly in neighborhoods on the city’s South and West Sides, has left many questioning the effectiveness of the Police Department in closing cases or slowing the violence. If approved as part of Chicago’s city budget, the hires would constitute the first major expansion in officers in recent years and a shift in the city’s approach to tackling the year’s increase in violence. In months past, as the number of shootings continued to rise, officials took other tacks, calling for a tightening of gun laws and sending hundreds of officers working administrative jobs back on to the streets. But the proposal, which The Associated Press reported on Tuesday afternoon, comes at a remarkably complex time for this city, amid strained relations between residents and the police, a federal Justice Department investigation into the Police Department’s patterns and practices, and stressed city finances. On Tuesday, officials would not provide the anticipated cost for an expansion in officers, but Chicago is already wrestling with deep fiscal problems, from underfunded pension systems to a budget crisis in the public schools, and any proposal for new spending may face debate. The Police Department’s relations with residents are the subject of intense scrutiny, complicating reactions to any proposal for a larger police force on the streets. The release last year of a video showing a white police officer shooting Laquan McDonald, a black teenager, 16 times renewed a sense of community anger and distrust toward the police. | 1 |
DELAWARE, Ohio — Donald J. Trump is not popular in this prospering county north of Columbus. The Republican nominee’s dystopian language does not resonate here. Signs that read “Now Hiring” outnumber “Trump” campaign placards. But many residents of this reliably Republican county, which last voted for a Democratic president in 1916, simply cannot imagine voting for Mr. Trump’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. And that goes a long way toward explaining why she has struggled to separate herself from Mr. Trump in this bellwether state. “I just don’t know what I’m going to do,” said Anne Merrels, 48, who lives with her family in Powell, an old farming town that has sprouted a pair of restaurants at its crossroads. The subdivisions of southern Delaware County are a world apart from the anger and decay of Ohio’s old industrial towns. Here live the beneficiaries of globalization: Ohio State University professors, software engineers and bankers who work at the hulking JPMorgan Chase building, a structure on the southern edge of the county that is as large as the Empire State Building, though considerably shorter. Delaware County’s median household income in 2014 was $91, 936, by far the highest in the state and almost twice the statewide median income. The county’s unemployment rate was just 3. 4 percent in July, compared with 4. 9 percent nationwide. Just as Mr. Trump has made inroads among Ohio’s workers by promising to revive their fortunes, Democrats are hoping Mrs. Clinton can find new support among affluent and voters who are thriving in President Obama’s economy and may be wary of Mr. Trump’s bluster. C. J. Soliday, a mental health therapist, said she was trying to persuade friends to vote for Mrs. Clinton by posing a single question. “People should ask if we’re doing better than we were doing eight years ago,” Ms. Soliday said. “And the answer is yes. ” Yet conversations with a few dozen voters here suggest that Mrs. Clinton faces considerable challenges in converting the distaste for Mr. Trump into support for her candidacy. Many of those who do not like Mr. Trump also dislike Mrs. Clinton. They are reluctant to cross party lines. And even here, there is still anxiety and pessimism about the health of the economy. There are some like James Kehoe, a real estate agent and registered Republican, who said he did not recognize Mr. Trump’s descriptions of Ohio’s economic desolation and liked the idea of showing his two daughters that a woman could be president. More common, however, are people like Ms. Merrels. She and her husband, a software engineer, went to see Mr. Trump in person this year at the convention center in Columbus. She was impressed by the long lines, but not by the speech. Mr. Trump, she said, seemed to talk mostly about polling numbers. She said she had voted for the Republican nominee in each election since 1996. She said she would not vote for Mrs. Clinton, and was concerned that voting for a candidate would amount to the same thing. But she is not reconciled to voting for Mr. Trump. “I’d like someone to represent the United States who we are proud of, who we are not embarrassed by,” Ms. Merrels said. Democrats remain hopeful that they can improve upon the 38 percent of local votes won by Mr. Obama in 2012. The Clinton campaign has opened an office on Delaware’s main street the Trump campaign has also rented a storefront, but there is just a cardboard cutout of the candidate in the window. Jenny L. Holland, a professor of politics at Ohio Wesleyan University, said she was watching with fascination as Democrats tried to make inroads in a place so Republican that Karl Rove, the Republican strategist, famously protested on national television in 2012 that the election should not be called for Mr. Obama until Delaware County’s votes were counted. “What do you do if the Republican candidate is unpalatable to you?” asked Professor Holland, who also lives in the county. “Do you just show up and not vote for president at all? Or — gasp — could there be a possibility that a Republican woman would show up and vote for Hillary Clinton? We just don’t know. ” Delaware County was mostly farmland until a few decades ago, with a modest cluster of factories in the county seat. Roger Marksch, 67, built and fixed machines in those factories for almost 50 years before hanging up his tools last year. He watched as the factories closed or moved to Japan, China, Mexico and Finland. “I got out just in time,” he said with a laugh. But even as those jobs faded away, developers were replacing Delaware’s soybean fields with subdivisions. Columbus was growing rapidly, fueled by a modern mix of government, education and financial services. Commuters doubled the suburban county’s population from 1980 to 2000, and it is on pace to double again by 2020, easily topping 200, 000. John Kasich, Ohio’s governor, is the archetypal local Republican with misgivings about Mr. Trump. Mr. Kasich, who lives in Delaware County’s southern tier, not far from a planned Ikea, has repeatedly rebutted Mr. Trump’s bleak descriptions of Ohio’s economy. He has not offered an endorsement. Others said they were concerned Mr. Trump was insufficiently conservative. Craig Johnson, who owns a pizzeria in the county seat, said he doubted that Mr. Trump was a Republican, but he laughed when asked if he would consider Mrs. Clinton. “Listen, I’m a owner in Delaware, Ohio, and I like guns, fishing and Nascar,” he said. He is mulling a vote for Gary Johnson, the Libertarian nominee. Many local Republicans are making their peace. Ed Paxton, 51, runs a cigar shop — and business is good. For a while after the recession, regular customers who bought half a dozen cigars each week had cut back to three or four. Lately, they are buying half a dozen. He recently bought his first new vehicle since 1999, “the last time things were decent. ” He is not particularly moved by Mr. Trump’s promises of an economic revival. But Mr. Paxton said he still planned to vote for Mr. Trump for standard Republican reasons: He wants lower taxes and less regulation. He is upset about an excise tax of 40 cents per cigar imposed in 2009 to fund a children’s health insurance program, and he is upset about a ban on providing tobacco samples to his customers. Matt Lester, 37, a graphic designer, was blunt: “He wasn’t my first, second, third or fourth option, but he is better than Hillary. ” Indeed, as in other parts of Ohio, Mrs. Clinton faces some challenges in maintaining the support of her traditional base. Shalyn Shelton, 26, has completed one and a half years of courses toward a nursing degree, but she already owes $22, 000 in student debt and she cannot afford to continue. She also cannot afford to live in Delaware, where she grew up, so she recently moved with her partner to Marion, 20 miles north. And on a recent afternoon she sat outside the International Paper factory where she had worked for the last two years, because she and her have been on strike since May. The factory, which cranks out diaper boxes, egg crates and other corrugated containers, offers some of the best jobs still available in Delaware for people without college degrees. Ms. Shelton makes about $21 an hour stacking boxes. And business is booming. But International Paper wants the workers to accept more mandatory overtime rather than hire more workers. So Ms. Shelton sat among her fellow workers, holding a cardboard sign that read, “84 Hours a Week = No Family! No Church!” In her arms she cradled her daughter, nearly 3 months old. Mrs. Clinton has framed her presidential campaign as an effort to help people like Ms. Shelton. She has proposed making college free for people under a certain income, creating more affordable housing, strengthening collective bargaining, and improving benefits for working parents. She has won the endorsement of Ms. Shelton’s union, the Teamsters. But Mrs. Clinton has not won the support of Ms. Shelton, who has not registered to vote and does not plan to do so. “They don’t care about us,” Ms. Shelton said of Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton. A few minutes later, she opened the door at least a crack: “I’ll tell you what — if she shows up here, she would have my vote. ” | 1 |
TEL AVIV — Iran is closing a deal with Syrian President Bashar Assad to build a military base at the port of Latakia in Syria, an Israeli diplomatic official told the Hebrew news site Walla on Friday. [The naval base would act as payment for Iran’s support of Assad over the past six years of civil war, the unnamed official said. According to the report, establishing an Iranian military presence on the Mediterranean Sea would be viewed by Israel as a “radical step” that would “heighten the instability in the region and advance terror” against the Jewish state. Such a measure would also increase the threat to the Israeli home front since it would strengthen the terror group Hezbollah, which is currently fighting in Syria. On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu relayed his concerns about Iran’s intentions to build a naval base in his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. “I spoke with President Putin at length about the strategic significance of Iran’s creating a permanent presence in Syria, or its attempt to do so,” he said in a press briefing following their meeting, adding that an Iranian presence in Syria would be against the “ interests of everyone except the Iranians. ” “I said that it would undermine the stability, and actually hurt the possibility of a diplomatic arrangement [for Syria]. I made it clear that it is something that will be unacceptable to the State of Israel. ” Netanyahu said he believed Putin was receptive to his concerns. “I made it clear to President Putin our resolute opposition to the consolidation of Iran and its proxies in Syria,” the prime minister said. “We see Iran trying to build a military force, military infrastructure, with the intention to be based in Syria, including the attempt by Iran to build a seaport. All this has serious implications in terms of Israel’s security. ” | 1 |
Ezekiel Emanuel laughed on Wednesday as the hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe joked about his brainchild, Obamacare, which on Tuesday Emanuel noted was going to cause severe fiscal pain for at least a million Americans.
On Wednesday’s show, Mika Brzezinski noted that Emanuel, a former adviser to President Barack Obama is “often called one of the architects of the Affordable Care Act.”
“How’s that working for you right now, Zeke?” chimed in host Joe Scarborough.
Related Stories Bill Clinton Leads Crowd In Litany Of Obamacare’s Failures Scarborough: Everything Republicans Predicted About Obamacare Is Coming True New Data Shows Double-Digit Rate Hikes For Obamacare Emanuel grinned while on remote from Philadelphia.
“Be honest, though,” Scarborough continued. “Zeke only worked on the part of the Affordable Care Act that’s causing increases 25 percent on average.”
Emanuel was once again all smiles.
A day before, there were not many smiles when Emanual appeared on CNN and told Jake Tapper the extent of Obamacare’s fiscal effects.
“There’s a million people for whom this is going to be severe or uncomfortable,” he said.
Earlier this week, the Obama administration announced that the average premium costs will rise 25 percent next year. However, some states were far higher. A popular “ silver” healthcare plan is scheduled to increase 116 percent in Arizona; 40 percent in North Carolina; and 53 percent in Pennsylvania.
Emanuel said the problem of rising premiums some Americans will have trouble affording is just part of the way Obamacare evolved.
Trending Stories Frustrated With Media Bias, Trump Campaign Takes Its Case Directly To Voters With Nightly Show On Facebook RNC Official Takes CNN Host To Task For Claiming There Is No Media Bias Independent Voters Push Trump To The Front In Florida And Ohio “Everyone who worked on the bill thought that it was not perfect, and six years in, some of the problems, some of the unintended consequences are manifesting themselves. That doesn’t mean it’s fatal,” he said.
“These price increases that we’re seeing this year are a one-time increase relative to the fact that insurance companies didn’t know who was going to come in, under-priced their premiums in the first few years, and are readjusting them based on who’s in the marketplace,” said Emanuel, suggesting that tweaking the system will fix the problem.
” … it’s what any company would do if they launch a product, some problems arise, and you try to fix them,” he said.
#ObamacareFail pic.twitter.com/90Aixp25Oc
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 25, 2016
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump would prefer to throw out Obamacare rather than fine-tune it.
“Obamacare has to be repealed and replaced ,” Trump said Tuesday.
What do you think? | 0 |
posted by Eddie Revelations from the Wikileaks release of John Podesta’s emails yet again prove mainstream, corporate media serves as Hillary Clinton’s personal cheerleading squad — and is devoid of any iteration of journalistic integrity. Thanks to Wikileaks and the Intercept , in fact, we now have a list of no less than 65 mainstream “reporters” whose campaign coverage constitutes propaganda for the Clinton campaign — and no wonder, considering the obscenely lopsided drivel presented by their outlets. As (actual) journalists Glenn Greenwald and Lee Fang reported on October 9, the Intercept exclusively received documents obtained by the source known as Guccifer 2.0 evidencing Clinton campaign tactics to court journalists portraying the former secretary of state in a positive light. “As these internal documents demonstrate,” the Intercept reported , “a central component of the Clinton campaign strategy is ensuring that journalists they believe are favorable to Clinton are tasked to report the stories the campaign wants circulated. “At times, Clinton’s campaign staff not only internally drafted the stories they wanted published but even specified what should be quoted ‘on background’ and what should be described as ‘on the record.’” One internal strategy document dated January 2015 — months before Clinton officially kicked off her campaign in April — with the curious heading “Earned Media/Next Steps” exposes how the campaign made an albeit infrequent practice of crafting supposed news pieces from beginning to completion. Under the — not-at-all oblique insult to the fundamentals of journalism — heading “ Placing a Story ,” the memo’s author wrote: “As we discussed on our call, we are all in agreement that the time is right [to] place a story with a friendly journalist in the coming days that positions us a little more transparently while achieving the above goals.” Specifically named as a suggested journalist plant is Maggie Haberman of Politico , whom they note will assist in doing “the most shaping” of the narrative they have in mind. Haberman, however, is far from the only pro-Clinton media shill. As the Intercept noted, a review of the metadata for one of the obtained documents found it had been penned by campaign communications director, Jennifer Palmieri — who created a list of ostensible pundits and journalists potentially amenable to targeting with the pro-Clinton message. The Intercept also revealed an R.S.V.P. list of 38 media friendlies invited to a pre-campaign announcement soiree with ‘top campaign aides’ at the home of strategist Joel Benenson last year on April 10, which was “a fully off-the-record gathering designed to impart the campaign’s messaging.” Although the outlets they represented unsurprisingly included left-leaning MSNBC , Huffington Post , and Politico , the list also includes journalists from the Daily Beast , Vice , Vox , The New Yorker , and even People Magazine . In the Wikileaks document, the true scope of Clinton campaign skulduggery is revealed in another lengthy guest list for a parallel function hosted by Mr. Leaked Emails, himself, John Podesta, on April 9 last year. Press secretary Jesse Ferguson — who authored both lists — wrote to the top members of Clinton’s team: “Here is the current RSVP list to the Thursday Night (4/9) dinner at Podesta’s. As a reminder, this is with the 25 reporters more closely following HRC (aka the future bus).” Although the collusion between the media and both the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee has graciously trickled out thanks to leaked documents from Wikileaks and others, these lists of named journalists willing to cross the line between journalism and campaigning are shameful — if not helpful tools to know with certainty whose reporting is garbage. In fact, besides obliterating any previous claims of unbiased journalism made by the once-prestigious media institutions dotting these lists, the names and practices described prove mainstream media is effectively moot — by its own hand. source: | 0 |
Posted on October 26, 2016 by Charles Hugh Smith
Once dissed as The Dark Ages, the Medieval Era is more properly viewed as a successful adaptation to the challenges of the post-Western Roman Empire era. The decline of the Western Roman Empire was the result of a constellation of challenges, including (but not limited to) massive new incursions of powerful Germanic tribes, a widening chasm between the Western and the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium), plague, an onerous tax burden on the non-elite classes, weak leadership, the dominance of a self-serving elite (sound familiar?) and last but not least, the expansion of an unproductive rabble in Rome that had to be bribed with increasingly costly Bread and Circuses .
In effect, The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire ran out of time and money. The Grand Strategy, successful for hundreds of years, relied heavily on persuading “barbarian” tribes to join the Roman system for the commercial and security benefits. This process of integration worked because it was backed by the threat of destruction by military force.
The Empire maintained relatively modest military forces given its vast territory, but its road system and fleet enabled relatively rapid concentration of force to counter an invasion. It also maintained extensive fortifications along active borders.
All of this required substantial tax revenues, manpower and effective leadership, not just for fortifications, the army, roads and the fleet, but to maintain the commercial and political benefits offered to “barbarians” who chose integration in the Empire.
Once the military threats proliferated and the benefits of Imperial membership eroded, the Grand Strategy was unable to maintain the integrity of the Imperial borders.
As tax revenues and the bureaucracy they supported imploded, security declined, reducing trade and communications. This unvirtuous cycle fed on itself: reduced trade led to reduced tax revenues which led to phantom legions that were still listed on the bureaucratic ledgers but which no longer had any troops.
The collapse of the Western Empire was a process, not an event. Key organizational infrastructures that endured through the Medieval era–for example, the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian Churches–gained traction in the waning centuries of the Western Empire.
Monasteries offered islands of scholarship and literacy and in many cases offered security via fortifications.
As trade diminished along with secure trade routes, self-reliance became the order of the day outside the borders of the Byzantine and Persian empires.
Though political leadership shifted with the latest invasion from the steppes of Eurasia, the two branches of Christendom slowly converted many invading groups or consolidated existing Christian powers into alliances that bound together diverse groups and proto-states.
These alliances were typically contingent and temporary, as today’s ally became tomorrow’s enemy, or vice versa. Despite the shifting loyalties of constant invasion and warfare, the Byzantine Empire endured and Charlemagne (and others) in Western Europe established the fractured but still effective Holy Roman Empire.
Much was lost when the Western Roman Empire collapsed, but islands of literacy, learning and security arose despite the constant conflicts and threats of invasion. Venice offers one example of a small city securing trade routes with commercial centers that then funded a regional empire.
The tidiness of the old Empire could not be reinstated. The adaptations were as messy and untidy as the challenges that swept in from the steppes and forests.
So please don’t diss the Dark Ages. Yes, the Roman baths, coliseums and political /social order fell into disrepair, but new ways of coping emerged that were as contingent and untidy as the era’s multiple challenges.
New modes of production and new social /political orders do not arise fully formed. They are pieced together by trial and error and numerous cycles of adaptation, innovation and failure. Share: | 0 |
The time to see if all those claiming that they would flee the country if their candidate lost the presidential election has finally come and last night Canada’s official immigration website showed many maybe to attempting to put their money where their mouth is.
As election results continued to roll in late Tuesday evening, CIC.gc.ca experienced such heavy web traffic that their site was unable to handle the enormous strain. While the CIC.gc.ca is currently back online (however still running very slowly), reports indicate that heavy traffic rendered the website non-operational into earily Wednesday morning.
ABC13 New Houston was able to capture a screenshot during the height of the site’s massive traffic jam:
Canada’s site to apply for citizenship crashes #ABC13 https://t.co/0G9FWoMaBe pic.twitter.com/epTXZ8Ryo3
— ABC13 Houston (@abc13houston) November 9, 2016
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And that’s not all. Business Insider reports that its top story Tuesday was “ How to move to Canada and become a Canadian citizen.” On Google Trends, the term “ Canadian immigration ” began to spike at 10:23 p.m. Tuesday, right around the time the networks and Associated Press called the key swing state of Ohio for Trump, as did the term “ Canada .”
Even the Canadian national anthem was trending; “ O Canada! ” has benefited from Americans perhaps eager to learn their new country’s national song.
Thoughts on this? Let us know in the comment section below.
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Hillary emails 'whitelisted' for Obama's BlackBerry President could only receive messages from pre-approved accounts Published: 1 min ago
(Fox News) President Obama’s high-security BlackBerry used a special process known as “whitelisting” that only allowed it to take calls and messages from pre-approved contacts, two former senior intelligence officials with knowledge of the set-up told Fox News – pointing to the detail as further proof the White House knew Hillary Clinton’s private account was used for government business.
As the administration now acknowledges, Obama and Clinton emailed each other while she was helming the State Department. If received on his BlackBerry, the “whitelisting” safeguard means Clinton and other contacts would have had to be approved as secure for data transmission – covering everything from emails to texts to phone calls. The Obama BlackBerry would have also been configured to accept the communications.
“Think of whitelisting like a bouncer in the VIP line at the party. If you are on the list you get in, if you are not, you get bounced to the pavement,” said Bob Gourley, former chief technology officer (CTO) for the DIA, and now a partner with strategic consulting and engineering firm Cognitio. | 0 |
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Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam.
Once upon a time, fact-checking meant that newspapers, radio stations and television news broadcasts were obligated to check their facts before broadcasting or publishing them. Some newspapers and magazines boasted renowned departments filled with intellectuals whose restless minds roved over each line to ensure that the fewest possible errors would appear under that publication’s masthead.
But fact-checking of the media by itself has declined almost as badly as the Roman Empire. Errors routinely appear under storied mastheads followed by corrections that are published as a janitorial duty. There is very little concern for the facts even among the great names of publishing and broadcasting.
The media has stopped fact-checking itself and it now uses fact-checking largely to refer to a type of opinion journalism in which it “checks the facts” of public figures. The fall of fact-checking within the media has paralleled the rise of fact checking by the media of its political opponents. The media has become factless even as it deploys a term that once meant self-correction to instead correct others.
Fact checks once meant that reporters were expected to be accurate. These days they’re only expected to be politically correct. The media deploys fact checks to check political correctness, not facts. Its fact checks routinely venture into areas that are not only partisan, but subjective matters of opinion.
