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National Bugle Radio: Slattery and Dankof: We won! Now what?
Dr. Patrick Slattery and Pastor Mark Dankof discuss the tremendous victory by Donald Trump and the disgraceful on-going attack on him by the media, the political establishment, and the Jewish cabal represented by the likes of George Soros, who seems to want to spread his “color revolutions” to America. | 0 |
Posted on October 27, 2016 by Carl Herman
“It is no use trying to escape their (Empire’s) arrogance by submission or good behavior. Robbers of the world, having by universal plunder exhausted the land, their drive is greed. If the enemy be rich, they are rapacious; if poor, they lust for domination. Neither rule of the East nor West can satisfy them. Alone among men, they crave with equal eagerness poverty and riches. To plunder, slaughter, seize with false pretenses, they give the lying name ‘empire.’ And where nothing remains but a desert, they call that ‘peace.’ ” – Tacitus, The Agricola and the Germania (analyses here , here ). Tacitus wrote ~ 100 AD, a century into empire. Emperors proclaimed to the public that their government still upheld the highest ideals of their Republic, claiming expanding empire was only and always in “self-defense.”
“One Love! Let’s get together and feel all right. Hear the children cryin’ Hear the children cryin’ (One Heart! )” ~ Bob Marley, One Love
language warning: Socrates and I speak in the same direct language that caused his execution for “corrupting the young.”
Socrates: Carl!
Carl: Soc! (bro hug)
S: How may I be of service? (genuine smile)
C: I just want to talk with an honest person, bro. We last talked 6 months ago . I don’t know if I have anything new to say, but I want to talk with someone who can hear.
S: I’ll try. What about?
C: We’re finishing a so-called “election” season that’s “jumped the shark” (and here ) with the Left-wing candidate a proven criminal, and Right-wing candidate a depraved Roman Emperor wanna-be . These are Left and Right arms of one illegal rogue state US empire , of course.
S: Of course.
C: So I keep feeling that we have to be near an endgame, Soc. We have to be, given the open floodgates of evidence about s much criminal activity by the .01% centered in war , looting , and lying .
I mean, really, how much longer can this go on?!
S: (smiling) Are you asking me, or just pausing for dramatic effect?
C: I’m asking if you have any answers.
S: (shrugs) I went through a 27-year civil war after almost 50 years of Athenian “leaders” concentrating an empire under their dominion. As we discussed in some detail , Athen’s “love of freedom” and spin that foreign barbarians “hate us for our freedoms” was total inversion of the facts because “freedom” was only meant for us, and not anyone else. Everyone else had to pay tribute or face military invasion.
This hypocrisy in my time produced civil war. Those of us voicing the facts were insufficient to prevent it, or stop it once started. (Pauses to look intensely into my eyes)
So you tell me: how much longer could your struggle go on?
C: Fuck.
I really don’t want a civil war.
S: Fuck, indeed. If it comes, maybe you’ll be lucky. Maybe it won’t last 27 years.
C: Fuck.
S: But I do have a brighter perspective. I mean, how many of the non-sheeple would care to talk with me if all I ever did is leave them discouraged? (chuckles) Who would converse with Socrates if those who did were asked, ‘Hey, how did your conversation with Socrates go?’ and the responses were all disheartened, ‘Fuck!’ (laughs)
C: Alright, go. What’s the higher light?
S: You already know it. You tell me.
C: Ok, you’re right. Maybe my being on Earth is all about growth, truth, and service, and I have to exercise real-world Faith to the One Life. It’s my job as a guest on this planet to harmonize in service to the Goddess ’ plan for Earth. Those of us who are relative beacons of light are isolated by design, obviously, by the facts of our relative leadership and lack of response from the public.
(smile) At least I haven’t been voted by my peers for execution, as you were, Soc, for standing for truth.
S: Not yet, anyway. If you had taken other pathways, you would have been assassinated by your oligarchs, such as Martin King , President Kennedy , and others .
C: (sigh) I guess I don’t really have anything new to discuss. I just want to win this game. End the empire. Have truth and love.
It’s been a long war, bro.
S: Indeed it has. Longer than you know.
C: So much bullshit .
S: Only bullshit. Any truth has been co-opted, controlled, and used to mask the empire. The only reason I’m allowed onto your history pages is pretense that humanity lives on a planet operated from ideals of virtue.
It’s the same with religious ideals of love.
C: I’m ready to win.
S: So was I.
C: (sigh) Alright. So another day in the empire. Ok. Fine. Real-world exercise of Faith. The Goddess has more evolution to oversee with love and wisdom before we see a breakthrough. I can embrace that.
It’s really stupid to argue with reality.
Really stupid.
S: (smiling) Apparently, yes.
We have to work with what we have, assuredly. There is no other option.
C: We discussed in our previous conversations linked for readers below that the US today compares to your empire in Athens, and the case that perhaps, just maybe, the US is on the verge of breakthrough for Truth and Love.
S: Perhaps my history can allow perspective on your world of the present, and encourage Americans today to best use their voice and virtue for a brighter path than the civil war we endured.
Certainly for all interested, this consideration is worthy of investing time and attention. History is literally all we know, and what drives our understanding of the present. History is what informs our direction for building the future.
America’s history is at war between an awakening We the People and a deeply evil .01% committed to undisclosed vicious empire.
Your history could devolve into civil war. (chuckles) As would-be Emperor Trump might say: “Sad.”
C: (shaking my head, slight smile). Ok, I gotta’ go to work. Another day in the empire. My vote still stands to planetary management for full fucking truth in a breakthrough. I like a potential trend with revealing e-mails, but want a breakthrough that causes arrests of our .01% leaders in elegant endgame.
S: Yes, and I’d like to fly, breath underwater swimming like a dolphin, and have daily dinner parties with wine, music and women!
C: (mock agreement) Me, too!
Ok, our wants aren’t our best guides, necessarily.
I do have to go to work. Back to “earning a living.”
S: Make the most of it. It’s your given area of self-expression.
C: I promise. I’ll lead by example of my best good-faith expression and experience of virtue.
Another day.
S: Perhaps just another day. Perhaps you can’t imagine what’s coming.
C: Human limitations. I’ll work with what I see.
S: That’s all I concluded was possible. That’s all I got for wisdom. I didn’t teach anything other than look for yourself what’s right there in front of you to see. Listen to your small voice within for your best call of virtue.
Step-by-step, my brother. In all empathy, live your Faith that you’re loved and guided more than you’re able to imagine.
(bro hug)
We’ll do our best.
“Interview” series: | 0 |
Alexandre Douguine
« Le Marais » c’est le nouveau nom de la secte globaliste, des adeptes de la société ouverte, des pervers LGBT, de l'armée de Soros, des post-humanistes et ainsi de suite. Il est absolument impératif de dessécher le Marais non seulement pour les États-Unis: c’est un défi global pour nous tous. A nos jours, chaque peuple est prisonnier de son propre Marais. Nous, tous ensemble, devons commencer la lutte contre le Marais russe, le Marais français, le Marais allemand etc. Nous avons besoin de purger nos sociétés de l'influence du Marais. Au lieu de nous battre entre nous, desséchons-le ensemble. Assécheurs de Marais du monde entier, unissez-vous !
L'autre point c’est que l'anti-américanisme est fini. Non pas parce que c'était faux, mais exactement le contraire : parce que le peuple américain lui-même a commencé la révolution justement contre ce côté des États-Unis que nous avons tous haï. Maintenant l'élite dirigeante européenne, ainsi qu'une partie de l'élite russe (qui est encore libérale), ne peuvent pas être blâmées comme avant pour être trop pro-américaines. Ils doivent désormais être blâmées pour être ce qu'ils sont : une bande corrompue, pervertie, avare de banksters et destructeurs des cultures, des traditions et des identités. Alors, laissez-nous égoutter le Marais européen. Assez avec Hollande, Merkel et Bruxelles ! L’Europe pour les européens. Soros et sa secte doivent être publiquement condamnés !
Dorénavant, le Marais est un phénomène extraterritorial, exactement comme un réseau terroriste international. Le Marais est partout et nulle part. Hier, le centre du Marais, son noyau, était situé aux États-Unis, mais plus maintenant. C'est une chance pour nous tous de commencer à les chasser. Le Marais ne se manifeste plus sous une forme fixée au niveau régional. Néanmoins, il existe et a toujours une puissance extrêmement grande. Mais son caractère antinational est maintenant explicitement évident. Le Marais ne peut plus se cacher derrière l'Amérique. Il est parti en exil. Mais où ? Au Canada ? En Europe ? En Ukraine ? Pour d'autres planètes où divers acteurs et actrices dopés promettaient d'émigrer dans le cas de la victoire de Trump ? Maintenant, il est temps pour eux de tenir leur promesse. Tout cela semble être l'ascension des globalistes. Ils sont maintenant absorbés dans un non-lieu, une utopie, dans la terre de l'utopie libérale - un « no man's land ». Nous sommes maintenant témoins de la déterritorialisation du Marais, de l'élite mondialiste et du gouvernement mondial.
Quelle est la structure du Marais ?
Premièrement, le Marais est une idéologie - le libéralisme. Nous avons besoin d'un procès de Nuremberg pour le libéralisme, la dernière idéologie politique totalitaire de la Modernité. Fermons cette page d'histoire.
Deuxièmement, le Marais est une culture spéciale postmoderniste. Elle est basée sur la décomposition de toute entité par digitalisation, schizomorphisme obligatoire, et ainsi de suite. Le drainer signifie de rétablir l'unité de l'art apollinien. L'art doit revenir au holisme.
Troisièmement, c’est le capitalisme mondial transnational. Ceci est le moteur matériel du Marais. C’est des emprunts et la Réserve fédérale qui imprime des billets verts virulents. Nous devons mettre fin à tout cela et revenir au secteur productif réel et à l’approche mercantiliste.
Je propose de redécouvrir les idées de Pitirim Sorokin. Il a noté que la dynamique sociale de l'histoire est une chaîne de paradigmes sociaux qu'il appelait idéationnelle, idéaliste, et sensualiste. L'idéation est la domination absolue de l'esprit sur la matière, l'ascétisme et la soumission vigoureuse du monde matériel à l'aspiration spirituelle et religieuse. Le type idéaliste est équilibré et fondé sur la coexistence harmonieuse de l'esprit et de la matière, où la partie spirituelle est légèrement dominante, mais non exclusive (comme dans le type idéationnel). Le type sensualiste de la société est la domination de la matière sur l'esprit, le corps sur l'âme. Le Marais est le type sensualiste de la société. Jusqu'à récemment, il semblait que « sensualiste » et « américain » étaient synonymes. Mais après le triomphe de Trump, tout est différent. Maintenant sensualiste signifie global et excentrique. Il y a une sorte de "translatio imperii" nulle part et partout.
Sorokin a souligné que la nature cyclique de la société suit l’unique chaîne de succession : de l'idéationnel à l'idéaliste, puis sensualiste. L'idéaliste ne peut pas succéder au sensualiste, comme il est impossible pour le Marais de se retransformer en semi-Marais. Après le Marais vient le Soleil, c'est-à-dire le Feu, l'Esprit - l'Esprit dans sa forme radicale et idéationnelle. Pour dessécher le Marais, nous avons besoin du Feu Solaire, un Grand Feu qui devrait être en abondance.
Le Marais et le Feu sont deux éléments opposés répartis à travers la terre. La géopolitique devient alors verticale. Les deux peuvent être trouvés à tout endroit. Le sens du lieu maintenant est l'élan du processus de drainage du Marais. Où ? Ici et maintenant.
Le Marais n'est plus l'hégémonie américaine car le Président de l'Amérique lui-même rejette une telle hégémonie. C'est donc l'hégémonie « tout court », l'hégémonie comme telle avec un vide purement postmoderniste au centre.
Les Etats-Unis sont l'Extrême Occident du monde. C'est l'espace de Minuit. Et là, le dernier point de la Chute est atteint. Le moment qui se déroule est celui du changement de pôles. L'Occident se transforme en Orient. Poutine et Trump sont dans les deux coins opposés de la planète. Au XXème siècle, ces deux extrêmes étaient incarnés par les formes les plus radicales de la Modernité - le capitalisme et le communisme - deux monstres apocalyptiques - le Léviathan et l’Hippopotame. Maintenant, ils se sont transformés en deux promesses eschatologiques : la Grande Russie de Poutine et l'Amérique qui se libére sous Trump. Le XXIème siècle a enfin commencé.
Donc tout ce dont nous avons besoin maintenant, c'est le Feu.
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High-fat Ketogenic Diet for Weight Loss
by Paul Fassa Health Impact News
Ever since the inception of the high-carb low-fat diet for heart health promoted in the U.S. since the 1960s, obesity has continued to climb exponentially. For over a half century, health “authorities” have claimed that consuming saturated fats would make you fat.
It’s not true.
Despite national compliance to the lipid theory for heart disease dogma from media, medicine, and government, obesity rates among the low and no-fat consumers have climbed exponentially, even among young children, and heart disease has remained the number one cause of death from disease. Fat Dogma Diminishing Slowly as Processed Carbs and Oils Truth is Revealed
Though still not popularly embraced by the public, mainstream media, and most dieticians, more and more recent evidence points to added sugars in processed low-nutrient high-calorie carbohydrate foods created with toxic phony fats as sources of arterial inflammation. Inflammation is the source of most disease, including cardiovascular and heart disease.
So, the saturated fat or lipid theory for obesity and heart disease is without scientific merit. And the synthetic fats offered as substitutes for unprocessed whole natural animal and plant fats and used in high-carb processed foods have been the source of every ailment or health disorder saturated fats were blamed for, and more.
Independent medical researchers and practitioners have recently, over the last decade or so, determined refined or processed carbs, such as table sugar and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), as major causes of obesity, metabolic disorder syndrome (aka pre-diabetes), and ultimately diabetes 2. Those two items are ubiquitous in beverages and processed foods, even the ones that don’t taste sweet, which are constantly advertised on TV.
The processed food industry has exploited fat phobia to produce most of the refined carbohydrate foods, usually prepared with partially hydrogenated trans-fatty acid oils, which have become popular among consumers since the low or no-fat dietary dogma was proclaimed.
Fully hydrogenated oils constitute margarine products. Both types of synthetically derived processed vegetable oils shower your cells with trans-fatty acids. And trans-fatty acids are considered unusual toxins by your body’s cells. Using a Ketogenic Dietary Approach for Reversing Ill Effects of Lipid Theory Misinformation
The term “ketogenic” is derived from attaching the suffix “-genic” to the word “ketone.” Ketones are produced in the liver from fat. As ketones are produced more, a state of ketosis is created. Ketosis allows fat to be converted into energy instead of storing it as fat. Ketosis even promotes reducing existing excess body fat by converting it into energy.
A ketogenic diet produces ketones in lieu of glucose for cellular energy, or if insulin is not being utilized, as is the case with insulin resistance or diabetes 2, to provide fuel for cellular energy. It’s a process produced by the liver. It’s a clean enough process to avoid fatty liver, which has also become epidemic lately. Ketosis reduces the need for insulin to metabolize glucose from carbohydrates.
Consuming smaller amounts of organic whole carbohydrates is healthy. But the processed carbohydrate foods that comprise the majority of SAD (Standard American Diet) consumers are nutritionally void and filled with toxic strangers to our cells and are stored as fat to isolate their toxicity. Eventually, the stored toxins are secreted from those fats, creating autoimmune illnesses.
One of the most efficient saturated fats for ketosis is virgin coconut oil. Instead of long chain triglycerides that most other healthy fats contain, coconut oil is comprised of medium chain triglycerides, which are most easily converted into ketones.
So consuming healthy fats, not trans-fat substitutes, and cutting back considerably on processed or refined carbohydrates is proving to increase health and reduce obesity and all the problems associated with it, including diabetes and heart disease.
Most of us have mistakenly assumed the ketogenic diet for weight loss is a spinoff of the Atkins Diet for weight loss – lots of meat, nothing else. The popularized Paleo diet over this last decade has also been associated with ketogenic dieting.
But factually, the ketogenic diet is high fat, moderate protein, low carbohydrate diet. The ketogenic diet is the original diet which was started in the 1920s at Johns Hopkins Hospital to cure children of epileptic seizures where drugs were not effective. Most modern-day versions of a low-carb diet, such as Atkins, Paleo, etc., are some version of this original ketogenic diet.
The low carbohydrate aspect of the ketogenic diet should include only unrefined carbohydrate foods, unprocessed and fully intact with their nutrients. The standard American diet (SAD) is overwhelmed with refined flours and sugars and toxic factory farm meats.
Swedish diet doctor Andreas Eenfeldt, M.D., explains that consuming too much whole protein animal foods, especially meat, can lead to excess protein. This excess protein easily converts into more glucose in the body and raises your insulin levels. This compromises optimal ketosis.
Most vegetarians assume that a ketogenic diet is not for them. They fail to recognize that nuts, avocados, cold pressed avocado and olive oil, and coconut oil are plant based. Fudging with non-meat animal products such as real butter from grass fed cows or eggs from truly free range chickens is another route toward ketosis. Fat doesn’t have to be from bacon, though many low-carb dieters lean that way. Recent Science Contradicts Bogus Science of Fat Consumption Creating Obesity
This past year (2016), two studies have confirmed what Health Impact News has known for well over a decade: Eating whole healthy fats, even saturated fats, is healthy and reduces body fat, eliminating the precursor to diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. (Source)
One study dealt with obese subjects divided into two groups, both were put on very low calorie ketogenic (VLCK) diets. The researchers purpose was to determine what effects supplementing the test group with DHA omega 3 to determine the effects of omega-3 fatty acids.
Keep in mind that omega-3 fatty acids are derived directly from fish fats and other animal sources as well as indirectly from flax and chia seeds. It’s a healthy type of fat.
They discovered that after six months, both groups lost almost the same amount of weight, averaging around 20 kg (44 lbs), and both groups demonstrated similar changed “biological parameters,” such as stable insulin levels, lower triglycerides, LDL cholesterol, C-reactive protein, and increased leptin among other more esoterically labeled markers. What they were looking for in the DHA omega-3 group was discovered by concluding the DHA omega-3 group had better anti-inflammatory markings.
But the ketogenic diet alone produced the same effect without the improvement of anti-inflammatory markers from DHA omega-3 fatty acid supplementing. Combining a ketogenic diet with omega-3 supplementing seems like a great idea. (Source)
Another 2016 study that focused on whether weight loss from a ketogenic diet was mostly from fat mass and not muscle mass had similar weight reductions of 20 kg (44 lbs) in less time, four months. Amazing!
The researchers concluded: “The VLCK (very low calorie ketogenic) diet-induced weight loss was mainly at the expense of FM [fat mass] and visceral mass [fat surrounding organs], preserving muscle mass and strength (emphasis added).” (Source)
So there you have it, a summary of the apparent paradox of high-fat dieting to lose body fat, prevent diabetes, and protect heart health. There’s much more available at Health Impact News . Time to wake up from that low-fat diet dogma that has ruined the health of millions of its adherents.
Comment on this article at CoconutOil.com.
Sources: | 0 |
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SAN FRANCISCO — For over a year and a half, Yahoo has been tormented by a prominent activist investor who has criticized virtually everything about the company, from its business strategy to its efforts to sell major assets. Now that hedge fund, Starboard Value, is finally getting a seat at the embattled Internet company’s table, heading off a potentially distracting fight and perhaps easing the way for a potential sale of its core business. Yahoo said on Wednesday that it had given four director seats to Starboard, ending the activist investor’s campaign to unseat the company’s entire board. One of those seats will go to Starboard’s chief executive, Jeffrey C. Smith, who will also join a special board committee overseeing the company’s sale process. “We look forward to getting started right away and working closely with management and our fellow board members with the common goal of maximizing value for all shareholders,” Mr. Smith said in a statement. The move may let Yahoo focus more on its sales efforts while also quieting one of the company’s biggest and most persistent gadflies, since Starboard must now refrain from public criticism. The company had engaged two sets of bankers over the last several months: some to run defense against Starboard, others to supervise the auction. Giving those seats to Starboard may also remove some additional doubts about the seriousness of Yahoo’s intent in exploring a sale, a process that several people involved have described as messy and confusing. The hedge fund had latched on to those concerns as part of its activism campaign. As part of the settlement, two existing directors will step down, leaving the board at 11 members. Coupled with the two new directors appointed by Yahoo last month, more than half of the company’s board will be new this year. The other new additions to the board are Tor R. Braham, a former technology investment banker at Deutsche Bank Eddy W. Hartenstein, a director of Tribune Publishing and former chief executive of The Los Angeles Times and Richard S. Hill, chairman of Tessera Technologies. At the same time that a settlement has been reached, Yahoo and its board are still combing through the preliminary bids received last week. Among them were proposals from Verizon Communications, seen as the early leader in the sales process, and from investment firms like TPG Capital, Silver Lake and a consortium led by Bain Capital and Vista Equity Partners. Removing Starboard’s threat of a board fight might mean that Yahoo no longer feels compelled to complete its sales process before its next annual shareholder meeting. The agreement with Starboard says Yahoo must hold its meeting by June 30. Still, company executives have expressed confidence in the speed of the process, and Mr. Smith is likely to keep pressing for a timely conclusion. Hopes for a deal have helped lift Yahoo’s stock price more than 11 percent so far this year. But investors largely shrugged off the agreement on Wednesday, and shares closed down 0. 43 percent. For investors, little matters more now than whether Yahoo can find a buyer for its core Internet business, including its huge sports, finance and mail arms. A weak quarterly earnings report last week, in which sales fell 11 percent, underscored the continuing troubles that have plagued the company. Despite its huge presence in the early days of the web, Yahoo has steadily lost ground to newer competitors like Google and Facebook, leaving it to grasp for solutions to turn around its business. A succession of chief executives, the latest being the Google veteran Marissa Mayer, have failed to find an effective answer. That has drawn a number of activist investors over the years that have sought to shake up the company. Before Starboard it was Third Point, the firm run by the billionaire Daniel S. Loeb, who successfully ousted Ms. Mayer’s predecessor and called for the hiring of the Google engineer. But Ms. Mayer’s various initiatives have not panned out. In September 2014, Starboard — a roughly firm with a growing reputation as a successful activist investor — emerged, leading with criticism of the company’s strategy. Starboard and Mr. Smith later added criticism of how Yahoo planned to sell its remaining stake in the Alibaba Group of China and, eventually, Ms. Mayer’s overall performance, to their complaints. Little love has been lost between the two sides in the last year and a half, with Ms. Mayer believing Starboard to be a nuisance and disrespectful and Mr. Smith publicly calling for the ouster of Yahoo’s board. The relationship took a further hit last month when Yahoo filled two board seats hours before the company was set to sit down with Starboard. But both sides continued to work on reaching a settlement, which has become more and more common in corporate America as companies and activists alike seek to avoid the expense and uncertainty of running a proxy fight. While corporate boards initially viewed such as threats to be fought, they have increasingly opened up and offered director seats to end hostilities. Starboard won seats on Wednesday not only at Yahoo but also at Marvell Technologies, a chip maker that the hedge fund had fought against for only a few months. At Marvell, the activist investor won four board seats and will have a say in the selection of the company’s next chief executive. Some on the receiving end of Starboard’s campaigns have eventually formed cordial relationships with the hedge fund. One of the new Yahoo directors who had been proposed by Starboard, Mr. Hill, was on Tessera’s board when that company battled against the activist investor three years ago. The alternative could be far worse. Starboard, for instance, ousted the entire board of Darden Restaurants, the parent of the Olive Garden chain, after rallying fellow investors unhappy with the company’s financial performance. “This constructive resolution will allow management and the board to keep our focus on our extremely important objectives,” Ms. Mayer said in a statement on Wednesday. “Management is looking forward to working with the entire board, including the new directors, to maximize shareholder value. ” Giving activist investors a role in the boardroom also helps to silence them, since such settlements — like the one at Yahoo — include nondisparagement clauses that prohibit these firms from publicly criticizing their companies. | 1 |
A container ship, Cosco Shipping Panama, on Sunday became the first commercial vessel to successfully cross the Panama Canal’s newly expanded locks, a historic achievement that Panama hopes will keep the canal as relevant in this century as it was in the last. Panama built the expanded locks, without help from other governments, because the newer ships that increasingly carry the world’s cargo are too large to fit in the old canal. Seventy heads of state were invited to watch Cosco Shipping’s inaugural passage through the canal’s six massive locks — three on the Atlantic side, where the ship entered shortly after dawn, and three on the Pacific side, where the dignitaries patiently waited. Much of the ship’s transit was televised live to the nation and the world. Once the container ship successfully entered the first lock in mostly sunny, calm conditions, its passage was halted for speeches, sermons and exchanges of memorabilia. Panamanians who went to watch the maiden passage cheered, and bands played. As the ship made its way through the Atlantic locks, a serious accident — not related to the operation of the expanded canal — occurred near the Pacific side of the isthmus in the common waterway shared by ships passing through the old canal. The accident, involving a tugboat and an unidentified small ship, did not occur inside the old canal’s locks. The canal authority said in a statement that 21 people had received medical attention, including four who were injured seriously enough to be taken by ambulances to a private hospital. The four were in stable condition, and the cause of the accident was under investigation, according to the statement. Accidents of this severity are uncommon at the canal, which has operated with rarely a false note for more than a hundred years. The expanded canal opened amid questions about its viability due to water availability and changes in shipping patterns. It opened nearly two years late, missing the 100th anniversary of the opening of the original canal, which was built by the United States. President Jimmy Carter signed a treaty in 1977 turning the canal over to the Panamanians, although the actual transfer did not occur until 1999. The ultimate cost of the project is not yet known because contractors have filed claims against the canal authority for an additional $3. 4 billion — more than the cost of the original lock expansion project. A consortium of companies from Spain, Italy, Belgium and Panama won the contract with a $3. 1 billion bid — a billion less than the bid. | 1 |
By Isaac Davis How is the government going to get people to pay their taxes if the government is not viewed as legitimate? ~ Catherine... | 0 |
Tuesday on NBC’s “The Tonight Show,” comedian Chris Rock offered details about the final party thrown at the White House by Barack Obama. Rock described the scene to fellow “Saturday Night Live” alum and “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon as having “died and went to black heaven. ” “Everybody was there,” Rock said. “It was like — whoa, the last party at the White House. First of all, have you been to the White House? It’s amazing. You walk in. You see these humongous portraits of the presidents everywhere you go, right? So I’m there, and it’s me and Jay Z, Beyoncé, Oprah — it’s like I died and went to black heaven. ” “There were a few white people there, too,” he continued. “You know, a couple — Kid Rock or somebody. And, somebody — Katie Couric, something. There was a couple. There’s a lot more now, I’ll tell you that. And so — there’s a lot more now. ” After “mingling,” as he described it, he talked about his encounter with lady Michelle Obama. “At one point, it’s me and Michelle Obama just talking,” Rock explained. “I’m not really supposed to be alone with Michelle Obama. That’s not really my lane. I don’t know how to talk politics. And you now, Michelle Obama is like, ‘I don’t know what we’re going to do for the country,’ and we’re talking the election and stuff. ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen. This is such a crazy time.’ And I go, ‘You’ll be alright. ’” After telling her she’d be a candidate for a job on “The View” or “The Real Housewive,” Rock said she steered him back on she had to explain to him she was talking about the country. “Michelle Obama looks at me and was like, ‘I was talking about the country. I wasn’t talking about me. I was talking about the country,’” he added. “I’d never felt so stupid in my life. It’s like my GED flared up. ” Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor | 1 |
Must be impeach of a hand page: 1 link Mingling through some thoughts tonight on thoughts of current events and the next president. No matter who wins, there will be plenty of baggage being brought into the White House. Between tapes and recordings being uncovered to Wikileaks and Project Veritas, corruption and ethical immoralities run deep in both candidates. The drips and leaks from both ends of the mudpit seem to be coming to a fever pitch. Will it end on Nov.9 or will there still be more. Could each side be holding on to a real key piece of damning material to have our future POTUS impeached? This brings up the choices of VP. Kaine and Pence. Now I could just be a tad ignorant here, but I've never heard of either one of them. I understand that they've had minor roles in government however the choices struck me as odd. Were these two possibly chosen for them? Are they the backup plan? | 0 |
Lindsay Lohan’s Strange Accent: Another Telling Sign of a Mind Control Slave November 3, 2016 94
A video of Lindsay Lohan giving an interview with a strange accent has lead to wild speculation from fans and media. However, to those in the know, this is yet another telling symptom of MK programming, from someone who has already displayed many other symptoms.
There’s a difference between speaking with a funny accent as a joke and speaking with a completely different speech pattern in all seriousness. One is the result of goofing around and the other is the result an alter-persona. - Advertisement -
Lohan’s new accent was noticed while giving an interview to a reporter in Greece. Here’s the video.
Lindsay, who is mainly based in England and Greece and was recently in a relationship with a Russian billionaire (MK handler?), was explaining to the journalist about why she has opened up a Nightclub in Athens called Lohan. After a Daily Mail article on the subject, Lohan “joked” and gave her accent (and alter-persona) a name: Lilohan.
As stated in previous articles, victims of Mind Control are programmed with alter personas that have their own history, identity and accent (read my full article on Monarch Programming here ). The programming is so pervasive that the same person can speak different languages with different accents effortlessly – while the core persona cannot. For this reason, the spontaneous yet constant usage of a different accent is one of the main tell-tale signs of MK programming. And Lindsay Lohan has been identified her, on Vigilant Citizen, to be a Beta Kitten slave a long time ago. The entertainment industry has been very keen on proving this fact through symbolic pictures. Lindsay posed countless times as Marilyn Monroe who is the prototype of Beta Kitten Programming. In this photo by Tyler Shields, Lindsay lays on a bed while men get undressed. One cannot come up with a more graphic way of portraying the life of Beta Kitten slaves. Industry slaves must work with creepy photographers such as Terry Richardson. Bonus industry slave sign: One Eye sign. In another shoot with Terry Richardson, Lohan appears genuinely traumatized.
In past years, Lohan has floated in and out of rehab (aka re-programming) while increasingly appearing to be “out of it”.
Another famous person who has been displaying the same Beta Kitten symptoms is Britney Spears. Here’s an article about her speaking with a different accent in 2008 – around the time of her infamous head-shaving meltdown. Britney Spears Lapses Into a British Accent
Britney Spears has a new accessory to go with her pink wig: a British accent.
In the last several weeks, Spears, 26, has been videotaped numerous times trading her Louisiana twang for U.K. inflections.
“She had the English accent thing going the whole time” while shopping at Kitson last Thursday, according to a source. “It didn’t stop.”
Even when angry, the accent appears. On an L.A. shopping trip to Macy’s on Jan. 13, she screamed at the paparazzi, “Get out of my G—— face!” – in a British accent.
So is it all in fun or has she flipped her pink wig?
“When someone has dissociative identity disorder” – formerly known as multiple personality disorder – “each identity is split off from the other,” says L.A. psychologist Renee A. Cohen, who is not treating Spears. “Each identity would have its own name, memories, behavioral traits and emotional characteristics.”
Cohen says the critical question is: “When Britney uses the British accent, or appears to take on another identity, does she know she’s Britney Spears?”
“Otherwise, she could simply be behaving this way for attention, for sympathy, or any other reason,” adds Cohen. “It’s foolish to attempt to diagnose her without a formal evaluation.”
One possible influence could be Spears’s maternal grandmother, Lilian Bridges, who was originally from England.
Also, Spears’s new beau, photographer Adnan Ghalib, grew up in Birmingham, England.
According to paparazzi who trail the singer around the clock, one thing is for sure: the pink wig means something’s changing.
“When she puts on the pink wig, you just know something crazy is about to happen,” said one paparazzo.
– Source: People.com
While media is wondering what kind of accent Lindsay was speaking with (sounds Greek to me), we should rather wonder: Why would a 30 year old woman speak, in all seriousness, with a strange accent and a completely different speech pattern? Most of the time it is the result of a multiple-personality disorder (MPD) – which is a symptom of Monarch mind control. It is there, right in our face, but very few are actually seeing it. TAGS | 0 |
By Lizzie Bennett Some Life-Saving Advice About Mylar Emergency Blankets: And 28 Alternative Uses for Them As it’s getting colder it’s a good time to revisit the uses of mylar blankets in survival... | 0 |
A bill proposed by a U. S. representative from Pennsylvania will cut off all federal funding to state, county and local jurisdictions with sanctuary policies. [“Not one cent,” Representative Lou Barletta ( ) told Breitbart Texas in an interview on Thursday morning. “These mayors, sheriffs, and state leaders are thumbing their noses at federal immigration law. The only way to stop them is to hit them in their pocketbooks. ” He said the leaders of these sanctuary jurisdictions are not just choosing to violate federal law, “they’re bragging about it in press conferences. ” Mayors across the country have been lining up in droves to declare themselves sanctuary cities, Breitbart Texas reported in November 2016. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said, “Chicago always will be a sanctuary city,” NPR reported. “To all those who are, after Tuesday’s election, very nervous and filled with anxiety … you are safe in Chicago, you are secure in Chicago and you are supported in Chicago. ” His comments come in the face of the city’s massive crime and murder rates. By the end of the year, Chicago would approach 800 murders by the end of 2016. In Texas, a newly sheriff, dubbed by her opponent in the race with the moniker “Sanctuary Sally,” told the Travis County budget director she would no longer be able to certify her department was in compliance with laws requiring cooperation with immigration officials. The move will put her department, and county residents, at risk of losing $1. 8 million in state funding. Federal funding could also be stripped under existing law. “This is a perfect example,” Barletta told Breitbart Texas. “They’re making a mockery of our laws. ” Barletta said his bill, the Mobilizing Against Sanctuary Cities Act, H. R. 83 (attached below) strengthens the current law, 8 U. S. C. § 1373, being used to strip law enforcement grants from sanctuary jurisdictions. “My bill will enhance this by stripping all federal funds — not one cent. ” Representative John Culberson ( ) worked with the DOJ throughout 2016 to force the department to certify the sanctuary jurisdictions and use this existing law to cut off their funds for grants awarded in 2017. “When I originally introduced this bill in my first session, there were 80 cities that were considered sanctuary cities,” the congressman said. “Now that number has grown to more than 300 because we didn’t do anything about it when there were only 80. We’re putting the American people in danger. ” He cited the murder of Kate Steinle in San Francisco as an example of a sanctuary city putting Americans’ lives at risk. Steinle was murdered in July 2015 by an illegal immigrant who had been released from jail months earlier by the sheriff who refused to honor an immigration detainer. He had previously been deported five times. Since that time, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee doubled down on his city’s sanctuary status. “San Francisco is a sanctuary city and will not waiver in its commitment to protect the rights of all its residents,” Lee told local reporters. A frustrated Barletta said, “It’s time to stop talking about it and start taking action against these sanctuary cities. ” “The good in this bill,’ he explained, “is that if we stop these cities now, there might not be any more Kate Steinles. ” “Until we do, there will continue to be more Kate Steinles — more Americans killed at the hands of illegal aliens that should have been deported after being in jail,” Barletta said. “Everyone will be outraged, but we will know we could have done something about it. ” His bill awaits a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee chaired by Rep. Bob Goodlate ( ) before it can move to the House floor for a vote. Chairman Goodlatte has been harshly critical of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over sanctuary cities. “While I agree that sanctuary city policies are unacceptable, it’s hypocritical for Secretary Johnson to criticize sanctuary cities while at the same time refusing to take the steps necessary to end these reckless policies,” Goodlatte said to outgoing DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson during a hearing in September 2015. Barletta concluded. “To me, there’s no gray area here — Right is right, wrong is wrong, and illegal is illegal. ” Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX. Mobilizing Against Sanctuary Cities Act — H. R. 83 by Bob Price on Scribd, | 1 |
An play that paints an ominous picture of a Trump America is shutting down in New York City after struggling to build an audience in the liberal city. [Building the Wall, written by Tony playwright Robert Schenkkan, is closing a month early, the play’s producer Jeffrey Richards told the New York Times. Schenkkan took to Twitter Friday to announce the play’s “final performances this weekend,” ahead of its original July 9 end date: Final performances this weekend for @BLDGtheWallNYC at New @newworldstages! Come see @TheRealTTunie and @JamesBadgeDale burn it up! — ROBERT SCHENKKAN (@ROBERTSCHENKKAN) June 2, 2017, The political thriller, according to the Times, follows a history professor named Gloria (Tamara Tunie) who interviews a former security officer named Rick (James Badge Gale). It’s 2019, and President Donald Trump has been removed from office after a terrorist attack in Times Square forces him to declare martial law and place Muslims and Mexicans in containment camps — which eventually turn into killing chambers. Gloria visits Rick in prison, where he explains his hand in the deadly terror. The play received a series of negative reviews, which Richards said contributed to its early shutdown. “Our author built a powerful play however, during this Tony Awards season and during a season which has not been kind to straight plays, we were unable to build an audience,” he said. “It is especially difficult to do so when you are Off Broadway. ” One Times review said the “hastily” written play “hobbles” along, crippled by “familiar ideas” like a prison interview. Schenkkan, who has been openly critical of President Trump, says the play took him just one week to write in what he described as a “ fury” after the election. “We no longer live in a world that is business as usual — Trump has made that very clear — and if theater is going to remain relevant, we must become faster to respond,” Schenkkan told the Times. “We cannot hope to be useful if we can’t respond until 18 months after the fact. ” Despite its early closing, Richards said the play has been extended in Los Angeles, and there are new production rehearsals underway in Chicago, Miami, and Santa Fe. Other productions have been scheduled for Austria, Canada, Iran, and Mexico. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson. | 1 |
Email (Rawalpindi, Islamic Republic of Pakistan)-- President Vladimir Putin in a rare interview with Asia Times revealed that Moscow offered a comprehensive roadmap to solve Kashmir's crisis which has festered for decades. The Russian proposal supports self-determination to the inhabitants of the disputed Jammu and Kashmir, based on a choice of three courses to be voted on in a referendum within four years after the establishment of peace. "It is unrealistic to expect the Muslim population to accept the idea of integration into India. We support the inalienable right of Kashmiri people to determine their future. A UN-sponsored ceasefire is needed," the state-run Asia Time quoted Mr. Putin as saying, adding, the Indian army disguised as Hindu zealots are indiscriminately targeting Muslim civilians. The main anti-Indian Kashmiri opposition party, widely known as Azad Kashmir (Free Kashmir), has recently reopened its political office in Moscow after five years when Russia suddenly severed all its ties with the Muslim separatists. "Indian army acts as ruthless bandits, though we seek a permanent solution to the conflict in Kashmir. UN must hold a plebiscite in those disputed areas to determine the wishes of Kashmiris on the final disposition of their state. I hope both side--Indianans and Pakistanis--eventually reach a mutual understanding and agree on reasonable term to end this bloodshed. | 0 |
After suffering its most dangerous year for decades, Chicago is already on track for an even worse year of bloodshed, murder, and crime as Tuesday counted seven dead in a single day. The victims included a pregnant woman. [Just after 9 PM on February 22, Chicago police found a man and a pregnant woman shot in the city’s Chatham neighborhood, Chicago’s WGN TV reported. The man was found shot in a parked car and the woman was discovered lying on a sidewalk. The victims were taken to a nearby hospital but both were pronounced dead. The male shooting victim was a known gang member. The name of the female victim is not being released. Thus far this year, Chicago has already suffered 99 homicides with 94 of those deaths by firearm. 2017 is also already ahead of 2016 with over 400 shooting victims. By the end of February last year the city saw only 202 shootings with 46 dead. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com. | 1 |
President Donald Trump signaled his willingness to take on North Korea, regardless of whether China was willing to help the United States. [“If China is not going to solve North Korea, we will. That is all I am telling you,” Trump said in an interview with the Financial Times. When asked if he could do it without China’s help, Trump replied, “Totally. ” Trump’s remarks signal a tough stance on the rogue nation ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit at this weekend. In recent years, American presidents looked to China to help contain the threat posed by North Korea. “China has great influence over North Korea and China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won’t,” Trump said. “And if they do that will be very good for China, and if they don’t it won’t be good for anyone. ” North Korea routinely conducted weapons tests during the Obama administration, but officials took a policy of “strategic patience. ” Trump’s Secretary of State Rex Tillerson signaled that things would change in the new administration. “Let me be very clear: the policy of strategic patience has ended,” Tillerson said during a news conference in South Korea last month. “We are exploring a new range of security and diplomatic measures. All options are on the table. ” | 1 |
October 29, 2016 - By Eduard Popov for Fort Russ - translated by J. Arnoldski -
For the first time since the Cold War, the “Russian question” has become an important part of the debates between US presidential candidates. In turn, Russia is highly interested in a favorable outcome of the elections in the United States. In Russia itself, discussion has long been raging over which one of the US presidential candidates is better for Russia’s interests: Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton?
Russian society’s sympathy undoubtedly belongs to Donald Trump, as Clinton has a high disapproval rating given her personal qualities and approach to Russia. If she is elected president of the United States, then she will likely become the most unpopular head of the White House in Russian public opinion.
The “Russian question” is part of a more global question of the new world system in which the US is losing its status as the world’s sole superpower. Russia is playing an important role in changing the American Empire’s status, perhaps even a leading one. But the American crisis is even more comprehensive and goes far beyond Russia’s influence. A Russia dreaming of returning its former imperial greatness is less to blame for the fall of the US’ imperial influence than the irrationality of the American elites themselves.
Russia survived two collapses in the 20th century consequential of internal factors. The two Russian revolutions of the 20th century (1917 and 1991) were the result of a low quality of the ruling class and the undermining of their authority in society. The external factor was important, but still only a subsidiary cause of the collapse of the government and society. I believe that America is facing a similar crisis.
As the author of these lines was told 10 years ago by an astute and recognized scholar, a former citizen of the USSR who emigrated to the US in the early 1990’s, America is today undergoing the same wrenching transformations that the Soviet Union experienced in the Perestroika period. This scholar’s view of the future of his new homeland was exclusively pessimistic - he believed that the US would not cope with its own restructuring primarily because of the unsuitability of its own elites.
Of course, my opinion as a person who knows little of America and the opinion of the more knowledgeable above-mention citizen are only personal ones. But the emergence of the phenomenon of Donald Trump is not a detail, but an objective consequences of the deep crisis of the American system.
The Trump phenomenon demonstrates at least two critical factors: (1) the complete alienation of the American elites (or as the Czech communist ideologist Dr. Skala says, the American ‘nomenklatura’) from the people, and (2) the American nomenklatura’s complete loss of touch with reality. Both are painfully reminiscent of the situation in the USSR before Perestroika.
The late Soviet elites (the ‘nomenklatura,’ as they were pejoratively called in society) turned into a closed caste. Even though, in my opinion, they were still more democratic than the current American elite, the Soviet nomenklatura sacrificed the interests of real modernization of the country’s social-economic system and ideology for the sake of pursuing geopolitical phantoms. Perhaps I am wrong, but such "false idols" prevail in the minds of the current American nomenklatura even more.
In the US, factories are closing, migration is growing, Mexico is slowly realizing a Reconquista (the return of their lands in the southwestern states of the US that were annexed as a result of an unjust war), and all of this is happening against the backdrop of imperial overstretch. The US is striving to control not only its backyard, Latin America (which is being actively penetrated by Chinese capital, another manifestation of the phantom thinking of the American nomenklatura), but also Ukraine, for which Russia is ready to fight to the last breath.
America does not have the strength for this. But the American nomenklatura does not have the slightest interest in taking care of things at home and concentrating on domestic issues. Continuing American expansion is akin to Trotsky’s permanent revolution. Such is intriguing and vivid, while home repairs and cleaning toilets is infinitely boring and tedious.
This is why the US presidential elections will be won by the political lunatic and American Trotskyist, Hillary Clinton, who does not strive for realism or call for cleaning the Augean stables like Donald Trump does.
Obviously, for Russia it is better to deal with a US government which defends its own national interests, not phantoms of pseudo-democracy and its declining imperial power. But little depends on Russia’s opinion. Therefore, it is advisable to prepare for and objectively observe the course of the fight whose outcome is practically a foregone conclusion.