Consider Politico’s often mocked “fact check” of Donald Trump as to whether ISIS was indeed unbelievably evil. Under a banner headline, “Donald Trump’s Week of Misrepresentations, Exaggerations and Half-Truths”, it zoomed in on a quote from his Florida rally.
“We’re presiding over something that the world has not seen. The level of evil is unbelievable,” Trump had said.
Politico swooped in to correct the candidate with its fact check. “Judging one ‘level of evil’ against another is subjective, but other groups in recent history have without any question engaged in as widespread killing of civilians as ISIS.”
There were no facts being checked here because Politico doesn’t seem to know what a fact even is.
The only information conveyed by this “fact check” is that Politico, like the rest of the media, does not like Donald Trump and would find a way to argue with him if he said that the sky was blue.
In the Daily Show media culture where overt bias and trolling are virtues, fact-checking is just another snotty variety of editorializing that attempts to compensate for perceptions of bias not with higher ethical and factual standards, but by rebranding its editorials as fact checks to gain credibility.
The ISIS evil “fact check” of Trump came from the same media outlet whose White House reporter decided that the Wisconsin flag, which carries the date 1848 to mark the state’s admission to the Union, was “a flag for the local union, Wisconsin 1848”. Politico ran an entire story asserting that Obama was flying a labor flag to oppose Governor Walker because its reporter couldn’t process basic history.
This is what happens when media outlets think that fact-checking is something that they do to Republicans rather than to themselves.
Fact-checking was one of those dinosaurs of journalism, like objectivity, which is viewed as largely irrelevant in a media culture whose Edward R. Murrow is Jon Stewart. Today’s millennial journalists spend most of their time exchanging sarcastic quips with their peers on Twitter, aspire to found their own Vox sites and write viral blog posts that seek a new angle on a trending left-wing narrative.
Fact checks often function as narrative defenses and meme attacks. That’s why the Washington Post decided to “fact check” a Saturday Night Live gag about Obama’s illegal alien amnesty. It’s not that anyone imagines that Saturday Night Live is in the business of producing facts that need checking. The Post was just worried that one of its jokes would go viral and hurt Obama and his agenda.
It’s the same reason that the paper “fact checked” a 13-year-old boy who claimed he was blocked by Obama on Twitter. This isn’t about the facts. It’s paranoia about social media narratives going viral.
This is more understandable if you stop thinking of the media in the old-fashioned sense as a series of papers, radio and television stations and start thinking of it as a massive machine that advocates for left-wing policies using its massive infrastructure and wealth to monopolize internet narratives.
Media outlets trade on their history, but they don’t resemble their past selves in any meaningful way.
The New Yorker once boasted a fact-checking department that was famous for its range, its depth and its resourcefulness in running down even the most obscure facts. But what use is such a thing at David Remnick’s New Yorker whose big draw comes from Andy Borowitz’s insipid near parodies? The New Republic went from respected liberal publication to another snarky and shrill social justice blog. CBS News cited a psychic site to explain that a fly landed on Hillary’s face to help her cope with stress.
This isn’t material that exists in the same realm as facts. It’s snarky contempt alternating with lowest common denominator propaganda. Left-wing journalism, like most left-wing culture, is totalitarian anti-intellectualism masquerading as enlightened intellectualism. The Soviet Union was quite fond of culture. It just hated the creative process that produced it because it was independent of Communist ideology. The left loves journalism; it just hates the objectivity that validates journalism as more than propaganda.
It’s this perverse anti-intellectualism that turned fact-checking from self-discipline to attack ad. Once journalism became pure left-wing advocacy, it also became inherently correct by virtue of being left-wing and was not in need of having its facts checked. When fact checks stopped being something that journalists did to themselves, first facts and then fact checks became meaningless. Unable to even recognize a fact, media fact checkers just wrote editorials which spiced their left-wing attacks on Republicans liberally with cargo cult invocations to “fact” as if it were some deity.
The average media fact check is a masterpiece of unintentional comedy for thinking adults.
At the Washington Post , Michelle Yee “fact checks” Donald Trump’s comment that Hillary’s email scandal is bigger than Watergate and concludes that since Watergate led to Nixon’s resignation and Hillary’s email scandal has yet to lead to any convictions, it can’t be bigger than Watergate. Since the scandal has yet to be resolved, a fact check of it could only take place in the future.
CNN featured Toronto Star “fact checker” Daniel Dale who claimed that Trump said 35 lies in one day.
The list of “lies” included deeming Trump’s statement that Hillary would raise taxes false because her plan only taxes the rich, asserting that there is no such thing as a “phony poll” and denying that Hillary Clinton had received debate questions. Some of these “lies” are themselves lies. Others, like Yee, show an inability to even understand what a fact is and what can and can’t be deemed false.
Just how degraded fact checking had become was made manifest when Hillary Clinton pleaded at the debate, “Please, fact checkers, get to work.” Her campaign site touted its own “fact checking” which was mostly indistinguishable from the media’s fact checking. That was a commentary on the transformation of the media into a left-wing politician’s spin center.
Nearly every media outlet now boasts a fact check blog or headlines touting fact checks. But the biggest fact checking department of the media, rather than by the media, isn’t in the United States, but in Germany. In America, fact checking has become a type of partisan attack launched by media outlets at their political opponents. It’s bigger than ever and also more worthless than ever because it is factless.
And those who do it often not only don’t know the facts, but don’t even know what a fact is. | 0 |
A of lead exploded from the barrel of a pistol at 1, 300 feet per second. The bullet sped toward Carlos Vasquez, who ran just steps ahead of the gunman. But it missed its mark, just outside the Melrose Houses in the South Bronx, and kept whistling through the air. It sailed for 150 yards along East 154th Street, down the slope between Courtlandt and Elton Avenues, staying airborne as the ground fell away. Maribel Cavero, 45, was crossing the street at the base of that hill, unaware that a shot had been fired during a running fight between young men in the housing project. She had just delivered a carton of sugar substitute to her diabetic grandmother on East 154th Street and was on her way to pick up her niece from school. The bullet slowed and tumbled as it dropped. Then, with the last of its fading energy, it tore into Ms. Cavero. Alejandro Almonte, 45, a heard Ms. Cavero yelp and saw her fall. He later said he thought she must have had a seizure. He ran to where she lay, facedown, on the blacktop by a small car’s bumper. She was dying, the bullet having pierced her heart at about 12:50 p. m. on Nov. 2, a sunny Wednesday. The slug passed through her chest and rolled to a stop under a Jeep parked near a house at 426 East 154th Street. The bullet was strangely pristine, hardly deformed by its deadly work. As investigators began to piece together how the woman had been shot, Sgt. Michael J. LoPuzzo, the commander of the 40th Precinct detective squad, looked uphill, where the bullet had been fired, and downhill, where it had come to rest, and surveyed the maze of telephone poles, streetlights, wires, cars and trees in between. The bullet had improbably traveled nearly two city blocks to strike an unintended victim and log the precinct’s 14th — and final — homicide of 2016. “It couldn’t have hit a tree?” he said, shaking his head. “A light pole? A sign?” It was grim news for detectives in the 40th Precinct, where The New York Times has been examining every homicide logged in 2016, a succession of assassinations, gang killings, domestic murders and random slayings. Half the cases remained unsolved, and Sergeant LoPuzzo’s investigators were already struggling to find the person responsible for the fatal shooting of another innocent bystander, Jessica White, cut down on a playground in June. Now, less than a mile away and five months later, the police had another mystery and another blameless bystander lying crumpled on the ground. Detectives were initially unable to explain what had happened. The mayor’s office called the chief of detectives, and the chief of detectives called Sergeant LoPuzzo. The message was simple: Do all you can. The department flooded the streets with rookies who picked through trash and shined flashlights in alleyways and sewer grates searching for any potential evidence. Detectives checked Ms. Cavero’s background for clues. The head of Bronx detectives, Deputy Chief Jason Wilcox, stalked the streets between the projects and the businesses on Third Avenue, the area around him abuzz with the police. It was a striking show of force, and a marked escalation from the police response after Ms. White was killed as she tried to shield her children from gunfire. As the afternoon hours wore on, Sergeant LoPuzzo and his detectives started getting breaks. Things lined up in ways they seldom do in this part of the Bronx, where witnesses rarely agree to testify and investigative staffing is one of the lowest in the city despite a rate that is the highest. By late the next night, Orlando Oquendo, a who the police believed had fired the bullet, was in handcuffs, having been identified in a lineup by Mr. Vasquez, the man who said he was the target. Mr. Oquendo, who still looked very much a teenager, had been arrested several times, including twice on gun possession charges, according to court documents and his mother. “That kid was on a road,” Sergeant LoPuzzo said. “It was just a matter of time. ” Less than 48 hours elapsed from death to arrest, and what detectives in this corner of the city say they hope for but rarely see came to pass: The police and the people in the community had cooperated to solve a killing. “It’s supposed to read like a book,” Sergeant LoPuzzo said weeks later, explaining how he wished all cases went that way. “Where you can read all the steps in the investigation, and what they saw and what they found and what the video shows and what the evidence shows. So it’s all one big package. ” It was a luxury, the sergeant said, his squad often did not have. The day she died, Maribel Cavero and her mother, Maria Reyes, had cooked crabs for an early lunch, using a recipe from their native Ecuador. Together, with Ms. Cavero’s younger sister, Alexandra Cavero, 44, they sat at a small table in the family’s apartment in the Melrose Houses, only a block from the corner where the shot would be fired. Ms. Cavero regaled them with family gossip and news from their home country. The sisters had joined their mother in the United States in 2008, about 12 years after she followed her own mother from Guayaquil, Ecuador, to the South Bronx in hopes of more earnings and a better life. When lunch was finished, Ms. Cavero’s mother reminded her to drop off the box of sugar substitute to her grandmother, Marcela Troncoso, the family matriarch, who lived in an apartment on East 154th Street. As she did most days, Ms. Cavero was headed to pick up her sister’s daughter, Gabriela Encalada, from school, because her sister had to leave for her job as a bus driver. But Ms. Cavero would make time for the delivery. “She said, ‘I’m in a hurry, but I’ll do it,’” Ms. Reyes said in a recent interview. “‘I’ll do it. ’” Ms. Cavero had no husband, no boyfriend and no children, her relatives said. She enjoyed certain solitary pursuits, like romance novels and the online game FarmVille. And aside from family, her regular social activity was Mass at Immaculate Conception Church on East 150th Street. “She lived in her own world,” her sister said. “She was still very naïve. ” With what relatives called a tranquil focus, she poured her energy into caring for her mother and helping to raise her niece, whom she considered like a daughter. She loved tragic poetry, her sister said, and the writings of Pablo Neruda and the novels of Corín Tellado, a prolific romance writer. At night, she would watch Elvis Presley movies, referring to the singer as her eternal love. She watched James Bond movies, too, but told friends she avoided real romantic entanglements because in her view they always brought pain. “In high school, they used to say she seemed like she was in love because when she was into a book, into a piece of literature, she expressed it, and the others would tell her, ‘You’re in love,’ and her answer would be ‘Yes, I’m in love with life,’” her sister said. “‘In some ways you seem like a little girl, and in some ways you’re like an old lady,’ I used to tell her. ” Ms. Cavero worked for a few years as a nanny, her mother said. But as the children she watched grew, the $ job ended and she wound up working another job her stepfather found for her at a McDonald’s on Sixth Avenue and 28th Street in Manhattan. The shifts began late in the day, which gave her time to pick up Gabriela. But they often ended near midnight. Coming home that late, she usually called her mother to tell her she was leaving work. Her mother said Ms. Cavero was afraid of the neighborhood. “This is a bad place here,” Ms. Reyes said. “Sometimes gunfights are heard outside. ” When the McDonald’s was being remodeled in the fall, Ms. Cavero seized the opportunity to go to Ecuador. She stayed for 45 days with her father, Luis Cavero. She wasn’t thrilled to return to New York, where she had been frustrated in finding meaningful work, and she talked of moving home once her niece was older, her sister said. “Why did this happen?” her sister asked. “I don’t understand. She was a person who had no vices. ” For the investigation into Ms. Cavero’s killing, finding the small, smooth slug under a Jeep near the body was the case’s first big break. Detectives who found it cordoned off the area with crime scene tape. One hunched down, unloaded the magazine of his own pistol and pulled out a bullet to compare. The slugs were the same size. Another bystander told officers he had seen a man running wildly with something black in his hand through the Melrose playground a block and a half away. Detectives traced a ballistic path westward along East 154th Street and found a plumber who told them he had seen the shooting as he walked with his lunch from the Twin Deli Grocery at East 154th and Courtlandt. The plumber told detectives he saw one young man chase another, then stop and raise his arm. He heard a gunshot and the tinkle of a brass shell hitting the sidewalk as the gunman turned back and sprinted into the Melrose Houses. The shell was there, under some scaffolding, on the northeast corner, and detectives placed a white foam cup over it to preserve it as evidence. After detectives went looking for surveillance video, they found footage from at least five nearby stores and buildings, a bonanza in a neighborhood where security cameras are scarce and often out of order. One video showed a teenager racking a gun, dropping something, then firing. On the street, besides the shell casing, detectives discovered an object they believed had also fallen from the gunman’s hands: a silver cigarette lighter. Television satellite trucks began showing up, a rare but welcome sight for investigators in this part of the city, who hoped publicity might encourage witnesses to come forward. The evening news broadcasts were soon underway, and in a place where even horrific killings often draw only brief coverage, the local stations were going big with the news of an innocent bystander shot dead. For Sergeant LoPuzzo, a steady diet of coffee and cigarettes does nothing to blunt his frustration over witnesses who will not speak. In case after case, as recently as a shooting on New Year’s Day, even seriously injured victims tell a similar story: “Felt pain, saw nothing. ” But the Cavero case was already going differently, and then a call came from the 40th Precinct station house on Alexander Avenue. Detectives told the sergeant, who was still at the scene, that a man had walked into the squad room claiming to have been in the gunman’s cross hairs. “I said, ‘Do not let him leave,’” Sergeant LoPuzzo recalled. Within minutes, the man, Carlos Vasquez, was putting his account in writing in front of a detective. In his statement, he said he saw the news of Ms. Cavero’s death on television and realized “that a woman was shot and killed by the bullet that was intended for me. ” “I informed my family that I was going to the precinct so I can tell the detectives what happened and tell them I wanted this guy brought to justice,” he said in his statement, which both he and a detective signed. “It’s one of the rare things where he’s got a conscience,” Sergeant LoPuzzo later said. Mr. Vasquez had been arrested more than a dozen times and had been convicted of drug dealing and illegal possession of a knife. He was a if drug dealer. He sold in the Melrose Houses near the corner of East 153rd Street and Courtlandt Avenue, where his mother lived, according to court records and the police. In implicating Mr. Oquendo, Mr. Vasquez never explained how the fight had started. In his own words, he said he had left his building on Nov. 2 “in search of marijuana” and was waiting for a dealer near a flagpole at the neighboring Jackson Houses when two men assaulted him. He ran. But before he could make it to the safety of his mother’s house, one of the assailants closed the gap, with a gun in hand. “As I’m running, I turn around to see him point a gun at me and fire it,” Mr. Vasquez said in his statement, though he did not know Mr. Oquendo’s name. “I ducked between cars. ” Even before Mr. Vasquez came in, detectives reviewing the recovered video images from the deli’s cameras thought they had identified a suspect. Officers assigned to a plainclothes unit recognized the person in the surveillance footage as Mr. Oquendo, the teenager with a lengthy arrest record who was known to officers as “Gumby. ” The case detective, Ivan Monge, also knew the gunman when he saw the video. He had arrested Mr. Oquendo’s older sister on assault charges in October. “I told myself, ‘Wait, this is Gumby, this is Oquendo,’” he said. Detectives did not recover the gun. But with the videos, the witnesses, the bullet, the shell casing and the name of the suspect lining up, Sergeant LoPuzzo’s team made one more breakthrough: Detective David Rodriguez remembered that the suspect’s mother was an old neighbor of his from Spanish Harlem. They had grown up together, their families had attended the same church and they had spoken after one of Mr. Oquendo’s previous arrests. The detective contacted the mother’s relatives on Facebook and eventually got her on the phone. He told her he needed her to bring in her son safely. “Like a mother, she didn’t believe it,” Detective Rodriguez said. “And she wanted the proof. ” Detective Rodriguez went to her home and took her to the squad room, where he showed her a wanted flier with an image of her son taken from the videos. She came in only “because she trusted him,” said Detective John Caruso, another detective working on the case. Finally she broke down. “Yeah,” she said, according to Detective Rodriguez, “that’s my son. ” By the next night, the detectives were packed in the lobby of the Legal Aid Society’s office on East 161st Street in the Bronx. Steven Mechanic, a veteran public defender who had represented Mr. Oquendo against several criminal charges in the past, surrendered him to the police. “There are no winners in this case,” Mr. Mechanic said later, declining to discuss the new charges or Mr. Oquendo’s previous convictions. Mr. Oquendo was led away. His parents cried. “He told me he came over from Cuba on a boat, 20 years ago,” Detective Rodriguez said of the suspect’s father. “I know the mother’s side of the family personally. I’ve known them for years. He comes from a good family, but everyone takes their own path in life. ” Orlando Oquendo’s mother sat in her living room in the Jackson Houses one recent night, with a stack of letters written by her son in jail piled on her lap. She nodded toward the streets outside her window and spoke of her son’s sorrow for Ms. Cavero’s death. “If he did do it, it was not intentional. It was not toward her,” she said of the shooting. “A person was lost, so it’s going to hurt. ” She felt a kinship for Ms. Cavero’s family. Both were Latino families, she said, one from Puerto Rico and Cuba, the other from Ecuador. Both were churchgoing, and both were living in a area they wanted to escape. Mr. Oquendo’s mother said that taking the apartment in the Jackson Houses 11 years ago was the worst decision she had ever made. Mr. Oquendo, the fourth of her six children, was troubled and, from a young age, attended a special school for emotionally disturbed children. It was hard to stay neutral in the project’s gang feuds, and he got into fights constantly. He seemed unable to back down from a threat. He would not “stay shut” when challenged, said his mother, who spoke on the condition that her name not be published. “He had good hands. He could defend himself. ” Twice, her son was accused of crimes involving guns, according to court documents and law enforcement officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential records. In February 2014, a young woman told the police that Mr. Oquendo, who was 15, fired several shots at her, one official said. He was indicted on a gun possession charge in that case, which was transferred to family court and sealed. Then, in August 2015, he was arrested when a police officer saw him drop a . revolver wrapped in a on Courtlandt Avenue near East 157th Street, a criminal complaint said. He later pleaded guilty to a reduced charge and was given a conditional discharge, the official said. Mr. Oquendo’s mother said he was supposed to be graduating from high school this month and then going to work for his father’s plumbing business. Her son had been coaching young basketball players at the local Classic Community Center, on the courts where Chris McCullough of the Brooklyn Nets once reigned. He had proposed to his longtime girlfriend, telling her they could someday move to a safer neighborhood with their son, O. J. born on Aug. 16. “If this kid could relive this day, I’m sure he wouldn’t do the same thing that he did,” Sergeant LoPuzzo said. “But once you pull that trigger, you can’t pull that back. ” Still, the pressures were mounting, said Mr. Oquendo’s mother, who referred to him as her “prayer baby” for his constant comfort of her. He watched her battle diabetes and heart disease and saw his maternal grandmother dying of colon cancer. The streets enveloped him, she said. In October, he had a dispute with Mr. Vasquez outside a local barbershop. On the day of the shooting, Mr. Vasquez’s nephew, a friend of the Oquendo family, sent messages to Mr. Oquendo’s sister to find out what had happened. After speaking with Detective Rodriguez, Mr. Oquendo’s mother reached her son and asked him to surrender. “I told him, ‘The best thing to do is to turn yourself in, and let’s see what happens,’” she said. “I don’t want my son out on the run. ” Now, he is in a Rikers Island jail cell, facing a indictment on murder and other charges. He turned 18 there and spent Thanksgiving and Christmas alone. But his letters and cards keep coming, almost daily, filled with apologies for letting his mother down and promising to come home. In a letter on Dec. 30, he told her not to worry, writing, “God has a plan,” and “Let’s hope God gives us a short, easy punishment. ” Ms. Cavero’s relatives, who are tracking the suspect’s court appearances, are afraid of just that: a light sentence. Detectives said that Mr. Oquendo’s intended victim, Mr. Vasquez, picked him out of a police lineup, but that the plumber who witnessed the shooting had been too afraid to try the same. DNA tests on the silver lighter recovered near the shell casing were inconclusive. In her living room, two blocks from the Oquendo family, Ms. Cavero’s mother, Ms. Reyes, also sat on a couch with a pile of envelopes, these containing court papers and other official documents. She thought back to the moment the police informed her of her daughter’s killing. Detective Monge, the case detective, had knocked on her door to deliver the news in Spanish, and she was grateful for his compassion. But even after a wake, in which her daughter was dressed all in white, and a funeral, in Ecuador, she said the randomness of the death — in which a person with no enemies or vices was taken violently — remained the abiding mystery. It is a question the police cannot answer. “That is what I ask myself,” Ms. Reyes said, tears falling down her cheeks. “Why did this happen this way?” | 1 |