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LOS ANGELES — Aging fanboys and enthusiasm from critics propelled “Logan,” an “ ” spinoff, to a fat $85. 3 million in domestic ticket sales over the weekend. “The Shack,” aimed at religious audiences, also got off to a strong start, but the Academy Awards did not drive the multiplex masses into “Moonlight. ” Starring Hugh Jackman as the Wolverine, “Logan” was an effort by 20th Century Fox to freshen the superhero genre by pushing into “raw, ugly violence,” as Manohla Dargis, a chief movie critic for The New York Times, wrote in her review. To its benefit, she said, the film “doesn’t play like a retread or an ad for the next installment. ” That was the bull’s eye for which Fox was aiming: Having been fed one superhero sequel after another — Mr. Jackman has been playing Wolverine for 17 years — audiences (in particular, a core fan base that has aged) are demanding that studios get more creative. Fox got the message last year, when its daring “Deadpool” broke box office records and its rather rote “ : Apocalypse” underperformed. Fox booked “Logan” into 4, 071 theaters, a large number for an film. “Logan,” which cost roughly $100 million to make, not including marketing costs, collected an additional $152. 5 million overseas. For the weekend in North America, the horror movie “Get Out” (Universal) was second, collecting about $26. 1 million, for a total of $76 million, according to comScore, which compiles data. “The Shack” (Lionsgate) starring Octavia Spencer as God and based on William P. Young’s novel of the same name, was third, arriving at about $16. 1 million in ticket sales, more than industry analysts had predicted before its release. “The Shack” may have been dismissed by most critics, but viewers gave it an A grade in CinemaScore exit polls, suggesting that it will ride to solid ticket sales in the weeks to come. Lionsgate, which has been on a box office roll, spent a little over $20 million to make “The Shack,” backing it with an aggressive marketing campaign. Despite its win at the Oscars, “Moonlight” (A24) only collected about $2. 5 million from more than 1, 500 theaters, its widest release yet, for a new total of $25. 4 million. On the plus side, A24 said that “Moonlight” was a top seller on platforms. It was also released on DVD on Tuesday. | 1 |
Editor’s note: This article was first published in 2014. Its general guidance, however, is still true. One of the pleasures of being an economics writer is that friends and acquaintances routinely ask me: “Should I buy a house?” And my answer is always the same: “I have no idea. ” It is not for lack of familiarity with ratios or the benefits of the mortgage interest deduction. Anyone who wants to do a financial analysis on whether to rent or buy a home should go to our new calculator, an excellent tool for doing just that. But the result, no matter how carefully and clearheadedly you approach the exercise, is more a starting point than a conclusion about your optimal living situation. It will give you a good look at the financial dimensions of your decision. But housing is about quite a bit more. In 2008, I bought a condominium in Washington. I made the purchase after years of thought, and after building a spreadsheet that modeled the costs and benefits — an unnecessarily complex tool to do what our new calculator simplifies and automates. It was terrifying, plopping down basically the entirety of my savings and taking on a mortgage that was a multiple of my annual salary. It has worked out fine for me, but for reasons that had nothing to do with any of the stuff I was able to build into that spreadsheet. The factors underlying our calculator, where you can adjust assumptions, are important. But you also need to think deeply about these five other things that don’t easily plug into that financial model. How much is permanence worth to you? One of the nonfinancial benefits of buying a home is that you know you can live in it indefinitely. You don’t have to worry that the landlord will raise your rent 20 percent, or demolish the building to turn it into something else. You can renovate the kitchen or paint the shutters according to your preference and yours alone. (O. K. maybe a historic preservation board or homeowners association may have some say, but you are pretty much on your own). So what is that worth to you? This is a question that defies any attempt to analyze using a spreadsheet. It is purely a question of your preferences and priorities in life. How confident are you that you will want to stay? One of the biggest factors shaping the desirability of buying versus renting is how long you will stay in a place. Given the huge costs, both financial and psychic, of selling a house, it is generally a far better deal to buy if you will live in a place for a decade than if you will be moving in three years. But simply putting your best guess of how long you will stay gives you a limited view of things. We all actually have a range of possibilities. What are the odds that a year from now you will get offered a dream job in London, or meet the love of your life who already has a great place, or conversely go through a or divorce? Our best plans are still only guesses, but some people are more settled and less likely to have a sudden move than others (a person who is absolutely committed to staying in his or her current city, for example, or a happily married couple with all the children they want). Be honest with yourself about how settled, or unsettled, your future living situation really is. How confident are you about your future income? One of the advantages of renting is that if your earning power suddenly changes, it is relatively easy to adjust your living situation accordingly. Lose your job and have to take a pay cut to find a new one? That isn’t much fun, but it’s less painful if it results in moving into a smaller apartment rather than having your house foreclosed upon and your credit wrecked. That’s all a case for being conservative when thinking about your future earnings. If you earn a commission or bonus, how variable is it? Don’t assume that one good year will be repeated forever. Do you work in an industry that is healthy and growing, or one in which layoffs are happening all the time? If you lost your job, how hard would it be to find a new one, and would you probably be paid more or less than you are now? The more confident you are in your future earnings, the more comfortable you should be taking on that home mortgage. Can you force yourself to save? As my colleague Josh Barro has pointed out, one of the real, if underappreciated, benefits of buying a home is that it forces you to save. A typical mortgage pays itself off bit by bit over the 15 or 30 years you are making payments. With modest appreciation in the value of the home, at the inflation rate or a little bit above, people who buy a house in their 30s and stay there can end up with quite a valuable asset, debt free, in their 60s. But there’s no reason you can’t also save while renting a home. You have the money that would otherwise have been your down payment as a starting point, and then you can easily transfer a few hundred dollars each month into a brokerage account and put the money into stocks, which historically have higher returns than residential real estate. But will you? One risk for people who elect to rent is that they could lack the discipline to save that way, and so could find themselves at retirement age owning neither a home nor a brokerage account. If you know you’re tempted to spend every last dollar in your paycheck, buying could provide some extra advantage. Can you accept that the future is unknowable? A month after I closed on my condo, there was a global financial crisis. Property prices plummeted — if I had needed to sell in 2009, I would have lost a bundle. But the downturn also led to an era of ultralow interest rates that allowed me to refinance a couple of times to reduce my monthly payment. And while the national job market has been miserable, I never lost my job. Meanwhile, Washington, with its influx of federal dollars, rebounded faster than most of the country. My neighborhood in particular continued its upswing and is more expensive than it was in 2008. I foresaw none of that. Most of the numbers in my complicated spreadsheet were all wrong, but it worked out anyway. I was lucky. The point is that the world is messy. In deciding whether to buy a home, we can never have perfect visibility into what the years ahead will bring. All home buyers can do is make sure they are buying a place that they can afford — with a sensible price relative to the alternative of renting — and that they can see themselves living in for many years. Because you can’t know the future, concentrate on the things you can know, about the finances of a potential purchase and your own personality, and leap accordingly. | 1 |
Hillary Clinton compared herself to DC Comics superhero Wonder Woman Tuesday in a video message, which aired at the Women in Film Los Angeles’ Crystal + Lucy Awards in Beverly Hills. [Clinton began by thanking Women in Film for its “commitment to lifting up women directors, producers, writers, composers and executives. ” Then the former Democratic presidential nominee suggested that she and Wonder Woman were both on a quest to “save the world. ” “Now I haven’t seen Wonder Woman yet, but I’m going to, in part because it’s directed by the fabulous Patty Jenkins,” Clinton said in the video. “But something tells me that a movie about a strong, powerful woman fighting to save the world from a massive international disaster is right up my alley. ” Clinton’s taped video remarks were meant to honor actress Elizabeth Banks, who ripped President Donald Trump and stumped for Clinton last year at the Democratic National Convention. “She is such a special person, again, on screen and off,” Clinton said of her friend Banks. “You’re not only a creative force in front of the camera and behind it, you are a passionate advocate for women’s equality and opportunity I can vouch for that. ” During surprise video to honor @ElizabethBanks, @HillaryClinton offers desire to see @WonderWomanFilm @PattyJenks #CrystalLucys @WomenInFilm pic. twitter. — Chris Gardner (@chrissgardner) June 14, 2017, The Pitch Perfect director and star produced a “Fight Song” music video that premiered during the second day of the Democratic National Convention in July of last year. A week before Election Day, Banks appeared in another video meant to persuade Americans to vote for Clinton. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @JeromeEHudson | 1 |
While Americans are applauding President Trump’s turn from the immigration and border security policies of the Obama years, the president should take time to correct a grievous mistake from the Bush dynasty as well. [I am speaking about the Justice Department’s prosecution — and I would add, persecution — of two Border Patrol agents, Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos. The case is a good lesson in how the vast powers of the federal government can be deployed for narrow political purposes, not the ends of justice. In February of 2005, Border Patrol officers Ramos and Compean were patrolling the Rio Grande border near Fabens, Texas. They encountered a van near the river that was behaving suspiciously, so they gave chase. The driver abandoned the vehicle and its almost load of drugs and fled on foot toward the river. Agent Compean caught up with him, and a fight ensued, but the man escaped and continued running toward the border. Agent Ramos arrived on the scene, and both of them pursued the fleeing smuggler. When they saw the man turn and wave “a shiny object” which they thought was a gun, they opened fire at him. Both agents said later they did not realize at the time that a shot had hit the smuggler in the buttocks because the man kept running and disappeared into Mexico. Weeks after the shooting occurred and as result of demands from the Mexican government, a Homeland Security Department’s inquiry was launched, and soon after that Ramos and Compean were put on trial. They were both found guilty of discharging a firearm during the commission of a violent crime! Compean received a sentence, and Ramos got 11 years. The smuggler was a Mexican named Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, who was portrayed in court testimony as not a career drug smuggler but someone who had merely consented to smuggle this single load to get money to pay his mother’s medical bills. That fairy tale was adopted not only by the smuggler and his family but also by the prosecuting U. S. Attorney to paint the drug smuggler as the innocent victim of Border Patrol brutality and criminal behavior. And get this. In exchange for his testimony against the two agents who shot him, the smuggler was given a visa to let him have easy entry into the U. S. He then used the visa to help him deliver a second load of drugs! This time it was over 750 pounds of Marijuana, and he was armed when he was caught. That arrest was never allowed to be admitted into the trial. Two Texas congressmen, Ted Poe and John Culbertson, told CNN in 2007 that the truth of the matter was that Ramos and Compean had been the victim of a by the Border Patrol’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, and that the DHS Inspector General had admitted lying to them about the case. I followed the trial closely at the time and later visited personally with Ignacio Ramos after his incarceration in a federal prison in Ohio. Earlier while in a Mississippi federal facility, he had been beaten by five Hispanic inmates who recognized him from news accounts of the trial. In July of 2007, both Senate and House committees investigated the matter. Senators Diana Feinstein and John Cornyn asked Bush for a commutation to time served and release from prison. He refused. On the last day of his Presidency, Bush agreed to the calls for commutation. Of course commuting a sentence does not wipe out the crime. Only a pardon can do that. And that is what is needed for these two men whose lives, and the lives of their families have been shattered by being held as political prisoners after a kangaroo court trial. The whole scandalous story of the malicious treatment of Ramos and Compean by U. S. government prosecutors was revealed by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher in a speech on the House floor on March 19, 2007. I am asking you to join in the effort to persuade President Trump to grant that pardon. We can start with letters and calls to the White House and sympathetic Members of Congress. Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos are not “dreamers” and do not have the mainstream media and the entire Democrat Party arguing their case they are Americans who deserve a huuuge “We are sorry and apologize for what happened to you. ” | 1 |
A large billboard on Vine Street in Hollywood depicting Netflix’s Grace and Frankie stars Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda holding purple vibrators is causing quite a stir for commuters. [“Good vibes,” reads the tagline in the giant ad, promoting the third season premiere of the popular comedy series. The billboard nearly caused a car crash for at least one L. A. motorist. “Almost rear ended someone cuz it took me too long to figure out what they were holding in this ‘Grace and Frankie’ billboard,” wrote one Twitter user. almost rear ended someone cuz it took me too long to figure out what they were holding in this ”Grace and Frankie”billboard pic. twitter. — Connieshin (@thatconnieshin) March 25, 2017, In the Netflix series, Tomlin and Fonda play two whose law partner husbands declare their love for each other and leave their wives, turning their lives upside down. The longtime friends embraced each other on a billboard for the premiere of Season 2. But given the sex plot in Season 3 — as the two women start a female sex toy business — the vibrator ad in midtown Hollywood makes sense. It makes even more sense following Netflix’s promotion of the show last week with a short clip featuring Tomlin’s Frankie dancing on the beach alongside a slew of shimmying dildos. Good vibes have arrived. All new season of Grace and Frankie now streaming on @Netflix! pic. twitter. — Grace and Frankie (@GraceandFrankie) March 24, 2017, On Monday, Tomlin and Fonda appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to promote the upcoming season. Fonda took the opportunity to pitch a business opportunity to President Donald Trump a line of adult diapers she called ‘Trumpers,” which she joked would “help with all the leaks. ” Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @JeromeEHudson | 1 |
WASHINGTON — President Trump spoke with President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority on Friday for the first time since taking office and invited him to visit the White House, opening a new avenue of diplomacy as he develops his own peace initiative for the Middle East. Mr. Trump, who presented himself last year as Israel’s greatest champion, had refused to deal directly with Palestinian officials until now. But after a White House meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, and multiple conversations with Arab leaders from the region, Mr. Trump has embarked on what he promises to be a sustained effort to break a impasse and resolve the conflict. The president has assigned Jared Kushner, his and senior adviser, and Jason Greenblatt, his top negotiator, to explore ways of bringing the two sides together in tandem with other players in the region. Mr. Greenblatt plans to follow up Friday’s telephone call between Mr. Trump and Mr. Abbas with a visit next week to the region. He will meet with Israeli officials in Jerusalem and Mr. Abbas in Ramallah, the headquarters for the Palestinian Authority that operates in the occupied West Bank. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, an adviser and spokesman for Mr. Abbas, said the two presidents spoke for about 20 minutes in English and called it “a very good conversation. ” “He invited our president to the White House and it seems like he’s ready to deal with my president to achieve a real peace,” Mr. Rudeineh said. “The president seemed very serious about a peace deal, and a man who is willing to do something on the ground and is willing to do something to end the suffering in this region. ” In a statement describing the call, the White House said, “The president emphasized his personal belief that peace is possible and that the time has come to make a deal. ” Mr. Abbas’s advisers initially expressed worry that Mr. Trump did not reach out sooner, and that he seemed deeply tilted toward Israel. For his ambassador to Israel, he nominated David M. Friedman, a lawyer and fervent supporter of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. During Mr. Netanyahu’s visit last month, Mr. Trump cast aside two decades of American support for a solution, meaning the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, saying it did not matter to him what form an agreement took as long as both sides concurred. But Mr. Trump has also moderated some of his positions since taking office. After Mr. Netanyahu announced thousands of new homes in the West Bank, Mr. Trump asked him to delay new construction, saying it would not help peace efforts. And while he promised last year to quickly move the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem despite the longstanding dispute over a city that both sides claim as a capital, he has not acted on that pledge, making clear he was rethinking it. In recent weeks, Palestinian leaders have expressed tentative optimism that Mr. Trump, however unorthodox in his approach, may in fact pursue the deal he says he wants in the Middle East. There have been contacts between intelligence organizations, including a visit to Mr. Abbas by the C. I. A. director, Mike Pompeo. “I suspect the phone call came as something of a relief for Abbas, who has been waiting anxiously for seven weeks for the administration to make political contact with the Palestinian leadership,” said Khaled Elgindy, a former adviser to the Palestinian leadership in negotiations with Israel and now a fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. ”Trump’s approach has not been terribly balanced, or even all that coherent, thus far,” he added, “but the administration seems to be returning to the standard talking points of the peace process — at least in relative terms. Whether any of this is enough to salvage the peace process or even a solution is another matter. ” | 1 |
WASHINGTON — They were young men caught between cultures, sons of immigrant families, feeling lost or rejected — and angry about wars. Online they encountered the recruiters of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, who said their first loyalty should be not to their nation but to Islam. Then they plotted sensational violence. In the weekend bombings in New York and New Jersey and stabbings at a mall in Minnesota, the suspected perpetrators fit the same rough pattern as in previous attacks at the Boston Marathon in 2013 in San Bernardino, Calif. in 2015 and in Orlando, Fla. in June, as well as in the terrorist assaults in Paris and Brussels. A rich recruiting pool for Al Qaeda and the Islamic State includes what psychologists call “” young adults whose identities have not yet solidified. Their uncertainty makes them vulnerable, said J. Reid Meloy, a forensic psychologist and clinical professor at the University of California, San Diego. “It allows the individual to attach his identity to something that is larger and inflates his sense of himself,” he said. The uncomfortable status can be especially acute for those with recent immigrant roots. Living in two cultures at once is very enriching for most people but very unsettling for others, said Lorenzo Vidino, the director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University. For some Muslim immigrants, he said, “You have a message at home that’s very conservative, and a completely different message from the society around you when you’re growing up. ” The full history of Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, the naturalized American of Afghan birth who is accused of planting bombs in Manhattan and New Jersey, is not yet known. But his 2014 arrest in an alleged stabbing in a family dispute suggests a young man adrift his scribbling in a notebook the names of Osama bin Laden, Abu Muhammad — an Islamic State leader — and Anwar the Qaeda recruiter, appeared to reflect a embrace of jihadism. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a Chechen immigrant and the older of the two Boston Marathon bombers, turned to Islamist extremism when his hopes for a boxing career dimmed. He was 26 at the time of the attack. Omar Mateen, the son of an Afghan immigrant with outspoken political views, was 29 when he opened fire at an Orlando nightclub, killing 49 people. He had been dismissed from training as a prison guard after making disturbing remarks about weapons, and ended up as a private security guard. Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, the son of immigrants from Pakistan, found work as a health inspector but had spent years searching for dates and a mate before meeting Tashfeen Malik online and marrying her in Saudi Arabia. Together, the couple attacked a luncheon attended by Mr. Farook’s colleagues last December, killing 14 people. “When you dig into these cases, you find the ‘why’ is a very complex question,” said Peter Bergen, the director of the security program at New America, a research group, and author of “United States of Jihad. ” Personal disappointment, perceptions of discrimination, anger about American foreign policy and the desire “to become a hero in one’s own story” are all at play in addition to jihadist ideology, he said. “Many of them just take their grievances and dress them up in the garb of Islam,” Mr. Bergen said. That has become easy in the age of the internet. The attackers in San Bernardino, Orlando and New York all had expressed support for the Islamic State, and they and the Boston bombers were devotees of the voluminous online work of Mr. Awlaki, who was killed in an American drone strike in 2011. His arguments remain highly popular on the web, where he urged Western Muslims to reject even the friendliest neighbors, whom he called “Sally Soccer Mom and Joe . ” Mr. Rahami wrote in his journal that “Sheikh Anwar,” as well as Mr. Adnani of the Islamic State, had “said it clearly”: “Attack the kuffar,” or “in their backyard. ” Farhad Khosrokhavar, a sociologist at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris and the author of “Radicalization,” said Muslims in Europe more often than those in America felt “frontally rejected” by the larger society. He said he had often seen in his research individuals who felt neither French nor Arab. “In France, they are blamed for not being French enough, and when they go to their parents’ country of origin, they are blamed for not being Arab enough,” Mr. Khosrokhavar said. “That double denial can push them to adhere to a radical version of Islam, as a kind of lifeline: Since I am neither French nor Arab, neither American nor Afghan, I am Muslim and to hell with you all,” he added. These roots of radicalization do not make immigrants in general a danger. In the United States, immigrants have a lower rate of crime and violence than other Americans. Converts to Islam are disproportionately represented among Americans and Europeans drawn to extremism, and other ideologies also motivate mass violence — as in the case of Dylann Roof, who was 21 when he fatally shot nine black people last year at a church in Charleston, S. C. in the name of white supremacy. “The actual content of the ideology is secondary,” said Mr. Meloy, the psychologist. “What’s important is the identification and fixation. ” But the Islamist terrorist groups target the particular anxieties of Western Muslims from immigrant backgrounds, posing recruitment as a religious loyalty test. They call on supporters to reject the nations where they live and embrace instead a devotion to the ummah, the global community of Muslims. The West is at war with Islam, they say, and you must strike out to defend your fellow Muslims. That message has been delivered with particular power by Mr. Awlaki, often reinforcing the newer propaganda efforts of the Islamic State. As an imam who counseled immigrants at three American mosques, and as a who had lived in both countries and in Britain, Mr. Awlaki understood the worries of Muslims in the West. When he joined Al Qaeda, he did his best to open a gulf between them and their neighbors. “The important lesson to learn here is: Never, ever trust a kuffar,” Mr. Awlaki said in a 2003 lecture in London that was captured on video and remains a YouTube favorite. “Now, you might argue and say: ‘But my neighbor is such a nice person. My classmates are very nice. My — they’re just fabulous people, they’re so decent and honest. ’” Yet these can never be relied upon, he said. Later, after moving to Yemen, he spoke not only of shunning but also of attacking them. In a 2010 video, he tried to shame his listeners into choosing his brand of religion over their country. “To the Muslims in America I have this to say: How can your conscience allow you to live in peaceful coexistence with a nation that is responsible for the tyranny and crimes committed against your own brothers and sisters?” he said. “How can you have your loyalty to a government that is leading the war against Islam and Muslims?” He has led many people down the jihadist path, and not just in countries. The Counter Extremism Project, an advocacy group based in Washington, said Wednesday that it had counted 88 “extremists” who had been influenced by Mr. Awlaki: 54 in the United States and 34 in Europe. Most such jihadist recruits are the children of immigrants, said Olivier Roy, a professor at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, and the author of “Globalized Islam. ” His research shows that 65 percent of Muslim extremists in France and Belgium are from this second generation. “These young people have broken away from their parents, who they blame for many things — for practicing the wrong Islam, for having brought them to the West, for having failed in life,” Mr. Roy said, noting that Mr. Rahami reportedly had clashed with his father. But such conflicts pass. Few jihadists are from the third generation, the grandchildren of immigrants, he said. | 1 |
People in parts of South America and Africa were treated to a rare sight on Sunday: a “ring of fire” eclipse, when the moon moves in between the Earth and the sun, briefly replacing it with a blazing, fiery ring. An event of this kind — technically called an annular eclipse — is a byproduct of the moon’s elliptical nature around the Earth, which means it is sometimes further away from the planet than at other times. An annular eclipse is one that happens when the moon is unable to completely block our view of the sun because it is at one of its greater distances from Earth. The countries with the best chance of viewing an annular eclipse are those that lie along the path of annularity, an invisible line that traces the path taken by the moon’s shadow as it moves across the globe, according to C. Alex Young, a solar astrophysicist from NASA. They include Chile and Argentina in South America and Angola, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa, where viewers were able to see the full “ring of fire” effect for roughly one minute. Skywatchers on the ground in those countries — including more than a few government agencies — their experience on Sunday, with some complaining that overcast weather dampened their views. People outside the direct path of annularity could still get a glimpse of the show although it was only be a partial eclipse. For everyone else, there is always the internet. Slooh Community Observatory, a system of telescopes, broadcast the eclipse online via live stream beginning around 7 a. m. Eastern time on Sunday. Americans will also get to watch an eclipse of their own soon enough. A total solar eclipse is due on Aug. 21. | 1 |
Hamas has arrested owners of tunnels along the Egyptian border on suspicion of having allowed jihadists to cross into Egypt, jihadi sources in Gaza told Breitbart Jerusalem. [The detainees were the owners of privately owned tunnels that operate independently of the tunnel network that serves Hamas in their efforts to smuggle weapons into the Strip. The owners of the private tunnels collect customs and pay a fee to Hamas, the sources said. Hamas’ special border force gathered the owners of the private tunnels and warned them that attempts to smuggle jihadists would result in arrests and fines and the seizure of their tunnels, the sources said. Hamas’ unusual step came in the wake of a landmark visit to Egypt by a Hamas delegation last month. As part of tighter cooperation with Egypt, Hamas has beefed up the deployment of troops along the border. The Arab media reported this week that Israel recalled its ambassador to Egypt a few weeks ago, apparently for security reasons. However, several Arab and Palestinian outlets claimed that it was to protest Egypt’s rapprochement with Hamas. Contacted by Breitbart Jerusalem, the spokesperson of the Egyptian embassy in Tel Aviv declined to comment on the issue. | 1 |
Archives Michael’s Latest Video End Time Persecution Is Here: Russia Just Banned Evangelism And China Has Torn Down 1000s Of Crosses By Michael Snyder, on July 12th, 2016
We always knew that this was coming. For years, the horrifying persecution of Christians in the Middle East has made headlines all over the globe, but now we are seeing very disturbing examples of government-sanctioned persecution literally all over the planet. As you will read about below, Russia just banned virtually all types of evangelism outside of a church or religious site. And China has been tearing down thousands of crosses and has been demolishing dozens of churches in a renewed crackdown on the growth of Christianity in that nation. Overall, there are 53 countries that now have laws that restrict the Christian faith according to one recent report. When are we going to wake up and realize what is happening?
When I heard about the new law that was just passed in Russia, I was absolutely stunned. I was in Moscow just a few years after the Berlin Wall fell, and the people were very eager to hear about the Christian faith which had been brutally repressed under the Soviet regime for decades.
Sadly, Russia has now decided to revert back to the old Soviet ways. This new law, which Vladimir Putin wanted, represents almost a complete and total ban on sharing the gospel …
The law, which will come into force on July 20, will prohibit evangelism anywhere outside a church or religious site – including private homes and online – and those in breach of it will be fined . Only named members of religious organisations will be able to share their faith, and even informal witnessing between individuals is forbidden.
According to the New York Times, this ban also includes “preaching and praying” that is done outside the boundaries of “officially recognized” religious institutions.
In recent years, I have defended Russia in many of my articles. But there is no defending this.
This new law is the single worst thing that Russia has done since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and they should be utterly ashamed of themselves.
Meanwhile, government officials in China have launched a renewed crackdown on Christians as the underground church continues to grow like wildfire.
According to some reports, the government has torn down more than 2,000 crosses in Zhejiang Province alone in recent months…
More than two thousand crosses have now been forcefully removed from churches as part of a government campaign to regulate “excessive religious sites”.
The nation’s leadership launched the crusade to eradicate Christianity in the coastal province of Zhejiang almost two years ago.
Several members of the public have since been arrested for attempting to halt the government’s crude attempt to suppress the Christian faith.
But sometimes government officials don’t stop there and decide to tear down an entire church. In fact, since the beginning of this year at least 49 churches have been destroyed in Zhejiang Province. Just recently , one group of believers defied the government and returned to their destroyed church to hold a worship service…
Christian worshipers gather to worship among the ruins of their demolished church, defying the Communist Chinese government anti-Christian drive. These congregants in China’ Wenzhou, Zhejiang province conducted a prayer service despite their church building demolished by the government officials.
Zhuyang Church, which was a government-sanctioned church, was routed as a part of an unprecedented church demolition drive. On May 20, the church was demolished by about 100 government officers took down the church building authorized despite the fact that it had the government authorization to operate.
The church member said that the only reason the official could provide for church’ demolition was that the church was “transforming the villages in the city.”
But even the churches that have been left standing in Zhejiang Province are also feeling the pain of the crackdown. According to China Aid, there is a new law that is forcing many churches “ to turn over all of their tithes and donations to state authorities “…
The communist government of China’s Zhejiang Province is enforcing a new law that demands numerous churches to turn over all of their tithes and donations to state authorities.
According to a nonprofit Christian organization dedicated to serving the persecuted Church in China, the officials of Pingyang County in Wenzhou are compelling members to give all of their churches’ income to state authorities.
“The government officials will interfere with church affairs, managing our donations and some large-scale projects,” a source told China Aid .
For so long, most Americans have considered the Chinese government to be our friend. But that is not true at all. The communist Chinese are a corrupt, wicked regime that has always been deeply anti-Christian. Anyone that believes otherwise has simply been deluded.
Meanwhile, the persecution of Christians continues to intensify in many parts of Africa. Just recently, a mother of seven children was “ hacked to death ” by Islamic radicals in Nigeria for openly preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ…
A Christian mother of seven was hacked to death by suspected Muslim radicals in Nigeria and her mutilated body was discovered in a pool of blood along with a Bible and megaphone she used to preach every morning.
According to local reports , 41-year-old Eunice Olawale, a pastor at the Redeemed Christian Church of Nigeria and an evangelist, was murdered in the early morning hours on Saturday while she was out evangelizing near Nigeria’s capital of Abuja.
Olawale’s husband, Olawale Elisha, told local media that his wife had left their home around 5 a.m. Saturday morning to preach in the neighborhood but she never returned home.
Ever since the first century, Christians have been martyred for publicly preaching the gospel, and we were warned that this kind of terrible persecution was coming in the last days.
Of course Christians in the Middle East don’t exactly need to hear about “the coming persecution” because they have been living it for many years. Christians are being tortured, beheaded and crucified by radical terror groups such as ISIS, and in other areas of the Middle East the persecution is being imposed on a national level by the government. For instance, just check out what is happening right now in Pakistan …
“ The government of Pakistan has announced plans to force Islam on young people by making Quranic study compulsory for all school and college students , which is contrary to the country’s constitution and the Islamic precept that there should be no compulsion in religion. This is the latest escalation of the country’s bias against Christians, other minority faiths and non-believers,” said Peter Tatchell, Director of the human rights organisation, the Peter Tatchell Foundation.
“Pakistani Christians, including children, are at risk of kidnapping, forced marriage and forced religious conversion to Islam. Some are also victims of blasphemy charges, which carry the death penalty. There are regular violent assaults on Christian families, homes, shops and churches.
The persecution of the end times is here.
All over the planet, the Christian faith is under assault. In the western world we may not have to face much violent persecution just yet, but our faith is relentlessly mocked, ridiculed and demonized on television, in the movies and on the Internet. Laws that are anti-Christian in tone and substance are regularly being passed, and many of our top politicians are not even pretending to be fair to us any longer.
Just like in much of the rest of the world, we are starting to discover that there is a great price to be paid for following Jesus Christ.
In Matthew 16, Jesus told us that if anyone would choose to follow Him, that individual should “d eny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”
Are you ready to take up your cross?
The persecution of Christians is only going to get worse in the years ahead, and in order to make it through what is coming we need to be ready to give up everything for Him.
People were saying that Putin was Christian. This latest development suggests otherwise. Jim Davis
He is a Russian nationalist and supports the Russian Orthodox Church and evangelical Christianity. I don’t agree with such a law, but I suspect the real target of the law may be Islam. GoldenGirl
That is an interesting point (about Islam being the target), and would be worth investigating. RageHard84
But, with this law, the Russian Orthodox Church won’t be able to evangelize non-Christian populations within Russia. Jim Davis
He is a Russian nationalist and supports the Russian Orthodox Church and evangelical Christianity. I don’t agree with such a law, but I suspect the real target of the law may be Islam. James Dohnalek
If we are part of the alien universe, this proves that we may be at the bottom of all beings in the world. Religion obliteration by elites is an outrage. End of days for sure. Jim Davis
Putin is not obliterating the Russian Orthodox Church Jim Davis
Putin is not obliterating the Russian Orthodox Church Dont Mention The War
So she was set-upon by folks whilst she was preaching in the streets with her MEGAPHONE at 5AM on a SATURDAY morning. Not surprising everyone was sick to death of her. Jim Davis
What should try to do sometime is attempt have a rational, logical discussion with one of these types. It’s quite entertaining. IsReal
You should watch the atheist vs. Christian debates on YouTube. Atheists get exposed as fools! Jim Davis
What should try to do sometime is attempt have a rational, logical discussion with one of these types. It’s quite entertaining. Paul Patriot
Same thing in Muslim countries, Muslims pray early in the morning and can be heard all over town….very annoying, sounds like a hyeena or a sick child screaming.
But, if a Christian wants to share the “only name under heaven in which man can be saved” she is violently murdered.
A ….the “religion of peace” doing what it does best, murder those who disagree with you. Dont Mention The War
I would posit that it probably had nothing to do with her religion; they were just fed up with her caterwauling with a megaphone at 5am every morning! iris
Agree. The moderate Muslims are either apostates or hiding their intentions, according to former jihadist terrorists who have believed and received Christ Jesus. But it’s not politically correct for them to say so, even though they lived it and witnessed it. Bran Mak Morn
And DHIMMIWATCH about DHIMMITUDE spreading in the west! I think Donald Trump is very right to go for an alliance with Russia against the Islamists and Islamic state! he should wipe them out in Syria and elsewhre and let not more Muslims come to European and other countries and USA. Fight Sharia whereever it tries to spread, like the British do in GB and UK now, they have to fight for their pure survival and freedom there against Muslim gangs and Islamists and crimes and corruptions! Fight Islamism worldwide! For example read JIHAD WATCH about it. And DHIMMIWATCH about DHIMMITUDE spreading in the west! I think Donald Trump is very right to go for an alliance with Russia against the Islamists and Islamic state! he should wipe them out in Syria and elsewhre and let not more Muslims come to European and other countries and USA. Fight Sharia whereever it tries to spread, like the British do in GB and UK now, they have to fight for their pure survival and freedom there against Muslim gangs and Islamists and crimes and corruptions! Fight Islamism worldwide! Be Still
The more you persecute us. The more we grow. The Christian explosion is in Asia, China and India for example. When you see them banning it’s because the growth is exponential. Rhialto the Marvellous
Persecution against Christians is happening in this very comment section. One commenter is trying his best to shut down the voice of God’s people by using ridicule and lies. Dont Mention The War
Oh do grow up, it’s called a discussion! You should be happy people [can be bothered to] challenge/discuss your faith; it gives you an opportunity to think about things from another persons perspective if nothing else! GV
awwww, poor delicate little snowflake, sounds like you need to grow a pair Washington Ervin
I was wondering when this story would make news in the West. I read about this last week
The stage is being set. K
When some young people have been taught that Hitler and Stalin were Christians. That the inquisition, and crusades are strong examples of what Christians stand for. Can persecution be far away? To believe such lies, shows how easily they are manipulated. If such outrageous lies can be believed. What lie will they not believe? As once the Jews were made to wear yellow stars. We may yet be made to wear yellow Crosses.
I would wear that yellow cross with pride. iris
Me too, and a yellow star. K
Bux and Iris, Amen. Hawk5000
I read this and to me it is business as usual. Religion continues to be the most devices aspect of human society. www.tomatobubble.com
Putin is only banning foreign spies and domestic traitors who want to use “evangelization” as a cover to subvert Russia. Good for him. GV
that’s may be what the Chinese authorities are thinking too they have seen how the U.S. government uses NGOs to subvert governments www.tomatobubble.com
I’m sure Chinese see through it too. homeport
Putin is an egotistical former KGB thug who envisions a revitalized Russia with him as the “czar”. Christians have always been a thorn and threat to oppressive govts, from Rome to Nazi Germany to Soviet and post-Soviet Russia. This law will serve to intimidate Christians and strengthen the power that the “czar” craves. Ditto for the Chinese. www.tomatobubble.com
Except you forgot to mention a little detail that Putin himself is a devout Christian.
“Putin is an egotistical former KGB thug” That’s just pure unfounded drivel. True, he is a former low level KGB, that doesn’t make him a thug.
Oh, and Nazi Germany wasn’t anti-Christian either. GV
I see you’ve bought into the neo-con BS about Putin. The biggest threat to world peace (indeed survival of the planet) is the U.S. government GV
and George H.W. Bush was head of the CIA (Criminals In America) DJohn1
The problem with Putin and others is that they are provoking a huge return of people to the Christian Faith simply by denying them the right to practice their religious faith without persecution from the powers that be in that country or countries. I do not know what idiot in those countries came up with a plan to deny people the right to believe what they want but it works against Satan because people are very offended by this denial. This goes beyond a logical discussion of what to believe and what not to believe and places it squarely in the quarter of not playing by the rules. God has the right to take these people like Putin down and in God’s good time He will. So decisions are made by people to be Christian and if that means Satan ending their lives through these Satan people then according to the Faith itself they are assured a place in Heaven with Jesus Christ. These people will take no revenge because revenge is the Lord’s not ours to give. My own experience I have seen Satan’s people suffer plagues simply because of their actions against Christ’s people. Suddenly a cancer forms and rapidly kills them. None of which has anything to do with the persecuted. God on the other hand might have a lot to do with it. I am simply explaining the mentality that when Christians remove themselves from the revenge route what is likely to happen. The reward for those killed is Heaven and Immortality. I have perhaps 20 years left maybe. Could be 40. Even if it was, I will eventually die like every other person dies on this planet. Somewhere between birth and probably a max of 130 years, we all die. In the wisdom of Soloman of Proverbs fame, there is a time for everything. Satan has had much better results from allowing the Christians to do what they want. So in a way, this is crazy on his part. SO I can only conclude that someone under his control is doing this on their own. In the end, God, the alpha and the omega, controls everything. So one might ask God, why are you allowing this breech of the rules? And there are rules that not many people even understand. www.tomatobubble.com
“The problem with Putin and others is that they are provoking a huge return of people to the Christian Faith simply by denying them the right to practice their religious faith without persecution from the powers that be in that country or countries.”
No, the problem is you for being willfully ignorant of what’s really going on in Russia. Those “nice Christian” evangelists are not there to bring Jesus, but to overthrow the Russian govt and replace it with pro-Western tyrants, just like they did in Ukraine. Thank God Putin won’t let that happen. GV
“…God has the right to take these people like Putin down and in God’s good time He will….”
bilge, where was your “god” when Bush and Obama were committing war crimes? iris
(: Yes, indeed, even the demons must serve and obey God. He always wins in the end. The contrast between good and evil and truth and falsehood somehow comes into brighter focus during times of persecution. Think it was Shakespeare who said, “Iron bars do not a prison, make”. jj
Total disinformation and the manipulation of the facts! Synder has lost all credibility. GV
“…This new law is the single worst thing that Russia has done since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and they should be utterly ashamed of themselves….”
why don’t you report the Russian government’s rationale for the proposed law? Robert
Putin is doing what the Russian Orthodox Church wants him to do. Too much modern evangelization is nothing more than easy belief and then live like you want to. Much deception . IsReal
“modern” is an incorrect term to use, if you wanted to use Apostasy, that’s one thing. The old orthodox churches are in Apostasy, there has been much revelation pouring out, the spirit of God isn’t static but redeeming and restorative each day after repentance of sin. The Word is true and the rock, but the Holy Spirit is a living person, not some cross hanging on a wall. Linda
This may be true about China. But I think you should do a bit more investigating with Russia. I recently read elsewhere: “The Russian Law does not halt the “preaching of the Gospel” or the preaching of the Gospel to any Russian. It does stop every cult and denominations that has created theologies that deny Jesus Christ, or offer a false christ, (anti-christ) and have turn into fronts of Cultural Marxism, the Gay Agenda and Chrislim.”
And I think this should be taken in context with what is going on right now. Currently, Obama has soldiers and missiles sitting all around Russia and is rattling the chains tryig to start a war. As another poster mentioned, it is common CIA tactics to send NGO’s into countries to destabilize them, often on the pretext that they are “preaching the gospel,” when they are not. He has been begging world reporters to start reporting what is going on. I really don’t think he wants a nuclear war with the US. Obama? I wouldn’t doubt that this is his motive, just as he is trying to start a race war here.
And I do believe that Putin has become a Christian. The number of churches in Russia has exploded in the last 10 years, and he should get some of the credit for that. Robert McMaster
Add Scientology to the list. All these NGOs function in bad faith, sorry for the pun. Seize all their assets, expose all their documents and files. Putin doesn’t care if he or government policy is openly criticized on the level. But deceit and malice is the American Way. Justin
And you shall know them by their fruits. So in the 2,000 years since Christ came can anyone name one righteous city in all the world? Cut it down He said to his servants because we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine!” Cast out the slave woman. Michael doesn’t understand; the blind leading the blind. Understand that it is the Lord himself doing this. These faithless children are being cast out and the nation is being given to another people. Tim
Your comment doesn’t make sense. Jesus was referring to the nation of Israel in that parable. After 3 years that nation hadn’t produced fruit, so they were cut off. But the elect nation of Israel hasn’t been completely forsaken. Right now the Lord is taking out of the Gentiles a people for His name. When the fulness of the Gentiles has come in, the Lord will return to dealing with the nation of Israel. The Lord is using the Gentile nations to provoke Israel to jealousy. Read Romans 11. Justin
“Though they swear, ‘As the Lord lives’ surely they swear falsely”. The reason you do not understand is that you worship a dead God. Tim
I worship the triune God. He is the great I AM. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, which is and which was and which is to come, the Almighty. He is from everlasting to everlasting. iris
(: Me, too! Where would we be without His Love? Pandadude12345
They aren’t Jealous. They are deluded into believing that they are still superior to us. iris
No, they don’t trust the Christians in name only, like the Crusaders and Nazi Germans who posted Hitler’s photo in their church sanctuaries, the KKK, etc. Show them love and mercy and respect, like Paul says to do in Romans, if you really know Christ. Paul was Jewish and loved his people, Jesus was Jewish and loved His people. Imo, you speak for satan. I’m a Christian, and find you superior in arrogance, jerk, so don’t speak for me. Pandadude12345
Mine was not jerky. You are just offended because I told the truth: your kind is deluded by satan into hating us goyim. The illusion that satan brought among your people has held well. Also, should we have just let our nations fall to the menaces of Islam and Communism? This is precisely what Hitler and the Crusaders wanted to do. DOUBT IT NOT! And honestly, with a little bit of convincing, your kind will cease their hatred amongst us. Think: 80% of your kind believes “THERE IS NO GOD” iris
Sorry, I shouldn’t have called you a jerk. Think your statement was jerky, but we’re loved by God, despite our behaviors. (Hmm, that could apply to the nation of Israel and Jews, too, couldn’t it?) I do hope you read Romans 9, 10 and 11 again. Shalom. Justme
In this war, sorry but just a thought i heard someone say, this is a good one for atheists who believe in evolution. If apes evolved into man, when was the last time they saw one evolving? Kent Harris
Pulpits need to face persecution along with it’s congregants. How does sacrifice make the church better? It removes pretense and creates genuinous in the faith. When you say I risk it all, ultimately one’s faith becomes stronger. The Bible overflows with that very virtue. Be strong, be courageous for the Lord your God is with you. iris
Amen! michael malachi
Pretribulation believers, I guess that you missed your rapture, because the tribulation is here. You may want to deny it, but there are many around the world who are living tribulation today. You may say that tribulation has not begun, but tell that to the families of those who die as martyrs every day. You better be 100% committed, for you ever know when your time will come. iris
I think many Christians are waking up to the probability of a mid or end trib rapture now. Suddenly, many well known evangelistic speakers and authors are now citing as tied into the tribulation period; the magnitude and severity of world wide economic crises, famine, death of great quantities of ocean fish, increasing seismic events of 6.0+, newly discovered diseases, violence and persecution of believers, (especially currently seen with IS), etc. I even think it possible that the 3.5 years could be a symbolic, rather than literal number. What if they stand for decades? More Christians have died for the name of Jesus in the last 30 years than in the last 2000 years combined. I don’t want to go outside of Scripture, but I also don’t want to assume that some doctrinal position has to be the correct interpretation, simply because it’s popular or current. SantosGarcia
Please prayerfully consider with your Bible in hand, my “Last Days Series”… in 4 Parts; beginning with: https://zionsgate.wordpress.com/2011/10/16/the-day-of-christ-and-the-day-of-the-lord/ chriscas
This sadly informative column should be sent to all those who say the Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary has been done as our Lord wanted Sister Lucy, one of the Fatima visionaries denied it has been done properly. And Francis is more concerned about climate change so it won’t be done under his pontificate. Coming up next: the Annihilation of Nations!! JackerRaabit
Mmmm.
Should, say, the SDA be allowed in Russia? What about ‘churches’ where ‘God’ is a woman? ‘Jesus’ is a Black Lives Matter activist? What about the never-to-be-sufficiently-accursed Catholic Church?
America’s so called ‘freedom of religion’ is flawed: atheists and non-Christians (where a Christian must read only the KJV, or the Textus Receptus Hebrew/Greek) should have been relegated to 2nd-class citizen status, and stripped of both 1st and 2nd amendment rights (just to start with).
The alternative is America of today, a place where MOST ‘Christians’ will never see Heaven, and where the USA (as per its governmental and legal ACTIONS) has become the Left Hand of Satan on earth.
So do lets wait and see: maybe Putin is simply… sane. GV JackerRaabit
Says a Satanist.
In the grand scale of things, even if you were correct about me, you are far worse than that.
Burn in Hell, filth.
F you with a rusty chainsaw, p.o.s. JackerRaabit
I just love the way you poked holes in what I said, using sound reason… oh wait, the super-low IQ that made you a Satanist in the first place, precludes reasoning about anything, ever. GV
r ght, anyone who doesn’t agree with WhackerRaabit’s st pidity is a satanist JackerRaabit
Says the little retarded Satanist who can’t read or think too good.
Don’t you have to go breed with your cousin, little Muslim? Shoo. GV
Says the little retarded fascist who can’t read or think too well.
Don’t you have to go breed with your sister, little WackerRaabit? Shoo. JackerRaabit
Can’t even think up your own insults: pathetic. GV
a , WhackerRaabit upset I used his own insult against him.
well, you’ll get over it.
now run along little WhackerRaabit and go play in traffic JackerRaabit
Wow. You did it again. You really are a pathetic little tard. GV
“…He is rapidly going towards becoming Russia’s Kim Jun Un….”
bought into that neo-con BS, eh Julian Williams
I am confused. Russia standing up for authentic, historical Christianity, is some how a persecution of Christianity? Does not make sense. GV
“…Putin…is planning to nuke and EMP the USA….”
uh, no, American neo-cons want to have a nuclear first strike against Russia | 0 |
Recent incidents in France are most telling about an Age of Enlightenment giving way, albeit centuries later, to an “Age of Turbidity. ”[ century Europeans sparked the Age of Enlightenment. Mankind — motivated to move toward reason as the primary source of authority and legitimacy and away from traditional orthodoxies such as religion and absolute monarchy — enjoyed tremendous benefits by doing so. In France, particularly, challenges arose to the dogmas of the Catholic Church. Overcoming those challenges gave rise to many ideals we enjoy today such as liberty, progress, tolerance, constitutional government and separation of church and state. Sadly, these ideals are now being lost in a new age — one of turbidity in which facts are hidden. As seen by this week’s attack in London, the Muslim perpetrator had been previously investigated over concerns about his “violent extremism” — more accurately known as “radical Islam. ” Originally credited with seeding acceptance for an enlightening age, France now irresponsibly sows seeds of disenlightenment — clouding individual cognitive thinking about the very ideals that made Western civilization and influence so great. Take the case of two of France’ s Muslim cultural heroes — darlings of both the country’s leftist mainstream media and its Hollywood set. As popular news stories about Mehdi Meklat, a writer and documentary film producer, appeared in the French press, the U. S. mainstream media also portrayed him in a very positive light. The Washington Post last year noted Meklat, at 23, was already a celebrity, among “France’s youngest public intellectuals” who sees no point in a university education, whose world begins where Paris ends, whose works reveal an “overarching intent: showing the world the complicated reality of the Paris suburbs where … (he was) born and raised. ” The public was led to believe Meklat effectively had integrated into French life, earning Western tolerance himself as one contributing to society. But, last February, his image was severely tarnished as it was exposed to the light of truth. An unidentified Facebook user shared some of his tweets over the past several years, revealing a much different person than the human rights activist portrayed by the media. As for conservative presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, Meklat wrote, “I am going to slit your throat . ” As for Jews, he called for Hitler’s return “to kill” them. As for former Charlie Hebdo Charb before he was killed in the January 2015 terrorist attack, he wanted to “rape” him by shoving “Lagulole knives up his … ” As for white people, “they must die as soon as possible. ” As for movie legend Brigitte Bardot, he desired to sodomize her with light bulbs. These tweets paint the picture of a dangerous young psychotic who harbors a deep anger and resentment against all and who would not hesitate to act out this hatred if in a position to do so. Yet he is held up by others to the public as an example of a cultural hero. For over five years, Meklat had been using the social media, often via a pseudonym, to inject hatred, intolerance and violence into discussions about all whom he found undeserving of life — targeting gays, Jews, women, whites, etc. — but never ISIS or other Islamic terrorists. After being exposed, Meklat immediately deleted over 50, 000 tweets, perhaps hoping the nightmare exposure of his true would, with time, be forgotten. Meanwhile, after having made such threatening comments about others over the years, he now laments about living in fear for his life, undoubtedly blind to the hypocrisy of his having created similar fear for others. Meklat is not an isolated case in the French media and film industry where young Muslim artists muddy the waters of Western values with their own contrary ones yet are falsely portrayed as cultural heroes. Similar praise was heaped upon Houda Benyamina — a documentary film producer. Her film “Divines,” described as a “hate film against France,” criticized everything in the state including schools, police, fire and rescue, and the demonization of Muslim migrants who were targeted by a “French racist society” in which nobody understood “the beauty of their souls. ” At the French equivalent of the Oscars, Benyamina received Best First Film award and a standing ovation. It is doubtful among those standing were surviving members of a generation of French warriors who 72 years earlier courageously fought to free France of German occupation, well understanding freedom has its flaws. Unsurprisingly, Hollywood’s Golden Globes also nominated Divines for an award. But Benyamina too has been exposed to the light of truth, her tweets suggesting ISIS is a victim of Israeli and U. S. manipulation. Social media exposure also became a nightmare for Benyamina’s younger sister, Oulaya Amamra, who received Best Young Actress award for the same movie and was pictured with Meklat at the event. After her tweets revealed dozens of racist (“dirty ”) and homophobic comments, she too raced to delete them. It is the likes of Meklat, Benyamina and Amamra and their ilk whom the media and France’s version of Hollywood tout as examples of “integrated” Muslims making contributions to Western society. During the Age of Enlightenment, there was a Latin phrase that came to symbolize this era. The phrase was “Sapere Aude” which, loosely translated, means “Dare to be wise” or “Dare to think for yourself. ” In the 21st century, as members of the media and entertainment industry seek to portray a story or support a cause that allows them to feel good, they often fail to think for themselves, making sure what they promote, in reality, really contributes to making the world a better place in which to live. Their irresponsibility in doing so, creating a culture in which democracy’s values are replaced by hatred, intolerance, and violence, will leave a future generation of historians calling our century the “Age of Turbidity. ” Lt. Colonel James G. Zumwalt, USMC (Ret.) is a retired Marine infantry officer who served in the Vietnam war, the U. S. invasion of Panama and the first Gulf war. He is the author of “Bare Feet, Iron Will — Stories from the Other Side of Vietnam’s Battlefields,” “Living the Juche Lie: North Korea’s Kim Dynasty” and “Doomsday: Iran — The Clock is Ticking. ” He frequently writes on foreign policy and defense issues. | 1 |
The body of the Turkish policeman who shouted “Allahu Akbar” after shooting and killing the Russian ambassador to Turkey last month remains unclaimed. His family has refused to accept his remains, the Anadolu Agency has learned from judicial sources. [Anadolu Agency reports: The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Forensic Medicine Institute in Ankara completed an autopsy on the policeman’s body on Dec. 21. Since then no one has claimed the remains. According to the institute, the body of the assailant needed to be claimed within 15 days. Police findings show Altintas was linked to the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) the terrorist group behind Turkey’s failed July 15 coup attempt. The TASS news agency in Russia contradicts this claim, reporting instead that Jabhat Fateh (JFS) known as the Syrian branch Front before allegedly dropping its affiliation with international jihadist group, has claimed responsibility for the assassination. While JFS is no longer officially tied to “most Western analysts dismiss JFS’s break with as a feint, seeing it as a long game the jihadist group has been playing for some time across the Middle East and Africa,” according to Voice of America (VOA). Following the killing of the Russian diplomat, a group distributed the list of Russian embassies, calling for attacks on them. The list surfaced through SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi activity online. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has nonetheless repeatedly accused Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is in exiled in the United States, of trying to overthrow his government and various other terrorist attacks in Turkey, as well as the failed coup against him in July 2016. Turkey considers the Gulen movement an official terrorist organization, known as FETO. Social media accounts affiliated with both Sunni rivals and the Islamic State seized the opportunity of Altintas shouting “Allahu Akbar” during the assassination to celebrate and capitalize on their message of jihad but did not take responsibility for the action. Footage of the attack, translated by Shaheryar Mirza, reveals the attacker also yelled, “Don’t forget Aleppo, don’t forget Syria! You will not taste the safety unless our fields are safe! Only death can get me out of here. Whoever has a share in this tyranny will pay for it one by one!” Both Presidents Erdogan and Vladimir Putin of Russia have said they will not allow the terrorist attack to interfere with their relationship, recently mended after a turbulent year. | 1 |
| October 28, 2016 Be Sociable, Share! Police arrest an elder in ceremonial garb who was praying near Cannon Ball, N.D. (Photo: Unicorn Riot/Creative Commons)
STANDING ROCK SIOUX RESERVATION, North Dakota — Law enforcement commenced a violent crackdown on Native American activists blocking construction on the Dakota Access pipeline on Thursday, resulting in over 100 arrests and multiple injuries.
At least 107 people were arrested and both Native American “water protectors” and members of the media were harmed when hundreds of militarized riot police, accompanied by armored vehicles and the National Guard, stormed a blockade on North Dakota Highway 1806 and an accompanying encampment.
Among the injured was Derrick Broze , an independent journalist reporting for MintPress News from the Standing Rock Sioux reservation this week. He was shot with pepper spray and shocked with a “less-lethal” taser. Police also took his smartphone, which he had been using to document the day’s events via Facebook Live.
“Today was filled with tense moments as the Morton County Sheriff’s Department and other law enforcement moved to destroy the frontline camp in a militarized fashion,” Broze told MintPress News, using a borrowed smartphone. He continued: “The water protectors chose to set fire to several barricades on [county road] 134 and [North Dakota Highway] 1806 in an attempt to hold their line. Despite identifying as press several times, the police tasered and pepper sprayed myself and several others.” http://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Broze-Standing-Rock-2.mp4
Two members of Unicorn Riot, an independent media collective, were also attacked by police, and Native American livestreamers reported being hit by rubber bullets. Report from the frontlines of the police suppression of #NoDAPL water protectors. @HennepinSheriff 's beating & macing ppl (incl our journos) pic.twitter.com/mop4pZQQwO
— Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) October 27, 2016
Police claim that one of the arrests came after a woman fired a gun at police , but the water protectors continue to insist that they’ve remained nonviolent and unarmed throughout their months of activism. UPDATE: Police confirm "one woman has been arrested for firing a weapon at the police line near Highway 1806." #DAPL https://t.co/10gbqmvS0e pic.twitter.com/YZvlwsUj0Y
— RT America (@RT_America) October 28, 2016
In addition to pepper spray and stun guns, law enforcement used rubber bullets and an LRAD “sound cannon” on the assembled activists, which can cause permanent hearing damage at close range. An activist posted a picture of severe facial bruising reportedly caused by a rubber bullet. Other injuries of varying severity were reported via social media and confirmed by sources at the scene. Broken ribs head injures broken arms wrists leg injuries shrapnel wounds many youths brutalized as well as elders
— Thunder Walks About (@notaxiwarrior) October 27, 2016
Law enforcement agencies at the scene included representatives of the Morton County Sheriff’s Department, as well as reinforcements from the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department, a Minneapolis-area force which continues to assist in North Dakota despite a rally at Minneapolis City Hall on Tuesday demanding their withdrawal from the state. #nodapl protest at Minneapolis city hall pic.twitter.com/gdrL5YjUeY
— Fibonacci Blue (@FibonacciBlue) October 25, 2016
Construction on the pipeline continued throughout the day, and is reportedly rapidly nearing completion. As police move-in w LRAD & hyper-militarized forces, #DakotaAccessPipeline construction continues unabated, nears sacred sites. #NoDAPL pic.twitter.com/egKhilg4NE
— Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) October 27, 2016
“This is modern-day genocide against my people,” Wiyaka Eagleman, a Native American citizen journalist, said while broadcasting the events on Facebook live . Live feeds of the police raid frequently cut out, and on-the-ground sources reported that cellular phone signals appeared to be jammed. Often reported by journalists and activists at protests, cell-jamming by police is technically possible but remains unproven . "This is modern day genocide to my people," declares Native livestreamer as #police attack water protectors. https://t.co/Tlfp20uZnI #NoDAPL
— Kit O'Connell (@KitOConnell) October 27, 2016
Broze reported that a group of buffalo, herded by Native riders, stampeded toward police. Police fired on the horses and their riders, reportedly injuring some of each. Cops assaulting water protectors @ Standing Rock boy shot off horse and Atsa E'sha Hoferer himself shot | #NoDAPL https://t.co/e0aT0NoSUX
Over the weekend and throughout the beginning of the week, Native activists had expanded their encampments from Standing Rock Sioux territory onto land claimed by the company behind the Dakota Access pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners . The water protectors, however, claim that the land belongs to the Sioux under the terms of an 1851 treaty . The new encampments also bordered on a sacred burial ground where Dakota Access pipeline security personnel used attack dogs on activists on Labor Day.
By Thursday evening, police, security and National Guard had completely overrun the region, pushing water protectors back onto the reservation and onto land claimed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
In one of the most disturbing reports, confirmed by Broze and social media reports, a Dakota Access pipeline security guard reportedly drove his truck onto tribal lands, threatening to run down protesters, then brandished what appeared to be an AR-15 assault rifle in the Oceti Sakowin camp. A source in the camp told MintPress that the situation was eventually de-escalated by police under the Bureau of Indian Affairs. My friends on scene say this is the civilian who almost ran down at least 30 Natives with a car. It's open season on our people. #NoDAPL pic.twitter.com/W2lWyZlYAn
— Kelly Hayes (@MsKellyMHayes) October 27, 2016
Teepees, a sweat lodge, and other sacred items were also destroyed by police.
“Police showed no respect for the native people or their culture,” Broze said. http://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Broze-Standing-Rock.mp4
As night set in, the situation appeared to be escalating further. Broze reported : “Riot police have raided resistance camps and are still firing tear gas at protesters north of Red Warrior camp on 1806. Protesters have set an SUV on fire as a barricade on the bridge there. They are also setting the bridge on fire.” Be Sociable, Share! | 0 |
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer tweeted on Sunday that reports revealing the Obama Administration ordered intelligence gathering of the Trump campaign ahead of the 2016 presidential election is “troubling. ”[“Reports concerning potentially politically motivated investigations immediately ahead of the 2016 election are very troubling,” Spicer tweeted on Sunday. “President Trump is requesting that as part of their investigation into Russian activity, the congressional intelligence committees will exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016. ” Breitbart News reported extensively on the Obama administration’s efforts to undermine President Donald Trump candidacy, including the Obama administration filing a request to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) to monitor communications involving Donald Trump and several advisers. That request was denied. CBS falsely reported on Sunday that the White House statement said a Congressional investigation would “include” the Obama administration’s intelligence activities. “JUST IN: White House statement: Congressional investigation will include “whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016,” CBS tweeted on Sunday. Spicer said the White House was requesting this be included in any investigation. | 1 |
Jose Alvarez has trouble sleeping. It is the pain from his back injury. It is the stress of paying the bills. It is the worry that his daughter will never live a normal life. Mr. Alvarez’s life changed in 2005, when a car backed into him on 24th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Manhattan. Mr. Alvarez, now 63, was working as a boiler mechanic and welder at a few buildings on the street. Since the injury, he has been unable to work, because of herniated disks in his back. A quick jerk or movement sends Mr. Alvarez into excruciating pain. Without a job, he relies on his mechanical worker’s pension and Social Security disability benefits. “I don’t feel like a man anymore,” he said. “I don’t have a lot of movement, and the doctor says I should not pick up any more than 12 pounds. ” His limited mobility has proved especially difficult because his daughter, Kenerly, has Down syndrome. Kenerly was born in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. When Mr. Alvarez and his wife, Yuny, found out that she had Down syndrome, they were shocked and devastated. “I cried,” Ms. Alvarez, 41, said. “I knew something was wrong when they didn’t bring me the baby right away. ” The parents knew they would need to move to New York, where they would have access to better health care for Kenerly. The problem was getting into the country. For years, Mr. Alvarez, who had initially moved to New York to work and send money back to his family, tried to gain entry for his wife, whom he had met during one of his trips home. But immigration authorities questioned the legitimacy of their marriage, until January 2014, when the couple was able to move to New York, Mr. Alvarez said. Leaving their entire support system behind in the Dominican Republic, Ms. Alvarez and Kenerly moved into Mr. Alvarez’s home, which was the back half of a apartment in Washington Heights, in Upper Manhattan. The family owns the back bedroom and living room but shares a kitchen with neighbors. For the first few years of his daughter’s life, Mr. Alvarez was Kenerly’s primary caretaker during the day because his wife works as a home attendant. With Mr. Alvarez injured and Kenerly struggling to walk and climb stairs, father and daughter had to stay inside until Ms. Alvarez returned home. Everyday tasks, such as changing her diaper and feeding Kenerly, are a struggle. She is not fully and still uses diapers. It is difficult for Mr. Alvarez to lift her onto the toilet, and for a while she would use the bathtub instead. “I do things even though it’s hard,” he said. Unable to lift her into a highchair, Mr. Alvarez had to improvise. “It was hard for me to pick her up,” he said. “So I had to teach her how to get up there by herself. ” But Mr. Alvarez had help teaching his daughter to climb into the chair. In September last year, the family found Kennedy Child Study Center, an agency affiliated with the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York. Kenerly, who receives physical and occupational therapy through the center, which helps children with developmental delays, is learning to climb stairs and can now use a spoon to feed herself. “It takes a lot of pressure off me having the school and feeling like I’m not the only person who can take care of my child,” Mr. Alvarez said. But with the added costs of Kenerly’s diapers and food, he still worries about paying the bills and even the rent. The couple receives about $2, 500 a month total in benefits and in Ms. Alvarez’s pay. “Sometimes we have to be late on the rent,” Mr. Alvarez said. “It’s hard, but we have to do it. ” Catholic Charities, one of the eight organizations supported by The New York Times’s Neediest Cases Fund, used $297 to pay for diapers, wipes and clothes for Kenerly. Kenerly, sporting her new Minnie Mouse sweatshirt, showed off her newfound skills by unzipping the jacket, something she was unable to do until she started going to Kennedy Child Study Center. She then went straight into the bedroom and emerged with her mother’s makeup. She climbed up on the reclining chair and began to apply it to her face. “She’s a very special child,” Ms. Alvarez said. “She has a lot of personality. ” But Mr. Alvarez still worries about Kenerly as she grows up. “Will she be able to work? Make money? I often can’t sleep thinking about this,” he said. “Will she ever get married? Have children?” Kenerly is drawn to her father. It is as though being stuck in their apartment all that time allowed them to form a particularly close bond. She often climbs out of her crib near her parents’ bed and over her mother and snuggles up next to her father. “I love her so much,” Mr. Alvarez said, holding back tears. “You can’t imagine how much I love her. I have her in my heart and soul. ” | 1 |
Previous Next Megyn Kelly Could Be Out-Is Judge Jeanine Her Replacement At Fox News?
Although, as of this printing, nothing is official, but numerous rumors are swirling on New York City talk radio circles that F ox News is planning to replace Megyn Kelly with Justice Jeanine Pirro due to plummeting ratings and a total loss of credibility with Fox viewers.
Kelly’s most recent fall from grace came when Newt Gingrich eviscerated her on her own show over her biased coverage of Donald Trump’s alleged issues, while almost totally ignoring Hillary Clinton’s sociopathic and criminal behaviors.
This past Tuesday night on Fox News, host Megyn Kelly provoked Donald Trump supporter Newt Gingrich into a rage by insisting that Trump’s alleged history of sexual predation is a story worth covering. Gingrich, told Megyn Kelly that “ You are fascinated by sex and you don’t care about public policy. ” He followed up that outburst by demanding that Kelly repeat his words about Bill Clinton: “I want to hear you use the words, ‘ Bill Clinton, sexual predator .’ Say, ‘Bill Clinton, sexual predator. ’ ” Being that it was her show and she control the microphone, Kelly ended the interview ended with Kelly telling Gingrich, “ You can take your anger issues and spend some time working on them .” Fireworks on FAUX NEWS! Further, this shift accentuates the fact that Trump is leading Clinton by an overwhelming majority and Kelly has aligned with the losing side and it is going to cost her the coveted career that she has worked all of her life to obtain.
Since the Gingrich interview, Kelly’s already declining ratings, the result of her incessant Trump bashing, took a nose dive into the toilet and emptied out into the local sewer. Megyn Kelly is not likely to recover from the fact that she has been exposed as a Clinton supporter and denier of her crimes. Look for Judge Jeanine Pirro to take her place in the 9-10 PM Eastern time slot. Meanwhile, Sean Hannity’s ratings continue to climb for all the obvious reasons.
The Trump crowd has spoken, Megyn Kelly is on the wrong side of history. | 0 |
Historian John Heiser from the Gettysburg National Military Park joined Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Alex Marlow to discuss the historic battle and its legacy on Monday for the show’s special Memorial Day episode. [The park’s website states: The Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in the Civil War, the Union victory that ended General Robert E. Lee’s second and most ambitious invasion of the North. Often referred to as the “High Water Mark of the Rebellion,” Gettysburg was the Civil War’s bloodiest battle and was also the inspiration for President Abraham Lincoln’s immortal “Gettysburg Address. ” Heiser reflects on the battle itself, as well as its significance to the United States over time. The national cemetery sprang as much, if not more, from the soldiers who fought there returning time and again, as it did from some national effort to establish a monument. “The opportunities for the South to win that summer were never as high as before and never would be as high again. I think that’s why Gettysburg is so highly regarded not just by historians, but even by the veterans. The soldiers who fought here came back again and again and again. They’re the ones who gave it that label, the mark of the Confederacy. ” Heiser also discusses Lincoln’s Gettysburg address. “What the president was trying to do,” said Heiser, “was revitalize the Union effort, rejuvenate the American spirit, especially those in the North. Why are we fighting this war? Why are so many young men, fathers, sons now dead on the battlefield lying in what will be national cemeteries? How do we remember their sacrifice? I think that’s why it was so important and why he accepted the invitation to come that fall. ” Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. LISTEN: | 1 |
JERUSALEM — For years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, a conservative, has played a double act, competing domestically with his rivals in backing the settlement project all over the occupied West Bank while professing support for a solution with the Palestinians. Now, with the stinging United Nations Security Council resolution on Friday condemning Israeli settlement construction as lacking any legal validity, Israeli politicians and analysts on the right, on the left and in the political center say Mr. Netanyahu’s game may soon be up. The Israeli right, feeling empowered by the advent of the Trump administration, which is expected to be more sympathetic to Israel’s current policies, is pushing Mr. Netanyahu to abandon the idea of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, long considered the only viable solution to the conflict. Naftali Bennett, the leader of the Jewish Home party in Mr. Netanyahu’s governing coalition, with whom Mr. Netanyahu and his Likud Party compete for votes, is goading him to take on more extreme positions like annexing parts of the West Bank, adding to a sense in Israel that the real Mr. Netanyahu may have to stand up and decide which side he is on. “He has to choose between the international community and Bennett,” said Shlomo Avineri, a professor of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “It is not an easy choice, but he has to make a choice,” Professor Avineri said, adding: “Is Israel going to alienate itself from the whole world for the sake of settlement activity? And it is the whole world. Is this what Zionism is about?” For a second consecutive day on Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu denounced the departing Obama administration, publicly accusing it of having orchestrated Friday’s Security Council resolution, despite denials from Washington. The United States refrained from using its veto power, as it had done many times before to shield Israel, and abstained in the vote. “From the information that we have, we have no doubt that the Obama administration initiated it, stood behind it, coordinated on the wording and demanded that it be passed,” Mr. Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting. Referring to the American secretary of state, Mr. Netanyahu added, “As I told John Kerry on Thursday, friends don’t take friends to the Security Council,” and he said he was looking forward to working with Donald J. Trump’’s administration when it takes office next month. The Foreign Ministry summoned ambassadors of countries that had voted in favor of the resolution for personal meetings with ministry officials in Jerusalem, despite the Christmas holiday, which some of those countries celebrate. In a highly unusual move, Mr. Netanyahu, who is also the foreign minister, summoned the American ambassador to Israel, Daniel B. Shapiro, for a meeting on Sunday night. Mr. Netanyahu also instructed his ministers to reduce their diplomatic activities and contacts with counterparts from the countries that had voted for the resolution for the next three weeks, until the American administration changes, and to minimize travel to those countries, according to Israeli news reports. In an additional step, the defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman, instructed Israel’s agencies to suspend contact with Palestinian Authority representatives on some unspecified civil matters, though the measure was not supposed to affect security coordination or meetings about water, agriculture and the economy. With the Israeli occupation in its 50th year and the peace process frozen, Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestine Liberation Organization official and the Palestinians’ veteran negotiator, called on Israel “to seize the opportunity, to wake up, to stop the violence, to stop settlements and to resume negotiations. ” Mr. Netanyahu says he is ready for negotiations anytime, but with no preconditions. The Security Council vote seemed to have caught Israel off guard. “I hope for Netanyahu’s sake (and also for ours) that he knows the truth at least deep in his heart — it was the chronicle of a failure foretold,” Ben Caspit, a political commentator, wrote in the Maariv newspaper on Sunday. Many commentators said the Security Council vote partly reflected a history of conflict between Mr. Netanyahu and President Obama over the settlements and Mr. Netanyahu’s anger over the Iranian nuclear deal. They also pointed to Mr. Netanyahu’s increasingly vocal backing of the settler cause. That includes his advancement of highly contentious legislation, known as the Regulation Bill, that would retroactively legalize settler outposts and homes built on privately owned Palestinian land and force the owners to accept compensation. Mr. Netanyahu and his attorney general had warned that the bill, which recently passed a first reading in Parliament, contravenes international law and could land Israeli officials in the defendant dock of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. “After he said it, he rushed to vote in favor of the bill. Why?” Mr. Caspit wrote. “Because of Bennett. The fear of the possibility that he would not be able to siphon seats from Bennett next time on Election Day caused him to act like a grocery owner, instead of a national leader. ” Tzipi Livni, a former Israeli foreign minister and a leader of the Zionist Union, wrote on Facebook after the Security Council vote, “The Security Council decision is bad for Israel and it is the result of Netanyahu’s surrender to the extreme right. ” Even Haggai Segal, a prominent settler and the editor in chief of a newspaper, Makor Rishon, wrote in recent months that the Regulation Bill had “no chance” because it would be invalidated by Israel’s Supreme Court and would be used by the International Criminal Court “to incriminate Israel for war crimes. ” Mr. Segal, who served jail time as a member of the Jewish Underground that maimed and killed Palestinians in the 1980s, wrote this summer, “The wise thing now is to make do with what it is possible to do, and not lose it all by insisting on impossible goals. ” Mr. Bennett did not seem deterred. In a statement to reporters on Sunday at the Western Wall in the Old City in East Jerusalem, Mr. Bennett said, “It’s time to decide between two alternatives: surrendering our land or sovereignty. ” He added that steps would be taken in the near future to try to apply Israeli law in Judea and Samaria, the biblical terms for the West Bank. But some Israelis were skeptical that Mr. Netanyahu, in his third consecutive term in office, and fourth over all, would choose one side over the other. “Bennett knows that Netanyahu is not going to make a decision,” said Shmuel Sandler, a professor of political science at University, near Tel Aviv. “He may say he will go with both. So far, it worked. It is easier for Bennett because he is not the prime minister. Netanyahu wants to enjoy both of the worlds. ” | 1 |
WASHINGTON — In the first few months of Donald J. Trump’s presidency, if recent history is any guide, intelligence officials will meet to discuss a terrorism suspect living abroad. This suspect might become the next target for the nation’s drone force. Or maybe, Mr. Trump’s advisers could decide, he is worth trying to capture. Under President Obama, security officials have followed a familiar script once they have taken someone into custody. They ask an allied country to conduct the interrogation, or instead question the suspect aboard an American warship using military interrogation techniques, then turn him over to the Justice Department for prosecution in a civilian court inside the United States. Mr. Trump campaigned on a promise to bring back waterboarding, a banned method previously used by C. I. A. interrogators, and allow unspecified practices he called “a hell of a lot worse. ” The said in an interview last week that he had heard compelling arguments that torture was not effective, though it is not clear whether he intends to retreat from his position. If he moves ahead to fulfill his campaign pledge, it will not be easy. Federal law, international pressure and resistance from inside the C. I. A. stand in his way. Even if he overcomes those obstacles, the toll of America’s agonizing treatment of captives has left a legacy of harm that will make it harder for Trump administration lawyers to justify resuming use of the tactics. Dozens of prisoners developed persistent psychological problems after enduring torture and other brutal interrogation tactics in secret C. I. A. prisons or at the military detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, The New York Times has reported. In authorizing waterboarding, dousings with ice water, sleep deprivation and other techniques more than a decade ago, government lawyers reasoned that there would be no lasting damage to prisoners, a key factor in concluding the tactics did not qualify as torture. That argument would be difficult to make now, according to lawyers and former intelligence and other government officials. “The entire legal landscape has changed,” said Daniel Jones, a former F. B. I. analyst and the primary author of a 2014 Senate report that condemned enhanced interrogation techniques and found them ineffective in producing intelligence. “The publicly known facts now are just too conclusive and widely known,” he added, “to call for a return to waterboarding. ” Alex Whiting, a Harvard Law School professor and former war crimes prosecutor, said much has changed since 2002, when Justice Department lawyers accepted C. I. A. assurances that there would be no consequences for prisoners. “Evidence showing that the techniques employed by U. S. officials after resulted in lasting psychological trauma will make it much more difficult for future lawyers to sanction these techniques as not amounting to torture,” he said. Even lawyers and former senior officials who supported the interrogation program years ago now say the obstacles are too great. “Restarting this would be extraordinarily difficult,” said John Rizzo, who served as the C. I. A. ’s top lawyer during much of President George W. Bush’s administration. Mr. Obama, in one of his first acts as president, issued an executive order banning many of the harshest interrogation techniques and prohibiting the C. I. A. from running secret prisons. Mr. Trump would need to rescind that executive order as a first step. That would allow the C. I. A. to once again open secret prisons overseas. The interrogation tactics, though, would still be limited. Congress overwhelmingly enacted a law last year that allowed American interrogators to use only those techniques authorized in the Army Field Manual, which does not include harsh coercive methods. Trump administration lawyers could try to get around that prohibition by arguing that the president has broad constitutional power as commander in chief to decide how to interrogate prisoners and that Congress cannot tie his hands. That claim served as the foundation of the Bush administration’s torture program, even though many legal specialists later denounced it as going too far. Mr. Trump could also order the Defense Department to revise the Army Field Manual to authorize harsher techniques. “If the order comes down the chain of command in the Pentagon to revise that document and add in an opening to use techniques, what prospect would there be for resistance to that decision?” said Robert M. Chesney, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law. “That’s a moral and ethical and political choice. ” Such a change would almost certainly set up a showdown with Congress about the law’s intent. When lawmakers passed it last year, they required a periodic review of the field manual to ensure that interrogations “do not involve the use or threat of force. ” Any such efforts to allow use of brutal treatment would mean taking on Senator John McCain, who was subjected to horrific abuses decades ago as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam and has been an outspoken opponent of any American use of such treatment. Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona, has pledged since the election to stop Mr. Trump from trying to circumvent congressional restrictions. “I don’t give a damn what the president of the United States wants to do, or anybody else wants to do. We will not waterboard,” Mr. McCain said. “We will not torture. ” Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the highest ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in an interview that he and Mr. McCain, the committee’s chairman, are confident that the statutory restrictions on the use of torture are strong. “The chairman and myself have made it very clear our position, and we feel we have the law with us. ” Even if Mr. Trump could find a legal workaround to this law, he would have to address international treaties requiring humane treatment of prisoners. When it established the interrogation program, the Bush administration relied in part on theories that those treaties did not apply to American conduct in overseas prisons. But legislation in 2005 and 2006 and a landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2006 tightened that potential loophole. Still, Mr. Trump’s lawyers could revive the Bush era claims of executive power to bypass treaty constraints. Other obstacles also stand in the way of a new C. I. A. interrogation program. The fallout from the old program took a personal toll on senior C. I. A. officers who were subjected to years of investigations and worried about criminal prosecution. The opposition to a return to brutal methods is so strong at the agency that Michael Hayden, a former C. I. A. director, says Mr. Trump should “bring his own bucket” if he wants to bring back waterboarding, which induces the sensation of drowning. Mr. Trump will also find health professionals far more reluctant to participate than they were years ago, when psychologists helped develop tactics for interrogations and supervised sessions. In 2015, the American Psychological Association banned involvement by psychologists in national security interrogations. The American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association have strict prohibitions. At the Pentagon, a medical ethics task force last year recommended new rules that would allow American military health care personnel to avoid involvement in activities like interrogations that violate their conscience or the ethical standards of their professions. The rules have not yet been formally accepted and put into place, said Adil E. Shamoo, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and chairman of the medical ethics subcommittee for the Defense Department’s health advisory board. But the recommendations nonetheless reveal the depth of the opposition to a return to the use of torture. “The view of the medical profession is so clear now,” said Leonard Rubenstein of the Berman Institute for Bioethics at Johns Hopkins University. “There is no ambiguity anymore about what the rules are. ” Mr. Trump would most likely also find it harder to find international partners willing to host secret prisons. Criminal investigations were conducted in Poland and Lithuania over secret C. I. A. prisons there. And while the inquiries did not lead to prosecutions, they could have a chilling effect on future cooperation. Italian prosecutors won convictions in absentia of more than 20 Americans involved in a 2003 C. I. A. abduction of a terrorism suspect from Italy to Egypt for interrogation. A court in Portugal, where one of the Americans lives, ruled this month that she could be extradited to Italy. A prosecutor with the International Criminal Court announced several weeks ago that there was a “reasonable basis” to open investigations into war crimes of torture and related in detention facilities run by the United States military and the C. I. A. in Afghanistan. While the United States is not bound by the court, Afghanistan is a member, and a lengthy investigation into American actions there could make it much less likely that Afghanistan would allow the C. I. A. to set up secret prisons again. Nathaniel A. Raymond, director of the Signal Program on Human Security and Technology at Harvard University’s Humanitarian Initiative, said of the C. I. A.: “The location shell game they used before has collapsed. ” In recent years, the Obama administration has used criminal courts in the United States to prosecute those accused of terrorism, convicting a Somali man linked to Al Qaeda, two men fighting for the Shabab, a suicide bomber aboard an airplane and others. Ahmed Abu Khatalla, who is suspected of being the ringleader of the 2012 attacks that killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, is scheduled to stand trial in Washington next year. None of this is to say that, when Mr. Trump has an opportunity to capture a terrorism suspect, he has no choice but to follow Mr. Obama’s script. His administration could start sending prisoners to Guantánamo Bay again, which held close to 700 men at its peak and is now down to 60. While American counterterrorism officials say key foreign partners will not share intelligence or otherwise participate in operations that result in sending prisoners to Guantánamo, nothing would legally preclude it. After months of telling Americans that he would bring back waterboarding — “Believe me, it works,” he said — Mr. Trump may be reconsidering his stance. In an interview with The New York Times last Tuesday, his only comments on the issue since the election, Mr. Trump said he discussed the matter with James N. Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general who is under consideration for defense secretary. Like most American military leaders, he is opposed to the use of torture. “I said, ‘What do you think of waterboarding?’ ” Mr. Trump said. “I was surprised. He said, ‘I’ve never found it to be useful.’ He said, ‘I’ve always found, give me a pack of cigarettes and a couple of beers and I do better with that than I do with torture.’ And I was very impressed by that answer. ” But Mr. Trump did not close the door entirely. If Americans feel strongly about bringing back waterboarding and other tactics, he said, “I would be guided by that. ” | 1 |
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department obtained a secret wiretap last summer on Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign, based on evidence that he was operating as a Russian agent, a government official said Wednesday. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court issued the warrant, the official said, after investigators determined that Mr. Page was no longer part of the Trump campaign, which began distancing itself from him in early August. Mr. Page is one of several Trump associates under scrutiny in a federal investigation. The Justice Department considered direct surveillance of anyone tied to a political campaign as a line it did not want to cross, the official added. But its decision to seek a wiretap once it was clear that Mr. Page had left the campaign was the latest indication that, as Mr. Trump built his insurgent run for the White House, the F. B. I. was deeply concerned about whether any of his associates were colluding with Russia. To obtain the warrant, the government needed to show probable cause that Mr. Page was acting as an agent of Russia. Investigators must first get approval from one of three senior officials at the Justice Department. Then, prosecutors take it to a surveillance court judge. And though the Trump administration has said Mr. Page was a bit player who had no access to the candidate, the wiretap shows the F. B. I. had strong evidence that a campaign adviser was operating on behalf of Moscow. Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Page have called the investigation a “witch hunt” and said it was cooked up by their political rivals for speaking out against President Barack Obama’s policies. On Tuesday, Mr. Page said in an email that it “will be interesting to see what comes out when the unjustified basis for those FISA requests are more fully disclosed over time,” using shorthand for the court. The F. B. I. declined to comment. James B. Comey, the F. B. I. director, has described the hurdles to obtaining an intelligence wiretap as a “rigorous, rigorous process. ” The wiretap of Mr. Page was reported by The Washington Post. The revelation followed months of speculation about such warrants against associates of Mr. Trump, an idea that was broached in November by Heat Street, a news and entertainment website that cited a pair of unnamed sources with “links to the counterintelligence community” in its report. Heat Street was founded by Louise Mensch, a former Conservative member of the British Parliament who emerged as a fierce critic of Mr. Trump, and it is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, which publishes The Wall Street Journal and The Times of London. The official who confirmed the warrant against Mr. Page did so on the condition of anonymity because intelligence wiretaps are classified. The official was not aware of any instances in which an active member of Mr. Trump’s campaign was directly surveilled by American or spy agencies, though some Trump associates were swept up in surveillance of foreign officials. That assertion was in line with previous statements by Obama administration officials, including James R. Clapper Jr. the former director of national intelligence, who said during a March 5 appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the surveillance court issued no warrants either for the president or his campaign staff. “For the part of the national security apparatus that I oversaw as D. N. I. there was no such wiretap activity mounted against the at the time, or as a candidate, or against his campaign,” Mr. Clapper said. As part of the investigation, American intelligence agencies have examined wiretapped communications and phone records. Among those intercepts were conversations among Kremlin officials about contacts with people close to Mr. Trump, including Mr. Page, according to current and former American security officials. A spokesman for Mr. Clapper did not respond for requests for comment. A spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment. Mr. Page, a former investment banker for Merrill Lynch who later founded an investment company in New York called Global Energy Capital, has been on the F. B. I. ’s radar screen for years. In early 2013, he met with a Russian intelligence officer posing as a banker in New York. The Russian agent was part of an espionage ring the F. B. I. had been investigating, and court records indicate that the spy tried to recruit Mr. Page. That year, the F. B. I. interviewed Mr. Page, who said he did not know he had met with a Russian intelligence officer. Last July, while working as an adviser to Mr. Trump, who accepted the Republican nomination for president later that month, Mr. Page traveled to Moscow and criticized American foreign policy toward Russia in a speech at the New Economic School, a university. The address in Moscow and Mr. Page’s contacts with Russians raised alarm bells anew within the F. B. I. Later that month, the agency opened its counterintelligence investigation into whether any of Mr. Trump’s associates had colluded with Russians to influence the election. Late last year after the election, Mr. Page traveled to Moscow again and said he was there to meet with “business leaders and thought leaders. ” Former and current federal investigators say he would most likely have remained of interest to Russian intelligence because of his links to the Trump administration. Mr. Page said on CNN on Wednesday that he was not a foreign agent. “Until there’s full evidence and a full investigation has been done, we just don’t know,” Mr. Page said. He repeatedly declined to answer questions about whether he had been interviewed by the F. B. I. adding that he had “nothing to say about any ongoing investigations. ” The probe has been a political distraction for the Trump administration since before Inauguration Day. After denying that any of his associates had Russian contacts, Mr. Trump saw a steady string of news accounts revealing such encounters. His national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, was forced to resign over misleading comments he made about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey I. Kislyak. And Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who also advised Mr. Trump’s campaign, recused himself from the Justice Department investigation in response to questions about his own contacts with Mr. Kislyak. According to court records, Mr. Page had been looking to make money in Russia, and Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service singled him out. The F. B. I. secretly recorded Russian spies talking about Mr. Page, describing him as an enthusiastic “idiot. ” The F. B. I. has also been investigating Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman, who is accused of taking millions of dollars in secret payments from a party in Ukraine. He has denied wrongdoing. | 1 |
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s national police confirmed through DNA testing that the country’s most wanted terrorism suspect had been killed during a gun battle earlier in the week on Sulawesi Island, the police announced Saturday. The police said their laboratory had confirmed the identity of Abu Wardah, better known as Santoso. He was the leader of the Mujahedeen of Eastern Indonesia, a terrorist cell that has professed allegiance to the Islamic State. Santoso and one of his followers were killed on Monday during a gunfight with Indonesian security forces near the Central Sulawesi Province town of Poso, which has long been a hotbed for terrorist activity. Around 20 members of his terrorist cell remained at large. “From the DNA test results, it’s positive and confirmed that one of the corpses is Santoso,” said Brig. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar, a national police spokesman. Santoso, 39, and his cell grew to national prominence in the past several years by carrying out attacks on security forces, in particular the police, as well as training militants across the country. Santoso’s group has included Uighurs from the western Chinese region of Xinjiang. Last year, President Joko Widodo of Indonesia made it a priority to increase efforts to capture or kill Santoso, establishing a joint task force that included fighter jets to support the mission. In March, the United States placed Santoso and the Mujahedeen of Eastern Indonesia on its global terrorist designation list. “Indonesia has the creation of a wilayah in Southeast Asia,” said Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, referring to an autonomous Islamic governorate. Indonesia has suffered multiple terrorist attacks carried out by Islamic militants since 2000, including bombings of Christian churches, nightclub bombings on the island of Bali, and attacks on upscale Western hotels and the Australian Embassy in the capital, Jakarta. | 1 |
Tuesday 22 November 2016 by Matt Ward Donald Trump tells UK: You should make Kate Bush the new Queen
Kate Bush would make a magnificent queen for the United Kingdom, Donald Trump has suggested.
The President-elect singled out the 58-year-old singer as the perfect candidate after watching a video of her 1980 hit Babooshka on YouTube.“I’m sure many people would like to see her represent Great Britain as their Monarch,” he told reporters following a Tweet in the middle of the night.
“In that video, she looks equally good in a skin tight catsuit and a chain mail bikini. Not many women can pull that off.
“Ok so she’s in her 50s now, but that kind of works for me. Plus Elizabeth is how old? A hundred and nine? Most people would see Kate Bush as a serious upgrade.
“So to recap, stunning looks, great choice in bikinis, British. Face it: she ticks all the boxes.