It was the low point for a campaign that had been in steady decline for weeks. Less than 24 hours earlier, an recording of Donald J. Trump boasting about forcing himself on women had surfaced and gone viral. Now, on a Saturday morning in October, his closest advisers had assembled in his Trump Tower apartment to discuss what to do. The group included a handful of seasoned politicians and Mr. Trump’s Jared Kushner, an Orthodox Jew who ordinarily observes the Sabbath strictly. While the others — Gov. Chris Christie, Rudolph W. Giuliani, Reince Priebus — emphasized the gravity of the situation, urging Mr. Trump to express contrition, Mr. Kushner reminded him of what he had built. Amid the discussions, the Republican candidate briefly went down to greet 100 or so supporters gathered in front of the building. “There’s 2, 500 people down there,” Mr. Trump told his advisers when he returned. “Those are the people who are going to elect you president,” Mr. Kushner replied, opting not to correct the candidate’s crowd estimate. “Don’t worry about the other people. ” In the chaos that often seems to surround Mr. Trump — the churn of advisers, the Twitter wars with reporters, the daily uncertainty over who is making decisions — Mr. Kushner has emerged as the closest thing to a steadying influence, injecting optimism, playing down controversies and reinforcing Mr. Trump’s perceptions, worldview and instincts. In an organization chart of friends and advisers, Mr. Kushner, 35, has been the lone constant. Raised by one family that prizes loyalty above all else, he married into another. And he is well acquainted with Mr. Trump’s personality type, with his own father a volatile real estate magnate. Now, there is talk of his following Mr. Trump into the White House. What some may see as Mr. Kushner’s greatest liabilities as an adviser — his lack of political experience, policy expertise or familiarity with the ways of Washington — the views as his greatest strength: a devotion without a competing agenda. “Everyone else has their own constituencies, but Jared is just there to protect the interests of the president,” said Thomas Barrack Jr. a longtime friend of Mr. Trump’s who is heading up the inaugural committee. It is not clear exactly how Mr. Kushner, who is married to Mr. Trump’s elder daughter, Ivanka, might be deployed. He is exploring the prospects of joining the administration as a formal, but unpaid, adviser. statutes prohibit close relatives of the president from playing an active role in the government, but at the same time, the Constitution gives the president broad authority to choose his own advisers. If the Trump administration presses ahead with a Kushner appointment, the matter could wind up in court. Whatever role Mr. Kushner may play in the administration, he has already had a hand in helping assemble it. Both of Mr. Trump’s most senior advisers, Mr. Priebus, his new chief of staff, and Stephen K. Bannon, his chief strategist, seek Mr. Kushner’s advice routinely, considering his almost a prerequisite for their proposals to Mr. Trump, two senior Trump officials said. (In deference to Mr. Kushner, the transition team delayed announcing the two men’s appointment until after the Jewish sabbath last weekend.) “Jared has the trust, confidence and ear of the entire inner circle of the Trump administration, including the most important member of that group, the ” said Matthew Brooks, the executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition. He described Mr. Kushner as “one of the most important players right now beyond the and vice . ” Inside the Trump operation, he is known as the staunchest defender of Mr. Trump’s judgment. When Mr. Bannon was recently accused of and of promoting white supremacist views and conspiracy theories, Mr. Kushner reassured the Trump team. He called Mr. Bannon a man of character and said the widespread criticism was a smear, according to a senior Republican official, speaking about private discussions on the condition of anonymity. While Mr. Kushner kept himself out of the spotlight throughout the campaign, he has been more visible since the election, walking the White House grounds during Mr. Trump’s recent meeting with President Obama and accompanying the at a meeting at Trump Tower on Thursday night with the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe. Mr. Kushner declined to be interviewed for this article. Although he is a newspaper owner and publisher, he has not been quoted in the media since the start of the campaign. Before that, Mr. Kushner did not have much of a public political identity, but appeared to lean left. He was raised in a Democratic household, and several years ago, he and his wife hosted a in their Park Avenue penthouse for Cory Booker, the Democratic senator from New Jersey and former Newark mayor, who has become a vocal critic of Mr. Trump. They also once hosted a breakfast for another Democrat, Eric T. Schneiderman, the attorney general of New York, who sued Trump University for allegedly defrauding students. (The lawsuit was one of a series brought against the program that were settled on Friday for $25 million.) The couple moves in a predominantly liberal Manhattan circle. “Their social politics seem more what I would expect from New Yorkers of their generation,” said Adam Silver, the National Basketball Association commissioner and a friend of Mr. Kushner’s who has frequently contributed to Democrats. Some New York business leaders, who had recoiled at Mr. Trump’s candidacy, say privately that they are hoping Mr. Kushner will be a moderating influence on the new president. But it remains to be seen how receptive he will be to their concerns. Trump officials say that Mr. Kushner underwent an ideological conversion over the course of the campaign, and that he was particularly affected by the experience of wading into the crowds at Trump rallies. Mr. Kushner projects a very different image from his father and . He speaks in a punctuated by long pauses, conveying both intimacy and awkwardness. Unlike most of Mr. Trump’s advisers, Mr. Kushner is unfazed by Mr. Trump’s frequent fits of anger, sitting silently rather than flinching or fighting back when he is being dressed down, several campaign officials have said. The relationship between the two men is relatively uncomplicated. Unlike Mr. Trump’s two eldest sons, Mr. Kushner did not have to live through his ’s public and messy divorces, and the businesses that he presides over are his own, not part of the Trump Organization. Mr. Trump has described him as a “brilliant young man. ” His quiet manner belies a driving confidence his family’s wealth has allowed him to plunge into new ventures, sometimes stumbling in the process. In his he took charge of his father’s real estate empire and bought The New York Observer. Much as he once courted the media mogul Rupert Murdoch as a mentor, now that he is immersing himself in politics, he has been seeking the counsel of Henry Kissinger. At the start of the campaign, Mr. Kushner was mostly just along for the ride, keeping his company at the occasional rally and making the odd phone call to a potential donor on his behalf. His purview was never entirely spelled out, which gave him latitude to exert influence without clear responsibility. He gradually built influence, and by the end of the race, he was seen internally as the de facto campaign manager. He oversaw the creation of the campaign’s $90 million digital operation, including a database of millions of Trump supporters, which was developed by a Texas business that had previously worked on the Trump Organization website. He also brokered important meetings for Mr. Trump, including his with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, which Mr. Kushner arranged with Ron Dermer, Israel’s ambassador to the United States. “He’s a cool customer,” Mr. Dermer said of Mr. Kushner. Mr. Kushner’s political inexperience was at times evident during the campaign. He told one aide that he did not need to pay for traditional focus groups because he could measure voter reaction from the applause at Mr. Trump’s events. Like his he ran hot and cold on senior campaign advisers, and played a role in ousting two of them, Corey Lewandowski and Paul Manafort, after their conduct or affiliations made them liabilities. More recently, Mr. Kushner backed away from a member of the transition team he had previously supported, when the man’s work as a lobbyist for foreign governments attracted headlines. Though he is not particularly bookish, Mr. Kushner is an admirer of “The Count of Monte Cristo,” the story of an innocent man seeking vengeance against people who have wronged him. It is a story that feels particularly resonant now: In recent weeks, Mr. Kushner has been able to exact a measure of revenge against his own family’s nemesis, Governor Christie. During the campaign, Mr. Kushner opposed Mr. Christie’s appointment to oversee the transition team, but Mr. Trump overruled him, aides have said. This past week, however, Mr. Kushner helped push Mr. Christie out. Their history dates to 2005, when Mr. Christie, then the United States attorney for New Jersey, sent Mr. Kushner’s father, Charles, to federal prison for tax evasion, witness tampering and illegal campaign donations. The case involved a tawdry family feud: At one point, Charles Kushner sought to blackmail his who was cooperating with the federal authorities, by hiring a woman to seduce him and videotape the encounter. “This had nothing to do with personalities or individual relationships,” Jason Miller, Mr. Trump’s spokesman, said of Mr. Christie’s departure. “This was purely about putting in the best leadership and the individuals to form the government that the wants in place when he’s sworn in on Jan. 20. ” Other Trump officials were critical of Mr. Christie’s performance as transition chief, and said his role had become untenable after the Bridgegate scandal resulted in the convictions of two former Christie aides days before the election. Mr. Kushner’s work on the campaign took place behind the scenes, with the notable exception of an article in support of Mr. Trump in July in The Observer. At the time, Mr. Trump was under fire for a Twitter post that included an image of Hillary Clinton with a shape resembling a Star of David next to a pile of cash, the latest in a list of actions by the campaign that struck many as insensitive to Jewish concerns. In defending Mr. Trump, Mr. Kushner told the story of his grandmother’s narrow escape from the Nazis in the Soviet Union during World War II. The article provoked an angry response on Facebook from two estranged cousins, one of whom accused Mr. Kushner of exploiting their family’s history for political purposes. Like Mr. Trump’s children, Mr. Kushner was raised in a privileged environment. He went to a private Jewish school in Livingston, N. J. and attended Harvard after his parents pledged a $2. 5 million gift to the university. Later, he got a joint M. B. A. and law degree from New York University. His wife described him as a “great New Jersey boy,” in a Vogue magazine interview last year. When the couple were married at a Trump golf course in 2009, guests were given white with the words “Jared” and “Ivanka” on the insoles and a tag reading, “A Great Pair. ” Mr. Kushner had no journalism experience when he purchased The Observer for $10 million in 2006, installing a chess board in his office that former staff members don’t recall ever being used. He found himself presiding over a newspaper of reporters and editors more or less his age, and he responded with solicitousness. “‘This is so great I’m getting to hang around with journalists, and they are really smart,” Nancy Butkus, the paper’s former artistic director, recalled Mr. Kushner saying in a cab packed with Observer employees. As he sought to put his imprint on the paper, his relationship with its veteran editor, Peter Kaplan, quickly soured. “This guy doesn’t know what he doesn’t know,” Mr. Kaplan complained to colleagues at the time. Sustaining declines in print advertising like others in the newspaper industry, The Observer announced this month that it would become a publication. Mr. Kushner became the public face of his family’s real estate business, Kushner Companies, when his father was sent to prison. In an effort to rehabilitate the family name, the younger Mr. Kushner oversaw a series of transactions geared toward moving holdings out of New Jersey and into New York. The centerpiece was the purchase of a Midtown Manhattan skyscraper for $1. 8 billion. It was then as record price for a New York office building as it turned out, the timing could not have been worse. A couple of years later, in the face of recession, the Kushners were forced to sell a stake in the building to cover a secondary loan on the property. Since then, the real estate market has rebounded the Kushners have acquired $7 billion worth of commercial and residential property over the last decade, according to real estate executives who have been briefed by the Kushners but were not authorized to discuss the matters. Charles Kushner remains an active presence in the business. The company named a new president over the summer as his son, the C. E. O. became increasingly involved in the Trump campaign. Jared Kushner has found a new passion, and his is counting on him. | 1 |
Herbal tea can help with indigestion and insomnia
Saturday, October 29, 2016 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer Tags: herbal tea , sleep , digestion (NaturalNews) Drinking herbal tea is one of the easiest ways to treat a variety of common health complaints, including indigestion and insomnia. By learning the uses of a handful of medicinal herbs , you can take charge of your health and improve your quality of life.Since they are so easy to prepare and use, herbal teas are among the keystones of natural medicine ."We use a lot of teas to help deliver the health benefits of the herbs," says Stephanie Caley of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists (NIMH).While you can purchase premade tea bags for many of the herbs below, you can also make them yourself."Once you find herbs you like that work for you, it's nice to make your own blends from fresh or dried herbs," says nutritionist Amanda Hamilton."You'll get multiple benefits from the different herbs as well as creating lovely flavours." Teas for digestion Everyone gets indigestion sometimes, so it can be helpful to have a handful of herbal remedies on hand to provide fast relief. According to Caley, her favorite herbs for gut upsets include chamomile, cardamom, ginger and peppermint.Chamomile functions as both an anti-spasmodic (relaxing the gut) and anti-inflammatory, thus providing broad-spectrum digestive relief. Ginger is particularly good for nausea, a benefit that has been proven in scientific studies. Peppermint is also an antispasmodic, and is so effective that it is sometimes prescribed by doctors as a treatment for irritable bowel syndrome. Cardamom pods should be crushed before steeping, for relief of indigestion and flatulence.Another digestion-promoting herbal tea , not mentioned by Caley, is rooibos. Rooibos calms the digestive system, perhaps due to its high content of the anti-inflammatory quercetin. Ease your mind, improve your sleep Another common complaint is trouble sleeping, which in severe cases may qualify as clinical insomnia. Yet many people who suffer from insomnia do not want to turn to potent and dangerous pharmaceutical drugs. For these people, Caley recommends chamomile, Valerian root, skullcap and lime flowers.Just as chamomile relaxes the gut, it has a tendency to relax the entire body and the mind as well. Caley particularly recommends it as a bedtime drink for "anxious people," as well as for children, who tend to like its mildly sweet flavor. She recommends skullcap for people who tend to be kept awake by "a mind that's racing."Use of Valerian root as a sleep promoter has a long history in herbal medicine, and the practice now has some scientific backing as well. A 2002 meta-analysis of 18 studies found that Valerian root is an effective sleep promoter (hypnotic), with few side effects. It is now sold over-the-counter in Norway as a sleep aid.Less well known are lime flowers, which Caley describes as "very calming." She notes that some of the volatile oils in lime flowers are believed to bind to the same receptors in the brain as pharmaceutical tranquilizers in the benzodiazepine family.Another remedy, not mentioned by Caley, is the popular beer ingredient hops. Hops is known to promote sleep and to ease stress and anxiety. Other medicinal benefits of hops include easing indigestion, headaches and fever.Another herb that can reduce stress and promote sleep if taken at bedtime is Withanian somnifera , also known as ashwagandha or winter cherry.Other natural ways to relieve insomnia include getting more exercise, improving your diet and avoiding looking at screens too close to bedtime.Of course, herbal teas can do more for you than just improving your digestion and sleep. Herbs such as nettle and ginseng can boost your energy levels without caffeine, while chamomile, peppermint, lavender, rose petals and lemon balm can all help balance your mood and relieve stress, anxiety and depression. Sources for this article include: | 0 |
Thursday, 10 November 2016 Americans by the millions are grabbing whatever they can and moving en masse to the Canadian border
Hot on the trail of Emperor OctoTrumpus destruction of American democracy the Canadians have offered to accept US refugees.
The Earth Defense League lead by Kirk, Spock, Mulder and Skywalker have abandoned the Fleet and are coordinating what could potentially be the largest mass migration in the history of the human species. The Clinton Dynasty are said to be leading the charge offering everyone free food and water when they join them on the Trail of Tears historic route.
Many of the minorities are said to be afraid of the reprisals from voting democrat from the new Neo-Nazi regime and have taken the historically extraordinary step of abandoning their homes and heading off for a better place to live.
The Emperor SpokesSpinner has welcomed the mass exodus but state they will not be permitted to take any cash or belongings more than 1 suitcase each. We are happy they are leaving as it saves us the problem of deporting them, but any possessions over a single suitcase will be confiscated at the border.
They have also authorised and financed vigilante groups to use them for target practice, ahead of the expected Muslim and minority purge. The Emperor says it should be a lot of fun, just like the buffalo hunts of yesteryear, but in an act of what they are calling compassion they are not permitting the shooting of children under 7 years old. "This will dramatically reduce the number of democrats and save a lot of money of getting re-elected", bragged Trumphole Predator Junior, "though we are also thinking of banning any future elections".
They had better get out before the wall is built otherwise we will have to go through all the fuss of shooting and burying them the administration complained.