“Later I’ll be tweeting my thoughts on who should be Pope. Can the Pope be a woman?” Get the best NewsThump stories in your mailbox every Friday, for FREE! There are currently | 0 |
WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump took a shot on Tuesday at one of the nation’s largest manufacturers, Boeing, sharply criticizing a pending order for a new Air Force One and suggesting that the company was “doing a little bit of a number” with the cost of the next generation of presidential aircraft. “Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. “Cancel order!” Although his post attracted attention because it was about the most famous airplane in the world, the significance may be broader: For perhaps the first time since President John F. Kennedy took on the steel industry in the early 1960s, the heads of big American companies are being confronted by a leader willing to call them out directly and publicly for his policy and political aims. Although President Obama forcefully criticized Wall Street and the financial industry after Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008, he tended not to single out individual companies. But Mr. Trump is now targeting Boeing a week after he pushed Carrier and its parent company, United Technologies, to keep about 1, 000 manufacturing jobs in Indiana, and three weeks after he singled out a Ford plant in Kentucky. Executives who give him what he wants may also be rewarded. On Tuesday afternoon, the escorted the billionaire Japanese businessman Masayoshi Son to the lobby of Trump Tower to announce that the technology conglomerate SoftBank Group would be investing $50 billion in the United States. He called Mr. Son one of “the great men of industry. ” Mr. Son promised the investment, which will come from a previously announced $100 billion fund, as he is pressing to merge the wireless company Sprint, which his firm owns a controlling interest in, with : a merger that Mr. Obama’s regulators have blocked. What is motivating Mr. Trump is not always clear. His transition team is receiving information about major federal programs, and Mr. Trump received a briefing on Monday that included the cost of the Air Force One project, according to a person familiar with the discussion. But he also made his post about the Air Force One upgrade just minutes after The Chicago Tribune published comments from Boeing’s chief executive, Dennis Muilenburg, suggesting that the ’s trade policies could hurt the company, which does substantial business in China. But Mr. Trump did not focus on Boeing broadly. Instead, he focused on the Air Force One upgrade, telling reporters at Trump Tower, “The plane is totally out of control. ” “It’s going to be over $4 billion for the Air Force One program, and I think it’s ridiculous,” he said. “I think Boeing is doing a little bit of a number. We want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money. ” In a statement after Mr. Trump’s Twitter post, Boeing said it had a $170 million contract to study the equipment that a redesigned Air Force One might need. That project has just gotten underway, so billions of dollars in cost overruns at this point appear to be impossible. “Some of the statistics that have been, uh, cited, shall we say, don’t appear to reflect the nature of the financial agreement between Boeing and the Department of Defense,” the White House press secretary, Josh Earnest, said. Air Force officials said they were proposing to spend $2. 7 billion over the next five years to research, develop and test communications technologies and other advanced systems. The Air Force would then buy two aircraft, which normally cost airlines $350 million to $400 million apiece, and refit them to include all the new systems and handle extra weight. The planes would not be ready to fly until 2024, so Mr. Trump’s $4 billion estimate may ultimately be about correct. However, since nothing but the basic study contract has been awarded yet, his administration could cut back or reshape the Air Force proposal in any way it or Congress wanted. “We look forward to working with the U. S. Air Force on subsequent phases of the program, allowing us to deliver the best planes for the president at the best value for the American taxpayer,” Boeing said. Aviation analysts were more blunt. “This is getting ridiculous fast, when an important policy and acquisition decision is being made by Twitter,” said Richard L. Aboulafia, an aviation consultant with the Teal Group in Fairfax, Va. Mr. Trump’s willingness to intervene at the individual corporate level is a stark departure from Republican orthodoxy, which has long objected to the government’s picking winners and losers. Greg Hayes, the chief executive of United Technologies, seemed to imply on CNBC on Monday that he felt pressured. “There was a cost as we thought about keeping the Indiana plant open,” he said. “At the same time,” he added, “I was born at night, but not last night. I also know that about 10 percent of our revenue comes from the U. S. government. ” Some of the jobs saved from Mexico will probably fall to automation. Carrier will invest $16 million in the Indianapolis plant to automate its operations and “drive the cost down so that we can continue to be competitive,” Mr. Hayes said. “What that ultimately means is there will be fewer jobs. ” Mr. Trump’s Air Force One post came out of the blue: He had not focused in the campaign on the cost of Boeing’s plans for a presidential plane. Last week, Mr. Muilenburg, Boeing’s chief executive, said that of all the commercial airplanes it sold were for use in China, where Boeing is in a tense competition with Europe’s Airbus, its main rival. Like other major exporters, it is concerned that if Mr. Trump offends Chinese leaders or imposes tariffs against imports, China could retaliate by buying more planes from Airbus, which would reduce jobs at Boeing. Mr. Trump certainly understands that as president, he will no longer be flying his own, Boeing 757. The Secret Service and the Defense Department would object. Beyond convenience, Air Force One carries an array of communications gear for conducting everyday business and for managing a global crisis — even wartime operations, if required — while aloft. It is also equipped with a number of security features. The communications systems on the planes now in use were designed in the 1980s. The new ones would incorporate the latest advances, as well as defenses. The planes would also need other highly classified systems to protect the president that the Air Force will not discuss. But among the proposals considered several years ago for a new presidential helicopter were technologies to help prevent terrorist attacks and to resist the electromagnetic effects of a nuclear blast. Mr. Aboulafia said Air Force One needed to have antimissile defenses like jamming and electronic countermeasures to keep the president safe. Mr. Trump could eliminate some of these features to cut costs. But “talk about the ultimate in penny wise and pound foolishness,” Mr. Aboulafia said. “We’re talking about Pentagon weapons accounts that are going to $200 billion a year, and you’re going to nickel and dime the survivability of the president’s jet. That is about as dysfunctional as it gets. ” Mr. Trump could make good on his threat and cut the project from his budget request for the fiscal year that begins in October 2017, the first budget year of his presidency. But ultimately, Congress controls the federal purse strings, and lawmakers with parochial interests are already weighing in. “Replacing the Air Force One aircraft will support jobs throughout northwest Washington and is important to ensuring the safety and security of future presidents,” Senator Patty Murray, Senator Maria Cantwell and Representative Rick Larsen, all Democrats of Washington, said in a joint statement Boeing’s largest factories are in the Seattle area. “The ’s tweet does nothing to change those basic facts. ” | 1 |
“I’m sorry. ” Two simple words, not so simply said. On Wednesday, the public representatives of two embattled American institutions — United Airlines and the White House — found themselves on national television grappling with a delicate and increasingly common ritual of the corporate and political worlds: the public apology. Oscar Munoz, United’s chief executive, recalled his “shame” upon seeing a cellphone video, shared by millions of people, of a paying passenger being violently evicted from one of his airline’s flights. Face taut, voice soft, Mr. Munoz’s televised prostration was a far cry from the robotic statement issued by United days earlier, expressing regret for “ ” a traveler. Around the same time, President Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, was denouncing himself as “reprehensible” for having favorably compared Hitler to President Bashar of Syria and referring to Nazi death camps as “Holocaust centers,” all while standing at the White House podium. The fine art of repentance is a skill taught in business schools and promoted by consultants. But all kinds of offenders in public life still seem to struggle with the execution. Corporations like BP and Wells Fargo have faced criticism for dawdling responses to cascading crises, while politicians from Bill Clinton to Anthony Weiner have had difficulty admitting to peccadilloes. The key to contrition, according to experts, is projecting sincerity, humanity, and a demeanor — the better to convince a cynical public. And in this age of whipsawing social media, you had better do it fast. “The head of United should never have been allowed to take three swings at correcting and apologizing for an incident that was on more social media than Kim and Kanye’s wedding,” said Mortimer Matz, a New York consultant who has guided decades’ worth of clients through crises small and large. United issued several halting statements about the plane episode, which first emerged Monday morning, before Mr. Munoz made his abject appearance on Wednesday on ABC. Mr. Matz said the airline had missed its moment. “You’ve got to be a fast thinker in the digital age,” said Mr. Matz, who will be 93 in July. Many companies now take steps to be nimble and responsive when a furor erupts online. Last week, Pepsi took less than 24 hours to apologize and retract a advertising campaign that used populist imagery to sell soda. It was a rapid that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. This week, Mr. Spicer was quick to recognize the damage done by his remarks, which prompted immediate denunciations on Twitter as well as calls for his resignation. He appeared on CNN within hours of his gaffe, while Mr. Munoz waited two days. Still, Mr. Spicer’s apology came only after his office tried to clarify his remarks with several statements that, while remorseful, did not clearly admit error. On Wednesday, in a previously scheduled interview at the Newseum in Washington, Mr. Spicer took a new tack: no excuses. “I made a mistake there’s no other way to say it,” Mr. Spicer told Greta van Susteren, the MSNBC anchor, his tone notably subdued. “I got into a topic that I shouldn’t have, and I screwed up. ” He added: “It really is painful to myself to know that I did something like that. ” Mr. Munoz, interviewed on “Good Morning America” on Wednesday, was similarly solemn. “That shame and embarrassment was pretty palpable for me,” he told the correspondent Rebecca Jarvis, emotion in his voice. “This can never — will never — happen again on a United Airlines flight. That’s my premise and that’s my promise. ” Later on Wednesday, United said it would refund the fares of all passengers on the affected flight. Both Mr. Munoz, who was named “communicator of the year” by PR Week magazine last month, and Mr. Spicer took pains to personalize their apologies. It’s a technique that, conscious or not, is recommended by crisis experts. “That’s on me, I have to fix that,” Mr. Munoz said when asked about the airline policies that led to the violent ejection. Mr. Spicer described his blunder as “mine to own, mine to apologize for, mine to ask forgiveness for. ” That approach, consultants say, is one of the few ways to start rebuilding trust. The accounting firm PwC, for instance, gave a detailed explanation, and quick apology, for this year’s Oscar best picture fiasco, eventually holding onto its Academy Awards account. “People want someone to throw the book at,” said Katie Sprehe, a senior director at the communications firm APCO Worldwide. Ms. Sprehe, who studies reputation maintenance, said United had erred by not moving swiftly to mirror its customers’ outrage. “You need to speak your stakeholders’ language, and coming out with P. R. mumbo jumbo, like ‘’ is the wrong thing to do,” she said. Stu Loeser, an adviser to executives in the technology and finance industries, said that a apology must be considered in context. “Oscar Munoz answers to more than 85, 000 employees who want to know that if they were the ones caught in a viral video maelstrom, he’d back them up,” said Mr. Loeser, who was press secretary to former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York. “Sean Spicer ultimately answers to one person and one person only” — Mr. Trump — “someone who sees backing down or apologizing as not only a weakness, but a character flaw. ” “In both cases,” Mr. Loeser added, “what might appear to be an irrational series of statements that got you into trouble makes more sense, when you think about who they’re actually answering to. ” Mr. Munoz ended his interview by saying he had no plans to resign. “I was hired to make United better, and I’ve been doing that, and that’s what I’ll continue to do,” he said. Mr. Spicer, asked by Ms. Van Susteren if he enjoyed being press secretary, said he loved it. “I truly do believe it’s an honor to have this job,” he said. “It is a privilege. And if you don’t believe it, then you shouldn’t be here. ” Whether the apologies outlive the gaffes remains to be seen. Ken Sunshine, who founded the firm Sunshine Sachs, said he was skeptical. “My rule?” he said. “You get one shot. ” | 1 |
Короткая ссылка 27 октября 2016, 02:22 Один из лидеров оппозиции в Венесуэле, губернатор штата Миранда Энрике Каприлес Радонски, заявил, что президент Венесуэлы Николас Мадуро ответственен за столкновения, произошедшие 26 октября в ходе массовых протестов по всей стране.
«В нескольких штатах люди были ранены по приказам Мадуро», — написал политик в своём Twitter. Tenemos varios heridos en varios Edos por órdenes de Maduro! — Henrique Capriles R. (@hcapriles) October 26, 2016
Ранее Мадуро обвинил депутатов, проголосовавших за начало процесса импичмента Мадуро, в попытке «парламентского переворота». Подписывайтесь на наш Telegram , чтобы быть в курсе самых важных новостей. Для этого достаточно иметь Telegram на любом устройстве, пройти по ссылке и нажать кнопку Join. | 0 |
Revolutions rarely give way to gracious expressions of defeat. And so, despite the crushing California results that rolled in for him on Tuesday night, despite the insurmountable delegate math and the growing pleas that he end his quest for the White House, Senator Bernie Sanders took to the stage in Santa Monica and basked, bragged and vowed to fight on. In a speech of striking stubbornness, he ignored the achievement of his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, who became the first woman in American history to clinch the presidential nomination of a major political party. Mr. Sanders waited until 15 minutes into his speech to utter Mrs. Clinton’s name. He referred, almost in passing, to a telephone conversation in which he had congratulated her on her victories. At that, the crowd of more than 3, 000 inside an aging airport hangar booed loudly. Mr. Sanders did little to discourage them. Tuesday was, undeniably, Mrs. Clinton’s night, a milestone for women in politics and civic life 95 years after the 19th Amendment guaranteed their right to vote. But by Wednesday morning, all eyes were on Mr. Sanders. Would he be generous or petulant? Would he let go or keep battling? At almost every turn, he was grudging toward Mrs. Clinton, passing up a chance to issue the kind of lengthy salute that many, in and out of the Democratic Party, had expected and craved. “It’s a blown opportunity to build bridges that are going to be extremely important in the fall,” said David Gergen, an adviser to four presidents, both Democratic and Republican. He worried that Mr. Sanders was becoming “a grumpy old man. ” The raw math is brutal and indisputable: Mrs. Clinton has not just crossed the threshold of 2, 383 delegates needed to secure the nomination. As of Tuesday night, she had succeeded in winning a majority of pledged delegates, a majority of the states that have held primaries, and the popular vote. This would be the time, under normal circumstances, for a primary rival to acknowledge insurmountable odds, pay tribute to a prevailing opponent and begin the work of stitching together a divided political party. That was the conciliatory message that a vanquished Mrs. Clinton delivered eight years ago to the day, on June 7, 2008, four days after Barack Obama had sealed his party’s nomination — a contest that was mathematically closer than the one with Mr. Sanders now. “We all know this has been a tough fight,” Mrs. Clinton said at the time. “But the Democratic Party is a family. And now, it’s time to restore the ties that bind us together. ” On Tuesday, she was effusive in her praise of Mr. Sanders and in her outreach to his supporters, mentioning him by name three times in her victory address in Brooklyn. “Let there be no mistake,’’ she said. “Senator Sanders, his campaign, and the vigorous debate that we’ve had about how to raise incomes, reduce inequality, increase upward mobility have been very good for the Democratic Party and for America. ’’ But Mr. Sanders, who calls himself a revolutionary, is openly skeptical of the traditions and expectations that govern the party whose nomination he covets. Throughout his campaign, he has regarded the Democratic Party itself with suspicion and distrust. Party unity, it seems, is the farthest thing from his mind at the moment. Far from backing down, Mr. Sanders promised to take his campaign to the Democratic convention in Philadelphia this summer, raising the possibility that he could remain in the race, without ever conceding defeat, until July. “We will continue to fight for every vote and every delegate we can get,” Mr. Sanders thundered. Declaring that the movement he has begun is “more than Bernie,” Mr. Sanders sounded at times messianic. “Our vision,” he said, “will be the future of America. ” Inside the airport hangar in Santa Monica, anger at Mrs. Clinton, and at the establishment she exemplifies, was visceral and abundant, overshadowing her electoral advantage and night. Freddie Paull, a filmmaker from Glendale, Calif. was not interested in milestones. He said he thought Mrs. Clinton was a crook. “She could be indicted literally tomorrow if the system is not corrupt,” he said. “I would love to see a woman in office,” he added. “But I do not want to see Hillary Clinton in office, because she has no honor. ” Should Mr. Sanders drop out, he said, he was prepared to vote for Mr. Trump. Amid chants of “Bernie or Bust” and loud boos as election results rolled in, Alison Bacon, an actress living in Los Angeles, assailed Mrs. Clinton for having proclaimed victory before the Democratic Party had formally bestowed it on her at the convention. “I think it’s absolutely unjust, undemocratic, ” she said. “What kind of example is that setting?” Of course, ending a campaign is always painful, especially one that so consistently defied expectations and openly challenged the political order. From its humble start in April 2015 outside the Capitol in Washington, in a sparsely attended and hurried announcement speech (“We don’t have an endless amount of time,” he warned the gathered reporters, “I have to get back”) Mr. Sanders built a rollicking national movement whose crowds, and devotion upended the Democratic race. And Mr. Sanders was not merely a candidate to his supporters. With his Everyman appearance and unvarnished anger, he embodied the message that thrilled his followers: that it was time for working Americans to rise up and reclaim a country that was being corrupted by elites and their wealth. “When we began this campaign a little over a year ago, we were considered to be a fringe campaign,’’ Mr. Sanders said on Tuesday, adding wryly: “I think that has changed, just a little bit. ” But even as he acknowledged a “very, very steep fight” to winning his party’s nomination, he did not signal an end for now — still electrified, it seemed, by the crowds chanting his name. Howard Dean, a Democrat and a former governor of Vermont, can sympathize. “It’s very hard to concede,” he said. “You are tired. You are cranky. You’ve worked your butt off for two years. ” Nobody, Mr. Dean said, resisted ending a presidential campaign more than he did. Once a he had a string of setbacks that left him feeling, by February 2004, much as Mr. Sanders does today: furious at an unfair system and determined to fight on. Then Al Gore called. Mr. Dean fulminated, uninterrupted, for 10 minutes, “ranting and raving,” he recalled. But Mr. Gore, schooled in the art of painful concessions, was blunt. “You know, Howard,” he said, “This is not really about you. This is about the country. ” Mr. Dean, taking the advice to heart, quit the campaign a few days later. “The minute he said it,” Mr. Dean recalled, “I looked like an idiot to myself. ” He said he wonders whether Mr. Sanders will heed the warning. “Bernie has changed politics, but his changes are not going to be realized unless he leads — and leading is not going to mean tilting at windmills at the convention,” Mr. Dean said. “He has to switch into the mode of a statesman. ” “You don’t get any points for carrying on or complaining about it,” Mr. Dean added. “You get points for sucking it up. ” | 1 |
Julian Assange Proof of Life Video a FAKE 10/27/2016 In today’s video, Christopher Greene of AMTV reports on a fake Julian Assange Proof of Life Video. 09/27/2016 Jump 4 TRUMP
I saw a video on you tube today stating that Julians’ attorney was murdered a couple days ago. Follow AMTV! 10/27/2016 TRUTH REVOLT http://youtu.be/PsVNKmb6jEc There’s a lot of accusations going around that the 2016 election is r ... Netflix Ceo: TV’s Future includes Hallucination Pills 10/27/2016 INDEPENDENT The future of TV might everyone taking hallucinogenic drugs, according to the head of Netflix. The thr ... | 0 |
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The year 2016 is set to become one of Chicago’s bloodiest in decades. More than 100 people were shot in just the first 10 days of the year. By the end of March, 345 people had been murdered. The month of May saw 66 people murdered and another 400 wounded. Over Labor Day 13 were killed and another 52 injured by gunfire. By the end of September, 500 people had been murdered and more than 3,000 shot and wounded.
The last weekend in October saw 17 people murdered and another 41 wounded, despite the Chicago Police Department cancelling leaves and putting officers on 12-hour shifts.
By the end of October, 641 people had been killed with more than 3,660 wounded — putting Chicago on track for the worst year for gun violence in decades.
There are multiple causes. Perhaps the primary one is the lack of certainty when it comes to gun ownership in Illinois. Article I section 22 of the Illinois Constitution states, “Subject only to the police power, the right of the individual citizen to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” Put another way, gun rights don’t exist in Illinois unless the “police power” gives permission.
The 2010 Supreme Court decision McDonald v. City of Chicago , holding that “the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms for self-defense in one’s home is fully applicable to the states [including Illinois]” left the door open for state legislatures to determine what rules and regulations would apply outside the home. Illinois legislators took full advantage, putting in place burdens on citizens wanting to obtain a carry permit:
• 16 hours of concealed carry firearms training, provided by an instructor approved by the Illinois State Police;
• A valid driver’s license or Illinois Identification card;
• A valid FOID (Firearms Owner Identification) card;
• A head and shoulders electronic photograph taken within the last 30 days;
• Proof of the last 10 years of residency;
• Fingerprints; and
• a $150 fee.
The burdens put off limits legal carry outside the home for many of Chicago’s citizens, especially those living in the war zones in West and Southside Chicago where nearly all the murders are taking place.
Chicago is considered the most gang-infested city in the country, with an estimated gang population of over 100,000, representing nearly 60 different groups including the Vice Lords, the Black Disciples, the Four Corner Hustlers, the Black P. Stones, and the Latin Kings.
Part of the problem is the so called "Ferguson Effect," which has caused CPD officers to back off from enforcing all but the most heinous of crimes. Some officers reported anonymously to the Chicago Sun-Times that they have been afraid to make preemptive stops because the federal Justice Department and the American Civil Liberties Union are scrutinizing every move they make. This has resulted in the number of “street stops” dropping by 80 percent since the first of the year.
Criminals couldn't care less about gun restrictions placed on private citizens. Chicago’s Crime Lab interviewed Cook County Jail inmates last year and learned that they don’t obtain their guns from gun shows, Internet sales, or gun shops. As Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), explained: “More than two-thirds of these offenders got their guns from family, friends or fellow gang members. These people can’t obtain guns via legal means, and the existing restrictions don’t prevent them from being armed. Criminals can’t get a [FOID] card, and they darn sure can’t get a concealed carry permit.”
Unless Chicagoans are more freely allowed to possess firearms for personal protection outside their homes, the violent crime rampage that makes headlines nearly every day in the Windy City will continue unabated.
An Ivy League graduate and former investment advisor, Bob is a regular contributor to The New American magazine and blogs frequently at LightFromTheRight.com, primarily on economics and politics. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Please review our Comment Policy before posting a comment
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MOSCOW — A shipment of Kalashnikov rifles, popularly known as was destined for the United States when it was stopped and quickly rerouted to Venezuela. Washington had just slapped Moscow with sanctions over the Ukraine crisis, and the Russian gun maker Kalashnikov Kontsern suddenly found one of its biggest markets off limits. Without access to the ready buyers among American weapons enthusiasts, Kalashnikov had to change its strategy, an increasingly common challenge for Russian companies after the imposition of sanctions. In the two years that followed, Kalashnikov diversified into new product lines, slashed jobs and made over its brand. And the rifle — long the weapon of choice for militaries and militant groups and the world’s most widely used firearm — was pitched instead to hobbyists and hunters in Russia. That new strategy appears to be yielding results. As Kalashnikov steps into the void left by American competitors in its home market, it is on track to turn a profit this year, bolstered in part by a weaker currency. “They started paying attention to clients,” said Dmitry S. Balyasov, a lawyer and shooting enthusiast who was patronizing a firing range outside of Moscow. “They have a contemporary style for selling a product,” Mr. Balyasov said, clutching a legal, civilian version of the weapon. For the company behind the weapon, the shift from serving conflict to serving consumers has been stark. The company owns the original license to rifles, colloquially known as — a name derived from the Russian word for automatic and the surname of the inventor, Lt. Gen. Mikhail T. Kalashnikov, as well as the year the prototype appeared. In the Soviet era, Kalashnikov’s main rifle factory, called the Izhevsk Machine Works, was a military enterprise that stamped out guns in tremendous quantities with sales an afterthought. rifles are ubiquitous in conflict zones. More than 100 million have been sold, including the countless knockoffs the rifle has inspired from China and elsewhere. The chunky guns, with their oversize banana clips, are legendarily rugged, and can remain in armories for decades, limiting sales of new weapons. With the military market largely saturated, Kalashnikov became increasingly dependent on civilian weapons sales. The civilian versions shoot only once with each trigger squeeze, with no option to switch to full automatic as in the military rifle. Before the sanctions, Kalashnikov’s plan for expansion focused on the United States, where gun ownership laws are more lenient than in many other countries. Though Russian weapons make up a tiny piece of the United States market, sales of its civilian rifles and shotguns branded as Saiga and Baikal increased at a faster pace than the overall market. By 2013, the United States accounted for about 40 percent of the company’s total gun sales, roughly equivalent to the volume bought by the Russian military, where every soldier is equipped with one. American sanctions slammed the door on the expansion plan. The sanctions in mid 2014 took direct aim at Rostec, the military industrial conglomerate that holds a 51 percent stake in Kalashnikov. They forced the gun maker to take a hard look at its business. “We are moving from iron to intellect,” said Vasily Brovko, the director of strategy and communications for Rostec. It thinned its ranks of middle managers at the Izhevsk factory in 2015, and diversified this year by buying companies that make motorboats and surveillance drones. While Kalashnikov does not break out sales receipts from its various divisions, it intends for firearms and clothing to make up about 80 percent of earnings by 2020, with motorboat and drone sales accounting for the rest. A clothing line is being unveiled in September, and the company plans to open 60 retail stores in Russia by the end of the year, selling clothes and rifles. It also introduced a marketing campaign, with a new logo — a stylized letter K, with a curved ammunition magazine as one of the arms — and a slogan, “Kalashnikov: Real. Reliable. ” “Kalashnikov is a global brand,” Vladimir Dmitriev, the company’s chief of marketing, said, likening Kalashnikov to Ferrari or Caterpillar, companies that sell clothing as a sideline to capitalize on brand recognition. “We are certainly justified in thinking that clothes and souvenirs with our symbols will be in demand, as much as our primary products. ” In Russia, Kalashnikov must navigate a different environment than in the United States. Russian consumers can buy a firearm only with a police permit. Potential buyers must have no criminal record, a diploma from a gun safety course and a medical certificate that clears them of any mental illness. With few exceptions, civilians are not allowed to own pistols. Kalashnikov is playing to patriotic ideals. As part of a marketing effort, the company erected a stand festooned with balloons promoting the rifle in Moscow’s Gorky Park on May 9, Victory Day, the holiday commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945. The type of display — one associating itself with the Russian government and army — is a contrast to the United States, where antigovernment sentiment is strong among the public. The company is showing signs of improvement. It says it expects to report a profit of 2. 1 billion rubles, or about $33 million, when 2015 results are published this month, compared with a loss of 340 million rubles in 2014. It now sells fewer guns, but makes more money on each. But the biggest boost for Kalashnikov comes from factors beyond its control. Russia is a major oil exporter, and weak crude prices coupled with the sanctions helped cut the value of its currency. With most of its costs priced in rubles, Kalashnikov products became far more competitive with imported firearms. “We are talking about the reversal of the Dutch disease, which Russia has been suffering,” Vladimir Osakovsky, chief economist for Russia at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said. Dutch disease refers to the impact energy prices tend to have on an country’s currency, pushing it higher and hurting domestic companies by making their exports look comparatively expensive. Whether the growth is sustainable or the product of favorable currency winds will depend on Kalashnikov’s ground campaign. As part its broad new marketing effort, the company now sends representatives to gun stores across Russia to promote its products. At the Hunting Club gun shop in Moscow’s suburbs, Kalashnikov has provided two window displays exclusively for its rifles, and racks and shelves to sell branded and shoulder patches. “The idea is to surround the customer with the brand, so he is not tempted to spend money anywhere else,” Mr. Brovko, the Rostec strategist, said. With the help of the currency tailwinds, demand for Kalashnikov’s shotguns and rifles at the shop has outpaced that for guns made by its rivals, like Beretta of Italy, Sauer of Germany and Winchester of the United States, according to Aleksei V. Lapshin, the owner of the Hunting Club. Customers have also been pleased with the range of special options, including different materials for the rifle exterior, he said. “It’s a very modern approach,” he said. “Some people want black plastic, some people want beechwood, some people want walnut. ” “No two comrades have the same taste. ” | 1 |
Posted on November 8, 2016 by WashingtonsBlog
By Robert Parry, the investigative reporter who many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. Originally published at Parry’s Consortium News (republished with permission).
As much as The New York Times and the mainstream U.S. media have become propaganda outlets on most foreign policy issues, like the one-sided coverage of the bloody Syrian war, sometimes the truth seeps through in on-the-ground reporting by correspondents, even ones who usually are pushing the “propo.”
Such was the case with Anne Barnard’s new reporting from inside west Aleppo, the major portion of the city which is in government hands and copes with regular terror rocket and mortar attacks from rebel-held east Aleppo where Al Qaeda militants and U.S.-armed-and-funded “moderate” rebels fight side-by-side. Samantha Power, Permanent Representative of the United States to the UN, addresses the Security Council meeting on Syria, Sept. 25, 2016. Power has been an advocate for escalating U.S. military involvement in Syria. (UN Photo)
Almost in passing, Barnard’s article on Sunday acknowledged the rarely admitted reality of the Al Qaeda/”moderate” rebel collaboration, which puts the United States into a de facto alliance with Al Qaeda terrorists and their jihadist allies, fighting under banners such as Nusra Front (recently renamed Syria Conquest Front) and Ahrar al-Sham.
Barnard also finally puts the blame for preventing civilians in east Aleppo from escaping the fighting on a rebel policy of keeping them in harm’s way rather than letting them transit through “humanitarian corridors” to safety. Some of her earlier pro-rebel accounts suggested that it wasn’t clear who was stopping movement of civilians through those corridors.
However, on Sunday, she reported: “We had arrived at a critical moment, as Russia said there was only one day left to pass through a corridor it had provided for people to escape eastern Aleppo before the rebel side was flattened, a corridor through which precious few had passed. The government says rebels are preventing civilians from leaving. Rebels refuse any evacuation without international supervision and a broader deal to deliver humanitarian aid.”
Granted, you still have to read between the lines, but at least there is the acknowledgement that rebels are refusing civilian evacuations under the current conditions. How that is different from Islamic State terrorists in Mosul, Iraq, preventing departures from their areas – a practice which the Times and other U.S. outlets condemn as using women and children as “human shields” – isn’t addressed. But Barnard’s crimped admission is at least a start.
Barnard then writes: “Instead [of allowing civilians to move through the humanitarian corridors], they [the rebels] are trying to break the siege, with Qaeda-linked groups and those backed by the United States working together — the opposite of what Russia has demanded.”
Again, that isn’t the clearest description of the situation, which is stunning enough that one might have expected it in the lede rather than buried deep inside the story, but it is significant that the Times is recognizing that Al Qaeda and the U.S.-backed “moderates” are “working together” and that Russia opposes that collaboration.
She also noted that “Three Qaeda-linked suicide bombers attacked a military position with explosive-packed personnel carriers on Thursday, military officials said, and mortar fire was raining on neighborhoods that until now had been relatively safe. It was among the most intense rounds in four years of rebel shelling that officials say has killed 11,000 civilians.”
While she then throws in a caveat about the impossibility of verifying the numbers, the acknowledgement that the U.S.-backed “moderate” rebels and their Al Qaeda comrades have been shelling civilians in west Aleppo is significant, too. Before this, all the American people heard was the other side, from rebel-held east Aleppo, about the human suffering there, often conveyed by “activists” with video cameras who have depicted the conflict as simply the willful killing of children by the evil Syrian government and the even more evil Russians.
More Balance
With the admission of rebel terror attacks on civilians in west Aleppo, the picture finally is put into more balance. The Al Qaeda and U.S.-backed rebels have been killing thousands of civilians in government-controlled areas and the Syrian military and its Russian allies have struck back only to be condemned for committing “war crimes.” The second plane about to crash into the World Trade Center towers in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.
Though the human toll in both sides of Aleppo is tragic, we have seen comparable situations before – in which the U.S. government has supported, supplied and encouraged governments to mount fierce offensives to silence rockets or mortars fired by rebels toward civilian areas.
For instance, senior U.S. government officials, including President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, have defended Israel’s right to defend itself from rockets fired from inside Gaza even though those missiles rarely kill anyone. Yet, Israel is allowed to bomb the near-defenseless people of Gaza at will, killing thousands including the four little boys blown apart in July 2014 while playing on a beach during the last round of what the Israelis call “mowing the grass.”
In the context of those deaths, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, who has built her career as a supposed humanitarian advocating a “responsibility to protect” civilians, laid the blame not on the Israeli military but on fighters in Gaza who had fired rockets that rarely hit anything besides sand.
At the United Nations on July 18, 2014, Power said , “ President Obama spoke with [Israeli] Prime Minister Netanyahu this morning to reaffirm the United States’ strong support for Israel’s right to defend itself…. Hamas’ attacks are unacceptable and would be unacceptable to any member state of the United Nations. Israel has the right to defend its citizens and prevent these attacks.”
But that universal right apparently does not extend to Syria where U.S.-supplied rockets are fired into civilian neighborhoods of west Aleppo. In that case, Power and other U.S. officials apply an entirely different set of standards. Any Syrian or Russian destruction of east Aleppo with the goal of suppressing that rocket fire becomes a “war crime.”
Perhaps it’s expected that the U.S. government, like other governments, will engage in hypocrisy regarding affairs of state: one set of rules for U.S. allies and another for countries marked for U.S. “regime change.” Statements by supposed “humanitarians” – such as Samantha Power, “Ms. R2P” – are no exception.
But double standards are even more distasteful when they come from allegedly “objective” journalists such as those who work at The New York Times, The Washington Post and other prestige American news outlets. When they take the “U.S. side” in a dispute and become crude propagandists, they encourage the kind of misguided “group thinks” that led to the criminal Iraq War and other disastrous “regime change” projects over the past two decades.
Yet, that is what we normally see. A thoughtful reader can’t peruse the international reporting of the U.S. mainstream media without realizing that it is corrupted by propaganda from both government officials and from U.S.-funded operations, often disguised as “human rights activists” or “citizen journalists” whose supposed independence makes their “propo” even more effective.
So, it’s worth noting those rare occasions when The New York Times and the rest of the MSM let some of the reality peek through. When evaluating the latest plans from Hillary Clinton and other interventionists to expand the U.S. military intervention in Syria – via prettily named “safe zones” and “no-fly zones” – the American people should realize that they are being asked to come to the aid of Al Qaeda. | 0 |
This article was written by Tyler Durden and originally published at Zero Hedge .
Editor’s Comment: The troubled socialist nation of Venezuela can no longer hide its massive hyperinflation problems – even from itself. President Maduro was forced, by economic realities, to reissue bills in much higher denominations – 200 times bigger – a tell tale sign of a collapsing economy. Americans were familiar with the crazy exchange rate of pesos before Mexico revalued its currency more than a decade ago – otherwise it would take literal wheelbarrows of money just to pay for basic goods, and that is too impractical even for their system.
But ironically, this revaluing makes the hyperinflation more obvious, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy towards the bottom. Who can stop this crazy train?
Venezuela Throws In The Towel On Hyperinflation: Will Print 200x Higher-Denominated Bills
by Tyler Durden
While several years ago it was perhaps debatable in polite society that Venezuela’s socialist economy would collapse ultimately unleashing hyperinflation, any doubt was put to rest early this year when the IMF’s own inflationary forecast confirmed as much.
However, while the international community had long accepted the inevitable fate of Maduro’s socialist paradise, the local government sternly refused to admit reality and to avoid confirming what the local population already knew, it insisted on keeping the highest denomination bill in circulation at 100 bolivars, whose worth is approximately 8 cents on the black market, turning the most basic transactions into logistical nightmares and saddling banks with crippling money-handling costs. Economists and central bank employees say Mr. Maduro didn’t want to acknowledge the country’s inflation problem by printing bigger notes.
This has finally changed, and as the WSJ reports , Venezuela’s government, slammed by hyperinflation has finally thrown in the towel, and is planning to issue new bills in December with larger denominations—up to 200 times higher than the current biggest bill, according to people familiar with the plans. The move marks an implicit acknowledgment by the government that skyrocketing prices have slashed the value of the currency
The new coins and notes will go up to 20,000 bolivars, according to people close to the central bank, the finance ministry, the country’s banks and bill suppliers. This would make the biggest note worth $15 on the black market.
And since by doing so the government will tacitly admit that it has lost control over prices, It will also create a self-fulfilling prophecy of even higher prices , sending the country’s hyperinflation into overdrive.
As the WSJ adds, earlier this year, the government began informally allowing shops in the outer provinces to sell food at free market prices, reducing shortages at the cost of higher inflation, which the International Monetary Fund expects to rise above 1,600% next year. Further liberalization followed after the state oil company gradually rolled out higher-priced gasoline at gas stations in the border regions to reduce the cost of subsidizing the cheapest car fuel in the world, according to the company’s executives.
Venezuela’s loss, however, is a big gain for the companies contracted to print the money:
In recent weeks, several companies, including U.K.-based De La Rue, the world’s largest commercial printer, won contracts to print the new set of notes, which the government wants in time for the annual December spending spree, according to a person familiar with contract negotiations.
“It’s a very big deal. It’s a big package,” the person said.
Meanwhile, the central bank remains stuck in denial and hasn’t published price statistics for almost two years. Instead, Mr. Maduro has blamed the skyrocketing prices on the “economic war” waged against his government by shopkeepers and financiers. This has forced people to brave one of the world’s highest crime rates by shopping with backpacks full of cash and spend hours lining up outside ATMs, which give out less than $10 per withdrawal. Many provincial banks have reduced daily withdrawals to 30,000 bolivars, which would buy a Venezuelan couple a lunch at a mid-scale restaurant.
Amusingly, as we reported last year, the high demand for nearly worthless currency notes has also presented a financial burden for the cash-strapped government, which also lacks raw materials to print its own money. Since last year, Venezuela has had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to printing companies to feed its economy with bolivar currency . The shipments arrived to Venezuela from private printing presses around the world on several dozen windowless Boeing 747 jets. Given the crime risks, the air shipments arrive at the Caracas airport at night before the notes are loaded onto armored trucks and transported to the central bank vaults in Caracas, protected on the 18-mile route by soldiers.
Indicatively, a fully stocked ATM is emptied in just three and a half hours on average now, according to the Venezuelan Banking Association .
The good news for the insolvent nation is that all local denominated debts are now just as worthless as the currency, which incidentally is what the BOJ’s Kuroda would call: mission accomplished.
Sadly, Venezuela is the canary in the coalmine for what will happen to all currencies in a world where there is now simply too much debt.
This article was written by Tyler Durden and originally published at Zero Hedge . | 0 |
Just past 2 a. m. Monday, Kanye West poked his head through the roof of a car heading north on Third Avenue in the East Village and surveyed what he had wrought. On East 11th Street, outside Webster Hall, maybe a couple of thousand young people were clustered — in the street, on the sidewalks, on stoops, on balconies, sitting atop Postal Service trucks — waiting for a concert that was beginning to seem as if it might not happen. When Mr. West rode by, a few hundred of them spied him and peeled off, surrounding his car, taking pictures, reaching for handshakes. After a minute or so, he drove off — the Kanye West concert was not to be, an anticlimactic end to a roller coaster day. The city gives, and the city takes away. One of the truest and most persistent charms of New York night life is its unpredictability. Certainly, as severe thunderstorms were bearing down on the New York area Sunday evening, the idea that the night might end with throngs of young people congregating on downtown streets awaiting their hero would have seemed ludicrous. But with a couple of tweets, Mr. West summoned a gathering out of thin air, a reminder that, for the right person, the city can be activated at any moment. The congregation was — as spontaneous eruptions of fandom go — exceedingly . There were cheers when a familiar face, like ASAP Rocky’s, made his way through the crowd. People posed for selfies with the sea of fans as a backdrop. Couples kissed amid the hubbub. For about two hours, police officers — whose boss, Commissioner William J. Bratton, had made inflammatory comments about rappers after a shooting at a T. I. concert at Irving Plaza last month — watched from a distance, more bewildered than tense. (There was one arrest, for disorderly conduct, according to the department.) For Mr. West, the day’s events were set in motion 14 hours earlier, when the third day of the Governors Ball music festival on Randalls Island, where he was to be the headliner, was canceled because of severe weather. Suddenly, Hot 97’s Summer Jam 2016, just outside Manhattan at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N. J. where a set was already scheduled for his G. O. O. D. Music label, took on additional importance. The raison d’être of Summer Jam is surprise marquee appearances — surely Mr. West would show. Weather had also decimated Summer Jam, the annual confab thrown by the leading New York station, Hot 97 (WQHT 97. 1 FM). The afternoon festival stage, with a promising lineup including Chance the Rapper and Dave East, was canceled outright the main show started hours after it ordinarily would have, with some of the announced sets — Young Thug, Tinashe, Kid Ink — scuttled, seemingly to speed things along. But that concert also ended abruptly (reportedly for curfew reasons) during DJ Khaled’s set Future, the headliner, never made it to the stage. (In addition to beginning late, the show was also delayed after a fight in the crowd that prompted a swift police response.) What remained, though, was vintage Summer Jam, and one that focused more intently on New York than in recent years. There was a of Terror Squad, the crumbled late 2000s crew, recently reignited by “All the Way Up,” a swaggering hit by Fat Joe and Remy Ma, who was released from prison in August 2014 after a stint. ASAP Rocky and ASAP Ferg performed a string of thumpers. And the show began with an enthused set by Maino and Uncle Murda, Brooklyn roughnecks with nary a mainstream breakthrough between them, but plenty of street hits. New York was present, too, in a way, during the G. O. O. D. Music set early in the show, thanks to the label’s newest signee, Desiigner, the Brooklyn rapper who recently topped the Billboard Hot 100 with his debut single, “Panda. ” (Never mind that it directly channels Atlanta style.) He performed last in the crew, dancing wildly and making ludicrous facial expressions while his teammates — Pusha T, Big Sean, 2 Chainz, Travis Scott and yes, Mr. West — powered through an energetic set emphasizing their tough side. For most of it, Mr. West played grinning paterfamilias, anchoring posse cuts like “Champions,” “I Don’t Like (remix),” “Mercy” and “Clique,” that last one largely a cappella. Music is but one of Mr. West’s concerns these days. Earlier on Sunday, he had escorted his daughter, North, to see “The Lion King” on Broadway. On Monday, he released the first boots from the second season of his clothing collection. He turns 39 on Wednesday — a casual birthday party took place backstage at Summer Jam, with a cake reading “Pablo,” for Mr. West’s recent album, “The Life of Pablo. ” Often, Mr. West speaks about embracing the improbable. He is a catalyst for creativity and is stubborn in his belief that he can, with the right words, align the world just so, along an axis of his choosing. But thousands of young people clogging East Village Manhattan streets proved to be untameable, even by Mr. West. Not that he didn’t try: Kim Kardashian, his wife, posted on Snapchat a video of Mr. West on the phone, asking someone to call the mayor and have some streets closed so screens could be set up to simulcast the concert. He wanted the assembled fans to be able to “have a party outside. ” Even after Mr. West’s appearance came and went, the faithful stood firm, waiting to be allowed into Webster Hall for the show. But around 2:45 a. m. dozens of officers from the Police Department’s Strategic Response Group began clearing the streets. Fans jumped down from their perches — those mail trucks, a Dumpster, scaffolding, atop parked cars and S. U. V.s now with dented roofs — and began to disperse. Some, though, still held out for any flicker of hope. When Virgil Abloh and Heron Preston, members of Mr. West’s creative team, walked out of Webster Hall just before 3 a. m. they were immediately noticed. Dozens of people chased them down the block, to Third Avenue, stopping them in the middle of the street for pictures and videos. Minutes later, the two ducked into an S. U. V. which sped away. A few dedicated fans sprinted behind it, off to wherever this night in the city might take them. | 1 |
The Hill’s Jonathan Easley reports on recent White House hires and Breitbart News alumni Julia Hahn and Dr. Sebastian Gorka. [From The Hill: The Breitbartization of the White House comes as no surprise to people at the conservative news site. “I’m surprised it took this long,” one Breitbart reporter told The Hill … “These two are ideologically in line with Bannon. They’re people he can trust. It makes sense. ” … Hahn, 25, is said to be a favorite of both Bannon and Trump’s senior adviser for policy, Stephen Miller, a veteran of the campaign and attorney general nominee Sen. Jeff Sessions’s ( .) office. … Gorka’s primary focus at Breitbart has been the threat of radical Islam. He has been a fierce critic of what he describes as the Obama administration’s weak response to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and other international terror groups. … Now, Hahn and Gorka will add to Bannon’s stable of trusted allies in the West Wing, although one source familiar with Bannon’s thinking dismissed the notion that he is staffing up for a fight. … Breitbart News Editor Alexander Marlow also commented on the recent acquisitions of John Carney from the Wall Street Journal, Sam Chi from RealClear Politics, and Kristina Wong from The Hill: “There will always be this ‘Fight Club’ element where we look to punch the establishment when they deserve it,” Marlow said. “But we have a lot of reporting to do and will recruit and hire the most and sophisticated and sharpest minds in Washington to build the best team, period. We’re not going to follow any prescription that the media wants. ” | 1 |
Home › SOCIETY | US NEWS › SOME FLA. RESIDENTS PLAN ARMED TRICK-OR-TREATING AFTER CREEPY CLOWN THREATS SOME FLA. RESIDENTS PLAN ARMED TRICK-OR-TREATING AFTER CREEPY CLOWN THREATS 0 SHARES [10/20/16] Some residents unnerved by scary clown threats in their communities say they’ll be armed for Halloween trick-or-treating, while authorities warn that widespread clown fears may endanger someone dressing up as a clown as a joke.
There have been numerous clown sightings in Brevard County, and two men were arrested last week in Melbourne for allegedly threatening people while dressed as clowns and holding large bats, sticks or axes, according to a Florida Today reporter .
The incidents have made some residents so nervous that they planned to arm themselves when they go out Halloween night.
“Since I have no gun, I will be carrying a bat around on Halloween night,” said Pam Metz of Titusville.
Kimberly Kersey said she’d carry a gun while taking her sons trick-or-treating in Palm Bay.
“I’ll be carrying for sure,” she said. “I’m terrified of clowns already and if one messes with me or my kids it’ll be to the hospital or morgue they go.”
Police typically increase patrols for Halloween. Some law enforcement officials have urged people to reconsider dressing up as clowns to avoid inadvertently endangering themselves.
“The problem is that someone dressed like a clown could scare someone and there’s a possibility — a possibility — you could end up with someone getting shot,” said Palm Bay Police Lt. Mike Bandish.
Cassandra Closson of West Melbourne gave the same advice to her 15-year-old son and forbade him from dressing as a clown.