Bill Clinton doing his now famous trademark grim face remarked "it seems to be some sort of delayed bad karma from Andrew Jackson", who he considered one of the 3 worst US Presidents. "It was quite an irony that it was the supposed civilised society that persecuted the Cherokees but this time it was the savages that had won". Make Jung in the Jungle's day - give this story five thumbs-up (there's no need to register , the thumbs are just down there!) | 0 |
Tweet Home » Headlines » World News » TREASON: This Election Fraud Goes All the Way TO THE TOP! | Bill Holter
JS Mineset’s Bill Holter is back to help document the collapse. Bill says that the United States is becoming a banana republic right before our eyes. As Donald Trump recently stated, “The Clinton machine is at the center of this power structure. We’ve seen this firsthand with the Wikileaks documents in which Hillary Clinton meets in secret, with international banks to plot the destruction of U.S. sovereignty. The Clintons are criminals.” And still, the CIA mockingbird media targets Trump while giving Clinton a free pass. The fix is in. | 0 |
Amy Adams has received five Oscar nominations and this year is poised to land her sixth, for her performance in Denis Villeneuve’s “Arrival,” a stirring drama about a linguist and mother tasked with communicating with aliens. She also stars as an unhappy Hollywood gallerist in Tom Ford’s “Nocturnal Animals. ” Ms. Adams sat down with the Bagger for a brief chat on, of all days, Nov. 9. Ms. Adams steered clear of politics — “it’s a time for reflection,” is all she would say — but confessed to having slept little the night before. She spoke about what she describes as “the blank nature of my face” and the unexpected joy of not preparing to get naked onscreen in front of Mr. Ford. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation. At the beginning of your career you were known for more joyful roles, but in these two movies, these are somber and even, in the case of “Nocturnal Animals,” tortured women. Do you feel like there’s a natural evolution to that? Definitely. It takes you to a more reflective place, as you get older. Before I was just sort of working to find a niche, and now it feels like I’m taking roles with more intention. I feel more in control of my instrument, so I feel like, ‘Yeah, let’s do that, let’s try different things. ” Let’s take, and I say [here she made air quotes] risks, because at the end of the day I’m only risking humiliation. I’m not really risking my life or anything. Yet you’re very vulnerable you can see it in your eyes. You’re known for that, this sort of naked thing. The thing is, my eyes photograph on camera really big. I don’t know if it’s the color, the shape. The sort of blank nature of my face. I have one of those faces, without makeup, it’s literally a gesso canvas. On my flight, the steward came up and said, “I kept thinking I knew you from somewhere!” He only recognized me after he heard my voice. That must be nice, being able to slip by unnoticed in everyday life. I love it, I get to be a mama. I get to navigate the world for the most part. You said you initially felt not much of a connection with the role, until you had a conversation with Denis about what the core of the story was about. Can you talk about that? I think I was more concerned [with] how it would play in the final film. I knew that it was going to be and that it was written as a very intimate portrayal of a mother telling a very complicated, scientific, nuanced story to her daughter, about the decisions she made. It just felt commercially risky. But Denis was onboard. And I could tell from the way he spoke that he had this emotional, he had an intellectualism. That’s probably not the word. For someone who plays a linguist it takes me a long time to find the right word. Emotional intelligence? There it is. That’s what I’m looking for. This is what today has done to me. [Denis] has an emotional intelligence that I trusted when I met him. He looks you in the eyes. I trust that. “Nocturnal Animals” came after that and you wore these gorgeous clothes. Were you able to eat at all? I did get to, which was nice, especially for the scenes when I was younger, because I wanted my face to look younger [by looking more rounded]. You know films shoot out of order. One night, they said, “Can we shoot the shower and bathtub scene?” And I was like, “You gotta give me time. I’m still on solids!” I say that as a joke. But it made me more because I hadn’t spent all this time thinking about what I needed to look like. You’ve been nominated for Oscars five times — is it stressful going through the whole process again and again? It’s easy to get caught up, not in the nominations — not in the aspect of it, but just in everything that it becomes. The red carpets and the overimportance. It’s easy for that to sort of take center stage in that moment, especially when you’re a young woman. For me, it definitely at times is overwhelming, that whole process. But I’m always grateful because the nomination for “Junebug” and campaigning launched what is my current career. So I can’t the process. | 1 |
DISPATCHES FROM DANIEL ESPINOSA working to defeat the Big Lie in all its forms A s the Shipibo community living in Lima loses the very little they have to fire, Luis Castañeda, self-appointed “Best Mayor in Lima’s History”, breaks his typical silence only briefly, to improvise some of the usual lies. His silence has worked well in the past. Despite having participated in the infamous “Comunicore” case in his first term as mayor of Lima, back in 2006 -where millions of Peruvian Soles, intended to pay the cities’ debts with a contractor, were diverted to a mysterious company with ties to cocaine trafficking- his popularity has always been around a fairly decent 60% percent. ( http://gestion.pe/politica/pese-denuncias-crece-popularidad-castaneda-2173916 ) ABOVE: LIMA—Shipiba community in CantaGallo. It’s been about a year that the authorities offered to relocate them, but so far the government ha snot made good on its promises. (Photo credit: Alessandro Currarino / El Comercio) This is probably his best accomplishment: having been able not only to avoid jail but to earn a second term as Mayor. But Peruvians are short-sighted when it comes to our politicians’ obvious venality (we also elected Alan García Pérez for President twice), and as the popular slogan goes, as long as he develops some visible infrastructure, some public works, for the city, he can very well steal money with impunity. (“ Roba pero hace obras ”) The superfluous Shipibos Luis Castañeda (l), and Jose Pinheiro (El Comercio) The community arrived at Lima by the turn of this century, some of them invited by ex-president Toledo to participate in the popular marches to oust Fujimori from the presidency (2001), others to support their children, some of them studying in Lima, or just looking for better opportunities. Having no means to go back to the Peruvian rainforest in Ucayali, many Shipibo families established themselves near the Rímac River, in the island of Cantagallo, right in the center of Lima’s most traditional district, where they built precarious housing and started to earn a living by selling the products of their craftsmanship, without asking for anything but basic services. After more than a decade getting used to the extreme differences of living in an overcrowded and polluted city like Lima, and standing in the way of municipal construction works, (Castañeda´s favorite projects involve hundreds if not thousands of tons of concrete) they finally asked for relocation when they got fed-up with the noise and started to get sick from the clouds of dust coming from the construction sites. In a stroke of luck, this happened when Castañeda was leaving office to make an attempt at becoming President of Peru. The new Mayor, Susana Villarán, was more open to the communities’ plight. She decided to dedicate a sum of money from the ongoing project affecting the community, ‘Río Verde’ (‘Green River’), to relocate them to a different district, and in agreement with the leaders of the community, closed a deal that, only a couple years later, Castañeda decided not to honor. During the first year of Castañeda’s second term as Mayor, his deputies assured the community that everything was still going as planned, this was in April 2015. Right after that, the commune went “mute”, as Limeños have nicknamed their mayor for his reluctance to respond for the many scandals he has been involved in, or establishing open channels to communicate his decisions. Receiving the silence treatment by the authority responsible for their relocation, which, as law demands, also promised to share with them the documents regarding the advancement of the project, they approach the judiciary to start a long and Kafkaesque set of procedures, stating also that: “…some officials show a paternalistic and disrespectful attitude toward us and the people protecting our rights. We are not going to accept this behavior in the next meetings, as we believe in dialogue and respect among peers as a necessity for arriving to a solution. We are being patient despite the terrible toll, both physical and psychological, we are suffering because of the construction works…” ( https://www.facebook.com/limashipibo/posts/895889667140366 ) T his is the kind of treatment native communities suffer in Peru, as they not only contribute very little to the capitalist agenda driving our society, but often stand against the wholesale extractive policies in their ancestral lands. In recent years more than a hundred activists have been murdered, most of them in Honduras, Brazil and Peru. In the scheme where all resources must be exploited, native communities are regarded as “superfluous” —a nagging anachronism—in the way to economic progress and material profit by corporations and politicians. Some Peruvian journalists protect this kind of politician with the usual hypocritical rhetoric about public moneys being used to fund social projects, something outrageous (yet normal) for mainstream journalists who have forgotten any sense of duty towards the voiceless, but remain fierce defenders of the rights of capital. As anyone with an idea of what propaganda is, or how it works would clearly see, these journalists are chosen because they can incorporate the principles of capitalism and the right of “second class citizens” to participate in our democracies as cheap labor force, or not at all. Most of these journalists have no other talent than an outstanding tolerance for institutionalized inequality and racism, the kind of character trait some mainstream media seem to look for in their employees: “…you were not born in Lima, ¿isn´t it? You came from somewhere else, ¿what for? It’s as if people from Lima went to Ucayali. I can´t go there and just grab public precincts,” mumbled the renowned homophobe and radio host Phillip Butters, living in a city of almost ten million people, most of them migrants from Peruvian provinces (and being himself one!) who came with very little and “grabbed” public premises to build their homes. ( http://larepublica.pe/sociedad/819211-phillip-butters-genera-polemica-en-las-redes-sociales-por-su-comentario-sobre-shipibos-de-cantagallo ) Shipibo traditional garments. The Shipibo community is poor, they lack representation in Peruvian politics and “The Best Mayor in Lima’s History” have very little to gain by relocating them or even listening to their plight. As other communities from the Amazon rainforest, they survive through their own talent. Most houses in the Cantagallo shantytown are also independent workshops where the Shipibos make all sorts of traditional handicrafts to sell in their own market. They value their culture above everything else, which among many other principles, leans toward self-sufficiency, creating all the things they need by themselves, and aren’t very adept at finding corporate jobs or asking for bank loans, as most people in Lima are. Also in ashes now, they built a bilingual school for their children. Nothing to gain here I t might be useful to understand the logic behind some of Peru’s officials, in this case, the only benefit Castañeda could attempt to win would be publicity, as a mean to strengthening his already fair popularity. But now that ship has sailed. Even more, some argue that the Shipibos were standing in the way of big profits, as the value of the land where they were being relocated adds up to almost five millions dollars. We are talking about a Mayor who overprices public works, urbanization, and city infrastructure, and who has had shady associations with local and foreign contractors, a fact recently uncovered in another case of corruption involving Brazilian construction companies and Peruvian politicians. (The ‘OAS’ Case: https://idl-reporteros.pe/el-correo-delator-1/ ) So it is that the site destined for the relocation by former Mayor Villarán, was covertly sold by the commune without sharing this detail with the community, as journalist Daniel Yovera revealed a day before the fire ( http://rosamariapalacios.pe/2016/11/05/castenada-vendio-terreno-de-los-shipibos/ ). The money, originally earmarked for them and their children’s well-being, went back to the original construction project, instead of to the fund put aside in first place, specifically for the Shipibo’s new home, taking them back to where they started. As the OAS case revealed (IDL Reporteros, 10/19/16) one of Castañeda’s representatives was already planning to cancel the project “Río Verde” even before he started his second term as Mayor. The President of OAS, Jose A. Pinheiro, was arrested two days after the telephone conversation regarding the cancelation of the project, for crimes in Brazil related to fraudulent concessions in construction works, which means the law applies, somewhere. In the ashes of Cantagallo As the fire is extinguished in Cantagallo, four hundred Shipibo families have lost everything, and Castañeda keeps talking through deputies and press aides, only coming out of his “muteness” to blame the former Mayor, although everything indicates this time he won´t be able to dodge his responsibility for his crimes of negligence by giving Lima the silent treatment. As Limeños gather food, water and other supplies for the Shipibos, the outrage against Castañeda grows, while marches are being organized in protest. The Shipibos are not leaving Cantagallo, despite the fact that now it represents no more than the ashes of their past, and the memories of loss and indifference. They are afraid they will lose this patch of land near the Rímac River if they leave, and dislike the idea of moving to the cluster of tents pitched for them by a commune they distrust. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Associate Editor Daniel Espinosa Winder (34) lives in Caraz, a small city in the Andes of Peru. He graduated in Communication Sciences in Lima and started researching mainstream media and more specifically, propaganda. His writings are a often a critique of the role of mass media in our society. Daniel also serves as Editorial Director for TGP’s Spanish Language edition. =SUBSCRIBE TODAY! NOTHING TO LOSE, EVERYTHING TO GAIN.= free • safe • invaluable If you appreciate our articles, do the right thing and let us know by subscribing. It’s free and it implies no obligation to you— ever. We just want to have a way to reach our most loyal readers on important occasions when their input is necessary. In return you get our email newsletter compiling the best of The Greanville Post several times a week. | 0 |
Hillary Clinton left no doubt on Thursday that she believes Russia contributed to her defeat by interfering in the election, condemning what she called Moscow’s “weaponization of information. ” “I didn’t fully understand how impactful that was,” Mrs. Clinton said at a women’s conference in New York. She said she was convinced that intrusions into Democratic Party leaders’ emails were carried out by Russian hackers under orders from President Vladimir V. Putin and aided by online trolls and social media bots to spread disinformation. “It is something that Putin has used inside Russia, outside Russia to great effect,” Mrs. Clinton said, and she called for an independent investigation into Russian involvement. “I’m hopeful that the Congress will pull together and realize that because of the success the Kremlin feels it’s had they’re not going to go away,” Mrs. Clinton said. “So whatever party you are, whatever business you run, whatever concerns you have, if we don’t take action together to hold whoever was involved accountable, they will be back time and time again. ” Mrs. Clinton made the remarks at the Women in the World conference in Manhattan, where she was interviewed by the New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof before an audience of about 3, 000 people. It was her first extensive interview since her loss in November to Donald J. Trump. She did not stint on criticism of the Trump White House. “I don’t take any pleasure in seeing the kind of chaotic functioning” of the current administration, Mrs. Clinton said. “Here’s what I don’t understand — I don’t understand the commitment to hurt so many people that this administration, this White House, seems to be pursuing. ” Women in particular, she said, are under attack by Mr. Trump’s policies. “The targeting of women — which is what’s going on — is absolutely beyond any political agenda,” Mrs. Clinton said, pointing in particular to the State Department’s move to defund the United Nations Population Fund, among other programs. She criticized efforts to strip maternity care and other treatments from Republicans’ failed bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. “They had not a clue what that meant,” she said. “I don’t know if any of them had ever even read the bill. ” She also noted that it was mostly men who were behind the push to curtail women’s health benefits. “The things that come out of some of these men’s mouths — like, ‘Why do we have to cover maternity care? ’” she said with a laugh. “Well I don’t know, maybe you were dropped by immaculate conception?” She said Mr. Trump’s two attempts at ordering travel bans aimed at people from a handful of predominantly Muslim countries had “really sent a chilling effect across the world to not just Muslims, but to all kinds of people who said, ‘Wait a second, don’t you still have Lady Liberty in the New York Harbor? ’” Mrs. Clinton, in an unvarnished dig at the president, noted that Mr. Putin “shook my hand” when they met, a reference to Mr. Trump’s failure to shake the hand of Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany. Mrs. Clinton seemed to dismiss rumors that she would some day run for New York City mayor, saying that while she had a lot of work to do, “I don’t think that will include ever running for office again. ” She was occupied, she said, with the unfinished business of the last century — “the rights and opportunities for women and girls. ” “I think I have a lot to do,” she said. She said she was puzzled by the fact that she was popular as secretary of state under President Barack Obama, according to polls at the time she left that job, but unpopular as a candidate. “Well, what happened?” she said. “Oh my gosh, by the time they finished with me, I was Typhoid Mary. ” The difference, she said, was that as secretary, “it was a job that I was asked to do by a man. ” As a presidential candidate, she was propelled by her own ambition, a quality, she said, that studies show is seen as unappealing in a woman. Mrs. Clinton said she was at work on a book that would delve deeply into the events leading up to the election, including the decision by the F. B. I. director, James B. Comey, to release a letter about the investigation into her emails so close to Election Day. Her life now? “As a person, I’m O. K.,” she said. “As an American, I’m very worried. ” | 1 |
By Michael Snyder, End of the American Dream .
If you want to see war without end, vote for Hillary Clinton. It is tremendously ironic that Hillary Clinton and the mainstream media have attempted to portray Donald Trump as “dangerous” and “temperamental”, because it is Clinton that actually has a long history of being emotionally unstable. She has a temper that is absolutely legendary, and she has been cussing out the men and women in her security detail for decades . Hillary Clinton played a key role in starting the civil war in Syria, thanks to her Libya is a post-apocalyptic wasteland today, and now she is picking a fight with the Russians before she has even won the election. Of all the candidates there were running for president this election cycle, there was nobody that was even close to as dangerous as Hillary Clinton, and if she wins the election I am fully convinced that World War 3 will begin before her time in the White House is over.
Someone that shares this opinion with me is Donald Trump. According to Reuters , Trump recently stated that we are “going to end up in World War Three over Syria if we listen to Hillary Clinton”…
On Syria’s civil war, Trump said Clinton could drag the United States into a world war with a more aggressive posture toward resolving the conflict.
Clinton has called for the establishment of a no-fly zone and “safe zones” on the ground to protect non-combatants. Some analysts fear that protecting those zones could bring the United States into direct conflict with Russian fighter jets.
“What we should do is focus on ISIS. We should not be focusing on Syria,” said Trump as he dined on fried eggs and sausage at his Trump National Doral golf resort. “You’re going to end up in World War Three over Syria if we listen to Hillary Clinton.”
In order to have a no-fly zone in Syria, you would have to enforce it.
And in order to enforce it, you would have to be willing to shoot at the Russians.
According to National Intelligence Director James Clapper , that could have dire consequences…
Russia could shoot down a U.S. aircraft if a no-fly zone were imposed over Syria, National Intelligence Director James Clapper said Tuesday.
“I wouldn’t put it past them to shoot down an American aircraft if they felt that was threatening to their forces on the ground,” Clapper said, speaking with CBS’ Charlie Rose at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York about several national security issues.
Of course Clapper is not alone in that assessment. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Francis Dunford, says that imposing a no-fly zone over all of Syria “would require us to go to war” …
“Right now, Senator, for us to control all of the airspace in Syria it would require us to go to war, against Syria and Russia,… That’s a pretty fundamental decision that certainly I’m not going to make.” ( Senate Armed Services Committee, September 22, 2016, emphasis added)
But Hillary Clinton is unwavering in her position that this is what she wants.
You see, the truth is that Hillary Clinton wants to win the war that she started in Syria. Back in 2011, she spearheaded an effort along with Saudi Arabia and Turkey to try to use the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East as an opportunity to try to overthrow President Assad in Syria. If it wasn’t for her meddling, millions of refugees would not be pouring into Europe and elsewhere, and there would be no “humanitarian crisis” in Syria at all.
Thanks to Russian intervention, the war in Syria is not too far from being over, but the Obama administration is desperate to keep it going. They understand that if Assad is victorious that all of their efforts for the last five years have been wasted, and that is why they are so determined to keep Aleppo from falling. Without Aleppo, many of the jihadist rebels that the Obama administration has been supporting won’t have anywhere to hide.
So the Obama administration has actually been considering direct strikes against the Syrian military, and the Russians have already said that they will not allow this to happen . If Obama is insane enough to order airstrikes against Syrian forces and the Russians start shooting back, that could set off a chain of events that could rapidly spiral completely out of control.
One recent survey found that current American leadership has a 1 percent approval rating in Russia right now, and the Russians dislike Hillary Clinton even more than they dislike Barack Obama. The Russians know that if Hillary Clinton is elected that it is quite likely that they will have to fight a war with us, and that is why they desperately want Donald Trump to win in November. You can see this outlook reflected in comments that Russian President Vladimir Putin recently made about the two candidates …
“Mrs. Clinton has chosen to take up a very aggressive stance against our country, against Russia. Mr. Trump, on the other hand, calls for cooperation – at least when it comes to the international fight against terrorism,” Putin said.
“Naturally we welcome those who would like to cooperate with us. And we consider it wrong, that we always have to be in conflict with one another, creating existential threats for each other and for the whole world,” Putin noted.
Anyone that watched the three presidential debates could see that Hillary Clinton is absolutely seething with animosity for Russia. The thought of her finger on the nuclear trigger is almost too terrible to contemplate, but it may soon become a reality.
And even now, the Obama administration and our NATO allies are shifting forces into position for a confrontation with Moscow. This week it is being reported that NATO troops will soon be sent to Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania … Nine hundred US troops are to be sent to eastern Europe next year as America’s troubled relationship with Russia enters new, uncertain territory. A US-led battle group of NATO allied soldiers will be sent to Poland as part of the multi-nation operation. British forces will lead one of the four battle groups in Estonia, Canada will spearhead the presence in Latvia and Germany will be present in Lithuania.
In addition, Infowars is reporting that U.S. Marines will soon be stationed in Norway near the border with Russia…
After accepting a Pentagon proposal, Norway will host US Marines at a base near the Russian border as Russia deploys nuclear-capable ships to Kaliningrad.
A rotating force of approximately 330 Marines will be stationed at an airfield in the city of Vaernes, just outside Trondheim, beginning in January. Norway and Russia share an 122-mile border in the Arctic.
“The US initiative to augment their training and exercises in Norway by locating a Marine Corps Rotational Force in Norway is highly welcome and will have positive implications for our already strong bilateral relationship,” said Norwegian Defense Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide.
Most Americans aren’t aware of any of this, nor do they really care about our relationship with Russia.
But in Russia things are completely different. The possibility of war with the United States is the biggest news story over there these days , and feverish preparations are being made for a potential nuclear confrontation …
Russian authorities have stepped up nuclear-war survival measures amid a showdown with Washington, dusting off Soviet-era civil-defense plans and upgrading bomb shelters in the biggest cities.
At the Kremlin’s Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Cold War is back.
The country recently held its biggest civil defense drills since the collapse of the U.S.S.R., with what officials said were 40 million people rehearsing a response to chemical and nuclear threats.
I know that I have been writing about this over and over , but the truth is that we are on a path to war with Russia, and the election of Hillary Clinton would greatly accelerate the march toward war. | 0 |
By Cassius Kamarampi (Era of Wisdom) Did you know that Aspartame-producing corporation Searle also manufactured the first birth control pill? After Donald Rumsfeld was Secretary of State under Gerald... | 0 |
The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem (Pixabay) | 0 |
Good morning. Here’s what you need to know: • Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, said he would resign after voters rejected constitutional changes he backed, intensifying the populist wave crashing through the European Union. If early elections occur next year, 2017 may shape up to be a seminal year in the E. U.’s history. France, Germany and the Netherlands will go to the polls with strong euroskeptic candidates in the running. Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, is widely revered as a kind of white knight among new nationalists on both sides of the Atlantic. “Viva Trump, viva Putin, viva la Le Pen” was one Italian politician’s reaction to Sunday’s vote. _____ • In Austria, voters defied the populist wave by selecting Alexander Van der Bellen, 72, a former Green Party leader, as their next president. The election of the Mr. Van der Bellen ends a bitter yearlong campaign, which had pitted him against Norbert Hofer, a leader of the Freedom Party. _____ • Donald J. Trump renewed his hard line on American companies that plan to move operations to other countries, warning of a coming tax of 35 percent on goods moved “back across the border” to be sold. One of Mr. Trump’s signature ideas — slapping high tariffs on Chinese imports — would raise costs for European companies. Our reporters traced the ripple effects such a move would have on the global supply chain. The Trump family’s international business empire and those who have interacted with him and his children create a web of complications. _____ • Mr. Trump’s freewheeling phone calls to world leaders are upending decades of diplomacy. The is broadening the field of candidates for secretary of state as his transition team remains divided over how to fill the most prominent gap in his prospective cabinet. _____ • The Obama administration ended a major standoff with thousands of Native Americans and their supporters over an oil pipeline. The Army Corps of Engineers said that it would not approve permits for a section near a Sioux reservation in the Dakotas that tribal leaders said would threaten water supplies and sacred sites. _____ • “Long live Fidel!” thousands of people cried along a route to the cemetery in eastern Cuba where Fidel Castro’s ashes were interred.. Here is a selection of images from his half a century in power, which left a complicated legacy of transformation and turmoil. _____ • In Italy, the referendum’s outcome will likely postpone, if not derail, plans to restructure Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the country’s most troubled bank. • Eurozone finance ministers hope to reach a compromise on Greek debt relief. • Big banks, including Credit Suisse, are putting the world’s rain forests in peril by providing loans to companies linked to deforestation and forest burning in Southeast Asia. • “Football Leaks,” an investigation by European news outlets, detailed how prominent soccer players appeared to have avoided paying taxes. And here’s a look at how Panama is trying to shed its image as a tax haven after the Panama Papers revelations. • Taxi drivers in Romania are set to boycott the Bucharest airport to protest the growing presence of the Uber service. • The euro fell against the dollar. Here’s a snapshot of global markets. • In Oakland, Calif. the death toll rose to 33 after a blaze tore through a warehouse hosting a musical event, one of the deadliest structure fires in the United States in years. [The New York Times] • Britain’s Supreme Court will begin hearing the government’s challenge to a court ruling that requires it to seek parliamentary approval to start the process of leaving the European Union. [Reuters] • Prosecutors begin closing arguments in the genocide trial of the former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic. [Reuters] • Mainstream publishers, other than those deemed have so far been untouched by the crackdown in Turkey, unlike journalists, teachers and lawyers. [The New York Times] • Two of Africa’s longest rules are ending. Yahya Jammeh, who led Gambia for 22 years, was ousted in an election, and José Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled Angola for almost four decades, said he would soon step down. [Quartz] • Syrian government troops now control about half of what had been for years a rebels’ enclave in Aleppo. The United Nations Security Council votes today on a draft resolution that would demand a truce. [The New York Times] • New York’s Metropolitan Opera is performing an opera written by a woman for the first time in more than 100 years. Here, we offer a playlist of other female composers, who are often overlooked. • Lapo Elkann, the Fiat heir, was enjoying a comeback when he was arrested after a sordid story of drugs, an escort and faking his own kidnapping. • Soccer update: Real Madrid tied Barcelona thanks to a late goal. Roma pounced on two Lazio mistakes. • In the Upper Engadin, a section of the Swiss Alps, art galleries have emerged as an alternative. • And here’s a taste of culinary archaeology: the torta tenerina, found on menus in Ferrara, Italy, is a simple cake with an almost creamy interior, and it could well be the ancestor of all “flourless” chocolate cakes. The decision by the American maker Carrier to keep some jobs from being relocated to Mexico comes as its industry faces scrutiny over pollution. A recent global accord will curb hydrofluorocarbons, a chemical common in most that contributes to global warming. So the race is on to find greener alternatives as demand for rises around the world. At Santa Clara University in California, heating and cooling systems are fueled by rooftop solar panels. And hydrofluoroolefins, an HFC substitute that is more energy efficient, are becoming popular. These technologies probably weren’t on the mind of the American engineer Willis Carrier, above, who paved the way for modern . In 1902, with cold water and an ammonia compressor, he figured out a way to control air temperature and the moisture in it. Some of ’s next steps might be a return to the more distant past. In parts of the Middle East, the medieval wind tower is making a comeback. A physics professor has designed a smaller version of the structure, which pulls fresh air into buildings. “We’ve taken a traditional technology,” the professor explains, “and dragged it into the 21st century. ” Giovanni Russonello contributed reporting. _____ Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings. What would you like to see here? Contact us at europebriefing@nytimes. com. | 1 |
Las Vegas May Become the New Amsterdam 11/07/2016
HIGH TIMES
Nevada already has legal brothels, round-the-clock casinos and a coy catchphrase declaring that “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” If voters approve, the state could soon add another vice in the form of recreational marijuana.
A proposal on the Nov. 8 state ballot would legalize pot, and entrepreneurs hope its passage could someday allow the drug at Las Vegas’ glamorous nightclubs and perhaps provide the framework for a future Amsterdam-style cannabis district.
“I really think this would be the third-largest market in the country,” said Derek Peterson, whose company operates medical marijuana dispensaries called Blum. He predicts that only California and New York would offer a bigger customer base than Las Vegas and its 42 million tourists a year. “I think it should be able to fit in really well with the whole dayclub/nightclub thing.”
Nevada has allowed medical marijuana since 2000, and Peterson sees recreational pot as an alternative for visitors tired of cocktails that can top $15 apiece and inflict hangovers. But before waitresses begin delivering high-grade marijuana at clubs along the Las Vegas Strip, weed proponents will have to win over not just voters, who narrowly support the initiative in polls, but a risk-averse casino industry.
The Nevada Resort Association came out against the measure, pointing to an opinion from gambling regulators that casino owners should avoid the marijuana industry because the substance remains illegal under federal law. Las Vegas Sands owner Sheldon Adelson has bankrolled most of the opposition, pouring $2 million of his fortune into a campaign that raises the possibility that small children could become intoxicated from candy-like marijuana edibles.
Adelson also has contributed $1.5 million in Arizona and Massachusetts, a significant share of all anti-marijuana donations there.
Adelson, whose son died of a drug overdose and whose wife is a doctor specializing in drug addiction, has donated millions toward efforts to defeat medical marijuana proposals in Florida and other states in years past.
Other casino operators have joined the fray, but to a lesser extent.
In spite of its libertine reputation, the rigorously regulated casino industry is known to err on the conservative side to avoid scandalizing the middle-aged tourists who are its bread and butter.
“I don’t know that this is a game changer in terms of tourism,” Virginia Valentine, president of the Nevada Resort Association, said of marijuana’s potential. “We’re really known for other things. You may attract people or turn them off.”
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which promotes Sin City’s amenities to the world, is neutral on the issue.
Clyde Barrow, a gambling expert who chairs the political science department at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley, suggests the donations may indicate the casino companies are acting in their own best interests.
“The marijuana industry is emerging as another form of recreation and entertainment. Given the casino industry’s difficulties attracting millennials, marijuana is probably perceived as a direct competitor with casinos for entertainment dollars,” he said. “Another reason is that legalized marijuana competes with alcohol, and, to that extent, competes with the food and beverage sales at casinos.”
There’s no solid state-sponsored research on how legal recreational marijuana has affected tourism in places that have legalized it, although both sides point to Colorado to make their case.
Pro-marijuana interests cite a state study that found Colorado set an all-time tourism record in 2015, capping a fifth year of growth. It’s unclear how much of that is due to weed, and how much can be chalked up to other factors, such as good snow in recent years relative to competing ski states.
Marijuana opponents refer to a report from the Visit Denver tourism bureau that logged increasing complaints about panhandling and open marijuana consumption in the city’s downtown corridor.
“Denver is losing visitors and valuable convention business as a result of these overall safety (or perception of safety) issues,” the report said. “We fear not being able to brand Denver away from this growing reputation.”
Nevada’s ballot initiative would not allow municipalities to put blanket bans on marijuana, as Colorado does. But it would bar consumption in buildings that are open to the public and permit local governments to restrict the locations of marijuana dispensaries and related businesses. It effectively blocks people from growing their own by banning the practice within 25 miles of a licensed marijuana store. | 0 |
The Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Monday, holding that a law prohibiting “disparaging” trademarks violates the First Amendment. [The unanimous Court in Matal v. Tam struck down a provision of the Lanham Act, the main law on trademarks, that barred the Patent and Trademark Office from issuing any trademark protections to marks that “may disparage … persons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols, or bring them into contempt, or disrepute. ” This case concerned a rock band called the “The Slants,” a reference to the racial slur for Asians. When Simon Tam, the band’s frontman, tried to register his group’s name with the trademark office, he was told he could not get a valid trademark because the name was offensive to Asians. Before the Court, Tam’s attorneys argued that his intention was to “reclaim” the term “slants” and subvert its offensive potential. The provision, 15 USC §1052( a) has rarely had any practical effect, but has come to public notice in recent years as advocates and public officials sought to use it to invalidate “offensive” trademarks. Most prominently, the Washington Redskins football team, who have twice had their trademark protections revoked for having a name that “disparages” American Indians. Writing for the Court, Justice Samuel Alito reasoned that the entire purpose behind the provision rendered it facially unconstitutional. “It offends a bedrock First Amendment principle: Speech may not be banned on the ground that it expresses ideas that offend,” he wrote. In contravention of this principle, the Patent and Trademark Office devised a test to determine whether a trademark was too offensive for the federal government to protect. If a “substantial composite, although not necessarily a majority, of the referenced group would find the proposed mark . . . to be disparaging in the context of contemporary attitudes,” the trademark could not be registered. This test, by disfavoring a certain subset of speech specifically on the view it expressed, constituted “viewpoint discrimination,” a fundamental limit on government’s power to regulate private speech. The provision was not saved by the government’s arguments that trademark protection was a matter of “government speech” or was a “subsidy” over which the first Amendment did not apply in its broadest sense. “If private speech could be passed off as government speech by simply affixing a government seal of approval, government could silence or muffle the expression of disfavored viewpoints,” the opinion reads: Holding that the registration of a converts the mark into government speech would constitute a huge and dangerous extension of the doctrine, for other systems of government registration (such as copyright) could easily be characterized in the same way. A concurring opinion by Justice Anthony Kennedy and joined by the Court’s more liberal justices, called the policy “the essence of viewpoint discrimination,” and determined there was no need to even consider the government speech and subsidy arguments. The same law was held unconstitutional on the same grounds by an en banc panel of the Federal Circuit in 2015. The government, then represented by Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, petitioned to the Supreme Court in a last attempt to save the law. Monday’s ruling by the nations highest court cements the end of the seldom enforced provision. | 1 |
Bias bashers Vladimir Putin Condemns Europe for Upholding Child Rape (Video)
The Russian president voiced his disgust at a decayed and immoral culture which has overtaken the West Print "A society that cannot defend its children today, has no tomorrow"
Ah, Vienna. A city that conjures up many delightful images. The world's finest coffee and strudel. Cafes where the waiters still address you as "Mein Herr" and they haven't changed the decor since the 19th century. The world's greatest music: Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms. A city of beauty and grandeur, echoes of an empire of a former age.
And today, a city where Muslim "refugees" are allowed to rape 10 year old boys in public toilets.
The Independent reports :
A man who raped a 10-year-old boy at a swimming pool in Austria has had his conviction overturned after judges found he may have believed the child consented.
Police said the 20-year-old Iraqi refugee, who has not been named, assaulted his victim in a toilet cubicle at the Theresienbad swimming pool in Vienna on 2 December last year.
The child reported the rape to a lifeguard and his attacker was arrested at the scene, reportedly telling officers in initial interviews that he was experiencing a “sexual emergency” after not having sex in four months. Theresienbad.jpg Vienna's historic pools are not safe anymore
The "sexual emergency" experienced by the rapefugee was apparently similar to the one experienced by 2,000 rapefugees in the German city of Cologne on New Year's Eve 2016, when they publicly raped 1,200 German women as emasculated German men and police stood by and watched.
Apparently some of the women were merely groped. The German government was appalled. That's why it decided to produce an illustrated manual teaching the refugees how to rape German women properly next time around.
Not to be outdone, Austria has now decided to join its German brethren in refusing to defend even children from homosexual rape - as long as the children "consent":
[O]n Thursday, Austria’s Supreme Court overturned the rape conviction and ordered a re-trial on the charge.
[...] Supreme Court judges ruled that the first court should have established whether the attacker thought his victim agreed to a sexual act and intended to act against the boy’s will.
We are in fact now witnessing the violent death of western civilization. It is bad enough that Europe is being inundated by hordes of invaders of a culture, religion, and ethnicity totally incompatible with the West, but most reprehensible of all is the total lack of any will to resist on the part of Europeans themselves, and especially their governments (with notable exceptions, such as the Hungarians). Far from it - they even take active steps to encourage and accommodate the invaders.
But we all know the real threat to Europe is not from millions of barbaric non-European rapefugees, it's from Russia and Vladimir Putin. Ask Poland. Or Lithuania. Russia is hell, and Putin is the devil. Here's what the devil himself had to say about this incident:
The Russian president said:
[...] I can't get through my head what they are thinking over there [in Europe]. This is a result of the dilution of national traditions and values. I can't even explain the rationale. Is it a sense of guilt towards the migrants?...A society that cannot defend its children today, has no tomorrow. It has no future.
Putin also noted that Russia as a state, has encompassed multiple ethnicities and cultures for over 1000 years, and that unlike Europe, it has a proven track record of managing inter-ethnic relations.
Despite the presence of a vocal liberal minority, the great majority of Russians agree with their leader that if these are the kind of "European values" the West has on offer, it is better to remain the "backward" conservative society that continually draws the unfettered ire of liberal paragons in Europe and America.
The only question is whether eastern European nations such as Ukraine, Georgia, and Poland - which are in their inherent culture and moral outlook far more similar to Russia than to the modern Germans, Americans, and French - will come to their senses in time to save themselves from the cultural rot devouring the core of the societies with which they are presently so enamored. | 0 |
By Daily News Bin | October 30, 2016 | 16 6626 SHARES
Now that FBI Director James Comey is under legal fire for criminal election tampering, all bets are suddenly off. His decision on Friday to inform Congress of an investigation into Anthony Weiner’s emails, which he misleadingly framed as being an investigation into Hillary Clinton, has elicited pushback from all sides. Senator Harry Reid, who serves on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and is in a position to know such things, has now confirmed that the FBI has been secretly investigating Donald Trump’s ties to the Russian government for months.
Reid is making this information public in order to expose the double standard by which James Comey decided to hype a non-investigation of Hillary Clinton just eleven days before election day, while keeping quiet about a very real investigation into criminal activity on the part of her opponent. Reid says that he has been privately demanding an update on the FBI’s investigation of Donald Trump for months, and that Comey has been stonewalling him. This comes even after Comey made a point of publicly berating Clinton this summer during a press conference, in an attempt to obscure the fact that he was fully exonerating her in the process.
It’s not immediately clear what will happen to Director Comey, is rather unambiguously in violation of the Hatch Act. He can be immediately removed from his position by President Barack Obama, but that seems unlikely before the election. Even as it becomes increasingly clear that Comey has been willing to politicize his own job in a criminal fashion in order to influence the outcome of an election, President Obama is unlikely to be willing to create the appearance of doing the same by immediately firing Comey. However, Reid may be able to force the details of the FBI’s investigation into Trump to become public before election day, thus making things fair. If you enjoy Daily News Bin, consider making a contribution: Contributed by Daily News Bin staff 6626 SHARES | 0 |
SEATTLE — Some parents find peace of mind in the features in smartphones that let them keep tabs on their children. There are also the dog owners who can rest easy knowing that hired dog walkers are doing their job, and that the dogs are doing their business. And then, there is the comfort of tracking your pizza delivery. When Lora Mastrangeli orders one from Pizza Hut every other week, she does not just wait for it. She stalks it. The moment her order leaves the nearest Pizza Hut, about 30 minutes from her home in Plano, Tex. the restaurant sends Ms. Mastrangeli an alert on her smartphone with a link to a map showing an image of a pizza delivery car driving toward her house. Since she knows her driver’s location, she knows precisely when to scoop her two small dogs up and sequester them in a back room to keep them from yapping at the driver. “My husband and I absolutely love it,” said Ms. Mastrangeli, who works in sales for Nordstrom. “We’re walking out the door when he pulls up. ” People were amazed six years ago when the service Uber let them track the location of their drivers on a map as they waited for a ride, rather than accepting the vague assurances of taxi dispatchers. Other tech followed with maps to pinpoint the location of all sorts of things, from shoes to food and the dog walkers. And new services from Comcast and Time Warner Cable allow customers to see the exact location of the cable repairman on the way to the house. The question, of course, is whether maps offer a bit more information but do little to improve underlying problems. Cable companies, for instance, suffer from some of the lowest customer satisfaction levels of any business. Knowing exactly where your cable guy is does little to address complaints about escalating prices. “I’m not sure that’s the root of the problem,” said Frances X. Frei, a professor of service management at Harvard Business School and author of “Uncommon Service,” a book about customer service. So does tracking your pizza on a map just make you feel better? “It’s pure psychological effect,” said Nicholas Goubert, head of project management at Here, a digital maps company that provides location data to Amazon and other businesses. “Your pizza is not going to come any sooner. But it’s moving. ” Soon UPS, the world’s largest package delivery company, may also begin showing customers exactly where their stuff is. UPS is exploring giving location maps of its familiar brown trucks to customers and could begin a trial of the service within a few months, according to a person briefed on the plan who asked for anonymity because it is still private. Executives at big, established companies concede that their moves are inspired by businesses like Uber, which have changed what customers expect from all kinds of services. “It brings that visibility and transparency that they’re starting to come to expect with the Ubers and Lyfts,” said Baron Concors, global chief digital officer for Pizza Hut, which began sharing the location of delivery drivers with customers in some markets about six months ago. “There’s a new bar for experience when it comes to delivery and transportation that everyone is going to have to meet. ” The technology behind most of this is not terribly complicated. The maps typically rely on the GPS location provided by, say, a pizza delivery driver’s smartphone and triangulate that with and cellphone tower signals to pinpoint a location. Companies like Apple, too, have made helicopter parenting easier by letting mothers and fathers track the locations of children through their smartphones. In many cases, companies that provide customers with live tracking information have a practical motivation. The service is intended to eliminate situations when someone misses a knock on the door by stepping into the shower or backyard. A missed delivery or service call is a logistical headache companies want to avoid. “If they have to come back, they lose money,” said Bryan Trussel, chief executive of Glympse, a in Seattle that is working with companies like Pizza Hut, Comcast and Time Warner. Some companies are going to bizarre lengths to provide greater transparency to customers through maps. Last year, Wag, a in Los Angeles, introduced the mobile app that includes a live map that shows the pet owner the route of the Wag walker and pooch. Joshua Viner, chief executive of Wag, said the map allows pet owners to verify that their dog is getting the amount of exercise the owner is paying for. “There’s no way to cheat the system,” said Julien LoPresti, who works in sales and operations for a technology company in New York and has used Wag to find walkers for Reptar, his Labrador mix. “It gives you extra confidence. ” In the next month, Wag will go even further by allowing walkers to commemorate where pets relieve themselves by tapping the screens on their smartphones. Corresponding emojis will materialize on the apps of pet owners. “It’s all real time — it’s almost like you’re part of the experience,” Mr. Viner said. Comcast was after a different experience when it began letting customers track the locations of technicians last year, part of a much broader initiative to improve customer satisfaction. The company used to have appointment windows when technicians could arrive at customers’ homes, which confined the customers there for a good chunk of the day. Now Comcast has cut the appointment windows to two hours. “The overall premise is we should always be respecting customers’ time,” said Charlie Herrin, executive vice president of customer experience at Comcast. About 30 minutes before the window, Comcast sends the customer a notification through the Comcast mobile app giving a narrower, window when the technician expects to arrive. About 15 minutes before the technician pulls up at the home, Comcast sends a link to a map that shows the vehicle en route. Dr. Frei, the Harvard Business School professor, said customers would be happier if Comcast were more precise with its appointment estimates from the start. “What I’d like them to do is say, ‘We will be there at 3 p. m.,’ and then what I’d like to have happen is they’re there at 3 p. m.,” she said. “I wouldn’t need any transparency. ” | 1 |
WASHINGTON — President Trump fired his acting attorney general on Monday night, removing her as the nation’s top law enforcement officer after she defiantly refused to defend his executive order closing the nation’s borders to refugees and people from predominantly Muslim countries. In an escalating crisis for his administration, the president declared in a statement that Sally Q. Yates, who had served as deputy attorney general under President Barack Obama, had betrayed the administration by announcing that Justice Department lawyers would not defend Mr. Trump’s order against legal challenges. The president replaced Ms. Yates with Dana J. Boente, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, saying that he would serve as attorney general until Congress acts to confirm Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama. In his first act in his new role, Mr. Boente announced that he was rescinding Ms. Yates’s order. Monday’s events have transformed the confirmation of Mr. Sessions into a referendum on Mr. Trump’s immigration order. Action in the Senate could come as early as Tuesday. Ms. Yates’s order was a remarkable rebuke by a government official to a sitting president, and it recalled the Saturday Night Massacre in 1973, when President Richard M. Nixon fired his attorney general and deputy attorney general for refusing to dismiss the special prosecutor in the Watergate case. Mr. Boente was sworn in at 9 p. m. according to White House officials, who did not provide details about who performed the ceremony. In a statement, Mr. Boente pledged to “defend and enforce the laws of our country. ” At 9:15 p. m. Ms. Yates received a letter at the Justice Department that informed her that she was fired. Signed by John DeStefano, one of Mr. Trump’s White House aides, the letter informed Ms. Yates that “the president has removed you from the office of Deputy Attorney General of the United States. ” Two minutes later, the White House officials lashed out at Ms. Yates in a statement issued by Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary. “Ms. Yates is an Obama administration appointee who is weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration,” the statement said. The firing of Ms. Yates came at the end of a turbulent three days that began on Friday with Mr. Trump’s signing of his executive order. The action stranded travelers around the world, led to protests around the country and created alarm inside the bureaucracy. Ms. Yates, like other senior government officials, was caught by surprise by the executive order and agonized over the weekend about how to respond, two Justice Department officials involved in the weekend deliberations said. Ms. Yates considered resigning but she told colleagues she did not want to leave it to her successor to face the same dilemma. By Monday afternoon, Ms. Yates added to a deepening sense of anxiety in the nation’s capital by publicly confronting the president with a stinging challenge to his authority, laying bare a deep divide at the Justice Department, within the diplomatic corps and elsewhere in the government over the wisdom of his order. “At present, I am not convinced that the defense of the executive order is consistent with these responsibilities, nor am I convinced that the executive order is lawful,” Ms. Yates wrote in a letter to Justice Department lawyers. Mr. Trump’s senior aides huddled together in the West Wing to determine what to do. They decided quickly that her insubordination could not stand, according to an administration official familiar with the deliberations. Among the chief concerns was whether Mr. Sessions could be confirmed quickly by the Senate. After Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, received reassurances from Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, that the confirmation was on track, aides took their recommendation to Mr. Trump in the White House residence. The president decided quickly: She has to go, he told them. The official statement from Mr. Spicer accused Ms. Yates of failing to fulfill her duty to defend a “legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States” that had been approved by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. “It is time to get serious about protecting our country,” Mr. Spicer said in the statement. He accused Democrats of holding up the confirmation of Mr. Sessions for political reasons. “Calling for tougher vetting for individuals traveling from seven dangerous places is not extreme. It is reasonable and necessary to protect our country. ” Former Justice Department officials said the president’s action would send a deep shudder through an agency that was already on edge as officials anticipated an ideological overhaul once Mr. Sessions takes over. One former senior official said that department lawyers would be unnerved by the firing. Democrats, meanwhile, hailed Ms. Yates as a principled defender of what she thought was right. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said in a statement that the “attorney general should be loyal and pledge fidelity to the law, not the White House. The fact that this administration doesn’t understand that is chilling. ” Mr. Boente has told the White House that he is willing to sign off on Mr. Trump’s executive order on refugees and immigration, according to Joshua Stueve, a spokesman for the United States attorney’s office in Alexandria, Va. where Mr. Boente has served as the top prosecutor since 2015. Mr. Boente, who has been a prosecutor with the Justice Department for 31 years, had no hesitation about accepting the acting attorney general’s job given his “seniority and loyalty” to the department, Mr. Stueve said in a telephone interview on Monday night. As acting attorney general, Ms. Yates was the only person at the Justice Department authorized to sign applications for foreign surveillance warrants. Administrations of both parties have interpreted surveillance laws as requiring foreign surveillance warrants be signed only by Justice Department officials. Mr. Boente was as United States attorney and, though the situation is unprecedented, the White House said he was authorized to sign the warrants. Ms. Yates’s decision had effectively overruled a finding by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which had already approved the executive order “with respect to form and legality. ” Ms. Yates said her determination in deciding not to defend the order was broader, however, and included questions not only about the order’s lawfulness, but also whether it was a “wise or just” policy. She also alluded to unspecified statements the White House had made before signing the order, which she factored into her review. Mr. Trump initially responded to the letter with a post on Twitter at 7:45 p. m. complaining that the Senate’s delay in confirming his cabinet nominees had resulted in leaving Ms. Yates in place. The 1973 “Saturday Night Massacre” led to a constitutional crisis that ended when Robert H. Bork, the solicitor general, acceded to Mr. Nixon’s order and fired Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor. Ms. Yates, a career prosecutor, is different because she is a holdover from the Obama administration. She agreed to Mr. Trump’s request to stay on as acting attorney general until Mr. Sessions is confirmed to be attorney general. | 1 |
President Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night elicited strong responses, and not a small measure of surprise. The New York Times spoke with a few voters who were watching from either side of the partisan divide. Here are excerpts from their immediate reactions. Rolando Valdes, 63, in sales and marketing for an international logistics company Home: Miami Voted: for Mr. Trump. Thinks he is: becoming a “ statesman. ” I think it’s the first time he acted presidential, but he has to concentrate on a few items. There are too many things at one time. He will lose the Republican Senate and the House with too many things. With Obamacare and with the tax cuts — that should be enough for the first four years. The best thing I liked is when he said we have to take care of the United States first before we do things for other people. The United States has been trying to be all things to all people. In the meantime, we have left our own people behind. I am pumped up. I hope he can do it. There is way too much politics in all of this. And this guy, whether we like him or we don’t, he is the only guy who is an outsider, and today he acted like a politician. It’s a good thing, because we need to get these things done. _____ Susy 54, criminal defense lawyer Home: Miami Voted: against Mr. Trump. Thinks he is: unrealistic and a ball of contradictions. Who was that unmasked man? I think it sounded great, like a utopia. I don’t think it’s that simple. He’s saying he’s going to do all these wonderful things — cut taxes, raise the defense budget. He talks about a great health care system and covering conditions, and also talks about the disaster of Obamacare. And he talks about saving the jobs of the coal miners, but also increasing natural gas production. It’s one or the other. I think it’s oversimplified. I don’t know that he believes what he is saying. It can’t all be true. It’s simplistic and unrealistic. I did not at all like that there is going to be a victims fund specially for people who are the victims of crime by illegal aliens. Victims of crime are victims of crime no matter how or who. I think that Trump thinks he is a lot greater than he actually is. _____ Hollie Gaudette, 31, real estate agent Home: Manchester, N. H. Voted: for Mr. Trump. Thinks he is: “a problem solver. ” I got goose bumps through a lot of it, but I think the last woman — I can’t recall her name, but who lost her husband just a couple weeks ago — you see her pain, you can see her pain that was probably a very challenging and emotional moment for her to be there. And at that moment, that whole room came together, and there was support from both sides. That was wonderful to see. That’s what we want to see. The reality is that the goal is that everyone comes together to move forward and to make progress and improve the quality of life for Americans across the board. It doesn’t matter whether you’re left or right, he’s saying, “I’m here for all Americans, it doesn’t matter what color, race, any of that. ” Even the whole part about immigration, he’s saying we’re going to have a merit system, and we want everyone and anyone to come here and succeed. _____ Charles Lovett, 72, retired administrator in the federal Department of Education Home: Franconia, N. H. Voted: against Mr. Trump. Thinks he is: “a problem. ” I think it was a pretty good speech for him. He didn’t rage about anything. He didn’t go off message. And so it came across as a coherent speech and it’s intended to be a agenda. And I think he achieved that. But I think his policies are mistaken in many regards, and I think it comes across in some of the language he used. For example, he said we intend to fight terrorism and win. And there’s an underlying trope or assumption there that one can win militarily, which I don’t think is possible, and I don’t think the military thinks is possible. He spoke of people that were ignored by the media or silenced by special interests, and then he pulled up a bunch of people whose relations have been killed by immigrant felons, and it was to me, I found it a kind of grotesque mischaracterization of the way the country is. I found the seeming rationality and conventionality of the agenda to be disturbing, because I think the underlying beliefs, which I believe are mistaken, will lead to taking apart things and breaking things — like alliances, like health care — that are easy to take apart but very difficult to put back together. _____ Sandra Wright, 68, retail merchandiser Home: Waterloo, Iowa Voted: for Mr. Trump. Thinks he is: a “total patriot. ” I was very, very impressed with how well he presented himself. I thought he acted and spoke as presidentially as I’ve seen him so far. I was very impressed with what a speech he had. I think it was very authentic. I think the man’s a true patriot for our country. I liked it very much. I particularly liked his closing remarks. And I was able to reinforce my reasons for voting for him. He didn’t fall into trying to fight back against all the attacks that have been against him and everything. He talked about our country, and he talked about the important issues facing our country. And I think that’s what his job’s all about, and I think he thinks that, too. His job is to represent the U. S. in the world and to protect us and defend us according to our Constitution, and uphold our laws. And I think he’s doing a great job of it, just like I always have. So I loved it. I particularly liked his remarks — and his statement, his campaign speeches, his promises to us — to preserve our Constitution, to enforce the rule of law as it pertains to illegal immigration, regardless. We have to follow our rules of law in the United States. I’m very impressed with how he realizes that this country is in financial crisis and the only way for us to get back from that is to go back to our American dream times, and work hard and bring manufacturing and those things back to the United States — what this country was built on. _____ Liza Kate Boisineau, 38, musician and waitress Home: Richmond, Va. Voted: against Mr. Trump. Thinks he is: arrogant, smug and stubborn. I don’t even know where to start. It was really hard to watch. It started out sounding like he cared a bit. It almost felt a little bit hopeful. I was almost impressed. He maintained a calmness and an air of wanting to bring people together. He did talk a lot about the need for peace and how there should be less conflict. I didn’t understand how he could talk so much about that while wanting to increase military funding so much. Then he talked about a wall and buy American and hire American. It just seemed hypocritical. As soon as he turned to this movement starting in 2016 and him becoming president, that turned me off. It turned me off because that’s just what he’s been spouting for so long now. What is so great about him having been elected? I don’t think he could ever see himself as being wrong, which bothers me. | 1 |
Tweet Widget by Bryan K. Bullock
To read the foreign policy pages of the New York Times is to enter a world of whiteness. “Whites are the only ones who are presumed to have an opinion on such issues that is worth mentioning.” Although Black America is the nation’s most anti-imperial constituency, foreign policy is considered a white preserve. Blacks “serve the function we have always served: subjects of imperialism, scapegoats for repression, but not shapers of foreign policy.” Black American Anti-Imperialism: an Invisible Subject for the New York Times by Bryan K. Bullock
“From Vietnam through Iraq, African Americans have proved to be the group of Americans most opposed to U.S. military intervention.”