“Just not worth any drama,” Closson told Florida Today. Post navigation | 0 |
111925 Views November 19, 2016 KWN PLUS , TRENDING King World News FOR DIRECTIONS ON HOW TO PLAY OR DOWNLOAD AUDIOS: CLICK HERE Dr. Stephen Leeb: Chairman & Chief Investment Officer of Leeb Capital Management – Dr. Leeb is a registered investment adviser and has been managing big cap growth portfolios since 1999. Over the last decade, his independently-verified performance record has been ranked in the top 5 percent among peers according to Informa’s PSN manager database. Dr. Leeb is a New York Time’s Best Selling author, eight books total on investments and financial trends. His latest book, Red Alert: How China’s Growing Prosperity Threatens the American Way of Life (Business Plus, 2011). Biography of Dr. Stephen Leeb Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Leeb Capital Management Dr. Stephen Leeb is a recognized authority on the stock market, macroeconomic trends and commodities, especially oil and precious metals. As Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Leeb Capital Management, a registered investment advisor, Dr. Leeb has been managing big cap growth portfolios since 1999. Over the last decade, his independently-verified performance record has been ranked in the top 5 percent among peers according to Informa’s PSN manager database. Dr. Leeb is also founder of the Leeb Group, which publishes a line of financial newsletters including The Complete Investor, Leeb’s Income Performance Letter, Leeb’s Real World Investing e-letter, and Leeb’s Aggressive Trader, Leeb’s Million Dollar Portfolio and Leeb’s ETF World Alert e-letter. His total readership exceeds 250,000. The Complete Investor newsletter has earned two awards for Editorial Excellence. Dr. Leeb sits on various boards sharing his strategic perspectives on financial markets and natural resources. Since 2008, Dr. Leeb has been a Director of Plain Sight Systems, a technology holding company centered at Yale University. Plain Sight owns a world-class patent portfolio in areas such as information organization/search, computational analytics, electro-optics, and spectroscopy. These technologies are licensed to Fortune 500 companies and used as part of private buyouts and venture spin-offs. As part of Plain Sight, Dr. Leeb also sits on the board of Water Intelligence plc , due to be listed in June 2010 on AIM (London), operating in the water management space and Deep Markets Corporation , a division of Plain Sight developing next generation risk management applications. Dr. Leeb is also Head of the Advisory Board of Leor Exploration & Production LLC (since 2006 – present) and a member of the advisory boards of Electrum USA Ltd. (since 2007) and Los Gatos. Each of these companies explore for natural resources, especially precious metals and energy. Dr. Leeb is the author of seven books on investments and financial trends. His latest book, Game Over: How You Can Prosper in a Shattered Economy (Business Plus, 2009) predicts a permanent peak in global commodity production. His previous book, The New York Times best selling business book, The Coming Economic Collapse: How You Can Thrive When Oil Costs $200 a Barrel (Warner Books, 2006), predicted that tightness in global energy supplies would cause the American economy to oscillate between periods of recession and high inflation this century. Dr. Leeb’s best seller, The Oil Factor: Protect Yourself and Profit from the Coming Energy Crisis (Warner Books, 2004), outlined the relationship between oil prices and stock market performance and accurately predicted the subsequent surge in oil prices. The book was rated among the top investment books of the year by Stock Trader’s Almanac 2005. His earlier best seller, Defying the Market: Profiting in the Turbulent Post-Technology Market Boom (McGraw-Hill; 1999) predicted the collapse of technology stocks and the growing importance of oil, and other hard assets during the 21st century. The book was selected by Library Journal as one of the Best Business Books of 1999. His first book Getting in on the Ground Floor (Putnam, 1986) predicted the secular bull market in financial assets and the fall in inflation. The book was a main selection of the Money Book Club. Dr. Leeb earned his Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. He then completed both a Master’s degree in Mathematics and a Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Illinois. About author | 0 |
Home / #Solutions / 7 Simple Steps from a Cop on How to Fight Every Speeding Ticket and Win 7 Simple Steps from a Cop on How to Fight Every Speeding Ticket and Win Do you want to discover the secrets on how to beat your speeding ticket in court? 25% of all Speeding Tickets Are Issued in Error!
It is estimated that in 2014 that there were over 41,000,000 speeding tickets issued in the USA and that over 25% of these were issued in error.
The most common errors include shadowing, RFI inference, cosine angle error, mechanical interference and devices that are out of calibration.
But out of these 41,000,000 speeding tickets only 5% challenged their citation in court.
And out of this 5% less than .05% beat their ticket or have it dismissed.
Why? Because they were not prepared!
The radar gun or lidar gun the police officer used to issue you your speeding ticket is a scientific instrument and because of this the officer must be certified and by law, must follow certain requirements.
So if you’re planning on fighting your ticket in court, we put together this guide to help disqualify the officer’s testimony and his/her equipment, so you have a better chance of winning your case. Prepare Yourself Before You Ever Get Stopped
Before, during, and right after the stop are the most critical times to prepare your defense if you plan on fighting your speeding ticket.
Because of this, it’s CRITICAL that you remember EVERYTHING that is happening around you and document it: What was the traffic flow like What signs are on the roadway The condition of the roadway Other witnesses What is the weather like
As you’re doing this, look for a safe place to pull over for you and the police officer.
If you’re on the highway in busy traffic, put your flashers on, pull over to the right and consider exiting at the first exit. The Approach
Once you’re pulled over and stopped STAY IN YOUR CAR!
Many police officer shootings occur as the officer is approaching a violator. Because of this, his/her stress levels are high, and he/she is watching everything you and the occupants of the car are doing.
DO NOT: Reach into the glove box Reach under your seat
DO Keep your hands in plain sight
Your only job at this point is to reduce the officer’s stress level as much as possible. The California Stop
One strategy to reduce the officer’s stress level is called the California Stop.
As the officer is exiting his car, roll down the driver’s side window.
If it is at night, turn on your interior lights
Then place your hands on the top of your steering wheel palms up, facing your face.
Doing this, the officer can immediately see that you’re not an immediate threat, and his stress level is reduced. License, Registration, Insurance Card, any Weapons?
Now that the officer is standing next to your car one of the first things he is going to ask you is for your license, registration, insurance card and if you have any weapons in your possession.
If you do have any weapons, tell him where they are and follow his/her instructions and hopefully you’re properly licensed to possess them. Do You Know Why I Stopped You?
Remember, everything you say or do will be documented by the officer so don’t admit anything, especially that you were not paying attention.
Just say “no officer, can you explain to me why you stopped me?” Obey the Officer’s Requests
After the officer obtains the required documentation he may ask you to step out of your car or to remain in your car, just follow his commands.
Can I See Your Radar/Laser Gun?
If the officer says that he used a radar or laser gun, seem curious and ask the officer if you can see it and if he would be willing to explain to you how it works.
If the officer does allow you to see it, take a mental picture of the device, getting the manufacturer’s name and model number.
If he refuses to show you the gun, then just ask him if he could explain to you how it works. The Citation
As some point, the officer is going to either have you sign the citation or just hand you a copy.
While he is still with you, review the citation to see if he documented the type of device he used to measure your speed.
If he didn’t ask him/her to put on the citation the type of device he/she used. Documentation
Remember everything you do or say is being documented and possibly even being recorded by the officer.
It’s your job to do the same! After the Stop
After the stop, find a safe place to pull over and write down EVERYTHING that happened. Then return to the area and snap photos of the area with a camera or your smartphone. Get Ready for Your Case
Next it’s your job to get ready for your trial. Step #1 – Know What the Officer Shot You With
To properly prepare your case, you first need to know what type of device the officer used to clock your speed. Police radar guns transmit microwave radio signals, and it this type of enforcement that accounts for most speeding citations.
Police lidar guns transmit a narrow beam of light in the near inferred light spectrum and they account for 20% of all traffic citations.
Other ways an officer can clock your speed are using a timing device such as a stopwatch or VASCAR, or following behind you clocking your speed using their speedometer.
Because of this, you need to know EXACTLY what the officer used to measure your speed.
Many jurisdictions will note on the citation what type of device was used and even the device’s serial number.
If this is not documented on your citation, then you may need to follow-up with a friendly telephone call to the agency or officer that issued you the citation and inquire. Step #2 – Start by Downloading These Free NHTSA Guides
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is responsible for developing training programs responsive to the Uniform National Standards established by the Highway Safety Act of 1996.
Because of this, the NHTSA has published guidelines both police agencies and officers MUST follow when operating radar or laser.
As we will be referencing several portions of each of these guides in this article to help you build your case, we would recommend “ googling ” these titles and download these free PDFs now:
Speed-Measuring Device Performance Specification: Across-the-Road Radar Module
Lidar Speed Measuring Device Performance Specifications
Police Radar Instructor Training Course
Basic Training Program in Radar Speed Measurement Step #3 – Have an Understanding of Case Law Case Law Regarding the Use of Police Radar
If you were cited by an officer who used a police radar gun, your next step is to have a understanding of these most significant case laws pertaining to the use of radar in speed enforcement.
State of Florida v. Aquilera (1979)
This infamous case is known widely as the Miami Radar Trial. After a local television reporter showed a house clocked at 28 mph and a palm tree clocked at 86 mph, the story broke nationwide and radar was quickly shown to be less than accurate. In this case the Dade County Court sustained a motion to suppress the results of radar units in 80 speeding ticket cases.
The court’s opinion stated that the reliability of radar speed measuring devices as used in their present modes and particularly in some cases, has not been established beyond and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt, nor has it met the test of reasonable scientific certainty. United States v. Fields (1982)
District Court in Ohio ruled that it was not possible to establish from the radar results whether the defendant was traveling at 43 mph or whether the Speedgun 8 radar unit was measuring the rotation of the ventilation fan at the sewage pumping station next to the officer’s car.
The court also found that the officer was not qualified to operate the radar unit since he did not know the requirements for correct operation of the unit. In addition, the officer did not calibrate it before use, on that occasion.
Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Honeycutt (1966)
This case is a very common prosecution weapon against the 24 hours of classroom and 16 hours of field training requirement. In this case the court ruled that an officer should not be required to know the scientific principles of radar.
The court also ruled that the officer only needs to know how to properly set up, test and read the radar unit. As such, a few hours of instruction should be enough to qualify an officer to operate the radar unit.
State of Connecticut v. Tomanelli (1966)
In the case, which is the same year as the Honeycutt case, the Supreme Court of Connecticut ruled that “outside influences may affect the accuracy of the recording by a police radar set sufficient to raise a doubt as to the reliability of the speed recorded.”
The court also stated that tuning forks must be proved to be accurate to be accepted as valid tests of a radar unit. In order to establish the accuracy of the radar unit the operator must testify to the following: That he made tuning fork tests before and after the defendant’s speed was recorded. That the tests were made by activating 40, 60 and 80 mph tuning forks and by observing that the unit responded correctly in each case.
State of Minnesota v. Gerdes (1971)
The Supreme Court of Minnesota ruled that where the only means of testing the accuracy of a radar unit is an internal mechanism within the unit, and there is no other evidence of the motorist’s speed other than the radar reading, the conviction cannot be sustained.
The court also established the following conditions for proving the accuracy of the radar unit: The officer must have adequate training and experience in the operation of the radar unit. The officer must testify as to how the unit was set up and the conditions the unit was operated under. it must be proven that the unit was operated with a minimum possibility of distortion from external interference. The unit has to be tested with an external source, such as a tuning fork or an actual test run with another vehicle with an accurately calibrated speedometer.
People of New York v. Perlman (1977)
The Suffolk County District Court ruled that the radar device was not proved to be accurate since no external test had been performed before or after the arrest. This case is significant since it established the criteria of testing before and after a citation is issued.
State of Wisconsin v. Hanson (1978)
In this landmark case, the Supreme Court of Wisconsin set minimum conditions for the use of radar as evidence. Sufficient evidence to support a speeding conviction with moving radar will require testimony by a competent operating officer that: He had adequate training and experience in radar operation The radar unit was in proper working condition at the time of the arrest The radar unit was used in an area where there was a minimum possibility of distortion The input speed of the officer’s car was verified; the car’s speedometer was expertly tested within a reasonable period after the citation was issued All testing was done without the radar unit’s own internal calibration device being used
State of Florida v. Allweiss (1980)
The Pinellas County Court ruled that the testing methods for radar equipment are legally insufficient. “The use of such a tuning fork furnished by the manufacturer in this court’s opinion is tantamount to allowing the machine to test itself.
A tuning fork furnished by the manufacturer is merely an extension and part of the total speed measuring apparatus. Case Law Regarding the Use of Police Lidar
If an officer used a police lidar gun to cite you, then your next step is to have a basic understanding of these most significant case laws that pertain to the use of lidar in speed enforcement.
Admissibility of Motor Vehicle Speed Readings 714 A.2d 381, 391-92 (New Jersey Superior Court 1998)
The Superior Court of New Jersey ordered that admissibility to lidar is subject to the following rules: Expert testimony is not required. Officers must be properly trained in the use of lidar and that training must be documented. The lidar must be tested according to procedures recommended by the manufacturer. The court further ordered that the lidar be tested against a known speed. Speed reading obtained by lidar are not affected by temperature, the degree of ambient light, or light to moderate rain. Readings shall not be accepted during heavy rainfall or while snow is falling. Speed reading made at distances up to 1,000 feet are admissible. Readings obtained in excess of 1,000 feet shall be admitted only with supporting evidence and expert testimony
State of Hawaii v Abiye Assay
Once an officer has completed a course of instruction and certified to operate lidar – training is not done. Officers must understand (memorize) 11.2 Principles of Operation.
For example, during the known-distance test officers must testify that the lidar uses proven time-distance formulas (pulse principle) and the speed of light (universal constant) to determine the known distance. Since the lidar utilizes one microprocessor to calculate time-of-flight and thus confirms the correct pulse repetition frequency, the lidar can accurately determine speed.
Then officers must obtain, read, and understand the manufacturer’s operator’s manual (10.7 Certification) for the particular lidar used and follow the manufacturer-recommended procedures for testing. Officers must further test the lidar as outlined in 11.16 Testing the LIDAR:
Known Speed Test. All lidars must include a Technician Certification (10.7 & 11.16) every 3 years in accordance with manufacture’s specifications and NHTSA standards. (Note: New lidars come with a Technician Certification from the factory.)
Officers must successfully complete Visual Speed Estimations, Enclosure 13.2 and be prepared to present this information in a court of law. During operation officers must understand and follow a proper tracking history (11.4 Lidar Tracking History) and be prepared to testify as to visual observations and speed estimates prior to clocking with lidar.
Officers must understand all lidar effects (11.5Lidar Effects), including proper operation to avoid any of these effects. Officer must be currently certified (10.7 Certification) to operate radar/lidar. Finally, the officer must prepare all court cases as outlined in this manual. (10.8 Court Testimony, 10.9 Traffic Evidence Kit) Step #4 – Get the Manufacture’s Manuals
Next you will want to obtain the manuals from the manufacturer for the speed measurement device used by the officer.
Sometimes a simple search on Google can locate these.
If not, you then may have to contact the manufacturer to purchase a copy and/or subpoena the manual through the courts from the police agency.
Take special note what the manufacturer’s recommendations are as far as: Installation | 0 |
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NAIROBI, Kenya — A suicide bomb rocked the Somali town of Galkayo on Sunday, killing at least 20 people and showing that Islamist militants, despite recent setbacks, can still plan and execute deadly attacks anywhere in the country. Galkayo, a midsize town in central Somalia, had been quiet in recent months. Yet that suddenly changed at 10 a. m. on Sunday when militants detonated a deafening bomb in a market, sending a column of black smoke shooting into the sky. A squad of militants stormed a nearby government building, engaging in gun battles with security forces. “One of the blasts was so huge, I was really shocked,” said Abdirahman Abdweli, a student in the city. The explosion ripped the roofs off several buildings, scattering sharp pieces of corrugated metal and debris across the area. The death toll was not immediately clear. The Shabab militant group, which claimed responsibility for the attack, said 30 people had been killed. Somali health officials and residents said the number was closer to 20, with dozens wounded. The United States is increasingly watching Somalia, a poor, unstable country that has spewed violence across its borders for more than 20 years. On Aug. 10, American Special Forces assisted Somali troops in killing several members of the Shabab who were running an illegal checkpoint. Somali officials said the Shabab had lost “senior members” in that raid. In recent years, American airstrikes have killed many Shabab members, including both foot soldiers and top commanders. On Monday, Secretary of State John Kerry is scheduled to hold talks on Somalia with African officials in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. State Department officials said he would also focus on South Sudan, which has plunged into bloodshed and chaos as well. Somalia is scheduled to hold an election this year to choose its Parliament and president. But because of the rampant instability and the paucity of functioning government institutions, citizens will not be lining up to vote. Instead, clan elders will select delegates, who will then choose the politicians. Somali intellectuals have criticized this plan, saying the government is using the process as a way to stay in power and siphon more money from donor nations like the United States. “The prevailing Somali public view is that the electoral process will not be free, fair and transparent as vehemently claimed,” said Mohamud M. Uluso, a former Somali government official. | 1 |
At the moment that Hillary Clinton was all but clinching the Democratic nomination for president, Meryl Streep was on a stage in Central Park, impersonating Donald J. Trump. In orange face makeup and pompadoured hair, Ms. Streep, the chameleonic Oscar winner, did a more than credible version of the presumptive Republican nominee, down to the pursed lips and belly. She got the voice, too, even while singing. Ms. Streep was part of the Public Theater’s gala benefit celebration on Monday night, a tribute to Shakespeare at the Delacorte Theater, home to Shakespeare in the Park. She was the closing act with Christine Baranski, doing “Brush Up Your Shakespeare,” a number from the Cole Porter musical “Kiss Me, Kate. ” “We could do a deal — you’ll let me know — why it is all the women say no?” she sang, stretching out her arms in a Trumpian gesture. Later she strolled the stage, gesticulating to the audience in Mr. Trump’s signature style. The song, traditionally a duet for men, offers advice for picking up women — in this case, female voters. Some of the original lyrics were altered, but some could stand as is, for Mr. Trump’s combative attitude: “If she says your behavior is heinous, kick her right in the Coriolanus!” The crowd, which included Michael R. Bloomberg, the former mayor: the United States ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power Miranda and Bette Midler, loved it. Her performance came as something of a surprise to the event organizers, who knew only that Ms. Streep, a supporter of Mrs. Clinton’s, wanted to take on Mr. Trump. “Utterly her idea, beginning to end,” Oskar Eustis, the Public’s artistic director, said after the show. “There were skeptics, there were doubters, but one of those skeptics was not Meryl Streep. She was absolutely sure she could do it. None of us had seen her in costume or makeup, till she walked out tonight. ” Ms. Streep skipped the dinner before the show to get into character, and spent time holed up in her dressing room. “She was showing us this thing that Donald Trump always does,” said the actress Kate Burton, who shared the dressing room with Ms. Streep along with Ms. Baranski, Lily Rabe and Phylicia Rashad. “He apparently does this thing, where he goes to close to his jacket but it doesn’t close all the way, and so he kind of goes for it and then he tries to close it again. ” It was a mannerism that only Ms. Streep seemed to catch, Ms. Burton said. “She treats this like she would her greatest roles: she’s working on it all the time. ” For the show, she came onstage in a black suit, white shirt and overlong, clownish red tie. Her transformation astounded her cast mates, who had only glimpsed her with the Trumpian coif in rehearsal. “She showed up, and I thought, ‘Meryl’s having a terrible hair day,’” said the Shakespeare in the Park veteran Hamish Linklater. (Ms. Burton reported that Ms. Streep even used her own hair: “She did some funky thing with pins. ”) Other performers watched from the wings as she and Ms. Baranski, in a black pantsuit, did their finale. “She’s willing to try anything, and have fun with what she tries,” Mr. Eustis said of Ms. Streep, who has appeared at the Delacorte several times in starring roles. “She’s just fearless. ” Mr. Linklater, who played a comic Romeo in another number, called Ms. Streep’s take “naughty. ” But, he added, Shakespeare “wanted to be valuable to his times. And she gave a performance that was valuable to her times. So absolutely, she’s honoring the spirit of the evening. ” On Tuesday afternoon, shortly after her name trended on Twitter with news of the Trump portrayal, Ms. Streep issued an statement through a Public Theater spokeswoman. “I appreciate the interest, but this was a a once in a (last in a) lifetime appearance of this character,” she said. | 1 |
The world is about to change drastically . Will you be ready for it?
The Future Doesn’t Need Us… Or So We’ve Been Told.
With the rise of technology and the real-time pressures of an online, global economy, humans will have to be very clever – and very careful – not to be left behind by the future.
From the perspective of those in charge, human labor is losing its value, and people are becoming a liability.
This documentary reveals the real motivation behind the secretive effort to reduce the population and bring resource use into strict, centralized control.
Could it be that the biggest threat we face isn’t just automation and robots destroying jobs, but the larger sense that humans could become obsolete altogether? | 0 |
Sunday at a press conference, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ( ) fought back tears as he vowed to do everything he can to “overturn” President Donald Trump’s executive order that halted immigration from seven countries into the United States. Schumer said, “This executive order was mean spirited and . ” He added, “It must be reversed immediately. Senate Democrats are going to introduce legislation to overturn this and move it as quickly as we can. ” Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | 1 |
TEL AVIV — Islamic State radicals are urging Western supporters to carry out terror attacks against Jewish communities by dressing up as Jews and using bombs, knives and — in the ultimate irony — the Israeli martial art of Krav Maga. [“IF YOU’RE STILL IN THE WEST! Dress up like a Jew! Go to your nearest Jewish area! Make sure you have plenty of weapons under your coat! Then unleash the pain of the Muslims upon these A. P. E. S!!!” a message on the Telegram channel “Lone Mujahid” reportedly reads. The chat room aims to help budding terrorists carry out “ ” attacks by providing PDFs and instructional videos on everything from the correct way to stab somebody to instructions for how to build a bomb. Incredibly, and without any apparent intention at satire, there are even tutorials on Krav Maga, a martial art invented by Israelis that is based on Israeli military training. Another post on the channel contains a list of Jewish communities in the UK accompanied by a photo of Amedy Coulibaly, the terrorist responsible for killing a policewoman in Paris along with four hostages at the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket. Late last year, Lone Mujahid posted a call urging fanatics to launch attacks on Christmas, Hanukkah and the New Year. “Christmas, Hanukah and New Years Day is very soon, InshaAllah. So let’s prepare a gift for the filthy pigs apes,” reads one post, accompanied by a screenshot of a pressure cooker tutorial. The loss of territory and the challenges of reaching the Islamic State caliphate in Syria and Iraq has meant that the terror group has reduced its recruiting efforts for foreign fighters. Whereas foreign IS recruits peaked at 2, 000 per month, that number has dwindled to 50. Instead, the terror group is now appealing to jihadists who are likely to carry out attacks in their home cities. IS Commander Abu Mohammad Al Adnani, who was killed in in a coalition airstrike in August 2016, famously said, “If the tyrants have shut the doors of hijra [immigration to ISIS territories] in your face, then open the gate of jihad in their faces and make them regret their action. ” Jewish targets were prized even before the January 2015 attack in Paris. Mehdi Nemmouche, a French national of Algerian origin who claimed to be an IS jihadi, opened fire in 2014 at the Jewish Museum in Brussels, killing three people. A fourth later died due to injuries sustained in the attack. The intended targets of last year’s suicide bomb attack at Brussels airport last year were also believed to be Jews and Americans. “We know they wanted to target Americans. It’s clear they had quite specific targets. … We know they were obsessed with the Israelis, too,” a source told the AFP. Meanwhile, in Israel, a Jewish Israeli who converted to Islam after serving in the Israeli army was arrested last month after trying to join the Islamic State in Syria, the Shin Bet security agency said on Wednesday. | 1 |
A North Carolina police officer has been terminated after shooting her own daughter. She was showing off her service weapon to guests at her home when the girl was shot in the abdomen.
A Lincoln County sheriff’s deputy is facing a double tragedy after accidentally shooting her daughter with her service firearm while off-duty. Misty Michelle Flowers allegedly had friends to her home Saturday night and was showing her service weapon to them when she accidentally fired.
The bullet traveled through a wall and hit her 11-year-old daughter in the abdomen, the Shelby Star reported .
The girl is expected to recover, unlike her mother’s career.
As a result, Flowers has been terminated and is being investigated by the State Bureau of Investigation.
While it is not uncommon for officers to bring their service weapons home with them after a shift, the sheriff’s office’s policy states, “ Members shall ensure that all firearms and ammunition are locked and secured while in their homes. ”
In addition, the policy manual states : “ Members should be aware that negligent storage of a firearm could result in civil liability. ”
Lincoln County Sheriff David Carpenter has made efforts to distance his department from Flowers’ actions, saying, “ I find gross negligence and disregard for the safety of others over what transpired Saturday. ”
He also reiterated how the department’s policy on storing firearms had been made clear, saying basic firearm safety measures are “ included in hundreds and hundreds of hours of training they received during basic law enforcement training and also during service training. ”
Flowers had been with the department since August 2015. She was terminated on Monday while at the hospital. Delivered by The Daily Sheeple
We encourage you to share and republish our reports, analyses, breaking news and videos ( Click for details ).
Contributed by RT.com of RT.com . | 0 |
Is it better that we don’t know the true extent of Clinton’s mishandling of government documents? Is it better we don’t know the extent of her pay to play schemes? Is it better we don’t know the truth about the destruction of the legitimate government of Libya? Should we not know the ultimate destination of the arms and munitions, especially stinger missals removed from Libya? How about the disruption of an opposing political candidate’s political rallies and possibly the rigging of election ballot boxes? Is the destruction of cell phones and wiping of computers OK even if they held evidence of Clinton foundations wrong doing?
The list goes on. What does our government do? It silences the voice of truth and replaces it with the script of propaganda. | 0 |
Get short URL 0 13 0 0 This would actually be a best-case scenario for the European Space Agency, as a software glitch on the ExoMars Schiaparelli lander, which crashed on the surface of Mars October 19, would be easier to remedy than a hardware issue.
Andrea Accomazzo, the ESA’s head of solar and planetary missions told the journal Nature, "If we have a serious technological issue, then it’s different, then we have to re-evaluate carefully…But I don’t expect it to be the case." © Photo: Pixabay If a Trip to Mars Doesn't Kill You It Might Cause Massive Brain Damage and More The spacecraft consisted of a Schiaparelli entry, descent and landing demonstrator module, and a Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), and was a joint venture between ESA and Russian space agency Roscosmos.
ExoMars’ chief objective was to confirm markers of active geological and biological processes on the red planet by seeking evidence of methane gases, which have been detected by past Mars missions, along with other atmospheric gases.
Nature noted that the mission was "a prelude to a planned 2020 mission, when researchers aim to land a much larger scientific station and rover on Mars, which will drill up to 2-metres down to look for signs of ancient life in the planet’s soil." © Photo: Pixabay Next Small Step & Giant Leap: United States to Send Humans to Mars by 2030
The TGO entered Mars orbit last week after a seventh-month trek and now makes it way around the planet every 4.2 days, but never sent back signals indicating that the descent module made a successful landing on the planet’s surface. NASA released images Friday taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) that show what appeared to be scorch marks near the area where the craft was supposed to have touched down, implying that it may have exploded on impact.
Project scientist Jorge Vago suggested that ExoMars’ parachute and heat shields may have deployed prematurely, and the thrusters, which are supposed to engage for 30 seconds, shut after three seconds due to a software glitch. © Photo: Pixabay Mars 'Ain't No Limit': Elon Musk Envisions Future Colonization of Space
He told Nature, "My guess is that at that point we were still too high…And the most likely scenario is that, from then, we just dropped to the surface." An investigation is ongoing, and data gleaned over the near future will determine whether ExoMars is intact, but the ESA said all of the craft’s main goals had been achieved and the mission was a success, despite the unexpected impact.
"As it is, we have one part that works very well and one part that didn’t work as we expected,” said Vago. “The silver lining is that we think we have in hand the necessary information to fix the problem."
The ESA had a similar experience in 2003 when the British-led Beagle 2 mission disappeared attempting to make a Christmas Day landing on Mars. ... | 0 |
VIDEOS A Hillary Clinton indictment is coming At this point, the struggle between the FBI and the Department of Justice is being described as “a civil war” By Michael Snyder - November 4, 2016 Doesn’t it seem like most of us are collectively holding our breath as we wait to see what will happen with this election? We are now only a handful of days away from election day and the polls have really tightened up , there are unprecedented concerns about post-election violence , and the Democratic nominee for president could be indicted literally any day now. The American people are going to be absolutely shocked when the FBI finally reveals what they have discovered regarding Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified materials, corruption at the Clinton Foundation, and other “stomach churning” matters that normally aren’t topics of polite conversation. Without a doubt, a Hillary Clinton indictment is coming. The only question now is when it will happen.
The moment that FBI Director James Comey sent his letter to Congress, he knew that someone’s head was going on the chopping block. If Hillary Clinton does not get indicted, Comey’s career is over and there is a very good chance that he will be going to prison instead. There is no way that he would have ever put himself on the line like this if extremely powerful evidence had not already been found against Clinton.
Because without a doubt, the vultures are circling. Just consider what House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi recently told CNN about Comey… …Nancy Pelosi has claimed that FBI Director Comey is “not in the right job,” following his decision to reopen the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s misuse of a private email server. “Maybe he’s not in the right job,” Pelosi said in an interview with CNN . “I think that we have to just get through this election and just see what the casualties are along the way,” she continued, refusing to answer a question on whether she thought the FBI director should resign.
If it turns out that this investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails was renewed for no good reason, Comey is going to be strung out to dry, and he knows this.
Fortunately for Comey, there are reports that indicate that the evidence the FBI is compiling in this case is absolutely overwhelming. The following comes from Infowars … According to other uncovered emails, Abedin and Clinton both sent and received thousands of classified and top secret documents to personal email accounts including Weiner’s unsecured campaign web site which is managed by Democratic political consultants in Washington D.C. Weiner maintained little known email accounts that the couple shared on the website anthonyweiner.com. Weiner, a former seven-term Democratic Congressman from New York, primarily used that domain to campaign for Congress and for his failed mayoral bid of New York City. At one point, FBI sources said, Abedin and Clinton’s classified and top secret State Department documents and emails were stored in Weiner’s email on a server shared with a dog grooming service and a western Canadian bicycle shop.
If you even send a single classified document outside of a secure channel that is a major criminal offense.
So if there are “thousands” of these emails as some reports are indicating, that should be enough to lock Hillary Clinton up for the rest of her life. According to investigative journalist Jerome Corsi , what Clinton and her close associates have done is “an obvious violation of the law”… “The rules for handling classified materials is you’ve got to handle them on secured channels. You can’t let them go on an insecure channel,” Corsi said. “Clearly, sending these emails to Yahoo.com – and we know some of them had classified material because they’ve been marked classified – is a violation of the law, and it doesn’t require intent.” He said Clinton and Abedin could have avoided this entire scandal by establishing secure government accounts and not sending any of it to private accounts. “This was such an obvious violation of law, and perhaps leading to an espionage case or a treason case, that when presented to Comey, he really had no alternative than to go forward,” Corsi said.
But this isn’t the only investigation that could lead to a Hillary Clinton indictment. According to Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier , the FBI investigation into corruption at the Clinton Foundation is also “likely to lead to an indictment”… Two sources with intimate knowledge of the FBI’s investigations told Fox News Wednesday that a probe of the Clinton Foundation is likely to lead to an indictment .
Fox News’s Bret Baier said Wednesday that the FBI probe into a possible pay-to-play scheme between Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation has been going on for over a year.Sources told the news network that the investigation, which is conducted by the White Collar Crime division of the FBI, is a “very high priority.”
One of the anonymous sources told Baier that the amount of evidence now being uncovered is equivalent to “an avalanche coming in every day.”
If what these two sources have told Baier is true, then this changes everything. The following is how Real Clear Politics summarized the most important pieces of information from this report… 1. The Clinton Foundation investigation is far more expansive than anybody has reported so far and has been going on for more than a year. 2. The laptops of Clinton aides Cherryl Mills and Heather Samuelson have not been destroyed, and agents are currently combing through them. The investigation has interviewed several people twice, and plans to interview some for a third time. 3. Agents have found emails believed to have originated on Hillary Clinton’s secret server on Anthony Weiner’s laptop. They say the emails are not duplicates and could potentially be classified in nature. 4. Sources within the FBI have told Baier that an indictment is “likely” in the case of pay-for-play at the Clinton Foundation, “barring some obstruction in some way” from the Justice Department. 5. FBI sources say with 99% accuracy that Hillary Clinton’s server has been hacked by at least five foreign intelligence agencies, and that information have been taken from it.
It is also being reported that the Department of Justice tried unsuccessfully to stop the investigation into the Clinton Foundation.
At this point, the struggle between the FBI and the Department of Justice is being described as “a civil war”. The Department of Justice is obviously extremely pro-Clinton, and meanwhile over at the FBI many agents consider Hillary Clinton to be “the antichrist personified” … The currently serving FBI agent said Clinton is “the antichrist personified to a large swath of FBI personnel,” and that “the reason why they’re leaking is they’re pro-Trump.” The agent called the bureau “Trumplandia”, with some colleagues openly discussing voting for a GOP nominee who has garnered unprecedented condemnation from the party’s national security wing and who has pledged to jail Clinton if elected.
Perhaps if Hillary Clinton had not made it a habit to regularly cuss out Secret Service agents and other law enforcement personnel over the past several decades she would have more friends in the FBI.
To a certain extent, this is simply a case of the chickens coming home to roost.
And at this point, even some of Hillary’s biggest supporters in the media are turning on her. Just consider what Chris Matthews of CNBC is saying about her… “You know what I think? I’m going to be more judgmental than Beth who’s a straight reporter. I’ll make a judgment. Every time I watch a politician engage in a certain pattern of behavior before they go to the White House, they continue to engage in that pattern afterwards. People don’t change because we swear them into the White House. They become that person big-time. And the Clintons were raising money like this hand over hand, hand over fist, back in 1996, using—we called it Motel 6. They were hoarding them in, pulling them in by train loads of contributors and then letting them sit in the Lincoln bedroom for a while and charging them by the hour. You can still vote for Hillary Clinton, but remember, you’re getting this as part of the package, because that’s been their pattern. “
Voting has already begun in most states, and Americans are facing a historic choice.
If they choose to elect the most wicked politician of this generation despite everything that has been revealed about her, I think that will speak volumes about where we stand as a nation.
Our leaders in Washington D.C. reflect who we are as a country. If if we willingly send Hillary Clinton to the White House, the truth is that we will fully deserve everything that happens to us afterwards. | 0 |
Share on Facebook It should be evident if you’re following news concerning the Standing Rock protests in North Dakota that tension continues to escalate between protestors supporting the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and riot police. The big deal? A four-state Dakota Access Pipeline which threatens to uproot sacred burial ground, poison the Missouri river, and make null an 1881 treaty ensuring the property belongs to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. In addition to being maced and beaten with batons, activists have been tased and even shot with rubber bullets . Despite the violence taking place, tribal leaders continue to ask all “water protectors” to maintain peaceful relations and rely on prayer as the only weapon used to halt construction of the DAPL. After watching videos of the mass arrests and beating that have taken place , many have asked how those employed by the State can continue to terrorize weaponless protestors. Surely, some form of cognitive dissonance must be taking place? For some, most likely, and that's undoubtedly what inspired at least two officers to turn in their badges today. According to an activist named Redhawk, there have been reports of at least two officers turning in their badges after acknowledging that the battle against the American people is not what they signed up for. On Facebook, the activist wrote : “You can see it in some of them, that they do not support the police actions. We must keep reminding them they are welcome to put down their weapons and badge and take a stand against this pipeline as well. The comments on the ordeal have been quite positive. Charlotte Holywater Vincent wrote, “Brave to stand up for what is right ! To hand over years of training and service in a little metal badge and then stand on the side of humanity.” Ron Hemming, who reportedly is a retired deputy in Washington, shared his thoughts: “As a retired deputy in Washington state, I would have refused to go on a detail such as this. As I am also part native blood, I stand with my relatives on the front line protecting the water from the black snake. Be safe, stay strong.” Related: | 0 |
United States Marine Field McConnell Plum City Online - ( AbelDanger.net ) October 27, 2016
1. Abel Danger ( AD ) claims that Serco began providing Zulu-timing signals through servers in the Vancouver B.C. offices of Starnet Communications in 1996 to record bets by prospective blackmail victims on the time of death of adults and children in live-broadcast snuff films.
2. AD claims that Hillary Clinton deployed Serco 8(a) companies to Vancouver in August 1999 to confiscate the Starnet servers – together with all the betting records of snuff films produced at the Pickton pig farm – and transfer them to blackmailers embedded in the Federal Bridge Certification Authority.
3. AD claims that Serco 's blackmailers on the federal bridge have forced the US Patent and Trademark Office to issue Zulu time lapse keys to a voting pad input device (US 7537159 B2) with which the George Soros-tied company Smartmatic can allegedly switch votes from Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton.
4. United States Marine Field McConnell – Global Operations Director of Abel Danger – has offered to serve as a five-star general in a future Trump administration so he can first recognize and then destroy Clinton's pig-farm bridge to Serco 's 8(a) blackmailers in the patent office.
Media Coverage of Starnet Raid - August 20, 1999
Soros Linked Voting Machines To Be Used In Key Battleground States
Note the ransom equals the bonus paid by Lockheed Martin Sister Lynne Cheney to JonBenet's father
Hillary Clinton vs. James Comey: Email Scandal Supercut
Copy of SERCO GROUP PLC: List of Subsidiaries AND Shareholders! [Note British and Saudi Governments, AXA, HSBC , Teachers' and Gold man Sachs]
Defense Ammunition Center [Outsourced to Serco ]
Serco ... Would you like to know more?
"Digital Fires Instructor Serco - Camp Pendleton, CA Uses information derived from all military disciplines (e.g., aviation, ground combat, command and control, combat service support, intelligence, and opposing forces) to determine changes in enemy capabilities, vulnerabilities, and probable courses of action."
"Concern Grows Over Soros-Linked Voting Machines
Sixteen states may be using balloting equipment from a company tied to the leftist billionaire
by Edmund Kozak | Updated 24 Oct 2016 at 5:21 PM
Concern is growing over revelations that voting machines in a significant number of states could be linked to a company tied directly to billionaire leftist George Soros and his personal quest to create a nationless, borderless global state.
The U.K.-based Smartmatic company posted a flow-chart on its website that it had provided voting machines for 16 states, including important battleground states like Florida and Arizona. Smartmatic Chairman Mark Malloch-Brown is a former U.N. official and sits on the board of Soros’ Open Society Foundations. Since the story first broke, the flow-chart has disappeared from Smartmatic’s website, raising further questions about the real status of the Soros-tied voting equipment and whether it is truly being deployed in U.S. elections.
If Malloch-Brown's Soros ties weren't troubling enough, he also has ties to the Clintons through his work at two consulting firms.
According to a spokesperson for the National Association of Secretaries of State, Smartmatic is not on a list of federally certified providers for election systems and officials in several states’ have contested that their equipment came from Smartmatic. Why, then, had Smartmatic bragged about providing over 50,000 voting machines for U.S. elections?"
"Check http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/309533/opinion/why-have-all-the-digital-signatures-from-the-election-returns-been-stripped "
"Electronic voting pad input device, system and method
US 7537159
B2 ABSTRACT
In the preferred embodiment, the invention is a data entry device intended for use by voters during an election to enter selected choices. Its basic functions are to display available options and accept voter input. Its design achieves simplicity in its preparation, deployment, and operation at any given electoral event. It also furnishes accuracy, reliability, durability, and reusability. It connects in a standard protocol to a voting station's host processor. It accepts up to 300 key codes, each one potentially a unique selection. Names, symbols, or pictures identifying candidates are printed on a paper template compliant with the device's geometry, inserted prior to an election, and visible through the device's transparent cover. When the number of candidates or valid options in a contest exceeds its capacity, additional identical units can be chain-connected, until a sufficient number of voting options are available.
Publication number: US7537159 B2
Publication type: Grant
Application number: US 11/160,782
Publication date: May 26, 2009
Filing date: Jul 8, 2005
Priority date: Jul 8, 2005
Fee status: Paid
Also published as: US20070007340
Inventors: Antonio Mugica , 4 More »
Original Assignee: Smartmatic International Corporation
Export Citation: BiBTeX, EndNote, Ref Man Patent Citations (12), Referenced by (4), Classifications (7), Legal Events (7)
External Links: USPTO , USPTO Assignment , Espacenet "
Starnet CEO heads to court; hiring continues; sweet deals in Antigua
Friday Aug 27 1999
by Brent Mudry
CEO SEEKS TO BLOCK ACCESS TO SENSITIVE RECORDS
In the first legal challenge to the Starnet Communications International police raid, Starnet chief executive Mark Dohlen has launched a court action seeking to assert solicitor-client privilege over certain documents and records seized during searches of Starnet's corporate headquarters and his personal residence a week ago. In a motion filed Thursday in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, prominent Vancouver criminal defence lawyer Ian Donaldson seeks to block police access to sensitive records seized by members of the RCMP and the Co-ordinated Law Enforcement Unit on Aug. 20.
Certain disputed files have been sealed in court pending resolution of the privilege claim. An initial court hearing has been scheduled for Tuesday morning on the search warrant challenge.
HIRING SPREE SEEKS PORN-PEDDLER, OTHERS
In an unrelated Starnet matter, the Vancouver-based Internet gambling and pornography company appears eager to mount a new hiring spree, recruiting staff in numerous positions, including its porn division, which it hopes to quickly sell off.
In a large ad on Thursday in The Georgia Straight, a Vancouver weekly entertainment newspaper, Starnet is soliciting a marketing representative for its entertainment division, amongst numerous other posted jobs. "Do you have the ability to 'think outside the curve'?," Starnet asks in its porn-peddler posting. The company states that this position requires strategic thinking and implementation, directly relating to Redlight.com and Adultv.com.
Queasy web-surfers may want to take a pass on these sites, at least Redlight.com, which offers a much harder-core home page than Starnet's main porn sites, Sizzler.com and Chisel.com. Redlight.com's home page offers an extremely explicit mix of "teaser" shots, including a graphic live-sex video clip. While Starnet wants to dump its porn business, its latest ad seeks a marketer to maintain continual market research of new forms of advertising and demographics, with "overall participation in the team effort." The Thursday recruitment ad came three days after Starnet's Monday disclosure that it hopes to quickly auction off its adult entertainment division assets, with documentation to be complete in 30 days.
This Redlight.com site happens to be the same Starnet site targeted by the police in their proposed single criminal count of adult pornography. While no charges have yet been laid against Starnet or any directors or employees, the "information to obtain," a court-filed document supporting the search warrant, notes eight proposed counts, including one of possession, for the purpose of publication, distribution or circulation, computerized pictures depicting obscene acts. The police note that "Fetish," one of Redlight.com's seven sections, shows 84 images of nude bondage, women with clamps on body parts, women with horse bridles and bits in their mouths, and women hanging by their arms from straps or belts.
The latest Starnet recruitment ad also suggests it is "business as usual" at Starnet, despite the week-ago raid by more than 100 officers from the RCMP, CLEU, the Ontario Provincial Police, the United States Customs Service and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.
The Georgia Straight ad seeks a WorldBroadcasts.com manager, an Internet marketing manager, HTML programmers, graphic designers, an investor relations administrative assistant, an adminstrative assistant of production and sports odds analysts. Starnet seeks "open-minded, innovative people who enjoy working in a dynamic, fun, team atmosphere and are able to work creatively under pressure."
"BREAKING: @HillaryClinton's E-Mail Server Company Got Almost $1 Million In Gov't Loans After Wiping E-Mails
OCTOBER 26, 2016
BY CHARLES C. JOHNSON 6 COMMENTS
Give it up already. It's over. K. J. Gillenwater was the primary researcher behind this story.
Hillary Clinton's e-mail server company got almost $1 million in government loans starting immediately after they were secretly asked to wipe Hillary Clinton's name from her e-mails.
Platte River Networks (PRN) got a $493,000 loan from the Small Business Administration in August 2014 and another $350,000 loan in September 2015:
Public government data available as USAspending.gov
The first half-million dollar loan arrived not one month after PRN employee Paul Combetta was caught accidentally revealing his company was deleting evidence at Hillary's request in July 2014 .
The second $350,000 loan came about one year later.
You won't hear this stuff from the lying mainstream media. Keep the GotNews mission alive: donate at GotNews.com/donate or send tips to [email protected]. If you'd like to join our research team, [email protected].
After getting the first loan, PRN moved to a large office space after previously working out of the owner’s condo. The head of the Small Business Administration is Maria Contreras-Sweet , a Mexican immigrant who was appointed to the office by Barack Obama two months before Hillary's PRN got the first loan.
WikiLeaks leaks have proven Hillary's corrupt pay-to-play scheme. GotNews has shined a light on how Hillary gets favors from Hispanic and Democratic government bureaucrats before .
Did Hillary Clinton pay her e-mail server company Platte River Networks (PRN) with almost $1 million in favorable government loans — given out by a political friendly — in order to alter her illegal e-mails and get her name off them?
It sure looks like it.
A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request has been lodged for more information.
Stay tuned for more.
K. J. Gillenwater was the primary researcher behind this story."
"Police conclude search of Starnet
CBC News Posted: Aug 24, 1999 11:26 AM ET Last Updated: Aug 24, 1999 11:26 AM ET
Police have wrapped up several days of searching the offices of Starnet Communications in Vancouver. They entered the company offices and homes of some directors on Friday.
Police were looking for evidence of illegal gambling, distributing child pornography, and money laundering. Since the raid, Starnet officials say police just don't understand their business.
The search warrant details 18 months of police investigation. It traces a network of companies registered in American and Caribbean jurisdictions.
The warrant also identifies Vancouver as the centre of Starnet's operations, even though this is a grey under Canadian law.
Police note that Starnet's revenues grew dramatically in the past two years, from betting and sex shows and from lucrative licensing agreements for its gaming software. The investigations and pornography from company sites were grounds for Friday's raid and seizure of company materials.
RCMP Constable Peter Thiessen says investigators left Starnet offices yesterday morning. He says, "They spent the better part of three days going through the business. And as a result of that search the investigation is continuing, but no charges have been laid." Starnet's many investors were spooked by the raid. Share prices dropped almost 70-percent on Friday. However, the company insists the raid had minimal effect on its operation. Stocks rose slightly yesterday after a day of very heavy trading.
In written statements, company CEO Mark Dohlen said the Wall Street Journal calls Starnet the leader in Internet gaming and entertainment. He says companies like his, those on the cutting edge, are often misunderstood. Yesterday, Starnet announced it will sell off the sex side of its business. It plans to focus more resources on gaming.
The Police investigation is expected to last for several more months."
"Super Serco bulldozes ahead
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER UPDATED: 23:00 GMT, 1 September 2004
SERCO has come a long way since the 1960s when it ran the 'four-minute warning' system to alert the nation to a ballistic missile attack.
Today its £10.3bn order book is bigger than many countries' defence budgets. It is bidding for a further £8bn worth of contracts and sees £16bn of 'opportunities'.
Profit growth is less ballistic. The first-half pre-tax surplus rose 4% to £28.1m, net profits just 1% to £18m. Stripping out goodwill, the rise was 17%, with dividends up 12.5% to 0.81p.
Serco runs the Docklands Light Railway, five UK prisons, airport radar and forest bulldozers in Florida."
" Serco farewell to NPL after 19 years of innovation 8 January 2015 Serco said goodbye to the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) at the end of December 2014 after 19 years of extraordinary innovation and science that has seen the establishment build a world-leading reputation and deliver billions of pounds of benefit for the UK economy. During that period under Serco 's management and leadership, NPL has delivered an extraordinary variety and breadth of accomplishments for the UK's economy and industry. Some of the key achievements during that time have been:… It has been estimated that work carried out by the Centre of Carbon Measurement at NPL will save eight million tonnes of carbon emissions reductions (2% of UK footprint) and over half a billion pounds in economic benefit over the next decade…. NPL's caesium fountain atomic clock is accurate to 1 second in 158 million years and NPL is playing a key role in introducing rigour to high frequency trading [for Serco 's front running banks] in the City through NPL [Zulu] Time."
"UK Cabinet Office – Emergency Planning College – Serco …..Types of Exercise Workshop Exercises These are structured discussion events where participants can explore issues in a less pressurised environment. They are an ideal way of developing solutions, procedures and plans rather than the focus being on decision making. Table Top Exercises These involve a realistic scenario and will follow a time line, either in real-time or with time jumps to concentrate on the more important areas. The participants would be expected to be familiar with the plans and procedures that are being used although the exercise tempo and complexity can be adjusted to suit the current state of training and readiness. Simulation and media play can be used to support the exercise. Table-top exercises help develop teamwork and allow participants to gain a better understanding of their roles and that of other agencies and organisations. Command/Control Post Exercises These are designed primarily to exercise the senior leadership and support staff in collective planning and decision making within a strategic grouping. Ideally such exercises would be run from the real command and control locations and using their communications and information systems [Feeling lucky, Punk?] . This could include a mix of locations and varying levels of technical simulation support. The Gold Standard system is flexible to allow the tempo and intensity to be adjusted to ensure maximum training benefit, or to fully test and evaluate the most important aspects of a plan. Such exercises also test information flow, communications, equipment, procedures, decision making and coordination. Live Exercises These can range from testing individual components of a system or organisation through to a full-scale rehearsal. They are particularly useful where there are regulatory requirements or with high-risk situations. They are more complex and costly to organise and deliver but can be integrated with Command Post Exercises as part of a wider exercising package."
"Christopher Rajendran Hyman CBE (born 5 July 1963 in Durban, South Africa)[1] was Chief Executive of Serco Group plc from 2002 to October 2013.[2] … On graduation, he worked for Arthur Andersen. In 1989, he won an 18-month exchange with Ernst & Young in London, who employed him after four months.[1] Head hunted in 1994 by Serco , Hyman became European finance director, and in 1999 was made group finance director. In 2002, Hyman became chief executive. .. Hyman resigned from his role of Chief Executive of Serco on 25 October 2013 following allegations that Serco had overcharged government customers. .. He was [making a presentation to Serco shareholder, including British and Saudi governments] on the 47th floor of the World Trade Center [North Tower] at the time of the September 11 attacks in 2001."
"July 7, 2016 Developments in PKI occurred in the early 1970s at the British intelligence agency GCHQ , where James Ellis , Clifford Cocks and others made important discoveries related to encryption algorithms and key distribution.[ 19 ] However, as developments at GCHQ are highly classified, the results of this work were kept secret and not publicly acknowledged until the mid-1990s.
The public disclosure of both secure key exchange and asymmetric key algorithms in 1976 by Diffie, Hellman , Rivest, Shamir , and Adleman changed secure communications entirely. With the further development of high-speed digital electronic communications (the Internet and its predecessors), a need became evident for ways in which users could securely communicate with each other, and as a further consequence of that, for ways in which users could be sure with whom they were actually interacting.
Assorted cryptographic protocols were invented and analyzed within which the new cryptographic primitives could be effectively used. With the invention of the World Wide Web and its rapid spread, the need for authentication and secure communication became still more acute. Commercial reasons alone (e.g., e-commerce, online access to proprietary databases from web browsers) were sufficient. Taher Elgamal and others at Netscape developed the SSL protocol ('https' in Web URLs); it included key establishment, server authentication (prior to v3, one-way only), and so on. A PKI structure was thus created for Web users/sites wishing secure communications.
Vendors and entrepreneurs saw the possibility of a large market, started companies (or new projects at existing companies), and began to agitate for legal recognition and protection from liability. An American Bar Association technology project published an extensive analysis of some of the foreseeable legal aspects of PKI operations (see ABA digital signature guidelines), and shortly thereafter, several U.S. states (Utah being the first in 1995) and other jurisdictions throughout the world began to enact laws and adopt regulations. Consumer groups raised questions about privacy, access, and liability considerations, which were more taken into consideration in some jurisdictions than in others.
The enacted laws and regulations differed, there were technical and operational problems in converting PKI schemes into successful commercial operation, and progress has been much slower than pioneers had imagined it would be.
By the first few years of the 21st century, the underlying cryptographic engineering was clearly not easy to deploy correctly. Operating procedures (manual or automatic) were not easy to correctly design (nor even if so designed, to execute perfectly, which the engineering required). The standards that existed were insufficient.
PKI vendors have found a market, but it is not quite the market envisioned in the mid-1990s, and it has grown both more slowly and in somewhat different ways than were anticipated.[20] PKIs have not solved some of the problems they were expected to, and several major vendors have gone out of business or been acquired by others. PKI has had the most success in government implementations; the largest PKI implementation to date is the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) PKI infrastructure for the Common Access Cards program."
Base One Technologies – Corporate Strategy – We are a Government Certified Women-Owned Business
We practice Diversity Recruitment and Staffing for IT positions Base One was founded in 1994 by a women engineer who had made a career in technology research for many years. Base One has been very successful in focusing on diversity recruiting and staffing for IT projects. It has been our experience that the greater the diversity mix, the more creative the solution. As in any field the more diverse the viewpoint the more thorough your analysis. Our engineers can think out of the box.
Because of our affiliations we have access to pools of resources among more diverse groups & individuals. We work with a large pool of minority professionals who specialize in IT skills. We are able to have access to these resources through our status as a D/MWBD firm and our affiliations. These affiliations assist us in working with resources among more diverse groups & individuals. We are also partnered with firms that are 8A certified as Minority firms, Disabled Veteran firms, Native American firms, Vietnam veteran firms, women owned firms.
Our hub zone location keeps us close to the professional organizations of great diversity. We are active in recruiting from and networking with these community organizations of local IT professionals. This has given us access to a large pool of diversity talent.
Base One's staff of engineers are a diverse group of professionals. This diverse network of engineers helps us to branch out to other engineers and creates an even larger network of resources for us to work with.
The greater the diversity the more complete & thorough the analysis. The broader the spectrum of points of view the broader the scope of the analysis. We feel that a diverse team gives us a greater advantage in creating cutting edge solutions. To that end we will continue to nurture these relationships to further extend our talent pool.
The greater the diversity mix, the more creative the solution.
The more diverse the viewpoint, the more thorough the analysis.
The more diverse our team, the more our engineers can think out of the box.
This is why Base One Technologies concentrates on diversity recruitment in the belief that a diverse team gives us a greater advantage in creating cutting edge solutions."
Information Security Planning is the process whereby an organization seeks to protect its operations and assets from data theft or computer hackers that seek to obtain unauthorized information or sabotage business operations.
Key Clients Benefiting From Our Information Security Expertise: Pentagon Renovation Program, FAA, Citigroup, MCI.
Base One Technologies
Expertly researches, designs, and develops information security policies that protect your data and manage your firm's information technology risk at levels acceptable to your business.
Performs architectural assessments and conducts both internal and external penetration testing. The results of these efforts culminate in an extensive risk analysis and vulnerabilities report.
Develops, implements and supports Information Security Counter measures such as honey-pots and evidence logging and incident documentation processes and solutions."
"Base One Technologies, Ltd. is a DOMESTIC BUSINESS CORPORATION, located in New York, NY and was formed on Feb 15, 1994. This file was obtained from the Secretary of State and has a file number of 1795583. "
"Serco's Office of Partner Relations (OPR) helps facilitate our aggressive small business utilization and growth strategies. Through the OPR, Serco mentors four local small businesses under formal Mentor Protégé Agreements: Three sponsored by DHS (Base One Technologies, TSymmetry, Inc., and HeiTech Services, Inc.,) and the fourth sponsored by GSA (DKW Communications, Inc.). Serco and HeiTech Services were awarded the 2007 DHS Mentor Protégé Team Award for exceeding our mentoring goals." http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/100515p.pdf
"Opened in 1994 as the successor to the Transitional Immigrant Visa Processing Center in Rosslyn, Va., the NVC centralizes all immigrant visa pre-processing and appointment scheduling for overseas posts. The NVC collects paperwork and fees before forwarding a case, ready for adjudication, to the responsible post.
The center also handles immigrant and fiancé visa petitions, and while it does not adjudicate visa applications, it provides technical assistance and support to visa-adjudicating consular officials overseas.
Only two Foreign Service officers, the director and deputy director, work at the center, along with just five Civil Service employees. They work with almost 500 contract employees doing preprocessing of visas, making the center one of the largest employers in the Portsmouth area.
The contractor, Serco , Inc., has worked with the NVC since its inception and with the Department for almost 18 years.
The NVC houses more than 2.6 million immigrant visa files, receives almost two million pieces of mail per year and received more than half a million petitions from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) in 2011. Its file rooms' high-density shelves are stacked floor-to-ceiling with files, each a collection of someone’s hopes and dreams and each requiring proper handling. ….
The NVC also preprocesses the chief of mission (COM) application required for the filing of a petition for a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV). Such visas, for foreign nationals who have performed services for the U.S. government in Iraq and Afghanistan, require COM concurrence before the applicant can file a petition with USCIS. The NVC collects the requisite documents from such applicants and, when complete, forwards the package to the U.S. embassies in Baghdad or Kabul for COM approval"
Yours sincerely,
Field McConnell, United States Naval Academy, 1971; Forensic Economist; 30 year airline and 22 year military pilot; 23,000 hours of safety; Tel: 715 307 8222
David Hawkins Tel: 604 542-0891 Forensic Economist; former leader of oil-well blow-out teams; now sponsors Grand Juries in CSI Crime and Safety Investigation
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Cheyenne River Sioux Chairman Brings Pipeline Opposition to Meeting With President Obama Cheyenne River Sioux Chairman Brings Pipeline Opposition to Meeting With President Obama By 0 52
Vehicle lights, streaked by a long, late evening exposure, cuts through the campsite set up to protest the Dakota Access oil pipeline, near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, on October 8, 2016. (Photo: Kristina Barker / The New York Times)
The stand-off between the Standing Rock Sioux and the Dakota Access pipeline shows no sign of letting up. Indigenous opponents of the four-state, nearly $4 billion dollar pipeline have set up another encampment.
Members of the Great Sioux Nation say they are invoking eminent domain over land rightfully theirs under an 1851 treaty; and have situated their Winter Camp directly in the path of the pipeline. Energy Transfer Partners, developers of the massive pipeline that would run beneath the Missouri River, says the land belongs to the company after they recently purchased the tract from a farmer.
According to the Morton County Sheriff’s Department, six states have deployed law enforcement officers to the area. Tuesday night in a Facebook post, the department said private security hired by Energy Transfer Partners who unleashed attack dogs and pepper spray on protesters in early September were not licensed and could face prosecution.
Hundreds of people have been arrested during months of protest; most on minor trespass charges. Yet many have been subjected to strip searches and jailed.
FSRN’s Nell Abram spoke with Cheyenne River Sioux Chairman Harold Frazier, who met with President Barack Obama Tuesday to discuss the pipeline project, and the militarized police response to the protests.
Download Audio
Nell Abram: Chairman Frazier, thanks for joining us on FSRN. You spoke with President Obama and asked him to him protect the rights of the Lakota people, their sacred sites and the waters of the Missouri River. How did your conversation go?
Harold Frazier: You know, I was a little hopeful, but I guess I kind of got what I expected. There’s court cases proceeding. One of the things they assured me is that he is going to follow, continue the… | 0 |
Date: October 28, 2016 in: Global Bankster Takeover , Globalism , Government Control , New World Order , Sleuth Journal , Society , Special Interests , World News When people unfamiliar with the liberty movement stumble onto the undeniable fact of the “conspiracy” of globalism they tend to look for easy answers to understand what it is and why it exists. Most people today have been conditioned to perceive events from a misinterpreted standpoint of “Occam’s Razor” — they wrongly assume that the simplest explanation is probably the right one. In fact, this is not what Occam’s Razor states. Instead, to summarize, it states that the simplest explanation GIVEN THE EVIDENCE at hand is probably the right explanation. It has been well known and documented for decades that the push for globalism is a deliberate and focused effort on the part of a select “elite;” international financiers, central bankers, political leaders and the numerous members of exclusive think tanks. They often openly admit their goals for total globalization in their own publications, perhaps believing that the uneducated commoners would never read them anyway. Carroll Quigley, mentor to Bill Clinton and member of the Council on Foreign Relations, is often quoted with open admissions to the general scheme: “The powers of financial capitalism had (a) far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences. The apex of the systems was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland; a private bank owned and controlled by the world’s central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank… sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world.” – Carroll Quigley, Tragedy And Hope The people behind the effort to enforce globalism are tied together by a particular ideology, perhaps even a cult-like religion, in which they envision a world order as described in Plato’s Republic. They believe that they are “chosen” either by fate, destiny or genetics to rule as philosopher kings over the rest of us. They believe that they are the wisest and most capable that humanity has to offer, and that through evolutionary means, they can create chaos and order out of thin air and mold society at will. This mentality is evident in the systems that they build and exploit. For example, central banking in general is nothing more than a mechanism for driving nations into debt, currency devaluation, and ultimately, enslavement through widespread economic extortion. The end game for central banks is, I believe, the triggering of historic financial crisis, which can then be used by the elites as leverage to promote complete global centralization as the only viable solution. This process of destabilizing economies and societies is not directed by the heads of the various central banks. Instead, it is directed by even more central global institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the Bank for International Settlements, as outlined in revealing mainstream articles like Ruling The World Of Money published by Harpers Magazine. We also find through the words of globalists that the campaign for a “new world order” is not meant to be voluntary. “… When the struggle seems to be drifting definitely towards a world social democracy, there may still be very great delays and disappointments before it becomes an efficient and beneficent world system. Countless people … will hate the new world order … and will die protesting against it. When we attempt to evaluate its promise, we have to bear in mind the distress of a generation or so of malcontents, many of them quite gallant and graceful-looking people.” – HG Welles, Fabian Socialist and author of The New World Order “In short, the ‘house of world order’ will have to be built from the bottom up rather than f rom the top down. It will look like a great ‘booming, buzzing confusion,’ to use William James’ famous description of reality, but an end run around national sovereignty, eroding it piece by piece, will accomplish much more than the old-fashioned frontal assault.” – Richard Gardner, member of the Trilateral Commission, published in the April, 1974 issue of Foreign Affairs “The New World Order cannot happen without U.S. participation, as we are the single most significant component. Yes, there will be a New World Order, and it will force the United States to change its perceptions.” – Henry Kissinger, World Action Council, April 19, 1994 I could quote globalists all day long, but I think you get the general idea. While some people see globalism as a “natural offshoot” of free markets or the inevitable outcome of economic progress, the reality is that the simplest explanation (given the evidence at hand) is that globalism is an outright war waged against the ideal of sovereign peoples and nations. It is a guerrilla war, or fourth generation warfare, waged by a small group of elites against the rest of us. A significant element of this war concerns the nature of borders. Borders of nations, states and even towns and villages, are not just lines on a map or invisible barriers in the dirt. This is what the elites and the mainstream media would like us to believe. Instead, borders when applied correctly represent principles; or at least, that is supposed to be their function. Human beings are natural community builders; we are constantly seeking out others of like-mind and like-purpose because we understand subconsciously that groups of individuals working together can (often but not always) accomplish more. That said, human beings also have a natural tendency to value individual freedom and the right to voluntary association. We do not like to be forced to associate with people or groups that do not hold similar values. Cultures erect borders because, frankly, people have the right to vet those who wish to join and participate in their endeavors. People also have a right to discriminate against anyone who does not share their core values; or, in other words, we have the right to refuse association with other groups and ideologies that are destructive to our own. Interestingly, globalists and their mouthpieces will argue that by refusing to associate with those who might undermine our values, it is WE who are violating THEIR rights. See how that works? Globalists exploit the word “isolationism” to shame sovereignty champions in the eyes of the public, but there is no shame in isolation when such principles as freedom of speech and expression or the right to self defense are on the line. There is also nothing wrong with isolating a prosperous economic model from unsuccessful economic models. Forcing a decentralized free market economy to adopt feudal administration through central banking and government will eventually destroy that model. Forcing a free market economy into fiscal interdependencey with socialist economies will also most likely undermine that culture. Just as importing millions of people with differing values to feed on a nation after it has had socialism thrust upon it is a recipe for collapse. The point is, some values and social structures are mutually exclusive; no matter how hard you try, certain cultures can never be homogenized with other cultures. You can only eliminate one culture to make room for the other in a border-less world. This is what globalists seek to achieve. It is the greater purpose behind open border policies and globalization – to annihilate ideological competition so that humanity thinks it has no other option but the elitist religion. The ultimate end game of globalists is not to control governments (governments are nothing more than a tool). Rather, their end game is to obtain total psychological influence and eventually consent from the masses. Variety and choice have to be removed from our environment in order for globalism to work, which is a nice way to say that many people will have to die and many principles will have to be erased from the public consciousness. The elites assert that their concept of a single world culture is the pinnacle principle of mankind, and that there is no longer any need for borders because no other principle is superior to theirs. As long as borders as a concept continue to exist there is always the chance of separate and different ideals rising to compete with the globalist philosophy. This is unacceptable to the elites. This has led not so subtle propaganda meme that cultures that value sovereignty over globalism are somehow seething cauldrons of potential evil. Today, with the rising tide of anti-globalist movements, the argument in the mainstream is that “populists” (conservatives) are of a lower and uneducated class and are a dangerous element set to topple the “peace and prosperity” afforded by globalist hands. In other words, we are treated like children scrawling with our finger paints across a finely crafted Mona Lisa. Once again, Carroll Quigley promotes (or predicts) this propaganda decades in advance when he discusses the need for “working within the system” for change instead of fighting against it: “For example, I’ve talked about the lower middle class as the backbone of fascism in the future. I think this may happen. The party members of the Nazi Party in Germany were consistently lower middle class. I think that the right-wing movements in this country are pretty generally in this group.” – Carroll Quigley, from Dissent: Do We Need It? The problem is that these people refuse to confront the fruits of globalization that can be observed so far. Globalists have had free reign over most of the world’s governments for at least a century, if not longer. As a consequence of their influences, we have had two World Wars, the Great Depression, the Great Recession which is still ongoing, too many regional conflicts and genocides to count and the systematic oppression of free agent entrepreneurs, inventors and ideas to the point that we are now suffering from social and financial stagnation. The globalists have long been in power, yet, the existence of borders is blamed for the storm of crises we have endured for the past hundred years? Liberty champions are called “deplorable” populists and fascists while globalists dodge blame like slimy slithering eels? This is the best card the globalists have up their sleeve, and it is the reason why I continue to argue that they plan to allow conservative movements to gain a measure of political power in the next year, only to pull the plug on international fiscal life support and blame us for the resulting tragedy. There is no modicum of evidence to support the notion that globalization, interdependencey and centralization actually work. One need only examine the economic and immigration nightmare present in the EU to understand this. So, the globalists will now argue that the world is actually not centralized ENOUGH. That’s right; they will claim we need more globalization, not less, to solve the world’s ailments. In the meantime, principles of sovereignty have to be historically demonized — the concept of separate cultures built on separate beliefs has to be psychologically equated with evil by future generations. Otherwise, the globalists will never be able to successfully establish a global system without borders. Imagine, for a moment, an era not far away in which the principle of sovereignty is considered so abhorrent, so racist, so violent and poisonous that any individual would be shamed or even punished by the collective for entertaining the notion. Imagine a world in which sovereignty and conservatism are held up to the next generation as the new “original sins;” dangerous ideas that almost brought about the extinction of man. This mental prison is where globalists want to take us. We can break free, but this would require a complete reversal of the way in which we participate in society. Meaning, we need a rebellion of voluntary associations. A push for decentralization instead of globalization. Thousands upon thousands of voluntary groups focusing on localization, self reliance and true production. We must act to build a system that is based on redundancy instead of fragile interdependencey. We need to go back to an age of many borders, not less borders, until every individual is himself free to participate in whatever social group or endeavor he believes is best for him, as well as free to defend against people that seek to sabotage him; a voluntary tribal society devoid of forced associations. Of course, this effort would require unimaginable sacrifice and a fight that would probably last a generation. To suggest otherwise would be a lie. I can’t possibly convince anyone that a potential future based on a hypothetical model is worth that sacrifice. I have no idea whether it is or is not. I can only point out that the globalist dominated world we live in today is clearly doomed. We can argue about what comes next after we have removed our heads from the guillotine. If you would like to support the publishing of articles like the one you have just read, visit our donations page here . We greatly appreciate your patronage. Article first posted at Alt-Market.com Submit your review | 0 |
How can my team make the N. F. L. playoffs? It’s a simple question, but answering it can be devilishly complicated. At this point in the season, when teams have six or seven games remaining, the playoff picture is delightfully foggy. For a normal fan — particularly one for whom sports are a blissful escape from, say, the tumultuous world of American electoral politics — it’s surprisingly difficult to figure out. And, more often than not, the television commentators don’t make things any easier. It’s always bothered us, too, so we built an interactive tool to help us understand. Our N. F. L. Playoff Simulator — now entering its third year of existence — is built for one purpose: to help you explore the paths to the playoffs for every team in the N. F. L. It works like this: We let you choose the outcomes of any game you select and simulate every other game remaining in the 2016 season. (In its first rendition, we considered each game a coin flip since then, we’ve used Sagarin ratings, which reflect the fact that, even though anything can happen on a given Sunday, not all teams are created equal.) What makes this tool more useful than other online calculators, like the ones at ESPN, Yahoo or NFL. com, is that we do the work for you: There’s no need to pick the outcomes of every game left in the season. Pick any outcomes — or none at all — and our tool will simulate the rest of the season for you, instantly identifying the most important games remaining for each team and turning you into a playoff scenarios expert. Consider the Minnesota Vikings, who started the season but have slipped, in Minnesotan fashion, to . At the moment, we give them just better than odds of making the playoffs. If they beat the Cardinals in Minnesota on Sunday, their odds move to 64 percent. If they lose, those odds drop to about 40 percent. But what if the Detroit Lions, who share the Vikings’ record, lose all their remaining games? That kind of thinking is precisely what this tool was made for. Our simulator also lets you explore specific and unrealistic paths, like one in which the Vikings finish the season with the N. F. C. ’s best record, a bye week and advantage throughout the playoffs (roughly a shot, but go for it). Finally, we’ve added a feature this year, for fans of teams like the Cleveland Browns, whose season is effectively over. We now let you use the simulator backward — to see how the Browns could have their best shot at a No. 1 pick in the 2017 N. F. L. draft. As the season comes to an end, figuring out who will finish last can get just as complicated as figuring out who will finish first. If you’re going to root against your own team, you might as well do it as intelligently as possible. | 1 |
A bomb that injured 29 people on Saturday in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, and another that failed to detonate, were filled with shrapnel and made with pressure cookers, flip phones and Christmas lights to set off a powerful explosive compound, law enforcement officials said on Sunday. Both bombs appeared designed to create maximum chaos and fatalities. They also provided a trove of clues. Late Sunday night, two law enforcement officials said that investigators stopped a car on the Belt Parkway near the Bridge and took five people to an F. B. I. office in Manhattan for questioning in the bombing investigation. One of the officials said that all or most of them may have been from the same family and that they may have been on their way to the airport. The F. B. I. confirmed in a statement that agents and police detectives had stopped “a vehicle of interest in the investigation into Saturday’s bombing in Manhattan and that no one has been charged with any crime. ” Earlier, two senior law enforcement officials said there was a “person of interest” in the bombing, but it was unclear if that person had been identified. The person had been seen on surveillance footage. Tensions in the region, already high, escalated on Sunday night when, according to J. Christian Bollwage, the mayor of Elizabeth, N. J. a backpack containing explosive devices — including pipe bombs — was found near that city’s train station. In trying to secure the devices, law enforcement officals, using robots, accidentally detonated one of the devices early Monday, he said. There were no injuries. A top law enforcement official said the pressure cookers in the two bombs in Chelsea on Saturday night were filled with “fragmentation materials. ” The bomb that exploded, at 23rd Street, was filled with small bearings or metal BBs. A second device on 27th Street that did not explode appeared to be filled with the same material, the official said. Senior law enforcement officials also said they were increasingly focused on the possibility that the attack was connected to a bombing that took place Saturday morning in New Jersey, but the authorities still needed to compare all the bombs before drawing any conclusions. There, three pipe bombs were tied together, placed in a trash can and also employed a flip phone as a timing mechanism, according to officials. Officials said they did not know of any motive — political or social — for any of the attacks. Early on Sunday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said that “there is no evidence of an international terrorism connection with this incident,” noting that no international terrorist group had claimed responsibility. In contrast, the Islamic State was quick on Sunday to claim a stabbing attack at a Minnesota shopping mall on Saturday night that left nine people injured. The bombing comes at a time of increasing nervousness around the world after terrorist attacks in Belgium and France, creating a climate in which even a false report of gunfire at John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens recently created widespread panic. “This is one of the nightmare scenarios,” Mr. Cuomo said at a news conference on Sunday. “We really were very lucky that there were no fatalities. ” The search for the person or people behind the Chelsea attack took on added urgency as President Obama and leaders from around the world were set to travel to New York for the annual United Nations General Assembly this week. Tests showed that the explosive material in the 23rd Street bomb was similar to a commercially available compound called Tannerite, according to two law enforcement officials. It was unclear why Mr. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio dismissed with such certainty a tie to international terror. Experts said the bomb’s construction offered conflicting clues. Tannerite is made by combining ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder, is frequently used in exploding targets at firearms ranges and has rarely been used in improvised explosive devices in the United States. But the materials are easy to buy in this country because each one on its own is not an explosive. At the same time, pressure cookers have been a container of choice for many improvised explosive devices over the years. They were used in the deadly Boston Marathon bombings in 2013 based on a model in publications put out by Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen. An expert on improvised explosive devices used by terrorists around the world said that a device constructed with a cellular phone as a timer and Christmas lights as an initiator would indicate a competence than what is usually found in the United States. “Most of what we see in the United States is a pipe bomb with black powder or smokeless powder or a simple hobby fuse,” said the expert, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he does sensitive work for government agencies. “This would be the high end of sophistication for I. E. D.s in the United States. ” The recovery of the second device provides investigators with a host of potential leads, from the phone and other materials inside the homemade bomb to the pressure cooker itself — including possibly determining when and where it was purchased — to any possible fingerprints on the device, its components or the tape that held it together. Mr. Cuomo said he was ordering an additional 1, 000 New York State Police officers and National Guard members to be dispatched to major commuter hubs. Mr. de Blasio said New Yorkers should expect to see a heightened police presence throughout the city, including additional patrols by the city’s heavily armed counterterrorism units. The police continued to search the area around the blast site and fanned out across New York chasing leads and trying to sort through a variety of claims of responsibility — from Twitter to websites to 911 calls — most of which were dismissed as unrelated. Late on Sunday, F. B. I. agents were seen dismantling the car of an Uber driver, who said the law enforcement officials were searching for possible evidence related to the attack. The bomb in Manhattan was placed under a Dumpster made of steel, and was powerful enough to catapult the metal box across the street. The 29 people who were wounded mostly suffered cuts and abrasions. All who were taken to local hospitals had been released by Sunday morning. Commissioner James P. O’Neill of the New York Police Department said the unexploded device was found by two state troopers as they walked down 27th Street, and other law enforcement officials said calls to 911 alerted the police to a suspicious device. It was taken to be examined by bomb technicians at a police facility in Rodman’s Neck in the Bronx. At first, the technicians tried to peel apart the device to see its components and whether it had signature properties that could link it to the kind of device used by terrorists in the past. It and the remnants of the device that exploded in Chelsea were sent to the F. B. I. ’s bomb lab in Quantico, Va. along with the improvised explosive device found in New Jersey. While government officials had initially been dismissive of a link between the New Jersey and New York attacks, evidence from the crime scenes seemed to lead them to change their thinking. The New Jersey blast took place 11 hours earlier when an improvised device exploded in a garbage can near the course of a charity race. That device went off around 9:30 a. m. near the boardwalk in Seaside Park, according to the Ocean County sheriff, Michael G. Mastronardy. Only one of the three pipe bombs detonated and no one was injured. Officials said the explosive in that device appeared to be black powder. The race, the Seaside Semper Five, a run that raises money for members of the Marine Corps and their families, was canceled. The police were reviewing surveillance video in New York and New Jersey and continued to look for clues while trying to understand the choice of location for the bomb: pointedly not Times Square, a commuter hub, train or landmark, which have been targets of terrorism in the past. The nondescript area — a sidewalk, near some Dumpsters in a residential area of Chelsea — held its own significance. “You’ve got to go somewhere,” said a New York law enforcement official who agreed to speak about the continuing investigation only on the condition of anonymity. “So the question is: Is the location significant, in terms of motive? And we don’t know that 23rd Street has any particular significance. ” Moments after the blast, the police swarmed Chelsea’s streets, and messages flew fast and furious from people across a city that has taken on a wary resignation that terrorism is a sad fact of life. The Dumpster where the bomb exploded was being used in the renovation of the fifth and sixth floors of Selis Manor, a Section 8 apartment building that provides affordable housing for the visually impaired and disabled, its managing agent, Tony Savarese, said. Mr. Savarese said that the Dumpster sat on the eastern side of the building and that the bomb exploded with enough force to shatter windows, break a door frame and obliterate a security camera perched above the entrance. The camera recorded little more than a blinding flash. Mr. Savarese said he had gotten no reports of injuries among the building’s residents, but said its management was still checking on their . “We have been going apartment to apartment checking on everybody,” he said. | 1 |
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Donald J. Trump on Friday intensified his threat to “expand” America’s nuclear arsenal, saying he was willing to restart a nuclear arms race even as he released a letter from President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia that pointed toward the possibility of a “pragmatic” set of understandings between Washington and Moscow. Echoing the conciliatory approach toward Mr. Putin that he exhibited throughout the campaign, Mr. Trump praised the Russian leader for sending a private holiday greeting that called for the two men to act in a “constructive and pragmatic manner. ” In a statement as he made Mr. Putin’s letter public, Mr. Trump said the Russian leader’s “thoughts are so correct. ” But earlier in the day, the also made clear that he meant what he said in a Twitter post on Thursday when he bluntly threatened to expand America’s nuclear arsenal after more than three decades in which the number of American and Russian weapons has shrunk. Sweeping aside efforts by his aides to temper his comments, or to suggest that he was merely talking about curbing the spread of nuclear technology, especially to terrorists, Mr. Trump told a host, Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC: “Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all. ” Through a combination of militaristic bravado and diplomatic outreach four weeks before moving into the Oval Office, Mr. Trump appeared eager to employ his skills as a successful business negotiator, threatening new nuclear deployments as potential leverage against Mr. Putin and other nuclear powers. Mr. Trump could choose to continue, or even expand, President Obama’s vigorous nuclear modernization plan, already underway, and decide over the next few years whether it is worth spending close to one trillion dollars to replace America’s aging fleets of bombers, submarines and ballistic missiles. Russia and China are in the midst of their own major nuclear modernization efforts. While previous presidents have spent as long as a year conducting nuclear posture reviews, Mr. Trump once again demonstrated that he has little patience with such traditional niceties and is not holding back his conduct of foreign policy before taking office next month. “I think it’s putting every nation on notice that the United States is going to reassert its position in the globe,” Sean Spicer, who will be Mr. Trump’s spokesman in the White House, said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program on Friday. Mr. Trump appears to be open to a new relationship with Russia even as he makes threats about what could happen if Mr. Putin crossed him. In response to Mr. Putin’s letter, Mr. Trump said that a failure by either side to “live up to these thoughts” would require the United States to “travel an alternate path. ” That apparently includes Mr. Trump’s belief that his administration would win the upper hand in a renewed, expensive competition over the size and effectiveness of the countries’ nuclear arsenals. It is unclear what prompted Mr. Trump’s focus on nuclear issues two days before Christmas senior aides refused repeated requests for an explanation about the roots of his statements. It is also hard to know how much of Mr. Trump’s claim that he could outspend and outpace any adversary amounts to strategy, and how much is simply a negotiating stand. Activists who have been fighting for years to reduce nuclear stockpiles reacted with alarm at the prospect that the might engage in a new nuclear competition with Russia. “The statements made by Trump undermine decades of work the United States and its allies have been involved in to reduce nuclear weapons stockpiles and to prevent the additional proliferation of nuclear weapons,” said Byron L. Dorgan, a former senator from North Dakota and a board member at the Center for Arms Control and . “A nuclear arms race puts everyone on this planet in greater danger. ” Mr. Trump’s warning on nuclear weapons came after Mr. Putin vowed to continue modernizing his nation’s nuclear weapons and asserted Russia’s military superiority over the United States. “Of course the U. S. has more missiles, submarines and aircraft carriers, but what we say is that we are stronger than any aggressor, and this is the case,” Mr. Putin said at an news conference in Moscow on Friday. Mr. Putin said Russia was not seeking a new nuclear arms race with the United States that his country could ill afford, and he reacted dismissively to Mr. Trump’s Twitter post about strengthening and expanding the American arsenal, noting that it was similar to what the had promised on the campaign trail. “So there is nothing unusual here,” Mr. Putin said. As far back as 1987, Mr. Trump talked about his desire to negotiate nuclear arms control agreements with a declining but aggressive Soviet Union. In recent weeks, he has met with some of the most savvy survivors of the Cold War — notably Henry Kissinger, the former secretary of state, and Robert M. Gates, the former defense secretary — at a moment when American relations with Russia are clearly at a turning point. Republicans who have spoken to Mr. Trump say he seems to realize that his opening gestures to Moscow will be closely observed at home, in Europe and among other allies. Republicans have split with him on Russia’s meddling in the American election, promising congressional inquiries after intelligence agencies concluded that Russia had used a combination of hacking and information warfare techniques to help elect Mr. Trump as president. At the heart of the question about Mr. Trump’s nuclear plans is what he meant by the phrase “greatly strengthen and expand America’s nuclear capability. ” Had he used the word “modernize,” he would have been echoing the phrase used by the Obama administration. But the idea, Mr. Obama has said, is to shrink the arsenal, not increase it. The modernization effort began in earnest after the passage of the New Start treaty in 2010, an arms control treaty that Mr. Obama pushed through with Dmitri A. Medvedev, then the Russian president. But in the name of improving safety and reliability, some experts — and prominent arms strategists — argued that Mr. Obama was setting the stage for a new president to expand the arsenal. Mr. Obama acknowledged that danger in the spring, warning of the potential for “ramping up new and more deadly and more effective systems that end up leading to a whole new escalation of the arms race. ” It was a startling admission for a president who had come to office more than seven years earlier talking about eventually ridding the world of nuclear weapons. China, for its part, has been modernizing a fleet of several hundred nuclear missiles and embarked on an aggressive program to blind United States satellites in a conflict. But Mr. Obama’s Pentagon is also leaving a number of projects that Mr. Trump could embrace, including an warhead that can travel up to 17, 000 miles per hour. The Chinese are working on a similar weapon that is designed to avoid American missile defenses, prompting a warning to a congressional commission last year that an arms race was in its opening moments, long before Mr. Trump was elected. | 1 |
An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employee based out of Las Vegas paid for nearly $15, 000 worth of gym memberships for 37 people using a government credit card, documents show. [The employee, EPA contracting officer Kevin Broadnax, bought 37 employees memberships to the gym Fitness — totaling $14, 799. 63 — with a government credit card, according to a receipt obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by Americans for Tax Reform. The documents show that Broadmax purchased the “super sport” memberships, which cost $399. 99 each. The employees work at the U. S. Environmental Science Division, which is home to the EPA’s National Exposure Research Laboratory and a library located on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) campus, the Washington Free Beacon reported. EPA scientists, postdoctorate researchers, and contractors use the library for research. The 24 Hour Fitness facilities boast “thousands of square feet of spectacular workout space, complete with premium gym equipment [and] unmatched amenities,” according to the gym’s website. Some of those amenities include a sauna, steam room, towel service, a jetted whirlpool Jacuzzi, and volleyball and basketball courts. The gym brands itself as “the ultimate daily retreat. ” The EPA employees, however, already have access to an gym at UNLV which has volleyball, basketball, racquetball, a spacious cardio center, a indoor track, a spa, a juice bar, and a pool. “Those apologists who pretend that reducing waste and corruption in the EPA is an attack on Mother Earth stand exposed as the frauds they are,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, to the Daily Caller. “Ending corruption and is good for the environment and other living things. ” EPA administrator Scott Pruitt announced Thursday that the agency will no longer foot the bill for gym memberships after he was asked about the documents showing the nearly $15, 000 worth of purchases on Fox Friends. | 1 |
As it heads into its 42nd season and an autumn that is teeming with potential for political satire, “Saturday Night Live” is undergoing some visible changes and shedding three performers from its ensemble. Taran Killam and Jay Pharoah, principal cast members who had been with “S. N. L. ” since 2010 and contributed many key impersonations on the program, are both leaving the show, as is Jon Rudnitsky, a featured player who appeared during the season. Their departures were confirmed by Lauren Roseman, a press representative for NBC. Presidential contests tend to bring added focus and intensity to “S. N. L. ,” which will have its season premiere on Oct. 1. That NBC sketch comedy series is renowned for its sendups of the electoral horse race, its lampooning of political figures and appearances from their counterparts. Mr. Killam, who was promoted to the main cast of “S. N. L. ” in 2012, had contributed impressions of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan. Mr. Killam had briefly played the Republican presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump, but ceded that role to Darrell Hammond, who has played Mr. Trump for several decades. Mr. Pharoah, who was also promoted to the main cast in 2012, had been the show’s resident impersonator of President Obama and Ben Carson. Mr. Killam, an alumnus of the Groundlings comedy troupe and a star of films like “The Heat,” told the website Uproxx that, though he still had one year remaining on his contract, he was not being brought back to the show. “I had sort of had it in my head I would make this upcoming year my last year, but then heard they weren’t going to pick up my contract,” Mr. Killam said in the Uproxx interview. “I was never given a reason why, really. I can assume until the cows come home. ” A representative for Mr. Pharoah declined to comment. Representatives for Mr. Rudnitsky also declined to comment. While these changes hardly represent a complete overhaul, they are among the more significant at “S. N. L. ” in recent years. Its 39th season, which concluded in the spring of 2014, was the last for the main cast members Seth Meyers (now the host of NBC’s “Late Night”) and Nasim Pedrad, as well as several featured players. After its season, the show said goodbye to Fred Armisen, Bill Hader and Jason Sudeikis, while Kristen Wiig, Andy Samberg and Abby Elliott left after the season. “S. N. L. ” producers continue to spend the summer scouting for talent, and the show is expected to make new hires for the fall, though NBC gave no indication on Tuesday of who was being considered or how many cast members might join. The show still has a impressionist for Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, who has been played by Kate McKinnon, a star of this summer’s “Ghostbusters” reboot. (Meanwhile, Leslie Jones, Ms. McKinnon’s “S. N. L” and “Ghostbusters” has also seen her status rise this summer, and has been added to NBC’s coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympics after following the Games in an unofficial capacity on her Twitter account.) In 2008 and 2012, “Saturday Night Live” broadcast additional episodes on Thursday nights, emphasizing political comedy, in the weeks before Election Day, though NBC has not announced similar plans for this year. Last season, Mr. Trump hosted “S. N. L. ” on Nov. 7, 2015, while he was still vying for the Republican presidential nomination. Mrs. Clinton, while still contending for the Democratic nomination, appeared in a sketch with Ms. McKinnon on the Oct. 3, 2015, broadcast. | 1 |
While Democrats perpetually circle the wagons, Republicans engage a perpetual circular firing squad. The same holds true for many evangelicals. Democrats and secularists count on it.
And we never disappoint.
Full disclosure: I went from a dogged “Never Trumper” to a “Maybe Trumper” and, finally, settled as a “Reluctant Trumper.” I, like any God-fearing father of daughters was, and remain, appalled by Donald Trump’s sordid past, and his 11-year-old vulgar video in which he objectified women. His words are indefensible, and I fully expect the Clinton camp to strategically release additional revolting and embarrassing opposition research about the Republican nominee before Election Day.
Still, I will be voting against Hillary Clinton on Nov. 8 in what is objectively and irrefutably the most effective way possible: by casting a vote, for better or worse, for the policies and promises of Donald Trump – and for the vice presidency of Gov. Mike Pence.
Regrettably, with many of my Never Trump friends I’m reminded of the fanatic who refuses his daughter chemotherapy and watches her die in an effort to convince himself (and others) of the strength of his own faith. Pride is an awful thing. We are to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16). Foolishness called “faith” is just foolishness.
Even so, there are Christian Pharisees on both extremes of this Trump fiasco: first, those Trumpian cultists who buy the “Make America great again!” pablum and deride any person who, while not casting judgment upon others, makes, with all sincerity, what they view as the principled decision. The latter say they’ll sit this one out (or go through the motions by voting third party – a wasted vote by any objective standard). While I appreciate this milder strain of Never Trumper’s sincerity, I nonetheless believe it is sincerely wrong.
And then there are the self-righteous, plank-in-the-eye Never Trump prigs who slander as having “lost their saltiness,”“sinned against God” and “compromised their principles,” brothers and sisters who recognize the empirical reality that a vote for a horribly flawed (Lord knows I’m the worst sinner of all) baby Christian as president is a vote against Hillary Clinton’s tyranny in perpetuity.