The October 4, 2016, issue of the New York Times , which contained the article, “Syrian War Magnifies Tension in America’s Global Mission,” is a case study in white supremacy. The article is framed from a totally white “conservative” and “liberal” frame, and completely ignores the perspective of African Americans, who, traditionally, and today, are consistently and overwhelmingly, anti-imperialism and who tend to identify with other Black and Brown people across the globe, including the Palestinians and Syrians.
The article purports to give “both sides” of the argument for U.S. intervention in the affairs of sovereign nations. The authors of the article give the impression that they are being “balanced” in giving the views of those who support America’s “mission” in the world and those who are “critical” of said “mission.” This false “balance” does not include the perspectives of any African American historians or critics of U.S. foreign policy, like Professor Gerald Horne, Bill Fletcher, Anthony Monteiro, Glen Ford or African (American) scholars like Horace Campbell. In fact, “both sides” of any debate in the U.S. regarding foreign policy, are both white “sides.” This is particularly true when it comes to U.S. foreign policy, where whites are the only ones who are presumed to either have an opinion on such issues, or one that is worth mentioning.
It is true that “both sides” could include Blacks who adhere to the Eurocentric, party-line views of the dominant U.S. narrators, say, Donna Brazile or Condoleezza Rice, or Blacks on the so-called “left,” but their views (still missing from this piece) are not a Black critique. It is a Eurocentric critique coming from a Black person, which is fundamentally different than an African American critique viewed through the lens of the African American experience. The ideas, views and critiques of Black thinkers are notoriously absent in the pages of the Times when it comes to foreign policy -- which proves that the writers, the editorial staff and the paper itself does not consider those views important. And in ignoring those critiques, it also ignores the historical critical analysis of the people who are and have been the subjects of U.S. foreign policy.
“The ideas, views and critiques of Black thinkers are notoriously absent in the pages of the Times when it comes to foreign policy.”
It also completely ignores the analysis of great Black historical thinkers like W.E.B. DuBois, Walter Rodney and Paul Robeson, Malcolm X, the late stage Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as the organizations they represented such as the Council on African Affairs (the CAA), the NAACP of the 1940’s, the African Liberation Support Committee, the Black Panther Party, The African Blood Brotherhood, the Organization of Afro-American Unity, Trans Africa, the U.S. Human Rights Network, the United Negro Improvement Association or the National Council of Black Lawyers, all of whom were deeply critical of America’s so-called mission in the world, especially as it related to African and Asian peoples, like Haitians, Congolese, Syrians, Yemenis and Palestinians. The critiques of these people are irrelevant to, not only the Times , but in truth, to the Democratic and Republican parties, the current incarnation of the NAACP, the Black Congressional Caucus, President Obama and most white liberal formations. However, this is not a reason to give the Times a pass. Even the use of the word “mission,” with the European habit of sending missionaries into Africa and the Americas to soften the people up with European religion before they were subdued by hard power, does not elicit irony on the part of the Times . The “white man’s burden” of “civilizing” the darker races of the world, through enslavement, destroying their religions, cultures, languages, colonizing their lands and resource and extracting their people and whisking them away to foreign lands to toil from birth to death for free, is just as important and essential a part of the history of “America’s Global Mission” as anything else mentioned in the piece.
The hand wringing of the mostly white imperialists on the “left” and on the right, regarding the proper way to engage in imperialism, is essentially what the piece presents. No other perspectives or voices are important or valid. Thus the perspectives of African American thinkers are only relevant in American discourse when it concerns “black” issues like police brutality, but not on international issues, although many black writers and thinkers would argue the two are connected. This is so even though the very presence people of African descent in America is a direct result of the United States’ foreign policy of capturing, importing and enslaving African people. This point is lost on white foreign policy writers. However, early Black thinkers were clear on this point. People like DuBois and Robeson, in the past, and contemporaries like Glen Ford, were/are, fiercely anti-imperialist.
“The perspectives of African American thinkers are only relevant in American discourse when it concerns ‘black’ issues like police brutality, but not on international issues.”
The white, imperialist presentation in the article excludes the ideas of Syrian Americans, Indigenous populations, Mexican and Puerto Rican Americans and Hawaiians, all of whom may have a totally different idea of America’s “obligation” in Syria. Penny M. Von Eschen notes in the book, Race Against Empire, Black Americans and Anticolonialism 1937-1957 , that “Objecting to U.S. support for South African and the European colonial powers, and increasingly challenging the notion that America was the legitimate leader of the ‘free world’ and therefore above censure, black Americans both criticized new directions in American foreign policy and attempted to use the United Nations as a forum in which to gain support for civil rights struggles in the United States.” African Americans are no less critical of America’s self-serving “mission” today as was then. African Americans were highly critical of the U.S.’s violent overthrow of the African nation of Libya, its aggressions toward Cuba in the 60’s and Venezuela in the Chavez era and today. We have not forgotten America’s refusal to recognize Haiti as an independent Black nation when it defeated the French. Nor are we unmindful of the U.S. invasion of Haiti in 1915 and its support of dictators of the Duvalier family, the coup of the Aristide government and the fact that President Obama tried to prevent Aristide from returning to Haiti.
Black thinkers on international issues are highly supportive of the Palestinian cause and troubled by the continued expansion of AFRICOM, the U.S. Africa Command, on the continent. This analysis is glaringly absent from mainstream media portrayals of America’s “duty” in the world. The Times article offers the view that, “Because many Americans see their foreign policy as a grand mission to make the world a better place, they tend to divide the world into heroes who support their ideals and villains who oppose them.” But which Americans are the writers talking about and whose “ideals” are represented in U.S. foreign policy. It is certain that the views of people like George Padmore, a leader in the Pan-African movement in the 40’s and 50’s, are not represented by this view. Padmore was clear that, “Empire and peace are incompatible.” Michael C. Dawson notes, in Blacks in and Out of the Left : “from Vietnam through Iraq, African Americans have proved to be the group of Americans most opposed to U.S. military intervention.” It is also purposely “forgotten” that the Black Panther Party was, following in the footsteps of their ideological predecessor, Malcolm X, staunchly anti-imperialist. As Eldridge Cleaver noted, the U.S. was “bankrolling and arming all of the oppressive regimes around the world.” One of the agenda items contained in the National Black Political Agenda, created in Gary, Indiana, in 1972 called for an end to the Vietnam War and the immediate withdrawal of foreign troops from Asia and Africa; the withdrawal of U.S. military, corporations, and communications facilities from southern Africa and the Third World; self-determination of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands; an end to sanctions against Cuba and the closure of the American military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
“African Americans were highly critical of the U.S.’s violent overthrow of the African nation of Libya, its aggressions toward Cuba in the 60’s and Venezuela in the Chavez era and today.”
Contemporary white American analysis of U.S. foreign excludes the historical reality that, in thinking of America’s support of so-called rebels in Syria and Libya , it is clear to African Americans that America never supported a single African liberation group in Africa. It is not lost on Black Americans that the African National Congress and Nelson Mandela were considered terrorists by the U.S. No African rebel movement seeking independence from the Dutch, British, French, German, Portuguese or Italian colonizers of African lands ever received a single drop of military support from Washington. The U.S. never supported the Mau Mau in Kenya, nor Frelimo in Mozambique, nor the ANC in South Africa, or any other revolutionary movement on the continent.
In fact, the contrary is true. From the coup against Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana to the assassination of Patrice Lumuumba in the Congo, to the capture of Nelson Mandela and to the support the racist apartheid system of South African and the murderous colonial regime in the former Rhodesia, the American government has consistently and forcefully opposed revolutionary movements in Africa and in fact supported their colonial oppressors. The only country to ever militarily support African liberation was Cuba, not the U.S. Regarding Mandela, (who the U.S. considered a terrorist) we heard him clearly when, in response to a request to condemn Fidel Castro, Yassar Arafat and Mommar Ghadifi, he said, your enemies are not necessarily our enemies. Indeed, not only did Castro send troops to aid the Angolans in defeating the South Africans, he also provided refuge for many African American freedom fighters, from Robert Williams to Assata Shakur. While the U.S. was infiltrating, surveilling and murdering Black political activists in the Black Panther Party, leaders of North Vietnam, China, Algeria and Cuba welcomed them as ambassadors of the African American community.
“It is clear to African Americans that America never supported a single African liberation group.”
Understanding this historical reality, Black thinkers are justifiably critical and suspicious of U.S. intentions in places like Iraq, Iran, Syria and Libya. The greatest thinkers in African American culture explicitly made the connection between the U.S. and European colonialism abroad, in places like Syria, as an extension of the domestic policy of treating African Americans as second class citizens – or, as some African American thinkers have argued, the domestic colonization of Black people. The genocide of the Native Americans resonates with Black Americans. Leaders from MLK, who connected America’s imperialism in Vietnam, and the tax dollars used to support it, to the lack of financial resources available to be used to build cities and provide a basic wage; to Malcolm, who traveled the globe making personal connections with African heads of state, including Nasser in Egypt. It was Malcolm who saw the historic opportunity of the Bandung Conference, where 29 Asian and African, post-colonial nations, met to discuss their own fates independent of colonial powers, including the U.S.
Black American support for anti-imperialist movements did not find a space in the Times’ analysis of Syria. The writers and editorial staff at the Times are oblivious to the histories of the Third World peoples living in their midst. Therefore, for Black people who understand this history, they recognize articles like the one published in the Times as imperial propaganda pieces for global white supremacy. Yet, the Times , in that regard, is no different than any other white American newspaper, magazine or news program or politician. They all (even, or especially, the Black ones) present a Eurocentric worldview that excludes the ideas, histories and analysis of its black population. We are irrelevant. We serve the function we have always served: subjects of imperialism, scapegoats for repression, but not shapers of foreign policy. Blacks can nominally participate in the American experience, but only so long as we stay in our place and as long as we support the “manifest destiny” of the global hegemon and not get in its way. We are cannon fodder for the imperialist wars abroad and casualties in the U.S. war on drugs and on poor Black life at home.
“Malcolm traveled the globe making personal connections with African heads of state, including Nasser in Egypt.”
The presence of a black face at the head of the empire has provided cover for U.S. imperialism in Africa and Asia, but it has not diminished the anti-imperialism of the black community. It has silenced the voices of the self-appointed black “leaders” and revealed them to be supporters of empire and oppression. The Times , too, or rather again, reveals itself as a supporter of the Pentagon by publishing an article that is short on true analysis of America’s support of terrorists in Syria, as well as presenting a limited, white supremacist parameter of debate. Although the African American tradition of anti-imperialism may not be important to the Times , it is a tradition that is still alive nonetheless. And neither the Black face of the empire, nor the white press in service to it, can diminish it. Our antagonism against imperialism may not be publicized in the pages of the Times , but it lives on in our continued support for amnesty for Assata Shakur, the release of all political prisoners from Leonard Peltier to Jalil Muntiquim and Oscar Rivera Lopez, to support for Palestinian self-determination, to opposition to the re-colonization of Africa by America’s Africa Command, to the growing support by Black athletes, young and old, of Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the National Anthem, to our opposition to all U.S. wars of aggression, including the ones in Libya and Syria. African Americans’ opposition to the U.S. supported aggression in Syria, masquerading as humanitarian support, is obviously irrelevant to the Times , but Malcolm X told us plainly years ago, that the media would have us thinking the good guy was the bad guy and vice versa. So whether, or even if, Assad is a “ruthless dictator,” the term the U.S. has used against everyone from Castro to Chavez, it does not therefore mean that African Americans agree that the U.S. has the right to support insurrection in Syria. We know imperialism is Euro-American, white, capitalist venture that is carried against “the darker nations,” not for them. Malcolm, Martin and Mandela taught us well. Attorney Bryan K. Bullock practices law in Merrillville, Indiana. | 0 |
Sen. Rand Paul, Rep. Mark Meadows, and Rep. Jim Jordan spoke with reporters Tuesday to discuss their opposition to any legislation that does not fully repeal Obamacare. [Senator Paul ( ) said: Basically, conservatives are coalescing around a complete repeal. Conservatives want no less than to vote on what they did a year ago with the 2015 repeal bill. I think that we have to votes now to tell the leadership that this is what we want to do. The GOP leadership are not putting through a complete repeal leadership is putting through what some call “ . ” We are for a complete repeal. Last evening, Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, and myself tweeted our objections to partial repeal. House Freedom Caucus and the Republican Study Committee tweeted out their objections to complete repeal. I think that we have the votes, and we are a force to be reckoned with. Mark Meadows, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said that everyone is not on board the Ryan plan for repealing and replacing Obamacare. He noted: It is not accurate to say that everyone is discussing the same plan. There are legitimate concerns from congressmen and senators like Rand Paul. I will say for Medicaid expansion that it is far less difficult to address than other issues, such as the proposed leadership plan that will create a new entitlement program that will increase the amount of Americans getting subsidies from 9. 5 million to 40 million. So from a safety net provision, we are open to looking at options to address this problem that doesn’t create a crisis in a place like Ohio, where Medicaid was expanded, and places like North Carolina, where Medicaid was not expanded. Breitbart News asked Senator Paul about the timeline of Obamacare replacement. Senator Paul said: What we ought to do is the same day repeal and replace. Half of our replacement bill came from Health Secretary Tom Price and other conservatives. I think that we do have the votes to repeal and replace Obamacare, and I think there should be a separate repeal and replace package. I think that if you have the 2015 repeal bill, everyone will vote for that. For replacement and for Medicaid, we can vote on those issues separately to hash out those problems. The Washington Times asked the panel about the Ryan plan’s new tax on healthcare plans. Congressman Meadows ( ) explained, “No bones, this is a tax increase on people with healthcare plans it will force companies to drop their plans. ” Melissa Quinn of The Daily Signal asked the panel if their hardline stance will put Obamacare repeal in jeopardy. Congressman Jim Jordan ( ) responded, “Not at all. We actually are going to do what we said we would do. What former Speaker Boehner said earlier about not repealing Obamacare is entirely . The position we have taken is the only position we have taken that is entirely consistent with what voters voted on November 8. ” | 1 |
Ryan McMaken blog/federal-meddling-dairy-farms-hurts-consumers-producers/
Federal laws against free association of dairy producers has created a deeply distorted and unresponsive market, says Dave Albin . 1:20 | 0 |
«El arte de la guerra»
Cómo decir «No» a las armas nucleares por Manlio Dinucci Estados Unidos acaba de imponer a sus aliados en la Comisión de Desarme y Seguridad de la Asamblea General de la ONU el rechazo a una proposición favorable a la eliminación total de las armas nucleares. En el caso de los países cuyos gobiernos aceptan almacenar ilegalmente en sus territorios las bombas atómicas estadounidenses, es posible exigir la retirada del armamento nuclear invocando el Artículo 2 del Tratado de No Proliferación (TPN).
Red Voltaire | Roma (Italia) | 3 de noviembre de 2016 français italiano English « Gracias, presidente Obama. Italia mantendrá con gran determinación su compromiso con la seguridad nuclear », eso escribía el primer ministro italiano, Matteo Renzi, en un histórico mensaje transmitido a través de Tweeter.
Sin embargo, seis meses más tarde, el propio Renzi votaba « Sí » a las armas nucleares. Alineándose tras Estados Unidos, el gobierno italiano se pronunció contra la resolución, adoptada por amplia mayoría en la Comisión de Desarme y Seguridad de la Asamblea General de la ONU, que estipula la realización en 2017 de una conferencia de las Naciones Unidas para « negociar una herramienta legalmente vinculante [o sea de obligatorio cumplimiento] para una prohibición de las armas nucleares, que conduzca a la eliminación total [de ese armamento]. »
El gobierno italiano se tragó así su promesa de hace 2 años, en la Conferencia de Viena, a los movimientos antinucleares « exigentes », a los que garantizaba entonces su voluntad de trabajar a favor del desarme nuclear desempeñando un « papel de mediador con paciencia y diplomacia ».
Cae así en el vacío el llamado « Exijamos el desarme total », donde se pide al gobierno « la continuación coherente del compromiso y de la lucha por la prohibición de las armas nucleares » siguiendo un camino « humanitario y jurídico hacia el desarme nuclear », en el que Italia podría desempeñar « un papel más que activo, posiblemente de vanguardia ».
También caen en el vacío las mociones parlamentarias sobre ese tema. Lo que sucede es que los llamados genéricos al desarme nuclear resultan fáciles de instrumentalizar: basta recordar que el aún presidente de Estados Unidos, artífice de un rearme nuclear de 1 000 millones de dólares, recibió el Premio Nobel de la Paz « por su visión de un mundo libre de armas nucleares ».
La manera para Italia de contribuir concretamente al desarme nuclear, enunciado en la resolución de la ONU, consistiría en comenzar por liberar el territorio italiano de la presencia de armas nucleares estadounidenses. Para lograrlo no hay que recurrir a la buena voluntad del gobierno italiano sino exigirle que respete el Tratado de No Proliferación, firmado y ratificado por Italia, cuyo Artículo 2 estipula:
«Cada Estado no poseedor de armas, que sea Parte en el Tratado, se compromete a no recibir de nadie ningún traspaso de armas nucleares u otros dispositivos nucleares explosivos ni el control sobre tales armas o dispositivos explosivos, sea directa o indirectamente (…)» [ 1 ]
Tenemos que exigir que Italia no siga violando el Tratado de No Proliferación, que exija a Estados Unidos la retirada de todas las armas nucleares que tiene en territorio italiano y que detenga el despliegue en Italia de sus nuevas bombas atómicas B61-12 , punta de lanza de la escalada nuclear de Estados Unidos y la OTAN contra Rusia. Tenemos que exigir igualmente que se detenga el entrenamiento de los pilotos de la fuerza aérea italiana en el uso de armas nucleares bajo las órdenes del mando estadounidense.
Ese es el objetivo de la campaña que ha emprendido el Comité No a la guerra, No a la OTAN con el respaldo de otras organizaciones y asociaciones. La campaña ya obtuvo un importante primer resultado: el Consejo Regional de Toscana aprobó por mayoría, el 26 de octubre, una moción presentada por el grupo Sì Toscana a Sinistra (Sí, Toscana a la izquierda) que « compromete el Consejo a solicitar al Gobierno que respete el Tratado de No Proliferación de armas nucleares y que haga que Estados Unidos retire inmediatamente del territorio italiano todo armamento nuclear y que renuncie a desplegar en suelo italiano las nuevas bombas B61-12 así como cualquier otro armamento nuclear ».
Iniciativas como esas pueden contribuir a la creación de un amplio frente que, gracias una fuerte movilización, obligue el gobierno italiano a respetar el Tratado de No Proliferación.
Hace 6 meses preguntábamos desde estas mismas páginas del diario Il Manifesto si había en el Parlamento [italiano] alguien dispuesto a exigir, invocando el Tratado de No Proliferación, la retirada inmediata de todas las armas nucleares estadounidenses desplegadas en Italia. Todavía estamos esperando una respuesta.
Manlio Dinucci Fuente
Il Manifesto (Italia) | 0 |
First Lady Melania Trump has won the first round in a $150 million lawsuit she filed against a blogger who called her a “ escort” and the British Daily Mail newspaper that repeated the false story. [Melania filed the suit in September in a Montgomery County, Maryland court alleging that author Webster G. Tarpley libeled her when he called her a prostitute. The Daily Mail was also named in the suit for repeating the slanderous accusation. “These defendants made several statements about Mrs. Trump that are 100 percent false and tremendously damaging to her personal and professional reputation,” attorney Charles Harder said as he filed the suit last year. Lawyers for Tarpley and The Daily Mail had asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed, but this week Judge Sharon Burrell rejected arguments to summarily dismiss the lawsuit for failing to meet the “actual malice” standard for libel against public figures, Politico reported. Judge Burrell said that it seemed pretty clear that “ escort” can be construed to mean “prostitute,” and by that understanding there was enough to justify a charge of libel. “The court believes most people, when they hear the words ‘ escort’ that describes a prostitute. There could be no more defamatory statement than to call a woman a prostitute,” Burrell wrote in her decision. The judge did not make it clear, though, if the inclusion of the British Daily Mail was going to be sustained. Since the paper is a foreign corporation, it is still unclear if the Mail would be dismissed from the suit, and Burrell did not rule on that aspect of the case. But for the claims by Tarpley’s attorney, Burrell was dismissive. She said Tarpley’s claim that the suit should be dismissed because it was brought in bad faith was clearly untrue (dismissing his SLAAP claim) and also proclaimed her skepticism that Tarpley’s disgusting accusations were of the sort that should be protected under First Amendment rules — most especially because Melania was just the wife of a candidate and not a candidate herself. “The interests affected are arguably not that important because the plaintiff wasn’t the one running for office,” the judge said. Burrell also didn’t buy Tarpley’s claim that his assertions were just “rhetorical hyperbole” meant to enliven his text. She called his court claims “word games” meant to absolve him of blame. One claim made by Trump’s legal team was tossed out. Harder claimed that Tarpley’s accusations damaged Melania’s current and prospective business deals, but Judge Burrell said the claims were too vague. The judge did promise to revisit the claims if Melania’s lawyers could make them more specific. Trump’s attorney is himself a bit of a celebrity, having helped former wrestler Hulk Hogan win his$140 million lawsuit against Gawker Media. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com. | 1 |
Boycott the NFL | 0 |
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a challenge to a admissions program at the University of Texas at Austin, handing supporters of affirmative action a major victory. The decision, Fisher v. University of Texas, No. concerned an unusual program and contained a warning to other universities that not all affirmative action programs will pass constitutional muster. But the ruling’s basic message was that admissions officials may continue to consider race as one factor among many in ensuring a diverse student body. The decision, by a vote, was unexpected. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the author of the majority opinion, has long been skeptical of programs and had never before voted to uphold an affirmative action plan. He dissented in the last major affirmative action case. Supporters of affirmative action hailed the decision as a landmark. “No decision since Brown v. Board of Education has been as important as Fisher will prove to be in the long history of racial inclusion and educational diversity,” said Laurence H. Tribe, a law professor at Harvard, referring to the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision striking down segregated public schools. Roger Clegg, the president of the Center for Equal Opportunity, which supports colorblind policies, said the decision, though disappointing, was only a temporary setback. “The court’s decision leaves plenty of room for future challenges to racial preference policies at other schools,” he said. “The struggle goes on. ” President Obama hailed the decision. “I’m pleased that the Supreme Court upheld the basic notion that diversity is an important value in our society,” he told reporters at the White House. “We are not a country that guarantees equal outcomes, but we do strive to provide an equal shot to everybody. ” Justice Kennedy, writing for the majority, said courts must give universities substantial but not total leeway in designing their admissions programs. “A university is in large part defined by those intangible ‘qualities which are incapable of objective measurement but which make for greatness,’” Justice Kennedy wrote, quoting from a landmark desegregation case. “Considerable deference is owed to a university in defining those intangible characteristics, like student body diversity, that are central to its identity and educational mission. ” “But still,” Justice Kennedy added, “it remains an enduring challenge to our nation’s education system to reconcile the pursuit of diversity with the constitutional promise of equal treatment and dignity. ” Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor joined Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion. Justice Elena Kagan, who would probably have voted with the majority, was recused from the case because she had worked on it as solicitor general. In a lengthy and impassioned dissent delivered from the bench, a sign of deep disagreement, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. denounced the court’s ruling, saying that the university had not demonstrated the need for admissions and that the Texas program benefited advantaged students over impoverished ones. “This is affirmative action gone berserk,” Justice Alito told his colleagues, adding that what they had done in the case was “simply wrong. ” Under the University of Texas’ admissions program, most applicants from within the state are admitted under a part of the program that guarantees admission to top students in every high school in the state. This is often called the Top 10 Percent program, though the percentage cutoff can vary by year. The Top 10 Percent program has produced significant racial and ethnic diversity. In 2011, for instance, 26 percent of freshmen who enrolled under the program were Hispanic, and 6 percent were black. The population of Texas is about 38 percent Hispanic and 12 percent black. The case challenged a second part of the admissions program. Under it, remaining students from Texas and elsewhere are considered under standards that take into account academic achievement and other factors, including race and ethnicity. Many colleges and universities base all of their admissions decisions on such grounds. In Grutter v. Bollinger in 2003, the Supreme Court endorsed such holistic admissions programs, saying it was permissible to consider race as one factor among many to achieve educational diversity. Writing for the majority in that case, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said she expected that “25 years from now,” the “use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary. ” Justice Kennedy’s decision left Grutter intact. Thursday’s case was brought by Abigail Fisher, a white woman who said the university had denied her admission based on her race. She has since graduated from Louisiana State University. “I am disappointed that the Supreme Court has ruled that students applying to the University of Texas can be treated differently because of their race or ethnicity,” Ms. Fisher said in a statement on Thursday. “I hope that the nation will one day move beyond affirmative action. ” When the court last considered Ms. Fisher’s case in 2013, supporters of affirmative action were nervous. But the court deferred conclusive action in what appeared to be a compromise decision. In his dissent on Thursday, Justice Alito said the court had reversed itself. “Something strange has happened since our prior decision in this case,” he wrote. When the second iteration of the case was argued in December, Justice Kennedy suggested that the court might again send it back to the appeals court. On Thursday, though, he said that would have been a waste of time. “A remand would do nothing more than prolong a suit that has already persisted for eight years and cost the parties on both sides significant resources,” he wrote. “Petitioner long since has graduated from another college, and the university’s policy — and the data on which it first was based — may have evolved or changed in material ways. ” Justice Kennedy then methodically rejected Ms. Fisher’s arguments. He said the university’s diversity goals were not amorphous but “concrete and precise,” satisfying the constitutional requirement that government racial classifications advance a compelling interest. Justice Alito described those goals — concerning “the destruction of stereotypes,” promoting “ understanding” and preparing students “for an increasingly diverse work force and society” — as slippery and impervious to judicial scrutiny. Justice Kennedy wrote that the university was justified in saying that the Top Ten Percent plan did not alone produce sufficient diversity, adding that the holistic part of the admissions program “had a meaningful, if still limited, effect on the diversity of the university’s freshman class. ” He said the Top Ten Percent program had limits. “An admissions policy that relies exclusively on class rank creates perverse incentives for applicants,” he wrote. “Percentage plans ‘encourage parents to keep their children in segregated schools, and discourage students from taking challenging classes that might lower their grade point averages,’” he added, quoting from an earlier dissent from Justice Ginsburg. “Wherever the balance between percentage plans and holistic review should rest, an effective admissions policy cannot prescribe, realistically, the exclusive use of a percentage plan,” Justice Kennedy wrote. Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion was 20 pages long. It elicited a furious dissent from Justice Alito, joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Clarence Thomas. Justice Alito said the majority opinion helped affluent students and hurt ones. “Even though U. T. has never provided any coherent explanation for its asserted need to discriminate on the basis of race, and even though U. T.’s position relies on a series of unsupported and noxious racial assumptions,” he wrote, “the majority concludes that U. T. has met its heavy burden. This conclusion is remarkable — and remarkably wrong. ” Sherrilyn Ifill, the president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc. said the decision was gratifying. “Universities all over the country are breathing a sigh of relief,” she said. “The court very compellingly reaffirmed the importance of diversity. ” | 1 |
Oops. The enthusiastic reaction of Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, was understandable on Friday when the Labor Department reported a gain of 235, 000 jobs. “Great news for American workers,” he proclaimed on Twitter 22 minutes after the Labor Department release, “in first report for @POTUS Trump. ” Mr. Spicer was probably just following President Trump’s lead. At 8:41 a. m. 11 minutes after the report’s 8:30 release, Mr. Trump reposted a Twitter message sent by the conservative website Drudge Report that linked to a news report with the comment “GREAT AGAIN: +235, 000. ” But those messages on Twitter apparently violate a federal rule barring executive branch employees from publicly commenting on principal economic indicators for at least one hour after the official release time. Announced in the Federal Register on Sept. 25, 1985, when Ronald Reagan was president, the rule was adopted “to preserve the distinction between the release of data by statistical agencies and their interpretation by policy officials,” and to avoid affecting “financial and commodity markets,” according to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, part of the Office of Management and Budget. The rule as published in the Federal Register does not include a penalty for violation. The White House receives the jobs data through the Council of Economic Advisers on Thursday afternoon, before its Friday release. Jason Furman, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in President Barack Obama’s second term, said by email on Friday: “The interpretation of our administration (like Clinton and Bush) was that this applied to POTUS. There were times they wanted Obama to comment, his flight or whatever was taking off at 9:20 and they would hold off until 9:30 so he could comment then. ” Of course the Trump administration’s delight was no surprise. And at a White House briefing on Friday afternoon, Mr. Spicer addressed the issue with . “Don’t make me make the podium move,” he told a questioner, alluding to a parody of his briefing style on “Saturday Night Live. ” He said that while “I understand the rule,” he felt his post had caused no market disruption because the news was already out. “I apologize if we were a little excited, and we’re so excited to see so many Americans back to work,” he added. | 1 |
Next Prev Swipe left/right A mechanic wrote the customer’s bizarrely creative description of the problem word for word When someone brought their car in for repair because of a rattling noise, the mechanic felt compelled to record their exact words and T9C-gars shared a photo on Reddit.
“Check rattle noise like 2 skeletons making out on a tin roof during a hailstorm using a tin can for a condom.”
Let’s hope they checked under the bone-it. | 0 |
Following the release of footage of a robot firing handguns at targets, Russian officials have stated that they are not making a “terminator” robot. [The Mirror reports that the robot, known as FEDOR — Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research — is part of Russias current developments in space exploration. The robot is being developed by Android Technics and the Advanced Research Fund, initially with the aim to aid during rescue operations, however, now the robot is being considered to replace human engineers on the International Space Station. A video of the robot released recently has made many question the application of these new machines as the android can be seen pistols and firing them at metal targets in the distance. This caused many people to assume that the robot was some sort of new military hardware designed to replace soldiers in the field. Russian officials have denied this claim. “We are not creating a Terminator, but artificial intelligence that will be of great practical significance in various fields. ” said Russian Deputy PM Dmitryi Rogozin. FEDOR is currently scheduled to travel into space in 2021 and could act as a permanent replacement to the cosmonauts onboard the ISS. “This thing can work without a space suit, live not only in a crew vehicle, but even outside it. Its name is Fedor. ” said Deputy PM Rogozin. Vladimir Solntsev, general director of Russian corporation Energia, said: “Our involvement in the space robot project will bring us to the next level in the development of robotic technologies. ” Director of the TSNIImash laboratory of space robotic Alexander Grebenshchikov said: “Every hour of work of cosmonauts on space walks costs from $2 million to $4 million (USD). ” “The use of robots for routine operations in the future will also spare additional time of the crew for leisure or for the fulfillment of other important tasks. ” said Grebenshchikov. Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan_ or email him at lnolan@breitbart. com | 1 |
The Trump effect: Jack in the box and Obama's change 09.11.2016 Donald Trump, having won the US presidential election, thanked his rival Hillary Clinton for her struggle, even though Clinton refused to speak to her supporters and sent the head of her election headquarters to speak for her instead. "America will no longer settle for anything less than the best. We must reclaim our country's destiny and dream big and bold and daring. We have to do that. We're going to dream of things for our country, and beautiful things and successful things once again. 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," Trump said in his speech. "Working together, we will begin the urgent task of rebuilding our nation and renewing the American dream. I've spent my entire life in business, looking at the untapped potential in projects and in people all over the world," he also said. The Americans already joke that Trump's best post-election joke would be sending Hillary Clinton to Libya as an ambassador. Trump's victory has come as a shock for the Russian opposition. Ukraine remains in a state of shock as well as the Ukrainian administration was hoping for Clinton's support in the struggle against Russia. Print version Font Size To be honest, no one was expecting Donald Trump to win. It is worth recalling that from the start of the presidential campaign, everyone saw Trump as a clown and an absolute outsider of the campaign, while Hillary Clinton was seen as the leader. This years' presidential election in the United States has been, perhaps, the "dirtiest" and most scandalous election from the point of view of all the compromising materials that the candidates had to face in their campaigns. At some point, the leaders of the Republican Party were opposed to their own candidate. So why Trump? If one looks at recent polls by Gallup Foundation and other institutions of political sociology, one can see a huge percentage of ordinary Americans who do not trust both the election procedure and the existing political elites in both the Republican and the Democratic Party. According to the majority of US citizens, federal politicians do not represent the interests of the people - they represent the interests of certain corporations. Most importantly, many Americans understand that this is a system that they live in. Donald Trump with his slogan "Make America Great Again!" is a jack-of-the-box, who is not associated with all this party and, more broadly, backstage responsibility that has been blooming on Capitol Hill for many years. Hillary Clinton, is an old paralytic witch, whose laughter makes one shudder, but she carries the function of an appendage of American multinational corporations in politics. Donald Trump and his simple and somewhere populist decisions has challenged to revise both domestic and foreign politics of the United States. He has questioned the USA's membership in NATO and the funding of multiple US bases all over the world. Trump wants to give up on all that and use the money for the USA, and this is what US tax-payers are looking forward to. Common Americans are fed up with ideas of world hegemony and international confrontation. The American people are tired of corruption and excessive spending on the maintenance of their exceptional status. Donald Trump has promised to change all this. Donald Trump is indeed unpredictable in both negative and positive terms because he has never worked in any forms of the US government. He has zero experience in international affairs, which makes him an absolutely unpredictable persona, journalist Vladimir Poznerб a US citizen, believes. Democrats should have listened to what the people were saying. There were many petitions on the website of the White House to withdraw the Magnitsky Act, lift sanctions against Russia and revise USA's relations with the Russian Federation. What did the Democrats do? They deleted those petitions and reset website vote counters. Will the new USA try to improve the relations with Russia? Here is what Trump said about Russia a while ago: "I had a major event in Russia two or three years ago, which was a big, big incredible event. "And you know what?" he continued. "They want to be friendly with the United States. Wouldn't it be nice if we actually got along with somebody?" The US-Russian relations appear to be just a tiny part of the visible displeasure of American voters with the US political system. One can recall Al Gore, who received the majority of votes of citizens, but a minority of votes of electors. George W. Bush took office as president, but the American society did not have the degree of discontent and tension that one can see now. If the "Gore scenario" reoccur, America will face mass riots. Ordinary people are tired of the policy that had been formed in the USA after the Cold War. The US expert community that called Trump an absolute outsider, admit their defeat. Sociologist and professor at Princeton University, Sam Wang, said that the entire (sociological) industry has failed in the presidential election in the United States. Other experts have found a cause for Trump's triumph. Michael McFaul, former US Ambassador to Russia, tweeted: "Putin intervened in our elections and succeeded. Well done". There were no Russian observers in the US election. Suffice it to recall Putin's remarks about the banana country: "Does anyone really think that Russia could influence the American people's choice in any way? The number of mythical, dreamt-up problems include the hysteria - I can't think of another word - that has broken out in the United States about the influence of Russia on the current elections for the US president. What, is America a banana republic?!," Putin said. "Correct me if I am wrong. America is a great power," Putin said. The US expertocracy, as well as party policy-makers have long ceased to regard the American society as a standalone entity policy. Rather, they see the American society as a mass of people that one can easily manipulate with. Roughly speaking, the development of American democracy has led to the formation of a decorative role for the society. Yet, as we can now see, propaganda and manipulations do not have the last say, not even in the USA. British experts had also excluded the victory of the Brexit vote. They did not even believe that UK citizens would vote to leave the EU. They also hoped for mass manipulations and media propaganda. In general, Donald Trump has managed to grow into a universal, popular candidate. Who knows, maybe he will make America great without destroying the whole world for the purpose. Will he be change that Barack Obama failed to bring to life? Politonline | 0 |