The Media Research Center has done America a tremendous service. In 2014 the watchdog organization released a video of an actual partial birth abortion – something Hillary Clinton stood on stage during the final presidential debate, stared into the camera with cold, callous eyes, and then both lied about and defended unequivocally. I plead with Never Trumpers to watch the video and then prayerfully reassess their plans for Nov. 8.
Mrs. Clinton’s beloved late-term abortion practice is one so brutal and needless that even the left-leaning American Medical Association has admitted that it is dangerous to the mother and never necessary under any circumstances, not the least of which is for “the life or health of the mother.”
During a partial-birth abortion, the abortionist pulls a fully “viable” child – often kicking and thrashing – feet first from her mother’s womb, leaving only the top of her head in the birth canal. This is so the abortionist can technically claim to be performing an abortion, rather than committing murder.
He then stabs the child through the base of her skull with scissors, piercing her brain until her kicking and moving about suddenly and violently jerks to a halt. Next, he opens the scissors to enlarge the wound as blood and brainstem fluid gush down his hands, inserts a vacuum tube and sucks out her brains, thereby collapsing her skull.
Her now limp and lifeless body is then cast away like so much garbage.
This is homicide, plain and simple. Hillary Clinton supports it. Donald Trump opposes it.
We deserve God’s wrath and judgment as a nation for allowing this abortion holocaust to occur on our watch. In my estimation, Mrs. Clinton is a bloodthirsty monster who enthusiastically supports this barbarity. Her Supreme Court appointees will ensure that tens of millions of precious babies like the one in the video are murdered in the same brutal manner.
My conscience tells me that I must vote in such a way that exercising my civic duty will have the strongest net effect against Mrs. Clinton and ensure that she is stopped. She must not be elected president. To not vote – or to vote for a non-starter third party candidate, which is effectively the same thing – while not an actual vote for Mrs. Clinton, still puts this Mengele in a pantsuit one step closer to the White House and the Supreme Court.
It’s simple math, and it’s undeniable. The most effective thing you can personally do as a citizen is to vote against Mrs. Clinton by voting for Mr. Trump. This does the most electoral damage possible to candidate Clinton and offers the best chance for life that you can provide future generations.
With its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, the U.S. Supreme Court put the government’s official stamp of approval on mass murder. Since then, the battle lines have been drawn. This is war. “Pro-choicers” are the bad guys and pro-lifers, the good guys. It really is that simple – that black and white. It’s good versus evil.
History will reflect as much.
Under a President Hillary Clinton, millions more babies will be tortured and dismembered alive. Under a President Donald Trump, these millions might live. And yet, even as Hillary sharpens her knives, we quibble like fools over Donald’s potty mouth.
The devil and Democrats: Oh, how they love derision and division within the body of Christ. | 0 |
Robert Gehl asks if you remember back in 2001, when the Clinton’s backed a U-Haul truck to the rear-end of the White House and took off with a bunch of publicly owned furniture and other treasures?
Yeah… that was pretty embarrassing. Probably something you wouldn’t want to repeat.
But then again, you’re not Hillary Clinton.
According to another recently unclassified FBI interview, Clinton and her staff were seen removing furniture and lamps from the State Department offices early in 2009 as soon as she took office as secretary. Hillary was Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013.
The agent – who is now an investigator with the Department of Homeland Security – said he had no idea whether or not the items were ever returned to the taxpayers.
Back in 2001, after The Washington Post broke the story, the Clintons said they would reimburse the taxpayers $86,000 for the items they stole that were actually government property, LifeZette reports .
They also returned another $28,000 worth of furniture a few days later.
In addition to stealing all that furniture back in 2001, you’ll recall they even removed the “W”s from all the keyboards in a juvenile and childish stunt to upset the incoming administration of George “W.” Bush.
Theft of taxpayer items from the State Department were not the only revelations in the FBI interview, The Washington Examiner is reporting .
In its notes, the FBI writes: “Prior to Clinton’s tenure, being an agent on the Secretary of State’s protective detail was seen as an honor and a privilege reserved for senior agents. However, by the end of Clinton’s tenure it was staffed largely with new agents because it was difficult to find senior agents willing to work for her.” | 0 |
Waking Times
Supporters of Clinton in the painfully long 2016 presidential campaign warned us before the vote that if Trump lost the election, his supporters would stop at nothing to disrupt Clinton’s inauguration. They said riots, violence and revolution would break out, and that Republicans would claim voter fraud and refuse to respect the democratic process or accept the results should Hillary have won.
This scare tactic and all the other nightmare fantasies about Trump projected into public consciousness by the left were insufficient to persuade enough voters to go for Hillary, and as many suspected would happen, Clinton voters are now doing the precise things they had previously declared to be unacceptable.
Hypocrisy is now as American as apple pie, and no one is really all that surprised that phony idealists are taking to the streets, destroying property, threatening to assassinate the president elect , and organizing to prevent Trump’s inauguration . Some are even openly calling for revolution. The deeper irony here, though, is that people from all walks of life should be out protesting the government as well, but for much more significant reasons than to protest the outcome of the election.
In the true American spirit of redressing grievances, and as a public service to a nation struggling to find purpose and reason, here are four critical issues that any worthwhile protestor should add to their post-election list of complaints against the machine. 1.) The Orwellian Permanent War and The Military Industrial Complex
This is the biggest elephant in the room. The U.S. has ongoing military operations in dozens of nations, and it has at least 800 military bases in eighty something foreign nations . Hundreds of non-combative foreign civilians a year are killed by U.S. bombs and drones and written off as collateral damage. The military industrial complex has fully commandeered the progress and development of technology, and sells billions of dollars of weapons each year to countries around the world including severely oppressive dictatorships states like Saudi Arabia .
At home, expenditures on ‘defense’ account for over half of every dollar U.S. taxpayers give Uncle Sam, diverting resources away from improving our country here at home. Surplus military equipment and battle hardened veterans are increasingly moving into the civilian law enforcement sector, dramatically exacerbating social issues such as police brutality and racism . The security industry has expanded to include the mass surveillance of every American and continues to invade our privacy in evermore creative ways . Genuine organic terrorism against Americans at home and abroad is the indirect result of destroying foreign nations and entire civilizations , stealing oil and other resources from foreign nations, while murdering innocents.
War has become the health of the state and it’s poisoning every segment of our society and culture. 2.) Serious Human Rights Abuses Committed by Government
Protestors today are taking to the streets to reject the verbal and emotional abuse of minority and sensitive members of our society, while actual physical human rights abuses are going under-addressed.
Members of America and the world’s elite are involved in covering up and participating in a global trade of sex slaves , and widely believed to be involved in pedophilia, child abduction and occult worship and rituals . 3.) Debt Slavery
The top-tier of the banking and investment world have created a global system of economic slavery which intentionally creates ever-increasing public debt. The human race owes so much money that no one really understands to whom it is owed . It could be aliens for all we know, but if the status quo remains, it would take the daily productivity of many generations to come to pay off only what is owed today, and the debt increases every minute.
This is a stealthy form of slavery that is written into the matrix code of society. To be born on earth is to owe money. This is utterly unacceptable, and so systemically unstable it’s guaranteed to collapse, causing worldwide suffering . 4.) Environmental Stewardship is Criminally Negligent
Viewpoints on the environmental stress we see in our world today vary wildly depending on who you talk to and what their background or agenda may be. Call it global warming, climate change, or whatever you like, but at its core, our natural world is being sold off and destroyed for corporate profit. Massive unchecked pollution and environmental destruction by the energy industry and corporations at large is destroying this planet at an exponentially increasing rate. Industrial disasters like Fukushima go unaddressed while the world’s rainforests are being decimated and indigenous cultures driven to extinction . This sad list just goes on and on. It’s just too much to put down here. Final Thoughts
You could easily add so much more to this if you like, as there are a thousand and one causes rebelling against, yet so very few ever seem to make it into public consciousness and onto the corporate mainstream news . If you’re outraged about what is happening in America today, but haven’t yet included these issues on your ‘mad as hell’ list , then your protest isn’t living up to its full potential, and your idealism is only half-assed. Read more articles by Dylan Charles . About the Author
Dylan Charles is a student and teacher of Shaolin Kung Fu, Tai Chi and Qi Gong, a practitioner of Yoga and Taoist arts, and an activist and idealist passionately engaged in the struggle for a more sustainable and just world for future generations. He is the editor of WakingTimes.com , the proprietor of OffgridOutpost.com , a grateful father and a man who seeks to enlighten others with the power of inspiring information and action. He may be contacted at . This article ( 4 Truly Important Issues for Your Post Election List of Things to Protest ) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Dylan Charles and WakingTimes.com . It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this copyright statement.
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Posted on October 27, 2016 by Charles Hugh Smith
Correspondent Bart D. (Australia) captured the entire global economy in three words: The Landfill Economy . Stuff is manufactured, energy is consumed shipping it somewhere, consumers buy it and shortly thereafter it ends up as garbage in the landfill.
This is of course the definition of “economic growth”: waste, inefficiency, environmental destruction–none of these matter. Only two things matter: maximize “growth” by any means necessary, and maximize profits by any means necessary.
The Landfill Economy now encompasses the entire planet. The swirling gyre of plastic trash the size of Texas between Hawaii and California: it’s just one modest example of the planetary trash dump that “growth” and profit generate as byproducts/blowback.
The planet’s oceans are one giant trash dump. Everything from plastic water bottles to abandoned fishing nets to radiation to containers that fell off ships is floating around even the most distant corners of the seas. Seabirds nesting in remote islands die of starvation as their guts fill with plastic bits of “permanent growth.”
Globalization has turned the planet’s land masses and rivers into trash dumps. Want to make a quick profit along a tropical sea coast? Dig some big holes near the coast, dump in baby prawns, food and chemicals to suppress algae blooms and diseases and then harvest the prawns to ship to the insatiable markets of the developed world.
Once the prawn farms are poisoned wastelands, move on and despoil another coastline elsewhere.
Globalization has greased the slippery slope from factory to landfill by enabling the global distribution of defective parts. Whether they are pirated, designed to fail or just the result of slipshod quality control, the flood of defective parts guarantee that the entire assembly they are installed in–stoves, vacuum cleaners, transmissions, electronics, you name it–will soon fail and be shipped directly to the landfill, as repairing stuff is far costlier than buying a new replacement.
QE/ZIRP Is Crushing the Global Supply Chain, Product Quality and Profits (October 17, 2016)
The Keynesian Cargo Cults that rule global economics love The Landfill Economy because it means more “growth”. Never mind the poisoned seas, rivers and land, or the immense waste of energy, commodities and labor that result from the global manufacture and distribution of shoddy products: if it adds to “growth,” it’s all good in the warped view of the Keynesian Cargo Cults.
We got your “growth” right here.
People are also tossed on the trash heap with careless abandon. The health of workers is a cost that reduces profits, so it’s ignored unless it can be turned into a profit center via state funding for managing preventable diseases, i.e. sickcare.
A worker sickened by industrial waste or lifestyle illnesses who becomes a profit center is a wonderful source of “growth” and profits.
A worker who can’t generate a corporation or state a profit is dumped on the trash heap as a matter of routine. A worker who can’t generate somebody a profit or “growth” by taking on more debt to spend spend spend is worthless.
If a robot or software can do the same work, then it is self-destructive for an enterprise to pay a human worker: if profits fall, Wall Street will crucify the enterprise and competitors will eat it alive.
This “maximizing growth and profits is the highest good” mode of production is insane. It doesn’t have to rule the world. As I outline in my book A Radically Beneficial World: Automation, Technology & Creating Jobs for All , other more efficient, sustainable and humane modes of production are within reach if we escape from the global grip of the destructive “growth by any means” cult. | 0 |
BNI Store Nov 3 2016 NY elementary school calls off mock election because students were chanting “Trump” and “We don’t want Muslims here” Jericho Elementary School in Centereach, New York, announced it had scrapped the mock vote that was due to take place this Friday after some young students started chanting “Trump” and repeated ‘negative rhetoric about Muslims.’ ABC News (h/t Susan K) Principal Glen Rogers revealed the decision was made after teachers complained about what some children had been chanting around the school and in the cafeteria. Teachers have said they’ve heard some kids in the cafeteria chanting “Trump! Trump! Trump!” or saying they don’t want Muslims here,’ Roger said. ‘I mean, kids often repeat what they hear on the TV or the news, but it doesn’t mean it’s OK. (In other words, you don’t think the First Amendment is OK) “We have a diverse community here. We want all our students to feel valued.” (So we don’t become the target of an Islamic terrorist attack?) ‘It’s important for our students to be able to express their opinions, but it’s also important for them to be informed about it and not just repeating what they happen to hear,’ Rogers said. (Especially if it goes against the Democrat talking points. This IS New York, after all) | 0 |
Home › HEALTH › TARGET STORES TO LAUNCH IN-STORE VERTICAL FARMS TO GROW THEIR OWN CROPS TARGET STORES TO LAUNCH IN-STORE VERTICAL FARMS TO GROW THEIR OWN CROPS 10 SHARES
[10/29/16] Indoor farming is quickly becoming a growing trend because of consumers’ mistrust in GMOs, the yearning to buy as local as possible, and a decline in usable land. There are a variety of indoor farming options available, including incubators that grow plants for households and vertical hydroponic systems that can churn out huge amounts of produce in warehouses.
The latter is likely what would be used at Target, who has announced that they will be testing out a vertical farming system starting in Spring 2017. The trials will be done at different locations across the country that have not yet been announced, but the store plans on starting out with leafy greens and possibly building their way up to potatoes, beets, and zucchini.
Target collaborated with IDEO and the MIT Media Lab and created Food + Future coLab , a group that is “pushing the edges of technology, business, and design to create new, impactful ventures” that change the way we know and create food. They have been researching in-store micro-farming for over a year and their findings will finally be put to the test next year. Greg Shewmaker, one of the entrepreneurs at the coLab, said,
“Because it’s MIT, they have access to some of these seed banks around the world, so we’re playing with ancient varietals of different things, like tomatoes that haven’t been grown in over a century, different kinds of peppers, things like that, just to see if it’s possible.” Post navigation | 0 |
‘Terrifying’: AT&T spying on Americans for profit, new documents reveal 'If companies are allowed to operate in this manner without repercussions, our democracy has no future' By Nadia Prupis - October 27, 2016
Telecommunications giant AT&T is spying on Americans for profit and helped investigate everything from the so-called war on drugs to Medicaid fraud—all at taxpayers’ expense, according to new reporting by The Daily Beast .
The program, known as Project Hemisphere, allowed state and local agencies to conduct warrantless searches of trillions of call records and other cellular data—such as “where a target is located, with whom he speaks, and potentially why”—for a massive range of investigations, the Beast ‘s Kenneth Lipp reports. In one case examined by the news outlet, a sheriff’s office in Victorville, California used Hemisphere to track down a homicide suspect.
Hemisphere was first revealed by the New York Times in 2013, but was described at the time as a “partnership” between AT&T and drug enforcement agencies used in counter-narcotics operations.
Neither, it turns out, is entirely true.
Lipp writes: AT&T’s own documentation—reported here by The Daily Beast for the first time—shows Hemisphere was used far beyond the war on drugs to include everything from investigations of homicide to Medicaid fraud. Hemisphere isn’t a “partnership” but rather a product AT&T developed, marketed, and sold at a cost of millions of dollars per year to taxpayers. No warrant is required to make use of the company’s massive trove of data, according to AT&T documents, only a promise from law enforcement to not disclose Hemisphere if an investigation using it becomes public.
The details were revealed as AT&T seeks to buy out Time Warner in a mega-merger that media watchdogs are warning would create “dangerous concentrations of political and economic power.”
Evan Greer, campaign director at the digital rights group Fight for the Future, said Tuesday , “The for-profit spying program that these documents detail is more terrifying than the illegal [National Security Agency] surveillance programs that Edward Snowden exposed. Far beyond the NSA and FBI, these tools are accessible to a wide range of law enforcement officers including local police, without a warrant, as long as they pay up.”
“It makes me sick to my stomach thinking about it,” Greer said.
While the government can request that private companies hand over user data, the documents show that AT&T went above and beyond to make the operation profitable, Lipp writes. ACLU technology policy analyst Christopher Soghoian told the Beast , “Companies have to give this data to law enforcement upon request, if they have it. AT&T doesn’t have to data-mine its database to help police come up with new numbers to investigate.”
And because the contract between the telecom company and the U.S. government stipulates only that agents not speak about Hemisphere if a probe using it becomes public, investigators may be left with no choice but to create a false narrative to explain how they obtained certain evidence, according to Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) attorney Adam Schwartz.
“This document here is striking,” Schwartz told Beast . “I’ve seen documents produced by the government regarding Hemisphere, but this is the first time I’ve seen an AT&T document which requires parallel construction in a service to government. It’s very troubling and not the way law enforcement should work in this country.”
“At a minimum there is a very serious question whether they should be doing it without a warrant. A benefit to the parallel construction is they never have to face that crucible. Then the judge, the defendant, the general public, the media, and elected officials never know that AT&T and police across America funded by the White House are using the world’s largest metadata database to surveil people,” he said.
Greer added: “Customers trusted AT&T with some of their most private information, and the company turned around and literally built a product to sell that information to as many government agencies and police departments as they could. Not only did they fail to have any safeguards to prevent unauthorized use of the data, they actually required law enforcement to keep the program secret and dig up or fabricate other evidence, to hide the fact that they’d received information from AT&T.”
Fight for the Future called on AT&T to shut down the program and on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Hemisphere and reveal all the cases in which it was used.
“If companies are allowed to operate in this manner without repercussions, our democracy has no future,” Greer said. | 0 |
It didn’t happen. Much like everything else Jeffy posts. The truth is he is a liberal bitch boy who would piss his pants at the sight of a real man in his path. So to compensate, he makes stuff up to feel important. | 0 |
By Hrafnkell Haraldsson on Sat, Oct 29th, 2016 at 4:05 pm “You do know you just attacked a Gold Star family?” one adviser warned Trump. "What's that?" he asked. Share on Twitter Print This Post
Gabriel Sherman writes at New York Mag that when Donald Trump attacked the Khan family over Khizr Khan’s speech at the Democratic National Convention, he had no idea what a Gold Star family was.
You will remember that Khizr Khan stood up in front of the entire world and said to Donald Trump, “Let me ask you, ‘Have you even read the United States Consitution?’ I will gladly lend you my copy. In this document, look for the words ‘liberty’ and ‘equal protection of the law.’”
The fallout was predictable. Donald Trump, openly criticized, lost it. He attacked the Khan’s religious beliefs, saying “If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say.”
Now it turns out that he had no idea what he was doing. Because he is ignorant, and because, as Mark Cuban has observed, he isn’t interested in learning anything. Gabriel Sherman explains:
“You do know you just attacked a Gold Star family?” one adviser warned Trump. Trump didn’t know what a Gold Star family was: “What’s that?” he asked. To Trump, Khizr Khan and his wife, Ghazala, were enemies who had said something mean about him, just like Rosie O’Donnell and any number of people who had gotten under his skin over the years. Wasn’t it his right to respond? “ ‘The election is about the American people, it’s not about you,’ ” Manafort told Trump, according to a person briefed on the conversation. Trump countered with Breitbart’s report on Khan’s purported belief in Sharia. “ ‘He’s not running for president,’ ” Manafort shot back. “ ‘The Clintons did this to us to waste our time getting off message.’ ”
Of course, Trump could not and would not admit his own ignorance and he certainly wasn’t prepared to take the blame. Instead, as Sherman reveals, he “took it out on Manafort in front of his senior advisors, including Ailes.” According to Trump, Manafort wasn’t “able to get the media to focus on the right stuff.”
No wonder, when Trump refuses to take Manafort’s advice and focus on the right stuff. This is not to defend Manafort, who is at least as despicable as his boss, but it serves as an example of how Trump’s first reaction each and every time is to get back at his critic.
It was one of Donald Trump’s most visible Joe McCarthy moments, and his response to Khizr Khan actually reinforced the point Khan was trying to make.
Stopping and thinking are foreign to him. And if you are not astonished by the appalling ignorance on display here, you should not be. This is all in keeping with a party that prides itself on ignorance rather than facts. | 0 |
World News » *Breaking: Wikileaks Bombshell Reveals Collusion Between Clinton Campaign And DOJ’s Peter Kadzik
As most of our readers assuredly are aware, yesterday the DOJ stepped in “to assist” with the FBI’s new Hillary Clinton email investigation, with the DOJ’s Peter Kadzik (a friend of the Clinton Campaign) to head up the investigation. That last fact is no longer a secret to the American Public as this new Wikileaks Bombshell reveals Kadzik sent the Clinton Campaign the following:
“Heads up. Another filing in the FOIA case went in last night or will go in this am that indicates it will be awhile (2016) before the State Department posts the emails.”
From ZeroHedge :
On Monday we were the first to note that Podesta’s friend Peter Kadzik was the DOJ representative chosen to head up a “thorough” review of the new Huma Abedin emails as revealed by a letter he wrote to Congress. Given Kadzik’s personal relationship with Podesta, it seemed like a “convenient” choice for the Clinton campaign.
In the letter to Congress, the DOJ writes that it “will continue to work closely with the FBI and together, dedicate all necessary resources and take appropriate steps as expeditiously as possible,” assistant attorney General Peter J. Kadzik writes in letters to House and Senate lawmakers.
“Ironically”, that is the same Peter Kadzik who has proven his “impartiality” in multiple WikiLeaks emails including this newly released bombshell in which Kadzik provides a very helpful “heads up” about Hillary’s email server investigation.
Sure, who needs an independent investigator…this guy will do just fine. | 0 |
2 Police Officers Turn In Badges In Support Of Standing Rock Water Protectors Nov 3, 2016 162 0
Earlier today it was reported by Redhawk at Standing Rock in North Dakota that two police officers have turned in their badges in support of the water protectors.
“There have been at least 2 reports of police officers turning in their badges acknowledging that this battle is not what they signed up for. You can see it in some of them, that they do not support the police actions. We must keep reminding them they are welcome to put down their weapons and badge and take a stand against this pipeline as well. Some are waking up.” -Redhawk Hearts are opening.
With actions from militarized police continuing to be seen as extremely violent and dangerous, this news is a big win for the water protectors and for humanity as a whole. While the actions of some police officers are not appropriate, we all must continue to visualize and intend/pray that the hearts of all involved in this situation continue to open. Police must be held accountable for their actions, though we must continue to welcome them over to the side of the water protectors.
Having the police lay down their weapons and join the people is the goal. It is also a win-win solution, which is the best case scenario. So what is it that opened the hearts of these two officers?
At the time of this writing, the answer is not known but we can speculate on a few different items. Word is spreading quickly that there are 17 multi-national banks funding this pipeline and that the propaganda being spread about this deal “creating American jobs” or “helping America’s economy” is being seen as just that, propaganda. The American people, as well as people of the world, know that the big banks and U.S. Government does not care for the people, but only themselves. These banks and the government showed their hand in 2008 when they were bailed out after the stock market crash, leaving the public to bear the economic and social burdens. Even the police are becoming aware of this fact that the government and banks do not care for them and see the police only as pawns in a bigger game the government wishes to control. Water is life is not just a meaningless slogan in many people’s minds. It is becoming understood by more and more that water IS indeed life. If water becomes toxic, all life that depends on that water becomes toxic…including the families of these same police officers who are currently protecting the construction sites. They too would be affected by toxic water. It is innately traumatizing for humans to hurt other humans. While we have been seeing this for some time now with this situation, police officers are realizing the harm they do when they assault an unarmed, peaceful water protector. In essence, peace is wanting and needing to be established.
Take a look at what happened in Frankfurt, Germany in May of 2012. The police removed their helmets and began marching with the people who were protesting the big banks, while also safely escorting them down the streets. The world continues to awaken.
Let us all use this latest news as a big step forward towards peace and resolution of this pipeline issue. The pipeline construction needs to and must stop. With the announcement from Barack Obama yesterday that the White House is considering “re-routing” the pipeline, we must continue to demand that it’s construction cease entirely. We can also view that statement as a buckling of the Establishment. Continue on, water protectors. Truth and love is spreading .
Lance Schuttler graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in Health Science and practices health coaching through his website Orgonlight Health . You can follow the Orgonlight Health facebook page or visit the website for more information on how to receive health coaching for yourself, a family member or a friend as well as view other inspiring articles. | 0 |
Military: Goal Is to 'Liberate' Eastern Bank of Tigris River by Jason Ditz, October 31, 2016 Share This
Iraq’s invasion of Mosul has entered its third week with a noteworthy first, as the first Iraqi special forces entered the city itself in the area around Karama District, in the far east. There was fighting reported both within the district and in surrounding suburbs.
Indications are that the vast majority of the fighting in the area remains in the suburbs, with only a small incursion into the city itself. Still, Iraqi military officials say their goal is to take the whole eastern bank of the Tigris River, which divides the city.
The area entered is near a key industrial site within Mosul. It is unclear how well secured this area is from ISIS’ perspective, as they’ve laid heavy traps and tunneled in around the city in anticipation of the invasion, but indications were that a lot of these defensive measures were taken in residential areas.
ISIS is believed to have several thousand fighters in Mosul, and with the US announcing they intend to kill anyone who tries to escape, they are likely to resist all the more fiercely, knowing they don’t have any place to go after Mosul. Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz | 0 |
Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is considering running for New York City mayor, according to a report by TMZ. [TMZ reports that a source who was at a small gathering last month with Clinton and “some politically connected people” from New York said the former presidential candidate “has not ruled” out the possibility and is “taking a real look at it. ” Clinton also told the close circle to measure “the level of interest and support” to a potential Clinton candidacy. Rumors of Clinton running for mayor to resurrect her political career after a humiliating defeat in November have been swirling around in New York political circles since the beginning of the year. But, despite the growing speculation, Clinton has not yet publicly commented whether she would mull a challenge against the incumbent, Bill de Blasio. ”Hillary for Mayor” signs spotted in NYC. pic. twitter. — Alexandra Rosenmann (@alexpreditor) March 1, 2017, | 1 |
A Sucker's Rally Like No Other This week has seen a political earthquake followed by a financial eruption. But don't be fooled. The Dow's 500 point surge amounts to a Sucker's Rally like no other; it was just a case of raging robo-machines determined to tag an all-time high on the charts You need to login to view this content.
David Stockman’s Contra Corner isn’t your typical financial tipsheet. Instead it’s an ongoing dialogue about what’s really happening in the markets… the economy… and governments… so you can understand the world around you and make better decisions for yourself.
David believes the world -- certainly the United States -- is at a great inflection point in human history. The massive credit inflation of the last three decades has reached its apogee and is now going to splatter spectacularly.
This will have lasting ramifications on how governments tax and regulate you… the type of work you and your family members will have available and what you get paid… the value of your nest egg… and all other areas comprising your quality of life. Login
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It’s not often a mother tries to persuade her teenage son to attend a music festival with her. But Desert Trip is not your average festival. On Friday night, an team of classic rock veterans — the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, the Who and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd — will begin its first of two weekends on the same storied bill at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, Calif. Among the crowd will be Julie Varon, a mother of three from Seattle, who grew up on the rock ’n’ roll that once soundtracked and spurred the counterculture. Also taking part, though not entirely of his own volition: Ms. Varon’s son, Sam, who prefers modern country music and Coachella, the annual pop festival that shares an organizer and location with Desert Trip. “This is definitely a little bit of a twist,” Sam said a few days before the event. His mother chimed in: “A twist of the arm. ” She added: “It didn’t help that people started calling it Oldchella. But he gets it. ” Like many of the 150, 000 people expected at the festival, Ms. Varon, 59, saw Desert Trip as a historic event, a last chance to commune with these titans of rock. As a baby boomer, she also happens to be in the target demographic. By pairing such venerated acts with amenities of relative luxury (seating options, extra bathrooms, gourmet food) the promoters of Desert Trip have created a destination for an underserved festival audience with the time, means and inclination to go all out for what is seen as a singular occasion. Matthew Thirlwall, 60, a geology professor living outside London, spent $898 plus fees for a V. I. P. ticket that comes with the “culinary experience bundle,” on top of airfare and a camping pass. ( tickets topped out at $1, 599.) “I decided a year or two ago that life had much more to offer than working days, and decided to take part in early partial retirement,” Mr. Thirlwall said. Emboldened by a trip to Burning Man this year, he had decided to make Desert Trip his first rock festival. “One of my daughter’s friends at university said, ‘Oh, your dad’s so cool,’” he recalled. Simone Harle, 47, a journalist in Perth, Australia, also decided to cross oceans for the event. She called the trip to Indio — her first visit to the United States — “a pilgrimage” in honor of the music. “This is the soundtrack to my life,” she said, which made an overall cost of more than $5, 000 a . “It was an automatic reaction for me. I’ve got goose bumps all over my body and on my eyeballs just thinking about it. ” Others took the idea of a musical pilgrimage even further. Jon Langille, 55, spent a month riding an electric bicycle more than 1, 800 miles to the festival from British Columbia. “My wife and I couldn’t agree on what kind of trip to make this,” he said. “Her idea was to fly in and fly out. That’s all fine and dandy, but I really wanted to make an experience of it. ” He continued, “I’ve been a busy guy for 20 years and the opportunity to take a month off and be by myself, to meditatively pedal my bicycle 2, 000 miles to a rock concert, really appealed to me — especially for a thing like this. ” Ms. Varon was equally committed to attending, but went the crafty route instead: To ensure access to the show and save money, she sought a job on the Desert Trip grounds and was hired as a supervisor for the V. I. P. ushers both weekends. Her son Sam will be on staff as well. “He was available,” Ms. Varon said. At home, “he’s golfing, job searching and sitting on the couch — he’s having a good old time — but I was like, ‘This is kind of mandatory. ’” While the Indio area is known for its snowbirds, retirees and familial duos are not its typical festival audience. “I would never rent my house to the Coachella or Stagecoach people,” said Susan Andrews, who lives in nearby Indian Wells, of the annual events also held at the Polo Grounds. “They tell you it’s a group of four and it’s really a group of 15. ” For Desert Trip, however, Ms. Andrews opted to rent six of her time share properties to concertgoers, along with the three spare bedrooms in her home. “I have a doctor coming to stay,” she said. “These are older people — some of them went to Woodstock. They’ll be calm. ” Another local, Cheryl Craig, said she, too, expects a more tranquil crowd for Desert Trip, which she plans to attend both weekends. “This is the kind of music that I grew up on,” Ms. Craig, 57, said. “Just having lost Prince and David Bowie this year, you wonder: When is the last time you’re going to get to see these people?” Such reminiscence may prove inevitable for fans at a gathering with such weighty, last hurrah connotations. “These bands were a moment in my life a long time ago and they were very significant,” said Mr. Langille, the cyclist. “I, like probably them, have moved on past my heyday years, but it’s a great opportunity to revisit that time and those people. ” At the same time, being among peers “might be kind of refreshing,” not simply nostalgic, he said. At concerts geared toward younger audiences, “people in their 20s are us like we’ve just discovered rock music,” Mr. Langille said. “It drives me nuts. ” | 1 |
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the .) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. Donald Trump’s plans for a smooth transition to the presidency are in disarray after the abrupt departures of two top aides handling national security and foreign policy matters. Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, is a top contender for secretary of state. House Republicans renominated Speaker Paul Ryan as their leader, quieting rumors of an initial revolt. ____ 2. The election has split American society. Writers and photographers for our magazine fanned out across the U. S. and came back with a portrait of a country at odds with itself. Families are contemplating uncomfortable holidays with relatives on the opposite side of the political divide — or even canceling. “I feel like I’ve been living with a lot of people wearing masks, who have been hiding their true selves,” one woman said. ___ 3. Mr. Trump has pledged to repeal the Affordable Care Act. But Medicaid may not shrink all that much. Influential figures in his administration might be willing to establish new conditions for access, but not wholesale cutbacks, our health reporter writes. Above, a free clinic at an arena in Seattle last month. ___ 4. Traffic deaths have been steadily declining over the last four decades. But they spiked last year, and this year is on track to be even worse. Technologies that emerged from the effort to combat distracted driving have apparently added to the problem, adding to what one expert called “cognitive workload. ” ___ 5. Russia began a new air offensive in Syria, just a day after President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump agreed to bolster cooperation. For the first time in Russia’s naval history, jets taking off from its aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, took part in combat. ____ 6. Publicly, the U. S. has kept its distance from the war in Yemen. But its alliance with Saudi Arabia has left American fingerprints on the air campaign against rebels. The U. S. sells weapons to Saudi Arabia, refuels its planes and trains its pilots. Graffiti on walls across the capital reads, “America is killing the Yemeni people. ” __ 7. Orchestras are basically functioning as charities. Most rely more on donations than ticket sales, a new report says. Many are building educational and cultural programs that appeal to donors. They also feel increasing pressure to curb costs, which can lead to labor disputes like the strike in Pittsburgh, above. ____ 8. Can fruit and vegetables grown without dirt in a greenhouse be organic? That question is roiling the organic farming world ahead of this week’s meeting of the National Organic Standards Board, which advises the federal government. Some farmers argue that organic production is about caring for the soil, which produces broad environmental benefits. Hydroponic growers say their methods can make organic farming even more sustainable. ____ 9. After spending several years rushing to open their doors on Thanksgiving, retailers have been hit with a dose of reality: It may not be worth it. For many stores, it’s just too much of a headache, with online shopping draining customers and the potential for negative publicity for making employees work on a national holiday. ____ 10. Finally, cornbread dressing, ubiquitous in homes across the South on Thanksgiving in place of stuffing, is not just a side dish. Our food writer tried to learn how to make it, and discovered that it’s “a litmus test on class, race, regional loyalties and grandmothers. ” Here’s the recipe she settled on, and recipes for other great Thanksgiving dishes. ____ Photographs may appear out of order for some readers. Viewing this version of the briefing should help. Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p. m. Eastern. And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a. m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a. m. Sundays. Want to look back? Here’s last night’s briefing. What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes. com. | 1 |
Amanda Taub, New York Times, November 1, 2016
Call it the crisis of whiteness.
White anxiety has fueled this year’s political tumult in the West: Britain’s surprising vote to exit the European Union, Donald J. Trump’s unexpected capture of the Republican presidential nomination in the United States, the rise of right-wing nationalism in Norway, Hungary, Austria and Greece.
Whiteness, in this context, is more than just skin color. You could define it as membership in the “ethno-national majority,” but that’s a mouthful. What it really means is the privilege of not being defined as “other.”
Whiteness means being part of the group whose appearance, traditions, religion and even food are the default norm. It’s being a person who, by unspoken rules, was long entitled as part of “us” instead of “them.”
{snip}
“It’s fundamentally about ‘who are we?’” said Eric Kaufmann, a professor of politics at Birkbeck College, University of London. “What does it mean to be part of this nation? Is it not ‘our’ nation anymore, ‘our’ meaning the ethnic majority?
“These kinds of questions are really front and center, even though they’re not necessarily verbalized.”
The questions can seem like a sudden reversal after decades of rising multiculturalism, through the civil rights movement in the United States and the European Union’s opening up of borders.
{snip}
White people’s officially privileged status waned over the latter half of the 20th century with the demise of discriminatory practices in, say, university admissions. But rising wages, an expanding social safety net and new educational opportunities helped offset that. Most white adults were wealthier and more successful than their parents, and confident that their children would do better still.
That feeling of success may have provided a sort of identity in itself.
But as Western manufacturing and industry have declined, taking many working-class towns with them, parents and grandparents have found that the opportunities they once had are unavailable to the next generation.
That creates an identity vacuum to be filled.
“For someone who is lower income or lower class,” Professor Kaufmann explained, “you’re going to get more self-esteem out of a communal identity such as ethnicity or the nation than you would out of any sort of achieved identity.”
{snip}
A recent Gallup study found that Mr. Trump’s supporters tend to earn above-average incomes for their communities, but also tend to live in majority-white areas where children are likely to be worse off than their parents.
{snip}
The formal rejection of racial discrimination in those societies has, by extension, constructed a new, broader national identity. The United States has a black president; London has a Muslim mayor of Pakistani descent.
But that broadening can, to some, feel like a painful loss, articulated in the demand voiced over and over at Trump rallies, pro-Brexit events and gatherings for populist parties throughout Europe: “I want my country back.”
The mantra is not all about bigotry. Rather, being part of a culture designed around people’s own community and customs is a constant background hum of reassurance, of belonging.
The loss of that comforting hum has accelerated a phenomenon that Robin DiAngelo, a lecturer and author, calls “white fragility”–the stress white people feel when they confront the knowledge that they are neither special nor the default; that whiteness is just a race like any other.
Fragility leads to feelings of insecurity, defensiveness, even threat. And it can trigger a backlash against those who are perceived as outsiders.
{snip}
For decades, the language of white identity has only existed in the context of white supremacy. When that became taboo, it left white identity politics without a vocabulary.
If you are a working-class white person and you fear that the new, cosmopolitan world will destroy or diminish an identity you cherish, you have no culturally acceptable way to articulate what you perceive as a crisis.
Some of these people have instead reached for issues that feel close to their concerns: trade, crime, the war on drugs, controlling the borders, fear of Islamist terrorism. All are significant in their own right, and create very real fears for many people, but they have also become a means to have a public conversation about what society’s changes mean for white majorities.
{snip}
There will not likely be a return to the whiteness of social dominance and exclusive national identity. Immigration cannot be halted without damaging Western nations’ economies; immigrants who have already arrived cannot be expelled en masse without causing social and moral damage. And the other groups who seem to be “cutting in line” are in fact getting a chance at progress that was long denied them.