The big news this week seems to be that the Mexican government is not happy with President Trump’s border control plans. That headline comes on the heels of the news that the sun is hot. Imagine that! [Mexico is not happy that President Trump appears to be serious about building a border wall and halting the human traffic. The improvements in border security promised in the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 as a for the general amnesty never happened, and illegal border crossings have trended upwards again after a brief decline connected to the recession. Apprehensions of illegal border jumpers on the southwest border have increased every year but one since 2010, and increased 23 percent from 2015 to 2016. Because of the relative ease of crossing the border and Mexico’s liberal definition of Mexican citizenship, we have the situation recently described by author Ann Coulter, who discovered that persons of Mexican origin now residing in the United States — legal and illegal — are equal in number to over 25 percent of the 130 million population of Mexico. The Pew Hispanic Center says there were 33. 7 million Americans of Mexican descent in the United States in 2012, and that figure is based in part on the official Census figure of 11. 3 million illegal aliens, over 60 percent of whom are from Mexico. If you believe as I do that the illegal alien population of the U. S. is over 25 million, not 11. 3 million, then the percentage of Mexican nationals now residing in the U. S. — persons recognized as Mexican citizens under the Mexican Constitution — is considerably above 25 percent. Let me put this in stark economic terms: Mexico’s national income grows in direct proportion to the size of the illegal Mexican population inside the United States. Does that help explain the Mexican fixation on U. S. politics? Mexico’s most profitable export to the U. S. is not oil or avocados or automobile parts, it is people. Mexicans living and working in the U. S. send home over $20 billion annually in cash remittances — more than Mexico earns in foreign currency from tourism or any export commodity. In 1979, Mexico received only $177, 000 (U. S. Dollars) in remittances in 2016 it was $26. 1 BILLION — over 90 percent of it from persons living in the United States. (See here for a GAO report on remittances to Mexico from the U. S. and here for the World Bank reports for total remittances received by Mexico.) You don’t believe government data? Even the Clinton News Network confirms it: this recent CNN report says Mexico relies more on remittance income than the sale of oil or tourism. To guarantee those remittance dollars keep flowing north to south, Mexico must keep exporting its citizens south to north. Does anyone think Mexico will give up that lucrative income graciously? Do you think Mexican politicians will welcome an interruption of either of those two flows — either people going north or dollars coming south? As a Congressman, back in 2001, I visited Mexico along with two of my colleagues and met with several high government officials in the Mexican capital. One of those officials was Juan Hernandez, a dual citizen with a home in Texas, who at that time was the head of a cabinet department. That department had the name, Ministry for Mexicans Living Abroad, but it has since been reorganized and given a lower public profile as the Institute for Mexicans Abroad, a division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I asked Señor Hernandez, what exactly do you do here? He was quite candid and informative and not the least bit apologetic. Hernandez’s job was to direct and coordinate a large collection of enterprises of transport and educational activities aimed at assisting and encouraging Mexicans in physically moving north across Mexico and entering the United States. I was struck by both the grandiosity and bravura of that official Mexican government operation — directed by a cabinet official. Somewhat shocked by his candid admissions, I asked Hernandez, hey, aren’t you embarrassed by violating the sovereignty of a neighboring country? His reply was delivered calmly and with a smile. I remember his words clearly: “Really, congressman, we don’t have two countries here, it’s just a region. ” I also asked Hernandez, why does the Mexican government work so hard to maintain contact with Mexicans even after they become naturalized citizens of the United States? He told me, it’s because they tend to stop sending money home after they assimilate. Assimilation, he believed, was a problem: if Mexicans stopped being Mexicans first, and Americans second, that is very bad for Mexico. Juan Hernandez, as I said, is a dual citizen of Mexico and the United States, and he has been very involved in U. S. politics. In 2008, working from his Texas home, he was named as presidential candidate John McCain’s chief of Outreach to Hispanic Americans. You can make of that connection with John McCain what you will maybe the guy just needed a job. But as for myself, I would worry if my candidate were endorsed by the Juan Hernandez characters of the world, and I am delighted that Señor Juan Hernandez is apoplectic over the plans announced by President Trump. What lies ahead for U. S. relations? Your guess is as good as mine, but if Trump persists in his plans, Mexican bluster and outrage will be replaced by a more pragmatic accommodation. The border will continue to be a point of conflict, but Mexico may come to realize that the end of the remittance cornucopia was inevitable. Mexico can grow its own economy and create millions of jobs for its people by abandoning its socialist dogmas and enterprises. If that happens, someday soon Mexican politicians will see the bitter medicine administered by Trump as a blessing in disguise. Polls of Mexicans who entered our country illegally reveal that the large majority of them do not intend to stay forever. Typically, upon arrival, they plan to get a job, send money home, and then return home to Mexico and enjoy a better life than what they left. Mexicans naturally retain a love of the country of their birth — and that love of country is certainly not a bad thing if you think of it as your true home. If ten million Mexicans now in the United States became optimistic about Mexico’s future and returned home to fight corruption, build a better educational system and a stronger economy, that, too, would not be a bad thing. | 1 |
The great mystery of “Rogue One” — the big payoff, the thing people like me would be pilloried for divulging, the puzzle you will congratulate yourself for solving — is where it fits in with the rest of the “Star Wars” cycle. There are scattered hints early on, and later appearances by familiar characters that elicit chuckles of recognition from fans. The very last shot tells us exactly where we are, and why we should have cared about everything we just saw. Whether that is enough — whether the fractures in the Rebel Alliance and the power struggles in the imperial ranks quicken our pulses and engage our emotions — is the big question, but it really isn’t a question at all. Millions of people will sit through this thoroughly mediocre movie (directed with basic competence by Gareth Edwards from a surprisingly hackish script by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy) and convince themselves that it’s perfectly delightful. It’s so much easier to obey than to resist. The spoiler warning sent by the Disney empire instructed journalists to “continue to be our partners on this journey,” and defiance is unthinkable, even if “partner” is taken as a synonym for “shill. ” But the injunction not to ruin anyone’s good time by “revealing spoilers and detailed story points” is itself revealing, an indication of the meager and disposable pleasures this movie is meant to provide, and also of the low regard its makers have for the audience. It hasn’t always been this way, of course. The first “Star Wars” trilogy had a fresh, insurgent energy, and learning the names of all those planets and galactic adventurers has seemed, to generations of fans, like a new and special kind of fun. Now, though, it is starting to feel like drudgery, a schoolbook exercise in a course of study that has no useful application and that will never end. “Rogue One,” named for the call sign of an imperial cargo ship appropriated by rebel fighters, is the opposite of that vessel. Masquerading as a heroic tale of rebellion, its true spirit is Empire all the way down. Like the fighters on the planet Scarif, which is surrounded by an atmospheric shield, you are trapped inside this world, subjected to its whims and laws. You can’t escape, because it is the supposed desire to escape that brought you here in the first place. Maybe I’m exaggerating. The cast is wonderful. Felicity Jones is a fine addition to the “Star Wars” tradition of heroines. She plays Jyn Erso, the daughter of Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) a scientist whose allegiances are a little ambiguous. Not at all ambiguous is Ben Mendelsohn’s Orson Krennic, a marvel of sneering, vainglorious villainy in an impeccable white uniform, complete with a cape that billows behind him when he strides down a starship catwalk. Jyn’s idealistic tendencies are at first checked by a hint of cynicism. She’s suspicious of the rebels and contemptuous of the Empire, and has complicated feelings about Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) the extremist militant who cared for her in her father’s absence. When a mission announces itself — I don’t think I’m supposed to say too much about it, other than that it’s highly perilous and requires a lot of and aerial battling — Jyn gathers up an appealing, motley guerrilla crew. There’s a renegade imperial pilot (Riz Ahmed) a resistance type (Diego Luna) a blind monk (Donnie Yen) and a bearded berserker (Wen Jiang). And naturally, a wisecracking droid, speaking in the dry, sarcastic tones of the indispensable Alan Tudyk. All the pieces are there, in other words, like Lego figures in a box. The problem is that the filmmakers haven’t really bothered to think of anything very interesting to do with them. A couple of on a rainy afternoon would come up with better adventures, and probably also better dialogue. Plots and subplots are handled with clumsy expediency, and themes that might connect this movie with the larger Lucasfilm mythos aren’t allowed to develop. You’re left wanting both more and less. There are too many characters, too much tactical and technical explanation, too much prattle. And at the same time, there isn’t quite enough of the filial dynamic between Galen and Jyn, and not enough weight given to the ethical and strategic problems of rebellion. When might ends justify means? What kind of sacrifice is required in the service of a righteous cause? Popular art — “Star Wars” included — has often proved itself capable of exploring these kinds of questions with clarity, vigor and even a measure of nuance. But “Rogue One” has no such ambitions, no will to persuade the audience of anything other than the continued strength of the brand. It doesn’t so much preach to the choir as propagandize to the captives, telling us that we’re free spirits and partners on the journey. The only force at work here is the force of habit. | 1 |
JERUSALEM — Speaking from Jerusalem in a Breitbart Jerusalem exclusive interview, Congressman Ron DeSantis ( ) strongly rejected Palestinian threats regarding the possibility of the U. S. moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. [DeSantis, chairman of the subcommittee for National Security for the House Oversight Committee, was in Israel on Saturday and Sunday with a small delegation as part of a tour to study the possibility of relocating the U. S. Embassy to Jerusalem. In response to his visit, Ziad Khalil Abu Zayyad, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah Party warned, the “US Congress should understand that moving the US embassy to Jerusalem will explode the situation in the Mena region (Middle East and North Africa. ” “This same team should consult with its military and political consultants in the (U. S.) State Department that stated several times in the past that (such) actions put American interests and presence in the region in danger,” Zayyad said. Numerous PA officials in recent weeks made similar statements about the possibility of violence in response to any embassy relocation to Jerusalem. Responding to those threats, DeSantis told this reporter: They say that about if we were to do anything. There is always going to be a pretext for them to use to go on their cycle of violence. As you’ve mentioned, they rejected peace time and time again. So, I think for us to do policy based on what a Palestinian Arab is saying they are going to do in response given their history is unacceptable. The second thing is, I think it would actually be very good for Donald Trump to follow through with his promise. Because I think it will show that this is a guy who means business. That he is exercising leadership. That he is not afraid to take bold action even in the face of these threats. And ultimately in the Arab world they have a different psychology than in the Western World. They respect strength. And they respect a strong horse. So, if you cower in the face of these threats to me you will end up losing respect not only from Palestinian Arabs, but also from some of the Arab states in the Gulf. Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio. ” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook. | 1 |
Most politicians have a public record of speeches and votes on issues of the day, but Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee for president, has left a different type of record: a presence in TV shows, movies, documentaries, pageants and even professional wrestling events over 30 years. His first television appearance seems to have been an uncredited 1981 cameo on the sitcom “The Jeffersons. ” Since then, Mr. Trump has seized on opportunities to create a recurring character over three decades: a New York billionaire named Donald Trump. His cameos have included numerous TV shows (“The Nanny,” “Fresh Prince of ” “Sex and the City”) and movies (“Home Alone 2,” “Zoolander” and Woody Allen’s “Celebrity. ”). Including his many interviews on talk shows, appearances on beauty pageant and professional wrestling shows, and a recurring role on his reality program “The Apprentice,” his credits have numbered in the hundreds, according to the Internet Movie Database. His memorable cameos have been collected in at least one YouTube supercut. This public record has created problems for Trump the candidate. It was an appearance in 2005 on “Access Hollywood,” that caused serious damage to his campaign earlier this month. audio leaked in which Mr. Trump used lewd and vulgar language to describe women and his behavior toward them, prompting a series of women to come forward and claim that he had groped them or otherwise behaved inappropriately. On talk shows, frequent discussions about the presidency Mr. Trump’s interest in the presidency has been threaded through his pop culture persona for decades. In 1988, as tabloids covered his tumultuous marriage to Ivana Trump, he began to discuss his presidential aspirations on the talk show circuit. When asked by Oprah Winfrey if he planned to run, Mr. Trump replied, “Probably not, but I do get tired of seeing the country ripped off. ” He added: “I think I’d win. I tell you what, I wouldn’t go in to lose. ” Shortly after the 1988 election, Mr. Trump told David Letterman that he was mulling a presidential run. “I’m not sure that you want to see the United States become a winner,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Letterman. This continued for years. “Is it another phony campaign?” Mr. Letterman asked Mr. Trump in a “Late Show” segment last year, “or are you really running?” We all know how that turned out. In a recent interview with The Times, Mr. Letterman described their relationship as ultimately playful, but called Mr. Trump a “damaged person” because of his behavior on the campaign trail. On sitcoms and in movies, a symbol of wealth, ruthlessness and New York City Mr. Trump has almost always played himself. He won a Razzie Award for his 1989 portrayal of “Donald Trump” in “Ghosts Don’t Do It,” a romantic comedy. Between 1989 and 2004, he showed up in at least 10 movies as himself — or some approximation. Whether he appeared as a V. I. P. at Studio 54 or a rascal’s dad in “Little Rascals,” his character played up ruthless behavior toward wealth, business practices and women. In one case, Mr. Trump had a direct hand in shaping his characters: Peter Marc Jacobson, a creator of the sitcom “The Nanny,” said that he had received a note from Mr. Trump’s representative that quibbled over a script’s reference to the real estate mogul’s wealth. The script called him a millionaire. “Since he’s a billionaire, he would like the line changed accordingly,” the note read. In the end, Mr. Jacobson changed the script to say “zillionaire. ” He also framed the note. “It’s so bizarre and so narcissistic that somebody would want something like that changed,” Mr. Jacobson said. “It’s a sitcom. You want to be humble about it. ” On reality TV, a stern mentor In “The Apprentice” and “The Celebrity Apprentice,” competition reality shows that Mr. Trump hosted from 2004 through 2015, the businessman found a way to use business failures to his advantage, claiming they had made him the consummate businessman. “I fought back and I won,” Mr. Trump said. “Big league. ” Now was time to pass on that knowledge to somebody else, he said. “The Apprentice” billed itself as a show that collected contestants from all economic and educational backgrounds. The ultimate prize was a job close to Mr. Trump. But behind the scenes, more than 20 people who worked on the show said that Mr. Trump’s behavior was sexist and demeaning toward women, according to a report filed in October by The Associated Press. One former crew member said that Mr. Trump asked a group of male contestants if they’d sleep with one of their female competitors. That person, whom The Associated Press did not identify because of a nondisclosure agreement, added: “Everyone is trying to make him stop talking, and the woman is shrinking in her seat. ” On “Saturday Night Live,” a host — and a target Mr. Trump hosted the comedy sketch show twice, once in 2014 and again last November, several months after he had announced his run for the presidency. “Whatever one can say about Donald Trump, he’s shrewd about the TV business,” James Poniewozik, a critic for The Times, wrote in his review of Mr. Trump’s 2015 hosting gig. “He knows what pressures producers work under, he knows what he can deliver in ratings and he knows the leverage that gives him. ” Lately, Mr. Trump has been the subject of overt mocking from the SNL crew, which has cast the actor Alec Baldwin to exaggerate Mr. Trump’s mannerisms and lampoon his recent statements about immigration, women and minorities. Mr. Trump did not appreciate the joke. “Watched Saturday Night Live hit job on me,” Mr. Trump tweeted on Oct. 16. “Time to retire the boring and unfunny show. Alec Baldwin portrayal stinks. Media rigging election!” On professional wrestling, a wealthy benefactor Mr. Trump has made several appearances on World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. productions. In his role, he appeared as himself, styled as a beloved voice of the people who butted heads with Vince McMahon, W. W. E. ’s chief executive. In 2007 on “WrestleMania 23,” Mr. Trump tackled Mr. McMahon to the floor and shaved his head. “Donald Trump is in a world he is not familiar with,” a commentator says. “This is not real estate. ” Another time, Mr. Trump appeared as a moneyed benefactor, dropping what appeared to be $50 and $100 bills in a gesture of audience appreciation. “Right now I’m dropping buckets of cash,” Mr. Trump said. The audience went wild. When asked about the origins of Mr. Trump’s relationship with professional wrestling, the W. W. E. declined to comment. A divisive Hollywood star In recent years, Mr. Trump has become a polarizing presence in the entertainment industry. In 2007, in the midst of an ugly feud with Rosie O’Donnell and three years into firing people on “The Apprentice,” Mr. Trump was feted with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. (The celebrity typically has to raise around $30, 000 for a star and its maintenance.) But on Wednesday, Mr. Trump’s star, a site already vulnerable to vandals, was destroyed by a man with a hammer. His name had been chipped away. | 1 |
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For thos who stubbornly insist that the words election and rig have never been uttered in the same sentence by wannabe president Hillary Clinton, here’s a little sound bite you might have trouble making sense of.
The recording was made on September 5, 2006, by an editor of the “Jewish Press,” during a meeting with Clinton in her race for re-election to the U.S. Senator.
Via The Observer :
The tape was never released and has only been heard by the small handful of Jewish Press staffers in the room. According to [Editor Eli] Chomsky, his old-school audiocassette is the only existent copy and no one has heard it since 2006, until today when he played it for the Observer.
[…]
Speaking … about the January 25, 2006, election for the second Palestinian Legislative Council (the legislature of the Palestinian National Authority), Clinton weighed in about the result, which was a resounding victory for Hamas (74 seats) over the U.S.-preferred Fatah (45 seats).
In the clip, which appears below, Clinton can be heard plainly saying:
I do not think we should have pushed for an election in the Palestinian territories. I think that was a big mistake. And if we were going to push for an election, then we should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win. | 0 |
PEORIA, Ariz. — Wil Myers hates the feeling of batting gloves, so he never wears them. This time of year, especially, he spends a lot of quality time with his bats, twirling them like batons in the San Diego Padres’ clubhouse, gripping and waggling them around in his massive hands. He needs to build up calluses on his palms. “They’re a little soft now,” said Myers, the Padres’ first baseman. “I’m already cracking there a little bit. ” Feelings are raw, too, on the San Diego sports scene. The departure of the Chargers for Los Angeles last month did not hit Myers personally he is not a football fan, not even of the Carolina Panthers, who play less than a mile from his home in North Carolina. But the Chargers’ move leaves the Padres as the only major pro sports team in town, and a singular entity in baseball. Every other team in the majors has at least one neighbor in the N. F. L. the N. B. A. or the N. H. L. Only the Padres have a whole market to themselves. Yet after their sixth losing season in a row, at they cannot offer a winning alternative to soothe the loss of the Chargers. “It stings, collectively, throughout the city, and everybody feels that,” Padres Manager Andy Green said. “I don’t think it’s really our responsibility to try to replace the Chargers I don’t think we’re capable of doing that, nor are we trying to do that. But we’re going to try to rally this city together behind a team that is building something for the future of San Diego and recognizing that we’re San Diego’s team. ” The Padres have been San Diego’s team since 1969, when they joined the National League as a expansion franchise that lost 110 games. All these years later, in generic white and navy, they still have not won a championship. The Chargers never won a Super Bowl, either they were routed in their only appearance, in 1995, just as the Padres were swiftly beaten in the World Series of 1984 and 1998. The memory of that latter run, at least, sustains the current group. “You talk to Trevor Hoffman, and he talks about what the fans were like when they were making their World Series push,” said Austin Hedges, a young catcher who lives in town, speaking of the Padres’ former star closer. “It’s an incredible city that loves their sports teams. We don’t really think about the Chargers being gone we just know what we’re capable of and what we want to bring to the city, and that’s a championship. ” For this season, anyway, the Padres might be further from that goal than any other team. They recently signed Myers, who had 28 homers and 28 steals last season, to a $83 million contract extension. But several positions are unsettled, and with few reliable starters, Green has said he may consider a piggyback style of game management, with starters replaced quickly by long relievers. Far below the surface, though, the Padres believe they are positioned well. Last summer, with several teams restricted in their spending allotments, General Manager A. J. Preller poured $70 million into the draft and international markets. He also made several trades for prospects, bolstering a farm system whose talent level has risen to third in baseball, from 20th, in rankings by ESPN’s Keith Law. Only the Braves and the Yankees rank higher. Preller was perhaps too aggressive in his trades he was suspended for a month late last season after the commissioner’s office determined the Padres had not provided complete medical records to rival teams. But the result of the whirlwind season, Preller hopes, will be the kind of foundation that has helped his old team, the Texas Rangers, win throughout this decade. “When you build something, you’re not trying to be mediocre, where you have a team that, if you hit everything, can win 85 games and get a wild card,” he said. “Hopefully you’re able to build it where you’ve got a chance to have a window for a number of years and you have waves of talent coming in, so even if you don’t get a lot of things right, you still have so much depth and so many players that you can have a chance to win games every year and compete for a World Series. That’s the we have, and I think the fans understand. ” Soon after the Padres hired Preller in August 2014, he engineered a flurry of trades for veterans like Matt Kemp, Craig Kimbrel and Justin Upton. The fans responded, with attendance rising to 2. 45 million in 2015, the highest since 2007, when the Padres were coming off consecutive division titles. But when the 2015 team flopped, Preller pivoted quickly, dealing away some of the newcomers and letting others leave for compensation. While one trade backfired badly (acquiring Kemp from the Dodgers for catcher Yasmani Grandal) it was a worthwhile strategy the Padres needed a jolt, and Preller had planned to rebuild the farm system, anyway. He said it was healthy to raise expectations at the start, so fans would understand that the team would try anything to win. “You find out a lot when people expect you to do well,” Preller said. “Sometimes it can be easier when people view you as the underdog and there’s not a lot of expectation on exactly what you’re going to do. When you really have it going well is when you have expectations for your franchise and you’re able to meet or exceed those expectations every year. That’s the franchise we want to get to, and we’re hopefully building toward that. ” The Padres acquired their best prospect, the center fielder Manuel Margot, before last season in a trade with the Boston Red Sox. Last summer, in the Futures Game in San Diego, Margot made a leaping catch to rob a home run. He returned for a cameo after hitting . 304 with 30 steals in Class AAA. “Manny Margot is a really exciting baseball player,” Green said. “He plays with a big smile on his face. He flies around the field. He’s kind of a slasher at the plate who’s going to hit the ball all over the yard, take competitive and be a real threat on the basepaths. ” Padres fans have heard about prospects before, of course every losing team likes to promote its future. The difference now is that fans have no local alternative. The spotlight is theirs, and the Padres promise a good performance. They just need time. “We could become very popular,” Myers said. “We start winning, the city rallies around us — once we do take that next step to being a great team, I think it could be really cool for the city. ” | 1 |
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