Western whites have a place within their nations’ new, broader national identities. But unless they accept it, the crisis of whiteness seems likely to continue. | 0 |
You’ve probably heard that it’s always best to focus on the average of polls. The poll results that often get the most attention are outliers — they get attention because they’re shocking, not because they’re representative. But we also know that people often ignore that advice. They want to know the details of the newest poll, and how and why it might be different from the last. And to tell you the truth, I do, too. I read the details and methodology of almost every survey that is released. The problem is that it’s a lot harder than it looks. After a splashy poll is released, Twitter is often overflowing with but misguided analysis. It’s true: You really are better off looking at the averages. But if you’re going to assess individual polls this election, here’s a guide on how to do it well. When a poll comes out, I start by looking at the topline results — Hillary Clinton is plus 3 percentage points, or Donald J. Trump is plus 1, for example. But it’s also worth looking at vote share — whether Mrs. Clinton has 47 percent or 40 percent, for instance. In particular, I care about how close the leading candidate is to 50 percent. There’s more uncertainty the further a candidate is from 50 percent and the larger the number of undecided voters. Until a candidate approaches 50 percent, it’s hard to know whether the lead is because of party unity or because the candidate has won over the key voters needed for victory. This is especially true in a reliably red or blue state: A Democrat who has 40 percent of the vote in Arizona still has a lot to prove, even with a lead. He or she hasn’t yet won the voters who decide the state’s elections. There was a good example of this in the Arizona Senate race. A lot of polls showed John McCain narrowly ahead, or even behind. But once he won the G. O. P. primary, voters returned to his side. Usually, anything at 46 percent or above is a good indicator of real strength. Less than that, and you have to wonder about undecided voters. ■ It’s also worth looking at whether there’s a difference between registered and likely voters. In a presidential election year, I generally prefer looking at the registered voter numbers — with a caveat. That’s because many methods that screen for likely voters are poor and yield noisy data. Registered voter samples are larger, and there aren’t additional questions to add statistical noise. But here’s the caveat: Registered voter polls tend to overrepresent Democrats, so I often focus on the registered voter number and mentally shift it a point or two toward the Republicans. ■ This year, there’s also the question of whether to look at or polls. I’m not sold on which is best. This year’s candidates don’t have the strong bases of a Ross Perot or John Anderson. It’s possible that the polls that name them will overestimate their support it’s possible that the polls that do not name them will underestimate their support. For now, I’m inclined to split the difference. To get a sense of whether a poll is good or bad news for a certain candidate, I usually compare the results of the poll with the polling averages or the last poll conducted by the same pollster. ■ If the poll is very different from the polling average, there’s a good chance it’s an outlier. ■ If the poll shows a big shift from a prior survey, I also wonder whether the previous poll was an outlier. If so, a candidate might appear to rebound simply because he or she was unusually weak in a prior poll. So compare that prior poll with the average of the time, too. ■ It’s also worth looking at whether the candidate has gained or lost vote share. When candidates fall without good reason, I often assume they’re likelier than not to win back their former supporters. I definitely take note when candidates have won more supporters than they’ve won before. If that happens a lot, it’s a real sign of strength. ■ I also look at the various measures of whether Mr. Trump has a ceiling: like a 50 percent “very unfavorable” rating, or 50 percent who say they would be scared of a Trump presidency. I’m not convinced that those measures actually represent a ceiling. But they very well might, and I am curious about whether he’s making progress by those measures. I also care a lot about how the poll was conducted. Polling is hard. A lot of things can go wrong, from question wording to weighting a sample or selecting likely voters. These choices can make a big difference — even with the same data. Worse, there are very few pollsters that really provide enough information to know whether they’re making reasonable choices — and what the consequences of those decisions might be. As a result, I strongly prefer experienced firms with solid track records. ■ I have serious problems with IVR polls (interactive voice response). These are sometimes called and they don’t have any means to contact voters with a cellphone. This is a problem for even an experienced firm with a good record. It can be disastrous for firms without much . ■ I have reservations about online polls. It’s harder to draw a representative sample online because you can’t rely on traditional random sampling. There are skilled and experienced pollsters that do a good job, like YouGov and SurveyMonkey. But there’s a somewhat higher burden for online pollsters to build solid track records, make good hires and publish a detailed methodology. ■ If the poll is from a less established firm, I’ll give a closer look if it has been transparent — if the pollsters publish a detailed methodology that gives me a better sense of what I’m getting. You don’t have to analyze every detail of a poll’s methodology, but here are some rules of thumb: ■ A poll is often a bad poll. You usually need multiple days to call voters back and get a representative sample. ■ Well over half of adults ought to be reached on cellphones in a typical national survey about 40 percent of Americans do not have a landline at all. A poll of registered voters off the voter file can have a somewhat smaller number of voters, since the poll can typically be weighted by partisanship, and registered and likely voters are less likely to have only a cellphone (they’re older, more affluent and often less mobile than the population as a whole). ■ Pay attention to sample size. If a poll has a small sample — less than 800 people or so — be aware that sampling error will play a bigger role than usual. The gains from big samples are smaller than you might think, so don’t give a lot of extra credit for a poll that goes much higher than 1, 200. Often, the polls with huge samples are actually just using cheap and problematic sampling methods. If the sample is less than 400, the result should be considered no more than a ballpark estimate. ■ I don’t usually pay much attention to the margin of error because it does not even come close to approximating the actual potential for error in a survey. And pollsters calculate margin of error somewhat differently. In particular, I see a lot of firms that don’t adjust their margins of error to account for the effect of weighting — making their poll seem more confident than it is. The country is deeply divided along demographic lines, which makes it very important to check on the demographic composition of the sample. But this is not so simple to do. ■ Know the polling universe: adults, registered voters and likely voters. This is trickier than you might suppose. Often, a poll of registered or likely voters will report the demographic composition of the overall sample of adults — generally a much more diverse group. That doesn’t tell you about the demographic makeup of registered or likely voters. ■ Know the targets. Almost all pollsters adjust their sample to match demographics, like age, race and gender. If a pollster isn’t weighting for something fundamental like that, it’s a big warning sign: See for yourself whether the poll is off by a wide margin on those measures (sometimes, they’re fine). It’s also worth looking at education or party registration. Not every poll weights by those measures, and sometimes that’s a mistake. ■ The exit polls are not the word of God. There are legitimate debates about the electorate. Many of these debates center on differences between estimates based on the census, voter files or exit polls. Most polls are on the end of the spectrum showing a whiter sample, since most polls use voter file and census data. Many times, polls get slammed on social media for being “too white” in comparison with the exit polls, even though they’re near the consensus of more reliable measures. ■ Wrong is wrong. In general, I wouldn’t criticize a poll if the electorate fell somewhere in the debatable range around the exit polls, census and voter file. But if a pollster leaves the debatable range, it’s probably just wrong. It may even indicate colossal failures in weighting or sampling. The poll can be dismissed out of hand on this basis alone. Examples of what I mean: a poll showing that more than 45 percent of the electorate in Pennsylvania will be over age 65 (that’s too high) or that 13 percent of the electorate will be black in North Carolina (that’s too low). ■ I really don’t look at party identification. We have no idea what the “right” partisan breakdown of the electorate really is: It’s an attitude, not a nearly fixed characteristic. Depending on the news or the national political environment, or voters can switch in and out of the “unaffiliated” or “independent” column. It is very clear that there are more Democrats than Republicans in the country, which has been true for about a decade. But I will look at party registration, if it’s available from the voter file. That’s a pretty fixed characteristic: It doesn’t swing with the mood. ■ When I look through the polling crosstabs for subgroups — like young people or black voters — I compare with old polls, not the exit polls. The two measures are irreconcilable, and a direct comparison introduces a lot of bias. It will generally show, for instance, Democrats doing better among white voters even as they’re not doing better over all. ■ Subgroups are noisy, and that’s fine. I often see a lot of people who dig into the polls and find a crosstab that doesn’t make sense — maybe Hispanic voters give Hillary Clinton only 55 percent of the vote. Well, that’s O. K. For one, it matters a lot less than you might think (giving Mrs. Clinton an additional shift among Hispanic voters will boost her national vote share by just two points). And subsamples are noisy by nature. It might be canceled out by noise elsewhere in the sample, either by chance or for a more structural reason. An underappreciated fact is that polls are usually adjusted for the right number of voters by race, age and gender, but subgroups don’t each have the right demographic composition. There won’t necessarily be the right number of young, female Hispanics, or old, less educated white men. So a Hispanic subsample could be too old and male, but in exchange, some other part of the electorate is too young and female. ■ A lot of polls conducted off voter registration files will select a certain set of past voters, like people who have voted in the last two elections in addition to those who are newly registered. These decisions can exclude less likely voters, who may vote differently. That’s a problem. I get even more concerned when I see a screen on top of a sample that was already especially likely to vote. I could go on. But these are the basics of my mental checklist in judging whether an individual poll might maintain the status quo, move the needle or stand as an outlier. And then I go back to the poll averages. | 1 |
JERUSALEM — For three hours, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel held forth on all sorts of topics — on Israel and the Middle East, on his record and on his plans. One subject that Mr. Netanyahu studiously avoided in his expansive conversation with American visitors last weekend, though, was the United States election. Much of the rest of the world is absorbed by the contest between Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton, but it is a topic Mr. Netanyahu will not touch. Four years after he was accused of meddling in the American election on behalf of President Obama’s opponent, the hardly bashful Israeli leader this time has taken a virtual vow of silence. The unusual reluctance comes after years of toxic relations between him and Mr. Obama, culminating in an acrid public feud over the nuclear agreement with Iran. With Mr. Netanyahu seemingly aligning himself during that fight with Mr. Obama’s Republican critics, some Israel backers feared the country was squandering its traditional bipartisan support. The prime minister now seems intent on extricating himself from the partisan tussle. “Everybody understands here in Israel that the most important thing for us is to go back to where we were for the last 68 years, which is bipartisan,” said Yair Lapid, a centrist party leader who hopes to succeed Mr. Netanyahu. “This is why nobody will take sides in a presidential campaign. ” But if Israel is staying away from the American campaign, the campaign is staying away from Israel, too. While it was an occasional topic of questioning during primary debates, it has been all but absent from the discussion in the general election. In part, that reflects a campaign of invective that has overlooked many policy questions. But it also underscores the plethora of other issues that have seized Washington’s attention, principally the rise of the Islamic State, the war in Syria and relations with Russia. The dispute, once a dominant part of any White House foreign policy, seems to be slipping to a issue. During his meeting last weekend with a bipartisan delegation of former American national security officials, Mr. Netanyahu expressed concern about the United States’ pulling back from the region. Dennis Ross, a Middle East adviser to Mr. Obama and other presidents who organized the visit, said afterward, “Everyone feels they have a stake in the election, and they want an America that will be engaged and that will be effective in the region. ” Still, Mr. Netanyahu scrupulously avoided addressing the election itself. “I think we were all struck by the fact that it wasn’t raised,” said Meghan O’Sullivan, a former adviser to President George W. Bush. Similarly, during a meeting last week, Senators Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina, and Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, mentioned the election only to have Mr. Netanyahu skirt the subject. What a difference four years makes. Back in 2012, Mr. Netanyahu hosted Mitt Romney, Mr. Obama’s challenger, in Jerusalem and lavished praise on him. While Mr. Netanyahu’s team at the time denied any effort to influence the election, Mr. Obama’s camp was convinced otherwise. The rift widened when Mr. Netanyahu accepted a Republican invitation to address Congress in 2015 to assail Mr. Obama’s efforts to negotiate a deal with Iran curbing its nuclear program. Nachman Shai, who heads a parliamentary caucus on relations, said Mr. Netanyahu had steered away since then from openly courting Republicans. “Because he had these tough eight years with Obama, he can’t afford it again,” Mr. Shai said. “He needs a direct line with the U. S. president. ” This spring, Mr. Netanyahu canceled a trip to Washington to attend a conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or Aipac, which aides explained by saying he wanted to avoid meeting with candidates. Last fall, amid controversy over Mr. Trump’s call to bar Muslims from entering the United States, the Republican abruptly announced and then just as abruptly canceled a visit to Jerusalem, saying of Mr. Netanyahu, “I didn’t want to put him under pressure. ” Even Mr. Trump’s Aipac speech vowing to dismantle the Iran agreement was greeted with silence in Jerusalem. “If Bibi was going in any way to support or give Trump some type of compliment, that would have been the time to do it,” Gadi Wolfsfeld, a scholar at Hebrew University, said at the time, using Mr. Netanyahu’s nickname. Israel Hayom, the newspaper financed by the American casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, an ally of Mr. Netanyahu, championed Mr. Trump with a blast of positive coverage at the time. But like Mr. Adelson himself, who has endorsed Mr. Trump without following through on promises of large contributions, the paper has not been the unrestrained cheerleader some expected. The newspaper Haaretz, however, wrote this week that leaders of the Trump campaign’s efforts to recruit votes among American citizens here have ties to Mr. Netanyahu’s governing coalition. In a first for an American candidate, thee Trump campaign plans to open what it calls a “floating office” moving from home to home in West Bank settlements in coming days. Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Obama have tried lately to put their difficulties behind them by negotiating a American security aid package for Israel. The deal is all but complete, and the White House has been discussing how to announce it. The two leaders will both attend the United Nations General Assembly conclave this month, but it seems most likely that it would be signed by officials. But to Mr. Netanyahu’s consternation, administration officials are still debating whether the president will lay down a final marker before the end of his time in office on the impasse, perhaps with a speech outlining terms for an agreement or even a United Nations resolution. Some argue it would be a way to stop waiting for the two sides to finally step up others consider it a fruitless waste of the president’s waning time in office. Mr. Netanyahu’s office declined to comment this week on the American election. Over the summer, the prime minister told reporters “it’s not smart to interfere,” saying he would be “happy to work with whoever gets elected. ” He has made clear to advisers that they should not discuss the election even in private. Dani Dayan, the normally outspoken Israeli consul general in New York, articulated the official line in an interview with The New York Times Editorial Board last month: “Any American president is good for Israel. ” But that is not an opinion universally held in Jerusalem. While Mr. Netanyahu may be more comfortable with Republicans who share his hawkish security views, Mr. Trump is an unknown who has criticized American intervention in the Middle East and called for curtailing foreign aid. His initial promise to be “a neutral guy” between Israelis and Palestinians disturbed many here before he later voiced steadfast support for Israel. Mrs. Clinton, on the other hand, is a known quantity, for better or worse. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, is still popular here, and many noticed that at the Democratic National Convention, he wore a pin spelling Hillary in Hebrew. But Mrs. Clinton’s history as Mr. Obama’s secretary of state makes her suspect in Mr. Netanyahu’s camp, and neither Clinton has warm feelings toward the prime minister. “I don’t know who is better in terms of Israel,” Mr. Shai said. “We know a lot about Hillary and we know very little about Donald Trump. ” | 1 |
Leave a reply “ Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron. ” ~ President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Catherine Austin Fitts – We are experiencing an unprecedented disgorgement of documentation on the Clintons and various aspects of their enterprises – from the Clinton Foundation to Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the Presidency.
It is worth noting that there appears to be a method to the madness. A variety of parties, including Project Veritas, Anonymous, and Wikileaks are systematically targeting Clinton’s key lieutenants. This is the equivalent of taking out the pawns before going in to capture the queen.
First we see DNC Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz taken out by leaks from Wikileaks. It remains to be seen as to whether this info hit cost a DNC staffer his life with a real “hit.”
Wasserman is replaced by CNN political analyst Donna Brazile as Interim Chair who has now been outed for sharing debate questions with Clinton. While CNN has disavowed Brazile, cheating on the debates does not appear to warrant a resignation as Interim Chair. Yet again, the week is young. Needless to say, the present value of Brazile’s future income is nosediving badly as I write this.
Wasserman and Brazile desperately need Clinton to win – otherwise they’re toast.
Project Veritas has outed significant Democratic covert operations – including related PACs overstepping what are supposed to be their legal authorities (marketing influence) and arranging for violent protesters at Trump rallies. By tying the lead covert operator directly to Obama and the White House (45 visits by Robert Creamer to Obama at the White House since 2008), there is no doubt a chill between the campaigns covert operations and the leadership, tying a lot of hands during the last two weeks of campaigning
There there is Huma Abedin – since 1996, Clinton closest aide and assistant. Abedin like numerous other Clinton allies now has a world of legal problems and liabilities from divorce court to criminal investigations of herself and Clinton. The press reports she is now being left behind by the campaign. It is going to be very hard for Huma to be entirely focused on the campaign. Instead she is going to be wondering about the 650,000 e-mails on Anthony Weiner’s laptop, what’s in them and how they got there.
Then there is Campaign Chairman John Podesta who has been barraged daily by Wikileaks leaking of years of e-mail. It is now likely that no one wants to e-mail with him, not to mention the hard feelings created and his own potential legal problems, particularly if Clinton loses.
Then there is attorney Cheryl Mills who has real reason to be concerned with her own legal position now that the e-mail investigation has been re-opened by the FBI. Just when she thought she had the team in the clear!
DNC Chair, Campaign Chair, personal attorney, covert operations capacity, personal assistant – all are compromised with six more days to go.
Now come leaks that Clinton loyalist and campaign chief financial office Gary Gensler is being sidelined for the upper echelons of the Cabinet – Larry Fink is in the lead for Secretary of Treasury. Given the risks that Gensler is taking with his personal fortune and reputation to manage the campaign finances, this is quite a kick. To be replaced by one of Wall Street’s worst because he is too tough on Wall Street. Why should Gensler take any risk under the circumstances?
It is a bad sign when insiders start competing for Cabinet posts before the campaign is won.
Then there is the potential First Gentlemen – Bill Clinton. Numerous reports are now spending lots of time digging into Clinton’s relationship with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Now that the Democrats have made allegations of sexual harassment an approved tactic, Clinton is fair game. It is only a matter of time and effort before more dishes out on Clinton at a time when most men are thinking about their legacy.
Daughter Chelsea has been pulled in as well with e-mails about the Foundation’s operations designed to create bad feelings between Chelsea and the staff. Given the millions spent on Chelsea’s wedding while the Haitian people were staving and dying as the proceeds of the Foundation fundraising for Haiti went someplace other than Haiti, Chelsea is likely not to command much sympathy.
Add to this list long time political operative Doug Band who has to be scrambing to cover his overhead now that his memos and questions about his involvement in “pay to play” are smeared across the Internet. Other operatives have been targeted as well, including Neara Tanden.
Finally, there is the equivalent of the campaign “king” protecting the queen – President Obama himself. He has been warned, with one of the most damaging Wikileaks providing evidence that he was e-mailing Clinton on her private server from his private e-mail account. His statement that he did not know she had a private e-mail server was proven false. This leaves him compromised before Comey’s announcement of the reopening of the investigation. It was a clever tactic, because now Obama has to be careful. Given Attorney General’s compromise of the first investigation by a meeting with Bill Clinton that likely represents an obstruction of justice violation, among other violations, the Administration is exposed.
Clinton’s greatest ally at this point is the corporate media who appears for the most part to have doubled down for Clinton. This is likely because they take their orders from their owners and until Mr. Global (or Ms. Global) pull the plug, the corporate establishment is all in for Clinton. It does not matter what extraordinary documentation of obstruction of justice, compromise of national security and classified intelligence, pay to play or violations of RICO statutes (to name a few) have come to light. They do not care. They do what they are told. What they are told is to get Clinton elected. Make a Clinton presidency appear inevitable, no matter what.
Meantime, on the other side of this effort is amassing on line media and Internet activists who have decided to convert the Clinton into the poster children of US government and establishment corruption. For some, such as Julian Assange, this is a fight to the death. Clinton has made it clear that she would like to “drone” Assange. There are more than a few indications that there is support from the intelligence and enforcement community.
There efforts so far has made clear that they run into serious opposition when they leak evidence about Clinton’s role in operations that compromise the integrity of the Administration – such as Benghazi and support to ISIS. This may explain why increasingly what we are watching is leaks related to criminal shenanigans that can be scripted to Clinton team more narrowly.
Another group that is doubling down for Clinton as this occurs are a segment of women voters. We are hearing an outcry of women saying that this is happening to Hillary Clinton because she is a woman. In short, what is happening is sexist. They seem not to care about what happened to the women in Libya or Haiti or the mothers whose children were rounded up and put in slave labor camps during the Clinton Administration. The mind control around this seems to be a serious last ditch effort to avoid facing the reality of our situation in America. It would be appalling if it were not so frightening.
As compromised as Team Clinton is, as long as they maintain their establishment backing, their only choice is to do everything they possibly can to win the election. While the investigations will not stop if they are elected, they will be in a better position to deal with them if they have government resources to affirm and maintain their ongoing criminal enterprise.
So this raises the question as to what the attacking team has that constitutes a “kill shot” to take out the queen. Wikileaks and the assembled swarm as six more days – five really, to engineer their best shot. If you watch Campaign Whack-O-Mole to date, these folks are clearly building up to a kill shot. The question is what is it and will they be able to get it out and about on the Internet.
Which leads us to the last question – one that is being asked a lot these days. To what extent can the Democratic party and their allies rig the election through compromised voting systems? According to George Soros in a recent interview with Bloomberg, the fix appears to be in though the Electoral College.
This leaves us with two possible endings to Campaign Whack-O-Mole: Trump Wins: In this case Trump appoints a special prosecutor and we can look forward to years of illumination regarding the Clinton interests. Clinton likely will do jail time, unless the establishment can persuade Trump to let her off the hook. Hopefully, we will have a chance to cleanse Washington of the Neocons for good. Clinton Wins: In this case there is only one thing that the Republican Congress can do to redeem themselves in the electorates eyes – particularly if the Republicans won the popular vote in the presidential election – move for investigation and impeachment. What happens depends on the national security bureaucracy at the intelligence and enforcement agencies. If they support Clinton, the Republicans will likely be marginalized. This will be a dangerous situation. Traditionally, the way the Clintons and related allies win in these situations is to kill people or to target them with legal and financial torture and physical harassment. If the national security bureaucracy supports the House Republicans, Clinton will likely be impeached. However, this will come with a disgorgement of dirt the likes of which America has never seen. The way that Clinton can consolidate her power and command bureaucracy loyalty – including the banks and defense contractor who increasingly control the nuts and bolds of federal operations – is to have a war with Russia.
I am waiting for the women who support Clinton because she is a woman explain to me why WW III is good for women.
So let’s see what the next six days bring. In the great game of campaign whack-o-mole, the situation is very fluid. SF Source Solari Report Nov. 2016 Share this: | 0 |
WASHINGTON — Until Tuesday, the fight over Betsy DeVos’s nomination to be secretary of education revolved mostly around her support of contentious school choice programs. But her confirmation hearing that night opened her up to new criticism: that her long battle for school choice, controversial as it has been, is the sum total of her experience and understanding of education policy. In questioning by senators, she seemed either unaware or unsupportive of the longstanding policies and functions of the department she is in line to lead, from special education rules to the policing of universities. Ms. DeVos admitted that she might have been “confused” when she appeared not to know that the broad statute that has governed special education for more than four decades is federal law. A billionaire investor, education philanthropist and Michigan Republican activist, Ms. DeVos acknowledged that she has no personal experience with student loans — the federal government is the largest provider — and said she would have to “review” the department’s policies that try to prevent fraud by colleges. She appeared blank on basic education terms. Asked how school performance should be assessed, she did not know the difference between growth, which measures how much students have learned over a given period, and proficiency, which measures how many students reach a targeted score. Ms. DeVos even became something of an internet punch line when she suggested that some school officials should be allowed to carry guns on the premises to defend against grizzly bears. But if she was sometimes rattled on the specifics, Ms. DeVos was unshakable in her belief that education authority should devolve away from the federal government and toward state and local authorities. Whether the issue was allowing guns in schools, how to investigate sexual assault on college campuses, or how to measure learning, her answer was always that states and what she called “locales” knew best. Those answers reflected the same instinct that has driven her advocacy of school choice, primarily vouchers, which take money from public schools to help families pay tuition at private schools, and charter schools, which are publicly funded but typically independent of school district or union rules. As she said bluntly in a 2015 education speech, “Government really sucks. ” Ms. DeVos’s supporters defended her performance at the hearing, saying she showed herself to be a champion of innovation against Democrats’ defending the status quo. “They tried their best to turn her into Cruella de Vil, but America got to see the real Betsy DeVos first hand,” said Ed Patru, a spokesman for a group calling itself Friends of Betsy DeVos. “The country saw an authentic, compassionate and eminently reasonable education leader who is committed to empowering parents and putting kids first. ” With a Senate, Ms. DeVos is still likely to be confirmed. But her statements on special education could make her vulnerable families of children with special needs are a vocal lobby, one that Republicans do not want to alienate. The federal Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, has governed special education in the nation’s public schools since the . Before the law, states and local school districts had been excluding or essentially warehousing students with disabilities. Complaints from states and local school districts have been less about the law than about the federal government’s failure to pay its promised share of the costs. But at the hearing, Ms. DeVos questioned the basic premise that the federal government has a role in ensuring that any school receiving taxpayer dollars — whether a traditional public school, a charter or a private school accepting vouchers — comply with the law’s requirements for students with special needs. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, last year’s Democratic nominee for vice president, asked Ms. DeVos whether schools that receive tax dollars should be required to meet the requirements of IDEA. “I think that is a matter that’s best left to the states,” Ms. DeVos replied. Mr. Kaine came back: “So some states might be good to kids with disabilities, and other states might not be so good, and then what? People can just move around the country if they don’t like how their kids are being treated?” Ms. DeVos repeated, “I think that is an issue that’s best left to the states. ” “It’s federal law,” an exasperated Mr. Kaine replied. Mr. Kaine then asked if all elementary and secondary schools receiving tax dollars should be required to comply with reporting requirements on harassment, discipline and bullying. Ms. DeVos answered, “I would look forward to reviewing that provision. ” Senator Maggie Hassan, Democrat of New Hampshire, pressed Ms. DeVos about whether she really intended to say that states could ignore the law. “Were you unaware that it was federal law?” Ms. Hassan asked. Ms. DeVos answered, “I may have confused it. ” Ms. Hassan, who has a son with cerebral palsy, expressed concerns about private schools that accept vouchers on the condition that students waive legal rights under federal education law. “Do you think families should have recourse in the courts if schools don’t meet their needs?” she asked. “Senator, I assure you that if confirmed I will be very sensitive to the needs of special needs students,” Ms. DeVos said. “It’s not about sensitivity, although that helps,” Ms. Hassan countered. “It’s about being willing to enforce the law to make sure that my child and every child has the same access to public education, public education. ” In her opening statement, Ms. DeVos spoke of wanting to expand options for higher education beyond traditional “brick and mortar and ivy. ” Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, asked Ms. DeVos whether she would enforce education policies intended to prevent fraud at colleges — institutions like Trump University, which paid to settle federal class action lawsuits accusing it of using marketing tactics to enroll students. “I will review that rule and see that it is actually achieving what the intentions are,” Ms. DeVos said. Ms. Warren, in apparent disbelief, responded: “Swindlers and crooks are out there doing back flips when they hear an answer like this. ” She added, “If confirmed, you will be the cop on the beat, and if you can’t commit to use the tools already available to you in the Department of Education, then I don’t see how you can be the secretary of education. ” | 1 |
MSNBC’s Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski are set to wed. But Scarborough seems unable to shake thoughts — or are they fantasies? — about White House senior adviser Steve Bannon. [On Friday morning, Scarborough fumed at President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accords by blaming Bannon: He has gone in. Donald Trump doesn’t know anything about policy. Donald Trump doesn’t know anything about politics. Donald Trump doesn’t know anything about anything. He can get up and give a good speech. You listen to him talk about any topic and he wanders from sentence to sentence to sentence. So Steve Bannon is now the President of the United States. And that was more clear yesterday than ever before. Scarborough kept returning to the “President Bannon” theme. Mediate’s Jon Levine kept count: Scarborough said the words “President Bannon” seven times in one minute: President Bannon is on the wrong side of the majority. President Bannon may be right when President Bannon is looking at President Bannon’s primary base, but when President Bannon is looking at the overall scope of American voters … President Bannon’s not even reading the polls right for today. … Again, a small subset of the population that President Bannon’s obsessed with. The “President Bannon” meme is one that gained traction on the left, several weeks ago, in what seemed to be a deliberate effort to tweak President Trump, and provoke him to sideline Bannon. The media congratulated themselves when they thought they had achieved just that, and looked forward to Bannon’s supposedly imminent departure from the administration. Along the way, some of them began to believe their own malicious propaganda. Now that they have failed, and that Bannon continues to play a critical role, Scarborough is returning to the same theme, apparently hoping that repeating the phrase “President Bannon!” like a kind of magic incanation will cause him to disappear. Alternatively, Scarborough’s behavior is involuntary, the sign of far deeper emotional attachment. 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 |
ORAIOKASTRO, Greece — Mariya bint Loqman Abdlkarim is 9. She arrived in Greece in February after fleeing Syria with her family and crossing from Turkey in a rickety boat. Since then, she has been living in a shabby camp, her future uncertain, her present reduced to the bare necessities. Not long ago, the Greek government decided to give her a shot at something closer to a normal life: Along with 22, 000 other refugee children, she would be allowed to attend public school starting in October. But as with many aspects of Europe’s effort to cope with the huge numbers of migrants who have come to its shores, the plan quickly ran into intense opposition, in this case from parents in a number of communities near camps in northern Greece. The refugee children, the parents said, might have contagious diseases. Cultural differences, they said, might disrupt learning. Last week, an association representing the parents of schoolchildren in the small town of Filippiada in western Greece sent a letter to local officials and the Education Ministry, saying “explicitly and categorically that we will not accept, under any circumstance and without any compromise, that the children of irregular immigrants” attend local schools, referring to migrants entering the country illegally. “They come from another continent with completely different diseases and health conditions,” the letter said, adding that the refugees have a “different outlook regarding the role of the family, of women, of religion. ” Their presence would “alter the Greek character of the schools,” the letter said, adding, “We will not allow religious fanaticism. ” Earlier in September, the parents’ association of two schools in the town of Oraiokastro in northern Greece threatened to occupy the school grounds in protest if refugees from a nearby facility were allowed to join classes. A few days earlier, the local mayor had called on residents to take the law into their own hands amid rumors that some refugees were moving into houses in the area. The parents’ announcements and a video of the mayor’s suggestion that residents “intervene” caused a public outcry and a storm of angry reactions on social media. They also prompted a Greek prosecutor to investigate whether the parents’ groups or the local mayor should be charged with racist offenses. Since then, both the parents’ groups and the mayor have toned down their responses, saying their only concern is the possible health implication if the refugee children are not vaccinated. The mayor, Asterios Gavotsis, said his comments in the videotaped meeting were “misinterpreted” and that he was “not inciting anyone to commit illegal acts. ” Outside one of the schools, Haralambos Magoulianos, a retiree waiting to collect his two granddaughters, said he opposed admitting the refugee children. “I don’t like it,” he said. “What happens if we have an epidemic? I don’t want them here,” he added, saying that youths from the nearby refugee camp “steal bicycles and jump into our backyards. ” Other parents in the area have been more welcoming. The principal of the school in Filippiada and some parents there said the letter sent by the parents in that area did not reflect their views. In Oraiokastro, Alexandra Hapsi, 41, has two children in school. She said she had cooked food and donated clothes for refugees living at the sprawling camp at Idomeni, farther north, which was shut this year. “In Europe, no one is taking in refugees, and they call us racist,” she said, adding that she also wanted reassurances that the refugees attending local schools had been vaccinated. Asterios Batos, whose children attend the same school as Ms. Hapsi’s, leads the group representing the parents’ associations of all 41 schools in the broader region. “This image of a racist municipality is unfair,” he said, referring to the broader region. “We’re not racists. We’re concerned about whether all the right precautions have been taken. ” The plan calls for the migrant children to attend school in the afternoons. Initially, they would be kept in classes separate from Greek children, but they would eventually be merged into the general student population. In comments to Greek television last week, the education minister, Nikos Filis, said the program for the induction of refugees into schools included vaccinations. The lessons will be in Greek, math and English, or another language, depending on where the refugees plan to travel on to. The government has yet to specify which schools will be part of the program, stoking frustration among some parents and local officials. “Does a neighborhood or a school have the right to say, ‘I don’t want foreigners here?’ No, it doesn’t,” Mr. Filis said. The mayor of Oraiokastro, Mr. Gavotsis, said that he was not opposed to refugees’ being educated, but that classes should be held for a year in other venues, such as disused factories, before the children attend local schools. He said the high proportion of refugees in Oraiokastro, which has a population of 30, 000, was testing tolerance. “We have 10 percent of all Greece’s refugees here,” he said, referring to some 6, 000 migrants at three nearby camps. There are just over 60, 000 refugees in camps across Greece. Tensions often boil over among frustrated migrants, some of whom have been waiting for months for the outcome of their asylum applications, and many local residents are fed up, holding regular protests. The turmoil has been exploited by members of groups who have infiltrated some of the protests. “We just want a fair distribution,” Mr. Gavotsis said. “If that makes us racist, what can I say?” Katerina Karanikolaou, who attended the meeting where Mr. Gavotsis suggested that local residents “intervene” to stop the education plan, was the only one of 72 parents to vote against a motion to occupy one of the schools in protest. She said the health concerns were a smoke screen. “The xenophobia started with Idomeni in February, and it’s taken root since,” she said, adding that residents feared “their town will be downgraded. ” Last Monday evening, Ms. Karanikolaou and her four children joined an antiracism rally, marching from the mayor’s office through the pristine streets of Oraiokastro, which means “beautiful castle. ” It was named by Greek refugees who settled there from 1924 to 1930 after a castle that used to sit on the coast of the Black Sea. “It’s sad,” Ms. Karanikolaou said. “Our ancestors were refugees. ” Around a mile away, in a huge disused tobacco factory, Mariya, the girl from Syria, lives with her parents and seven siblings in a tent, one of hundreds sheltering some 1, 300 refugees. The camp is filthy — state health officials have called for its closure — but aid organizations run an efficient clinic, vaccinating children against mumps, measles, rubella and hepatitis. Stirring chunks of stale bread into a pan with browning onions for the family’s evening meal, Mariya’s mother, Jihan Sheikh Mohammed, 33, said she would prefer that her daughter attend a local school rather than receive the makeshift lessons given on site by humanitarian workers. But her father, Loqman Abdlkarim, 42, is keen to move on, as the family’s next asylum interview is not until April and he has relatives waiting for him in Germany. “I will wait another 20 days,” he said. “If nothing happens, then we’ll go back to Turkey. Even Syria is better than this,” he said, adding that drug dealing and sexual abuse were rife in the camp. Mariya, a bright, friendly girl, wants to stay. She said she would like to be a lawyer eventually. “Helping people,” she said. Oblivious to residents’ objections in the nearby town, she is eager to go to a real school, but is nervous about fitting in. Frowning pensively, she pointed to her grubby purple tracksuit and bare feet. “Will they let me go like this?” | 1 |
Email
Donald Trump’s inauguration may be months from now, but it looks like his Oval Office transition is already well under way. In addition to naming Reince Priebus his chief of staff and meeting with advisors on policy issues, Trump had to schedule in some time this week to go around to houses in the White House’s neighborhood and inform residents that he’s moving in down the street.
Looks like Trump is not wasting any time preparing for his big move to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.“Hello, my name is Donald Trump, and as a new resident in this community, I am required to inform you that I have a history of sexually assaulting women,” said the president-elect while standing on one of his new neighbor’s doorsteps. “In the past, I have grabbed women inappropriately, made multiple unwanted advances toward women, and harassed women with vulgar and inflammatory language. For this reason, I have to go door to door telling residents of my new presence in the neighborhood. Sorry to bother you, and have a nice day.”
After spending most of Tuesday exploring potential cabinet picks, Trump was later spotted going around the White House’s neighborhood and knocking on doors, continuing to alert his new neighbors to his history of sexual assault. Standing awkwardly on front porches and avoiding eye contact, Trump promised local residents that he wouldn’t cause any trouble for them or their families and planned to mostly keep to himself for the next four years as president of the United States. He then finished the day by meeting with several economic advisors.
It’ll be interesting to see what a Trump presidency might look like as he spends the next few days crafting policy goals and reassuring his new neighbors that his motorcade will take alternate routes to ensure that he is never within a hundred yards of a school. If he keeps making the rounds at this pace, it won’t be long before all of the residents of Pennsylvania Avenue have been made aware of his record of sexual assault.
President Obama still has a few more months left in the White House, but pretty soon Trump will be moving in. So far, the president-elect seems determined to make that transition as smooth as possible for him, his fellow Republicans, and the local residents whom he has been individually informing of his status as a sexual predator. | 0 |
We Are Change
Bill and Hillary Clinton have a long history of losing documents during various investigations and scandals over the years going all the way back to their time in Arkansas.
It’s not just the current investigation into deleted emails in which the State Department’s own internal probe found former Secretary of StatW Hillary Clinton violated federal record keeping laws . It’s not just whitewater, it’s several investigations where documents have turned up missing, exonerating the Clintons and clearing them of guilt, despite huge violations of obstruction of justice.
HISTORY OF LOSING DOCUMENTS DURING INVESTIGATIONS:
In 1999, investigators looked into then First Lady Hillary and President Bill Clinton’s scandals, which included Whitewater, Travelgate, Filegate and other scandals. It was discovered that more than 1 million subpoenaed emails were mysteriously “lost” due to a “glitch” in a West Wing computer server .
During the Project X email scandal, career White House staffers and contractors found that someone close to the first lady had basically turned off the White House’s automated email archiving system.
WHITEWATER:
The first notable case is the whitewater land scandal fiasco, which started in Arkansas when Bill Clinton was governor. The allegation is that the Clintons used the Rose Law Firm and the Arkansas Financial Department Authority, as well as Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan owned by Susan and Jim McDougal , to scam Arkansas residents. An investigation was started when the Clintons invested and lost money in the Whitewater Development Corporation.
An entire article could be dedicated to the Whitewater scandal, but what is important here is that documents for the whitewater investigation turned up missing were later discovered at the Clintons’ home .
Ben Shapiro of Breitbart noted in his own article on Hillary’s long history of hiding documents :
In 1996, a special Senate Whitewater committee released a report from the FBI demonstrating that documents sought in the Whitewater investigation had been found in the personal Clinton quarters of the White House. The First Lady’s fingerprints were on them. The documents had gone mysteriously missing for two years.
Mark Fabiani, special White House counsel, immediately stated that there was no problem, according to the Times: “He added that she had testified under oath that she had nothing to do with the documents during the two years they were missing and did not know how they ended up in the family quarters.” Hillary remains the only First Lady in American history to be fingerprinted by the FBI. Those weren’t the only missing Whitewater documents later found in the Clinton White House.
VINCE FOSTER:
The next notable case, which is also connected to Whitewater is Vince Foster. Foster worked alongside the Clintons as a top Rose Law firm attorney who had worked intimately with then First Lady Hillary Clinton throughout their career together. After Foster’s “suicide,” documents went missing from his office . Secret Service officer Henry O’Neill testified that he witnessed aides removing documents.
Several years later, more documents pertaining to Hillary Clinton and Vince Foster again vanished, this time from the National Library including a document from Ken Star’s investigation that proves that the “suicide” of Vince Foster was actually a murder . In those documents is the smoking gun that shows that Vince Foster sustained not one but two bullet wounds. One to the neck and one to the head an impossible suicide scenario.
In addition to that, experts have called Foster’s suicide note “a forgery.” One of my rules is once, twice, okay, but three times is not a coincidence—it’s a criminal conspiracy. Conspiracy, as in the legal definition not a theory none of this is a theory when it’s well sourced.
TRAVEL GATE:
In 1996, the day before the Whitewater documents were found at the White House, a two-year-old memo emerged written by a former Presidential aide. According to the New York Times it proved that Hillary Clinton “had played a far greater role in the dismissal of employees of the White House travel office than the Administration has acknowledged.”
PROJECT X EMAIL GATE:
According to Tom Fitton, President of Judicial Watch, Hillary’s top lawyer and top aide, Cheryl Mills “helped orchestrate the cover-up of another major scandal, often referred to as ‘Project X Email-gate.’” Over the course of years, the Clinton Administration allegedly withheld 1.8 million email communications from Judicial Watch’s attorneys, as well as federal investigators and Congress. In addition, Judicial Watch says that when a White House computer contractor attempted to reveal the emails, White House officials “instructed her to keep her mouth shut about the hidden e-mail or face dismissal and jail time.”
2015-2016 EMAIL GATE:
Where do I start about the botched investigation of Hillary’s private email server? The obstruction of justice is so broad, it’s insane. She used “bleach bit” software the day after being subpoenaed, smashed several BlackBerrys and iPads with hammers, was tipped off by the DoJ and DoS into the investigation, according to Wikileaks, etc.
Clinton’s close ally Terry McAulife gave a donation to the wife of the Deputy Director Of The FBI. Bill Clinton met with Attorney General Loretta Lynch towards the end of the investigation. The list goes on…
2 TERABYTES OF DATA MISSING:
Two terrabyte drive with Clinton White House emails missing, presumed stolen from National Archives https://t.co/p3eZqxKxke pic.twitter.com/792rxje642
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) November 3, 2016
Yet even with all of the evidence, the current FBI director—who has been revealed to be connected to the Clintons—has once again refused to acknowledge the corrupt career nature of the Clintons.
Director James Comey told Congress Sunday that the FBI does not recommend charges against Clinton, even after an additional 650,000 emails were discovered on the laptop of her aide’s estranged husband, Anthony Weiner.
Whether it’s deleting emails or covering up documents to prevent prosecution, it has always been the Clinton way. Why is it that journalists can uncover this past historic information, but the FBI investigators can’t?
Something isn’t right. Drain the swamp and nominate AK for FBI Director 2017, and stay tuned to We Are Change. This case is closed. The Clintons are corrupt. That, or documents have somehow developed an artificial intelligence to stay away from the Clintons. It must be a right wing conspiracy. I would be willing to put my deplorable eggs into one basket and say it’s the latter.
The post OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE: The Clintons’ Long History Of Losing Documents appeared first on We Are Change .
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( IMDb )
The first two movements of the movie “Moonlight,” Barry Jenkins’ lyrical account of one young man’s passage to adulthood, shatters the soul into sharp-edged shards. The third section of this unique triptych, Jenkins’ adaptation of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s play , “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue,” rearranges these fragments in a way that makes its characters—and viewers—whole.
This coming-of-age story is all the more singular because it is a serious film by African-Americans, one that employs the familiar tropes of black poverty and underemployment, and yet defines its characters not by the struggle against the racism, drug addiction or incarceration that limit them, but by the humanity that elevates them. This distinguishes it from other compelling recent films such as “12 Years a Slave” and “The Birth of a Nation,” which contend with the hopelessness of slavery.
The place: the northwest Miami enclave of Liberty City . The time: the 1980s, perhaps not so long after white police officers have been acquitted of beating to death a black youth. One afternoon, Juan ( Mahershala Ali ), a dealer during this period when crack is replacing pot and heroin as the drug of choice, sees a small schoolboy running from his pursuers, who taunt each other to “get his gay ass!”
The undersize 9-year-old, Chiron (played by the watchful Alex Hibbert), takes cover in an abandoned building from which Juan extracts him. The older man takes Chiron to the modest home he shares with Teresa ( Janelle Monáe ). For those who know Hollywood movies, this is particularly fraught. Is Juan planning to recruit Chiron as a sex partner, a drug runner, or …?
Juan is a dealer, but that’s not all he is in this movie, which refuses to reduce characters to fit convenient pigeonholes. Juan is also a supremely empathic father figure who looks out for and protects this stripling.
Still, for Chiron, nicknamed “Little,” the world is a brutish place that diminishes people who are different. While at first Chiron is almost mute, after a meal he quietly asks Juan what the word “faggot” means.
Wisely, Juan blames Chiron’s victimizers: “ ‘Faggot’ is a word used to make gay people feel bad,” he says. When Chiron asks, “Am I one?” Juan shrugs and replies, “You could be gay, but you don’t got to let people call you a faggot.” Despite Juan’s excellent advice, Chiron will let his mother ( Naomie Harris , in a devastating turn) and his baiting schoolmates call him just that. The only time Chiron is not on what appears to be emotional lockdown is with a schoolmate named Kevin, as outgoing as Chiron is introverted.
Juan does not teach Chiron to fight back. Nor, in the calm blue waters off of Miami Beach, does the older man send the boy the message that life is a matter of sink or swim: He teaches Chiron to float. The moment Chiron ceases to navigate the world burdened with fear and humiliation and experiences zero gravity, his weightlessness is transcendent.
On a moonlit evening when Chiron is a teenager (now played by wiry, wary Ashton Sanders), he finds himself on that same beach, silent but for the plash of gentle waves. While in most encounters Chiron retreats from others, this night he approaches Kevin. They talk. Another moment of ecstatic weightlessness. Another glance at the fluidity of masculinity.
Though there are moments of violence and betrayal in “Moonlight,” Jenkins quietly achieves something that more didactic filmmakers cannot. In this film, with minimal plot and dialogue, he brings his camera up close to his characters. Without telling us how to feel, he gives us the space to feel Chiron’s inner thoughts. The result is a movie that, like the scene of Juan teaching Chiron how to float, is a baptism by hope. | 0 |
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — When Simona Budinska, a public relations specialist, had trouble finding products at her local grocery, she and her husband began driving across the border to Austria, where the stores were teeming with choices. But it was not the variety of products on the shelves as much as what was in them that stunned the couple. “The washing powder was just much more effective, and the ketchup contained more tomatoes than the Slovak one,” Ms. Budinska said. The countries of Eastern and Central Europe have long bridled at being treated like the poor cousins of the European Union family. It does not help that even after more than a dozen years in the bloc, wages remain lower, corruption persists and public services, like schools and hospitals, are far scruffier. But now that sense of resentment — of being treated as citizens by more prosperous neighbors — is reaching even into the region’s refrigerators and cupboards. With rising passion, prominent politicians and local news media have taken up the issue of whether Eastern Europeans are being sold inferior products. The issue has steadily emerged with growing consumer awareness among a newly prosperous middle class. Yet it also crosses class and party lines, so it is for politicians looking to play on the region’s festering grievances as a wave of nationalism sweeps the Continent. Last month, the leaders of Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic went so far as to ask the European Commission to investigate the complaint, which has been backed up in recent years by several studies, though not exhaustive ones. “People who are bothered about this trend tend to be young, middle class and higher income,” said Daniel Prokop, head of social and political research at Median, a private polling and marketing agency in Prague. “Politicians need some enemies to mobilize support. And they like the food issue, because it can be blamed on foreigners. ” Food producers and industry analysts point out that it is common for ingredients to differ from country to country, sometimes to favor local producers, sometimes to appease local tastes and, yes, sometimes to increase profits by substituting cheaper ingredients. “Brand owners nearly always tailor a product for its target market, whether by age, ethnicity, income, geographic location or any other demographic,” said Lisa McTigue Pierce, executive editor of Packaging Digest, published in Oak Brook, Ill. Indeed, she said, the trend has been that consumers demand such customization and personalization, not homogeneity, at the supermarket. But bitter Eastern Europeans insist that their situation is different. They are part of the European Union, a common market, and they believe that means that food quality should remain constant throughout all 28 nations. “We cannot allow our citizens to be considered second class,” said Gabriela Matecna, Slovakia’s agriculture minister. “Slovak consumers, just like consumers from other countries of the European Union, have the right to get the same quality of food when it comes to the same brand from the same producer. ” With parliamentary elections set for the fall, the food issue has gotten an even bigger push next door in the Czech Republic. Marian Jurecka, minister of agriculture there, has been leading the charge on the issue since 2015. He denies that it has anything to do with politics. But the populist party leading in the polls was created by Andrej Babis, an oligarch currently serving as finance minister, whose holdings include some of the country’s leading food producers. In Slovakia, the populist prime minister, Robert Fico, faces rising competition from extreme groups and a series of corruption scandals. He has seized on the food issue, too. “We will ask the European Commission to adopt the suitable legislation as soon as possible,” Mr. Fico said this year, “to stop the practices that degrade the citizens of Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. ” While rumors that inferior food is shipped to the East have swirled for years, only in 2011 did the Slovak Association of Consumers conduct a comparison of a basket of products purchased in Austria with the same products bought in Slovakia. In all but one case, the products in the East were inferior, the group concluded. This led Olga Sehnalova, a Czech member of the European Parliament, to take up the cause. She conducted a test with her own basket of products and found half were inferior. “Regrettably, I had to confirm that differences were really found, and not in terms of something being more or less tasty but in the quality of the basic ingredients,” Ms. Sehnalova said. A later test, released in February, found that eight of 23 tested products were of lesser quality, she said. And a subsequent survey of Slovak and Austrian foods had even worse results. The Czechs found that many products — Mövenpick bourbon vanilla ice cream, Carbonell extra virgin olive oil, Heinz ketchup — were identical whether purchased in Germany or in the Czech Republic. But when differences were found in other products, lesser quality in the East was almost always the result. Rama Classic margarine had lower fat content. Sprite and Nestea used fructose as a sweetener in the Czech Republic, but actual sugar in Germany. Canned luncheon meat sold under the Tulip brand was all pork in Germany, but it included “mechanically separated poultry meat” in the Czech Republic. Officials at Rama did not respond to requests for comment. But the differences are obvious to Jens Hansen, a spokesman for Danish Crown, which makes Tulip products. “It is two different products sold under two different names in two different countries,” he said, adding that a quick look at the list of ingredients makes that clear. Ms. Sehnalova, though, said the Czechs conducting the study had taken into account the entire “visual impact” of the products, including their packaging and label design, before deciding to compare them. “Less meat, more additives and other indicators to justify saying that the quality is lower,” Ms. Sehnalova said. “That’s what we found. ” Thus far, the only studies conducted have been between Germany and the Czech Republic, and Slovakia and Austria, and these have involved only a small sampling. But officials from the region now want all Europe Union countries to undergo testing, to determine how widespread the issue is. Food producers and industry experts insist there are often sound reasons for products to differ between countries: local tastes, a preference for local ingredients, divergent buying patterns. “The formula for is the same all around the world,” said Petr Jonak, external affairs director for in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. “Locally we add the water, CO2, and some from the proven and authorized sweeteners. ” The Czech Republic gets fructose syrup, he said, but so do Spain and the United States. Germany gets cane or beet sugar, but so do Austria and many other countries. The Czech Association for Branded Products said its products met all European Union regulations. If contents do change from country to country, the difference is reflected on the ingredients label. “Special attention is given to providing consumers with comprehensive information about the products, including detailed specifications of ingredients on the label, enabling them to make a qualified choice,” the association said in a statement. That has done little to allay a sense of resentment among many Eastern consumers. “It is absolutely proven that the product are inferior here,” said Helena Tomkova, 43, who runs a public relations agency in Bratislava, the Slovakian capital. “Foods are different, but also household products, like laundry detergent. The soaps sold here are not as concentrated. ” Ms. Tomkova, though, now has a financial interest in the question. In 2014, with Zuzana Hostakova, 28, she founded Drogerka, an online site where residents of Slovakia can buy products from Austria and have them delivered. Business is growing, with plans to expand into the Czech Republic. “Food quality is an issue that some care about, some don’t,” said Mr. Prokop, of the marketing and polling agency in Prague. “But for those who do, it is a potent issue. ” | 1 |
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